Available online 16 April 2024

Author links open overlay panel, , , ABSTRACTBackground

Acupuncture is a traditional healing system used to prevent and treat hypertension in many countries. Acupuncture point “Zusanli (ST-36)” is used to nourish blood and yin. However, no known studies reported the effect of needling at only ST-36 on cardiovascular parameters.

Objectives

This study was performed to find the effectiveness of ST-36 on blood pressure (BP) and heart rate variability (HRV) in patients with hypertension.

Methods

A total of 100 participants with primary hypertension aged between 30 years and70 years were randomly assigned into either acupuncture group (AG) or control group (CG). AG underwent only one session of bilateral needling at ST-36 acupuncture point for duration of 20 minutes, while the CG underwent only one session of bilateral needling at non-acupuncture point for the same duration.

Results

Results of the study showed a significant reduction in systolic blood pressure, pulse pressure and mean arterial pressure in the AG compared to the CG. In addition, a significant increase in intervals between adjacent QRS complexes (R-R interval), and a significant reduction in heart rate were observed in AG, unlike CG.

Conclusions

Needling at ST-36 acupuncture point may improve cardiovascular function better than needling at non-acupuncture points in patients with hypertension.

Section snippetsINTRODUCTION

Hypertension is defined as the persistent increase of arterial blood pressure (BP), characterized by systolic blood pressure (SBP) equal to or above 140 mmHg and/or diastolic blood pressure (DBP) equal to or above 90 mmHg. According to world health organization, 1.28 billion adults aged 30-79 years have hypertension globally and two-thirds of them are living in low-and middle-income countries; 46% of adults with hypertension are unaware that they have the condition; 1 in 5 patients with

Study design

This study is a randomized controlled study, in which all the participants were randomly assigned into either acupuncture group (AG) or control group (CG). AG underwent only one session of bilateral needling at ST-36 acupuncture point for a duration of 20 minutes, while the CG underwent only one session of bilateral needling at non-acupuncture point for the same duration.

Study settings

Government Yoga and Naturopathy Medical College, Chennai, Tamilnadu, India

Participants

A total of 100 participants with primary

RESULTS

A total of 113 participants were screened from a medical college hospital between January 2021 and March 2022. Out of 113, 12 participants did not fulfill the eligibility criteria, and one participant was excluded due to needle phobia. 100 participants were included in the study and they were randomly assigned to either AG or CG. The study ended due to all the participants (n=100) completed the study. Their data were assessed before and after the intervention and included for statistical

DISCUSSION

Traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) includes acupuncture as a key component, and it has been used to treat people with high BP. Now a day, acupuncture is mostly used by people with hypertension who want to avoid or to reduce the dosage of anti-hypertensive medications [15]. In TCM ST-36 is used to tonify qi and to nourish blood [8]. Therefore, this study aimed to assess the effect of ST-36 on BP and HRV in patients with primary hypertension.

Intra-group analysis of the study showed a significant

CONCLUSION

Needling at ST-36 acupuncture point improves cardiovascular function better than needling at non-acupuncture point in patients with hypertension.

SOURCE OF FUNDING

Nil

Author Agreement Statement

We the undersigned declare that this manuscript is original, has not been published before and is not currently being considered for publication elsewhere. We confirm that the manuscript has been read and approved by all named authors and that there are no other persons who satisfied the criteria for authorship but are not listed. We further confirm that the order of authors listed in the manuscript has been approved by all of us. We understand that the Corresponding Author is the sole contact

Source(S) of Financial Support of the Study

Nil

Ethical Statement

The study protocol approved from the institutional ethics committee and a written informed consent was obtained from each participant.

CRediT authorship contribution statement

A. Akila: Conceptualization, Data curation, Investigation, Methodology, Writing – original draft, Writing – review & editing. A. Mooventhan: Conceptualization, Formal analysis, Methodology, Project administration, Software, Supervision, Writing – original draft, Writing – review & editing. N. Mangaiarkarasi: Conceptualization, Project administration, Resources, Supervision, Writing – review & editing. N. Manavalan: Conceptualization, Project administration, Resources, Supervision, Writing –

CONFLICT OF INTEREST

None declared

Declaration of Competing Interest

The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper.

REFERENCES (26)Li D.-Z., Zhou Y., Yang Y.-N., Ma Y.-T., Li X.-M., Yu J., et al. Acupuncture for Essential Hypertension: A...Claudia Focks C., März U., Hosbach I., editors. Atlas of acupuncture. 1st ed.Philadelphia,USA; Elsevier,...P. Li et al.CME Article: Long-Lasting Reduction of Blood Pressure by Electroacupuncture in Patients with Hypertension: Randomized Controlled Trial

Medical Acupuncture

(2015 Aug)

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