Alzheimer's Research: Acupuncture Helps With Depression and Anxiety

Call me a miner.

I admit it: I’m always plumbing the Internet for scientific research that supports the effectiveness of acupuncture and Chinese Medicine. I know how hard it is for many people to take acupuncture and Chinese Medicine seriously, so when there’s a “find” I have a “Eureka!” moment. Very satisfying.

In this case, the issue was acpuncture's role in treating the anxiety and depression that often accompany Alzheimer's Disease.

The background.

In one of his recent newsletters, which I read all the time, Dr. Joseph Mercola publicized the results of a long-term Alzheimer’s study showing how a low-fat diet rich in fruits and vegetables – basically a Mediterranean Diet – lowered the chances of coming down with this debilitating disease. Conversely, according to the collaborative German study with Italian and American researchers www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2009/09/090909064910.htm, people who ate less healthy food were more likely to experience Alzheimer’s.

Symptoms of Alzheimer’s are an insidious mix of physical and mental decline. Early signs are confusion, loss of memory and inability to understand a joke. As it progresses, victims lose more memory, cognitive function, ability to relate and general bodily independence.

Rates in the United States, which has one of the worst national diets in the Western world, are on the upswing. Already, as many as 2.4- to 4.5-million people are living with Alzheimers, according to the National Institute on Aging.

But I’ll mention at least two ways in which acupuncture and Chinese Medicine enter the picture.

One, it’s now very clear from extensive research that the same lifestyle and dietary habits that contribute to heart disease also increase one’s chances of developing Alzheimer’s. Although China is adopting many of our unhealthy eating habits as it modernizes, the classic Chinese diet is very heart friendly – low in fatty animal protein and high in whole grains, fruits and vegetables. Chinese medicine practitioners recognized long ago the dangers of greasy, fatty meals.

Chinese Medicine's sensitivity to the whole person can help practitioners spot long-term threats to the heart and mind. Acupuncture, especially when combined with herbal formulas and Qi Gong exercises, can help keep both healthy.

Secondly, research supports the use of acupuncture for the anxiety and depression. My source this time was the first World Conference on Alzheimer’s in July 2000 in Washington, D.C., where attendees heard about research from a pair of studies, including one by the Wellesley College Center for Research on Women www.acupuncturetoday.com/mpacms/at/article.php?id=27681

The World Health Organization long ago deemed acupuncture an effective treatment for depression. The Wellesley study focused specifically on dementia. It took 11 elderly patients – average age 76 – with mild to moderate Alzheimer’s or Vascular Dementia. For three months, they received acupuncture two to three times a week. They also continued using their prescribed medication.

At the end of three months, researchers concluded that acupuncture reduced anxiety and depression. Not only that, the patients had less pain and more energy.

“Acupuncture appears to be very helpful in relieving anxiety, improving mood, increasing energy, improving some aspects of well-being and decreasing mood-related behaviors,” the study said.

The results underscored what Chinese Medicine practitioners already know: that acupuncture improves neurological function. In recent years, neurological mapping by Harvard Medical School Assistant Professor of Radiology Vitaly Napadow has begun to demonstrate just how acupuncture acts on the nervous system, the ultimate arbiter of mental and physical homeostasis in the body. In addition, by keeping the patients on their current medication, the study once again showed that acupuncture need not replace a patient’s existing care.

Typical of holistic practitioners, Chinese Medicine physicians believe they can reduce many peoples’ drug loads. But they also know that, except in rare cases, acupuncture doesn’t interfere with Western medical care. In fact, as this study once again proves, it only makes Western Medicine better.