Study Demonstrates That Acupuncture Useful for Heart Problems

 

Acupuncture and Chinese herbology are frequently used together to treat various types of heart disease and dysfunction and many cardiac issues are treated here, at the Northside Holistic Center. Occasionally an interesting study or report will be published which illustrates the utility of this approach. Presented here are a smattering of those studies, added to as I come across them.

A recent Chinese study found that acupuncture was useful in preventing heart damage from a drug commonly used as an anti-nausea agent, droperidol. The research, which can be read about here, found that: 

[While] droperidol is used for the treatment of postoperative and chemotherapy related nausea and vomiting but may cause heart dysfunction. Researchers speculate that the cardioprotective mechanisms of electroacupuncture at PC6 and its success in preventing droperidol side effects may be due, in part, to acupuncture’s ability to regulate the balance of sympathetic and parasympathetic tone. In the experiment, PC6 was administered as a pretreatment prior to the injection of droperidol. The researchers added, “Pretreatment of P6 EA (PC6 electroacupuncture) significantly reduced QTc prolongation induced by droperidol, and this property may be related to the up-regulation of Cx43 mRNA and protein, which may contribute to the transmural heterogeneity of repolarization and abbreviate the prolonged QT intervals in droperidol treated hearts.” This experiment demonstrates that acupuncture is an effective non-pharmaceutical approach to avoiding adverse events caused by medication therapy. 

Excerpted from an article about another study on cardiac function and acupuncture, which can be read here. 

New research from the International Society for Autonomic Neuroscience shows that acupuncture controls the heart rate and increases the strength of cardiac autonomic function. This new research indicates that the use of specific acupuncture points may help to prevent heart attacks (myocardial infarctions) and arrhythmias.

Needling acupoint CV17 decreased the heart rate and increased the power of the high-frequency component of the HRV (heart rate variability), an index of the body’s ability to maintain control of the heart beat rate and rhythm through vagus nerve activity. The researchers conclude that CV17 “causes the modulation of cardiac autonomic function.”

HRV (heart rate variability) is the variance in time interval between heart beats. Reduced HRV is linked to mortality after myocardial infarction and a lowering of HRV is also linked to congestive heart failure, diabetic neuropathy, and low survival rates in premature babies. A reduction of HRV and its high-frequency component is common in patients with PTSD (post-traumatic stress syndrome) and for individuals with increased heart rates due to stress.

This new research shows that the application of acupuncture to CV17 increases the power of the high-frequency component of HRV and simultaneously is able to lower the heart rate. This research demonstrates that acupuncture at CV17 is able to activate the autonomic nervous system to control the heart rate by increasing vagal activity. Depressed HRV after MI, a heart attack, reflects a decrease in vagal activity and leads to cardiac electrical instability. Since acupuncture at CV17 increases the cardiac vagal component of HRV, it may be an important acupuncture point for patients recovering from MI.

We treat many patients for heart problems such as tachycardia, brachycardia, palpitations as well as those which are secondary to other issues such as panic attacks, PTSD, menopause, as well as other idiopathic causes. This research bears out our experience.

Hot Flashes: Two New Studies Show Benefit of Acupuncture

{This is on top of scores of other studies which reveal the same thing}. Here is the reprint:

Two New Studies Show Acupuncture Relieves Hot Flashes

Women suffering from hot flashes associated with menopause may have another alternative to hormone replacement therapy, according to two new studies showing that treatment with acupuncture significantly reduces the severity and frequency of hot flashes and other symptoms of menopause.

I knew I didn't want to take hormone therapy, but hot flashes and night sweats were waking me up almost every night, and I was finding it really hard to function during the day.

Women suffering from hot flashes associated with menopause may have another alternative to hormone replacement therapy, according to two new studies showing that treatment with acupuncture significantly reduces the severity and frequency of hot flashes and other symptoms of menopause.

