I was chatting with one of the Physical Therapists I volunteer
with the other day about acupuncture and Chinese medicine, and since we
discussed about acupuncture a little in class, I thought I would find out more
info about one of the studies he brought up to me.
As we all know, this stuff has been around for thousands of
years.. but how exactly does it work? One theory says that the acupoints of
stimulation are points of designated sensitivity. Putting needles at these
points stimulates sensory receptors, increases blood circulation to that point,
receptors stimulate nerve impulses to hypothalamic-pituitary system, and
subsequently releasing neurotransmitters and endorphins. Acupunture has been
used for various treatments such as relieving headaches, muscle spasms, pain,
inflammation, and drug addiction. But one study that caught my eye was the use
of acupuncture for anesthesia during open heart surgery in China.
Using acupuncture for open heart surgery was introduced
decades ago in China, but interest in this method has resurfaced due to the
increasing cost and maintenance of surgery. This study (Acupuncture anesthesia
for open heart surgery in contemporary China –Jia Zhou, et al) , designed from
various scientists from China and the US, was conducted from July 2006 to
October 2010. 100 patients had open heart surgery while under combined acupuncture-medicine
anesthesia (CAMA), while the second group was under conventional general
anesthesia (GA). Results of the surgeries showed that although CAMA group had a
longer operation time, they had a lesser usage of narcotic drugs, a
significantly lesser incidence of postoperative pulmonary infection, were able
to eat and move about sooner than the GA group, and had shorter intensive care
and hospital stay. Overall, the CAMA group had a lower surgical total cost than
the GA one.
So what does that mean for the future of medicine? Do we
look more into Eastern medical treatments or do we continue with our research
in pharmaceuticals and synthetic mechanisms? I know that it is difficult to study
and determine whether acupuncture was really the reasoning for a patient’s
improvement, or whether it was just a placebo effect, but either way I feel
that as this trade has been around so long, that there must be some kind of
benefit from it. I personally find some Eastern medicine fascinating and think
it would be worth it to invest more time in looking into this methodology, rather
than always relying on pharmaceuticals and resulting in potential side effects.
Listening to what people said last week and how most people in our discussion last monday said that they had no improvement because of acupuncture, it made me believe them. After reading this and another article, it claims that acupuncture works as reducing overall cost and pain to recovering from heart surgery. However, i have noticed that this study comes from China, I was thinking maybe people want it to work and mentally are believing it works. Just as last week we mentioned that the mind as well is a powerful healing tool, i believe that due to the culture in China, and that acupuncture was developed in the east, people want to believe it more and want to see results than people here in the US who are skeptics. It also may be a genetic factor? although i can't ever see finding any evidence that would support that idea.
ReplyDeleteI've always been curious about acupuncture. It been used for thousands of years, so I've always wondered if there's anything to it. I've never had acupuncture. My mother suffers for frequent migraines, so a neurologist recommended acupuncture. After the treatments, she claimed the migraines had not been alleviated, but she did feel more relaxed. Perhaps acupuncture is an alternative stress reliever? That's assuming you don't mind needles of course.
ReplyDeleteRegardless of whether or not the acupuncture works due to a placebo effect of not, I'd say being able to help a patient with open heart surgery is a pretty significant. I mean, having your chest cracked open isn't something that can be taken lightly and if I was going to have open heart surgery, there would be no way that I would even consider dealing with it partially with acupuncture if I didn't 100% believe that it would work. For some reason I'm not able to download the full text of this article, but I'm curious to know what the differences between drug amounts actually was and whether or not we'd be able to duplicate the results with some other treatment that may distract patients from wanting to take more meds.
ReplyDeleteWow is very interesting I never thought of the different ways that acupuncture could be used in surgery. I think this would be benificial if there could be more research done. I feel that anytime the use of more detrimental medications can be avoided the better.
ReplyDeleteI love that this is an actual human study instead of using rodents. If the study is correct it would definitely be a win/win. not many treatments can say they help the patient AND cut down costs. Did the article say the location of the needles? I'm guessing NOT in the heart haha... Buuut I could be wrong.
ReplyDeleteI hope this link works.. I was able to access the whole article on Ebsco and theres an image that you can see kind of where they place them!
ReplyDeletehttp://ac.els-cdn.com.ezproxy1.library.arizona.edu/S0167527311003494/1-s2.0-S0167527311003494-main.pdf?_tid=ec88daa7e21b1f371dd848e0450f2c7e&acdnat=1336147167_8162eb0ee521fd6530f672e1331c42a4
I think this is a very interesting study! Acupuncture is something I find to be very interesting and I want to go in to natural medicine and this is a big of it! I would thing it would be helpful in reaching during people during surgery and I think more research should be done
ReplyDelete