Effects of acupuncture on arrhythmia and other cardiac diseases

Abstract

This chapter reviews the clinical and laboraotry research on acupuncture therapies for arrhythmia and other cardiac diseases (e.g., coronary atherosclerotic heart disease, heart failure, and viral myocarditis). Clinical data suggest that the efficacy of acupuncture therapy varies depending on multiple factors, including the type of diseases, acupoints selected, and the manner of manipulation used. In general, acupuncture induces a much better efficacy in the patients with arrhythmia related to neural dysfunction than in those with pathological changes in the heart. The mechanistic research shows that acupuncture signal is mainly transferred to the central nervous system by afferent nerve fibers. The input signal leads to serial changes in electrical and chemical activities in the brain. Subsequently, the body corrects cardiovascular dysfunctions through neural regulation, endocrine secretion, humoral and dielectric regulation, intracellular modulation of signal transduction, and even gene expression. Thus, acupuncture induces a therapeutic effect on cardiovascular system through an integrated and complex mechanism. © 2010 Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg.