The effect of acupuncture treatment on blood pressure and serum nitric oxide levels on patients with hypertension

The acupuncture treatment was applied to 32 volunteer hypertension patients, the age between 35-65 years, in the Policlinic of Acupuncture in the Faculty of Medicine in Gazi University. It was applied on the specific acupuncture points as one session which lasted 20 minutes per week and the whole treatment consisted of 10 weeks. The hypertension patients were divided into three groups; before-treatment, after-1st-sesion-treatment and after-10th-sesion treatment.Blood pressure device was used to measure blood pressure and colorimetric method was used to measure serum total nitrat and nitrit concentration.When the before-treatment-group and the after-1st-session treatment-group are compared, it is noted that systolic blood pressure (SBP) and diastolic blood pressure (DBP) have significantly decreased (p<0,01) and the serum nitric oxide (NO) concentration has significantly increased (p<0,01) in after-1st-sesion-teratment-group compared with before-treatment-group. These results indicate the acute effect of the acupuncture treatment on blood pressure and on NO concentration.When the before-treatment-group and the after-10th-session- teratment-group are compared, it is noted that SBP and DBP have significantly decreased (p<0,01) and NO concentration has significantly increased (p<0,01) in the after-10th-session-treatment-group compared with the before-treatment-group. These results demonstrate that the acupuncture treatment reduces blood pressure by increasing NO concentration.When the 1st- sesssion-teratment-group and the after-10th-session teratment-group are compared, it is noted that SBP and DBP have significantly decreased (p<0,01) and the NO concentration has significantly increased (p<0,01) in the after-10th sesion-treatment group compared with the 1st- session-teratment-group. These results have pointed out that the effectiveness of the acupuncture treatment increases when the number of sessions increases.2 months after the end of this study, approximately 38% of patients expressed that their blood pressure returned to the normal level and that they completely gave up pharmacological treatment.We consider that it will be useful to continue studying on the subject in order to indicate the effectiveness of the acupuncture treatment in reducing blood pressure.