For the 9 million Americans suffering from pain caused by coronary heart disease, also called stable angina, relief may be possible through acupuncture, a form of traditional Chinese medicine.
Now, Holli DeVon, the Audrienne H. Moseley Professor of Community Research at the UCLA School of Nursing, has been awarded more than $3 million over four years by the National Institute of Nursing Research, part National Institutes of Health, to lead a study exploring this treatment option.
Stable angina is characterized by chest pain or discomfort that most often occurs with physical activity or emotional stress. Physiologically, it occurs due to poor blood flow through the vessels in the heart, causing an insufficient supply of oxygen to the muscle. Currently, nitroglycerin pills or spray are commonly used to alleviate the pain by relaxing the coronary arteries.
Devon’s study will test the efficacy and the duration of effect of acupuncture therapy for patients suffering from stable angina.
“Our standardized technique utilizes thin needles which are inserted into the body at 12 points and manually manipulated,” DeVon said. “Our study is innovative in that we will be testing this complementary therapy in a sample of U.S. residents who are receiving guidelines-based therapy for angina under a Western model of care. Previous research on the efficacy of acupuncture for angina has only been published for Chinese and European patients treated under different models of care.”
