Can moxibustion, an ancient treatment modality, be evaluated in a double-blind randomized controlled trial? —— A narrative review

For thousands of years, moxibustion has been used for various diseases in China and other Asian countries. Despite the recent surge in Chinese herbal studies, few randomized controlled trials have been conducted on this modality, possibly due to the lacking of suitable double blinding methodology. This is a review of extant sham moxa devices and an introduction to a recently developed device that needs further validation.

Meridian system and mechanism of acupuncture action:A scientific evaluation

Objective:To search all available sources to find incontrovertible scientific explanation of the meridian system and mechanism of acupuncture action.Methods:Extensive search of electronic databases was carried out to identify all published scientific articles,research papers and experimental findings regarding meridian system,acupuncture points and mechanisms of acupuncture action,from both English and Chinese language journals,from inception till date.Results:There are many hypotheses and studies about meridian system such as,primovascular system as meridian,nuclear tracers study to locate the track of meridian,infrared imaging studies to prove existence of meridians,investigations about anatomical structure of acupoints,etc.There are many researches and theories about mechanism of acupuncture action such as gate control theory of acupuncture analgesia,neurotransmitters,neuro-endocrine-immune network,fMRI evidences of brain’s processing of pain signal etc.Conclusion:Researchers over half a century discovered many factual information about meridian system,acupoints,neuro-transmitters and acupuncture analgesia,neuro-hormonal mechanism etc.All these important discoveries contributed to clarify the mysteries of meridian system and acupuncture action,but they still fell short of providing an incontrovertible scientific explanation.Further coordinated studies are warranted to explore more plausible and scientifically valid explanation of meridian system and acupuncture action.

Traditional Indian medicine and history of acupuncture in India

Acupuncture, a component of Traditional Chinese Medicine, is well known to have been originated in ancient China and propagated to neighboring countries including India and now throughout the world.India having an ancient civilization had a rich traditional medicine called Ayurveda which consisted of herbal medicine, surgery, yoga and 'Suchi veda' treatment. Ayurveda gained popularity throughout the ancient India and was also disseminated into the neighbors. Suchi veda was like a pricking therapy but there is no record of its consistent practice afterwards throughout the Christian era and Middle Ages.There is record of dissemination of Chinese acupuncture in India in the 6 th century but its use was not persistent afterwards, till it was re-introduced in the mid-twentieth century, by a Chinese trained Indian physician in 1959. Currently practice of acupuncture is fast developing throughout India. some state governments already officially recognized it and recently the central government of India declared state recognition to acupuncture as an independent system of therapeutics in the health care system of the country.

On the concise expression of acupuncture and moxibustion

History of the two words"acupuncture"and"moxibustion"is briefly reviewed.By etymological analysis,the reason to coin these two words are given.Due to their inconvenience of being lengthy,efforts have been done to find a concise expression for the phrase"acupuncture and moxibustion".However,present expressions are either not short enough or awkward to be understood by western readers.Since acronyms are widely used nowadays and become part of human life,it is suggested to use"AnM"for"acupuncture and moxibustion"based upon detailed analysis in three aspects:concise in from;not awkward in expression;not ambiguous in meaning.