Enhanced Blood Pressure Lowering Responsiveness with Endocrine‐Sympathoinhibitory Electroacupuncture in Middle‐Aged Hypertensive Women

Abstract

Our recently published study shows that 8‐week electroacupuncture (EA) at P5–6 and ST36–37 reduces blood pressure (70% responsiveness, blood pressure decrease of ≥ −6 mmHg) and sympathetic activity in a group of male and female (38–75 year) patients with mild to moderate hypertension (HTN). They were off of antihypertensive medications. Blood pressure reduction with 30‐min EA once a week treatment was observed by week 4. After 8 weeks of EA sessions, the blood pressure reduction lasted for at least a month. Here we define treatment at P5–6+ST36–37 as the sympathoinhibitory EA. Interestingly, the majority (64%) of middle‐aged women with HTN were not responsive to this treatment that reduces sympathetic activity. To this end, we formulated a targeted treatment towards middle‐aged perimenopausal hypertensive women. We hypothesized that endocrine‐sympathoinhibitory EA treatment decreases blood pressure in majority of middle‐aged perimenopausal females with mild to moderate HTN. Eleven enrolled women ages 49 to 66 year with hypertension were randomly assigned to sympathoinhibitory EA treatment (P5–6+ST36–37, n=6) or endocrine‐sympathoinhibitory EA treatment (P6+LI4+ST36+Sp6+CV3–4+LR3+KI3, n=5). Participants were not on antihypertensive medications and hormonal therapy. The enrolled patients have completed the 8‐week course of treatment. The blood pressure lowering responsiveness (≥ −6 mmHg) to endocrine‐sympathoinhibitory EA was 80% while only 33% of the subjects treated with sympathoinhibitory EA lowered their blood pressures. Peak systolic blood pressure (SBP) during 24 hours dropped from 177±7.4 to 160±5.0 mmHg (P=0.033) while averaged 24‐hour SBP dropped from 144±3.3 to 134±2.5 mmHg (P=0.036) in 5 subjects treated with endocrine‐sympathoinhibitory EA. The peak mean blood pressure (MBP) tended to decrease with P value of 0.065 in 5 subjects. On the other hand, 8‐week course of sympathoinhibitory EA treatment did not decrease SBP, MBP, peak SBP and peak MAP in 6 subjects. Thus, endocrine‐sympathoinhibitory EA in middle‐aged hypertensive women may enhance blood pressure lowering responsiveness compared with sympathoinhibitory EA treatment.Support or Funding InformationAdolf Coors FoundationThis abstract is from the Experimental Biology 2018 Meeting. There is no full text article associated with this abstract published in The FASEB Journal.