The Clinical Effect of Manipulation of Acupuncture to Shen-Men and Nei-Kuan on Blood Pressure of Normal Male Subjects

Objectives : With an assumption of traditional oriental medical theory, to evaluate the effect of tonification/sedation manipulative acupuncture on blood pressure in male normotensives. Methods : This study was a randomized cross-over trial. We enrolled healthy male normotensive subjects, and assigned them randomly to group A or group B. Group A received acupuncture therapy on Shen-Men (He-7) and Nei-Kuan (EH-6) with tonification-manipulation, while group B received it with sedation-manipulation. Blood pressure was assessed every ten minutes for 2 hours. After 3 days of washout period, the subjects were crossed over to the other manipulation, and the same procedures were performed. Results : We observed that blood pressure stimulated by the sedation-manipulation had a tendency to decrease compared to that by the tonification-manipulation. Conclusions : We suggest the sedation manipulation has more synergic effect with the inhibitory effects of Shen-Men and Nei-Kuan on the sympathetic nervous system than the tonification-manipulation.