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Research Archive
Welcome to our Chinese medicine and acupuncture research news pages. We add to the content of these pages continuously as more research news comes in. Browse through the complete archive below or use the category links on the right.
Please note that the most twenty recent research archive items are free to view but access to the thousands of items in the archive require a journal subscription.
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FMRI & acupuncture
Categories: Acupuncture research
German investigators have studied the effects of stimulation at the ear-specific acupuncture point Xiaxi GB-43 on the brain's primary auditory cortex, using fMRI. Twenty healthy volunteers participated in a crossover study, which compared needling at this point with sham needling (at a non-acupoint). Multi-subject analysis showed no significant activation during stimulation of Xiaxi GB-43 point or ...
FMRI & ACUPUNCTURE
Categories: Acupuncture research
A Chinese team has used fMRI to investigate the functional connectivity of brain networks involved in acupuncture. fMRI scans were performed before, during and after acupuncture manipulation at Zusanli ST-36 (previously implicated in a neural pathway for pain modulation) on healthy volunteers and were compared with similar scans for sham needling (full depth needling at a non-acupuncture poi ...
Verum versus sham needling
Categories: Acupuncture research
American researchers have examined the pain reducing effect of verum manual acupuncture (ACU), compared with that of placebo needling, using a combination of fMRI and PET imaging. Twelve acupuncture-naïve healthy subjects were randomised into a real acupuncture group and a placebo acupuncture group (Streitberger retractable needle). Over four sessions, the researchers induced pain in the subjects ...
PATIENTS' DIVERSE EXPERIENCES OF ACUPUNCTURE
Categories: Acupuncture research
Charlotte Patterson and colleague have attempted to characterise the diverse nature of patient's experiences of acupuncture treatment for chronic health problems. They performed a secondary analysis of five longitudinal interview studies using a constant comparative method. Patients had experienced different types of acupuncture - traditional and Western in a variety of settings in the UK and Aust ...
PATIENT EXPERIENCE OF PLACEBO ACUPUNCTURE
Categories: Acupuncture research
Qualitative analysis of the experiences of patients who underwent placebo treatment as part of the above Harvard IBS trial reveals the complexity of the phenomenon and the effect of taking part in such a study. Almost all subjects reported improvement ranging from dramatic psychosocial changes to clear, progressive symptom improvement, as well as tentative impressions of benefit. In addition they ...
QUALITY OF PATIENT-PRACTITIONER INTERACTION INFLUENCES PLACEBO RESPONSE
Categories: Acupuncture research
The quality of patient-practitioner interaction may be important in eliciting a strong placebo response to acupuncture. Harvard researchers performed an analysis of videotape and psychometric data from a clinical trial of patients with irritable bowel syndrome (IBS) who were treated with placebo acupuncture in either a warm empathic interaction (augmented group), a neutral interaction (limited gro ...
Anxiety influences physiological effects of acupuncture
Categories: Acupuncture research
Patient anxiety could have an important influence on the physiological response to acupuncture and modify physiological outcomes in acupuncture research. Australian researchers studied the influence of acupuncture on the balance between sympathetic and parasympathetic regulation of the heartbeat, using analysis of heart rate variability (HRV). Sixty healthy female subjects were divided into a no-t ...
SAFETY OF ACUPUNCTURE
Categories: Acupuncture research
German researchers have pooled the results of several large trials of acupuncture to evaluate its safety. A total of 229,230 patients received an average of ten acupuncture treatments. Altogether 19,726 patients (8.6%) reported experiencing at least one adverse effect and 4,963 (2.2%) reported one that required treatment. Common adverse effects were bleeding or haematoma (6.1% of patients, 58% of ...
Acupuncture enhances recovery from exercise
Categories: Acupuncture research
Acupuncture can reduce blood lactic acid and enhance recovery from muscle fatigue after exercise, according to Taiwanese scientists. Thirty male university basketball players were randomly assigned to three groups: acupuncture, sham and no treatment. Acupuncture was carried out at Neiguan P-6 and Zusanli ST-36 beginning 15 minutes prior to exercise and continuing until exhaustion of the subject. I ...
New model for acupuncture analgesia
Categories: Acupuncture research
An Australian author has presented a new model for acupuncture anaesthesia. According to his hypothesis, C fibre tactile afferent axons bifurcate at acupuncture points and then diverge, running along acupuncture meridians, to subsequently communicate with Merkel cells. These are sensory cells which are essential for light touch responses. Each Merkel cell is intimately associated with an afferent ...
Real acupuncture turns up the heat
Categories: Acupuncture research
German scientists have used infrared thermography to distinguish between the effect of needling Hegu L.I.-4 and sham acupuncture (needling at a non-acupoint). Thermographic imaging was performed on 50 healthy volunteers randomly assigned to four procedures: acupuncture at Hegu L.I.-4 with needle manipulation, needling of a cutaneous non-acupuncture point, needling of a muscular non-acupuncture poi ...
EAR ELECTRO-ACUPUNCTURE INCREASES VAGAL ACTIVITY
Categories: Acupuncture research
Electrostimulation of auricular acupuncture points can increase the activity of the vagus nerve, according to the results of a Swiss experiment. Fourteen healthy men participated in four examinations: a no-intervention control, a placebo control and manual and electro-acupuncture (EA) on the concha of the ear (where there is neuroanatomical evidence for vagal afferents). EA, but not manual acupunc ...
Brain study provides evidence for acupoint specifity
Categories: Acupuncture research
The results of a Korean study provide neurobiological evidence for acupoint specificity. Functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) of the brain was performed in 12 normal healthy subjects during electro-acupuncture stimulation (EA) of Yanglingquan GB-34 on the left leg and a sham point (belonging anatomically to the same L5 spinal segment) on the same leg. EA at the acupoint and the sham point ...
30 MINUTES OF ELECTRO-ACUPUNCTURE OPTIMAL FOR PAIN RELIEF
Categories: Acupuncture research
A team from the USA has found that the duration of electro-acupuncture treatment can affect its analgesic effect. Healthy volunteers were randomised to receive 0, 20, 30 or 40 minutes of electro-acupuncture stimulation (alternating 2/100 Hz at 5mA). Using a cold pain threshold test, the investigators found that 30 min of stimulation resulted in the most significant hypoalgesic effect, which was su ...
RANDOM ASSIGNMENT RESULTS IN FEWER BENEFITS
Categories: Acupuncture research
Korean researchers have found evidence that patients randomly assigned to treatment groups in acupuncture trials receive fewer health benefits from treatment than those who were non-randomly assigned. They carried out a systematic review of six partially randomised acupuncture trials and analysed the pooled data. They found that the randomised acupuncture group comprised patients with different de ...
Neiguan P-6 affects brain's balance centres
Categories: Neurological, Acupuncture research
More evidence for the neural specificity of particular acupuncture points comes from a Chinese study that used fMRI to investigate the effects of acupuncture at Neiguan P-6. fMRI was performed on the brains of 36 healthy subjects while they received acupuncture at Neiguan P-6 and two control points (Daling P-7 and Guangming GB-37). Needling at Neiguan P-6 caused extensive signal decreases (deactiv ...