Wei Zhou, Eileen L So, Kentaro Yamakawa and Aman Mahajan
Diabetes affects approximately 366 million individuals worldwide. Current pharmacological therapy is not perfect, and often is associated with adverse side effects. Acupuncture is used as an adjunctive treatment for a number of cardiovascular diseases. Chronic activation of the sympathetic nervous system has emerged as a key player in both the pathogenesis and progression of diabetes and metabolic syndrome. Recent evidence indicates that the down regulation of central nitric oxide system leads to an increased renal sympathetic neural activity in diabetic rats. Our experimental studies have shown that electroacupuncture stimulation exerts sympathoinhibitory effects through activation of neurons in the arcuate nucleus, ventrolateral gray, and nucleus raphe to inhibit the neural activity in the rostral ventrolateral medulla. This brief review will discuss current knowledge of the effects of acupuncture on central nervous system and provide a perspective on the future of treatment of diabetes with this alternative medicine technique.