The Spatial and Segmental Innervation of Somatic Acupoint — A Study of Canine Shen-Shu Point (BL-23)

Acupoint Massage for Managing Cognitive Alterations in Older Adults: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis

BACKGROUND

Cognitive disorders pose a major problem in the aging population across the globe. Acupoint massage has been used to improve cognitive functions in older adults. In this study, the authors performed a meta-analysis to evaluate the usefulness of acupoint massage in preventing cognitive declines in older adults.

DESIGN

The authors searched for randomized controlled trials (RCTs) reporting on the effectiveness of acupoint massage on cognition in older adults in the following literature databases: PubMed, MEDLINE, Embase, CINAHL, ScienceDirect, Foreign Medical Journal Service, Cochrane Library, VIP Information, Chinese National Knowledge Infrastructure, WANFANG, and Chinese Biomedical. Two reviewers independently extracted the data related to the study and participants' characteristics and the cognitive impairment outcomes. Only RCTs meeting the inclusion criteria were used in the present meta-analysis.

RESULTS

Eight RCTs with 657 participants in total (age ≥60 years) were included. It is actually 8 for synthetic and 6 in the meta-analysis. The authors calculated the pooled estimates of the random effects of changes in the Mini-Mental State Examination to compare the groups with and without acupoint massage. The merged mean difference (MD) was 1.94 (95% confidence interval, C.I., [1.41-2.47], p < 0.00001) after 3 months of acupoint massage treatment and 3.04 (95% C.I. [2.43-3.64], p < 0.00001) after 6 months of treatment. They also calculated the merged MD of the Wechsler Memory Scale-Revised Chinese version after 6 months of acupoint massage. Visual Reproduction was 2.95 (95% C.I. [1.30-4.60], p = 0.0005), Associate Learning was 1.89 (95% C.I. [1.41-2.37], p < 0.00001), Logical Memory was 2.85 (95% C.I. [2.06-3.63], p < 0.00001), and Digit Span was 3.16 (95% C.I. [2.59-3.73], p < 0.00001). The Cochrane Handbook for Systematic Reviews of Interventions was used to rate the quality of the studies, which was moderate overall.

CONCLUSION

The findings suggested that acupoint massage is an effective intervention for maintaining cognitive functions in older adults.

Principle Study of Head Meridian Acupoint Massage to Stress Release via Grey Data Model Analysis

This paper presents the scientific study of the effectiveness and action principle of head meridian acupoint massage by applying the grey data model analysis approach. First, the head massage procedure for massaging the important head meridian acupuncture points including Taiyang, Fengfu, Tianzhu, Fengqi, and Jianjing is formulated in a standard manner. Second, the status of the autonomic nervous system of each subject is evaluated by using the heart rate variability analyzer before and after the head massage following four weeks. Afterward, the physiological factors of autonomic nerves are quantitatively analyzed by using the grey data modeling theory. The grey data analysis can point out that the status of autonomic nervous system is greatly improved after the massage. The order change of the grey relationship weighting of physiological factors shows the action principle of the sympathetic and parasympathetic nerves when performing head massage. In other words, the grey data model is able to distinguish the detailed interaction of the autonomic nervous system and the head meridian acupoint massage. Thus, the stress relaxing effect of massaging head meridian acupoints is proved, which is lacked in literature. The results can be a reference principle for massage health care in practice.