Background Acupuncture is a relatively safe, commonly used "alternative" medical treatment for various symptoms. However, adverse effects can occur, including trauma, pneumothorax, and central-nervous-system injury. Our objective was to develop a reliable and practical procedure for ultrasound imaging of acupuncture points to improve safety during needling, and to acquire ultrasound images of s...

BACKGROUND Despite acupuncture's wide and successful use, it is still considered as lacking scientifically rigorous evidence, especially with respect to its effectiveness. To address this problem, it is necessary to re-examine the practice of acupuncture using scientific methodology. The standardization of acupuncture practices may offer a solution. As a preliminary step towards the standardiza...

OBJECTIVE To investigate whether acupuncture is effective for the induction of labour in post-term pregnancies. DESIGN A double-blind multicentre randomised controlled study. SETTINGS Aarhus University Hospital and Herning Regional Hospital, Denmark. POPULATION One hundred and twenty-five healthy women with uneventful pregnancies at gestational week 41(+6) were randomised into two groups....

Kickboxing is a full contact combat sport in which punches, kicks, elbow and knee strikes are allowed. A typical kickboxing tournament has up to eight fights (bouts) on the same day; therefore the ability of an athlete to recover quickly between bouts is very important. Acupuncture might be a safe and substance free way to support kickboxers’ performance, as acupuncture on S34 has been shown to...

The efficacy of acupuncture and moxibustion is closely related to Deqi phenomenons, which are some subjective feelings. However, no one has reported the objective characterization of Deqi. Our preliminary research has found a phenomenon of tail temperature increasing (TTI) obviously in some stroke rats by suspended moxibustion at the acupoint dà zhuī (DU 14), which is similar to one characteriz...

The aim of this study was to investigate the traditional meridian theory using speckle laser blood flow scanning technology to observe microcirculation of the Hegu acupoint area after acupuncture stimulation on distant points. An observational study was conducted to observe the microvascular perfusion of Hegu (LI4) and control points after acupuncturing Quchi (LI11). Thirty healthy volunteers (...

BACKGROUND Tinnitus is a prevalent condition for which patients may seek treatment with acupuncture since no conventional treatment has been shown to be effective. OBJECTIVE To summarize and critically review all randomized controlled trials on the efficacy of acupuncture as a treatment for tinnitus. DATA SOURCES Four independent computerized literature searches (MEDLINE, Cochrane Controlle...

Purpose. To observe the change of transcutaneous CO2 emission on meridian points or nonacupoints when the different needle sensations were gotten and study the associativity between Deqi acupuncture and periphery constitution energy metabolism effect. Method. 20 healthy volunteers were punctured on Neiguan (P6) in different ways including sham, shallow, Deqi acupuncture, and Deqi plus pressed P...

As an integral part of traditional Chinese medicine (TCM), acupuncture is a convenient and effective therapy with fewer adverse effects. Recently, researches on meridian essence have become core issues of modern TCM. Numerous experiments have demonstrated the objective existence of meridians by different technologies since 1950s, such as biophysics, biochemistry, and molecular biology. In this ...

In the 1890s Sir Henry Head discovered certain areas of the skin that develop tenderness (allodynia) in the course of visceral disease. These areas were later termed "Head zones". In addition, he also emphasized the existence of specific points within these zones, that he called "maximum points", a finding that seems to be almost forgotten today. We hypothesized that two important groups of acu...