Acupuncture has been used for thousands of years (literally) for the treatment of respiratory ailments – viral, bacterial, inflammatory, etc. Its usefulness spans preventative immune support as well as effectiveness in ameliorating acute respiratory infections and distress.
In an article published by Healthcare Medicine Institute (Health CMI), an organization that not only tracks acupuncture, herbal and other research, and reports on metanalysis studies confirming or denying existing research. A metanalysis is the study of studies, eliminating bias’, poorly done studies, too small of studies, etc. It gets to the meat of the real results.
This organization reported on a study done at Harvard Medical School “neuroscientists conclude that acupuncture regulates inflammation in response to bacterial infections. The study finds acupuncture effective in ameliorating the effects of pro-inflammatory cytokine storms. The researchers demonstrate that acupuncture increases survival rates and prevents disease progression”, and “that it successfully activated the vagus-adrenal axis in response to bacterial toxins…”. They stated “The research team made another important finding. Acupuncture enhanced immune system function if applied prior to infection. As a result, electroacupuncture was effective in reducing adverse affects caused by subsequent infections. The prophylactic measures increased survival rates from 20% to 80%.”
What does that mean for you? It means that the success rate of acupuncture in treating infections is pretty darn good. Of course, we acupuncturists already knew that!
I cannot in my own words do justice to the conclusions of another study, so, again quoting HealthCMI “Researchers from the University of Texas Health Science Center (Houston) and other healthcare centers reviewed the work of Sun et al. Published in the The American Journal of Emergency Medicine, the findings indicate that alternative therapies are potentially useful interventions for patients with COVID-19 (novel coronavirus, SARS-CoV-2). The doctors from Texas note that, in China, Chinese medicine “is an essential part of the armamentarium to treat these [COVID-19] patients,” and that this approach to integrative medicine may facilitate treatment at ports of entry for patients, which are often emergency rooms.
This report was based on a metanalysis by Sun et al. In a randomized controlled clinical trial analysis of human COVID-19 patients with pneumonia, a total of 681 participants across seven valid studies were examined. The researchers conclude that the addition of Chinese medicine to conventional care improves clinical efficacy. Importantly, Chinese medicine “significantly increased viral nucleic acid negative conversion rate.”
The researchers made three additional important discoveries. Chinese medicine “prominently reduced pulmonary inflammation,” “improved host immune function,” and did not increase the adverse effect rate. The researchers confirm that for COVID-19 patients, Chinese medicine “exhibited superior performance” for improving the “clinical effective rate, viral nucleic acid negative conversion rate, remission rate of pulmonary inflammation, and biochemical markers.”
Another metanalysis of 2,275 COVID-19 patients confirms these findings. … a total treatment effective rate of 92.86%.”
We are not accepting patients actively suffering from Covid 19 in our practice at this time. The purpose of this article is to share the excitement of the increased scientific studies that are being done in the field of acupuncture demonstrating what we have known for eons of time. Acupuncture works! If you are suffering from immune challenges, give acupuncture a try. I am certain you will be happy with the results!
©2020 Holly A. Carling, O.M.D., L.Ac., Ph.D.
