An overview of the contribution of acupuncture to thyroid disorders

作     者：Fung-Kei Cheng 

作者机构：Hong Kong China 

出 版 物：《Journal of Integrative Medicine》 (结合医学学报（英文版）)

年 卷 期：2018年第16卷第6期

页      面：375-383页

核心收录：

学科分类：1005[医学-中医学] 100512[医学-针灸推拿学] 10[医学] 

主　　题：Acupuncture Alternative and complementary medicine Endocrine system Integrative medicine Traditional Chinese medicine Thyroidism 

摘      要：Thyroid dysfunction, affecting people of all ages, not only damages human growth and energy metabo- lism but is also comorbid with other illnesses such as cardiovascular disease, kidney disease and gastroin- testinal disorders. With the increasing acceptance of alternative and complementary therapies, acupuncture, a traditional Chinese medical practice, has also been employed to address this problem. Analysing 29 clinical projects that were retrieved from 29 major digital databases and include 1757 patients aged 7-79 years from China, Italy, Korea, Macedonia and Russia, this narrative review offers an overview of the efficacy, and evaluated the safe and cost-effective use of acupuncture against hyper- thyroidism, hypothyroidism and thyroid-relevant illnesses. Findings indicated reductions in patient symptoms and improvements in biomarkers where acupuncture was used alone or in combination ther- apy. In addition to showing the role of acupuncture as an alternative and complementary medicine or as an adjunctive therapy for curative and rehabilitative purposes, more well-designed researches are needed to achieve reliable data.