Auricular acupressure effect on autonomic responses during cold pressor test in healthy volunteers

Abstract

In traditional medicine, vagus nerve stimulation has been used for treating some diseases related to autonomic dysfunction. The heart is one of the acupoints which affect to vagus nerve the most. However, there is a lack of the evidence about the effectiveness of auricular acupressure with ear seeds at the Heart acupoint and the comparison of the effectiveness of the left and right Heart acupoints. This study was conducted to clarify these issues via monitoring the heart rate and blood pressure of healthy volunteers with cold pressor test. The study was implemented on sixty healthy volunteers who were divided into 2 groups, being performed cold pressortest (CPT) before and after auricular acupressure (AA) with ear seedsat the left/right Heart acupoints. The heart rate was measured continuously every 30 seconds in 360 seconds, and the blood pressure was measured before CPT and 3 minutes after CPT started. The results exhibited that after AA, heart rate measured during the second CPT reduced significantly in comparison withthe first CPT (p<0.05) in the both groups. There wasno significant difference in blood pressure between the first and the second CPT (p>0.05). And there was no significant difference in effectiveness between two groups(p>0.05). In conclusion, auricular acupressure with ear seeds at the Heart acupoint could decrease the heart rate, but did not attenuate blood pressure responses during the cold pressor test in healthy volunteers. The effectivenesses of the left and right Heart acupoints on the heart rate decrement were similar.