Dr. Peng Li's Presentation Summarizing 50 years of Acupuncture Research Cont'd 1

This is a graph of what the research shows concerning different acupuncture points and their effect on rVLM in the medulla, thought to be implicated in cardiovascular effects of acupuncture. As you can see P5-P6, LI10 and LI11 are the most active, then S36S37. In their studies they use LI 16 and LI17 as inert points, their sham.
What this slide shows it that electro acupuncture has a longer term effect than manual acupuncture. They call the short term effect the "somatic nerve" effect.
This gets to the nub of something I'm grappling with in practice. The research insists that electroacupuncture is the more effective modality, that manual acupuncture is transient. But in practice, I use electroacupuncture very sparingly because of the significant incidence of irritation and adverse side effects. Just yesterday, I saw a patient who I had helped with a persistent tendonitis of her elbow which had become chronic. I treated her with spinal points, some Ashi points and some distal points and she had improved by 90%. After the conference, I felt that I "should" use electroacupuncture, since that's apparently where all the efficacy lies. She returned yesterday, angry and upset. Ever since I tried the electroacupuncture over a week ago, all the benefit was gone and she was in acute pain again. This is the quandary. This is why I don't go to electroacupuncture unless manual isn't working, even though the experts don't agree.
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