Treatment effect of acupuncture and electric stimulation on chronic constipation patients

This research applied electro-acupuncture stimulation to constipated subjects expecting to improve constipation by enhancing bowel movement, increasing stool frequency, reducing the times of enemata, and lowering the doses of laxatives, as well as to decrease the side effects of drugs and cut down medical expenditure. The research divided 36 qualified subjects, including 35 females and 1 male with the age of 40±12, into electro-acupuncture group and Sham-acupuncture group by randomized single-blind method. Both groups received 8-week treatment, once every week. In the process of treatment, multi-functional physiological signal acquisition device was utilized to receive the electrocardiograms of the subjects in the first, the fourth and the eighth weeks for analysis. The findings showed that sympathetic nerve system of electro-acupuncture group appeared inactive after 8-week treatment, and their parasympathetic nerve systems turned more active than that of Sham-acupuncture group in the eighth week.