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"Acupuncture
shown to work on brain in pain relief says BBC2 programme"
Date:
24.01.2006
BBC2's programme
"Alternative Health" showed researchers carrying out brain scans
on people having acupuncture. The BBC Two show also featured heart surgery
done using acupuncture instead of a general anaesthetic. The patient is
conscious during the operation in China, but she was given sedatives and a
local anaesthetic.
In Alternative Medicine: The Evidence, volunteers were subjected to deep
needling, which involves needles being inserted 1cm into the back of the
hand at well-known acupuncture points. A control group underwent
superficial needling with needles placed only 1mm in. The needles are then
'twiddled' until the participants feel a dull, achy or tingling sensation.
For those in the deep needling group this stimulates the nervous system.
During these two procedures, the volunteers underwent brain scans to see
what, if any, effect there was in the brain. The team, including leading
scientists from University College London, Southampton University and the
University of York, found the superficial needling resulted in activation
of the motor areas of the cortex, a normal reaction to pain. But with deep
needling, the limbic system, part of the pain matrix, is deactivated.
The finding was surprising because experts had always assumed acupuncture
activates the brain in someway. Professor Kathy Sykes said: "The pain
matrix is involved in the perception of pain - it helps someone decide
whether something is painful or not, so it could be that acupuncture in
some ways changes a person's pain perception.
"We have found something quite unexpected - that acupuncture is
having a measurable effect on the human brain. We are not suggesting that
it should be used during surgery, although it is in China, but just that
it acts as a pain relief and should be taken seriously."
Video clip: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/health/4631930.stm
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