The use of acupuncture during pregnancy appears to be safe and well tolerated by women in all trimesters. However, there is some debate regarding the use of certain acupuncture points that were historically considered to be forbidden during pregnancy.1 Randomized controlled trials evaluating acupuncture during pregnancy and labor where forbidden points have been used indicate there is no eviden...

BACKGROUND Ah shi point acupuncture involves inserting needles at painful or pathological sites. OBJECTIVE To evaluate the efficacy of ah shi point and general acupuncture point treatment of acne vulgaris. METHODS 36 subjects were recruited and randomised in a double-blind (patient-blind and observer-blind) controlled trial to receive acupuncture either at general acupuncture points only, o...

BACKGROUND Conducting randomized controlled trials on traditional Chinese non-drug therapies has been limited by factors such as patient preference to specific treatment modality. The aim of this study is to investigate the feasibility of applying a partially randomized patient preference (PRPP) trial model in evaluating the efficacy of two types of traditional Chinese medicine therapies, acupu...

To investigate the distribution of monoamine transmitters at acupoints and effect of acupuncture on it. Take this experiment by means of microdialysis. Twenty rabbits were randomly assigned to two groups (Group A: acupuncture Guanyuan (RN4), Group B: acupuncture nonacupoint which is besides Guanyuan (RN4) 1 cm). Before and after acupuncture was taken, tissue fluids both at Zhongwan (RN12) which...

Although acupuncture is effective in the treatment of several clinical conditions, its specificity has been questioned. We studied the effects of needle stimulation applied to 'ear-specific' acupuncture point GB43 on activations in primary auditory cortex using functional magnetic resonance imaging in comparison with sham acupuncture. Twenty healthy volunteers participated in this cross-over in...

MicroRNAs (miRNAs) are a group of endogenous noncoding RNAs that play important roles in many biological processes. This study aimed to check if miRNAs were involved in the response to acupuncture in rats. Microarray analysis was performed to compare the miRNA expression profiles of medulla in spontaneously hypertensive rats (SHRs) treated with or without acupuncture. Our microarray analysis id...

In recent years, an increasing number of studies has been conducted on the biophysical characteristics of the meridians and acupoints in humans and animals. The authors aim to further illustrate the objective existence and superficial locations of the meridians in various species of animals. Twelve sheep, ten goats, thirteen pigs, eleven cats, eight rabbits and seven donkeys were used to measur...

OBJECTIVES To determine the effect of acupuncture in treating hot flushes in perimenopausal or postmenopausal women. METHODS The study was a randomised single-blind sham-controlled clinical trial. Perimenopausal or postmenopausal women with moderate or severe hot flushes were randomised to receive real or sham acupuncture. Both groups underwent a 4-week run-in period before the treatment. The...

Objectives.  De qi is the subjective constellation of sensations perceived by the acupuncturists and patients as described in several literatures, but the absence of quantitative evaluation methods in de qi restricts the use of acupuncture treatment widely in the world. In the present study, we tried to investigate the intrinsic property of de qi is and how evaluate it quantitatively. Methods. ...

Citation: Nierhaus T, Pach D, Huang W, Long X, Napadow V, Roll S, Liang F, Pleger B, Villringer A and Witt CM (2016) Difficulties Choosing Control Points in Acupuncture Research. Response: Commentary: Differential Cerebral Response, Measured with Both an EEG and fMRI, to Somatosensory Stimulation of a Single Acupuncture Point vs. Two Non-Acupuncture Points. Front. Hum. Neurosci. 10:404. doi: 10...