Fibromyalgia (FM) is a widespread musculoskeletal pain associated with psychological disturbances, the etiopathogenesis of which is still not clear. One hypothesis implicates inflammatory cytokines in increasing central and peripheral sensitization along with neuroinflammation, leading to an elevation in pro-inflammatory cytokines, e.g.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBackground: Several risk factors for peptic ulcer disease (PUD) have been identified; however, the recurrence rate of PUD remains high even with standard ulcer treatments. High cholesterol levels have been proposed as a risk factor for PUD, but clinical evidence remains limited. Therefore, this database study investigated whether hyperlipidemia increases PUD risk and whether antihyperlipidemic drugs reduce this risk.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFThe claim between hypertension and dementia needs more evidence due to limited data. We aim to examine the risk of dementia in patients with hypertension, and determine whether the use of antihypertensive medications (AHMs) could decrease the incidence of dementia diagnosed following the onset of hypertension. We employed the Taiwan National Health Insurance Research Database from 2000 to 2016 and performed a retrospective cohort study.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFPain is an unpleasant sensory and emotional experience accompanied by tissue injury. Often, an individual's experience can be influenced by different physiological, psychological, and social factors. Fibromyalgia, one of the most difficult-to-treat types of pain, is characterized by general muscle pain accompanied by obesity, fatigue, sleep, and memory and psychological concerns.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFFibromyalgia (FM) is a complex, chronic, widespread pain syndrome that can cause significant health and economic burden. Emerging evidence has shown that neuroinflammation is an underlying pathological mechanism in FM. Toll-like receptors (TLRs) are key mediators of the immune system.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFNeuropathic pain, which is initiated by a malfunction of the somatosensory cortex system, elicits inflammation and simultaneously activates glial cells that initiate neuroinflammation. Electroacupuncture (EA) has been shown to have therapeutic effects for neuropathic pain, although with uncertain mechanisms. We suggest that EA can reliably cure neuropathic disease through anti-inflammation and transient receptor potential V1 (TRPV1) signaling pathways from the peripheral to the central nervous system.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFObjectives: Chronic pain is considered as pain lasting for more than three months and has emerged as a global health problem affecting individuals and society. Chronic extensive pain is the main syndrome upsetting individuals with fibromyalgia (FM), accompanied by anxiety, obesity, sleep disturbances, and depression, Transient receptor potential vanilloid 1 (TRPV1) has been reported to transduce inflammatory and pain signals to the brain.
Materials And Methods: Acupoint catgut embedding (ACE) is a novel acupuncture technique that provides continuous effects and convenience.
Background: Fibromyalgia (FM) is characterized by complex pain symptoms lacking impersonal considerations in diagnosis and treatment evaluation, which often happens in women. Chronic and persistent widespread pain is the key symptom disturbing patients with FM, leading to depression, obesity, and sleep disturbances. Toll-like receptor 4 (TLR4) activation produces a harmful sensory input involved in central pain; this is the focus of this study.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBackground: Depression and pain are highly comorbid and share biological mechanisms. Acupuncture is commonly used to manage both pain and depression, but the choice of acupoints for specific disorders differs. This study aimed to investigate whether specific acupuncture intervention on pain- and depression-acupoints would have specific efficacy and immune effects in patients with comorbid chronic pain and major depressive disorder (MDD).
View Article and Find Full Text PDFObjective: To examine the effectiveness of acupressure on cognition and quality of life (QoL) among older adults with cognitive disorders residing in long-term care (LTC) settings.
Design: A clustered, randomized, assessor-blinded, controlled trial with a repeated measures design.
Setting And Participants: Participants were recruited from residential care facilities in Taiwan from August 2020 to February 2021.
