"Acupuncture has been used to treat stroke for thousands of years in Asian countries such as China and South Korea. The results of a study published in the international academic journal Healthcare in 2022 showed that acupuncture treatment for ischemic stroke can reduce the morbidity rate of complications and the risk of death.
Stroke is a serious illness that can happen suddenly and is the leading cause of death and disability worldwide. Moreover, stroke has a high recurrence rate and leaves patients prone to complications. There are two main types of strokes—ischemic, and haemorrhagic. Ischemic stroke, also known as cerebral infarction, is the most common type. Factors such as being overweight or obese, high blood pressure, and diabetes may increase the risk of the disease. In addition, some preliminary studies have shown that infection with COVID-19 may also increase the risk of ischemic stroke.
Physician Choi Sung-ryul, of the Spine and Joint Research Institute of South Korea’s Jaseng Center for Alternative Medicine, used the National Specimen Cohort database of the South Korean National Health Insurance Service to identify patients with ischemic stroke diagnosed between 2010 and 2013. A sample of 2,299 stroke patients was taken to monitor the effect of acupuncture on mortality and complications.
The research group divided the patients with ischemic stroke into two groups, 195 people in one group with acupuncture treatment, and the rest (2,104 people) in the non-acupuncture treatment group (control group). All subsequent calculations were based on the probability of 100,000 stroke incidences per day.
The results showed that in terms of mortality, the acupuncture treatment group was 13.6/100,000/day, while the control group was 25.7/100,000/day. In terms of the incidence of complications, the acupuncture treatment group was 35.7/100,000/day, while the control group was 55.1/100,000/day. in specific complications, the incidence of urinary tract infection, gastrointestinal bleeding, femur fracture, and other diseases also showed a decrease in the acupuncture treatment group.
The research team also calculated the hazard ratio (HR) of the two evaluation indices. The HR is the risk ratio of the experimental group divided by the risk ratio of the control group. A result of less than one means that the risk of the acupuncture treatment group is lower than that of the control group.
The results showed that the HRs for death and complications were 0.32 and 0.34 respectively, and the HR for urinary tract infection was 0.24. In addition, with an increase in the number of times of acupuncture treatments, the HRs showed a gradually decreasing trend.
This suggests that acupuncture treatment reduces the incidence of complications caused by ischemic stroke and improves survival, the team explained.
Choi said, “This study confirms the effect of acupuncture in treating ischemic stroke, and helps in understanding the accurate therapeutic effect of long-term acupuncture in treating stroke.”
In recent years, there have been many research results on acupuncture treatment of stroke published in international academic journals.
The results of a study published in the international, professional, academic journal Journal of Alternative and Complementary Medicine in December 2020 by the research team of Kyung Hee University (KHU) Hospital in Gangdong, South Korea confirmed that acupuncture therapy is effective in preventing the complications of haemorrhagic stroke.
The research group took 46 patients within 96 hours of the onset of subarachnoid haemorrhage, a type of haemorrhagic stroke, for the study. The test group consisted of 22 people who received acupuncture therapy, including electroacupuncture and intradermal acupuncture. The control group consisted of the other 24 people who received pseudo-electrical stimulation and pseudo-intradermal needle treatment. Both groups were given their respective treatment after their subarachnoid hemorrhage operation. All of them were treated six times a week for two weeks. At the same time, all patients in both groups continued to receive the standard neurosurgery treatment.
The results showed that the experimental group receiving acupuncture had fewer neurological deficits and vasospasm, as well as better functional recovery.
Studies have confirmed that acupuncture therapy can prevent cerebral vasospasm after subarachnoid haemorrhage and improve the therapeutic effect.
In addition, research results published in the internationally renowned medical journal Medicine in 2015 by a cross-university research team including Taiwan’s China Medical University showed that acupuncture can reduce the recurrence rate of stroke.
The research team identified more than 30,000 hospitalized patients with new ischemic strokes from 2000 to 2004. The patients were divided into an acupuncture treatment group and a non-acupuncture treatment group with 15,029 people each and compared the risk of stroke recurrence between the two groups during the follow-up period.
Studies found that the risk of recurrence can be reduced by 50 percent in discharged stroke patients if they received only acupuncture for a long time. Combined with Western medicine treatment, the risk of recurrence could be reduced by nearly 61 percent, and the overall risk of another stroke could be reduced to less than 40 percent.
In addition, research results published in the sister journal Scientific Reports of the international journal Nature in 2016 by the Chinese Medicine and Acupuncture Research Team of China Medical University in Taiwan, showed that electroacupuncture could significantly improve the resulting impairment of learning and memory due to stroke and ischemia by stimulating the auricular points.
The team led by Prof. Hsieh Ching-liang found that in the animal model of passive learning and memory impairment in cerebral ischemia-reperfusion, electroacupuncture stimulation of auricular points can provide a significant improvement. Electroacupuncture stimulation of auricular points can also significantly improve the number of choline α4 receptors in the hippocampus of rats that were reduced due to stroke defects."
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