Moxibustion for hypertension: a systematic review

BACKGROUND: Moxibustion is a traditional East Asian medical therapy that uses the heat generated by burning herbal preparations containing Artemisia vulgaris to stimulate acupuncture points. The aim of this review was to evaluate previously published clinical evidence for the use of moxibustion as a treatment for hypertension. METHODS: We searched 15 databases without language restrictions from their respective dates of inception until March 2010. We included randomized controlled trials (RCTs) comparing moxibustion to either antihypertensive drugs or no treatment. The risk of bias was assessed for each RCT. RESULTS: During the course of our search, we identified 519 relevant articles. A total of 4 RCTs met all the inclusion criteria, two of which failed to report favorable effects of moxibustion on blood pressure (BP) compared to the control (antihypertensive drug treatment alone). However, a third RCT showed significant effects of moxibustion as an adjunct treatment to antihypertensive drug therapy for lowering BP compared to antihypertensive drug therapy alone. The fourth RCT included in this review addressed the immediate BP-lowering effects of moxibustion compared to no treatment. None of the included RCTs reported the sequence generation, allocation concealment and evaluator blinding. CONCLUSION: There is insufficient evidence to suggest that moxibustion is an effective treatment for hypertension. Rigorously designed trials are warranted to answer the many remaining questions.