Effects of acupoint therapy on nonalcoholic fatty liver disease: A systematic review and meta-analysis.

Yiming Bi, Bei Yin, Guanjie Fan, Yaqing Xia, Jinzhu Huang, Anxiang Li, Yuping Lin

Journal: Complementary therapies in clinical practice 2021;43():101376

PMID: 33813176

Full Text on Elsevier Science View on PubMed

Abstract

BACKGROUND

and purpose: Acupoint therapy is suggested as a potential intervention for treating nonalcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD). This review assessed current evidence for the effect of acupoint therapy on NAFLD.

METHODS

Eight electronic databases were searched to identify randomized controlled trials (RCTs) of patients with NAFLD treated by acupoint therapy from their inception to August 2020. A meta-analysis of outcomes was conducted by RevMan 5.3.

RESULTS

Sixteen RCTs with 1320 patients were included. Acupoint therapy was significantly associated with improvements in alanine aminotransferase (ALT) and aspartate aminotransferase (AST) levels. Additionally, acupoint therapy significantly reduced triglyceride (TG), total cholesterol (TC) and low-density lipoprotein (LDL) levels. High-density lipoprotein (HDL) levels were also increased in NAFLD patients.

CONCLUSION

Compared with other treatments, acupoint therapy may improve liver function and lipid metabolism, making it an available treatment for NAFLD. However, these findings need to be confirmed in large-scale, rigorously designed RCTs.

Address: School of Second Clinical Medicine, Guangzhou University of Chinese Medicine, Guangzhou, China.; Department of Endocrinology, Guangdong Provincial Hospital of Chinese Medicine, The Second Affiliated Hospital of Guangzhou University of Chinese Medicine, Guangzhou, China. Electronic address: [email protected].; Department of Endocrinology, Guangdong Provincial Hospital of Chinese Medicine, The Second Affiliated Hospital of Guangzhou University of Chinese Medicine, Guangzhou, China.

DOI: 10.1016/j.ctcp.2021.101376