An experimental study had found that acupuncture at the ‘Four Gates’ (Siguan) can normalise accelerated gastrointestinal (GI) motility. In a Korean experiment, 21 healthy male subjects were randomly allocated to either a real acupuncture group (needled at bilateral Hegu L.I.-4 and Taichong LIV-3) or a sham acupuncture group (needled at non-acupoints two to three centimetres lateral from Hegu L.I.-4 and Taichong LIV-3). In order to induce excessive and accelerated GI motility, subjects were administered the drug mosapride citrate for two days, starting 24 hours before the first acupuncture treatment. All participants were also administered radioisotope markers immediately before the first acupuncture treatment, and GI motility was measured via radiography immediately after the first acupuncture treatment and at six, 12, 24 and 48 hours thereafter. Acupuncture treatment was conducted a total of four times at intervals of 12-hours. After a two-week washout period, the real acupuncture group in the first experiment was treated with sham acupuncture in the second experimental session, and vice versa. Gastrointestinal motility was found to be generally reduced in the real acupuncture group compared with the sham acupuncture group throughout the four time points. A significant difference was observed at 24 hours following the first acupuncture treatment. (Effect of siguan acupuncture on gastrointestinal motility: a randomized, sham-controlled, crossover trial. Evid Based Complement Alternat Med. 2013;2013:918392).
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