This blog is to share the latest research and development of acupuncture and raise the awareness of alternative treatments for your conditions, and is for information only.

Tuesday 15 March 2016

How does acupuncture help improve motor function after spinal cord injury?

Spinal cord injury often leads to the severe dysfunction below the injury site. Regeneration and functional recovery after spinal cord injury are very limited due to irreversible pathophysiological processes, although slow recovery of injured spinal cord neurons and limited neurite outgrowth might be achieved.

Electroacupuncture has been used to treat patients with spinal cord injury and is effective in promoting functional recovery. However, the mechanisms of electroacupuncture action are not fully understood. Recently many studies of spinal cord injury models reported very interesting results. The following is the summary of some studies.

JH Yang and colleagues reported, in a SCI model by compressing the T8–9 segments using a modified Nystrom method, that electroacupuncture stimulation of ST36, GB39, ST32 and SP6 for 2-6 weeks increased GDNF mRNA expression and increased AChE activity at the injury site of medium and large neurons in the spinal cord anterior horn, and increased motor neuron activities compared with control group.

DX Jiang and colleagues reported, a model of intervertebral disc extrusion by inserting a silica gel pad into the left ventral surface of T13, electroacupuncture stimulation at the bilateral ST36 and ST44 for 14 days increased blood flow in the first lumbar vertebra (L1). Microvessel density in the T13 segment of the spinal cord was increased significantly as well. The number of normal neurons was higher in the ventral horn of the spinal cord compared with control group.

The results of those studies are quite encouraging and shed some light on the action of electroacupuncture. However, more studies both preclinical and clinical are needed to provide more information about mechanism of acupuncture.

References:
Jiang DX et al., Electroacupuncture improves microcirculation and neuronal morphology in the spinal cord of a rat model of intervertebral disc extrusion. Neural Regen Res. 2015 Feb;10(2):237-43.  http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/25883622

Yang JH, et al., Electroacupuncture promotes the recovery of motor neuron function in the anterior horn of the injured spinal cord. Neural Regen Res. 2015 Dec;10(12):2033-9.    http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/26889195 

Wednesday 9 March 2016

Acupuncture helps improve both motor and non-motor symptoms of Parkinson’s disease

Literature review study found that acupuncture treatment alleviated both motor and non-motor symptoms of Parkinson’s disease according to a report published in journal of CNS Neuroscience and Therapeutics.

In this article, we have studied the clinical reports of acupuncture treatment for Parkinson’s, which were listed in Medline, PubMed, EMBASE, CNKI, and CINAHL databases in the past 15 years. It was found that acupuncture either manual or electroacupuncture stimulation at specific acupoints relieved some motor symptoms in patients with Parkinson’s and markedly improved many non-motor symptoms such as psychiatric disorders, sleep problems, and gastrointestinal symptoms. When it was used as an adjunct for levodopa, acupuncture improved therapeutic efficacy and reduced dosage and the occurrence of side effects of levodopa.

Although the evidence for the effectiveness of acupuncture for treating PD is inclusive, data from the reviewed studies showed that therapeutic potential of acupuncture in treating Parkinson’s seems rather promising. More studies, either comparative effectiveness research or high-quality placebo-controlled clinical studies should be conducted.

Reference
Zeng BY & Zhao K, Effect of Acupuncture on the Motor and Nonmotor Symptoms in
Parkinson’s Disease—A Review of Clinical Studies. CNS Neurosci Ther. 2016 Feb 4. doi: 10.1111/cns.12507.    http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/26843036

Wednesday 2 March 2016

Acupuncture lowered the risk of acute myocardial infarction in stroke patients

A retrospective cohort study showed that stroke patients receiving acupuncture treatment had a decreased risk of developing acute myocardial infarction compared with the stroke patients without acupuncture. The report was published in journal of BMC Complementary and Alternative Medicine.

It has been reported that patients with stroke have a high risk of developing heart conditions such as acute myocardial infarction which is a fatal attack. How to reduce the risk of acute myocardial infarction in stroke patients remains a big concern in primary care.

Recently, a group of scientists in Taiwan, China, conducted a retrospective cohort study to evaluate whether acupuncture could reduce the risk of acute myocardial infarction. They evaluated the data from 23475 stroke patients aged between 40-79 year-old, receiving acupuncture and compared with 46950 propensity score-matched stroke patients without acupuncture treatment.

The study found that acupuncture treatment reduced the risk of developing acute myocardial infarction in stroke patients.

Reference:
Chuang SF et al., Decreased risk of acute myocardial infarction in stroke patients receiving acupuncture treatment: a nationwide matched retrospective cohort study. BMC Complementary and Alternative Medicine (2015) 15:318.   http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/26353964