We studied the efficiency of acupuncture for patients who were unable to give birth though they had experienced conventional infertility treatment for more than 2 years by medical specialists. We then investigated characteristics of difficult pregnancy cases with measurement of body temperature and observation of basal body temperature (BBT) charts. Thirty-three patients had acupuncture every week for more than 2 years and 17 of them delivered. At the same time, their cutaneous body temperature was measured at five locations. Moreover, patients and acupuncturists had a weekly discussion of the patient’s BBT chart. The delivery group showed more balanced and higher cutaneous body temperatures than the miscarriage and no pregnancy groups. The delivery group showed a smooth increase in the BBT chart while the miscarriage group showed a specific pattern in shifting temperatures from low to high zones. Acupuncture might suppress excess sympathetic dominance, which induced hyperthermia as well as interruption of pregnancy. Additionally, weekly discussion and medical advice could help patients. However, further study of males, healthy women, or larger, comparative studies exploring the social and cultural background of other countries were needed to add support to these factors.
Dr. Kyusaku Ogino, an honorary citizen of the city of Niigata, published his discovery of the date of ovulation in the February issue of the Hokuetsu Medical Journal in 1923. He used his discovery to help infertile women to time intercourse to achieve pregnancy. In 1926, Dr. Theodor Hendrik van de Velde noted that the temperature rise in the latter part of the female cycle was because of the activity of the corpus luteum, the follicle from which the ovum had been released [
Currently, fertility in developed countries was declining. For example, the total fertility rate in 2011 was 1.39 in Japan given the rise in the proportion of single individuals, age at marriage, and age at child bearing [
The purposes of this study were 1) to examine the efficiency of acupuncture for patients who were unable to give birth though they had experienced conventional infertility treatment more than 2 years from medical specialists; and 2) to investigate characteristics of difficult pregnancy cases with measurement of body temperature and observation of BBT charts.
Thirty-three patients, aged 24 to 43 years (average 32.4 ± 4.9 years) when they started to have weekly acupuncture, were included in the study. Patients came to Nakamura Seikotsuin (Niigata, Japan) or Yushima Shimizuzaka Clinic (Tokyo, Japan) continuously for more than 2 years between January 2010 and December 2015. Written informed consent was obtained from all subjects and the study was approved by the Medical Ethics Committee of Yushima Shimizuzaka Clinic. All patients had experienced conventional infertility treatment more than 2 years from medical specialists; however, they had not given birth in the past. Patients were divided into 3study groups: the delivery group (n = 17; age, 26 - 41 years; average age 32.5 ± 4.7 years), the miscarriage group (n = 5; age, 30 - 42 years; average age 34.4 ± 4.6 years) and the no-pregnancy group (n = 11; age, 24 - 43 years; average age 33.1 ± 5.5 years) (
An ancient type of acupuncture needle, Dizhen (DZ), which was made of stainless steel (Soken Medical Co. Ltd., Tokyo, Japan), was used for acupuncture treatment. As we consider DZ application advantageous and safe in modern clinical practice, it can avoid the issues with infection and tissue damage sometimes seen with modern
acupuncture needles [
An autoclaved DZ was softly pressed vertically onto the body surface for 5 minutes (diameter 5.0 mm, 37.3 g/mm2), at approximately 120 points from the head to the feet on both sides of the spine as reported previously [
Each time a patient received acupuncture, her cutaneous body temperatures were measured (before and after acupuncture) using a contactless digital thermometer (Microlife, IR 1DA1, Microlife, Windnau, Switzerland) at five previously described peripheral locations: Yintang (on the forehead, midway between the medial ends of the eyebrows), LI4 (Hegu; on the dorsum of the right and left hands, radial to the mid-point of the second metacarpal bone), and LR3 (Taichong; on the dorsum of the right and left feet, between the first and second metatarsal bones, in the depression distal to the junction of the bases of the two bones, over the dorsalis pedis artery) [
We explained to participants the reasons for and importance of tracking BBT under the tongue with basal thermometers each morning, emphasizing a time when they first woke up in the morning after at least 3 hours of uninterrupted sleep. Moreover, we encouraged participants to record a temperature-plotting chart and to bring it with them when they had an acupuncture treatment.
The Mann-Whitney test was conducted and the level of significance was set at p < 0.05. The values presented are mean ± S.D. All statistical analyses were performed using SPSS version 20 for Windows (IBM Corp, Armonk, New York, USA).
Cutaneous body temperatures were measured each time before acupuncture. We compared cutaneous body temperatures of two points; before and the nearest time just before the fertilization in the delivery group (or 2 years later in the miscarriage/no-pregnancy groups). It has been reported that rapid changes in core temperature are associated with changes in cutaneous blood flow mediated by the autonomic nervous system [
Weekly acupuncture regulated the shape of pentagon-shaped radar charts (
We made a detailed observation comparing the 3 groups. And then, we extracted BBT records of miscarriage patients (n = 5) and compared with those of other groups (the delivery and no-pregnancy groups) (
Our observation revealed two results. First, the miscarriage group showed unbalanced, lower cutaneous body temperatures than the other group. We have reported that low body temperature (hypothermia) is shown under SN dominance because of alpha-adrenergic stimulation, which constricts peripheral blood vessels via alpha- adrenergic receptors [
Second, we discovered that the miscarriage group showed a specific pattern in shifting from lower temperatures before ovulation to higher temperatures after ovulation (
Unlike other pituitary and target organ systems, the hypothalamic-pituitary-ovarian system involves multiple trophic hormones with different biological actions (e.g., follicle stimulating hormone and luteinizing hormone) and multiple target hormones having nonlinear feedback functions [
and estrogen brings it down [
A sharp elevation in the BBT chart after ovulation means progesterone has been released, preparing the lining of the uterus for the implantation of a fertilized ovum. Therefore, hypothermia and slow shifts or dips in the BBT after ovulation may indicate deficiency of progesterone release, as well as difficulty in maintenance of pregnancy. This is understood to be a reason for miscarriage and no-pregnancy.
Recently researchers reported the fate of fertilized ova (human embryos) with significant genetic abnormalities can alter chemical signals (e.g., trypsin) to produce a stress response in the womb [
In this way, our findings indicate the efficiency of acupuncture treatment on delivery/pregnancy via suppressing SN dominance and propose a specific sign of miscarriage in this study. However, our study has several limitations. First, we study only patients who have gone through conventional infertility treatment for more than two years. Therefore, we study neither healthy patients nor patients who do not present BBT. Second, half of the outcomes related to delivery and pregnancy depend on the male; however, we do not study men. Third, larger, comparative studies exploring the social and cultural background of other countries are needed to add support to these factors with appropriate statistical analysis.
Special thanks to Mr. Taiki Hashimoto and Ms. Kaori Yamamoto (Yushima-Shimizuzaka Clinic) for arrangement of the clinical research. The authors also thank all of patients who participated in this study.
Mayumi Watanabe,Yoshinobu Nakamura,Chikako Tomiyama,Toru Abo, (2016) A Specific Pattern in the Basal Body Temperature Chart during the First Week of Pregnancy May Warn of a Miscarriage Crisis. Health,08,723-729. doi: 10.4236/health.2016.88075