Implementation of laser acupuncture with lifting-thrusting through the use of mechanically immobile components.

Lifting and thrusting constitute an important manipulation method in traditional Chinese acupuncture. Lifting and thrusting enables the implementation of various features, such as reinforcement and reduction, which enhance acupuncture effectiveness. Laser acupuncture stimulates acupoints through laser light, which is a noninvasive treatment, but can still achieve effects similar to those obtained from traditional acupuncture. Lifting and thrusting can be achieved by moving the laser focal point back and forth, thus concentrating the energy, as does the tip of the acupuncture needle when it is moved upward and downward in the acupoint. This article presents a novel optical design of a laser acupuncture device, in which a focus-tunable lens is used to move the position of the focused light in order to achieve the lifting and thrusting mechanism through programmable changes to the control current of the focus-tunable lens. The device employs an infrared laser with a wavelength of 808 nm and a maximum power of 150 mW. The focus-tunable lens used in this study had a diopter of -10 to +5. The results revealed that by controlling the lens diopter, the focused light can be moved from 4.5 to 9.5 cm. Therefore, the range of the lift and thrust for the laser acupuncture device was 5 cm. The area of the focal point was approximately 6×10(-3) mm2, which is comparable to that of the commonly used traditional acupuncture needle tip. Because the components are immobile, no additional space is required for the moving lens. Therefore, the size of the laser acupuncture head can be minimized, and the effectiveness of focus tuning can be improved.

Emulated laser-acupuncture system.

A novel laser-acupuncture system was developed that can be used to implement the manipulation methods of traditional acupuncture, such as lifting and thrusting. A 780 nm laser diode with a maximum power of 90 mW was used as the light source. The focus point of the laser beam was adjustable by changing the position of the lens, facilitating the implementation of the lifting and thrusting methods of traditional Chinese medicine and achieving various stimulation depths at the acupuncture point. The images for the light spots from the outlet of the emulated laser acupuncture were captured at various distances and their sizes were calculated. The result showed that the diameter of the focused light spot (i.e., at the focus point) was 0.11 mm, which is close to the diameter of commonly used needles (with diameters of approximately 0.22 mm). The area of the light spot 1 cm from the focus point was approximately 50 times larger, indicating that the unit power might be 1/50 of the power of the focus point. To study the effect of emulated laser acupuncture on human meridians, after stimulating the Shenmen point (HT7) of five subjects and obtaining their Ryodoraku values of the heart meridian and the small-intestine meridian, a paired t test showed that the laser stimulation incorporating lifting and thrusting was significantly higher than the laser stimulation without lifting and thrusting (p<0.05). The result is consistent with traditional acupuncture in that acupuncture incorporating lift and thrust is more effective than that without lift and thrust.

Effects of the New Lift-Thrust Operation in Laser Acupuncture Investigated by Thermal Imaging.

Acupuncture manipulation is one of the key factors affecting the performance of acupuncture in Traditional Chinese Medicine. Lift-thrust and twirl-twist are two of the most commonly used manipulation methods for needle acupuncture. We previously have developed a novel laser acupuncture model that emulates lift-thrust operation. In this study, we intend to show the effectiveness of such a model by applying it on the Neiguan acupoint (PC6). Stimulation was reported to be beneficial for improving cardiac output and peripheral circulation. Therefore, we hypothesized that the stimulation of laser acupuncture may increase the temperature of the subjects' fingertip due to increased peripheral blood flow. A thermal imager was used to measure the temperature change of subjects' fingertips. Through regression analysis, it has been shown that while PC6 is stimulated, laser acupuncture with lift-thrust operation caused a more rapid, stable, and lasting temperature rise of fingertip than that without lift-thrust operation. On the contrary, we observe no significant temperature change when a sham point nearby PC6 (a point which is not traditionally defined as the acupoint) was stimulated. Our results suggest the emulation of manipulation methods such as the lift-thrust operation could be a potential direction for the future development of laser acupuncture.

Complementary therapy of traditional Chinese medicine for blood sugar control in a patient with type 1 diabetes.

OBJECTIVE: Using a case study to discuss the effects of traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) treatments on Type 1 diabetes mellitus. CLINICAL FEATURES: A 4-year-old girl with sudden polyuria and nocturia (fasting plasma glucose level: 270mg/dL) was diagnosed with type 1 diabetes. Although multiple daily insulin injections were applied, her plasma glucose levels were still unstable. Therefore, she received a complementary TCM therapy by taking modified Liu-Wei-Di-Huang-Wan (3.0g/day; three times daily) for 3 months. After the treatments, her plasma glucose levels appeared to be more stable. HbA1c 6.5% and insulin injections were reduced to only once a day. CONCLUSIONS: The results suggest that complementary TCM therapy has the ability to assist some patients with type 1 diabetes mellitus in controlling their plasma glucose levels.

Effects of Chinese herbal medicine in combination with mitomycin C on gastric cancer cells.

Chinese herbal medicine (CHM) is frequently used by cancer patients in Chinese community. It remains largely unknown about the interaction between CHM and chemotherapeutic agents. Herein, we evaluated 3 commonly used CHM formulas for cancer patients: Bu-Zhong-Yi-Qi-Tang (BZYQT), Bao-Yuan-Tang (BYT), and Ju-Yuan-Jian (JYJ). We examined the effects of these 3 formulas in human gastric cancer cells MKN-74, in terms of cytotoxicity and apoptosis induction when used alone or in combination with mitomycin C (MMC). Cytotoxicity was determined by tetrazolium dye colorimetric assay. The 10% inhibitory concentration of CHM was used in this study. Cells were first exposed to CHM or phosphate buffered saline (as control) for 48 h. Then MMC at final concentration of 0.25 µg/ml was added to media for another 24-h. Among these 3 CHM formulas, BZYQT showed the most pronounced effect in augmenting MMC-induced cytotoxicity. The viability of MKN-74 cells was decreased to 43.1% when treated with BZYQT and MMC, compared to 94.9% with MMC alone. We subsequently examined apoptosis induction by quantitative florescent microscopy and single-strand DNA enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay, and found BZYQT did not enhance MMC-induced apoptosis. Our findings indicate BZYQT in combination with MMC induces cell death in gastric cancer cells via non-apoptotic mechanism. Our results provide a rationale for further investigation in the interaction of CHM and anti-cancer treatment.