Acupuncture may lower stroke risk in rheumatoid arthritis patients

A series of acupuncture treatments may reduce the increased risk of stroke associated with rheumatoid arthritis, finds a comparative study published in an open access journal BMJ open.

This effect appears to be independent of gender, age, drug use, and comorbidities, the researchers found, and researchers found that the treatment lowered pro-inflammatory proteins in the body that are associated with inflammation ( This suggests that levels of cytokines (cytokines) may be reduced. Cardiovascular disease.

The main cause of death in patients with rheumatoid arthritis is cardiovascular disease. And they are more likely to have a stroke than the general population, researchers say.

Acupuncture is already used to control pain and reduce inflammation, and researchers suggest that acupuncture may also reduce the risk of ischemic stroke caused by blood clots in the brain associated with systemic inflammation. I wanted to find out if there is.

They used national medical records from the Catastrophic Disease Registry Database (RCIPD) of 47,809 adults newly diagnosed with rheumatoid arthritis between 1997 and 2010.

The final analysis included 23,226 patients with complete data, of whom 12,266 received acupuncture after diagnosis until the end of December 2010.

Of these, 11,613 were matched for age, gender, comorbidities, diabetes, hypertension, high blood fat, congestive heart failure, anxiety/depression, obesity, atrial fibrillation, alcoholism, smoking, and drug use. Did. -; Nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs, statins, disease-modifying drugs -; Year of diagnosis in patients not receiving acupuncture.

In both groups, the majority of participants were female, 40 to 59 years old, and had high blood pressure.

Most of the acupuncture group (87%) were treated with manual acupuncture (87%). 3% were treated with electroacupuncture. This attached an electrode to the needle that produced a low electrical pulse. 10% received both types.

An average of 1,065 days passed from the diagnosis of rheumatoid arthritis to the first acupuncture treatment, and the total number of treatments averaged approximately 10 times.

During the monitoring period up to the end of 2011, 946 patients suffered ischemic stroke. Not surprisingly, the risk also increased with increasing age and number of comorbidities.

For example, people with high blood pressure were more than twice as likely to have a stroke than people with normal blood pressure, and people with diabetes were 58% more likely to have a stroke.

However, there were significantly fewer cases of ischemic stroke in the acupuncture group: 341 vs. 605, corresponding to a 43% lower risk. And this was independent of age, gender, drug use, and comorbidities.

Because this was an observational study, firm conclusions about cause and effect cannot be drawn, and the researchers also acknowledged that they could only estimate the severity of the disease from the drugs patients took.

It also did not have information on potentially influencing factors, such as height, weight, laboratory tests or physical activity levels, and added that not everyone was stabbed in the same acupuncture points.

However, they point out that “inflammation is a consistent and independent predictor of cardiovascular disease.” [rheumatoid arthritis]”, researchers therefore suggest that acupuncture may lower pro-inflammatory proteins, thereby reducing the risk of cardiovascular disease, including ischemic stroke.

“Unstable blood pressure and lipid profiles are two risk factors for ischemic stroke, and acupuncture has the advantage of controlling both hypertension and dyslipidemia,” they explain, adding, “Acupuncture has the advantage of controlling both hypertension and dyslipidemia. By relieving morning stiffness and joint pain, patients may also benefit from: Increasing your daily activities may also reduce your risk of stroke. ”