auricular acupuncture may suppress epileptic seizures via activating the parasympathetic nervous system a hypothesis based on innovative methods耳部针灸可能通过激活交感神经系统抑制癫痫发作一个假设基于创新的方法.pdfVIP

Hindawi Publishing Corporation Evidence-Based Complementary and Alternative Medicine Volume 2012, Article ID 615476, 5 pages doi:10.1155/2012/615476 Review Article Auricular Acupuncture May Suppress Epileptic Seizures via Activating the Parasympathetic Nervous System: A Hypothesis Based on Innovative Methods Wei He,1 Pei-Jing Rong,1 Liang Li,1 Hui Ben,1 Bing Zhu,1 and Gerhard Litscher1, 2 1 Institute of Acupuncture and Moxibustion, China Academy of Chinese Medical Sciences, Beijing 100700, China 2 Stronach Research Unit for Complementary and Integrative Laser Medicine, TCM Research Center Graz, and Research Unit of Biomedical Engineering in Anesthesia and Intensive Care Medicine, Medical University of Graz, Auenbruggerplatz 29, 8036 Graz, Austria Correspondence should be addressed to Bing Zhu, zhubing@ and Gerhard Litscher, gerhard.litscher@medunigraz.at Received 12 October 2011; Accepted 26 October 2011 Academic Editor: Lu Wang Copyright © 2012 Wei He et al. This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. Auricular acupuncture is a diagnostic and treatment system based on normalizing the body’s dysfunction. An increasing number of studies have demonstrated that auricular acupuncture has a significant effect on inducing parasympathetic tone. Epilepsy is a neu- rological disorder consisting of recurrent seizures resulting from excessive, uncontrolled electrical activity in the brain. Autonomic imbalance demonstrating an increased sympathetic activity and a reduced parasympathetic activation is involved in the develop- ment and progress of epileptic seizures. Activation of the parasympathetic nervous system