Abstract
Neurological disease, including Alzheimer’s disease (AD), Parkinson’s disease (PD), which were caused by abnormalities in the nervous system involves the accumulation of false proteins, neurotransmitter abnormalities, neuronal apoptosis, etc. As an alternative supplementary medicine (ASM), acupuncture plays an important role in the treatment of neurological diseases. In this review article, we summarized the current evidence for the treatment efficacy of acupuncture in AD and PD from the perspective of clinical trials and animal model. Acupuncture can inhibit the accumulation of toxic proteins in neurological diseases, modulate energy supply based on glucose metabolism, depress neuronal apoptosis, etc., and exert a wide range of neuroprotective effects.
Highlights
Neurological diseases are disorders of the nervous system
In a meta-analysis of 10 randomized controlled trials (RCTs) of acupuncture treatment of Alzheimer’s disease (AD) involving 585 subjects, six trials showed that acupuncture has a better effect than drugs at improving Mini Mental State Examination (MMSE) scale scores of AD patients, and mean differences (MD) is 1.05 with 95% confidence intervals (CIs) 0.16–1.93; evidence from the pooled results of three trials showed that acupuncture combined with donepezil is more effective than donepezil alone in improving MMSE scale scores in AD patients (MD 2.37, 95% CI 1.53–3.21; Zhou et al, 2015)
As for the safety of acupuncture in the treatment of AD, the analysis indicated that there were only two acupuncture-related adverse reactions in 141 clinical trials; only 7 of the 3,416 subjects had acupuncture-related adverse reactions, so the study concluded that these reactions are within the allowable range and are not severe (Zhou et al, 2015)
Summary
Neurological disease, including Alzheimer’s disease (AD), Parkinson’s disease (PD), which were caused by abnormalities in the nervous system involves the accumulation of false proteins, neurotransmitter abnormalities, neuronal apoptosis, etc. As an alternative supplementary medicine (ASM), acupuncture plays an important role in the treatment of neurological diseases. We summarized the current evidence for the treatment efficacy of acupuncture in AD and PD from the perspective of clinical trials and animal model. Acupuncture can inhibit the accumulation of toxic proteins in neurological diseases, modulate energy supply based on glucose metabolism, depress neuronal apoptosis, etc., and exert a wide range of neuroprotective effects. Reviewed by: Jinhai Huo, University of Florida, United States Wensheng Zhang, Beijing Normal University, China Chunhe Wang, Shanghai Institute of Materia Medica, Chinese Academy of Sciences, China
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