No abstract

Background Obesity is an energy balance problem caused by overeating. Obesity treatment includes diet, exercise, behaviour treatment, pharmacotherapy and surgery; in addition, acupuncture is also an option. Objective To investigate the effect of acupuncture on weight loss and whether a brief acupuncture treatment of 5 weeks can change circulating levels of leptin, ghrelin, insulin and cholecystokinin (CCK) in obese women. Methods 40 women with a body mass index (BMI)>30 kg/m 2 were equally randomised to either an acupuncture group or a sham (nonpenetrating) acupuncture group and received treatment at LI4, HT7, ST36, ST44 and SP6 bilaterally. Both groups had two sessions of 20 min/week for a total of 10 sessions. Serum insulin, leptin, plasma ghrelin and CCK levels were measured by ELISA. Results Acupuncture treatment decreased insulin and leptin levels and induced weight loss, together with a decrease in BMI compared with sham acupuncture. Furthermore, between-group analyses demonstrated increases in plasma ghrelin and CCK levels in subjects who received acupuncture treatment. Conclusion These fi ndings suggest that acupuncture may help to regulate weight owing to its benefi cial effects on hormones such as insulin, leptin, ghrelin and CCK in obese subjects even after a few weeks of treatment. INTRODUCTIONObesity is a common health problem faced mostly in developed countries such as USA, Canada, Australia, and European countries but rates are increasing for developing countries as well. 1 The risk of diabetes, hypertension, dyslipidaemia, cardiovascular disease and sleep apnoea are greater for overweight (body mass index (BMI)>25 kg/m 2 ) and obese (BMI>30 kg/m 2 ) individuals.2 There are various treatment options in practice such as diet therapy, regulation of physical activities, behaviour treatment, pharmacotherapy, surgical procedures and acupuncture.Acupuncture is one of the treatment options in traditional Chinese medicine for a wide array of conditions and gaining attention in modern medicine. Acupuncture is thought to have been practised for several thousand years in China.3 Nowadays, even modern clinics use it for the treatment of various conditions such as obesity. NIH consensus conference statement (1998) on acupuncture stated that acupuncture shows promising results for several conditions. 4Classic acupuncture points targeted in the treatment of obesity are Neiguan (P6),5 Besides these body points, there are also two points, generally targeted for appetite control, on the ear. In addition, to these generally recognised acupoints, an acupuncturist may use different points depending on his/her own experience. 4 The evidence for the effect of acupuncture on weight loss is mixed: readers can fi nd both supporting 6 7 and refuting [8][9][10] data.Ghrelin is produced by P/D1 cells in the stomach, 11 12 increases with hunger and decreases with satiety.13 Leptin, one of the products of adipose tissue, passes through the blood-brain barrier and reduces appetite.14 Ghrelin and leptin can be called coun...

No abstract

No abstract

Propofol may be a good choice of anaesthetic when an ischaemia-reperfusion injury is anticipated as in orthopaedic surgery requiring a tourniquet, due to its antioxidant properties, but halothane needs further study.

No abstract

The results are in accordance with the pro-oxidant role of chronic hyperglycemia, and the ability of stobadine to attenuate protein oxidation and improving tissue reductive capacity may account, at least partly for its observed beneficial effects on tissue function in diabetes.

Blood pressure control is an important component of cardiovascular disease prevention. Despite the advances in the treatment of hypertension; effective management remains poor. The combined use of multiple drug strategies fail to regulate blood pressure and chronic use of those agents cause severe side-effects. New strategies are required to control high blood pressure. We aim in our study to research the effects of acupuncture treatment on blood pressure of hypertensive patients who have already been exposed to antihypertensive drug therapy for at least 24 months. Each patient was using 1-3 antihypertensive drug of a heterogeneous pharmacological group ranging from ACE inhibitors, diuretics, and beta blockers and the most common complaint of those patients were fatigue, dizziness, weakness, headache and joint pain, sleeping problems, cold hands and feet, edema, depression. We did not alter patients' diet (salt intake), physical activity or use of antihypertensive drugs. The study includes 24 male and 10 female patients. Ki 3 (Taixi), Liv 3 (Taichong), Sp 9 (Yinlingquan), L.I. 4 (Hegu), Ht 7 (Shenmen), St 36 (Zusanli), Sp 6 (Sanyinjiao), Ki 7 (Fulio), Lu 9 acupuncture points were needled. After being treated with acupuncture for one month in every two days for a total of 15 sessions, we found significant reductions (p ? 001) in both systolic (from 163.14 +/- 19.33 to 129.49 +/- 18.52) and diastolic (from 94.37 +/- 19.70 to 79.31 +/- 7.87) blood pressures of these patients. The aim here is not to compare the effectiveness of acupuncture and drug therapy on blood pressure, but to simply report that on patients currently using antihypertensive medication, acupuncture facilitated a significant reduction in blood pressure and reduced the patients complaints. We therefore conclude that our data strongly suggest that acupuncture should be in the hypertension treatment guidelines and widely used for blood pressure regulation.