Acupuncture For Hypertension Research Articles

Application and thinking of acupuncture therapy in comprehensive management of hypertension

The theory of disease prevention with traditional Chinese medicine is introduced into the prevention of chronic diseases such as hypertension. In order to fully implement the advantages of acupuncture, the three-level prevention strategy is strengthened on the whole-process intervention with acupuncture for hypertension, including prevention before disease onset, starting intervention at the early phase, and prevention disease from exacerbating. Moreover, the comprehensive management scheme, multidisciplinary coordination and participation mechanism are investigated in the field of traditional Chinese medicine for preventive treatment of hypertension.

Acupuncture for hypertension with insomnia: Study protocol for a randomized, sham-controlled, subject-and-assessor-blinded trial.

Previous studies show that insomnia and hypertension are closely related. Currently, intervention for hypertension with insomnia has become a research hotspot. Acupuncture, as a representative non-pharmaceutical therapy of traditional Chinese medicine (TCM), has been widely used in improving insomnia and hypertension. However, there are few clinical studies on acupuncture for hypertension with insomnia. A single-center, subject-and-assessor-blind, randomized, sham-controlled trial has been designed for a study to be conducted in Jiangsu Province Hospital of Chinese Medicine. Sixty eligible patients will be randomly assigned to the treatment group and the control group in a 1:1 ratio. The treatment group will receive acupuncture treatment, while the control group will receive sham acupuncture treatment. Both groups will be treated three times per week for 4 weeks. Data will be collected at baseline and after 4 weeks of treatment and analyzed by using SPSS 25.0. The primary outcome measures are sleep parameters of portable polysomnography before and after treatment. Secondary outcomes are Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index, Insomnia Severity Index, home blood pressure, and heart rate variability. This study aims to evaluate the efficacy of acupuncture using the portable polysomnography combined with sleep scales, and analyze heart rate variability to preliminarily explore the underlying mechanism of acupuncture on hypertension with insomnia. The trail, if proven to be effective, will provide strong scientific evidence to support acupuncture is effective to manage patients for hypertension with insomnia. ChiCTR2200059161.

Effect of Acupuncture on Blood Pressure and Metabolic Profile Among Patients With Essential Hypertension: Protocol of a Randomized Clinical Trial.

Essential hypertension is a polygenic cardiovascular disease that is associated with maladaptive metabolic changes. Acupuncture as a non-pharmacologic intervention is used to lower blood pressure and improve metabolic dysfunction. However, such effects have not been clinically characterized. We will conduct a randomized clinical trial to evaluate the antihypertensive effect of acupuncture among patients with essential hypertension and determine the associated metabolic improvements. This study is a phase II, two-arm, randomized, sham-controlled trial (Trial registration: ChiCTR2100043737), in which biospecimens will be collected for metabolic profiling. A total of 64 patients with a clinical diagnosis of essential hypertension will be randomly assigned to either the acupuncture or the sham acupuncture group in a 1:1 ratio. All participants will receive 10 treatments over 4 weeks, with three sessions per week for the first 2 weeks and two sessions per week for the remaining weeks. The primary outcome is the change of the systolic and diastolic blood pressure measured by the 24-h ambulatory blood pressure monitoring from baseline to 4 weeks. Secondary outcomes include the circadian rhythm of blood pressure, sleep quality measured by the Insomnia Severity Index, cognitive function measured by the Montreal Cognitive Assessment, and others. Fasting blood serum and urine samples will be collected at baseline and 4 weeks for targeted and untargeted metabolomics analysis. We will use the mixed-effects model and other related bioinformatics approaches to analyze the clinical and metabolome data. This metabolomic-based trial will provide important clinical data regarding the efficacy of acupuncture for essential hypertension to better inform evidence-based care delivery for hypertension patients. Moreover, the findings will offer important insights into the mechanism of action of acupuncture for hypertension by revealing its effect on metabolism. The results of this study will be used to inform the design of a statistically powered, multicenter, randomized trial. We will publish the study findings in peer-reviewed journals. The ethical approval of this study has been reviewed and approved by the Sichuan Regional Ethics Review Committee on Traditional Chinese Medicine (ID: 2021KL-006). The outcomes of the trial will be disseminated through peer-reviewed publications.

Acupuncture for Hypertension Using Traditional Chinese Medicine Concepts.

Hypertension affects 25% of the adult population worldwide. Biomedical treatment involves various blockers and is associated with side-effects. Acupuncture was one of the earliest methods of treatment for "hard pulse disease" (now called hypertension); it is effective and is associated with no untoward effects. Various studies showing the effectiveness of acupuncture for addressing hypertension are presented, along with an illustrative case. Acupuncture is effective for reducing blood pressure. This modality can be used as a stand-alone therapy or along with antihypertensive medications-in which case the dosages of the medications can be reduced significantly-and this helps to reduce the side-effects of medications.

