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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.

Acupuncture and the brain

Categories: Acupuncture research

A Korean study exploring brain activation using (fMRI) has compared verum acupuncture to placebo needles. Two fMRI scans were taken, one for verum acupuncture and one for non-penetrating placebo needling at Xingjian LIV-2, on the left foot, in 10 healthy volunteers. The researchers examined the difference between the two scans by subtracting the blood oxygen level-dependent (BOLD) signal generated ...

Placebo needling may not be inert

Categories: Acupuncture research

A double blind randomised controlled study comparing the effects of real and placebo acupuncture on pregnancy rates after assisted reproduction has found placebo acupuncture to be associated with a significantly higher pregnancy rate. In the trial, carried out in Hong Kong, 370 patients were allocated to 25 minutes of either real or placebo acupuncture before and after embryo transfer (ET). The re ...

Acupuncture improves absorption of scutellaria extract

Categories: Acupuncture research, Herb research

Acupuncture can improve absorption of baicalin, one of the active components of Huang Qin (Radix Scutellariae). Chinese scientists divided twenty rats randomly into two groups. Group A was treated with a combination of oral administration of Scutellaria baicalensis extracts and acupuncture at the acupoints Jizhong DU-6, Dazhui DU-14 and Zhongwan REN-12 Group B was treated with oral Scutellar ...

ACUPUNCTURE INCREASES MICROCIRCULATION

Categories: Acupuncture research

In Japan, researchers have compared blood volume and oxygenation in regions of the trapezius muscle local to and distant from a site of acupuncture stimulation. By using ear-infrared spectrometer probes, they observed that muscle oxygenation and blood volume (indicating elevated blood flow in small vessels) increased in the stimulated region of the trapezius during and after two minutes of acupunc ...

Importance of collagen at acupuncture points

Categories: Acupuncture research

Chinese scientists have investigated how mechanical acupuncture signals received at acupoints are transformed into biological signals. In a study carried out on rats, the role of collagen fibers at acupoints during acupuncture analgesia was investigated. When the investigators destroyed the structure of the collagen fibres at Zusanli ST-36 by injection of collagenase, the needle force exerted by a ...

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 ...

Multiple disease fighting activities of scutellaria

Categories: Herb research

Huang Qin (Radix Scutellariae) is a popular multi-purpose Chinese medicinal herb traditionally used to treat inflammation, hypertension, cardiovascular diseases, and bacterial and viral infections. Accumulating evidence is now demonstrating that Scutellaria also possesses potent anticancer activities. The flavone baicalin, which can be extracted from Scutellaria, has been found by German scientist ...

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 ...

Ginseng is an anti-inflammatory

Categories: Herb research

Cell culture experiments carried out by Chinese researchers have revealed an anti-inflammatory action of ginseng (Ren Shen). They identified nine separate compounds called ginsenosides in ginseng extract. By testing the effects of individual ginsenosides on cell cultures, they showed that seven of them could inhibit the expression of inflammatory markers and suppress cellular pathways associated w ...

Astragalus enhances wound healing

Categories: Herb research

Extracts of the root of Astragalus membranaceus (Huang Qi) have been observed to significantly accelerate cutaneous wound healing. According to a Korean team who observed the process of wound healing at a microscopic level, topically applied Astragalus extract achieves this by suppressing inflammation and stimulating cell growth and angiogenesis (formation of blood vessels) in the wound area. Use ...

CINNAMON INDUCES BLOOD VESSEL FORMATION

Categories: Herb research

Cinnamon extract, which has been used in Chinese medicine to improve blood circulation, can induce angiogenesis (formation of blood vessels). Korean researchers observed the effect of ethanol extract of Cinnamomum cassia (Gui Zhi) on angiogenic processes and found that it induced endothelial cell proliferation, migration and the formation of tubule-like structures in vitro. In in vivo studies, the ...

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 ...