SKIN BLOOD-FLOW RESPONSE TO ACUPUNCTURE

It is claimed that acupuncture may have a clinical effect by reducing sympathetic tone, This can be assessed by changes in skin blood now. P revious research into this question has produced contradictory finding s, Therefore, a partially-blinded randomised trial was undertaken to i nvestigate blood flow changes in healthy volunteers. Seven volunteers received one session each of electroacupuncture, manual acupuncture an d sham acupuncture, one week apart, Blood flow was recorded by means o f a laser Doppler flowmeter, There were no significant rises in skin b lood flow in the group as a whole following any of the above intervent ions, A statistically significant fall in blood now during electroacup uncture was seen in those subjects who were not vasoconstricted at the outset, It returned to normal at the end of stimulation. These findin gs do not support the hypothesis that acupuncture leads to a reduction in sympathetic tone.