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Acupuncture and Hypertension
This study has been completed.
Sponsored by: | National Center for Complementary and Alternative Medicine (NCCAM) |
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Information provided by: | National Center for Complementary and Alternative Medicine (NCCAM) |
Purpose
Although traditional Chinese medicine advocates the use of acupuncture not only to induce analgesia but also to treat essential hypertension, acupuncture's postulated antihypertensive efficacy in humans has not been subjected to rigorous Western scientific testing. Before advocating acupuncture as an effective complementary/alternative medicine strategy for essential hypertension, it is necessary to demonstrate that the beneficial effects of acupuncture are scientifically robust, long-lasting, and explicable in terms of modern scientific mechanisms. In spontaneously hypertensive rats, acupuncture-like electrical stimulation of thinly myelinated (Group III) somatic afferents activates central endorphin (naloxone-sensitive) pathways that elicit long-lasting decreases in sympathetic nerve activity (SNA) and blood pressure. The ability to record SNA with microelectrodes in conscious humans provides a new opportunity to test this novel mechanistic hypothesis in patients undergoing electroacupuncture, a modification of the ancient technique that provides a quantifiable and reproducible stimulus to human skeletal muscle afferents. Using a randomized, double-blind placebo-controlled design, we will test the following major hypotheses: Electroacupuncture produces a long-lasting reduction in SNA, thereby providing a safe and effective complementary treatment of human hypertension. Given the enormous interest in acupuncture by our lay public, but the paucity of Western scientific data about its efficacy in cardiovascular disorders, our studies in normotensive and hypertensive humans should provide a conceptual framework for deciding whether to accept or reject the large body of Chinese (and Russian) literature advocating acupuncture as a safe and effective treatment of essential hypertension and other cardiovascular disorders (such as heart failure, and myocardial ischemia).
Condition | Treatment or Intervention |
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Hypertension |
Procedure: Acupuncture |
MedlinePlus related topics: High Blood Pressure
Study Type: Interventional
Study Design: Treatment, Randomized, Double-Blind, Placebo Control
Eligibility
Ages Eligible for Study: 18 Years - 65 Years, Genders Eligible for Study: Both
Accepts Healthy Volunteers
Criteria
Inclusion Criteria:
Location Information
More Information
U.S. National Library of Medicine, Contact NLM Customer Service | ||||||||||||||
National Institutes of Health, Department of Health & Human Services | ||||||||||||||
Copyright, Privacy, Accessibility, Freedom of Information Act |