New research shows that in patients with Parkinson’s Disease (PD) and in PD animal models, acupuncture treatment on GB34 (Yanglingguan) leads to significant improvements.
These studies used fuctional magnetic resonance imaging (fmri) to test the neural responses of 12 patients with PD and 12 healthy participants before and after acupuncture stimulation at GB34. Patients with PD have lower neural responses in the putamen, thalamus and the supplementary motor area. It was found that acupuncture stimulation increased neural responses in areas that were impaired by PD, such as the thalamus, putamen, caudate and the substantia nigra.
The conclusions were that those areas associated with PD were activated by GB34 stimulation, which showed that this point may be effective at improving the symptoms. Numerous randomized controlled trials will be needed however, this study is very encouraging as it demonstrates that acupuncture may be helpful in the treatment of PD symptoms.