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Acupuncture Shows Promise In Improving Rates Of Pregnancy Following IVF
Acupuncture shown to work on brain in pain relief - says BBC2 program
Pregnancy and Acupuncture - A Good Thing
Acupuncture Treatments Result in Higher Pregnancy Rates for Embryo Transfer
Acupuncture 'Boosts IVF Success'
What Caused Gwyneth's Spots? An Article About Cupping
Can Acupuncture Help you Conceive?
Acupuncture used as Infertility Therapy
Study: Acupuncture Better than Massage for Chronic Neck Pain
Acupuncture shown to work on brain in pain relief says BBC2 program. 24.01.2006
BBC2's program "Alternative Health" showed researchers
carrying out brain scans on people having acupuncture.
The BBC Two show also featured heart surgery done using acupuncture
instead of a general anesthetic.
The patient is conscious during the operation in China, but she was
given sedatives and a local anesthetic.
In Alternative Medicine: The Evidence, volunteers were subjected to deep
needling, which involves needles being inserted 1cm into the back of the
hand at well-known acupuncture points.
A control group underwent superficial needling with needles placed only
1mm in.
The needles are then twiddled until the participants feel a dull, achy
or tingling sensation. For those in the deep needling group this
stimulates the nervous system.
During these two procedures, the volunteers underwent brain scans to see
what, if any, effect there was in the brain.
The team, including leading scientists from University College London,
Southampton University and the University of York, found the superficial
needling resulted in activation of the motor areas of the cortex, a
normal reaction to pain.
But with deep needling, the limbic system, part of the pain matrix, is
deactivated.
The finding was surprising because experts had always assumed
acupuncture activates the brain in someway.
Professor Kathy Sykes said: "The pain matrix is involved in the
perception of pain - it helps someone decide whether something is
painful or not, so it could be that acupuncture in some ways changes a
person's pain perception.
"We have found something quite unexpected - that acupuncture is having a
measurable effect on the human brain.
"We are not suggesting that it should be used during surgery, although
it is in China, but just that it acts as a pain relief and should be
taken seriously."
Acupuncture Treatment Results in Higher Pregnancy Rates for Embryo Transfer
Breaking news
The May 2006 issue of medical journal Fertility and Sterility
presents several new studies that confirm the efficacy of acupuncture as
an aid to IVF. Here are the study results:
Study #1: Acupuncture on the day of embryo transfer (ET)
significantly improves the reproductive outcome in infertile women: a
prospective, randomized trial
In this study, Westergaard LG, et.al., set out to evaluate how the use
of acupuncture effected pregnancy rates in patients treated with IVF/intracytoplasmic
sperm injection (ICSI).
273 patients were randomly assigned to one of three groups:
One group had acupuncture on the day of the transfer, a second group had
acupuncture on the day of the transfer and then again 2 days after the
transfer, and a third control group did not receive acupuncture.
The results clearly showed that the first acupuncture group that
received treatment the day of the transfer had a statistically
significant higher rate of pregnancy than the control group (37 of 95
[39%] vs. 21 of 87 [26%]). Comparison of ongoing pregnancy rates also
favored the acupuncture group (34 of 95 [36%] vs. 19 of 87 [22%]).
There was no improvement on the reproductive outcome by adding an
acupuncture treatment 2 days after ET.
Fertility and Sterility Volume 85, Issue 5 , May 2006, Pages 1341-1346
Study #2: Effect of acupuncture on the outcome of in vitro
fertilization and intracytoplasmic sperm injection: a randomized,
prospective, controlled clinical study
In this study, a joint collaboration between researchers in Germany and
China, Stefan Dieterle M.D and his colleagues set out to determine the
effect of luteal phase acupuncture on the outcome of IVF/ICSI.
225 IVF/ICSI infertile patients were randomly assigned to 2 groups. One
group received Traditional Chinese acupuncture and the other half
received sham acupuncture. As in the previous study, in the group that
received true acupuncture, the clinical pregnancy rate and ongoing
pregnancy rates (33.6% and 28.4%, respectively) were significantly
higher than in sham acupuncture group (15.6% and 13.8%).
