Case reports: Electroacupuncture decreases the climacteric symptoms by calcitonin gene-related peptide modulation.

OBJECTIVE: The purpose of the current study was to evaluate the modulation of Calcitonin gene-related peptide (CGRP) associated to the efficacy of Electroacupuncture (EA) in the reduction of climacteric symptoms. METHODS: Nine women between 51 and 59 years old with climacteric syndrome in menopause or perimenopause were included. Patients with hormone replacement therapy, psychiatric treatment with antidepressants, or acupuncture treatment in the last 3 months were excluded. A 4 Hz EA treatment was performed at acupoints Shenshu (BL-23), Pishu (BL-20), Guanyuan (REN-4), Taixi (KID-3), Fuliu (KID-7), Sanyinjiao (SP-6) and Neiguan (P-6) points. Women were treated two times a week for five consecutive weeks for a total treatment of 10 sessions. The menopause rating scale (MRS) was used to evaluate symptoms reduction and CGRP gene expression was measured before and after 10 EA session. RESULTS: The results shown that climacteric symptoms diminish significantly after EA therapy. CGRP gene expression was down-regulated, evidencing a decrease of 5-fold after EA therapy respect to the initial condition. CONCLUSION: EA treatment was associated with improvement in patients with climacteric syndrome and may be related to modulation of CGRP levels.

Acupoint catgut embedding therapy with moxibustion reduces the risk of diabetes in obese women.

BACKGROUND: Obesity is a major health problem worldwide for which conventional therapy efficacy is limited. Traditional Chinese medicine, particularly body acupoint stimulation, provides an alternative, effective, and safe therapy for this medical challenge. The present study was designed to compare the effects of distinct methods to stimulate the same set of acupoints, on anthropometric and biochemical parameters in obese women. MATERIALS AND METHODS: Ninety-nine obese women were randomly assigned to six groups of treatment: Acupuncture with moxibustion, long needle acupuncture with moxibustion, electroacupuncture (EA), EA with moxibustion, embedded catgut with moxibustion (CGM) and sham acupuncture as control. Obesity-related parameters, including body weight, body mass index (BMI), waist and hip circumferences, waist/hip ratio, biochemical parameters (triglycerides, cholesterol, glucose, insulin) and homeostasis model of assessment - insulin resistance (HOMA-IR) index, were determined before and after each treatment. RESULTS: Body weight and BMI were significantly reduced in response to all treatments. Interestingly, acupoint catgut embedding therapy combined with moxibustion was the only treatment that produced a significant reduction in body weight (3.1 ± 0.2 kg, P < 0.001), BMI (1.3 ± 0.1 kg/m(2), P < 0.001), insulin (3.5 ± 0.8 mcU/ml, P < 0.1) and HOMA-IR (1.4 ± 0.2 units, P < 0.01) in comparison with sham group. Furthermore, this treatment was able to bring back obese women to a state of insulin sensitivity, indicating that acupoint catgut embedding therapy combined with moxibustion could be useful as a complementary therapy to reduce the risk of diabetes associated to obesity in women. CONCLUSION: Overall, our results confirmed the effectiveness of acupoints stimulation to assist in the control of body weight in women. They also highlighted the more favorable effects of embedded catgut-moxibustion combination that may be due to the extended and consistent stimulation of acupoints.

Antihyperglycaemic effect of laser acupuncture treatment at BL20 in diabetic rats.

OBJECTIVE: To investigate the antihyperglycaemic activity of laser acupuncture stimulation at 650 and 980 nm at BL20 in streptozotocin (STZ)-induced diabetic rats. METHODS: Seventy healthy adult male albino Wistar rats weighing 250±50 g were divided into seven groups of 10 animals each. Groups I-III comprised healthy control rats which were untreated (I) or stimulated with laser acupuncture at 650 nm (II) and 980 nm (III), respectively. Groups IV-VII underwent induction of diabetes with a single intraperitoneal administration of STZ at 50 mg/kg. Animals with blood glucose levels of ≥200 mg/dL on the fifth day were used for the experiments and were left untreated (group IV), treated with glibenclamide (group V) or stimulated with laser acupuncture at 650 nm (group VI) and 980 nm (group VII), respectively. Laser acupuncture was applied at BL20 on alternate days for a total of 12 sessions over a 28-day period. RESULTS: After 28 days of treatment, STZ-induced diabetic rats stimulated with laser acupuncture at 650 and 980 nm had significantly lower glucose levels compared with untreated diabetic rats (242.0±65.0 and 129.8±33.2 vs 376.5±10.0 mg/dL, both p≤0.05). Treatment at 980 nm also attenuated the increase in glucose between day 1 and day 28 compared with the glibenclamide-treated diabetic group (41.5±19.6 mg/dL vs 164.1±13.7 g/dL, p<0.05). Laser acupuncture treatment did not affect the blood count or biochemical profile and was not associated with any morphological changes in the pancreas, liver, kidney or spleen. CONCLUSIONS: Stimulation with laser acupuncture at 650 and 980 nm at BL20 in STZ-induced diabetic rats has antihyperglycaemic activity. The results support further evaluation of laser acupuncture as an alternative or complementary treatment for the control of hyperglycaemia.