Society For Acupuncture Research Hong Kong

These were my impressions from the  SAR conference in May, in Hong Kong.  I was asked to submit what I liked for the SAR Newsletter.

Where can we even start with impressions from the superlative conference in Hong Kong, the collaboration between SAR and RCMI Poly U? The conference’s theme was engaging Chinese medicine in modern healthcare. It definitely lived up to the promise. The quality of the presentations, the breadth of topics, and the wealth of practical recent studies applicable to clinical practice were incomparable. I wished I could have been in three places at once.

The discussion of the TARA  (Topological Atlas and Repository for Acupoint Research) project marked the beginning of the conference. TARA is an ambitious long-term project that maps the system of acupoints by anatomical and physiological features. This can’t help but make acupuncture research more robust, leading to more reliable clinical results. Ultrasound-guided acupuncture needling may be one way to take full advantage of this knowledge in the future. The conference ended with a discussion of AI and its potential uses in acupuncture practice and research.

So many topics were discussed in between. For example, autonomic activity is tightly correlated with inflammation, and many acupuncture studies have examined this precise application. From PCOS to anti-hypertension, to pain, to brain, lung, gut, and heart health, this correlation was a treasure trove of insights and future studies, not to mention practical applications for acupuncture practice. The role of the α7nAChR  receptor, triggered by the vagus nerve, continues to be a key mechanism for understanding acupoints and acupuncture’s effectiveness.   Vagal activity was also featured in a TAVNS (Transcutaneous Auricular Vagal Nerve Stimulation) session that included a presentation on the possibilities of home-based stimulation devices.   Acupressure studies also explored the possibilities of patient-empowered treatment.

The specifics of stimulation are coming into focus, not only which fibers to stimulate but how and with what frequency electroacupuncture is used to achieve which effect. Different frequencies lead to various physiological effects, so in one stunning example, one frequency affects the edema portion of the CFA-induced mouse foot swelling, and another is analgesic. In another, combining two different approaches for treating hypertension, one for inflammation and one for inhibiting sympathetic activity, resulted in a more pronounced reduction in blood pressure. We were presented with mind-bending specifics about messengers involved in acupuncture’s and moxibustion’s mechanisms, from cFos to ADP, to Il-6 and TNF, Il-1B, Il-10 to AMPK, and adiponectin, just to mention a few. This detail can only lead to better and more reliable results, rich potential for further studies, and promise for the practice of acupuncture.

Out of so many impressive takeaways, perhaps the most surprising was that they might have identified a genotype for acupuncture responders. The future is here?

 

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