Effects of Combined Far‐Infrared Radiation and Acupuncture at ST36 on Peripheral Blood Perfusion and Autonomic Activities

Figures

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  Figure 1. Locations of acupoints along the stomach and gallbladder meridians over the lower leg. Acupuncture performed at acupoint Zusanli (ST36) located 4 cm anterior to the gallbladder meridian. Pseudoacupoint chosen on the same horizontal plane 4 cm posterior to gallbladder meridian.

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  Figure 2. Recording lasting for 30 minutes with the first 5 minutes being the baseline (stage 1), 5th to 20th minute being intervention phase (stage 2), and 20th to 30th minute being the recovery phase (stage 3). FIR: far-infrared radiation.

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  Figure 3. Changes in peripheral perfusion in testing subjects (n = 20) on receiving four different treatment strategies. AreaBaseline: summation of areas under arterial waveforms within 5 minutes of baseline recording. AreaStim: summation of areas under arterial waveforms for each five-minute recording at each substage after baseline. FIR: far-infrared radiation. ∗p < 0.02 at stage 2 versus stage 1 for each treatment strategy; †p < 0.04 at stage 3 versus Stage 1 for acupuncture, FIR, and combined treatment.

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  Figure 4. (a) Changes in LHR at different stages of treatment for subjects undergoing four kinds of therapies. LHR: low frequency power to high frequency power ratio; FIR: far-infrared radiation. ∗p = 0.041 at stage 2 versus stage 1 for subjects receiving acupuncture-FIR combined treatment; †p = 0.045 at stage 3 versus stage 1 for subjects undergoing pseudoacupuncture. Significance of difference determined by paired t-test. (b) Comparison of changes in LHR between pseudoacupuncture and acupuncture treatment. ∗p = 0.012 determined with post hoc test; (c) comparison of changes in LHR between pseudoacupuncture and combined acupuncture-FIR treatment. †p = 0.019 determined with post hoc test.