Key result
Vagal nerve electroacupuncture emerges as a potential strategy to lower cardiovascular disease risk.
Why the study?
Although electroacupuncture regulates vagal nerve activity to prevent cardiovascular diseases, little is known about vagal sensory nerve coding, and the physiological background of how electroacupuncture influences interoception remains incompletely explored.
Electroacupuncture represents a potential surface-level neuro-modulatory strategy for cardiovascular disease by targeting multidimensional vagal sensory nerve loops.
Hypothesis-generating for vagal electroacupuncture in CVD prevention; randomized trials needed before clinical adoption.
PURPOSE: The vagal sensory nerve (VSN) is an essential interoceptive pathway that is connected to every level of the body. Its intricate genetic coding provides sustenance for physiological processes, including controlling blood pressure and respiration. Electroacupuncture (EA) is a proven surface stimulation therapy that can regulate vagal nerve activity, which can effectively prevent cardiovascular diseases. A growing number of studies have concentrated on the mapping of VSN codes, but little is known, and the physiological background of how EA influences interoceptive has not been fully explored. METHOD: Here, we incorporate the hypothesized interaction among EA targets, VSNs, and the heart. This offers suggestions for using a versatile and focused EA strategy to modify vagal interoceptive awareness to enhance cardiovascular conditions. We first clarified the major role of vagal nerve in the control of cardiac activity. Additionally, we clarified the multidimensional coding pattern in the VSNs, revealing that the targeted control of multimodal interoceptive is the functional basis of the synchronization of cardiovascular system. FINDING: We propose a strategy in which EA of the VSNs is employed to activate the interoceptive loop and reduce the risk of cardiovascular disease.
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Liu et al. (2024) conducted a review in Cardiovascular diseases. Electroacupuncture was evaluated. Electroacupuncture of the vagal sensory nerves is proposed as a potential therapeutic strategy to activate the interoceptive loop and reduce the risk of cardiovascular disease.
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