Clinical effect of AA with vaccaria seeds in reducing constipation symptoms
constipation
The results of this study showed that participants who received AA with vaccaria seeds on seven acupoints (large intestine, rectum, San Jiao, spleen, lung, sympathetic, and subcortex) had significantly lower PAC-SYM and abdominal, rectal, and stool symptoms scores. Therefore, AA with vaccaria seeds is a promising non-pharmacological intervention to reduce the severity of constipation and abdominal, rectal, and stool symptoms among the older people in RCH. The results of the follow-up period showed that AA with vaccaria seeds has significant long-term effects in reducing the symptoms of constipation and stool, but it did not have a significant effect on abdominal and rectal symptoms, which is probably due to the short duration of the intervention and the application of AA only on one ear every five days. Probably, the simultaneous application of AA on both ears has a stronger effect. According to the results, the hypothesis of the research about the effect of AA on constipation among the older people in RCH is accepted.Similar to these results, Li et al.’s (2014) study reported alleviated constipation symptoms after receiving AA for 10 days, using magnet pellets in intervention group at the same seven auricular acupoints on the older people living in RCH; moreover, a significant improvement in stool symptoms subscale was observed among participants who received AA [