- Effects of Acupuncture on Cartilage Degradation and Joint Pain in Osteoarthritis
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Jae-Hwan Jang, Jaejin Han, Changsu Na, Hi-Joon Park
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Perspect Integr Med. 2024;3(3):134-141. Published online October 23, 2024
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.56986/pim.2024.10.002
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 - Osteoarthritis, resulting from joint decline, leads to various symptoms including joint pain, stiffness, tenderness, and local inflammation. These symptoms may be caused by the remodeling of the five structural phenotypes: inflammatory, subchondral bone, meniscal cartilage, atrophic, and hypertrophic phenotypes. Studies have shown that acupuncture can inhibit cartilage degradation by regulating extracellular matrix-degradation and enzyme synthesis. Notably, the efficacy of acupuncture treatment in osteoarthritis may be attributed to regulated inflammation and apoptosis of chondrocytes, as well as endogenous opioid production, and activation of the endocannabinoid systems (in the central and peripheral nervous systems), to contribute towards cartilage protection and joint pain relief. This review provides a current summary of the mechanisms of action of acupuncture in osteoarthritis, indicating that acupuncture, a therapy with fewer side effects than conventional medications, may be an effective treatment strategy for the management of osteoarthritis.
- Effects of Acupuncture on Neuropathic Pain: Mechanisms in Animal Models
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Jae-Hwan Jang, Hi-Joon Park
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Perspect Integr Med. 2022;1(1):17-20. Published online September 22, 2022
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.56986/pim.2022.09.004
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- Neuropathic pain is a chronic condition/disease characterized by mechanical and thermal pain. Neuropathic pain can have various comorbidities such as depression, anxiety disorders and cognitive impairment, and as a result, can have a detrimental effect on quality of life. Pain and comorbid symptoms are often complicated, intertwined, affect each other, and present difficulties in treatment. Therefore, it is necessary to improve both pain and comorbid symptoms to treat neuropathic pain. Acupuncture is effective in treating not only pain but other conditions/diseases such as depression, anxiety, and cognitive impairment. Recently, acupuncture was reported to be effective in improving comorbid symptoms in patients with chronic pain. This review aimed to describe the mechanisms of action of acupuncture on the brain with respect to the improvement of comorbid symptoms that appeared in animal models of chronic neuropathic pain. Comorbidity-pain studies were comprehensively reviewed. Both manual acupuncture and electroacupuncture improved not only mechanical and thermal pain but also comorbid symptoms such as depression, anxiety, and cognitive impairment in patients with chronic neuropathic pain. The results of this review suggest that comorbid symptoms can be improved through various mechanisms, including the dopamine system in the brain, glutamate system, inflammation, epigenetic modulation, and mitochondrial function.
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Citations
Citations to this article as recorded by  - Long-term follow-up of inpatients with meniscus tears who received integrative Korean medicine treatment: A retrospective analysis and follow-up survey
June Haeng Lee, Jin Young Song, Kyoung Sun Park, Jinho Lee, In-Hyuk Ha, Yoon Jae Lee
Medicine.2024; 103(6): e36917. CrossRef - The analgesic effect of acupuncture in neuropathic pain: regulatory mechanisms of DNA methylation in the brain
Jae-Hwan Jang, Yoon Jae Lee, In-Hyuk Ha, Hi-Joon Park
PAIN Reports.2024; 9(6): e1200. CrossRef
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