While acupuncture is believed to ‘restore the flow of energy’ in our bodies and as a way to relieve pain, researchers from the Georgetown University Medical Center found that when acupuncture was used on lab rats, the release of a key stress hormone was reduced substantially.
Ladan Eshkevari, the author of the study, and an associate professor in nursing at GUMC, said, “Many practitioners of acupuncture have observed that this ancient practice can reduce stress in their patients, but there is a lack of biological proof of how or why this happens. We’re starting to understand what’s going on at the molecular level that helps explain acupuncture’s benefit.”
As mentioned earlier, the study used lab rats for the simple reason that they are the most common choice in medical research to test stress response. The rats used were exposed to cold temperature for one hour a day over 10 days in all so as to induce stress.
Further, these rats were divided into three smaller groups: the first that were stressed, the second who were stressed but received acupuncture treatment and the third that were stressed but received mock acupuncture treatment. A fourth group was also added which include rats that weren’t stressed but also underwent acupuncture treatment.
The location chosen for acupuncture treatment was the Zusanli spot, which is common to both humans and mice, and which is known to relieve stress and stress-related symptoms.
The findings showed that electronic acupuncture blocked the increase of HPA axis hormones and the sympathetic NPY pathway thus leading researchers to conclude that this ancient Chinese treatment acts as protection from the stress response.
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