Hsueh Kuang-Chieh, Wang Jenq-Haur, Chen Chi-Ying, Chen Jin-Hua, Hsiao George, Kuo Yu-Cheng
Department of Family Medicine, Kaohsiung Veterans General Hospital, Kaohsiung, Taiwan.
Department of Computer Science and Information Engineering, National Taipei University of Technology, Taipei, Taiwan.
J Tradit Complement Med. 2023 Jul 15;13(6):568-574. doi: 10.1016/j.jtcme.2023.07.003. eCollection 2023 Nov.
Acupuncture has been criticized as a theatrical placebo for the sham effect. Unfortunately, sham tests used in control groups in acupuncture studies have always ignored the underlying biophysical factors, including resonance involved in acupuncture points and meridians.
In this study, the effects of sham acupuncture at Tsu San Li (St-36) were examined by analyzing noninvasive 30-sec. recordings of the radial arterial pulses for 3 groups of patients treated with different probes (blunt, sharp, and patch) on the superficial skin of the acupuncture point. The 3 groups were then treated with the sharp probe for 3 different periods (16, 30, and 50 s). Then we compared the harmonics of the radial arterial pulse after Fourier transformation before and after the treatment.
Our results indicated that different probes have effects similar to needle insertion at Tsu San Li. Meanwhile, the harmonic effect of the sharp probe strengthened as time increased.
This study revealed that the meridian effect of sham testing from mechanical stimulation, even from simple touch, on an acupuncture point, should not be overlooked. Thus, even simple touch can be added to electrical or laser acupuncture.
针灸因假针刺效应而被诟病为一种戏剧性的安慰剂。遗憾的是，针灸研究中对照组所采用的假针刺测试一直忽略了潜在的生物物理因素，包括穴位和经络中的共振现象。
在本研究中，通过分析对3组患者针刺足三里（St-36）时采用不同探头（钝头、尖头和贴片）作用于穴位表层皮肤的无创30秒桡动脉脉搏记录，来检测假针刺的效果。然后，这3组患者用尖头探头进行3种不同时长（16、30和50秒）的治疗。接着，我们比较了治疗前后经傅里叶变换后的桡动脉脉搏谐波。
我们的结果表明，不同探头产生的效果与针刺足三里相似。同时，尖头探头的谐波效应随时间增加而增强。
本研究表明，即使是对穴位的机械刺激，甚至是简单触摸所产生的假针刺测试的经络效应也不应被忽视。因此，即使是简单触摸也可应用于电针或激光针灸。