(1) Background: The medical practice of acupuncture involves the insertion of a specialized stainless needle into a specific body point, often called an acupoint, to initiate a perceived phenomenon of de-qi sensation. Therefore, the term "de-qi" describes bodily sensations experienced by the recipient during acupuncture, which may include feelings of soreness, heaviness, fullness, numbness, and migration. However, while acupuncture treatments reportedly result in acupoint activation and an increased release of neurotransmitters or cytokines, detecting these substances released into the acupoint microenvironment is often missed or delayed in clinical and basic practice.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFObjectives: Tissue injury in peripheral sites can result in long-term potentiation in nociceptive neurons and surrounding glial cells, potentially resulting in the development of chronic inflammatory pain (CIP). Acupoint injection (AI) is similar to Western phototherapy, which injects solutions at specific sites to mitigate chronic pain. AI has shown greater benefits compared with acupuncture.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFPeripheral tissue damage and associated inflammation can trigger neuroplastic changes in somatic pain pathways, such as reduced neuronal firing thresholds and synaptic potentiation, that ultimately lead to peripheral sensitization and chronic pain. Electroacupuncture (EA) can relieve chronic inflammatory pain, but the underlying mechanisms are unknown, including the contributions of higher pain centers such as somatosensory cortex (SSC). We investigated these mechanisms using optogenetic modulation of SSC activity in a mouse inflammatory pain model.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFChronic pain is one of the highest costs in clinical therapy, often appearing comorbid with depression. They present with overlapping clinical conditions and common pathological pathways especially in neuroinflammation, both of which can be reversed by electroacupuncture (EA). Transient receptor potential V1 receptor (TRPV1) is a Ca[Formula: see text] permeable ion channel that responds to brain inflammation and has a known role in the development of chronic pain and depression.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBackground: The treatment, and efficacy thereof, is considered to be inadequate with specificity to alleviation of Fibromyalgia and its associated pain. Fibromyalgia patients suffer from chronic and persistent widespread pain and generalized tenderness. Transient receptor potential V1 (TRPV1), which is reported as a Ca permeable ion channel that can be activated by inflammation, is reported to be involved in the development of fibromyalgia pain.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFObjectives: According to the data of Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development, almost all the countries got increased medical expenditures in these years. Among the diseases, migraine is a condition that affects predominantly young and middle-aged people. It results in great economic losses.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFEvid Based Complement Alternat Med
May 2020
Comorbidity of chronic pain and major depression disorder (MDD) are common diseases. However, the mechanisms of electroacupuncture (EA) and the responses of N-methyl-D-aspartate receptors in the brain remain unclear. Three injections of complete Freund's adjuvant (CFA) were administered to induce chronic inflammatory pain (CIP).
View Article and Find Full Text PDFPatients with Bell's palsy are more likely to develop stroke than the general population. The therapeutic effect of Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) on the risk of stroke in patients with Bell's palsy is unknown. We investigated the risk of stroke according to TCM use in Bell's palsy patients.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFAlthough inflammatory pain is a common clinical condition, its mechanisms are still unclear. Electroacupuncture (EA), a well-known method of pain management, may reduce inflammatory pain by regulating neurons, astrocytes, and inflammatory signaling pathways. Injections of complete Freund's adjuvant (CFA), which can initiate cell-mediated inflammatory pain, resulted in significant hyperalgesia, which was subsequently prevented by EA.
View Article and Find Full Text PDF. The effect of acupuncture as treatment for poststroke complications is questionable. We performed a randomized, sham-controlled double-blind study to investigate it.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFPain is associated with several conditions, such as inflammation, that result from altered peripheral nerve properties. Electroacupuncture (EA) is a common Chinese clinical medical technology used for pain management. Using an inflammatory pain mouse model, we investigated the effects of EA on the regulation of neurons, microglia, and related molecules.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBackground: Type 2 diabetes mellitus is the predominant form of diabetes. Although metformin is the preferred first-line drug for treatment of the disease, it is associated with a risk of secondary failure. Electroacupuncture (EA) can enhance insulin sensitivity and reduce blood glucose levels.
View Article and Find Full Text PDF