BYZ Acupuncture Therapy: How did acupuncture help recovery in experimental ischemic stroke model?

Tuesday, 26 April 2016

How did acupuncture help recovery in experimental ischemic stroke model?

A literature review study found that acupuncture stimulation significantly enhanced neurogenesis in the brain of experimental ischemic stroke model, according to a report published in journal of Scientific Reports.

Neurogenesis naturally occurs only in very a few small regions of the adult brain. However, neurogenesis is considered too weak to produce any significant compensation in response to brain injury. Promoting endogenous neurogenesis such as neural stem/progenitor cells appears to offer a promising therapeutic strategy for treating stroke.

Recent studies showed that acupuncture treatment played a neuroprotective role in treating patients with stroke. Other studies reported acupuncture enhanced neurogenesis in the brain of experimental ischemic stroke.

A group of scientists in China undertook a preclinical systematic review and meta-analysis to assess the current evidence for effect of acupuncture on neurogenesis in treating ischaemic stroke. Thirty-four studies represented a total of 1617 experimental subjects were included in the review study.

The data showed that acupuncture improved neurological deficits and reduced brain edema in experimental ischemia, and that the mechanisms mostly involved in enhancing endogenous neurogenesis including proliferation, migration and differentiation of neural stem/progenitor cells. Acupuncture was found to be effective in promoting neurogenesis, particularly from day 7 to day 14 after ischemia; neurocyte proliferation peaked at day 7 while differentiation peaked at day 14. These results suggested an optimum time window in stroke for acupuncture therapy.

Authors suggested that the study may help the planning and improve the likelihood of success of future clinical trials, provide empirical evidence to improve the rigor of the conducting and reporting of preclinical research.

Reference

Lu L et al., Acupuncture for neurogenesis in experimental ischemic stroke: a systematic review and meta-analysis. Sci Rep. 2016 Jan 20;6:19521. http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/26786869

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I am Dr. Baiyun Zeng and I specialise in the neurological disorders such as Parkinson's disease, and stress related conditions, and headache and migraine, in addition to muscular and joint problems etc.

I graduated as a medical doctor, from the Chongqing Medical University, China, 30 years ago; then practised both Western medicine and Chinese herbal medicine and acupuncture in the hospital in China and Britain.

I obtained my PhD degree at the University College London and worked as research fellow on neurodegenerative disorders, in particular Parkinson’s disease with many publications on the peer reviewed journals at the King’s College London over 20 years. I am the editor-in-chief of the books titled “Neurobiology of Acupuncture”, volume 111, published in November 2013, and "Neurobiology of Chinese Herbal Medicine" volume 135, published in August 2017, by Elsevier, for the book series titled “International Review of Neurobiology”.

I am a member of the Association of Traditional Chinese Medicine and Acupuncture UK (ATCM) and fully insured.

For appointment, please call 07550156629 or send an email to byzeng99@gmail.com

Acupuncture practice addresses:

1. Wimpole Therapeutics, 2 Wimpole Street, London, W1G 0ED.

2. Ledow Health Centre, 17 Melcombe Street, London, NW1 6AG.

Consultation and treatment fee: £85.00 for 50-60 min.

Note: If appointment cancellation and change made within 48 hours a full session fee will be charged.