Fertility and Sterility Volume 85, Issue 5 , May 2006, Pages 1347-1351
Study #3: Influence of acupuncture stimulation on pregnancy
rates for women undergoing embryo transfer
This study from Australia, lead by Caroline Smith Ph.D., examined 228
women and again compared a true acupuncture to a placebo group. The
design of this study was to treat the women three separate times: the
first session on day 9 of stimulating injections, the second session
before ET, and the third immediately after ET.
They reported their results as follows:
The pregnancy rate was 31% in the acupuncture group and 23% in the
control group. For those subjects receiving acupuncture, the odds of
achieving a pregnancy were 1.5 higher than for the control group, but
the difference did not reach statistical significance. The ongoing
pregnancy rate at 18 weeks was higher in the treatment group (28% vs.
18%), but the difference was not statistically significant.
They did conclude that acupuncture was safe for women undergoing embryo
transfer.
Fertility and Sterility Volume 85, Issue 5 , May 2006, Pages 1352-1358
Previous studies:
At the October 2004 meeting of the American Society for
Reproductive Medicine (ASRM) another study was presented that
confirms the value of acupuncture to the success of IVF treatment. The
research, done at Reproductive Medicine and Fertility Centre in Colorado
Springs, studied 114 women undergoing IVF. Half of the women received
acupuncture and the control group did not. The acupuncture group showed
improved outcome in the following ways:
1. Acupuncture group 51% pregnancy rate compared to 36% in control group
2. Acupuncture group 08% miscarriage rate compared to 20% in control
group
Acupuncture also was found to reduce the risk of tubal pregnancy and
increase the live birth rate. The live birth rate for each IVF cycle was
23 % higher than the cycles for the control group.
Independent.co.uk News Report
Below is the very first paper published on this research.
It is from the journal: Highlights in Fertility and Sterility
(Vol. 77, No. 4, April 2002)
Results from a recent study in Germany indicate that adding acupuncture
to the treatment protocol of IVF patients greatly enhances their chances
of becoming pregnant. While the physiologic mechanisms by which
acupuncture may affect the uterus and reproductive system have not been
identified, the researchers found that as a practical matter, at least
among their small study population, the technique worked.
In a study of 160 patients undergoing in vitro fertilization,
researchers utilized acupuncture, an important element in the
4,000-year-old tradition of Chinese medicine, before and after the
embryo transfers of half their patients. The patients, who were all
required to have embryos of good quality, were evenly and randomly
divided into two groups similar in age and diagnosis.
The group receiving acupuncture treatments had one treatment before
transfer and another after embryos had been transferred to their
uteruses. Sterile needles were inserted into the patients' bodies at
very specific points. According to the principles of traditional Chinese
medicine, energy flows through the body along defined pathways, or
meridians. Acupuncture is a means of influencing this energy to induce a
desired physiological effect. Points were chosen for these patients
along the spleen and stomach/colon meridians in an effort to positively
influence blood flow and energy to the uterus and to provide a sedative
effect. Additional needles were inserted in the patients' ears to
influence the uterus and stabilize the endocrine system. Needles were
left in place for 25 minutes while the patients rested. The control
group also rested, lying still for 25 minutes after embryo transfer, as
part of the IVF protocol.
The difference between pregnancy rates for the two groups was notable.
Patients were examined using ultrasound six weeks after their IVF
procedures. In the control group, 21 out of 80 patients became pregnant.
Of the patients who had received acupuncture treatments, 34 of 80 became
pregnant. The researchers plan to conduct further studies to try to rule
out possible psychological or psychosomatic effects.
Sandra Carson, MD, President-Elect of ASRM, commented, "If these
findings are confirmed, they may help us improve the odds for our IVF
patients' achieving pregnancy."
Women undergoing fertility treatment could have their chances of success boosted by acupuncture.
German researchers said they have increased success rates by almost 50% in women having in vitro fertilization (IVF).
The theory is that acupuncture can affect the autonomic nervous system, which is involved in the control of muscles and glands, and could therefore make the lining of the uterus more receptive to receiving an embryo.
But the scientists admit they do not know for certain why the complementary therapy helped, and plan to carry out more studies in a bid to find out.
If these findings are confirmed, they may help us
improve the odds for our IVF patients achieving
pregnancy
|
|
Dr. Sandra Carson, American Society of Reproductive
Medicine
|
Fertility techniques are used to help couples who cannot conceive naturally.
The theory of acupuncture is based on pathways called meridians. Research has shown it can help relieve nausea caused by anesthetics during surgery or chemotherapy and to relieve dental pain.
