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According to traditional Chinese medicine, hypertension is due to a problem in the circulation of qi, or energy, in the body, and is caused by bad diet and long-term emotional distress. Therefore, treatment is based on bringing the flow of energy back into balance in the body with a combination of acupuncture, exercises, herbs, and diet.1 Specific herbs were not named in this source, but a diet high in vegetables and low in fat, sugar, and alcohol was mentioned.
Acupuncture, and its effect on blood
pressure, has been studied in multiple trials. One systematic review and
meta-analysis looked at three randomized, sham-controlled studies, four studies
that compare
Qigong practice consists of a series of exercises including breathing, meditation, focus of intention, and rhythmical movements. It claims to foster health and healing by promoting the smooth flow of qi throughout the body so that the body can heal itself. One meta-analysis of qigong done with nine RCTs by Guo et al. showed that qigong did reduce BP, but not better than drug controls, conventional exercise, or muscle relaxation.6 A systematic review of qigong was also done by Lee et al. They looked at studies that compared qigong with medications to medications alone, as well as versus muscle relaxation and conventional exercise. This review reported that the quality of all of these studies were poor, but did show encouraging evidence that qigong did lower BP.11 |
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acupuncture to traditional antihypertensive medication, and four other studies
that looked at acupuncture given along with antihypertensive medication. This
paper by Lee et al. found that acupuncture was noninferior to antihypertensive
medications, but the quality of these studies was poor. It also found that when
compared to a sham procedure, acupuncture did not lower blood pressure (BP), and
did lower BP when used with antihypertensive medication.10 Nahas also
found mixed results in trials for acupuncture, one small positive trial and one
larger negative trial.16 Labarthe & Ayala report no published
randomized, controlled trials (RCTs) that have been able to show a benefit of
acupuncture for hypertension. They reason that this might be due to the complex
nature of acupuncture, and variety of locations and length of therapy.9
Lin et al. also accurately comments on acupuncture that for it to be of clinical
value in the future, it must provide an antihypertensive effect that persists
after the actual procedure, which has yet to be studied.12 Follow
this 