Key result
Lifting-and-thrusting laser acupuncture increases alpha and theta brainwave power vs standard laser, matching traditional needles.
Why the study?
To understand the effect of a lifting-and-thrusting laser acupuncture model on electrodermal activity of acupoints, pulse characteristics, and brainwave to further verify its efficacy.
Does lifting-and-thrusting laser acupuncture affect electrodermal activity, pulse characteristics, and brainwaves compared to standard laser acupuncture or traditional needle acupuncture?
Does lifting-and-thrusting laser acupuncture affect electrodermal activity, pulse characteristics, and brainwaves compared to standard laser acupuncture or traditional needle acupuncture?
Lifting-and-thrusting laser acupuncture significantly alters electrodermal activity, pulse characteristics, and brainwaves, with effects potentially comparable to traditional needle acupuncture given sufficient stimulation time.
Supports parameter optimization in laser acupuncture; leaves open clinical translation versus needle methods.
Acupuncture has been shown as an effective traditional Chinese medicine treatment method, especially for pain relief. Recently, laser acupuncture is becoming increasingly popular, thanks to its noninvasive and painless nature and effectiveness in treating diseases, proven by many studies (for example, some previous studies showed that low-power laser stimulation is able to increase the power of alpha rhythms and theta waves). In our prior work, we developed a novel laser acupuncture model that emulates lifting-and-thrusting operation commonly used in traditional needle acupuncture and showed its benefit in improving cardiac output and peripheral circulation. By extending our previous studies, in this work, we perform extensive experiments to understand the effect of such a system on electrodermal activity (EDA) of acupoints, pulse characteristics, and brainwave, to further verify its efficacy. In particular, we found that laser stimulation could cause significant changes in EDA of acupoints, pulse amplitude, pulse-rate-variability (PRV), and acupoint conductance, as a function of laser power and stimulation time. In addition, laser acupuncture with the lifting-and-thrusting operation has more significant effect on increasing the power of alpha and theta frequency bands as compared to laser acupuncture without the lifting-and-thrusting operation. Finally, given sufficient stimulation time (e.g., > 20 min), the performance of a low-powered laser acupuncture with the lifting-and-thrusting operation could be comparable to that of traditional needle acupuncture.
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Lan et al. (2023) studied this question. Lifting-and-thrusting laser acupuncture vs. Laser acupuncture without lifting-and-thrusting / traditional needle acupuncture was evaluated on Electrodermal activity of acupoints, pulse characteristics, and brainwave. Lifting-and-thrusting laser acupuncture significantly increased alpha and theta brainwave power compared to standard laser acupuncture, and was comparable to traditional needle acupuncture at >20 min.
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