It may also help relieve other conditions including headaches and menstrual cramps.
'A useful tool'
A report published in the journal Fertility and Sterility found the pregnancy rate in the group receiving acupuncture group was 42.5%, compared to the group which did not receive the therapy, where the rate was 26.3%.
The German researchers worked with doctors at the Department of Traditional Chinese Medicine at Tongji Hospital in Wuhan, China.
Of 160 women undergoing IVF, half received standard in vitro fertilization, while half were given acupuncture treatments before and after.
The researchers chose acupuncture points which traditional Chinese medicine says relax the uterus.
They also used needles to stimulate meridians involving the spleen, stomach and colon, to improve blood flow and create "more energy in the uterus."
Key relaxation points were also stimulated.
The research team, led by Dr. Wolfgang Paulus and colleagues at the Christian-Lauritzen-Institut in Ulm, Germany, wrote in the journal: "Acupuncture seems to be a useful tool for improving pregnancy rate after assisted reproductive techniques.
They add: "To rule out the possibility that acupuncture produces only psychological or psychosomatic effects, we plan to use a placebo needle set as a control in a future study."
Such a study would involve people having needles inserted in the same way as in acupuncture, but not at the acupuncture points.
Dr. Sandra Carson, president-elect of the American Society of Reproductive Medicine, which publishes the journal, said: "If these findings are confirmed, they may help us improve the odds for our (in vitro fertilization) patients' achieving pregnancy."
What caused Gwyneth's
spots?
By Michelle Roberts
BBC News Online health staff
Her low-cut top revealed the cupping bruises
Gwyneth Paltrow caused a stir at a New York film premiere this week in a
low cut top revealing a back covered in large circular bruises.
At first glance they looked like large love bites, but in fact they were
caused by a form of alternative therapy.
Gwyneth had cupping, a kind of acupuncture.
It involves placing heated cups over the skin to encourage blood flow
and ease stress, aches and pains.
What is cupping?
Cupping has been practiced for thousands of years for the treatment of
disease and pain.
There have certainly been satisfied customers for 3,000 years
Professor Edzard Ernst, University of Exeter
It is a form of acupuncture that focuses on the movement of blood,
energy - called qi - and body fluids, such as lymph - which circulates
around the body's tissues.
Oriental medicine states pain is due to stagnation of these systems.
This stagnation can be a result of injury or stress.
Cupping is believed to stimulate flow of blood, lymph and Qi to the
affected area. Its uses include relieving pain in the muscles,
especially back pain from stiffness or injury, and clearing congestion
in the chest, which can occur with colds and flu.
How it's done
The therapist takes a number of glass cups, which look like small fish
bowls. Each cup is heated with a naked flame. The cup is then quickly
applied to the skin. This creates a vacuum.
The suction anchors the cup to the body and the area of skin covered is
drawn up a few millimeters into the cup.
The cups are then left on the body whilst the area beneath is treated
and the energy, or qi, is moved.
Cupping is usually used on its own, but can be combined with other
therapies.
Tim Handley had conventional acupuncture and cupping therapy for a
painful shoulder.
He told BBC News Online: "I had four treatments and it really knocked it
on the head. It was brilliant. After the first time I had it I felt
absolutely fantastic. The difference was so tangible. It was wonderful.
"It felt quite strange because the suction was enormous. It was intense
but not painful. You could feel the blood being drawn into the muscle."
Like Gwyneth, he was bruised afterwards, but the marks vanished quickly.
It is important to seek out a registered practitioner
Mike O'Farrell, CEO of the British Acupuncture Council
"It looked hilarious. They were deep purple, amazing bruises. But it's
not damage as such. They are 'healthy bruises' and they disappeared very
quickly - within a week. I would have it done again."
Mike O'Farrell, CEO of the British Acupuncture Council said: "Although
cupping does leave noticeable marks that can look alarming, it is not
painful during or after treatment.
"This is a successful method as seen by the thousands of patients who
use it. However, as with all medical treatments it is important to seek
out a registered practitioner."
But Professor Edzard Ernst from the department of complementary medicine
at the University of Exeter said, while cupping was relatively safe, it
could cause burns.
He added: "There is no evidence for its efficacy. It has not been
submitted to clinical trials, but there have certainly been satisfied
customers for 3,000 years."
