Evaluation of Applied Kinesiology meridian techniques by means of surface electromyography (sEMG): demonstration of the regulatory influence of antique acupuncture points

Typical cases with an indicator muscle that presents a normal tone were selected. Both tonification and sedation were applied as needed. This evaluation included six adults without clinical evidence of disease. Four subjects were medical students and two were medical doctors. All gave informed consent. The first four subjects presented no surgical scars, while the last two had surgical scars. One had abdominal surgery for the correction of chryptorchidism, inguinal hernia (on the right side) and varicocele (on the left side). The other presented a T-shaped scar on the right shoulder (deltoideus muscle).

In this study, we tested the rectus femoris muscle only in order to limit the use of acupoints to those of the associated meridian, i.e. the Small Intestine (SI) meridian. The test procedure was as described by Walther [2]. Further clinical guidelines were recently provided by Schmitt and Cuthbert [4]. The test was carried out when the subject laid supine with the right leg flexed at the knee (90°). The AK test evaluated a transitory state called 'quality of resistance' [9], which required a coordinated start of the procedure where the examiner applies pressure on the tested muscle, while the subject attempted to maintain this 'resistance'. The state of resistance was recorded with superficial electromyography (sEMG). To demonstrate the principles of sedation and tonification of Applied Kinesiology Meridian Therapy (AKMT), we applied gentle digital pressure for about two seconds on specific acupoints of the SI meridian. Gentle pressure was the pressure that the examiner needed to feel the medium level pulse position [10]. According to the theory of the Five Elements [7], the tonification acupoint is SI3 (Wood) and the sedation acupoint is SI8 (Earth). Furthermore, sedation was achieved via the element acupoint of the son meridian (ST36) or grandparent meridian (BL66). The same principles apply to tonification procedures leading to the use of the element acupoint of the mother meridian (GB41) or grandchild meridian (LI1).

In the analysis of sedation, three subjects were studied. In the first subject, simple sedation was done via only the SI8 acupoint. In the second and third subjects, a sedation row was carried out via the SI8, ST36 and BL66 acupoints. In the tonification study, GB41 and LI1 acupoints were used. A rest interval of ten seconds between procedures was applied during the repeated tests of the rectus femoris. Preliminary sEMG studies showed that repeated measures had a variation of 5–8% of the resting RMS values. If the rest interval between tests is less than ten seconds, muscle weakness will be induced leading to a diminution of the RMS values. The patients with scars were examined under manipulation conditions. The initial muscle tone was recorded prior to scar manipulation, followed by a stretch stimulus of each scar (3–4 seconds) and repeated manual testing of the muscle together with sEMG recording.

The clinical examination of the scars was performed with a dynamic challenge (stretching) based on AK techniques. In this setting a normotone muscle was used as an indicator. A positive test was when the dynamic stretch challenge had produced a change in the tonicity of the indicator muscle (either weakness or increased tone). The same challenge was repeated for the selection of the appropriate neural therapy (NT) agent which was held in the hand of the examiner during the challenge. In the evaluation of selective NT, the following anesthetic agents were considered: bupivacaine 0.25%, mepivacaine 0.5%, mepivacaine 2.0%, procaine 1.0%, lidocaine 0.5% and lidocaine 1%. The appropriate NT agent was one that eliminated the effect of the dynamic challenge. For hardened, hypertrophic scars, a local therapy with zinc oxide cream [11, 12] was done prior to NT (Zinksalbe, Gall Pharma, Judenburg, Austria). The zinc cream was used 2–3 times per day for at least two weeks. The scars were treated with the cream with digital pressure applied along the axis of the scar as well as in a tangential orientation. Once the scars showed a softer consistence, the test for selective NT was completed.

For the sEMG analysis, the initial tone of the indicator muscle was recorded first. The influence of the acupoints mentioned above was tested with gentle digital pressure applied for two seconds on each acupoint and the sEMG recording repeated. sEMG was carried out with a 4-channel Bagnoli™ Desktop EMG System (Delsys, Boston, MA, USA). Data analysis was performed with the root mean square (RMS) calculated for each recording. Finally the data were reported as signal amplitude (EMGworks Analysis 3.6; Delsys, Boston, MA, USA).

Some studies have suggested an intimate relation between muscular and fascial structures [21, 22]. Scars would alter the integrity of these structures [23]. The skin and the underlying anatomical structures require a smoothly functioning sliding system [24, 25], and at a deeper level, skin contact with the underlying fascia is a central event of structural and functional integrity [26]. The present study provides an example of the interaction of scars with the manual muscle test. In our clinical experience, we observe that the use of zinc oxide with selective NT can overcome this situation. The relevance of this procedure is that of eliminating interfering influences on superficial force transmission through the fasciae [24, 25, 27, 28].