Vietnam first proves the scientific value of acupuncture

Acupuncture methods have long been used to treat pain in Vietnam.MaleHowever, it is only recently that scientists have proven that electroacupuncture stimulates acupoints to increase the production of beta-endorphin, a type of morphine that has pain-relieving effects.

This scientific topic is also one of the outstanding medical and pharmaceutical achievements of the Vietnamese medical industry.Male. The study was conducted on rabbits and over 1,200 patients with pain due to lumbar spine degeneration, duodenal ulcers, nasopharyngeal cancer and pain after thyroid surgery. These are all quite common diseases today. It is estimated that 80% of people of working age in our country have lumbar spine degeneration. Nasopharyngeal cancer also has the 5th highest incidence rate among common cancers.

Associate Professor Nghiem Huu Thanh, Director of the Acupuncture Hospital and Head of the project, said that one of the strengths of acupuncture is the field of pain treatment using electroacupuncture, using an electric pulse generator to stimulate acupuncture points. Therefore, the study aims to clarify the scientific basis of this method in treatment.

Research results show that electroacupuncture is highly effective in pain relief. It increases the levels of chemical mediators involved in the pain mechanism. For example, the Beta-endorphin level increased from 43.58 pg/ml to 51.70 pg/ml after the first electroacupuncture session and to 55.94 after 7 electroacupuncture sessions... Beta-endorphin is an endogenous morphine with pain relieving effects similar to exogenous morphine.

Associate Professor Nghiem Huu Thanh, Director of the Central Acupuncture Hospital, said that in particular, electroacupuncture can help reduce pain after thyroid surgery, reduce pain due to late-stage esophageal cancer... The pain relief lasts for 3-4 hours. At the same time, it also helps restore the patient's swallowing and drinking functions faster, while other measures cannot intervene.

"It is important that patients do not need to take painkillers, this is especially important for patients with late-stage neck cancer. The body is already very tired and weak, if you take more painkillers, it will only have a temporary effect but will increase the workload for the liver and gallbladder, which are already overloaded. This will cause damage to these two organs and quickly lead to weakness, making it easier to contract other diseases," said Associate Professor Thanh.

According to him, in fact, over time, traditional medicine has been modernized, combining Eastern and Western medicine, bringing high treatment efficiency. Such as the method of acupuncture, injecting drugs that are indicated for intramuscular injection such as vitamins, nerve tonics, antibiotics or implanting absorbable threads into acupuncture points, prolonging the treatment effect... It is even possible to use acupuncture needles to create enough anesthesia for surgeries such as abdominal surgery, gastrectomy, goiter removal... without the need for anesthesia or sedation.

Not only that, acupuncture is popular and easy to apply anywhere, even at the commune health level. The cost is low because it does not require high-end medical equipment. However, patients often only seek Eastern medicine when Western medicine "has no cure". It is very unfortunate to consider Eastern medicine as a "last resort" because the patient has lost the opportunity for a faster recovery.

“Combining traditional medicine with modern medicine does not mean separating the two methods, treating with a course of Western medicine and then switching to Eastern medicine, but combining both at the same time. Currently, the combination is following the style of Eastern medicine separately, Western medicine separately, only when Western medicine has no other way will we turn to Eastern medicine to see if there is anything else that can be done,” Associate Professor Thanh said.

According to VNExpress