Mechanism of Acupuncture in Treating Obesity: Advances and Prospects.

Obesity is a common metabolic syndrome that causes a significant burden on individuals and society. Conventional therapies include lifestyle interventions, bariatric surgery, and pharmacological therapies, which are not effective and have a high risk of adverse events. Acupuncture is an effective alternative for obesity, it modulates the hypothalamus, sympathetic activity and parasympathetic activity, obesity-related hormones (leptin, ghrelin, insulin, and CCK), the brain-gut axis, inflammatory status, adipose tissue browning, muscle blood flow, hypoxia, and reactive oxygen species (ROS) to influence metabolism, eating behavior, motivation, cognition, and the reward system.

Acupuncture for menstruation-related migraine prophylaxis: A multicenter randomized controlled trial.

Objective: The aim of this study was to evaluate the efficacy of acupuncture, an alternative medicine therapy, as a preventive treatment for menstruation-related migraine (MRM).

Patients And Methods: This was a prospective, multicenter, double-dummy, participant-blinded, randomized controlled clinical trial conducted in China between 1 April 2013, and 30 April 2014. The participants were enrolled from four study centers and randomized to into either the acupuncture group, which received 24 sessions of acupuncture at traditional acupoints plus placebo, or the medication group, which received sham acupuncture plus naproxen.

Determining 5HTR's Involvement in Modifying the Antihyperalgesic Effects of Electroacupuncture on Rats With Recurrent Migraine.

Electroacupuncture (EA) is widely used in clinical practice to relieve migraine pain. 5-HT receptor (5-HTR) has been reported to play an excitatory role in neuronal systems and regulate hyperalgesic pain and neurogenic inflammation. 5-HTR could influence phosphorylation of protein kinase A (PKA)- or extracellular signal-regulated kinase (ERK )-mediated signaling pathways, which mediate sensitization of nociceptive neurons via interacting with cyclic adenosine monophosphate (cAMP).

[Application of shear wave elastography in acupuncture research].

In recent years, a new technique of elastic quantization imaging, the ultrasound-based shear wave elastography (SWE) is arising, which has advantages of real-time, non-invasion, rapid imaging and strong repeatability, and quantifying the elastic properties of soft tissues including thyroid gland, breast, prostate, muscle tendon, ligament, etc.. It has been gradually applied to clinical and experimental researches of acupuncture and has an extensive application prospect.

[Research of inflammatory factors and signaling pathways in knee osteoarthritis].

Knee osteoarthritis is the most common type of arthritis, which is manifested by the deformation and degeneration of articular cartilage and the discomfort of patients with joint pain, which affects the quality of life of patients and aggravates the medical burden of society. The pathogenesis of knee osteoarthritis is very complex. This paper reviews the inflammatory factors and signal pathways involved in knee osteoarthritis.

Electroacupuncture exerts an anti-migraine effect via modulation of the 5-HT7 receptor in the conscious rat.

Background: Acupuncture has been recommended as an alternative therapy for migraine. Emerging evidence suggests that the 5-HT receptor (5-HTR) plays a significant facilitatory role in descending modulation in migraine pathophysiology, and that activation of 5-HTR in the descending pathway is involved in migraine central sensitisation.

Objective: To investigate the ability of electroacupuncture (EA) to ameliorate central sensitisation via modulation of 5-HTR in the descending pain pathways using a rat model of migraine induced by repetitive dural electrical stimulation (DES).

Acupuncture as prophylaxis for chronic migraine: a protocol for a single-blinded, double-dummy randomised controlled trial.

Introduction: Approximately 1.4%-2.2% of the global population suffers from chronic migraine.

Electroacupuncture at (GB20) inhibits calcitonin gene-related peptide expression in the trigeminovascular system of a rat model of migraine.

Most migraine patients suffer from cutaneous allodynia; however, the underlying mechanisms are unclear. Calcitonin gene-related peptide (CGRP) plays an important role in the pathophysiology of migraine, and it is therefore, a potential therapeutic target for treating the pain. In the present study, a rat model of conscious migraine, induced by repeated electrical stimulation of the superior sagittal sinus, was established and treated with electroacupuncture at (GB20) (depth of 2-3 mm, frequency of 2/15 Hz, intensity of 0.

Electroacupuncture Pretreatment at GB20 Exerts Antinociceptive Effects via Peripheral and Central Serotonin Mechanism in Conscious Migraine Rats.

. While electroacupuncture (EA) pretreatment in migraine has been found to attenuate pain and frequencies of attacks, the underlying mechanism of its antinociceptive effect remains poorly understood. Emerging evidence suggests that the serotonin system may be involved in migraine pathophysiology.