Acupuncture: Health and Well-being

I am pleased to introduce this edition of the Journal of Acupuncture and Meridian Studies. As we know, conducting scientific research to evaluate the efficacy and effectiveness of acupuncture on familial Mediterranean fever and various health conditions has long been challenging, especially because of the nonspecific and specific effects of the commonly used sham controls with associated complicated and diverse physiological mechanisms. Grech and colleagues [1] reported their pilot randomised controlled trial on electroacupuncture conducted on anesthetized patients undergoing thyroid and parathyroid surgery, thus eliminating the placebo effect. On studying the mechanism of acupuncture, experiments were conducted on healthy volunteers by De Souza et al [2] to investigate the muscle response on a yang meridian stimulation, and by Lee et al [3] to compare the heart rate variability caused by manual acupuncture, laser acupuncture, and electromagnetic field stimulation, whereas Fan et al [4] used rat models to verify the molecular mechanism of acupuncture in remission of depression. We also have case reports on laser acupuncture on amplyopia from Vanzini and Gallamini [5], sham acupuncture on nausea symptom during dental care from Zotelli et al [6], and an observational study of acupuncture on familial Mediterranean fever by Becel and colleagues [7].

The forthcoming 6th International Scientific Acupuncture and Meridian Symposium (iSAMS), co-organized by the University of Hong Kong, School of Chinese Medicine, and the Korean Pharmacopuncture Institute, will be an ideal platform for the exchange on the latest developments in the basic science, clinical research, translational studies, and research methodology of acupuncture. Besides presentations by keynote and invited speakers from reputable universities including Harvard University, University of York, Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology, Karolinska Institute, and University of California, there will be panel discussions and talks from selected papers and abstract submission. It will be held at the University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong, on November 19–20, 2016. Further details can be found at https://www.isams.org. We look forward to your participation in the conference.