Effects of electroacupuncture and Chinese kidney-nourishing medicine on polycystic ovary syndrome in obese patients

Abstract

Acupuncture combined with medicine is better than just electroacupuncture for obese PCOS patients by improving obesity-related indexes, insulin sensitivity, and APN level. This indicates that acupuncture-medicine therapy is worth clinical popularization.

Treatment of Polycystic Ovarian Syndrome using Electroacupuncture: A Case Report

“…Studies in this field pointed out effective reduction of PCOS-induced hyperandrogenism due to low-frequency EA (9)(10)(11).…”

“…According to the study of Yu et al (10), the mechanism of increased ovulation by EA is unknown. However, based on a hypothesis, the release of gonadotropin-releasing hormone (GnRH) decreases in PCOS due to reduced inhibition of beta-endorphine or increased sympathetic activity in the ovaries.…”

“…The second mechanism is concurrent release of beta-endorphin and adrenocorticotropic hormone (ACTH) in the blood. Both systems reduce sympathetic tone through release of beta-endorphine and affect PCOS (8)(9)(10)(11).…”

The Effects of Traditional Chinese Medicine-Associated Complementary and Alternative Medicine on Women with Polycystic Ovary Syndrome

“…Electroacupuncture (EA) is considered to be an effective alternative to conventional needle acupuncture, is valuable in patients with PCOS, is a therapy where fine needles are placed in the skin and underly muscle tissue at specific areas of the body, and then input current flow in the near human body bioelectricity. Yu and Liao randomized 67 cases of obese patients of PCOS to the combination group and control group, combination group was treated with EA and Tiankui capsule, and control group was only treated with EA [148]. Results showed that BMI, WHR, BW, and FINS decreased and ISI and APN were higher in the combination group than that in the control group (P < 0.01).…”

“…e combination treatment could better alleviate the symptoms and endocrine indices, insulin sensitivity, leptin, and APN levels, to improve the quality of life of women with PCOS. Overall, in recent ten years, many RCTs have proved that the combination of acupuncture and herbal medicine has positive impact on reproductive dysfunction, endocrine disorder, and abnormal glucolipid metabolism in PCOS [145,146,[148][149][150]. e possible mechanisms of action of acupuncture for PCOS are as follows: (i) lower high sympathetic nerve activity and regulate parasympathetic and sympathetic activity; (ii) regulate the central nervous system through the hypothalamus-pituitary-ovary (HPO) axis and hypothalamus-pituitary-adrenal (HPA) axis; (iii) modulate the metabolic system by modulating expression of genes related to IR, obesity, and sympathetic activity in skeletal muscle and adipose tissue [151][152][153].…”