Acupuncture and Holistic Healing for Concussion Treatment and Management
Acupuncture is a holistic healing modality that has gained great traction in modern medicine for its ability to treat pain and musculoskeletal conditions. Practitioners will often use a combination of inquiry, visual and physical assessment, and traditional Chinese medicine diagnostics to find disharmonies within the body. Then through appropriate point protocol, will insert fine, sterile needles into specific points on the body and re-establish balance between the various body systems.
When an individual sustains a concussion it can impair blood flow to certain areas of the brain, decrease cerebral blood glucose metabolism, augment the sympathetic nervous system and negatively impact the vestibular system. It also causes numerous metabolic shifts in the brain, such as an influx of calcium into cells, release of excitatory neurotransmitter glutamate, and a decrease in ATP production. In a majority of people, these issues would normalize within 30 days of the injury, so why do some people still have symptoms? Well, the answer is unknown. However, there are a few pathomechanisms that are being considered such as continued blood flow abnormalities, metabolic/inflammatory/hormonal irregularities, visual and/or vestibular dysfunction, and cervical spine dysfunction.
So how can acupuncture address these pathomechanisms? Research has found that acupuncture can increase cerebral blood flow, reduce inflammation, down regulate the pain cascade, and stimulate the body’s innate healing response. It can also enhance the activity of certain hormones such as serotonin and dopamine, and can improve cervical spine function by addressing muscle pathologies in the local area.
On another note, research looking into changes in resting state functional connectivity have found there are certain regions in our brains that have abnormally high functional connectivity after sustaining a concussion. Interestingly, the augmented connectivity has been linked to a variety of symptoms which commonly accompany head injuries. For example, increased connectivity between the precentral gyrus and precuneus, and the medial prefrontal cortex and parietal lobe is associated with more cognitive and/or affective complaints. A hyperactive precuneus was also associated with neurocognitive deficits. Lastly, an increase in default mode network activity was associated with increased symptoms of depression and attentional lapses (Hui et al., 2009). It has been found that one or more of these areas of the brain are hyperactive after sustaining a concussion, meaning they are potentially causing some of the commonly experienced post concussion symptoms.
While there isn’t a vast library of research on acupuncture and the treatment of concussions, there are a variety of studies looking at how acupuncture affects resting state functional connectivity in the brain. According to peer-reviewed research, acupuncture has been shown to decrease activity in the default mode network and the areas of the brain mentioned above (Dailey et al., 2018) (Feng et al., 2012)(Lu et al., 2019). Meaning, acupuncture has the potential to reduce hyperactivity in areas of the brain that are related to post concussion symptoms. Therefore, it has the potential to improve depression, attentional lapses, cognition and affective complaints.
In summary, there is a lack of research looking into the effectiveness of acupuncture on treating concussions; however, there is a substantial amount of evidence looking at the effects of acupuncture and the effects of concussions. When analyzing both sets of information, there is a clear overlap in information suggesting the potential role acupuncture has in treating post concussion symptoms. With more research and case studies, we can bring light to its effectiveness and begin to help more individuals experiencing post concussion symptoms.
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