The findings of this study are at odds with studies that show acupuncture at PC6 causes parasympathetic enhancement, not sympathetic enhancement. So not exactly sure what to make of this one. Only the abstract is available unfortunately, since I would be interested to see exactly how they measured the HRV. Also, using healthy volunteers may [...]
06/11/2013
Acupuncture and Isometric Exercises for Knee Osteoarthritis
Knee osteoarthritis has been one true success story for acupuncture research. In this study, they compare acupuncture and isometric exercise for knee osteoarthritis. Unfortunately, they don’t describe the isometric exercises well. At. all. Int J Prev Med. 2013 Apr;4(Suppl 1):S73-7. Comparison of the effects of acupuncture and isometric exercises on symptom of knee osteoarthritis.Saleki M, [...]
05/31/2013
Acupuncture for Allergies San Francisco Chronicle
We’ve discussed this in the blog before , but always good to see these studies covered in the lay press. From the Annals of Internal Medicine, Acupuncture helps allergy symptoms. Click on photo for the article.
05/18/2013
Comprehensive Article on the Physiology of PC6
I’m posting this article because it is a treasure trove of the most recent physiology behind the Acupuncture Point PC6, used classically for heart conditions, but famous in latter day culture for its effects on nausea (magnet sea bands), but also thought to increase vagal nerve activity. Increasing vagal nerve activity is the heart (pardon [...]
05/05/2013
Acupuncture for Experimentally Induced Epilepsy
A study done in China (free paper) showing that, in rats, certain acupoints are effective in mitigating experimentally induced seizures, others less. They also find that 100Hz is better at controlling seizures, than 10 hz at all points. An odd side note is that I had just finished reading a paper on Vagal Stimulation ( [...]
05/03/2013
My Poster for SAR 2013
Just to be complete. Here is my final poster for the conference I attended in Ann Arbor for the Society for Acupuncture Research entitled Can Heart Rate Variability Analysis Predict Effective Acupuncture Treatment?A Comparison of Profound Responders and Nonresponders I made it much more simple than the poster I did for ISAMS in fall 2011 [...]
05/02/2013
HRV and Its Acupuncture Potential
I met Belinda Anderson at the SAR conference in Ann Arbor. We both are interested in HRV as a potential biomarker for Acupuncture’s effectiveness and she authored this incredible paper. I only had access to its abstract before, but here is a link to the article: HRVarticle[1] Belinda Anderson It is comprehensive, thoughtful and looks [...]
04/28/2013
Acupuncture and HRV in Beagles
They really were careful to only use 3 dogs. This is a collaborative study between China and Austria as is typical of the Litscher group. This is a good example of why this works so well. In China they are able to get around animal issues easier… Free article here. Their results are pretty interesting [...]
