Sleep apnea is a sleep-related respiratory condition that can often be serious. While no cure for sleep apnea exists, the symptoms of breathing difficulty and insomnia can be managed through medical help and healthy lifestyle habits. Chinese medicine traditionally has treated one variety of this condition---known as obstructive sleep apnea---with acupuncture, which involves the placement of thin metal needles into the top layers of the skin. Though scientific studies regarding this benefit of acupuncture are limited, medical doctors increasingly support this treatment as a complementary healing practice.
History of Acupuncture
Chinese medicine has included acupuncture for thousands of years. The first widely-accepted reference of acupuncture is "The Yellow Emperor's Classic of Internal Medicine," written around 100BCE. This volume contains information about the concept of "Qi," the vital life force in Taoist philosophy that acupuncture needles focus and redirect in order to heal the body. Much later, bronze statues from the 15th century illustrate specific acupuncture points known and used in modern Chinese medicine. After a period of cultural decline, acupuncture found new adherents in the 1950s after it was re-instated by the Communist regime, according to Exeter and Plymouth University researchers A. White and E. Ernst in a 2004 article published in the journal Rheumatology.
Scientific Explanations
In the 1980s, new scientific explanations for acupuncture's effectiveness were sought, including the work of a Beijing scientist who discovered that proper acupuncture may release opioid peptides that assist in healing, according to a 2004 article published in the journal Rheumatology. Many sleep doctors, however, remain skeptical about acupuncture's effect on sleep disorders and suggest acupuncture may be a placebo effect, according to a 2007 article, "Emphasizing the Complementary in CAM" published in the Journal of Sleep Medicine.
Indirect Treatment of Obesity
In general, Chinese medicine does not treat diseases separately, but rather views physical symptoms along with emotional symptoms and patients' lifestyle choices. In this tradition, sleep apnea is the result of unbalanced energies in the body, in particular, energy blockage in the ear, and can be treated with a kind of acupuncture that focuses on the ear known as auriculotherapy acupoint pressure. Inner ear blockages are associated with obesity, which is also a cause of sleep apnea recognized by Western medicine. Certified acupuncturists work with this site of blockage as well as encourage patients to make lifestyle changes to reduce obesity and other environmental causes of sleep apnea.
Evidence
Until the 21st century, most Western medical practitioners discredited acupuncture as an effective treatment plan. Today, acupuncture is considered a viable complementary practice by sleep scientists, although they argue that more research is needed. On this note, the 2007 study in the journal Sleep Medicine found that actual acupuncture treatment resulted in better breathing conditions for those suffering from obstructive sleep apnea than a "sham" acupuncture treatment.
Controversy
Some medical scientists admit that the "mind/body" connection may help with treatment of sleep disorders like sleep apnea. In a 2007 article published in the Journal of Sleep Medicine, researcher Philip Eichling argues that even placebo treatments can be helpful because "believing that a therapy works may well make it therapeutic." Still, from the Western medical perspective, the danger persists that individuals will forgo medical treatment of sleep apnea in lieu of an alternative method like acupuncture.
References
- Rheumatology: A Brief History of Acupuncture
- Journal of Clinical Sleep Medicine: Emphasizing the Complementary in CAM
- Medical Acupuncture: Obesity TreatmentsThrough Auricular Medicine and Auricular Therapy
- University of Maryland Medical Center: Sleep Apnea
- Sleep Medicine: Treatment of Moderate Obstructive Sleep Apnea Syndrome with Acupuncture
