Sleep apnea is a common disorder in which people have one or more pauses in breathing or shallow breaths while they are asleep. They generally don't wake up fully when this happens, but in the morning they feel exhausted and continue to feel sleepy during the day.
There are two types of sleep apnea. Obstructive sleep apnea(OSA) is the most common and is caused when your throat muscles relax, blocking your airway. The other type, central sleep apnea, is caused when your brain doesn' t send the right signals to the muscles that control your breathing. Some people have a combination of the two types, called complex sleep apnea.
It has been a long history for using Acupuncture in the treatments of sleep disorders. Recently, there are two research articles published in English by same authors in Brazil, in regard to the treatment of OSA with acupuncture. In the first clinical trial, they observed 26 patients, in the second, they observed 40 patients. The two papers showed similar result.
Patients were randomly allocated to manual treatment (MA), Electro-acupuncture 10 Hz treatment, EA 2 Hz treatment and a no-treatment control group (n=10). After 10 sessions of treatment, they found that the Apnea–Hypopnoea Index, the Apnoea Index and the respiratory events decreased significantly in the MA and EA 10 Hz groups, respectively. In addition, a single session of either MA or EA 10 Hz had an acute effect in reducing the AHI as well as the number of nocturnal respiratory events of patients presenting with moderate OSA. The study authors proposed that acupuncture somehow alters the serotonergic pathways that are related to the caudal raphe neurons that control the muscles of the upper airway.
Dr. Steve Park, MD, an ENT surgeon, had used the same treatment method for his OSA patients. He said that “I’ve had mixed results using the same protocol for sleep apnea. But when it works, it works really well. Regardless, there’s minimal risk of complications’
A study in China trying to compare the effects of acupuncture and nasal continuous positive airway pressure (nCPAP) in the treatment of OSA. The final conclusion is that acupuncture can do as good as nCPAP at the end of the treatment although nCPAP seems doing better during the treatment. In addition, auricular plaster acupuncture therapy shows some benefit effect too.
It is still unkown why acupuncture works for this dreadful disorder. But the effect of acupuncture in arosing the peripheral and central nervous system may be involved.
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Reference:
Freire AO, Sugai GC, Togeiro SM, Mello LE, Tufik S. Immediate effect of acupuncture on the sleep pattern of patients with obstructive sleep apnoea Acupunct Med. 2010 Sep;28(3):115-9. Epub 2010 Jun 15.
Freire AO, Sugai GC, Chrispin FS, Togeiro SM, Yamamura Y, Mello LE, Tufik S.Treatment of moderate obstructive sleep apnea syndrome with acupuncture: a randomised, placebo-controlled pilot trial.Sleep Med. 2007 Jan;8(1):43-50. Epub 2006 Oct 4.
Bo C, Zhang XS, Huang H, Jia Y, Xie XM. [A study on differences of curative effects of acupuncture and nCPAP for treatment of OSAHS]. Zhongguo Zhen Jiu. 2008 Feb;28(2):79-83.
Wang XH, Xiao LY, Wang BF, Yuan YD, Pan WS, Shi YZ.Influence of auricular plaster therapy on sleeping structure in OSAS patients. J Tradit Chin Med. 2009 Mar;29(1):3-5.
http://doctorstevenpark.com/acupuncture-lowers-sleep-apnea-by-almost-50-after-one-treatment
