This Article  • Full text  • PDF  • Send to a friend  • Save in My Folder  • Save to citation manager  • Permissions  Citing Articles  • Contact me when this article is cited  Related Content  • Related articles  • Similar articles in this journal  Topic Collections  • Complementary and Alternative Medicine  • Rehabilitation Medicine  • Alert me on articles by topic  Social Bookmarking   What's this?

	Since this article does not have an abstract, we have provided the first 150 words of the full text and any section headings.

Park et al¹ reported on an excellent study evaluating the efficacy of traditional acupuncture for subacute stroke rehabilitation. However, there was no mention of potential mechanisms by which acupuncture might conceivably help stroke patients. While a discussion of potential mechanisms may be beyond the scope of such an article and is not required, it could help explain any findings, positive or negative, and is important given the rather widely differing viewpoints between traditional acupuncture and modern medicine.

The study intervention used acupuncture needling at points prescribed "according to the excess or deficiency of the yin and yang aspect of the patients."^1(p2027) According to traditional acupuncture theory, treatment of poststroke paralysis of the limbs is "directed toward clearing the channels so as to facilitate the circulation of Qi."² The pathologic condition is understood as some obstruction of the flow of the "life force" through the "channels" of the limbs. Since modern . . . [Full Text of this Article]

AUTHOR INFORMATION
Howard H. Moffet, MPH

CiteULike    Connotea    Del.icio.us    Digg    Reddit    Technorati     What's this?

RELATED ARTICLES

Acupuncture May Be Ineffective for Stroke—Reply
Jongbae Park, Martin A. James, and Adrian White
Arch Intern Med. 2006;166(8):930-931.
EXTRACT | FULL TEXT  

Acupuncture for Subacute Stroke Rehabilitation: A Sham-Controlled, Subject- and Assessor-Blind, Randomized Trial
Jongbae Park, Adrian R. White, Martin A. James, Anthony G. Hemsley, Paul Johnson, John Chambers, and Edzard Ernst
Arch Intern Med. 2005;165(17):2026-2031.
ABSTRACT | FULL TEXT