PRESS-NEWS.org - Press Release Distribution
PRESS RELEASES DISTRIBUTION

Acupuncture may curb heightened risk of stroke associated with rheumatoid arthritis

Effects independent of sex, age, medication use, and co-existing conditions. Needling may reduce pro-inflammatory proteins in the body, suggest researchers

2024-02-14
(Press-News.org) A course of acupuncture may curb the heightened risk of stroke associated with rheumatoid arthritis, finds a comparative study published in the open access journal BMJ Open.

 

The effects seem to be independent of sex, age, medication use, and co-existing conditions, the findings indicate, prompting the researchers to suggest that the procedure may reduce levels of pro-inflammatory proteins (cytokines) in the body that are linked to cardiovascular disease.

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

Acupuncture is already used to control pain and dampen down inflammation, and the researchers wanted to find out if it might also lower the risk of ischaemic stroke–caused by a blood clot in the brain—that is associated with systemic inflammation.

They drew on national medical records from the Registry for Catastrophic Illness Patients Database (RCIPD), for 47,809 adults newly diagnosed with rheumatoid arthritis between 1997 and 2010.

The final analysis included 23,226 patients with complete data, 12,266 of whom were treated with acupuncture following their diagnosis up until the end of December 2010.

Of these, 11,613 were each matched for age, sex, co-existing conditions—diabetes, high blood pressure, high blood fats, congestive heart failure, anxiety/depression, obesity, atrial fibrillation, alcohol dependency, and smoking—medication use—non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs, statins, and disease modifying drugs—and year of diagnosis with a patient who hadn’t been treated with acupuncture.

Women, those aged 40–59, and participants with high blood pressure predominated in both groups. 

Most (87%) of those in the acupuncture group were treated with manual acupuncture (87%); 3% were treated with electroacupuncture, whereby an electrode producing a low pulse of electricity is attached to the needle; and 10% received both types.

On average, 1065 days elapsed between a rheumatoid arthritis diagnosis and receipt of the first acupuncture treatment, with the number of treatments averaging around 10 in total.

During the monitoring period up to the end of 2011, 946 patients had an ischaemic stroke. Unsurprisingly, risk rose in tandem with increasing age, and with the number of co-existing conditions. 

Those with high blood pressure, for example, were more than twice as likely to have a stroke as those with normal blood pressure, while those with diabetes were 58% more likely to do so. 

But there were significantly fewer cases of ischaemic stroke among the acupuncture group: 341 vs 605, equivalent to a 43% lower risk. And this was independent of age, sex, medication use, and co-existing conditions.

This is an observational study, and as such, no firm conclusions can be drawn about cause and effect, and the researchers also acknowledge that they were only able to estimate disease severity from the drugs the patients took. 

Nor did they have information on potentially influential factors, such as height, weight, lab tests or physical activity levels, and not everyone would have had the same pressure points needled, they add.

But they point out: “Inflammation is a consistent and independent predictor of cardiovascular disease in [rheumatoid arthritis],” so acupuncture may lower pro-inflammatory proteins, thereby reducing the risk of cardiovascular disease, including ischaemic stroke, they suggest.

“Unstable blood pressure and lipid profiles are the two risk factors for ischaemic stroke, and acupuncture therapy has the advantage of controlling both hypertension and dyslipidaemia,” they explain, adding: “If acupuncture relieves morning stiffness and joint pain, patients might also benefit from increasing daily activities, which might also reduce the risk of stroke.”

END


ELSE PRESS RELEASES FROM THIS DATE:

Poor quality clinical data informing NICE decisions on treatments in over half of cases

2024-02-14
The quality of evidence submitted to the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) for informing its decisions to recommend technologies for use in the NHS was poor in more than half of cases, reveals a 20-year analysis, published in the open access journal BMJ Open.   And the data quality submitted for health technology appraisals by manufacturers between 2000 and 2019 was consistently poor, with no improvement during that time, the analysis shows. NICE advises the NHS on the ...

