This article was also commandeered by Fasmer out of Norway. He had a hand in Huang‘s other paper, presented at the ISAMS in 2011 where I presented a poster on HRV. I assume this is the same Huang, though it seems to be a common name. In this paper, from what I can tell from the abstract, the HRV improved during treatment as a whole, but not after the acupuncture was over with. I don’t continue monitoring after acupuncture is completed, but I wouldn’t be surprised that this is the case, since more often than not, the HRV goes back to baseline by the end of the 20 minute period.
14 Dec 4. pii: acupmed-2013-010441. doi: 10.1136/acupmed-2013-010441. [Epub ahead of print]
Effect of acupuncture at HT7 on heart rate variability: an exploratory study.
- 5Faculty of Medicine and Dentistry, Department of Clinical Medicine, University of Bergen, Bergen, Norway.
Abstract
OBJECTIVE:
To explore the effect of acupuncture at HT7 on heart rate variability (HRV) in healthy volunteers.
METHODS:
120 subjects were divided into four groups using a random number table. The following groups of acupuncture interventions were used: HT7 verum acupuncture; HT7 non-penetrating sham acupuncture; acupuncture at a sham point; and no acupuncture. HRV was recorded 10 min before, during and after each stimulation using an Actiheart ECG recorder.
RESULTS:
The HT7 verum acupuncture group had higher very-low frequency, low frequency and high frequency components of HRV compared with the control groups during but not after acupuncture. The HT7 verum acupuncture group also had higher SD of normal intervals compared with the sham needling and no acupuncture control groups.
CONCLUSIONS:
Our preliminary study suggests, subject to limitations, that acupuncture at HT7 could affect cardiac autonomic neural regulation in healthy subjects, manifest as increased HRV, most likely via the parasympathetic system.
TRIAL REGISTRATION NUMBER:
ChiCTR-TRC-08000302.
Published by the BMJ Publishing Group Limited. For permission to use (where not already granted under a licence) please go to http://group.bmj.com/group/rights-licensing/permissions.
KEYWORDS:
Acupuncture; HT7; Shenmen; autonomic nervous system; heart rate variability; sham acupuncture
