CONFERENCE At-A-Glance SOCIETY FOR ACUPUNCTURE RESEARCH“Translational Research in Acupuncture:Bridging Science,Practice and Community” Chapel Hill,NC,March 19-21,2010

THURSDAY,March 18 Pre-Conference Workshops"lntroduction to current issues in acupunclure research""ConsideratiOns for developing COllaboration research between AOM COlleges and conventionaI medicalinstitutions"

ACUPUNCTURE RESEARCH & NEUROSCIENCE DEVELOPMENT

Acupuncture has been used in China for more than 2,000 years for the treatment of various kinds of diseases and symptoms. It is especially effective in the treatment of pain. In the late 1950s, there emerged a novel medical practice entitled "acupuncture anesthesia" (AA), i.e., acupuncture was claimed to be effective

Perspective of Calcium Imaging Technology Applied to Acupuncture Research

Acupuncture, a therapeutic treatment defined as the insertion of needles into the body at specific points(ie, acupoints), has growing in popularity world-wide to treat various diseases effectively, especially acute and chronic pain. In parallel, interest in the physiological mechanisms underlying acupuncture analgesia, particularly the neural mechanisms have been increasing. Over the past decades, our understanding of how the central nervous system and peripheral nervous system process signals induced by acupuncture has developed rapidly by using electrophysiological methods. However, with the development of neuroscience, electrophysiology is being challenged by calcium imaging in view field, neuron population and visualization in vivo. Owing to the outstanding spatial resolution, the novel imaging approaches provide opportunities to enrich our knowledge about the neurophysiological mechanisms of acupuncture analgesia at subcellular, cellular, and circuit levels in combination with new labeling, genetic and circuit tracing techniques. Therefore, this review will introduce the principle and the method of calcium imaging applied to acupuncture research. We will also review the current findings in pain research using calcium imaging from in vitro to in vivo experiments and discuss the potential methodological considerations in studying acupuncture analgesia.

CHINESE HUAI TANG NINE ACUPUNCTURE NEEDLES: RESEARCH ON THE NEW NINE ACUPUNCTURE NEEDLES THERAPY AND THE NEEDLING INSTRUMENTS (CONTINUED)

PART TWOThe Research on Chinese Huai TangNine Acupuncture Needles TherapyI The theoretical basis of ChineseHuai Tang Nine Needles Therapy.1) The kernel of the theoretical basis ofChinese Huai Tang Nine Needles Therapy.Chinese Huai Tang Nine Needles Therapyis to give full play to the treatment action of thespecifity and entirety of each needle. The speci-fity means that each needle has its own

RECENT PROGRESSES OF ACUPUNCTURE TREATMENT OF CEREBRAL HEMORRHAGE

In the present paper, the authors review recent progresses of acupuncture treatment of cerebral hemorrhage and theoretical research. Regarding the clinical application of acupuncture therapy, in the acute stage of the disease, many doctors adopt body acupuncture and scalp-acupuncture, fewer doctors applied eye acupuncture; while in the chronic stage of the disease, many medical workers employ body acupuncture, scalp-acupuncture, combined therapies of acupuncture, functional exercise, massage, acupoint injection, etc.. Concerning studies on the mechanisms of acupuncture in the treatment of cerebral hemorrhage, abundant experience evidence show that acupuncture can raise the activity of the plasma fibrinolytic system to promote the absorption of blood clots of the foci; improve microcirculation; reduce cerebral tissue edema; regulate some chemical substances’ levels to lessen harmful effects of oxygen free radicals; and enhance the patient’s immune function. However, some problems still exist in clinical researches at present and affect the reasonable evaluation on the clinical therapeutic effect of acupuncture.

Chinese Medicine in the United States:Historical Development and Growth

Chinese medicine is growing rapidly in the United States both as a field of research and in the daily treatment of illnesses.The popularity of Chinese medicine,particularly acupuncture,as a healing mechanism demonstrates American people’s positive experience with Chinese medicine and their embracing it as an alternative to the mainstream Western biomedicine.Chinese medicine is an important part of the Alternative and Complementary Medicine or Integrated Medicine in the United States health system.It is increasingly used and covered by health insurance.Although Chinese medicine has been in the United States since colonial times,it was discriminated against by local authorities.However,things began to change in the 1970s when individual states gradually passed laws to legalize the practice of acupuncture as a healing mechanism.American public interest in Chinese medicine,particularly acupuncture,was aroused by the media’s report of the“magic”power of acupuncture during President Nixon’s visit to China.Non-Asians studied acupuncture in the following decades,which contributed to the establishment of acupuncture as a profession in the American health system.The history of Chinese medicine in the United States illustrates that Chinese and Asian immigrants promoted Chinese medicine in the communities,while Chinese American medical scientists who were trained in biomedicine played an important role in shaping the biomedical method of acupuncture research.This article investigates the changes of Chinese medicine in the United States,with a focus on acupuncture.Situating the discussion in a larger context of social and cultural changes,this study examines the contributions of Chinese immigrants and the popularity of acupuncture in the United States.It analyzes the development of acupuncture practice and research,the professional training in Chinese medicine,and American people’s interest in using Chinese medicine as a reliable healing mechanism to many health problems,including chronic pain,cancer,and drug addictions.

Thinking on Clinical Research of Acupuncture

In its thousands of years of development, acupuncture, with its peculiar theoretical system and distinct clinical efficacy, has been quite active in medical history. At present, acupuncture is being used in 160 odd nations/areas, and has become an important constituent of medical sciences in the world. So it is of great significance as to how to further deepen its clinical research and raise its clinical efficacy in China, the mother country of acupuncture science, to acclimatize the ancient and full-of- vitality discipline with the modern social tide and to serve the health of human beings better.