A study headed by researchers at Rutgers University reveals pathways to stopping inflammation in conditions such as arthritis and sepsis.
There were legions of doubters when acupuncture first became popular in the United States. It still has, albeit not as much as before as it has, over time, proven to work with extreme efficacy from numerous studies that prove it to stop or minimize inflammation. Scientists have yielded factual evidence that this thousands of years old Chinese practice really works.
New studies have now verified that a direct relation between physical processes that could relieve sepsis and the use of acupuncture exists. Sepsis is a condition that usually occurs in intensive care units in hospitals due to inflammation and infection and affects around a quarter of a million Americans every year.
Rutgers New Jersey Medical School immunologist Luis Ulloa, who headed a study that has been featured in the Nature Medicine journal states that sepsis is one of the leading causes of death in hospitals, Ulloa, however, said that “the the infection per se is not why most sepsis patients die. They die because of the inflammatory disorder that develops after the infection and so this is why the focus is in controlling the inflammatory condition.”
The research team were already aware that when the vagus, which is one of the body’s major nerves, is stimulated, it sets off body processes that lessen inflammation. So they tested whether a certain kind of acupuncture that conveys a mild electric current through the vagus and other nerves could lead to the lessening of organ injury and inflammation among septic mice.
Ulloa states that raising the current will have an effect on where the needles are placed and explains that electrification is already approved by the FDA in the treatment of pain among humans.
When the mice with sepsis were treated with electroacupuncture, cytokines, which are molecules that help reduce inflammation were stimulated, as predicted, 50% of the mice lived for at least a week. To the mice not given acupuncture, the survival rate was zero.
To figure out exactly why acupuncture treatments worked, Ulloa and his team made a discovery that made them disappointed. They discovered that when the adrenal glands were removed, (these are the glands that produce hormones in the body), the electroacupuncture treatment did not work. This revelation presented a huge obstacle to the application of acupuncture in humans with sepsis, since in most human cases of sepsis there is a sharp reduction in the function of the adrenal gland. It is believed that electroacupuncture can still help some patients whose adrenal glands work well, but not many others.
So the team decided to perform much deeper research aimed at discovering the specific physiological modification that arises when electroacupuncture is used with well functioning adrenal glands. These modifications involved increasing the amounts of dopamine, a very important hormone within the immune system.
However, even when they added dopamine, the inflammation did not abate. So they replaced a drug known as fenoldopam that imitates some of the most positive effects of dopamine, and they were able to lessen sepsis-related deaths by 40% even without acupuncture.
These results were seen as a double victory by Ulloa.
This study demonstrates the value of acupuncture beyond any that has been shown before. The results reveal potential benefits, Ulloa states, for treating other inflammatory diseases such as Crohn’s disease, osteoarthritis, and rheumatoid arthritis, not just for sepsis.
Ulloa, concludes that even though he doesn’t know whether the best solution for sepsis will be some medicine that will mimic electroacupuncture or electroacupuncture itself, the important thing is that this study has opened the door to both.
Jamie Catlett is a licensed and board certified acupuncturist in Jacksonville, FL and the founder of Jacksonville Acupuncture Clinic.
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