Acupuncture therapy significantly improves quality of life of patients with breast cancer

Patients with breast cancer suffer a lot during treatment both physically and mentally that have significant impact on the quality of life of patients. Recently a randomized placebo-controlled clinical study showed that electroacupuncture (EA) is able to markedly improve fatigue and psychological symptoms of patients with early stage breast cancer. This is the first demonstration of efficacy of EA on such a study reported in the journal Cancer.

Around 50% of breast cancer patients are treated with aromatase inhibitor to prevent disease recurrence. Although the drug is effective many patients experience joint pain and associated fatigue and other psychological symptoms that may cause them stop taking medication. In fact nearly 50% of patients with breast cancer do not complete their recommended treatment courses. This puts those patients in a higher risk of dying both breast cancer and other causes.

Dr. Jun Mao and colleagues in the Abramson Cancer Centre in the United States conducted a randomized placebo-controlled clinical study to assess the efficacy of EA on fatigue and other psychological symptoms of breads cancer patients with aromatase inhibitor-related joint pain. Sixty-seven breast cancer patients who were treated with aromatase inhibitors were divided into three groups, EA group, sham EA group and medication alone group. Patients were given EA and sham EA twice weekly for 2 weeks, then weekly for 6 more weeks, for a total 10 treatments over 8 weeks. Fatigue, sleep disturbance, anxiety and depression were assessed before, during and after treatment using the Brief Fatigue Inventory (BFI), the Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index (PSQI), and the Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale (HADS). It was found that EA produced a significant improvement in fatigue, anxiety, depression and a non-significant improvement in sleep disturbance during 8-week treatment and 4-week follow-up compared with drug alone group. Sham electroacupuncture only markedly improved depression compared with medication alone group.

The study demonstrated that EA is very effective in reducing fatigue, sleep disturbance and psychological distress related to pain in patients with early stage breast cancer and its effect maintained 4 weeks after intervention.

Referecen:

Mao J et al., Electroacupuncture for fatigue, sleep, and psychological distress in breast cancer patients with aromatase inhibitor-related arthralgia: A randomized trial. Cancer. 2014 Jul 30. doi: 10.1002/cncr.28917.   http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/25077452

Copper coil handle of acupuncture needle is more prone to buckling than plastic handle

Compared with plastic handle of acupuncture needle, copper coil handle is far more susceptible to buckling according to a study reported on the journal Acupuncture in Medicine.

When the acupuncture needle is inserted into the body, in particular with long needle, it can easily bend or buckle. One of the ways to prevent the buckling is for acupuncturist to hold the needle body to assist the needle insertion, which has potential to cause infection. So avoiding needle buckling will reduce the risk of infection and enhance patient comfort and safety. Cooper coil handle and plastic handle are the two most commonly used acupuncture needle handles. Which one is more prone to buckling?

Recently Dr. Zhang and colleagues in Australia conducted a study to assess the strength and weakness of both cooper coil handle and plastic handle for needle buckling. Using a digital scale needles with two different types of handles, of the size of 0.25 mm×30 mm and 0.25 mm×60 mm were indiscriminately selected for buckling tests of acupuncture needles. Also needle body stiffness is also measured using a Dynamic Mechanical Analysis. It was found that plastic handle showed a significantly greater buckling resistance than cooper coil handle, while the stiffness of two types of needle bodies is similar.

The study demonstrated that the difference of buckling resistance between two types of needles was in the handle design. The handle of cooper needle is comprised of a cooper coil tightly wound around the upper part of the stainless steel needle, while plastic needle handle is made of plastic stick.

Although it is suggested replacing of cooper coil handles with plastic one would save tones of cooper metal, plastic handle, at present, is not suitable for use with moxibustion and less easy to use for electroacupuncture.

Refrence:

Zhang CS et al., Relationship between buckling of acupuncture needles and the handle type. Acupunct Med doi:10.1136/acupmed-2014-010586.   http://aim.bmj.com/content/early/2014/07/14/acupmed-2014-010586

Acupuncture technique, Qin’s eight scalp needles helps relieve symptoms of Parkinson’s disease

Qin’s eight scalp needles, another acupuncture technique is reported improved both motor and non-motor symptoms of Parkinson’s, in the journal Zhonggou Zhen Jiu (Chinese Acupuncture & Moxibustion).

