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.

Wednesday 27 September 2017

Acupuncture significantly improved renal function in patients with chronic kidney disease

Acupuncture treatment for 12 weeks significantly reduced the serum creatinine levels and increased the estimate glomerular filtration rate (eGFR) in patients with chronic kidney disease. Results of a preliminary clinical study were just published in the Journal of Complementary and Alternative Medicine.

Chronic kidney disease (CKD) is a progressive decline of kidney function over a period of months or years and is a recognized public health problem affecting up to 10% of global population. It is believed that the two main causes of CKD are diabetes and hypertension. Main symptoms that develop during CKD progression are proteinuria, peripheral edema, hypertension, anaemia, and fatigue. Although medication is able to control the progression of the disease, the adverse effects of long-term use of medication could cause more damage on kidney function. Complementary and alternative medicine such as acupuncture and Chinese herbal medicine are used to effectively treat CKD in China for a very long time.

Recently, a randomized and single-blinded controlled clinical study was conducted to assess the effect of acupuncture on renal function in patients with CKD. The subjects were randomly allocated to real acupuncture group (RA, n=30) and sham acupuncture (SA, n=29) groups. In RA group electro-acupuncture was performed on acupoints LI4, ST36 and KI3 to patients with CKD for 20 min per-session, once a week for 12 consecutive weeks. While in SA group, the acupuncture methods were identical to in the RA, acupuncture needle was applied to the subcutaneous layer at 1.5 cm lateral to the aforementioned acupoints, without electrical discharge. Renal function was monitored by measuring the levels of serum creatinine and estimated glomerular filtration rate (eGFR) at 3 months before acupuncture, immediately before the acupuncture treatment (baseline), at the end of 12-week treatment and at the 3-month follow-up.

The data showed that there was no difference of creatinine and eGFR at 3 months before acupuncture and baseline between RA and SA groups, however, there was significant decrease in creatinine and marked improvement in eGFR in RA group after 12-week acupuncture and 3-month follow-up compared with that of SA group.

The results of the study showed that acupuncture could improve renal function by reducing creatinine and improving eGFR in patients with CKD.

Reference:

JS Yu et al., Acupuncture on Renal Function in Patients with Chronic Kidney Disease: A Single-Blinded, Randomized, Preliminary Controlled Study. J Altern Complement Med. Volume 23, Number 8, 2017, pp. 624–631.   https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/28422526