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The article focuses on moving the Complementary and Integrative Health Research Field Toward Whole Person Health. Topics discussed include the mindset for whole person health is borne out of pragmatic challenges see every day in the experiences of patients and the stubbornly persistent and interconnected factors that can lead people into a poor state of health; and the current health crises have galvanized us to better understand the importance of the environment as a determinant of health.

Despite having made substantial progress in academic rigor over the past decades, acupuncture research has been the focus of long-standing and persistent attacks by skeptics. One recurring theme of critics is that the concept of acupuncture points has no scientific validity. Meanwhile, the subject of whether-or-not acupuncture points ''exist'' has been given too little attention within the acupuncture research community. In this article, we argue that failure to use clear terminology and rigorously investigate the subject of acupuncture points has hindered the growing legitimacy of acupuncture as an evidence-based therapy. We propose that a coordinated effort is needed to improve the use of terminology related to acupuncture points, combined with rigorous investigation of their ''specificity'' and possible biological basis. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article proposes that some components of acupuncture missing from the Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) model are related to important advances in physiology and medicine. Topics discussed include differences in the diagnostic process in Western medicine, TCM, and classical Chinese medicine, musculoskeletal system as one system that remained separate and outside of internal medicine, and a basic component of classic Chinese medicine that emerged early on.

Research into acupuncture has had ripple effects beyond the field of acupuncture. This paper identifies five exemplars to illustrate that there is tangible evidence of the way insights gleaned from acupuncture research have informed biomedical research, practice, or policy. The first exemplar documents how early research into acupuncture analgesia has expanded into neuroimaging research, broadening physiologic understanding and treatment of chronic pain. The second describes how the acupuncture needle has become a tool to enhance biomedical knowledge of connective tissue. The third exemplar, which illustrates use of a modified acupuncture needle as a sham device, focuses on emergent understanding of placebo effects and, in turn, on insights into therapeutic encounters in treatments unrelated to acupuncture. The fourth exemplar documents that two medical devices now in widespread use were inspired by acupuncture: transcutaneous electrical nerve stimulators for pain control and antinausea wrist bands. The final exemplar describes how pragmatic clinical trial designs applied in acupuncture research have informed current general interest in comparative effectiveness research. In conclusion, these exemplars of unanticipated outcomes of acupuncture research comprise an additional rationale for continued support of basic and clinical research evaluating acupuncture and other under-researched therapies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the field of acupuncture research there is an implicit yet unexplored assumption that the evidence on manual and electrical stimulation techniques, derived from basic science studies, clinical trials, systematic reviews, and meta-analyses, is generally interchangeable. Such interchangeability would justify a bidirectional approach to acupuncture research, where basic science studies and clinical trials each inform the other. This article examines the validity of this fundamental assumption by critically reviewing the literature and comparing manual to electrical acupuncture in basic science studies, clinical trials, and meta-analyses. The evidence from this study does not support the assumption that these techniques are interchangeable. This article also identifies endemic methodologic limitations that have impaired progress in the field. For example, basic science studies have not matched the frequency and duration of manual needle stimulation to the frequency and duration of electrical stimulation. Further, most clinical trials purporting to compare the two types of stimulation have instead tested electroacupuncture as an adjunct to manual acupuncture. The current findings reveal fundamental gaps in the understanding of the mechanisms and relative effectiveness of manual versus electrical acupuncture. Finally, future research directions are suggested to better differentiate electrical from manual simulation, and implications for clinical practice are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objectives: Acupuncture needle manipulation causes mechanical deformation of connective tissue, which in turn results in mechanical stimulation of fibroblasts, with active changes in cell shape and autocrine purinergic signaling. We have previously shown using ultrasound elastography in humans that acupuncture needle manipulation causes measurable movement of tissue up to several centimeters away from the needle. The goal of this study was to quantify the spatial pattern of tissue displacement and deformation (shear strain) in response to acupuncture needling along an intermuscular connective tissue plane compared with needling over the belly of a muscle. Design: Eleven (11) healthy human subjects underwent a single testing session during which robotic acupuncture needling was performed while recording tissue displacement using ultrasound. Outcome measures were axial and lateral tissue displacement as well as lateral shear strain calculated using ultrasound elastography postprocessing. Results: Tissue displacement and strain extended further in the longitudinal direction when needling between muscles, and in the transverse direction when needling over the belly of a muscle. Conclusions: The anisotropic tissue motion observed in this study may influence the spatial distribution of local connective tissue cellular responses following acupuncture needle manipulation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article provides information on a roundtable discussion concerning the paradoxes in acupuncture research. The topics discussed include the findings generated by the Society for Acupuncture Research (SAR) board on the paradoxes in acupuncture research, such as the unclear influence of needling parameters to therapeutic outcomes in clinical trials, and the measures to be taken to resolve these paradoxes. The event features several personalities, such as Peter M. Wayne and Vitaly Napadow.

