ANAHEIM, Calif., Nov. 14 (UPI) -- Acupuncture appears to calm a raging heart in seriously ill cardiac patients, University of California Los Angeles researchers said Wednesday.

This encouraging finding surprisingly does not affect other heart disease symptoms, they said at the annual meeting of the American Heart Association.

Dr. Holly Middlekauff, UCLA associate professor of medicine, said her study suggested acupuncture helps regulate heart functions that are poorly controlled in heart failure. In heart failure, the damaged heart beats inefficiently, causing chest pain, breathing problems and fatigue.

"Our research represents a promising first step, but more study is definitely needed," Middlekauff said. She explained it was too early to determine if acupuncture treatments could alter the course of the disease. Most heart failure patients die from complications within about five years of diagnosis.

Middlekauff said in the study, which involved 14 men and women with an average age of 43, patients were tested to determine if acupuncture has a discernible effect on their sympathetic nervous systems. That system affects involuntary functions, such as heart beat and blood pressure, critical elements for these patients for were all awaiting heart transplants.

"Heart failure patients have high sympathetic nerve activity and acupuncture blocks this activity," she said. Stress, however, can undermine the sympathetic nervous system, and in heart failure patients such stress could further damage their weakened hearts, she added.

To stimulate the sympathic nervous system, Middlekauff's team administered a battery of tests, including mathematics problems that had to be verbally solved and other mental challenges.

Each patient's blood pressure, heart rate and sympathetic nerve activity were then measured. The study found sympathetic nerve activity increased by about 25 percent as a result of the mental stress.

Researchers then assigned the patients to one of three groups -- traditional acupuncture, acupuncture at non-acupuncture points and a sham acupuncture procedure.

The stress tests were repeated after the acupuncture treatments. The group that received the real acupuncture had no increase in sympathetic nerve activity, but heart rate and blood pressure remained the same. The other two treatment groups showed no changes in any of the heart functions being scrutinized.

Dr. Rose Marie Robertson, immediate past-president of the AHA and professor of medicine at Vanderbilt University Medical Center in Nashville, told United Press International she was surprised blood pressure and heart rate remained unchanged despite the lessening of sympathetic nerve activity. Robertson said the sympathetic nervous system controls those functions, leading her to question if the acupuncture effect is real.

Despite her questions, Robertson applauded the authors' efforts to study non-traditional medical treatments in a sound scientific manner.

Currently, a class of drug called beta blockers are the mainstay of therapy for heart failure patients. Middlekauff told UPI that following further study it might prove possible to use acupuncture to complement standard drug therapy.

http://www.upi.com/Science_News/2001/11/14/Acupuncture-promising-for-heart-patients/UPI-95141005757500/