Acupuncture Efficacy Study Using Electromyographic Signals

Abstract

Acupuncture is a centuries-old therapeutic technique. However, because of the large number of complicating circumstances, it has been difficult to clearly prove the treatment's therapeutic effectiveness.As a result, acupuncture has failed to acquire acceptance in the mainstream clinical sector. An electromyography (EMG) sensor was built and used to test the efficacy of acupuncture in alleviating muscular stiffness in this study. Electrodes, differential and inverting amplifiers, filters, and a full-wave rectifier made up the EMG circuit. The output of the circuit was sent to a microcontroller for analog-to-digital transformation in order to perform data acquisition. Acupuncture was used to treat four participants who had muscular dysfunction in various regions of their bodies in our case study. Before and after the therapy, EMG signals at the damaged regions were recorded. The findings revealed that the therapy had no immediate conceivable impact on the patients, since the levels of muscular contraction before and after the treatment were comparable. When the EMG signals were measured 30 minutes after the therapy, signs of muscular alleviation were found. This shows that acupuncture does supply patients with beneficial medicine, although slowly. The act of placing the highly conducting needles into the acupuncture sites, we believe, is similar to connecting a parallel wire to a circuit, resulting in a short-circuited route at the meridian. It permits the meridian's polarized in- ner energy, or qi, to pass through. The equilibrium in qi regulation can therefore be restored by unclogging the ow of qi.The repair process is relatively slow, and the treatment impact may not be immediately apparent, because the consti- tutive qualities at the acupuncture points where the needles are pricked may not alter quickly.