According to an article posted by HealthCare Medicine Institute:
"A new study of patients with vascular dementia concludes that acupuncture is effective in improving cognition. Vascular dementia, caused by brain damage due to impaired blood flow to the brain, is common after a stroke. Any condition damaging blood vessels that feed oxygen and nutrients to the brain may lead to vascular dementia. The researchers observed that acupuncture measurably reduced levels of 8-OHdG, a marker of oxidative damage. As a result, the researchers conclude “that acupuncture is beneficial at least in part by preventing oxidative damage.”
Acupuncture
for the BrainAnother study compared scalp acupuncture with
body-style acupuncture. In this randomized controlled clinical trial, 184
subjects with vascular dementia received either scalp acupuncture or body
acupuncture. The scalp acupuncture group showed significantly greater
improvements in cognition than the body-style acupuncture group. Social behavior
scores and ADL (Activities of Daily Living) improved significantly in both
groups. The researchers concluded that scalp acupuncture significantly improves
cognition, activities of daily living, TCM (Traditional Chinese Medicine) signs
and symptoms, mental state and social behavior in patients with vascular
dementia."When I further researched 8-OHdG, I found some very interesting info from the National Center for Biotechnology Information:
"Reactive oxygen species (ROS) produced either endogenously or exogenously can attack lipid, protein and nucleic acid simultaneously in the living cells. In nuclear and mitochondrial DNA, 8-hydroxydeoxyguanosine (8-OHdG), an oxidized nucleoside of DNA, is the most frequently detected and studied DNA lesion. Upon DNA repair, 8-OHdG is excreted in the urine. Numerous evidences have indicated that urinary 8-OHdG not only is a biomarker of generalized, cellular oxidative stress but might also be a risk factor for cancer, atherosclerosis and diabetes. For example, elevated level of urinary 8-OHdG has been detected in patients with various cancers. In human atherosclerotic plaques, there were increased amounts of oxidatively modified DNA and 8-OHdG. Elevated urinary 8-OHdG and leukocyte DNA were also detected in diabetic patients with hyperglycemia, and the level of urinary 8-OHdG in diabetes correlated with the severity of diabetic nephropathy and retinopathy. We have discussed various methods for determining 8-OHdG in the tissue and urine, including HPLC with and without extraction, and ELISA. Using the ELISA we developed, we found that the normal range of urinary 8-OHdG for females was 43.9 +/- 42.1 ng/mg creatinine and 29.6 +/- 24.5 ng/mg creatinine for males, respectively. We found that the normal value between females and males is significantly different (p < 0.001)."
Wow! 8-OHdG may be a risk factor for Cancer, Atherosclerosis, AND Diabetes! So, just imagine if that hormone can be lowered with acupuncture--you could be helping to prevent these diseases!
I think this is a very exciting and groundbreaking find in the field of acupuncture.
Until next week, folks!
Daisy
Maplebrook Community Acupuncture
P.S. Below are the links to articles and studies mentioned if you'd like to read further!
http://www.healthcmi.com/index.php/acupuncturist-news-online/640-acupunctureceusdementiatcmcognition
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/22876443
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/14687888
No comments:
Post a Comment