Acupuncture for Stable Coronary Artery Disease and HRV

 

This study was done at UCLA, and nicely done.  I’m trying to get a reprint to see what exactly their treatment was, and what HRV parameters they were looking at. (Update: reprint hereMehta.Acupuncture.1-s2.0-S0167527314012017-main)  In sum, what they found was that the acupuncture caused vagal enhancement, but no change in other parameters.  And, (this is the first time I’ve ever seen this), an abstract of the abstract–>

We conducted a randomized, single-blind trial of traditional acupuncture (TA) vs. sham acupuncture (SA) vs waiting control (WC) in stable ischemic heart disease (SIHD) patients to evaluate cardiac autonomic function measured by heart rate variability (HRV). Exit mental stress HRV was higher in the TA compared to SA group for time and frequency domain markers of parasympathetic tone (all p ≤ 0.025), including a 17% higher vagal activity (p=0.008). These data document feasibility and provide sample size estimation for an outcome-based clinical trial of TA in SIHD patients for the prevention of sudden cardiac death.
Though I’m not surprised, I was not aware of the careful research done on cardiac arrhythmias  and
and angina pectoris.