| Background and objective:With the acceleration of the pace of social life and the increase of pressure, the sub-health has become a serious problem for human health. It was reported that about 17.8 to 60.5 percent people are suffering from sub-health and the prevalence rate trends to be higher yearly. Because of the complexity of the sub-health mechanism and performance, there is still a lack of effective treatment methods for large groups of people.Our earlier study showed that the majority of sub-healthy people have autonomic nervous dysfunction. The sub-healthy people mainly contain the following two categories:one category with increasing sympathetic activity performs irritability, insomnia and more dreams. The other category with increasing parasympathetic activity performs depression and lethargy. Therefore, if these two types of autonomic disturbances can be recuperated with targeted method, it is possible to greatly improve the sub-health intervention, and also provide new ideas for large-scale population intervention.Among the current sub-health conditioning methods, Such as drug treatment, psychological behavior regulation and traditional Chinese medicine method, the acupuncture in traditional Chinese medicine can improve the function of autonomic nervous system. In recent years, with the popularization of the simple and accurate autonomic nerve detection method, more and more scholars use HRV analysis method to evaluate the influence of acupuncture on autonomic nervous system function. Indeed, some researches have proved that acupuncture can improve and regulate the sympathovagal balance. But the current research is still in the initial stage, we cannot distinguish whether the different acupuncture points have different effects on the autonomic nervous system. Therefore, it is not appropriate to screen out the methods of regulating different kinds of autonomic nervous disorder.At present, the autonomic regulation mechanism of acupoint was studied deeply in Hegu and Neiguan points. Eva Haker and David Yu found that acupuncture Hegu point can elevated sympathetic activity. But there are contrary opinions, Kaoru Sakatani’s research results indicated that acupuncture cannot effect sympathetic nerve activity significantly, and Monique Ernst reported that acupuncture at Hegu point produce the inhibition of sympathetic nerve activity. Luo Liping and Shengteng Huang found that acupuncture of Neiguan can make the parasympathetic nerve activity increased, but cannot affect sympathetic nerve activity significantly. But there are contrary opinions also. Jing Sun believed that acupuncture Neiguan can make the parasympathetic nerve activity decreased, while elevated sympathetic activity. It is concluded that the existing research cannot give a unified and convincing conclusion. These discrepancies might be caused by the following reasons. (1) The selected population was different; (2) Acupuncture and control groups were nonstandard; (3) The intervention was not uniform; (4) The statistical analysis of the data was nonstandard; (5) the observation time was not enough.In order to lay the laboratory foundation for conditioning of different types of autonomic nervous function in sub-healthy group, we assessed the effects of acupuncture at Hegu and Neiguan points on the autonomic activity and compare the effects between these two different processes in a before-after self-control study.Methods:SubjectsA total of 28 healthy volunteers including 15 females and 12 males were involved in this study from January 2015 to December 2015.Research designOur study aimed to assess the effects of acupuncture on autonomic activity in a self-control study in 28 health volunteers. Each subject was given three tests in different days. Test 1:Acupuncture at Hegu points bilaterally. Test 2:Acupuncture at Neiguan points bilaterally. Teat 3:acupuncture at sham points near Hegu point bilaterally. Before the test, the volunteers were asked to lie on back for 30 minutes relaxation. And then volunteers had to stay in a chair quietly. After 30 minutes, the needles were manually stimulated by rotating, lifting, and lowering for 30, while in the sham group needles were manipulated on the skin. The needles were kept in position for 30 minutes without further stimulation until removed. After removal of the needles, the volunteers still need to lie quietly for an additional 30 minutes. The study was performed in a quiet room with ambient temperature (24℃). Volunteers were requested to limit physical activity in the test process, so as not to affect the recorded ECG data. After disinfection, needling acupuncture was performed with Huatuo brand silver needle (Suzhou Medical Supplies Co., Ltd., the specification is 0.35 * 50mm (2-inch needle) and 0.35 * 25mm (1 inch needle)).Twenty-four-hour ECG monitoringStandard 12-chanel ambulatory electrocardiogram (Peng Yang Feng Ye medical equipment industry, Beijing, China) was applied to obtain continuous ECG data during test. HRV parameters include heart rate, VLF (very-low-frequency power, 0.003-0.04 Hz), LF (low-frequency power,0.04-0.15 Hz), HF (high-frequency power, 0.15-0.40 Hz), and LF/HF (the ratio between low-frequency power and high-frequency power).Statistical analysisExcel 2010 software was applied for the double data entry of original data. Data processing and analysis were performed with SPSS Version 20.0 software. In the statistical analysis, the measurement data were expressed by mean ± standard deviation, and the count data were expressed by frequency or constituent ratio. Overall analyzed between groups is analyzed by repeated measures two-way ANOVA. If data don’t meet the requirement of Mauchly’s test of sphericity, the freedom is corrected by Greenhouse-Geisser correction coefficient. The indexes in the same time of all groups are performed by independent-samples t test. Paired-samples t-test was used to compare the HRV parameters between groups. A two-tailed p-value of less than 0.05 was considered to statistical significance for all comparisons.Results:Data collection and elimination:A total of 28 healthy volunteers including 15 females and 13 males were involved in this study from January 2015 to December 2015. volunteers were between 20 to 29 years old(mean age 25.6±1.5 years, mean BMI 20.3±2.7 Kg/m2). One participant who had discomfort during acupuncture was excluded. After eliminated the abnormal data.13 volunteers