Acupuncture Reduces Stress Hormone

Animal Research and Acupuncture: Stress Hormone Decrease

Rats benefited from acupuncture. By which we mean, researchers from Georgetown University Medical Center (GUMC) recently published findings in the journal Endocrinology, giving strong evidence that when these animals were given acupuncture, the same biologic pathways affected by pain and stress were impacted by the procedure--in much the same way that drugs work on humans.

"This research, the culmination of a number of studies, demonstrates how acupuncture might work in the human body to reduce stress and pain, and, potentially, depression," said the lead author Ladan Eshkevari, an associate professor in nursing and pharmacology at GUMC, according to a release.

They learned that by applying electroacupuncture to a single but powerful acupuncture point, such as stomach meridian point 36 (St36), they were able to blunt activity in the hypothalamus pituitary adrenal (HPA) axis. This is the chronic stress pathway associated with chronic pain, the immune system, mood and emotions. Taking this action reduced production of stress hormones secreted by the pathway, the release said.

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Acupuncture Could Be a Psychiatric Drug

Acupuncture has 'similar mode of action to psychiatric drugs'

In a controlled experiment with rats, acupuncture was effective against treating chronic stress, according to a report in the journal Endocrinology - with the results suggesting a mode of action similar to that of anti-anxiety and antidepressant drugs.

Acupuncture works for many - but how?

Researchers from Georgetown University Medical Center (GUMC) in Washington, DC, say the animal study "provides the strongest evidence to date on the mechanism of this ancient Chinese therapy in chronic stress."

Lead investigator Ladan Eshkevari, PhD, associate professor in the departments of nursing, and pharmacology and physiology at GUMC, says:

"The benefits of acupuncture are well known by those who use it, but such proof is anecdotal.

"This research, the culmination of a number of studies, demonstrates how acupuncture might work in the human body to reduce stress and pain, and, potentially, depression."

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Acupuncture in Popular Science

Acupuncture May Work Like Drugs To Relieve Stress

It might be more than just placebo after all

The thought of having needles inserted into your body may sound stressful. But to those who regularly receive acupuncture treatments, it’s quite relaxing, though scientists haven’t really been sure why. Now researchers from Georgetown University have found that needles placed at just the right parts of the body interrupt the transmission of stress hormones—the most robust evidence yet to indicate that acupuncture’s positive effects go beyond just placebo.

“The benefits of acupuncture are well known by those who use it, but such proof is anecdotal. This research, the culmination of a number of studies, demonstrates how acupuncture might work in the human body to reduce stress and pain, and, potentially, depression,” said study author Ladan Eshkevari in a press release.

In the study, published recently in the journal Endocrinology, the researchers tested the effects of electroacupuncture, in which the needles carry a mild electric current, on stressed-out rats. They were targeting the stomach meridian point 36, which is located on the shin in humans, or behind the hind paw in rats. It’s considered in acupuncture to be one of the most powerful points on the body because it influences a pathway for chronic stress pathway called the hypothalamus pituitary adrenal axis.

When the researchers inserted needles at this point on rats that were stressed from cold, their stress hormone levels were much lower compared to those who did not receive the acupuncture treatment. Many drugs used to treat anxiety and depression tap into the same systems of hormones, bolstering the legitimacy of the findings.

If acupuncture works the same way in humans as it does in rats, it would be a promising alternative to medication; acupuncture may have fewer side effects and wouldn’t require so much tinkering with dosage. The researchers hope to test the mechanism in humans in future studies.

The source is popular science.

One Third of Chronic Pain Patients in a Survey Use Acupuncture

 Not Telling Your Doctor You Use Acupuncture and Chiropractic

People with chronic back, neck or joint pain commonly seek acupuncture and chiropractic care for relief, but many don’t tell their doctors about it, a new study reports.

Researchers said they were surprised to find that of some 6,068 chronic pain patients who responded to a questionnaire, 47 percent reported using chiropractic care, 32 percent said they used acupuncture, and 21 percent used both. Only 42 percent said they used neither acupuncture nor chiropractic. All of the patients were members of Kaiser Permanente Northwest, a group model health maintenance organization based in Portland, Ore.