On November 8–9, 2007, the Society for Acupuncture Research (SAR) hosted an international conference to mark the tenth anniversary of the landmark NIH [National Institutes of Health] Consensus Development Conference on Acupuncture. More than 300 acupuncture researchers, practitioners, students, funding agency personnel, and health policy analysts from 20 countries attended the SAR meeting held at the University of Maryland School of Medicine, Baltimore, MD. This paper summarizes important invited lectures in the area of basic and translational acupuncture research. Specific areas include the scientific assessment of acupuncture points and meridians, the neural mechanisms of cardiovascular regulation by acupuncture, mechanisms for electroacupuncture applied to persistent inflammation and pain, basic and translational research on acupuncture in gynecologic applications, the application of functional neuroimaging to acupuncture research with specific application to carpal-tunnel syndrome and fibromyalgia, and the association of the connective tissue system to acupuncture research. In summary, mechanistic models for acupuncture effects that have been investigated experimentally have focused on the effects of acupuncture needle stimulation on the nervous system, muscles, and connective tissue. These mechanistic models are not mutually exclusive. Iterative testing, expanding, and perhaps merging of such models will potentially lead to an incremental understanding of the effects of manual and electrical stimulation of acupuncture needles that is solidly rooted in physiology. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

To develop and evaluate a method for quantitative evaluation of yin and yang (yin and yang scores) in human subjects for the purposes of research. This method aims to classify subjects into groups allowing future quantitative testing of key research questions such as: do different groups of patients respond differently to acupuncture treatments or Chinese herb formulas? These results indicate that (1) yin and yang can be quantified in a reliable manner, but evaluation by multiple acupuncturists is necessary to obtain a reliable score; (2) yin and yang scores can be used to group individuals for the purposes of statistical analysis. Further evaluation of yin and yang scores in a greater number and wider variety of patients will be needed to evaluate the potential usefulness of this measurement tool in acupuncture clinical trials and basic physiologic research. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article offers information on "The Status and Future of Acupuncture Research: 10 Years Post-NIH Consensus Conference" that was held at the University of Maryland School of Medicine, Baltimore, on November 9-11, 2007. The conference included lectures, panel discussions and poster presentations about acupuncture research.

Announces the collaboration between the Society for Acupuncture Research (SAR) and "The Journal of Alternative and Complementary Medicine." Background on the establishment of SAR; Policy of the U.S. government on accupuncture; Role of SAR in promoting accupuncturists.

The article reports that the Society for Acupuncture Research held its 11th annual symposium in October 2004, in San Francisco, California, sponsored by the University of California, San Francisco Institute for Health and Aging. Abstracts from research reports are published in this issue of The Journal of Alternative and Complementary Medicine. Highlights of the symposium were: Keynote lectures by Donald Abrams, Chief of Hematology and Oncology, at San Francisco General Hospital, and Suzanne Dibble of the Institute of Health and Aging and Physiological Nursing; panel discussions on community and school-based research and herbal research.

Comments on the issues about the Traditional Chinese Medicine research. Need for quantitative diagnosis of the subjective aspects of Traditional Chinese Medicine diagnosis to help stratify patients; Risk involved in an attempt to codify the diagnostic process of Traditional Chinese Medicine; Effect of reductionism on Traditional Chinese Medicine diagnosis.