| Objectives. Traditional Chinese medicine uses the Neiguan acupoint, (which is located on the palmar face of the forearm, some 6--8 cm above the wrist fold), to treat cardiovascular diseases, especially coronary diseases, arterial hypertension and chronic vomiting.; In 1998, Li et al. published a paper in "Circulation" based on this principle, but which assumed that the real mechanism behind such therapeutic effects is that acupuncture stimulation of the Neiguan acupoint is effective because what it really does is to stimulate the median nerve which is located deep at this point; the authors provoked experimental myocardial ischemia and completely reverted the phenomenon by repeatedly stimulating the median nerve, surgically located in the same area as the Neiguan acupoint.; Methods. The thesis proposed is to evaluate to what extent the acupunctural stimulation of the Neiguan acupoint is capable of altering vegetative nerve function values (systolic and diastolic blood pressure, cardiac frequency and pilorector and sudoriferous activity, the latter being evaluated by means of a study of sympathetic electrical response) in healthy persons, in order to discover the underlying mechanisms which would explain the effect, from the point of view of western, experimental, deductive medicine.; Results. Needle stimulation of the Neiguan acupoint until De-Qi is provoked causes significant changes in all of the vegetative parameters studied. To assess to what extent these changes can be attributed to orthodox Neiguan puncture and not to another type of interference, puncture experiments were carried out at two other points: one outside the acupuncture channel and another within the same channel, the Quze, and which has practically the same relationship as Neiguan to the median nerve which passes deep through both of these points. In this way we can ensure that the puncturing of any area of the skin, regardless of whether it is an acupoint or not, does not have an effect on vegetative parameters and also ensure that the most important factor in the Neiguan effect is its proximity to the median nerve.; Conclusion. According to very recent contributions of functional magnetic resonance and evoked potential studies, the hypothesis established and partially corroborated by the aforesaid functional studies, is that the level of action of these acupuncture stimuli is located in high cerebral structures: the hypothalamus and thalamus and the somaesthetic cerebral cortex. |
