It’s been used by medical professionals for more than 3,000 years. Over 13,300 studies have been done on it. It’s even been proven to be useful for at least 117 different conditions.
And yet does any other long-standing treatment out there have as many critics as acupuncture?
The mainstream loves to attack the practice, claiming there’s NO WAY in the world it can work. They insist NOTHING happens inside the body when you get poked with those pins. Just a pointy placebo, they say.
Well, my friend, it’s time for all the critics and naysayers to zip it. Because a new animal study shows yet again, clear as day, that this treatment can activate REAL changes deep inside the body.
And these changes can accomplish something even more incredible than the pain relief that acupuncture is so famous for.
In fact, it could CHANGE THE GAME for some cancer patients, delivering life-altering and potentially even life-saving benefits.
Acupuncture helps calm immune-system storms
You may have heard the phrase “cytokine storm” tossed around a lot lately. This immune-system overreaction is one of the coronavirus risks that can make the disease turn deadly so quickly.
In fact, I wrote about how one expert confirmed that a common vitamin which helps regulate cytokines has the potential to offer “some modest protection for vulnerable populations,” when it comes to coronavirus. Click here to catch up on that exciting news.
But that’s not the only time these potentially deadly storms appear.
It’s also what happens in cases of sepsis. It can strike if you have certain immune system problems. And it’s a risk of immunotherapy, chemotherapy, and other cancer treatments.
It’s that last one that makes this discovery so important.
Because if the new study is any indication – and if it holds up to human trials – it could become a vital complementary therapy for cancer patients.
In the new study on mice, researchers used acupuncture to respond to the inflammatory response to a bacterial infection designed to trigger cytokine storms.
And if the experiment ended there, the results would be impressive enough on their own. Because if nothing else, it’s rock-solid proof that SOMETHING does happen inside the body during acupuncture. And also, HOW it’s used can affect those reactions.
But the study didn’t stop there.
Acupuncture linked to TRIPLE survival rates
The researchers used electroacupuncture, a form of the ancient practice in which there’s a mild electric charge in the needles. And they found they could alter how specific cells produce stress hormones in response to inflammation.
They got different reactions by changing the timing, location, and stimulation levels. And incredibly, the practice was linked to saving lives.
In mice suffering from a bacterial-induced cytokine storm, very low-intensity electroacupuncture slashed the inflammation of the “storm” and TRIPLED survival rate. Just 20 percent of the mice without acupuncture survived, versus 60 percent of those that got the treatment.
A second experiment used mice that weren’t already suffering from a cytokine storm. The scientists wanted to see if the treatment could help prevent it from happening in the first place. And the answer is yes.
When timed just right… just before the storm… a high-intensity (basically, more electricity) electroacupuncture treatment QUADRUPLED survival, from 20 percent to 80 percent.
However, they also found that if they waited too long, this same high-intensity treatment had the opposite effect, leading to more inflammation and more severe disease.
In other words, like with so many things in life, timing is everything.
Ancient practice used in modern-day settings
The new study results are incredibly promising. And there’s every reason to believe we’d see something similar in people. But we need more research – and human studies – to confirm its works the same way in us.
If you or someone you care about is going through cancer treatment, their is good news. This ancient practice isn’t always treated like some far “out there” notion. In fact, traditional acupuncture is already helping with the side effects of cancer treatment, including pain, fatigue, nausea, vomiting, and more.
Electroacupuncture isn’t calming cytokine storms in clinical settings yet. But it HAS been successfully used to help relieve pain in cancer patients, reduce tumor sizes in mice, and slash sleep disturbances and hot flashes in breast cancer survivors.
Talk to a doctor skilled in holistic or complementary medicine about how acupuncture could best help you.
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