Am J Chinese Med
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Randomized Controlled Trial
The therapeutic effects of acupuncture on patients with chronic neck myofascial pain syndrome: a single-blind randomized controlled trial.
Chronic neck myofascial pain syndrome (MPS) is a common disorder seen in clinics. There is no gold standard method to treat myofascial pain. We investigated the effects of acupuncture on patients with chronic neck MPS by a single-blind randomized controlled trial. ⋯ The results indicated that there is no significant difference in the ROM, motion-related pain, and SF-MPQ scores between AG and SG at AT, F1 and F2 (all p > 0.05). However, AG has greater improvement in physical functioning and role emotional of Short Form-36 quality of life at F2. The results indicate that acupuncture may be used to improve the quality of life in patients with chronic neck MPS.
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Randomized Controlled Trial
The effects of auricular acupressure on weight loss and serum lipid levels in overweight adolescents.
Auricular acupressure is widely used to reduce body weight. The current study was designed to test the efficacy of auricular acupressure on weight reduction and serum total cholesterol (TC), total triglycerides (TG), high density lipids (HDL) and low density lipids (LDL) in an eight-week, randomized controlled trial of three groups of 84 adolescents aged 18-20 with a body mass index (BMI) of 23 or higher. The control group received tape treatment only and the other two experimental groups were administered acupressure using either Japanese Magnetic Pearls or vaccaria seeds. ⋯ All three groups showed significant increases in TC, TG, HDL, and LDL. In conclusion, the current study shows that auricular acupressure employing Japanese Magnetic Pearls or vaccaria seeds can decrease BMI, with the vaccaria seed method showing the greatest reduction. Auricular acupressure did not result in decreased TC, TG, HDL, or LDL in the current eight-week protocol.