[왓처데일리]미국메리랜드 라오 교수는 국제약침학술대회에서 '염증 질환에 있어서의 침 치료: 그 사용과 역할'에 대해 논문을 최근 발표했다.

라오 교수는 논문에서 "침 치료는 임상적으로 각종 염증 질환 및 만성 통증에 쓰여져 왔다"고 전제," 여러 임상 실험을 통해서 침 (치료는) 그러한 만성 염증성 통증에 효과적이라는 것이 입증되었고 침의 역학 작용은 수 십 년 간 연구되고 있다"고 밝혔다.

라오 교수는 또 "본 연구에서는 시상하부 뇌하수체 부신 축이 전침의 항염증 효과에 영향을 준다는 결과가 나왔다"고 설명했다.

[다음은 라오 교수 논문 초록]

Acupuncture in Inflammatory Disease:
Use and Mechanisms
Lixing Lao, Ph.D., L.Ac.
Center for Integrative Medicine, Dept. of Family and Community Medicine University of Maryland Baltimore School of Medicine
520 West Lombard Street, Baltimore, MD 21201

Acupuncture has been used clinically for inflammatory disorders and chronic pain in such diseases and symptoms as back pain, headaches, rheumatoid arthritis, osteoarthritis, fibromyalgia, and inflammatory bowel diseases. Evidence-based medicine, as presented in clinical trials and systematic reviews with meta-analyses - including our own studies, show that acupuncture is effective in treating chronic inflammatory pain, and acupuncture’s mechanisms of action on inflammation have been widely investigated over the last decade. Using a persistent inflammatory pain rat model, our laboratory investigated the effects and the mechanisms of electro-acupuncture (EA) on inflammation and inflammation-induced persistent pain. Our findings suggest that at least one of the mechanisms behind EA’s anti-inflammatory effects is mediated by the hypothalamus-pituitary-adrenal axis; other mechanisms of these effects have also been reported and include the involvement of cytokines, cyclooxygenase (COX), opioids, and Vasoactive Intestinal Peptides (VIP).