In Western medicine, the jury is still out on whether acupuncture delivers health benefits. But now, a new study adds further evidence of its worthiness, as scientists have shown a direct connection between acupuncture and physical mechanisms that heal sepsis, a common condition in hospital intensive care units that springs from infection and inflammation.
The researchers, from Rutgers New Jersey Medical School, published their results in the journal Nature Medicine.
They note that sepsis causes around 250,000 deaths in the US each year, making it a major cause of death.
"But in many cases patients don't die because of the infection," says lead author Luis Ulloa, an immunologist at Rutgers. "They die because of the inflammatory disorder they develop after the infection. So we hoped to study how to control the inflammatory disorder."
Although acupuncture has been practiced for thousands of years in Eastern countries, it is relatively new to Western medicine. The technique works by stimulating specific points on the body with tiny needles that penetrate the skin.
Researchers from this latest study say they already knew that stimulating the vagus nerve - a major nerve in the body - activates mechanisms in the body that reduce inflammation.
As such, they tested whether electroacupuncture - a form of acupuncture that involves sending a small electric current through the nerves - reduces inflammation and organ injury in mice with sepsis. This type of electrification has been approved by the FDA for treating pain in humans.
Half of septic mice who received electroacupuncture survived
By increasing the electrical current, Ulloa explains that it heightens the effect of needle placement. As predicted, when they performed the electroacupuncture on septic mice, the researchers found that cytokines - molecules that help reduce inflammation - were stimulated.
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