Leslie, a busy business woman, found her hot flashes and sleep deprivation debilitating until she finally tried acupuncture with Emilie Salomons (Dr. TCM, FABORM) at Acubalance Wellness Centre in Vancouver. She explains, "I knew I didn't want to take hormone therapy, but hot flashes and night sweats were waking me up almost every night, and I was finding it really hard to function during the day."

"After my treatment with acupuncture I started feeling better, and after a few weeks of acupuncture treatments and Chinese herbal therapy, I noticed major relief. The number of hot flashes decreased dramatically, and I was actually sleeping through the night!"

One study, conducted by the Ankara Training and Research Hospital in Ankara, Turkey, confirms Leslie's positive experience with acupuncture. It included 53 postmenopausal women. Twenty-seven of the women received traditional Chinese acupuncture for 20 minutes, twice a week for 10 weeks. The rest thought they were given acupuncture treatment, but the needles didn't actually penetrate their skin. The women who received real acupuncture showed significant drops in the severity of their hot flashes.

The result of another study, presented by the National Research Center in Alternative and Complementary Medicine, University of Tromsø, Norway, at the March 2011 Acupuncture Research Resource Centre Symposium in London, "... showed significant reduction in the severity and frequency of hot flushes in postmenopausal women undergoing a 12 week course of acupuncture."

Researchers are still trying to understand how this 2000-year-old treatment affects menopausal symptoms. According to Acubalance clinical director Lorne Brown (Dr. TCM, FABORM), "Studies have shown that acupuncture appears to bring hormones into balance and reduce anxiety through a process called homeostatic regulation: buffering hormonal disturbance and stimulating feel-good endorphins."

Dr. Jerilynn Prior, UBC professor of endocrinology, author and world expert on women's hormones, states: "This research supports a large body of anecdotal evidence that acupuncture can safely relieve hot flushes and night sweats--it may 'work' by decreasing the stress responses that we know make hot flushes worse."

For Leslie, acupuncture has allowed her to resume her life. "Not only am I getting relief from hot flashes and the overwhelming fatigue and exhaustion, but I'm so glad to have the option of a safe, effective treatment for my menopause symptoms that actually improves my overall health!"

Salomons explains that "At Acubalance we usually combine acupuncture with Chinese herbal therapy and lifestyle changes like diet and exercise for the best outcome."

Terje Alraek of the University of Tromsø says in a press statement: "After menopause, 10% - 20% of all women have nearly intolerable hot flushes. The promising results of the Acuflash study suggest that acupuncture can help."

Relieving menopausal symptoms is the latest use of the 2,000-year-old Chinese tradition--it's already being used to reduce symptoms related to infertility, arthritis, back, neck, knee and shoulder pain, and anxiety.

Acupuncture Effective for Traumatic Brain Injury

As reported in the Journal of Neurotrauma (and reported here), researchers at the University of Colorado have found acupuncture to be very useful for treating brain trauma. 

Image reposted from http://www.medindia.net/
“We found that the study subjects with mild traumatic brain injury who were treated with acupressure showed improved cognitive function, scoring significantly better on tests of working memory when compared to the TBI subjects in the placebo control group”, lead researcher Professor Theresa Hernandez said.

Florida Acupuncturist Works with Cancer Pain

From a Florida newspaper comes this story which highlights an acupuncturist who treats cancer patients for the pain and symptoms associated with their disease. This is something that we, as acupuncturists, help our clients cope with on a daily basis. Quite frequently, this is true for those patients who are either currently experiencing the prodigious use of drugs and radiation, or who have completed courses of treatment but who are still feeling pain, fatigue and other symptoms from their therapy. (the video from this story was no longer active as of this writing).

Pam Grier Credits Chinese Medicine for Beating Cancer

Cult film star Pam Grier cites her use of Chinese medicine in helping her avoid death from her stage IV cancer in interviews and in her autobiography. You can read about it at this site:

"FOXY BROWN star PAM GRIER has Chinese herbal medicine to thank for her cancer all-clear - because western doctors suggested she turn to alternatives after traditional methods to cure her failed."