First biological proof for acupuncture?

[mzteris]

6. different link:

http://www.healthcmi.com/index.php/acupuncturist-news-online/473-acupuncturestressgeorgetownstudy

Electro-acupuncture was applied to acupuncture point St36 in laboratory rats exposed to stressful cold. The control group and the sham acupuncture group showed no change in NPY. However, the group receiving acupuncture showed a significant and long-term decrease in NPY production.

Acupuncture at ST36 prevents chronic stress-induced increases in neuropeptide Y in rat. Ladan Eshkevari1, Rupert Egan2, Dylan Phillips3, Jason Tilan1, Elissa Carney2, Nabil Azzam4, Hakima Amri5 and Susan E Mulroney2. Exp Biol Med
7 December 2011 EBM.2011.011224 .


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http://www.news-medical.net/news/20111220/Acupuncture-can-reduce-protein-associated-with-chronic-stress.aspx

It has long been thought that acupuncture can reduce stress, but this is the first study to show molecular proof of this benefit," says the study's lead author, Ladan Eshevari, Ph.D., an assistant professor at Georgetown's School of Nursing & Health Studies, a part of GUMC.
Eshkevari, who is also a nurse anesthetist as well as a certified acupuncturist . . .While traditional Chinese acupuncture has been thought to relieve stress -in fact, the World Health Organization states that acupuncture is useful as adjunct therapy in more than 50 disorders, including chronic stress - Eshevari says that no one has biological proof that it does so.

So she designed a study to test the effect of acupuncture on blood levels of neuropeptide Y (NPY), a peptide that is secreted by the sympathetic nervous system in humans. This system is involved in the "flight or fight" response to acute stress, resulting in constriction of blood flow to all parts of the body except to the heart, lungs, and brain (the organs most needed to react to danger)."

. . . The study utilized four groups of rats for a 14-day experiment: a control group that was not stressed and received no acupuncture; a group that was stressed for an hour a day and did not receive acupuncture; a group that was stressed and received "sham" acupuncture near the tail; and the experimental group that were stressed and received acupuncture to the Zuslanli spot on the leg.
She found NPY levels in the experimental group came down almost to the level of the control group, while the rats that were stressed and not treated with Zuslanli acupuncture had high levels of the protein. . . "