About the Author: Craig J. Amnott, DO ‘01 is a member of the UNE COM class of 2001. He holds a BS from the United States Military Academy, West Point as well as an MA from Liberty University. He retired from the United States Army in 2012 after 20 years of service, to include a combat tour in Iraq. He now practices outpatient Family Medicine, OMT and medical acupuncture as a partner with Horizon Family Medical Group in Orange County, NY. He also serves as adjunct assistant clinical professor of Family Medicine with TOUROCOM, Middletown, NY.
Acupuncture for Health During the COVID Pandemic
By Craig Amnott, DO ‘01
“In North America, widespread public and professional awareness of acupuncture commenced in 1971 when James Reston described in a front-page article in the New York Times how his postoperative pain from an emergency appendectomy was alleviated by three acupuncture needles.”1
Acupuncture is an ancient system of integrative medicine that involves inserting needles through the skin into strategic points in the body, both superficial and deeper, to treat various physical, mental, and emotional conditions.
Acupuncture can be used to treat acute and chronic ailments and diseases as well as it can be used preventatively by building up the body's immune system. It has been reported that “acupuncture can strengthen a weakened immune system by increasing red and white cell counts, T-cell count and enhancing humoral and cellular immunity in patients with immune-related illness.”2
Given the current world situation, where COVID-19 is sweeping the globe and there is a relative paucity of curative treatments as well as the lack of a viable vaccine, acupuncture is a treatment modality that warrants further consideration.
The exact mechanism(s) of action of COVID-19 are still yet to be fully understood. However, part of the mechanism is that it is a “thrombotic and vascular disease targeting endothelial cells throughout the body… ”3 As such, we now know that COVID-19 is particularly hard on those that are obese, suffer from uncontrolled diabetes, uncontrolled hypertension, chronic kidney disease, and COPD… those with cardiometabolic comorbidities.4
Prior to the arrival of COVID-19 in early 2020, much has already been researched and written about acupuncture’s effects on the body’s immune system as well as its effects on vascular endothelium.
“Anecdotal reports in nonrefereed literature link acupuncture stimulation to an influence on the immune system: lymphocyte blastogenesis; increased phagocytic and fibrinolytic activity; increased beta-globulins and gamma-globulins, lysozymes, agglutins, opsonins, and complement; suppressed exudate reaction and impairment of leukocyte adherence to vascular and epithelial cells.”5 Acupuncture has also been shown to improve endothelial dysfunction when used as an acute treatment in hypertensive patients.6. The mechanism of action of this improvement has been demonstrated in studies to show that acupuncture increases levels of nitrous oxide (NO) and calcitonin gene-related peptide (CGRP).7