Treating High Blood Pressure with Acupuncture

St 36 - one of the points
mentioned in the studies

A new study demonstrates that acupuncture lowers blood pressure in patients diagnosed with hypertension (high blood pressure). Another study concludes that acupuncture lowers blood pressure levels in the long term as well as the short term. During my clinical studies in Beijing in 2000, I saw acupuncture used as a standard treatment for high blood pressure, and these studies bear out my clinical experience. This Healthcare Medicine Institute online article describes three different studies, each using slightly different acupoint protocols, but each working well to lower hypertension. All of the acupuncture points mentioned are ones that I am likely to use to treat hypertension but, as each patient is assessed individually in a traditional Chinese medicine approach, I do not generally use fixed lists of points.
One of the studies also showed that acupuncture stimulates neurons in specific brain regions controlling sympathetic nerve stimulation throughout the body, concluding that it is acupuncture's ability to activate brain centres that allows it to lower high blood pressure.

I usually try to explain the action of acupuncture to patients who ask how acupuncture works in western terms, by describing the acupuncture needle as sending an electrical signal to the brain which as a master computer, then sends out signal to correct imbalances and disorders in the body. You can look at the full article here and return to my website for further information.