COMMENTARIES
The Stress and Cancer Conundrum:
Is There a Lesson for Acupuncture?
Paul J. Rosch, MA, MD, FAC
MEDICAL ACUPUNCTURE
Volume 27, Number 3, 2015
In the latest issue of Medical Acupuncture, there is a commentary on the role of stress in the genesis of cancer. The author discusses how acupuncture possibly fits into a therapeutic regimen from a physiological point of view. He also calls for more efforts to legitimize acupuncture treatment with the medical establishment and cites my paper along with some others as efforts in that direction. Quote follows
Another giant step in the right direction stems from re-
search advances in heart rate variability (HRV), which pro-
vides the most accurate objective assessment of stress and
how its affects health.
58
Acupuncturists are utilizing HRV
increasingly to provide objective confirmation of their suc-
cess, because changes in HRV are also dramatic and could
provide clues about mechanisms of action involving the
autonomic nervous system.
59
In addition, the benefits are not
simply transient, given that one study last year showed that
HRV improved over weeks and months in patients who were
treated successfully for hypertension.
60
If GDV and HRV are
both valid measures of health and stress levels, we would
expect them to respond in a similar fashion. In that regard,
a statistically significant correlation has been confirmed
between pertinent GDV parameters and HRV changes in
healthy volunteers subjected to 3 different stressors.
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