Geriatric Dogs & Cats, Acupuncture Benefits Aging Brain

Remember how disappointed you were to learn there was no Fountain of Youth? Well, there still isn’t but acupuncture has been shown to delay brain aging, so it might be called a Spring of Youth.

Research published in the Journal of Acupuncture and Moxibustion used swift aging mice and normal aging mice to show that the gene expression of the swift aging mice was altered when they received acupuncture so that their rate of aging was slowed: 15 genes down-modulated and 2 genes up-modulated. The acupuncture points chosen were to replenishing Qi, regulate blood, and reinforce essence.

Our aging dogs and cats are equally likely to benefit from similar acupuncture treatment.

 

To read the full research,  go to “Influence of acupuncture on cortical senility-related gene expression spectrum in swift aging mice,” by Ding, X. R., YU, J. C., Yu, T., and Han, J. X. in the Journal of Acupuncture and Moxibustion [2006, Vol. 25(01) p.39-42].