Can Acupuncture Help You Conceive?
NEW YORK, July 24, 2004
Acupuncture involves placing tiny hair-like needles in the
skin as a way of stimulating energy points. (AP)
Quote
Acupuncture is an ancient Chinese treatment that involves
placing tiny hair-like needles in the skin as a way of
stimulating energy points that are thought to be central to
your spiritual, mental, emotional and physical balance.
|
The vast majority of them turn to traditional fertility treatments for help, but a growing number are also trying alternative therapies, including acupuncture, says Saturday Early Show's Dr. Mallika Marshall.
More and more women are delaying childbirth into their late 30s and early 40s than ever before. In fact, according to the U.S. Census Report on Fertility in America, about 20 percent of women ages 35-39 are childless in 2002. In 1976, only 10 percent of women in that age category had never given birth.
Because a woman's fertility declines as she ages, more and more women are having trouble getting pregnant.
What are the traditional options to battle infertility?
Marshall says it depends on the underlying cause of the infertility, whether it's a male factor (such as a low sperm count), or it's a matter of egg quality in the woman, or whether the woman has blocked Fallopian tubes or trouble ovulating.
But depending on the case, your fertility doctor may recommend taking drugs to stimulate ovulation, or intrauterine insemination (where the sperm is placed directly in the woman's uterus) or in vitro fertilization (where a sperm and egg are united outside the uterus and later placed in the womb after fertilization).
What is acupuncture?
Acupuncture is an ancient Chinese treatment that involves placing tiny hair-like needles in the skin as a way of stimulating energy points that are thought to be central to your spiritual, mental, emotional and physical balance. Acupuncture is used to treat a variety of maladies such as headaches and back pain. For fertility, the needles are placed in energy points linked to the reproductive organs to improve energy flow to those areas.
Why should you try it?
Most women who choose acupuncture are doing it together with traditional infertility treatments. But some couples have undergone multiple cycles of IVF or other fertility treatments and nothing seems to be working. And they hope that acupuncture might improve their chances.
Also, fertility treatments can be incredibly expensive. For example, intrauterine insemination can cost hundreds of dollars and a single cycle of IVF can cost $10,000-$20,000. So couples are looking for other options that could possibly give them a greater chance at success.
Does it hurt?
No, not really, says Marshall, who has had acupuncture before. The needles sting a bit the first time you have it done, because you don't know what to expect. But then you get used to it and it's nothing. So if you have a needle phobia, don't automatically dismiss acupuncture. It's very relaxing.
How acupuncture works
It's still not entirely clear how the technique works, but there is some evidence that it increases the production of endorphins, or brain chemicals that make you feel good and help reduce stress. It may also improve blood supply to the ovaries, which improves their function, and the uterus, which can make it easier to nourish a fetus and reduce the risk of miscarriage.
The research
Marshall cites a 2002 German study suggesting that acupuncture may, in fact, work. The study looked at 160 women undergoing IVF, half of whom received acupuncture along with IVF, and the other half who received IVF alone. They found pregnancy rates among the women undergoing acupuncture were significantly higher.
The cost
Acupuncture can cost a few hundred dollars to a few thousand dollars depending on where you go and how long you need treatment. And it's often not covered by insurance.
What should you do if you're interested on pursuing acupuncture for infertility?
Other alternative therapies used by women trying to conceive are yoga, meditation, relaxation techniques, and massage therapy. Some people are also trying herbal remedies, but as with any of these alternative therapies, you should talk to your fertility doctor before trying any of them.
©MMIV, CBS
Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved.
Acupuncture Used As
Infertility Therapy
by Julia Sommerfeld
Sara Cook, a stylish brunette with a Snow White complexion, lies face
down as hair-thin needles are gently slipped into her ankles, the backs
of her knees, her lower back and ears.
A dull, warming sensation creeps over her as the small examination room
with its sweet menthol smell fades away, as do worries about ovulation
schedules, hormone shots and what's next after four failed attempts at
in-vitro fertilization.
Since October, Cook, 34, has been needled once a week by Seattle
acupuncturist Stephanie Gianarelli in hopes of improving her chances of
getting pregnant.
Used for 2,500 years in traditional Chinese medicine and best known in
Western circles as a New Age pain zapper, acupuncture has gained a
following among women - and couples - as an infertility therapy.
