Basic Science Meets Clinical Research: 10th North American Symposium on Acupuncture

The annual North American Symposium on Acupuncture is the main scientific part of the educational program in Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) established by the Academy of Pain Research in 1979. Dr T. N. Lee, Founder and Director of the Academy and distinguished researcher who proposed the Thalamic Neuron Theory to explain the analgesic effects of acupuncture (1), maintains the scientific and educational quality of the Symposium at a high level. The program covers various subjects in the field of clinical application of acupuncture, including pain management, internal medicine, family practice, obstetrics and gynecology, pediatrics, orthopedics, emergency medicine, psychiatry and much more. The Symposium focused primarily on body acupuncture, ear acupuncture and diagnostic techniques, with an emphasis on TCM concepts as well as a modern scientific approach. Both modern basic and clinical sciences and TCM teachings should be integrated in order to improve the efficacy of acupuncture in modern medical practice. With this central purpose in mind, every year Dr Lee invites the leading experts in basic and clinical acupuncture research, most of whom hold profes-sorships at prominent medical schools or are affiliated with excellent academic institutions. reported on their studies of acupuncture on the regulation of the cardiovascular system. Dr Longhurst provided an update on his research into the mechanisms of acupuncture regulation of the cardiovascular system. His results demonstrate that electroacupuncture (EA) can reduce myocardial ischemia in an animal model of demand-induced ischemia, mainly through reducing the demand of the myocardium for oxygen, rather than by enhancing blood flow. He has also found that both unmyelinated (or group IV) sensory fibers and finely myelinated (or group III) fibers are responsible for the EA–cardiovascular effects. Dr Li reported on the effects of acupuncture on exercise induced cardiovascular responses in hypertensive patients. They found that arterial blood pressure responses to exercise were reduced in 70.6% of their subjects following EA of either PC 5–6 or LI 4-L7 acupuncture points. EA administered 1–2 times per week for 2 weeks resulted in a decrease in systolic blood pressure of ~20 mmHg in patients with hypertension. Angeles) reported that L-arginine-derived nitric oxide (NO) in the gracile nucleus mediates cardiovascular and antinocicep-tive responses to EA stimulation of the ST 36 acupuncture point in rats. Results showed that EA of point ST 36 produced analgesia and decreased arterial blood pressure in rats. The analgesic and cardiovascular responses to EA were facilitated by L-arginine NO and blocked …