Recent studies have revealed that acupuncture can be used to improve the lives of people who experience chronic heart-failure. Death as the result of heart-attack remains the biggest killer in the world today, and medical experts are regularly trying to discover new ways of treating it. The technique can help people who have suffered from a major cardiac-event by reducing activity in the body’s sympathetic nervous system – which regulates bodily functions such as heartbeat and blood-pressure. If the system becomes over-stimulated, it often experiences the conditions and factors that lead to heart-failure.
Consistent over-stimulation can have a long term impact on health and wellbeing, as it results in the constriction of blood-vessels which over-exerts the heart when blood is pumped around the body. This can also lead to irregular rhythmic activity in the heart – which can be potentially fatal if left untreated.
The research involved the use of 14 seriously ill heart patients and the sample was divided into three segments. The first group received acupuncture in a traditional manner, the second received a form which involved needles placed at regions that are not usually considered as being therapeutic, and the third was administered with an approach involving no needle-insertions at all.
Following the treatment, blood-pressure, heart-rate and nerve-activity were measured amongst the sample, and those who had received conventional acupuncture experienced a significant reduction in sympathetic nerve activity. However, whilst the research yielded positive results, Dr Holly Middlekauf – its lead researcher, based at the University of California, has stressed that more research is required before it can be used to treat heart-attacks. However, she did acknowledge its other key benefits benefits at this stage:
“Acupuncture has been used successful and with long-range results in improving hypertension, it may also be beneficial in lowering sympathetic nerve activity”