Many of the patients studied did not share information about alternative treatments with their regular doctors, and the information was not in their electronic medical records. About a third of acupuncture users and 42 percent of chiropractic care users did not tell their regular doctors about the care.

Some patients who paid for the care privately may have been eligible for insurance coverage, said Dr. Charles Elder of the Kaiser Permanente Center for Health Research, the paper’s first author. “Alternative treatments work for a lot of patients,” he said, but communicating with your doctor is important. “If I don’t know what my patients are doing, I can’t advise them.”

Source is New York Times.

 

Acupuncture on Time Magazine

This May Be How Acupuncture Tamps Down Stress

Acupuncture may work by targeting the same pathways that stress travels along, according to a new study in rats from Georgetown University Medical Center and published in the journal Endocrinology.

Ladan Eshkevari, PhD, a nurse anesthetist, licensed acupuncturist and associate professor in the department of nursing and the department of pharmacology and physiology at Georgetown University Medical Center, noticed that the acupuncture patients coming to her for pain were reporting improvement of symptoms unrelated to their pain, like chronic stress, depression, sleep and appetite.

“There was nothing in the literature about acupuncture for PTSD and chronic stress,” she says, so she decided to study it. To find out if acupuncture was affecting chronic stress, Eshkevari and a team of researchers looked at what happened in a key pathway in dealing with stress for both humans and rats: the hypothalamus-pituitary-adrenal axis (HPA). It’s the same pathway targeted by some anti-anxiety drugs and antidepressants, Eshkevari says, and the HPA is involved in the production of the stress hormone cortisol.

In the experiment, the researchers compared four groups of rats: one group was stressed and given acupuncture; another group was stressed and given sham acupuncture (at a non-acupuncture point to make sure any results weren’t due to a placebo effect); a third group was stressed and didn’t get any acupuncture; and a final control group just hung out without any interventions.

First, the researchers decided to look at an acupuncture point called stomach 36; according to Chinese medicine, it’s a potent point associated with stress, stomach issues and pain, and in humans, it’s located right below the knee behind the tibia bone. The rat equivalent of stomach 36 is on the hind paw near the knee, Eshevari says.

Because most people who get acupuncture come in for treatment after a stressful event, Eshkevari says, she wanted to expose the rats to stress before treatment. She put them in a bucket of ice that made their legs cold for about an hour, then let the rats acclimate to room temperature before their 20-minute-long acupuncture sessions.

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Tai Chi Qigong for Nasopharyngeal Cancer Survivors

Tai Chi Qigong for Nasopharyngeal Cancer Survivors

A study was conducted To explore the changes in heart-rate variability (HRV) of survivors of nasopharyngeal cancer (NPC) before, during, and after a Tai Chi (TC) Qigong exercise. Eleven survivors of NPC participated voluntarily in the study. The heart rate of each participant was measured continuously for 1 minute before the TC Qigong intervention, during the 5-minute TC Qigong intervention, and for 1 minute after the intervention, using a Polar heart-rate monitor. Spectral HRV was expressed in terms of normalised low frequency (LF) power, normalised high frequency (HF) power, and the low frequency/high frequency (LF/HF) power ratio. Both the LF-power and the HF-power components had significant time effects. However, the time effect of the LF/HF power ratio was not significant. Post hoc contrast analysis revealed a significant decrease in LF power and a concomitant increase in HF power during the 4th minute and 5th minute of the TC Qigong exercise. Five minutes of TC Qigong exercise was found to improve HRV by increasing HF power and decreasing LF power, but these effects were transient. TC Qigong might be an appropriate exercise for improving the ANS function and psychological and cardiac health of survivors of NPC.

Source: Fong SS, Wong JY, Chung LM, Yam TT, Chung JW, Lee YM, Chow LP, Luk WS, Ng SS. Changes in heart-rate variability of survivors of nasopharyngeal cancer during Tai Chi Qigong practice. J Phys Ther Sci. 2015 May;27(5):1577-9.