Table 1.

Effects of acupuncture on gastrointestinal motility

Organ/Functions	Finding	Methods	Subjects	Authors
Esophagus
Contractions	Increased the peak of amplitude in esophageal peristalsis	EA at ST36	Cats	Shuai 2008
LES	Increased LES pressure	EA at ST36	Cats	Shuai 2008
TLESRs	Decreased the rate of LESRs	EA at PC6	Healthy human	Zou 2005
GERD	Adding acupuncture is more effective in controlling symptoms than doubling PPI dose.	Acupuncture at PC6, ST36, CV12,CV17, LR3 and SP9	Patients	Dickman 2007
Stomach
Accommodation	Restored impaired gastric accommodation by vagotomy	EA at ST36	Dogs with vagotomy	Ouyang 2004b
Slow waves	Increased the percentage of regular slow waves	EA at ST36 and PC6	Healthy human	Lin 1997 Chang 2002
Contractions	Restored impaired antral contractions induced by rectal distension	EA at ST36	Dogs Rats	Chen 2008 Tatewaki 2003
Gastric Emptying	Accelerated liquid gastric emptying delayed by duodenal balloon distenstion.	EA at ST36	Dogs	Ouyang 2002
	Accelerated solid gastric emptying delayed by restraint stress		Rats	Iwa 2006b
FD	Chronic TEA improved dyspepsia symptoms and increased plasma neuropeptide Y level	TEA at ST36 and PC6	Patients	Liu 2008
Gastroparesis	Accelerated solid gastric emptying in FD patients with delayed gastric emptying	EA at ST36 and PC6	Patients	Xu 2006
Small Intestine
Contractions	Increased frequency of small intestinal motility	EA at ST36 and BL27	Dogs	Choi 2001
Transit	Accelerated small intestinal transit	EA at ST36 and SP6	Rats	Tabosa 2004
Colon
Contractions	Increased contractility in distal colon	EA at ST36	Rats	Luo 2008
Transit	Accelerated colonic transit. Inhibited accelerated colonic transit induced by restraint stress	EA at ST36 EA at ST 36	Rats Rats	Iwa 2006a Iwa 2006b
Sensation	attenuated visceral hypersensitivity in rats model with IBS	EA at ST36	Rats	Xu 2009
IBS	Both acupuncture and sham acupuncture improved symptoms, acupuncture in IBS is a placebo response.	acupuncture	patients	Schneider 2006