ABSTRACT
The NIH-funded "Stimulating Peripheral Activity to Relieve Conditions (SPARC)" program has been initiated in Octomber 2016, aiming at developing high resolution neural circuit maps and next generation neural modulation devices. This program has brought great stimulus to acupuncturists and acupuncture researchers both at home and abroad. Is the SPARC program a driving force or a challenge of acupuncture research? In the present study, we introduced the SPARC program and compared it with current acupuncture research. The first step of SPARC is to better map neural circuits associated with disease on the anatomical level so as to identify the best points for intervention, and to decode the neural language at these intervention points for developing a dictionary of patterns associated with health and disease states on the signaling level. Similarly, our acupuncture research also focuses on revealing the neural encoding of acupuncture stimulation and its effect on visceral function, seeking suitable stimulation parameters to regulate the abnormal visceral activity precisely. Therefore, the common point of SPARC program and acupuncture research is the scientific basis of peripheral somatic neuronal regulation, and their difference is that acupuncture regulates the visceral function through multiple neural circuits and neural feedbacks by stimulating the sensitized points or acupoints, achieving homeostasis at last. Acupuncture-induced regulation effect is limited and the therapy is safe. Whereas, "stimulating periphe-ral activity (SPA)" can regulate the visceral organs precisely but without neural feedback. Inevitably, SPA will produce tolerance or side effects. Therefore, there is still much work to be done in terms of the initiation of trigger stimulation and the feedback inhibition of target organ effects. The SPARC program is definitely a powerful force in revealing the mechanisms by which acupuncture works.
ABSTRACT
To further investigate the application of positron emission tomography (PET) technology in acupuncture research field, with "PET" and "acupuncture" as keywords, the related literature published from 1997 to 2018 was searched in PubMed, CNKI and WANFANG database; then the literature was classified and analyzed. The results showed that in clinical and experimental studies, whether in physiological or pathological conditions, PET technology has verified the specificity of acupoints, bidirectional regulation of acupoints, and the clinical effect of -arrival from the level of brain functional activity. It has deeply revealed the central mechanism underlying that acupuncture has multi-target, multi-channel and multi-level overall effects. The purpose of this study is to provide objective scientific basis for acupuncture research, and then potentially guide the clinical practice.
Subject(s)
Acupuncture Points , Acupuncture Therapy , Positron-Emission TomographyABSTRACT
In order to reflect the research achievements of acupuncture on international academic community and study the acupuncture international discourse power from 2007 through 2017, we used text analysis software to analyze 5668 papers that focusing on acupuncture research in the recent 10 years. The results show that international acupuncture research trend has been formed, the research force diverges to the rest of the world with "China-America" as the center, and the study focuses on its sight and the interaction between China and foreign countries is good. Under the perspective of international discourse power, the construction of the national communication platform, the cultivation of academic centers and research fields, and the interaction with international research forces will enhance the quality of Chinese acupuncture research, and these will become an important task in enhancing the international discourse power of Chinese acupuncture.
Subject(s)
Humans , Acupuncture , Acupuncture Therapy , China , Internationality , ResearchABSTRACT
The funding of Natural Science Foundation of China (NSFC) for acupuncture projects from 2005 to 2015 was summarized and analyzed. The results indicated during past 11 years, 711 projects regarding acupuncture were funded by NSFC, with a total of 281 million RMB, accounting for 12.39% in TCM projects. It was concluded the funding for acupuncture projects was increased year by year, but was still relatively weak; in addition, the funding was unbalanced in different areas and organizations, mainly in Beijing, Shanghai, Sichuan, Guangdong, Tianjin, and the continuity and variability both existed in research content and direction.
ABSTRACT
The 2010 International Conference of the Society for Acupuncture Research was held at the Sheraton Hotel in Chapel Hill NC, on March 19-21, 2010. Workshops were also held on the 18th.<BR>This conference was co-hosted by University of North Carolina Chapel Hill, School of Medicine, Department of Physical Medicine &Rehabilitation. The theme was Translational Research (TR) in Acupuncture:Bridging Science, Practice &Community. A total of 238 registrations were made before the conference from 19 countries and regions, 141 from the US, 36 from South Korea, 16 from China, 9from Japan, 8from the UK etc.<BR>Practicing TR was encouraged with recognition that the findings in the basic scientific research were not applied to clinical trials, or findings in clinical trials to clinical practice as well.
ABSTRACT
On 9-11 November 2007 Annual Conference of the Society for Acupuncture Research (SAR) was held at Baltimore in Maryland in the US. In addition, Pre-Conference workshops were prepared on the 8th November 2007.<BR>The conference was organized by SAR, Center for Integrative Medicine (CIM), the University of Maryland at Baltimore, with the theme "The Status and Future of Acupuncture Research: 10 Years Post-NIH Consensus Conference"<BR>The number of people who paid to attend the conference was 324. They were from 22 countries and regions as below;USA (179 paid), China (49), Korea (25), Japan (16), England (13), etc.<BR>The conference unveiled the process of expanding NIH funds on the variable objects of acupuncture research, the current status of researches and issues to solve to develop the evidence, and made suggestions for future directions.