Literature Review on Acupuncture Treatment for Parkinson’s Disease

Abstract

Parkinson’s Disease is a degradation of brain functions leads to deterioration in movement, sleep,
mental health, pain, memory, self-care, daily activity and other health issues. In modern medicine,
treatment of Parkinson’s Disease provided mostly involves symptom control which can lead to
side effects. Acupuncture treatment in Traditional Chinese Medicine has been researched to be
able to relieve the symptoms, reduce the side-effects caused by medication as well as slowing
down the progression of the disease. The objective of this thesis is to review the frequency of
acupoint selections as well as meridian used to treat Parkinson’s Disease. In this thesis, all the data
are collected from online databases based on the inclusion and exclusion criteria. The data
collected will be tabulated and calculated to conclude the result. There were total 46 journals
selected and the most frequently appeared acupoints are Bai Hui appeared 27 times, Tai Chong
appeared 25 times, He Gu appeared 24 times, San Yin Jiao appeared 21 times, Zu San Li appeared
20 times and Si Shen Cong appeared 20 times which are the top 6 acupoints. Meanwhile Tai Yang
Bladder of the Foot (BL) appeared 24 times and Governor Vessel (GV) appeared 20 times were
the top 2 meridians that most frequently used. The World Health Organisation (WHO) defines a
Sustainable Healthcare System as a system that improves, maintains or restores health, while
minimizing negative impacts on the environment and leveraging opportunities to benefit of the
health and well-being of current and future generations. In fact, acupuncture treatment can improve
the health and well-being of the Parkinson’s disease patient with long term cost savings as a
sustainable health care.