Age when periods first start and early menopause linked to heightened COPD risk

2024-02-14
A range of reproductive factors, including age when periods first start and an early menopause, are all linked to a heightened risk of COPD—the umbrella term for progressive lung conditions that cause breathing difficulties—finds research published online in the journal Thorax. Miscarriage, stillbirth, infertility, and having 3 or more children are also associated with a heightened risk of COPD, which includes emphysema and chronic bronchitis, the findings show. Recent evidence indicates substantial gender  differences in susceptibility ...

Hostile environment policies linked to prolonged distress in people with Black Caribbean ancestry

2024-02-14
Psychological distress increased among people with Black Caribbean heritage in the UK, relative to the White population, following the 2014 Immigration Act and the Windrush scandal, finds a new study led by UCL researchers. The researchers say their findings, published in The Lancet Psychiatry, suggest a causal link between government policies and a subsequent decline in mental health. They were investigating the impact of the Immigration Act 2014, requiring landlords, employers, the NHS, banks and the police to check right-to-stay documentation. This was a key part of a set of measures known as the Home Office hostile environment policy, seeking ...

Clinical trial shows rheumatoid arthritis drug could prevent disease

2024-02-14
A drug used to treat rheumatoid arthritis could also prevent the disease in individuals deemed to be at risk. Results from a Phase 2b clinical trial, published today in The Lancet by researchers led by King’s College London, provides hope for arthritis sufferers after it was shown that the biologic drug abatacept reduces progression to this agonising chronic inflammatory disease. Rheumatoid arthritis affects half a million people in the UK and develops when the body’s immune system attacks itself, causing joint pain, swelling and significant disability. The disease most commonly begins in middle age, but much younger age groups can be afflicted, and until ...

Do apes have humor?

Do apes have humor?
2024-02-14
Babies playfully tease others as young as eight months of age. Since language is not required for this behavior, similar kinds of playful teasing might be present in non-human animals. Now cognitive biologists and primatologists from the University of California Los Angeles (UCLA, US), the Max Planck Institute of Animal Behavior (MPI-AB, Germany), Indiana University (IU, US), and the University of California San Diego (UCSD, US) have documented playful teasing in four species of great apes. Like joking behavior in humans, ape teasing is provocative, persistent, and includes elements of surprise and play. Because all four great ape species used playful teasing, it is likely that the ...

New digital therapy reduces anxiety and depression in people living with long-term physical health conditions

2024-02-14
A therapist-guided digital cognitive behavioural therapy reduced distress in 89 per cent of participants living with long-term physical health conditions, a new King’s College London study finds. Researchers at the Institute of Psychiatry, Psychology & Neuroscience (IoPPN) at King’s College London found that people living with long-term conditions who received the therapist-guided digital programme called COMPASS showed a significant reduction in psychological distress (a combined score of anxiety and depression) 12-weeks after starting the study.  194 patients were recruited via long-term condition charities, including Crohn’s & ...

Researchers edge closer to delivering personalized medicine to cancer patients

Researchers edge closer to delivering personalized medicine to cancer patients
2024-02-14
For the first time, Purdue researchers prove that measuring mechanical motions in living cancer tissues is a viable and promising approach for predicting chemoresistance Chemotherapy can save lives, but often a cancer patient may be resistant to their prescribed chemotherapy, which costs the patient valuable time. Chemoresistance is a topic that researchers need to understand better so that they can match the right type of chemo to the right patient, which is called personalized medicine. An unusual pairing of veterinary scientists and physicists believe ...

Trail cameras track ‘critically low’ New York bobcat population

2024-02-13
CORNELL UNIVERSITY MEDIA RELATIONS OFFICE FOR RELEASE: Feb. 13, 2024 Kaitlyn Serrao 607-882-1140 kms465@cornell.edu Trail cameras track ‘critically low’ New York bobcat population ITHACA, N.Y. – With thousands of strategically placed cameras covering more than 27,000 square miles in central and western New York, biologists have evidence that bobcat populations remain critically low in central and western New York state. Despite reports of recent recoveries elsewhere, bobcat populations in New York State displayed low occupancy, ...

