Acupuncture Research Today is a free monthly online journal that collates and summarizes the latest research about Acupuncture, including details on alternative medicine, uses, benefits, treatment, chinese medicine.

Neural substrates, experimental evidences and functional hypothesis of acupuncture mechanisms.

Cho ZH, Hwang SC, Wong EK, Son YD, Kang CK, Park TS, Bai SJ, Kim YB, Lee YB, Sung KK, Lee BH, Shepp LA, Min KT

Department of Radiological Sciences, University of California, Irvine, CA 92697, USA. zcho@uci.edu

OBJECTIVES: Although acupuncture therapy has demonstrated itself to be effective in several clinical areas, the underlying mechanisms of acupuncture in general and the analgesic effect in particular are, however, still not clearly delineated. We, therefore, have studied acupuncture analgesic effect through fMRI and proposed a hypothesis, based on the obtained result, which will enlighten the central role of the brain in acupuncture therapy. METHODS: The proposed model, termed as a broad sense hypothalamus-pituitary-adrenal (BS-HPA) axis, was based on our observed neuroimaging results. The model incorporates the stress-induced HPA axis model together with neuro-immune interaction including the cholinergic anti-inflammatory model. RESULTS: The obtained results coupled with accumulating evidence suggest that the central nervous system is essential for the processing of these effects via its modulation of the autonomic nervous system, neuroimmune system and hormonal regulation. CONCLUSIONS: Based on our fMRI study, it appears that understanding the effects of acupuncture within a neuroscience-based framework is vital. Further, we have proposed the broad sense-HPA axis hypothesis which incorporates the experimental results.

Published 5 May 2006 in Acta Neurol Scand, 113(6): 370-7.
Full-text of this article is available online (may require subscription).

© 2004-2008 Acupuncture Research Today. All Rights Reserved.