Some, like Cook, have left no stone unturned, combining the ancient
remedy with the best that modern medicine has to offer, including
fertility drugs and test-tube technology. Others eschew the expensive
and emotionally draining tactics of fertility clinics and place their
hopes on the head of a pin.
"Western medicine uses the sledgehammer approach to infertility," says
Gianarelli, who specializes in the problem. "But acupuncture coaxes the
entire body into balance and better health so it's ready to conceive."
Even mainstream physicians are hard-pressed to completely dismiss
acupuncture, at least when used in conjunction with their high-tech
methods. In fact, many of the women who slip away from their downtown
offices for half-hour sessions with Gianarelli each week were referred
by their infertility doctors.
That's because two years ago a German study found acupuncture boosts the
success rate of in-vitro fertilization (IVF), where egg and sperm meet
in a laboratory dish and resulting embryos are transplanted to the womb.
The study of 160 IVF patients found that women who had acupuncture right
before and after the embryo transfer increased their chances of
pregnancy from 26 percent to 43 percent.
"It's only one study," Dr. Lori Marshall, an infertility doctor at
Seattle's Virginia Mason Medical Center, cautions her patients. "But
it's enough to say, 'Hey, there could be something there.' "
It's also enough to persuade 20 to 30 percent of her clinic's IVF
patients to go under the needle.
Because acupuncture isn't likely to do any harm and, at about $60 to
$100 a visit, is relatively inexpensive compared with mainstream
fertility help, many women are willing to take their chances.
Plus, because of a Washington state law, insurers must pay for
acupuncture treatment for problems that they cover.
"It used to be people just came as a last resort, after they've failed
everything else. Now we're more often seeing women trying this before
they go down those other roads," says Greg Bantick, academic dean at
Seattle Institute of Oriental Medicine.
With more patients asking if they should get needled, Dr. LaTasha Craig
at the University of Washington Fertility and Endocrine Center wants to
be able to provide a more definitive answer. So she's about to put the
German findings to the test. Starting this summer, she plans to enroll
200 women in a trial comparing IVF plus acupuncture to IVF alone. She
anticipates her biggest challenge will be recruiting enough women to
agree they won't get acupuncture.
After eight years of trying to get pregnant and three failed rounds of
IVF, lingerie merchandiser Sara Cook and her husband, Jason, a
firefighter, were willing to try anything. "I wanted to know I did
everything I possibly could to make this work," she says.
Although their insurance covers most of the costs of IVF, they've spent
about $15,000 out of pocket. In October, to prepare for her fourth and
final attempt at an embryo transfer, Cook began seeing Gianarelli once a
week, with the blessing of her physician.
"These patients are going down a pretty rough road. Anything that makes
them feel better, I'm for," says Dr. Lee Hickok, her IVF doctor at
Swedish Medical Center.
Although the embryos implanted in January didn't result in pregnancy,
Cook hasn't given up on acupuncture. She's considering having a
surrogate carry her embryo, so she and her husband come in for weekly
acupuncture sessions aimed at fortifying her eggs and his sperm.
Acupuncture can do more than bolster IVF's success rate, says
acupuncturist Kerong Xie, who works out of a converted house in
Seattle's University District. Along with Chinese herbs, it can cure
most cases of infertility, she says matter-of-factly.
Needless to say, this is where acupuncturists and mainstream doctors
part company.
Rifling through a stack of Christmas-card photos and birth announcements
from grateful patients, Xie tallies her recent successes. She estimates
about 17 or 18 pregnancies since October.
In traditional Chinese medicine, conditions such as infertility are
fundamentally seen as blockages or imbalances in the body's "qi"
(pronounced chee), a vital force or energy that flows throughout the
body along channels called meridians.
Xie diagnoses a patient by examining her tongue, asking a list of
personal questions and taking several pulses. She then strategically
sticks needles so tiny they hardly can be felt into points of the body
that she says act as valves to manipulate qi, disperse it when it's
blocked, stimulate it when it's stagnating and, in general, get the
body's qi humming along.
Treating infertility is a standard part of acupuncture training, says
Steve Given, who heads the acupuncture clinic at Bastyr Center for
Natural Health in Seattle. "Oriental medicine excels at identifying
individual patterns of disharmony. If you lined up 100 different women
with infertility, an acupuncturist could have a slightly different
treatment for each of them."
