Traditional Chinese medicine regulates inflammatory factors in chronic prostatitis/chronic pelvic pain syndrome: A review

Abstract

Chronic prostatitis/chronic pelvic pain syndrome (CP/CPPS) is a common male urological disease, and its clinical manifestations are closely related to the dysregulation of inflammatory factors. Nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs have been shown to be effective in managing inflammation and providing pain relief, but their clinical application remains controversial. Traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) is widely used to regulate inflammatory factors in CP/CPPS, and treatment with TCM has gained some advantages based on an “individualized” or “personalized” medical approach. In addition, TCM extracts and acupuncture therapy have also been proven to be effective for CP/CPPS, as they regulate related inflammatory factors. However, current systematic reviews tend to verify the efficacy and safety of TCM therapies in CP/CPPS, and there is still a deficiency in sorting out their mechanisms of modulating inflammatory factors. Based on the current evidence, our review summarizes the application of TCM in regulating inflammatory factors in CP/CPPS to provide a reference for the treatment of CP/CPPS with TCM therapy and a potential direction with future studies in this field.

Efficacy of Scalp Acupuncture with the Long-Stay Method on Motor Dysfunction in Patients with Acute Ischemic Stroke: A Randomized Controlled Trial

“…We applied Zhu's scalp acupuncture with long acupuncture retention to treat patients and explore its preliminary efficacy and safety. It is well known that acupuncture has immediate, cumulative, and follow-up effects, 25,26 and many studies have set the follow-up period for AIS treatment at 3 or 6 months to observe the follow-up effects, 27,28 which is consistent with the purpose of our study. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first clinical study in which the long-stay acupuncture method was used to treat motor dysfunction in patients with AIS.…”

The Role of Acupuncture and Its Related Mechanism in Treating Chronic Prostatitis/Chronic Pelvic Pain Syndrome

“…Acupuncture is also a non-oral drug therapy, which is a critical component of traditional Chinese medicine (TCM). And it has been extensively used to treat various pain-related and urological diseases, 15,16 with the majority of studies focusing on CP/CPPS. 17 Unlike other systematic reviews, [18][19][20] we reviewed previous clinical evidence to analyze factors, such as acupoint selection, needle retention time, and duration of acupuncture therapy, and discussed the characteristics and mechanisms of acupuncture therapy to provide a reference for future treatment of CP/CPPS using acupuncture.…”