The term, the eight scalp needles, has been developed by Professor Qin Liang-Fu. It includes bilateral GB8 (Shuaigu), GB15 (Toulinqi) and GB20 (Fengchi), as well as Baihui (GV20) and Yintang (Ext2). Based on his years of clinical experience, he observed the importance of Governor Vessel meridian for limb disorders and miscellaneous diseases and that the similarity between the cephalic motor region distribution and relevant scalp acupoints of many meridians. Professor Qin then proposed the eight scalp needles which, in combination with different body acupoints, has been shown effectively in treating neurodegenerative disorders such as Parkinson’ and multiple sclerosis.

Qin’s eight scalp needles in combination with other body acupoints has been show improving tremor, rigidity, slow movement, anxiety and depression, and enhanced memory function, sleep quality and decreased UPDRS scores in Parkinson’s patients.

Qin’ eight scalp needles and “the seven acupoint of cranial base” reported here before show the diversity of acupuncture techniques used to treat Parkinson’s in China.

Reference:

Dong J & Cui HS, Clinical experience of Qin’s eight scalp needles for treatment of Parkinson’s disease. Zhongguo Zhen Jiu. 2014 May;34(5):491-4.    http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/25022128

Acupuncture helps recovery of abducens palsy-induced diplopia

A patient with diabetes mellitus had abducens palsy-induced diplopia for one and half months and recovered completely from the condition after only 4 sessions of acupuncture treatment, according to a case report published in the journal Global Advances in Health and Medicine.

Abducens nerve palsy, also called sixth nerve palsy is a condition associated with the dysfunction of the cranial (VI) nerve, which innervates the lateral rectus muscle, responsible for turning eyeball outward from nose. Any condition that causes damage of blood vessels close to abducens nerve in the brain, such as stroke, diabetic neuropathy etc, may cause abducens nerve palsy. When abducens palsy occurs, a person’s eye begins to point inward toward the nose, often resulting in double vision. Although a double vision is not a serious problem it can significantly impact the person’s quality of life, making simple everyday tasks, such as reading, walking and driving, difficult to manage. Normally abducens palsy, in many patients resolves itself on its own once the underlying condition is treated. However, if the underlying cause is chronic e.g. diabetes, its manifestation may last much longer.

Recently Dr. Do and colleagues in the United States reported a case study of acupuncture treatment of abducens palsy. A 58-year-old male patient with diabetes mellitus had a left diplopia and was diagnosed as “isolated left sixth cranial nerve palsy”, and was treated with an eye patch and temporary prism. One and half months after onset of diplopia the patient felt double vision getting worse and a stabling clusters of pain behind both eyes. Then he was treated with acupuncture at the following acupoints, LI4, LV3, Taiyang, SP6, ST36, GB32, and GB20 for 30 mins each time for 4 times within 11 weeks. After last acupuncture treatment the patient stopped using prism and believed his sight had returned to normal.

The authors suggest that acupuncture helps reduce recovery rate due to abducens palsy.

Reference:

Do A et al., acupuncture treatment of diplopia associated with abducens palsy:

a case report. Glob Adv Health Med. Jul 2014; 3(4): 32–34.   http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4104568/

Acupuncture therapy has a long-lasting effect in alleviating depression and anxiety

Therapeutic effect of 8-week acupuncture to psychologically distressed patients lasted 24 weeks according to a report published in journal BMC Complementary and Alternative Medicine.

Anxiety and depression are the most common psychological disorders. They have markedly impact on the quality of life of suffers and are a substantial source of medical economic costs. Conventional treatment is not always satisfactory and has many adverse effects. Acupuncture is getting increasingly popular in treating psychological disorders.

Researchers in Sweden conducted an open, randomized controlled clinical study to evaluate the intermediate effects (24 weeks) of 8-week treatment on depression and anxiety. One hundred fifty four patients with psychological distress were randomly allocated to three groups. One group was treated with acupuncture for 45 mins, another was treated with acupuncture plus a person-centred salutogenic dialogue for 60 mins and the third group was given conventional treatment. The treatment was once a week for 8 consecutive weeks. Anxiety and depression were measured by the Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scales. Mental health status was assessed with the standard Swedish version of Short Form-36. All assessments were performed before, at the end of treatment and 24-week follow-up.