What's seen in Western medicine as a blocked fallopian tube is blocked
or stagnating qi to Xie.
"I prepare the body for pregnancy - how do you plant seeds when the dirt
is very thin?" she asks.
Many doctors don't know what to make of such mystical adages.
"There's just no Western medical equivalent to this stuff," Hickok says.
He'll grant that acupuncture may promote relaxation and reduce stress
levels. At best, he could see this slightly improving a woman's chances
of conceiving and, at the least, it can help patients feel better and
more in control. Other doctors speculate acupuncture could increase
blood flow to the uterus or boost production of endorphins, the body's
feel-good chemicals that impact certain hormones.
There's no scientific evidence that needling alone improves pregnancy
rates, so most doctors discourage women who are having trouble getting
pregnant from relying solely on acupuncture.
"I would hate to see women who are 35 and up get hung up in alternative
therapy that may not be all they need," says Dr. Kevin Johnson, an
infertility doctor at Overlake Hospital Medical Center in Bellevue,
Wash. He worries that women who could be helped with more-aggressive
therapies could be squandering their final fertile years.
He urges a fertility checkup before pursuing acupuncture. "A totally
blocked fallopian tube won't be helped by acupuncture, nor will bad
eggs," he says. And no amount of tinkering with a woman's qi is going to
help if the problem is actually her partner's low sperm count.
The other sticking point for Western doctors is the cornucopia of herbs
that acupuncturists often prescribe to be boiled up in a pungent tea.
"That's where I draw the line," Hickok says. "I tell my patients, don't
take the herbs; I don't know what they do or how they'll interact with
IVF drugs, and they haven't been tested for safety or purity. With
acupuncture, I don't think there's a potential for harm, but there could
be with the herbs."
At 40, wedding photographer Janet Klinger had been trying to get
pregnant for almost two years. She and her husband knew that IVF wasn't
for them. "I didn't really want to go through that emotional roller
coaster with the possibility of spending 20 grand and not succeeding,"
she says.
After hearing about Xie from a pregnant client, she began visiting her
twice a month. For three months, she would lie quietly, with needles
scattered up her torso, along her "conception channel," and think "baby
thoughts." She's now 28 weeks pregnant.
"Whether it's for scientific reasons or just because I felt so relaxed
and cared for, I don't know, but I totally believe she helped me get
pregnant," Klinger says.
Anecdotes like Klinger's don't make for strong medical evidence. Doctors
are quick to point out there's no way of knowing whether she would have
gotten pregnant anyway. But such accounts do make the rounds in
infertility circles and among women friends.
That's why, despite not advertising, Xie's nondescript clinic draws a
steady stream of well-heeled women, some IVF patients, some looking for
an outright miracle.
ACUPUNCTURE POINTS
If you are considering going under the needle, experts offer these tips:
-Only visit acupuncturists licensed by the state. Look for the letters
L.Ac. after their names. To verify that an acupuncturist's license is in
good standing, plug the name into the state's health-provider-credential
search engine at
http://ww2.doh.state.fl.us/irm00praes/praslist.asp
-Make sure your acupuncturist uses only single-use, sterile needles.
-Visit a reproductive specialist for a conventional diagnosis first.
"You'll want to rule out frank structural problems, like a scarred
fallopian tube or tipped uterus," says Bastyr University's Steve Given.
-If you are already seeing a fertility doctor, discuss your plans. Don't
take any herbs without your physician's approval - they could interfere
with fertility drugs.
New Study on PCOS
For women with PCOS, acupuncture and exercise may bring relief, reduce
risks
EUREKALERT
Contact: Christine Guilfoy
cguilfoy@the-aps.org
301-634-7253
American Physiological Society
Study finds
acupuncture and exercise decrease a key marker for disease
BETHESDA, Md. (June 29, 2009) Exercise and electro-acupuncture
treatments can reduce sympathetic nerve activity in women with
polycystic ovarian syndrome (PCOS), according to a new study. The
finding is important because women with PCOS often have elevated
sympathetic nerve activity, which plays a role in hyperinsulinemia,
insulin resistance, obesity and cardiovascular disease
The study also
found that the electro-acupuncture treatments led to more regular
menstrual cycles, reduced testosterone levels and reduced waist
circumference.
Exercise had no effect on the irregular or non-existent menstrual cycles
that are common among women with PCOS, nor did it reduce waist
circumference. However, exercise did lead to reductions in weight and
body mass index.
