“The notion that acupuncture may lower high blood pressure is inconclusive  according to reviewers from the Sangji University in Kangwondo, South Korea.

First, the details.

  • 11 studies of acupuncture as an adjunct or an alternative treatment met the inclusion criteria for this review.
  • There was wide variability in how the studies were conducted — mostly they suffer from poor reporting of study data.

And, the results.

3 sham-controlled studies where the data were pooled.

  • With acupuncture there was no statistically significant change in systolic blood pressure (SBP; -5 mmHg).
  • There was only a marginal (but statistically significant) reduction in diastolic blood pressure (DBP; -3 mmHg).
  • When given with antihypertensive medicine, acupuncture significantly reduced SBP (-8 mm Hg) and DBP (-4 mm Hg).

4 studies investigated acupuncture vs. antihypertensive medication

  • Acupuncture was not inferior to drugs in lowering blood pressure, but the quality of studies was poor.

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