Acupuncture for Blood Pressure Control in Stroke Patients: Case Reports

Abstract

Background: Effective control of hypertension is deeply associated with the secondary prevention of stroke. The blood pressure-lowering effect of acupuncture alone is controversial but worthy of exploration, considering the side effects of and the problems of low adherence to drugs. Case Reports: One male patient experienced severe dizziness after overuse of valsartan, which decreased his blood pressure to 110/70 mm Hg. Our acupuncture treatment of 40 sessions alone regulated his blood pressure to about 110/70-130/80 mm Hg, with disappearance of the dizziness after 3 sessions. The second male patient with a suboptimal blood pressure during treatment with 50 mg/day of irbesartan received sole acupuncture treatment of 41 sessions, which decreased his blood pressure to about 120/70-130/80 mm Hg after 6 sessions. The third patient, who refused to take antihypertensive drugs because of their side effects, received acupuncture treatment of 46 sessions over 2 months, which reduced his blood pressure from 150/90 to 120/80 mm Hg. The efficacy continued for 3 months (cases 1 and 3) or 2 months (case 2) post treatment end. Conclusion: Our cases suggest the potential of acupuncture alone to favorably control high blood pressure or regulate low blood pressure in stroke individuals, as a means of secondary prevention of stroke.

Regulation of Hypertension for Secondary Prevention of Stroke: The Possible ‘Bridging Function' of Acupuncture

“…Objectively speaking, acupuncture can be used as an adjunct to antihypertensive drugs for a larger reduction of high BP [11] in patients with both hypertension and stroke, particularly when they experience the side effects of drugs [12,13]; this aspect of acupuncture for the treatment of hypertension can support the judgment of the above-mentioned meta-analysis by Katsanos et al [7]. On the other hand, the meta-analysis by Wang et al [6] indicates that multiple targets other than regulation of the BP are needed for preventing stroke recurrence.…”

The application of acupuncture in cardiopathy: A bibliometric analysis based on Web of Science across ten recent years

“…Several clinical trials have proven that acupuncture therapies [including abdominal acupuncture ( 22 ), auricular acupuncture ( 22 , 23 ), electroacupuncture ( 24 ), and transcutaneous electrical acupoint stimulation ( 25 )] have therapeutic effects on multiple types of hypertension [prehypertension and mild hypertension ( 26 , 27 ), renal failure-induced hypertension ( 28 ), hypertension in stroke patients ( 29 , 30 ), and hypertension in perimenopausal women ( 19 , 31 )]. However, more than 5 meta-analyses suggested that, subject to a high risk of bias, undesirable sham acupuncture control and insufficient treatment and follow-up period, there was no evidence for the sustained blood pressure lowering effect of acupuncture, which is required for the long-term management of chronic hypertension ( 32 – 37 ).…”

Acupuncture lowering blood pressure for secondary prevention of stroke: a study protocol for a multicenter randomized controlled trial

“…With the great success of XingNaoKaiQiao , academician Xue-min Shi gained deeper insight into secondary stroke prevention, and established another acupuncture treatment for hypertension called HuoXueSanFeng , the BP-lowering acupuncture regimen used in our trial. Our previous researches have shown that this acupuncture method reduces BP for primary hypertension patients, and its immediate and long-term antihypertensive efficacy is significant for either BP-lowering or improving the patients’ clinical symptoms [ 27 – 33 ]. So, here we also want to investigate the BP-controlling effect of HuoXueSanFeng , especially regarding its sole efficacy, in a larger sample size population.…”

“…Given that complementary and alternative interventions are recommended for mild and moderate hypertensive patients [ 26 ], we cautiously decided to select the hypertensive patients with uncontrolled BP (systolic BP ≥ 140 and < 160, or/and diastolic BP ≥ 90 and < 100 mmHg) who were taking one class of antihypertensive drugs to be the participants. The difference between the control and experimental groups is that in our experimental group, after a period of BP-lowering acupuncture add-on treatment, i.e., the “ HuoXueSanFeng ” needling method which has been proved to positively treat primary hypertension [ 27 – 33 ], if the BP falls below 140/90 mmHg, the prior antihypertensive drugs will be ceased, so as to observe the clinical effects of pure acupuncture on BP. Moreover, aiming to create a situation that is analogous to the real world, antihypertensive drugs will be adjusted based on the patients’ BP readings (detailed in the “Antihypertensive medication adjustment” section below) in both groups, respectively.…”