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Acupuncture points for treating Parkinson’s disease based on animal studies

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Abstract

Parkinson’s disease (PD) is a well-known neurodegenerative disease caused by dopaminergic cell death in the nigrostriatal pathway. Recent studies have shown that acupuncture can be a potential therapy for the treatment of PD, but it is not clear which acupuncture points (acupoints) play major roles in reliving symptoms of PD. Yanglingquan (GB 34), Zusanli (ST 36), Fengfu (GV 16), Taichong (LR 3), Baihui (GV 20) and Dazhui (GV 14) acupoints have frequently been to investigate the effectiveness and action mechanism of acupuncture for treating PD, but it is not clear why they were selected. This review summarizes the current understanding of the acupoints for PD treatment based on Oriental medicine theories and on the accumulated findings from previous animal studies. The results of this study will be useful to development of a strategy for future research in this field.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine, Chicago, IL, 60611, USA

    Sunoh Kwon

  2. Department of Acupuncture and Moxibustion, College of Korean Medicine, Kyung Hee University, Seoul, 02447, Republic of Korea

    Byung-Kwan Seo

  3. Department of Korean Medical Science, School of Korean Medicine, Pusan National University, Yangsan, 50612, Republic of Korea

    Seungtae Kim

Authors
  1. Sunoh Kwon
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  2. Byung-Kwan Seo
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  3. Seungtae Kim
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Correspondence to Seungtae Kim.

Additional information

Supported by the National Research Foundation of Korea (NRF) grant funded by the Korean government (MSIP, No. NRF- 2014R1A5A2009936)

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Kwon, S., Seo, BK. & Kim, S. Acupuncture points for treating Parkinson’s disease based on animal studies. Chin. J. Integr. Med. 22, 723–727 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11655-016-2525-y

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11655-016-2525-y

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