Virginia Tech researchers discover that blocking an essential nutrient inhibits malaria parasite growth

Virginia Tech researchers discover that blocking an essential nutrient inhibits malaria parasite growth
2024-02-13
Living organisms often create what is needed for life from scratch. For humans, this process means the creation of most essential compounds needed to survive. But not every living thing has this capability, such as the parasite that causes malaria, which affected an estimated 249 million people in 2022. Virginia Tech researchers in the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences found that by preventing the malaria parasite from scavenging fatty acids, a type of required nutrient, it could no longer grow. “The key to this breakthrough is that we were able to develop a screening method for the malaria ...

Children's Hospital Los Angeles researchers uncover social and economic factors that influence acute liver failure in children—and ways to overcome them

Childrens Hospital Los Angeles researchers uncover social and economic factors that influence acute liver failure in children—and ways to overcome them
2024-02-13
Imagine your healthy child gets sick—so sick that you take them to the emergency department. You are shocked to find out that their liver is failing, and they will need a transplant to survive. Studies show that their chances of survival are higher the faster they can get to a hospital that performs liver transplants. But what factors affect how quickly that happens? Pediatric acute liver failure, also called PALF, is a life-threatening condition that emerges with very little warning in previously healthy children. It is rare, affecting about 5,000 children in the United States a year, and can result from viral ...

LAST 30 PRESS RELEASES:

A new approach to predicting malaria drug resistance

Coral adaptation unlikely to keep pace with global warming

Bioinspired droplet-based systems herald a new era in biocompatible devices

A fossil first: Scientists find 1.5-million-year-old footprints of two different species of human ancestors at same spot

The key to “climate smart” agriculture might be through its value chain

These hibernating squirrels could use a drink—but don’t feel the thirst

New footprints offer evidence of co-existing hominid species 1.5 million years ago

Moral outrage helps misinformation spread through social media

U-M, multinational team of scientists reveal structural link for initiation of protein synthesis in bacteria

New paper calls for harnessing agrifood value chains to help farmers be climate-smart

Preschool education: A key to supporting allophone children

CNIC scientists discover a key mechanism in fat cells that protects the body against energetic excess

Chemical replacement of TNT explosive more harmful to plants, study shows

Scientists reveal possible role of iron sulfides in creating life in terrestrial hot springs

Hormone therapy affects the metabolic health of transgender individuals

Survey of 12 European countries reveals the best and worst for smoke-free homes

First new treatment for asthma attacks in 50 years

Certain HRT tablets linked to increased heart disease and blood clot risk

Talking therapy and rehabilitation probably improve long covid symptoms, but effects modest

Ban medical research with links to the fossil fuel industry, say experts

Different menopausal hormone treatments pose different risks

Novel CAR T cell therapy obe-cel demonstrates high response rates in adult patients with advanced B-cell ALL

Clinical trial at Emory University reveals twice-yearly injection to be 96% effective in HIV prevention

Discovering the traits of extinct birds

Are health care disparities tied to worse outcomes for kids with MS?

For those with CTE, family history of mental illness tied to aggression in middle age

The sound of traffic increases stress and anxiety

Global food yields have grown steadily during last six decades

Children who grow up with pets or on farms may develop allergies at lower rates because their gut microbiome develops with more anaerobic commensals, per fecal analysis in small cohort study

North American Early Paleoindians almost 13,000 years ago used the bones of canids, felids, and hares to create needles in modern-day Wyoming, potentially to make the tailored fur garments which enabl

[Press-News.org] Acupuncture may curb heightened risk of stroke associated with rheumatoid arthritis
Effects independent of sex, age, medication use, and co-existing conditions. Needling may reduce pro-inflammatory proteins in the body, suggest researchers