Currency

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 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 ...

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 ...