Regulación de la temperatura con acupuntura

Body temperature is normally kept within a normal range of 36.5 to 37.5 °C. If not treated promptly, minimal changes in body temperature, even of a fraction of a degree, may have deleterious consequences, especially in the elderly and in wounded patients. Several factors may affect body temperature regulation and, recently, global warming has been recognized as a major cause of extreme weather phenomena responsible for changes in room temperature worldwide. This change blocks the normal base metabolism, delay cardiopulmonary resuscitation and may even compromise our patients' live. In our midst, the current management of hypothermia is limited to several inefficient and expensive measures, not always easily available, making acupuncture an easy, nice and reliable complementary tool in the clinical approach to body temperature regulation and thermic homeostasis. Taking into account the proven clinical efficacy of acupuncture in the management of several autonomic syndromes and its ability to modulate the parasympathetic and sympathetic activities of the autonomic nervous system, this paper offers a clinical approach to acupuncture regarding the mechanisms of body homeothermic regulation.