Skip to main content

Acupuncture and Longevity

Image
By
As an acupuncture physician, I am keen to share emerging research that highlights the profound influence of mental health on longevity. Growing evidence suggests that psychological well-being not only shapes the risk of chronic disease and cognitive decline but also plays a pivotal role in the ageing process.

A study in BMJ Mental Health underscores how stress, anxiety, and depression accelerate harmful biological mechanisms, whereas psychological resilience acts as a safeguard against premature ageing. Acupuncture is increasingly recognised as an effective approach to strengthening mental resilience and preserving cognitive function, offering a holistic means of fostering long-term well-being.

Research indicates that acupuncture modulates key neural networks involved in emotional processing, mitigates neuroinflammation, and enhances neuroplasticity. A study in Nature Communications found that electroacupuncture prevents astrocytic atrophy in the prefrontal cortex, thereby alleviating depressive symptoms.

Similarly, research published in Translational Psychiatry suggests that acupuncture reduces inflammation in the hippocampus — a region essential for memory and emotional regulation — thereby enhancing stress resilience.

Further insights reveal acupuncture’s influence on the cortico-striatal circuit, a critical pathway in mood regulation. Studies indicate that patients with depression who undergo acupuncture treatment exhibit improved neural activity in this region, contributing to emotional stability and psychological equilibrium.

Additionally, acupuncture stimulates the release of serotonin and dopamine — neurotransmitters associated with well-being — while simultaneously lowering cortisol levels, a hormone closely linked to stress and the ageing process.

These findings reinforce acupuncture as a powerful tool for promoting mental resilience and cognitive longevity. By modulating neurobiological mechanisms, this time-honoured practice offers a valuable means of supporting healthy ageing and emotional well-being.

References

Steptoe, A. (2024). Mental health as the main determinant of longevity: A review of the literature. BMJ Mental Health, 27(1), e301064.

Liu, C. H., et al. (2023). Electroacupuncture prevents astrocyte atrophy in the prefrontal cortex, alleviating depressive behaviours. Nature Communications, 14, 3452.

Zhang, Y., et al. (2019). Electroacupuncture alleviates anxiety- and depression-like behaviours induced by chronic stress through reducing neuroinflammation in the hippocampus. Translational Psychiatry, 9(1), 271.

Yang, W., et al. (2024). Acupuncture modulates cortico-striatal connectivity in major depressive disorder. Translational Psychiatry, 14(1), 84.
Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

When Shawn Mendes Became a Lifeline

By
When my father fell ill in his final days, the lyrics of Shawn Mendes’ In My Blood became an unexpected refuge, helping me process the reality unfolding before me. The song’s plea — its raw, urgent cry against the weight of helplessness — resonated in a way that felt almost too personal. “Help me, it’s like the walls are caving in” — those words captured the suffocating dread that gripped me in the small hours, waiting for news, hoping for a miracle I already knew would not come. The song does not offer easy comfort; nor does it deny the pain of endurance. Instead, it acknowledges the struggle — the desperate search for strength when every instinct urges collapse. “I just wanna give up, but I can’t.” That was it, exactly. The exhaustion, the emotional erosion, the moments when hope felt like a cruel joke. And yet, beneath it all, an unspoken defiance: the fight continues, not because it is easy, but because surrender is unthinkable. The grief that followed those long hours ...
Post a Comment
Read more

Delusions

By
I've attempted to discover a quick way to deal with confrontational scenarios by interpolating empathy with courteous demeanour. While it didn’t interrupt confrontations, nor made them avoidable, it seems that begging to disagree can work, so long as you’ve have first learnt to mirror what is being talked in a different point of view. I like to call those exercises tools for mutual understanding. It took me a while to understand that it is natural for some people to showcase colourful disagreement only to capture a topic by exhaustion. Funnily enough, no words can interpret with precision what a subject matter can bring to a vulnerable person. I say vulnerable not to explicate people who eventually become vulnerable, oh no. We are all vulnerable to small stressors, too many of them, too many times. Triggers, say, of how much sentiment you will drill in a matter of seconds. More than that, it is a delusion to ignore them. That’s righteous okay, I need to add. Subjectivity is always ...
Post a Comment
Read more

The Shape of Thought

By
Gustav Klimt once said, “Art is a line around your thoughts.” A line — thin as a whisper, trembling yet deliberate — emerges from nothingness. It does not impose itself. It does not command. It is barely there, yet it holds. It is the first breath of form, the fragile boundary between the unsaid and the spoken. Without it, thought is a flicker in the dark, a thing half-lived, dissolving before it can be known. A vision stirs. Not summoned, not controlled. It arrives unbidden — whole yet veiled, elusive yet certain. It lingers at the edge of perception, pressing gently, insistently, against the mind’s quiet. It cannot be seized outright. To reach for it is to risk shattering it; to hesitate is to watch it dissolve. And so, the line must be drawn. But not too soon. Not too rigidly. It must breathe, as thought itself breathes, as meaning unfolds. The hand moves, uncertain yet assured, guided by something beyond logic. An intelligence older than language, something that knows ...
Post a Comment
Read more