Acupuncture for Blood Pressure Lowering

Blood pressure–related disease remains a major public health problem in developed and developing countries alike. The Global Burden of Disease study estimates 62% of stroke, 49% of ischemic heart disease, and 14% of other cardiovascular disease can be attributable to mean systolic blood pressure levels >115 mm Hg worldwide.1 The mainstay of medical management of hypertension is a number of commonly used drugs,2 the mechanisms of action of which are well understood and grounded in conventional science. However, despite the strength of evidence supporting the efficacy of these agents and their wide endorsement in national and international guidelines, only about one half of those patients in whom treatment is indicated are compliant with drug therapy. Treatment cost, adverse effects, and complexity are commonly cited barriers to patient adherence,3,4 and such factors undoubtedly play an important role in the growing interest in alternative therapies for blood pressure control. Article p 3121 Acupuncture, one of the oldest and most commonly used forms of alternative medicine, has existed for >2500 years. In traditional acupuncture, fine needles are inserted into precisely defined, specific points on the body, each of which has distinct therapeutic actions.5 For a long time, acupuncture was viewed by practitioners of Western medicine as “the Chinese equivalent of voodoo,”6 but certain events encouraged wider acceptance of this form of treatment beginning in the 1970s. One such event is said to have been President Richard Nixon’s goodwill visit to China in 1972 during which he saw acupuncture in practice. His personal physician subsequently wrote, “I have seen acupuncture work.” This statement not only increased public interest but also encouraged key figures in the medical community to travel to China to develop a …

Hasty Conclusion About Acupuncture for Hypertension?

To the Editor: In his editorial commentary, “Acupuncture for Hypertension,” Kaplan1 unequivocally concludes that, “acupuncture is of no value for the treatment of hypertension.” In their clinical trial, Macklin et al2 randomly assigned hypertensive subjects to 1 of 3 interventions using “individualized,” “standardized,” or “sham” acupuncture. Each intervention group experienced reductions in both systolic (at or more than …

Response to Hasty Conclusion About Acupuncture for Hypertension?

I agree that there may be benefits from acupuncture beyond its lack of effect on blood pressure. The study by Macklin …

Adrenergic Overdrive as the Link Among Hypertension, Obesity, and Impaired Thermogenesis

The sympathetic nervous system plays a pivotal role in both blood pressure and metabolic homeostatic control by regulating cardiac output, peripheral vascular resistance, heat production, and resting metabolic rate, which accounts for a large fraction of adult energy expenditure. Throughout the years, the attractive hypothesis based on this evidence has been advanced that an alteration in blood pressure regulation, as well as in thermogenesis control exerted by the sympathetic nervous system, represents the pathogenetic background for 2 diseases of common detection in current clinical practice, that is, hypertension and obesity, respectively. As far as high blood pressure is concerned, a number of studies based on indirect or direct methodologic approaches to assess neuroadrenergic function have unequivocally demonstrated that a hyperactivity of the sympathetic nervous system contributes at the development, maintenance, and progression of the hypertensive state.1–4 They have also shown that neurogenic mechanisms favor the genesis of hypertension-related end organ damage, that is, left ventricular hypertrophy, arterial and arteriolar hypertrophy, and vascular remodelling.5,6 Even when blood pressure is normal, an adrenergic overdrive has also been reported in the obese state,7,8 and independent but additive increases in sympathetic activity have been described when obesity is coupled with hypertension.9 Traditionally, obesity-related hypertension has been regarded, at least in part, as the result of a hyperactivity of the sympathetic nervous system, related to some extent to the weight-associated increase in sympathetic cardiovascular drive.9,10 …

Acupuncture for Hypertension

As one who tried and failed, I sincerely admire the accomplishments of the Stop Hypertension with the Acupuncture Research Program (SHARP) described in this issue of Hypertension .1 As Macklin et al1 note, this is the largest double-blind, randomized, sham-controlled clinical trial of acupuncture for treating hypertension to date. When the work involved in reaching their definitive conclusion is considered, it seems likely (and hopefully) to be the last such trial of acupuncture for hypertension. Again quoting Macklin et al, “Acupuncture has been used in traditional Chinese medicine to treat symptoms related to hypertension for over 2500 years” and “Today, acupuncture is commonly used to treat hypertension in China and the West.”1 The amount of time, energy, and money expended …