"The findings that
low-frequency electro-acupuncture and exercise decrease sympathetic
nerve activity in women with PCOS indicates a possible alternative
non-pharmacologic approach to reduce cardiovascular risk in these
patients," said one of the researchers, Dr. Elisabet Stener-Victorin of
the University of Gothenburg, Sweden. The findings regarding menstrual
cycles and decrease in testosterone levels in the low-frequency
electro-acupuncture are also of interest, according to the researcher.
The study,
"Low-frequency electro-acupuncture and physical exercise decrease high
muscle sympathetic nerve activity in polycystic ovary syndrome" was
conducted by Elisabet Stener-Victorin, Elizabeth Jedel, Per Olof Janson
and Vrsa Bergmann Sverrisdottir, all of the Sahlgrenska Academy,
University of Gothenburg, Sweden and the Karolinska Institute,
Stockholm, Sweden. The study is in the online edition of the American
Journal of Physiology-Regulatory, Integrative and Comparative
Physiology, published by The American Physiological Society.
Common endocrine
disorder
Polycystic ovary syndrome (PCOS) is one of the most common endocrine
disorders, affecting an estimated 10% of women of reproductive age.
Among the problems associated with the condition are elevated levels of
androgens (such as testosterone, the 'male' hormone found in both
sexes), ovarian cysts, irregular menstrual cycles and infertility.
PCOS is associated
with increased sympathetic nerve activity in the blood vessels, part of
the 'fight or flight' response that results in blood vessel
constriction. Chronic activation of the sympathetic nervous system
increases the risk of diabetes, high blood pressure, heart attack and
stroke.
The Swedish
researchers had previously found that PCOS is associated with increased
sympathetic nerve activity and said it may arise from the elevated
testosterone level that is characteristic of PCOS.
Three groups
The researchers
wanted to find a long-lasting treatment for PCOS that would have no
adverse side effects, and so they looked at whether acupuncture or
exercise could decrease the sympathetic nerve activity in women with
PCOS. The study included 20 women, average age of 30 years, divided into
the following groups:
low-frequency electro-acupuncture (9)
exercise (5)
untreated controls, (6)
The acupuncture
group underwent 14 treatments during the 16-week study. Acupuncture
points were located in abdominal muscles and back of the knee, points
thought to be associated with the ovaries. The needles in the abdomen
and leg were stimulated with a low-frequency electrical charge, enough
to produce muscle contraction but not enough to produce pain or
discomfort.
The exercise group
received pulse watches and were told to take up regular exercise: brisk
walking, cycling or any other aerobic exercise that was faster than
walking but that they could sustain for at least 30 minutes. They
exercised at least three days per week for 30-45 minutes, maintaining a
pulse frequency above 120 beats per minute.
The researchers
instructed the control group in the importance of exercise and a healthy
diet, the same instructions the experimental groups received, but were
not specifically assigned to do anything differently.
Key
Findings:
The researchers measured the muscle sympathetic nerve activity before
and after the 16-week study. Following treatment, the study found the
following:
Both the acupuncture and exercise groups significantly decreased muscle
sympathetic nerve activity compared to the control group.
The acupuncture group experienced a drop in waist size, but not a drop
in body mass index or weight.
The exercise group
experienced a drop in weight and body mass index but not in waist size.
The acupuncture group experienced fewer menstrual irregularities but the
exercise group's irregularities did not change.
In the acupuncture
group, there was a significant drop in testosterone. This is an
important indicator because the strongest independent predictor of high
sympathetic nerve activity in women is the level of testosterone.
"This is the first
study to demonstrate that repeated low-frequency electro-acupuncture and
physical exercise can reduce high sympathetic nerve activity seen in
women with PCOS," according to the authors. "Furthermore, both therapies
decreased measures of obesity while only low-frequency
electro-acupuncture improved menstrual bleeding pattern."
The study has some limitations, including a small sample size, so
further research is necessary, the authors wrote. To find the full
study, click here or go to http://ajpregu.physiology.org/cgi/content/abstract/00197.2009v1?maxtoshow=&HITS=10&hits=10&RESULTFORMAT=&author1=Stener-Victorin&searchid=1&FIRSTINDEX=0&sortspec=relevance&resourcetype=HWCIT.