Acupuncture points for treating Parkinson's disease based on animal studies / 中国结合医学杂志

Parkinson's disease (PD) is a well-known neurodegenerative disease caused by dopaminergic cell death in the nigrostriatal pathway. Recent studies have shown that acupuncture can be a potential therapy for the treatment of PD, but it is not clear which acupuncture points (acupoints) play major roles in reliving symptoms of PD. Yanglingquan (GB 34), Zusanli (ST 36), Fengfu (GV 16), Taichong (LR 3), Baihui (GV 20) and Dazhui (GV 14) acupoints have frequently been to investigate the effectiveness and action mechanism of acupuncture for treating PD, but it is not clear why they were selected. This review summarizes the current understanding of the acupoints for PD treatment based on Oriental medicine theories and on the accumulated findings from previous animal studies. The results of this study will be useful to development of a strategy for future research in this field.

Nutrients and Salt Consumption of Hypertension Patients According to Treatment Status

High blood pressure is an important determinant of the incidence of coronary heart disease, stroke, congestive heart failure, renal failure, and peripheral vascular disease. Recommendations for control of high blood pressure emphasize lifestyle modification, including weight control, reduced sodium intake, increased physical activity. Subjects who were normotensive (n = 19, 47.2 +/- 9.0 y, BP 116/81 mmHg), treatment hypertensive (n = 33, 54.2 +/- 6.9 y, BP 132/85 mmHg) and non-treatment hypertensive (n = 14, 50.1 +/- 11.0 y, 149/94 mmHg) recruited. Anthropometric assessment (height, weight, waist circumference, hip circumference, fat %, fat mass, and lean body mass) and dietary assessments (using 3-days food records, daily nutrient intakes were analysed by CAN PRO 2.0 were carried out. Blood and 24-hour urine were collected). Test of recognition for salt taste threshold were performed. In non-treatment hypertensive male subjects, weight, %IBW, BMI, and waist circumference were significantly higher than those of normotensive and treatment hypertensive subjects (p < 0.05). Food habits were not significantly different among the three groups. Intakes of vitamin A, vitamin B1, and vitamin B2 were significantly higher in normotensive group (p < 0.05). Intakes of sodium and salt taste recognition threshold were the highest in normotensive group and the lowest in treatment hypertensive group (p < 0.05). Blood levels of lipids and minerals were not significantly different among the three groups. Urinary calcium level of normotensive group were significantly higher than that of treatment hypertensive and non-treatment hypertensive groups (p < 0.05). These results indicate that continuous management of hypertension by drug and non-drug treatment affects salt taste recognition threshold and reduced the consumption of sodium. However, dietary sodium intake exceed recommended sodium intake to prevent and treat hypertension. It is necessary to develop the lifestyle modification program that may have beneficial effects on hypertension treatment.

Review of Pragmatic Clinical Trials on Acupuncture / 全日本鍼灸学会雑誌

[Background] Over the last thirty years, majority of researches on clinical effectiveness of acupuncture have been explanatory (or experimental) randomized controlled trial. The benefits of acupuncture in clinical trials are stillcontroversial and most studies concluded that further control studies were required. Standardized combinations of acupuncture points for all the experimental subjects in various past studies have been criticized because such treatments do not reflect current routine clinical treatment.<BR>[Objective] This paper aims to review pragmatic clinical trials on the effect of acupuncture treatment and to develop the ideal clinical research methodology of acupuncture study.<BR>[Method] Clinical studies of acupuncture relevant with pragmatic or individualized trials were searched mainly in Pubmed and Science direct databases. All articles were fully reviewed by researchers, and data were evaluated by usage of a standardized form.<BR>[Results & Suggestion] Pragmatic acupuncture researches were tried for various symptoms (eg. low back pain, hypertension, depression during pregnancy, sleep quality in HIV disease, chronic poststroke leg spasticity, headache, etc). Individualized acupuncture treatments based on oriental disease pattern diagnosis reflexes practical treatments which is more effective than unified and fixed acupuncture treatments without any theoretical basis of oriental medical philosophy.<BR>[Conclusion] To overcome the controversies and limitations of past explanatory acupuncture trials, more individualized and tailored acupuncture trials with the theoretical basis of oriental medical diagnosis is highly recommended. Also clear definition and categorization of pattern identification should be established for further active clinical researches and applications of acupuncture.