Acupuncture treatment linked to reduced stress levels

Source: Georgetown University News, Experimental Biology and Medicine

For those experiencing stress, acupuncture treatment may provide relief.

A study out of Georgetown University developed from a professor and acupuncturist’s observation that her patients undergoing acupuncture treatments seemed to experience low levels of stress and possessed a “better overall sense of well-being.”

She designed a study with rats to explore how acupuncture affects the blood levels of neuropeptides involved in the body’s “fight or flight” response to stress.  When the stressed rats received an electro-acupuncture treatment, their stress-related protein levels lowered almost to the level of the control group.

The rats that were not treated with acupuncture maintained high levels of the stress protein.

A second study found that the treatment also had a protective effect. The rats that received the acupuncture treatment continued to experience lower levels of the protein four days after their treatment, even when they continued to experience stress.