It was found that all treatment groups showed improvement compared with baseline scores. Evaluation of 24-week follow-up demonstrated that acupuncture group and acupuncture plus dialogue group maintained the improvement seen after 8-week treatment; while conventional treatment showed a declined efficacy.

The study suggests that acupuncture has a long-lasting therapeutic effect on anxiety and depression.

Reference:

Arvidsdotter T et al., Six-month effects of integrative treatment, therapeutic acupuncture and conventional treatment in alleviating psychological distress in primary care patients - follow up from an open, pragmatic randomized controlled trial. BMC Complementary and Alternative Medicine 2014, 14:210.    http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/24980440

Why some people do not respond well to acupuncture-induced analgesia?

A gene called 5’-AMP-activated protein kinase (AMPK), in the hypothalamus of brain is found to determine your responsiveness to acupuncture analgesia, according to a study published in the journal BMC Complementary and Alternative Medicine.

Although acupuncture is now widely used to treat a range of pain conditions, there are some subjects, in many acupuncture analgesia experimental and clinical studies did not respond well, which is difficult to explain.

Researchers in Korea conducted an experimental study to find the factors in the brain determining the sensitivity to acupuncture analgesia in a pain model. Using molecular biotechnologies such as cDNA microarray analysis and reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction, they looked the expression levels of different genes in the hypothalamus, a pain responder region in brain of the subjects. It was found that the levels of gene AMPK was significantly higher in the pain responder subjects than those of non-responder subjects. Further studies showed that inhibition of AMPK expression in the brain attenuated acupuncture-induced analgesic effect in responder subjects.

The studies demonstrated that the levels of AMPK gene expression in the hypothalamus region of brain may determine the individual differences in the sensitivity to acupuncture-induced analgesia.

Reference:

Kim SK et al., Expression levels of the hypothalamic AMPK gene determines the responsiveness of the rats to electroacupuncture-induced analgesia. BMC Complementary and Alternative Medicine 2014, 14:211 doi:10.1186/1472-6882-14-211.   http://www.biomedcentral.com/1472-6882/14/211

Acupuncture helps improve symptoms of cervical spondylosis

Acupuncture alone or in combination with moxibustion significantly alleviated neck pain and improved the disability of patients with cervical spondylosis as reported in journal Zhonggou Zhen Jiu (Chinese Acupuncture & Moxibustion).

Cervical spondylosis is a condition that affects the bone and tissues in the neck. The most common symptoms of the condition are neck pain, stiffness and headache. If nerves are trapped in the neck the pain can radiate to the arms and an abnormal feeling of pins and needles occur in the arms and legs. Cervical spondylosis often occurs in old people as we get old tissues in the neck such as vertebrae and discs suffer from wear and tear and cause stiffness and pain. Conventional treatment include muscle relaxation, painkillers both oral or local injection, and surgery for severe cases. Acupuncture and moxibustion have been used to treat cervical spondylosis in China for a very long period of time.

Researchers in China conducted a clinical study to compare the efficacy of acupuncture plus moxibustion with acupuncture alone or moxibustion alone treatment for cervical spondylosis. Patients with cervical spondylosis were randomly allocated to combination group, acupuncture alone group and moxibustion alone group (n=48 each group). The acupoints Bailao (Extra), Dazhui (GV 14), Jianzhongshu (SI15) and Zhongzhu (TE 3) were used in all treatment groups. The patients were given treatment for 20 mins daily, once every 3 days for total 10 treatments within 4 weeks. Northwick Park Pain Questionnaire (NPPQ) and McGill Pain Questionnaire (MPQ) were used to assess the pain intensity and disability before, after treatment and 3-month follow-up.  

