Year: 2010
Type: dissertation
Abstract: There is a growing body of evidence that links chronic stress to the development of numerous disease processes including cardiovascular disease, cancer and obesity. Electro-acupuncture (EA) is a useful adjunct therapy in the treatment of many disorders including stress and anxiety. Although, EA is utilized worldwide as an anxiolytic and a stress reliever, its general mechanism of action, especially with regards to chronic stress pathways, has not yet been elucidated. Hence, the overarching hypothesis for this project was that EA allays the stress response, and that it does so by affecting the two classical stress pathways: the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal axis (HPA) and the sympathetic nervous system (SNS). We therefore investigated the possible role of EA in lowering both central and peripheral stress hormones associated with these pathways in a chronic-stress rat model. The HPA hormones investigated in our chronic stress paradigm were brain corticotrophin relasing hormone (CRH), plasma adenocorticotropin hormone (ACTH), and serum corticosterone (CORT). The SNS response markers of interest were adrenal tyrosine hydroxylase (TH), an important enzyme in the synthesis of
Author: Ladan Eshkevari
Language: English
Subfield: Complementary and alternative medicine
Field: Medicine
Domain: Health Sciences
Open Access status: green
OpenAlex ID: W2287178769