Adjunct acupuncture alleviates angina: study
The therapy reduces the frequency of attacks when used alongside standard treatment, say Chinese researchers
Acupuncture is associated with reduced angina attack frequency in patients with chronic stable angina, researchers from China report.
They examined the efficacy and safety of acupuncture as an adjunctive therapy to anti-anginal therapies in a randomised clinical trial that compared acupuncture on the acupoints of the disease-affected meridian with acupoints on the non-affected meridian, sham acupuncture or no acupuncture.
After 16 weeks of guideline-recommended anti-anginal therapy as a baseline, all participants — except those in the no acupuncture group — received 12 sessions of acupuncture treatment.
Treatment was performed three times a week for four weeks, with each session lasting 30 minutes.