 

At the end of treatment, evaluations showed a significant decrease in both NPPQ and MPQ scores respectively compared with baseline in each group. The 3-month follow-up assessment with NPPQ and MPQ scores respectively presented that therapeutic improvement was sustainable in each group. Group comparisons revealed that acupuncture plus moxibustion achieved more significant improvement in terms of NPPQ and MPQ evaluations than acupuncture alone and moxibustion alone treatment.  

 

The study suggests that although acupuncture and moxibustion exert significant therapeutic effect on cervical spondylosis respectively, combination of both modalities has achieved much better efficacy.

Reference:

Di Z et al., [The short-term and long-term effects on neck pain caused by cervical spondylosis treated with combination of acupuncture and moxibustion with seed-sized moxa cone]. Zhongguo Zhen Jiu. 2014 Apr;34(4):325-8.    http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/24946627

Acupuncture improves the symptoms of autism model

Acupuncture stimulation improves learning-memory ability and autism related protein expression in the brain of autism model according to a study reported in journal Zhen Ci Yan Jiu (Acupuncture Research).

Autism is a neurodevelopmental disorder that affects social interaction, communication, interests and behaviour. It is one of autism spectrum disorders which also include Asperger syndrome and pervasive developmental disorder. People with autism have difficulty in communicating and forming relations with others. The cause of autism is not clear. It is believed that combination of genetic and environmental factors may cause the changes in the connection and organization of never cells and their synapses leading to the alternation in information processing in the brain. There is no cure for the condition, however, a range of specialist and behavioural programmes can improve many skills of children with autism.

Researchers in China investigated how acupuncture helps autism in an autism rat model. The autism model was found to have delayed eye-open time and slower swimming speed assessed by eye-open tests and swimming test respectively and compared with normal controls. Then autism model was given acupuncture stimulation at GV1 acupoint once a day, Monday to Friday, for 30 day. Evaluation of autism model at the end of acupuncture showed that learning-memory ability was significantly improved measured by Morris water maze tasks test compared with baseline and non-acupoint treated model group. Biochemical studies revealed that gap junction-related protein connexin 43 (CX43), CX32 and CX36 were markedly decreased in the prefrontal cortex of autism model brain. Those gap junction proteins provide electrical couplings between neurons and other cells which are essential for signal transduction and help information processing in the brain. Acupuncture significantly increased the expression of reduced CX32, CX36 and CX43 proteins in the brain compared with non-acupoint treated model group.

The study suggests that acupuncture has a potential in improving learning-memory function in autism and this is related its ability to modulate the expression of CX32, CX36 and CX43 proteins.

Reference:

Hong YZ et al., [Influence of acupuncture of "Changqiang" (GV 1) on learning-memory ability and gap junction-related protein expression in the prefrontal cortex in autism rats]. Zhen Ci Yan Jiu. 2014 Jun;39(3):173-9.    http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/25069191

Acupuncture helps improve fatigue in patients with multiple sclerosis resistant to amantadine

Acupuncture treatment improved fatigue symptom in multiple sclerosis patients who are resistant to drug amantadine, according to a report published in journal Acupunct Medicine.

Fatigue is one of the most common symptoms of multiple sclerosis that has significant negative impact on the quality of life of patients with the condition. After long term medication such as amantadine which is the main drug used in fatigue treatment in multiple sclerosis, many patients developed resistant to the drug. So alternative therapy is urgently needed for them to keep the symptoms under control.

Doctors in Iran conducted a clinical study to evaluate the efficacy of acupuncture on fatigue of patients with multiple sclerosis resistant to amantadine. Twenty patients who were resistant to amantadine were given acupuncture treatment 30 mins a day, on every other day, in total 12 sessions within 4 weeks. Changes in fatigue were assessed by Fatigue Severity Scale before and after treatment. At the end of acupuncture treatment 5 of 20 patients who were resistant to amantadine responded to acupuncture plus amantadine treatment. The scores of Fatigue Severity Scale were significantly reduced within patients resistant to amantadine.

Authors suggest that acupuncture is effective in treating fatigue in proportion of patients with fatigue resistant to amantadine treatment.

Reference:

Foroughipour M et al., Amantadine and the place of acupuncture in the treatment of fatigue in patients with multiple sclerosis: an observational study. Acupunct Med2013;31:27–30.    http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/23151355