March 12th, 2013 | Posted in 3 Various Specific Problems
  
EFFECT OF ACUPUNCTURE ON IMMUNE FUNCTION
Posted on May 29, 2012 in Cancer Articles/Blogs
60% of people surveyed in an oncology clinic agreed that acupuncture helped with a wide variety of problems. From, pain, nausea and vomiting, fatigue, and vasomotor symptoms to name but a few. Integrative medicine is the way forward in the 21st century. Hopefully more studies will back this up again and again.
http://www.cancer.gov/cancertopics/pdq/cam/acupuncture/healthprofessional/page5
Brief:
At least seven human studies have evaluated the effect of acupuncture on immune system function in patients with cancer.[1-7] These studies were all conducted in China. Five were reported in English,[1-3,6,7] and two were reported in Chinese with English abstracts.[4,5]
Four randomized controlled trials,[1,2,4,5] a nonrandomized clinical study,[3] and two case series [6,7] found that acupuncture enhanced or regulated immune function.
The first randomized controlled trial found that acupuncture treatment enhanced platelet count and prevented leukocyte decrease after radiation therapy or chemotherapy, in comparison with the control group.
Effect of Acupuncture on Immune Function
At least seven human studies have evaluated the effect of acupuncture on immune system function in patients with cancer. These studies were all conducted in China. Five were reported in English and two were reported in Chinese with English abstracts
Four randomized controlled trials, a nonrandomized clinical study, and two case series found that acupuncture enhanced or regulated immune function.
The first randomized controlled trial found that acupuncture treatment enhanced platelet count and prevented leukocyte decrease after radiation therapy or chemotherapy, in comparison with the control group.
A second study involved a group of 40 postoperative cancer patients, 20 of whom received daily acupuncture treatment and 20 of whom served as a control group. After 3 days, leukocyte phagocytosis was enhanced in the treated group, compared with the baseline measurement (P < .01); no such enhancement was observed in the control group.
A third study observed the effect of acupuncture on interleukin-2 (IL-2) and natural killer (NK) cell activity in the peripheral blood of patients with malignant tumors. The patients were divided into an acupuncture treatment group (n = 25), which received 30 minutes of acupuncture daily for 10 days, and a nonacupuncture control group (n = 20). The data showed that IL-2 level and NK cell activity were significantly increased in the acupuncture group, compared with the control group (P < .01).
A fourth study observed the effect of acupuncture on T-lymphocyte subsets (CD3+, CD4+, and CD8+), soluble IL-2 receptor (SIL-2R), and beta-endorphin (beta-EP) in the peripheral blood of patients with malignant tumors. The data showed that acupuncture treatment increased the proportion of the CD3+ and CD4+ T-lymphocyte subsets, the CD4+/CD8+ ratio (P < .01), and the level of beta-EP. It decreased the level of SIL-2R (P < .01). The investigators suggested that the anticancer effect of acupuncture may be mediated via the mechanism of immunomodulation.
The nonrandomized clinical study showed that microwave acupuncture (MAT), a newly developed technique in which a specially designed device attached to a normally inserted acupuncture needle is used to deliver microwave radiation to a given point, enhanced the immunologic function of cancer patients. Although there was an increase in white blood cell count in the MAT group, the change was not significantly different from that seen in the control group under drug treatment.
In a clinical case series, 28 cancer patients who were treated with electroacupuncture (EA) while undergoing chemotherapy experienced no declines in T cells (CD3+, CD4+, CD8+) or in NK cell activity, both of which are usually suppressed by chemotherapy.[7] Similar findings were reported in a study comparing EA to the control in patients receiving chemotherapy for breast, colorectal cancer, and non-Hodgkin lymphoma. In another clinical case series, 48 patients with leukopenia —including two cancer patients—who were treated with manual acupuncture experienced improvements in leukocyte count, intracutaneous phytohemagglutinin (PHA), and immunoglobulin (IgG, IgA, and IgM) levels after 14 daily acupuncture treatments, compared with their pretreatment levels.
