News

Deep and shallow needling
produce similar brain response.

Both deep and superficial needling of acupuncture points appear to elicit similar responses in the brain. Volunteers were needled either superficially or deeply at LI 4 Hegu, while their brains underwent fMRI scanning, which calculates the activity of brain regions by measuring oxygen uptake by the tissue. The result of both types of needling was that deactivation of brain regions predominated over activation.
No significant differences in signal responses were seen between the two needling methods. This is consistent with the equivalent therapeutic outcomes that are reported by practitioners of Japanese and Chinese styles of acupuncture that utilise shallow and deep needling, respectively.

Brain image of acupuncture: Comparing superficial with deep needling. Neurosci Lett. 2008 Jan 31with thanks to the Journal of Chinese Medicine News

Acupuncture improves
IVF success rate

A meta-analysis of seven clinical trials in which acupuncture was used to support embryo transfer during IVF has concluded that it improves rates of pregnancy and live birth. Dutch and American researchers analysed results from seven clinical trials (selected as eligible from a total of 108), all published since 2002 and carried out in four western countries. They included data on 1366 women and compared acupuncture given within one day of embryo transfer, with sham acupuncture, or no additional treatment. All except one used a similar acupuncture protocol (based on Paulus et al). The analysis showed that combining real acupuncture with embryo transfer was associated with significant and clinically relevant improvements in clinical pregnancy rate. Women who underwent acupuncture were 65% more likely to have a successful embryo transfer procedure and 91% more likely to have a live birth. On the basis of ‘number needed to treat’, this means that ten women undergoing IVF would need to be treated with acupuncture to bring about one additional pregnancy.

Effects of acupuncture on rates of pregnancy and live birth among women undergoing in vitro fertilisation: systematic review and meta-analysis.
BMJ. 2008 MAR 8;336(7643):545-9.

Acupuncture used alone
improves fertility

A review of the medical literature on acupuncture and female fertility published in the journal Fertility and Sterility has shown that acupuncture can help reduce stress, increase blood flow to the reproductive organs and normalise ovulation and the menstrual cycle. As such, women struggling to get pregnant may want to add acupuncture to their roster of fertility-boosting treatments, according to study author Dr. Raymond Chang of Cornell University. Stress is known to adversely affect ovulation, and therefore it is logical that acupuncture would assist normal ovulation through the release of beta-endorphins. Reports have shown that women who used acupuncture without any other fertility treatments were just as likely to conceive in the same period of time as women who took a fertility drug.

Fertility and Sterility 2002;78:1149-1153

Acupuncture improves
headache treatment

A German study of over 15,000 patients shows that acupuncture made a large improvement int the treatment of headaches. In the study, published in "Cephalalgia" in July 2008, long term follow-up showed a continued improvement in both pain and quality of life.

Acupuncture effective for breech correction

In a systematic review from Holland in April, the proportion of breech presentations was 28 per cent following acupuncture treatment versus 56 per cent for the control group.

Acupuncture effective for Hay Fever

An Australian study has found that acupuncture can significantly reduce the symptoms of persistent allergic rhinitis (PAR). The randomised, single-blind, sham-controlled trial included 80 patients with PAR (aged 16-70 years) who were randomly assigned to real or sham acupuncture. Yingxiang LI 20, Yintang M-HN-3, and Fengchi GB 20, plus one supplementary point (determined on the basis of TCM pattern differentiation) were used. Participants were treated twice weekly for eight weeks and followed up for another 12 weeks. At the end of treatment, the weekly mean difference in total nasal symptom score from baseline was significantly greater with real (-17.2) than with sham acupuncture (-4.2) and these benefits persisted three months after the end of treatment. There was also a significant decline in the use of medication in the real acupuncture group between baseline and week 8 of treatment, the reduction being still apparent at the end of follow-up.

Acupuncture for persistent allergic rhinitis: a randomised, sham-controlled trial. MED J AUST. 2007;187(6):337-41

Acupuncture cost-effective
for Painful Periods

In a German study, the clinical effectiveness and cost-effectiveness of acupuncture in patients with dysmenorrhea was studied. The authors concluded that additional acupuncture in patients with dysmenorrhea was associated with improvements in pain and quality of life as compared to usual care alone and was cost-effective within usual thresholds

Acupuncture in patients with dysmenorrhea: a randomized study on clinical effectiveness and cost-effectiveness in usual care. AM J OBSTET GYNECOL. 2008 FEB;198(2):166.E1-8

Acupuncture reduces scoliosis

One session of acupuncture seems to have an influence on the deformity of some scoliosis patients. In a controlled singleblind crossover study, real acupuncture, carried out according to TCM principles, was compared with sham acupuncture and ‘just lying’ in a group of 24 girls with adolescent idiopathic scoliosis. In a subgroup of patients with Cobb’s angle (a measurement used for evaluation of curvature in scoliosis) of no more than 35 degrees, significant changes in surface rotation and lateral deviation of vertebrae were found after real acupuncture only.

Acupuncture in the treatment of scoliosis - a single blind controlled pilot study. SCOLIOSIS. 28;3:4.

Imaging Acupuncture Meridians

Two different imaging methods have provided evidence for the existence of acupuncture meridians. In one Chinese study, the optical transport properties along the pericardium meridian path and a parallel non-meridian path one centimetre away from it were measured. Lasers were shone onto volunteers’ arms on points at one end of the path and the amount of emitted light was measured at points on the other end. Light propagation characteristics along the pericardium meridian path differed from that along the non-meridian path, with less attenuation of the light occurring along the meridian. This suggests that that the optical properties of the meridian differ from those of the surrounding tissue.

Differences in optical transport properties between human meridian and non-meridian. AM J CHIN MED. 2007;35(5):743-52

Another study, also carried out in China, used infrared thermal imaging to observe the time-dependent development of infrared radiant tracks along the course of meridian pathways in volunteers.

Appearance of human meridian-like structure and acupoints and its time correlation by infrared thermal imaging. AM J CHIN MED. 2007;35(2):231-40
Reproduced with thanks to the Journal of Chinese Medicine News