experienced all of the three tests.19 volunteers experienced both the acupuncture Hegu point and sham point tests.16 volunteers experienced both the acupuncture Hegu point and Neiguan point tests.15 volunteers experienced both the acupuncture Neiguan point and sham point tests.Heart rate effect of acupuncture at Hegu point,Neiguan point and sham pointRepeated measures two-way ANOVA showed that there was a significant difference in group effect, time effect, and group*time effect among three groups on heart rate (P<0.05). There was a significant difference in time effect and group*time effect between Hegu group and sham group on heart rate (P<0.05). There was a significant difference in group effect and time effect between Neiguan group and sham group on heart rate (P<0.05). Only significant difference in time effect was found between Hegu group and Neiguan group. It was found that heart rate decreased significantly in the 10 minutes after acupuncture Hegu point. There was a significant heart rate decrease significantly in the 10 minutes after acupuncture and the 10 minutes before removed the needles in Neiguan group.VLF effect of acupuncture at Hegu point. Neiguan point and sham pointRepeated measures two-way ANOVA showed that there was a significant difference in group effect and group*time effect between Hegu group and sham group on VLF (P<0.05). There was no significant difference in group effect, time effect and group*time effect between Neiguan group and sham group on VLF (P>0.05). Only significant difference in time effect was found between Hegu group and Neiguan group. It was found that VLF increased significantly in the 10 minutes after acupuncture at Hegu point.LF effect of acupuncture at Hegu point. Neiguan point and sham pointRepeated measures two-way ANOVA showed that there was a significant difference in group*time effect among three groups on LF (P＜0.05). There was no significant difference in group effect, time effect, and group*time effect between Hegu group and sham group on LF (P>0.05). There was a significant difference in group*time effect between Neiguan group and sham group on LF (P<0.05). There was no significant difference in group effect, time effect, and group*time effect between Hegu group and Neiguan group on LF (P>0.05). It was found that LF increased significantly in the 10 minutes after acupuncture at Neiguan point.HF effect of acupuncture at Hegu point. Neiguan point and sham pointRepeated measures two-way ANOVA showed that there was a significant difference in group*time effect among three groups on HF (P<0.05). There was a significant difference in group*time effect between Hegu group and sham group on HF (P<0.05). There was a significant difference in time effect and group*time effect between Neiguan group and sham group on HF (P<0.05). There was a significant difference in time effect and group*time effect between Hegu group and Neiguan group on HF (P＜0.05). It was found that HF increased significantly in the 10 minutes after acupuncture at Neiguan point.LF/HF effect of acupuncture at Hegu point, Neiguan point and sham pointRepeated measures two-way ANOVA showed that there was no significant difference in group effect, time effect, and group*time effect among three groups on LF/HF (P>0.05). There was no significant difference in group effect, time effect, and group*time effect between Hegu group and sham group on LF/HF (P>0.05), and also no significant difference in group effect, time effect, and group*time effect between Neiguan group and sham group on LF/HF (P>0.05). Only significant difference in time effect was found between Hegu group and Neiguan group.Conclusion:1 There was no significant effect on heart rate during the period of acupuncture in sham group, but the heart rate was significantly increased after the needle was pulled out. During Hegu point acupuncture heart rate decreased temporarily. The decrease of heart rate was also found in Neiguan group. And the length of decrease time in Neiguan group was longer than Hegu group. There was a significant difference on heart rate between Hegu group and sham group. The data showed that the difference was mainly affected by the 10 minutes after acupuncture. There was a significant difference on heart rate between Neiguan group and sham group. And the difference was mainly affected by the 10 minutes after acupuncture. There was no significant difference on heart rate between Hegu group and Neiguan group.2 Acupunctured at Neiguan point and sham point cannot affect the VLF significantly. But we can found the VLF increased significantly after acupunctured at Hegu point. There was a significant difference on VLF between Hegu group and sham group. And the difference was mainly affected by data of the 10 minutes after acupuncture and the 10 minutes after removed the needles. There was no significant difference on VLF between Neiguan group and sham group. There was no significant difference on VLF between Hegu group and Neiguan group.3 Acupunctured at sham point can increase sympathetic activity in the period after removed needles. Acupuncture has no effect on sympathetic activity in Hegu group. Acupunctured at Neiguan point can increase sympathetic activity in the 10 minutes after acupuncture. But the sympathetic activity down to baseline level soon. There was no significant difference on LF between Hegu group and sham group. There was a significant difference on LF between Neiguan group and sham group. And the difference was mainly affected by the data of 10 minutes after acupuncture. There was no significant difference on LF between Hegu group and Neiguan group.4 Acupuncture has no effect on parasympathetic activity in Neiguan group and Hegu group. Acupunctured at Neiguan point can increase parasympathetic activity in the 10 minutes after acupuncture. But the sympathetic activity down to baseline level soon. There was a significant difference on HF between Hegu group and sham group. And the difference was mainly affected by the data of the 10 minutes after acupuncture. There was a significant difference on HF between Neiguan group and sham group. And the difference was mainly affected by the data of the 10 minutes after acupuncture. There was no significant difference on HF between Hegu group and Neiguan group.5 Acupuncture has no effect on sympathovagal balance in Hegu group, Neiguan group and sham group. |
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