Efficacy and safety of chinese herbal foot bath for hypertension: A systematic review and meta-analysis.

BACKGROUND: Hypertension is a prevalent condition with significant impacts on human health. Chinese herbal foot bath, a traditional Chinese medicine treatment, is believed to help manage hypertension. OBJECTIVE: This systematic review aims to assess the efficacy of combining Chinese herbal foot bath with conventional treatment for hypertension. METHODS: A thorough search across eight databases was conducted to identify relevant studies on Chinese herbal foot bath for hypertension. Randomized controlled trials examining the benefits and risks of using Chinese herbal foot bath combined with conventional treatment for hypertension were included. Blood pressure changes before and after the Chinese herbal foot bath were assessed, and outcomes were analyzed using Review Manager 5.3 software. The certainty of evidence was evaluated using the GRADE tool. RESULTS: Compared to conventional treatment, Chinese herbal foot bath combined with conventional treatment demonstrated greater effectiveness in reducing systolic blood pressure (MD 6.69, 95% CI: 5.86 to 7.53, p < 0.00001) and diastolic blood pressure (MD 5.83, 95% CI: 5.23 to 6.43, p < 0.00001), which reported fewer adverse effects.These studies commonly present issues such as inadequate randomization, lack of blinding, and absence of independent testing for the purity or potency of herbs. CONCLUSION: The meta-analysis suggests that Chinese herbal foot bath combined with conventional treatment may effectively manage hypertension, with few adverse effects. However, high-quality clinical trials are still needed to confirm these findings due to methodological weaknesses in randomization, blinding, long-term follow-up, and independent testing for the purity and potency of herbs.

Acupuncture therapies for relieving pain in pelvic inflammatory disease: A systematic review and meta-analysis.

BACKGROUND: Studies investigating the effectiveness of acupuncture therapies in alleviating pain in pelvic inflammatory disease (PID) have gained increasing attention. However, to date, there have been no systematic reviews and meta-analyses providing high-quality evidence regarding the efficacy and safety of acupuncture therapies in this context. OBJECTIVE: The objective of this review was to assess the efficacy and safety of acupuncture therapies as complementary or alternative treatments for pain relief in patients with PID. METHOD: A comprehensive search was conducted in eight databases from inception to February 20, 2023: PubMed, Embase, Web of Science, the Cochrane Library, China National Knowledge Infrastructure, Wanfang Database, VIP Database, and Chinese Biomedical Literature Database. Randomized controlled trials (RCTs) investigating acupuncture therapies as complementary or additional treatments to routine care were identified. Primary outcomes were pain intensity scores for abdominal or lumbosacral pain. The Cochrane risk of bias criteria was applied to assess the methodological quality of the included trials. The Grading of Recommendations, Assessment, Development, and Evaluations (GRADE) system was used to evaluate the quality of evidence. Data processing was performed using RevMan 5.4. RESULT: This systematic review included twelve trials comprising a total of 1,165 patients. Among these, nine trials examined acupuncture therapies as adjunctive therapy, while the remaining three did not. Meta-analyses demonstrated that acupuncture therapies, whether used alone or in combination with routine treatment, exhibited greater efficacy in relieving abdominal pain compared to routine treatment alone immediately after the intervention (MD: -1.32; 95% CI: -1.60 to -1.05; P < 0.00001). The advantage of acupuncture therapies alone persisted for up to one month after the treatment (MD: -1.44; 95% CI: -2.15 to -0.72; P < 0.0001). Additionally, acupuncture therapies combined with routine treatment had a more pronounced effect in relieving lumbosacral pain after the intervention (MD: -1.14; 95% CI: -2.12 to -0.17; P < 0.00001) in patients with PID. The incidence of adverse events did not increase with the addition of acupuncture therapies (OR: 0.56; 95% CI: 0.21 to 1.51; P = 0.25). The findings also indicated that acupuncture therapies, as a complementary treatment, could induce anti-inflammatory cytokines, reduce pro-inflammatory cytokines, alleviate anxiety, and improve the quality of life in patients with PID. CONCLUSION: Our findings suggest that acupuncture therapies may effectively reduce pain intensity in the abdomen and lumbosacral region as complementary or alternative treatments, induce anti-inflammatory cytokines, decrease pro-inflammatory cytokines, alleviate anxiety, and enhance the quality of life in patients with PID, without increasing the occurrence of adverse events. However, due to the low quality of the included trials, the conclusion should be interpreted with caution, highlighting the need for further high-quality trials to establish more reliable conclusions.

Acupuncture for painful diabetic peripheral neuropathy: a systematic review and meta-analysis.

Background: Painful Diabetic Peripheral Neuropathy (PDPN) is a common complication of diabetes, it severely affects the quality of life of patients. Acupuncture has been shown to be effective in the treatment of PDPN. To evaluate the efficacy and safety of acupuncture for pain relief in patients diagnosed with diabetic peripheral neuropathy, we conducted a systematic review and meta-analysis. Method: We thoroughly searched specific databases, which included PUBMED, EMBASE, Web of Science, the Cochrane Library, the Chinese Biomedical Literature Database, the Chinese National Knowledge Infrastructure, China Science and Technology Journal Database and the Wanfang Data. All randomized controlled trials of acupuncture therapy for PDPN with pain change scales were included. Included studies were assessed for methodological quality according to the risk of bias from the Cochrane handbook. Meta-analyses were carried out to analyze the outcomes, subgroup analyses, sensitivity analyses, and funnel plot analyses were undertaken. Results: This systematic review evaluated a total of 25 trials of acupuncture therapy in combination with conventional treatment, involving a total of 1,561 patients with PDPN. According to the results, among 16 trials using VAS scores with a total of 1,552 patients, 2 acupoint injection trials (MD -2.38, 95% CI: -2.76 to -2.01, p < 0.00001), 12 acupuncture trials (MD -1. 31, 95% CI: -1.60 to -1.02, p < 0.00001) and 2 moxibustion trials showed that acupuncture therapy combined with conventional treatment improved pain better than conventional treatment (MD -2.50, 95% CI: -2.76 to -2.24, p < 0.00001). In the subgroup analysis of the acupuncture group, the results of the 5 trials in which the location of acupuncture was only in the limbs (MD -1.27, 95% CI: -1.54 to -1.01, p < 0.00001) and the 7 trials both in limbs and torso (MD -1.38, 95% CI: -1.81 to -0.95, p < 0.00001) also demonstrated that acupuncture was effective in pain improvement. Conclusion: This meta-analysis analyzed the possible efficacy of acupuncture in combination with conventional treatment for pain in diabetic peripheral neuropathy, particularly when acupoints are located in the limbs. However, there are limitations to this meta-analysis and future clinical studies are needed to confirm these findings. Systematic review registration: https://www.crd.york.ac.uk/prospero/display_record.php?ID=CRD42023449447, identifier (CRD42023449447).