Background. Dysphagia is a common complication in patients with stroke. The research on acupuncture treatment of dysphagia has increased, but the results are not consistent. In this review we intend to answer “what is the potential of acupuncture in treating dysphagia in stroke patients and which acupuncture points are the most promising for treating dysphagia?” Methods. This systematic review...

Objective. To identify the optimum treatment protocol for insomnia among auricular, body, and abdominal needling methods. Methods. A three-factor (3 needling protocols) and three-level experimental scheme was designed based on orthogonal method. 54 patients of insomnia differentiated as internal harassment of phlegm-heat syndrome were given two courses of acupuncture treatment (each with 20 tim...

UNLABELLED Acupuncture is a form of Eastern medicine that has been practiced for centuries. Despite its long history and worldwide application, the biological mechanisms of acupuncture in relieving pain have been poorly defined. Recent studies in mice, however, demonstrate that acupuncture triggers increases in interstitial adenosine, which reduces the severity of chronic pain through adenosine...

Scientific bases for the mechanism of action of acupuncture in the treatment of pain and the pathogenic mechanism of acupuncture points are briefly summarized. The efficacy and safety of acupuncture therapy is discussed based on the results of German clinical trials. A conclusion on the role for acupuncture in the treatment of psychogenic disorders could not be reached.

OBJECTIVE To evaluate the effectiveness of acupuncture and moxibustion as an adjuvant treatment in women undergoing in vitro fertilisation (IVF) when embryo implantation has failed. METHODS A prospective, randomised controlled clinical trial was conducted with 84 infertile patients who had had at least two unsuccessful attempts of IVF. The patients were randomised in three groups: control (n=...

Twenty-one patients with Sjögren's syndrome were given four different kinds of acupuncture stimulation, at acupuncture points previously used to treat xerostomia. The local blood flux in the skin overlying the parotid gland was measured with laser Doppler flowmetry before, during and after the acupuncture stimulation. The results showed that the local blood flux increased significantly during a...

OVERLAPPING OF MERIDIAN AND VEIN A superficial vein named the median vein located on the midline of the anterior forearm is a common site for phlebotomy. It is rather parallel to the invisible PC4 and pericardial meridian (figure 1), although individual mappings of the vein are not uniform. The veins have thin elastic walls and blood flowing inside; electrically they are very conductive. Mechan...

In November 2007, the Society for Acupuncture Research (SAR) held an international symposium to mark the 10th anniversary of the 1997 NIH Consensus Development Conference on Acupuncture. The symposium presentations revealed the considerable maturation of the field of acupuncture research, yet two provocative paradoxes emerged. First, a number of well-designed clinical trials have reported that ...

Acupuncture points are frequently described as having distinct electrical properties. These properties include increased conductance, reduced impedance and resistance, increased capacitance, and elevated electrical potential compared to adjacent nonacupuncture points. Commercial electrodiagnostic devices have used this assertion as a means to localize and analyze acupuncture points for diagnost...

Background. Deqi sensation is a complex but an important component for acupuncture effect. In this study, we tried to observe the relationship between Deqi and skin temperature changes and whether there was some relativity between Deqi and needle stimulations on cold congealing and dysmenorrhea rat model. Thirty-two female Sprague Dawley (SD) rats were randomly divided into four groups (Saline ...