Hypertension & Acupuncture

FOCUS ON HEALING—
By Gary Cools

Acupuncture is old. Very old. Perhaps we used fish ribs waved through fire to make acupuncture shafts before we knew how to produce metal. Maybe 30,000 years would be enough. Patterns that worked were memorized and passed on from generation to generation, and age to age. Then written down and preserved, the earliest written record we know of being the Yellow Emperor’s Classic, about 3,700 years ago, and from China. Acupuncture was already well developed then, and many debates and trials on how to positively affect human health were already resolved. They did not have microscopes; there was no theory of genetics; no knowledge of microbial invasions, viruses, fungi; no knowledge of vitamin necessities; nothing about hormones; nothing about blood components; nor about antibodies and antigens.

Nonetheless they functioned fairly well, bestowing enhanced health through herbs, exercise, breathing techniques, and acupuncture.

The meridians are real, and can be located, point by point, with sensitive electronic impedance devices. The accuracy is impressive, and if we can locate them this way and refer to the Chinese methods of location later and they match, they are in the tissue. Perhaps this is the initial step that western medicine has to bridge.

Specifically, when dealing with high blood pressure, the traditional approach is to regard the disorder as kidney and liver imbalance. While this may be true, other points of view may be as useful. Acupuncture is a homeostatic action in all cases. For instance, any acupuncture for any purpose is likely to moderate excessive blood pressure and blood sugar. We are warned that while serving a patient with migraines, we must ask if they are using hypertensive or diabetic medications, as our work may moderate these conditions, and sustaining the initial doses of the medications may prove later to be excessive.

My choice has been to regard high blood pressure as a neuro-endocrine disorder. While I use points that influence kidney and liver, balancing brain and endocrine systems have brought stronger therapy to this disease. In Sri Lanka, while interning at the Katubowila Hospital near Colombo, we were given a simple pattern to use with our hypertensive patients and then challenged to create a better approach after three days of working with the patient. Each patient was treated as an individual, and after extensive review I chose to use endocrine points on the body and ear acupuncture points for reducing blood pressure. Consistently, numbers like 145/105 were brought down to 120/78 in six days. Medications were allowed to be reduced accordingly.

Our Sri Lankan trainers use the kidney and liver based patterns. Their records indicate that mild to moderate cases can be controlled without serious complications. The systolic pressure reductions are uniformly good, but diastolic pressures fall rather slowly. After three months of support through acupuncture, medications of methyl-dopa could be reduced by a third or even half.

The endocrine based patterns, in my experience, worked faster with both blood pressure readings, and more effectively with the diastolic pressure than with the kidney and liver approaches. This is an area where I feel that more clinical studies are required for further evaluation.

The benefits of these therapies are not only to lower medications, but also their cost, and their side effects for the patients. If the patient is pregnant, it would be to lower the influence of the meds on the unborn. We are also assisting pilots to fly without high blood pressure medications and all the paperwork that goes with that outcome as well. For multi-drug therapies for complex patients, it would simplify their drug regimens and allow easier health maintenance in the long run. In some cases, the acupuncture that is used for two to three months can be decreased in frequency, and with dietetic advice and exercise, a vast number of patients can live free of medication or with lesser doses of the drugs. Some reach a point where they live without the help of the acupuncture as well.

Our record keeping in the office indicates that all of our patients are responding well with this protocol for high blood pressure therapy.

And if their blood sugar became more moderate at the same time? I wouldn’t be at all surprised.

Gary Cools has his office in Ludington, Michigan, and participates with Evergreen Integrated Health in Suttons Bay. He also teaches at the Institute for Alternative Medicine in Howard City and gives seminars throughout Michigan and the Midwest. You may contact him at (231)845-1250 or at healthfx@t-one.net.