Regular electro-acupuncture may be useful therapy in reducing risk for cardiovascular diseases

The Complementary and Alternative Medicine (CAM) therapy Acupuncture has been around for almost 3,000 years. Electro-acupuncture is a ‘modern-type’ of acupuncture, which applies low-intensity electrical pulses through needles inserted at specific points on the body.

A single-blind trial, recently published in the Journal of Medical Acupuncture demonstrated that patients with hypertension that use electro-acupuncture have a reduced blood pressure for up to 6 weeks. Furthermore,, this complementary medicine research study suggested that regular electro-acupuncture can cause a decline in the risk for cardiovascular diseases in the long term.

Statistics provided from the Centres for Disease Control stated 29% of American adults suffer with high blood pressure, costing the US approximately $46 billion a year. Moreover, from the 29%, only half have their high blood pressure under control.

Results from this single blind trial revealed 70% of the patients in the treatment group experienced a decline in blood pressure. More specifically, there wasa significant decline in systolic and diastolic pressure were 6-8mm/Hg and 4mm/Hg respectively. In addition to the decline in pressure, researchers stated that following the 6-week treatment period, the improvements remained.

Other results from the treatment group showed an average 41% drop in norepinephrine, a 67% drop in renin and a 22% drop in aldosterone.

Therefore, it follows that electro -acupuncture can be a valuable Integrative medicine resource tool in the treatment of hypertension.