“The Susan Samueli Center for Integrative Medicine at the University of California has received a $2 million, five-year federal grant to continue studying how acupuncture can help treat cardiovascular illnesses such as heart disease, hypertension and arrhythmias. This grant extends a previous five-year grant from the National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute. The study, lead by Dr. John Longhurst, a practising cardiologist, will look at how acupuncture excites brain cells to release neurotransmitters that either inhibit or heighten cardiovascular activity. Longhurst says that needling specific acupuncture points triggers the release of opioid chemicals that reduce excitatory responses in the cardiovascular system. This decreases the heart’s activity and its need for oxygen, which in turn lowers blood pressure and promotes healing for a number of cardiac ailments, such as myocardial ischemia (insufficient blood flow to the heart) and arrhythmias. “What we’re trying to show is that acupuncture can be an excellent complement to other medical treatments, especially for those treating the cardiac system,” Longhurst said. Longhurst has received an additional $2 million grant from the National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute to study central nervous system mechanisms triggered by acupuncture. (www.today.uci.edu/news/release_detail.asp?key=1091).”

( http://www.jcm.co.uk/research-archive/article/acupuncture-helps-heart-patients-564/ viewed September 2012 )