Which one, acupuncture or massage, can increase blood pressure?

As long as it is performed by qualified practitioners and performed in a standardized manner, acupuncture or massage will not directly lead to pathological increases in blood pressure. On the contrary, both are commonly used external treatment methods to intervene in mild to moderate essential hypertension in clinical practice. If persisted for a long time, the blood pressure stabilizing effect is quite stable.

I have been practicing clinical physiotherapy for almost 8 years. The few cases of elevated blood pressure after physiotherapy that I have encountered were all caused by irregular operations or lack of preparation by the patients themselves, and were not a problem with the project itself at all. Last month, I met a 62-year-old Aunt Zhang, who has a history of high blood pressure for ten years. She went out for a walk that morning and forgot to take her antihypertensive medicine. She stopped by the store and wanted to rub her shoulders and neck. The front desk was busy and did not have time to ask about her medical history. The new apprentice started pressing the button again. After checking the position of the carotid sinuses on both sides of her, within ten minutes, the aunt said that her head was swollen and her blood pressure jumped to 172/101. She quickly stopped the operation and helped her sit up and took a short-acting antihypertensive drug. It took a long time before it returned to a safe value.

If we ask which of the two operations is more likely to cause blood pressure to rise, massage is actually a slightly higher probability, but it all depends on the operation. After all, many informal massage parlors pursue "strong enough force". If the massage touches the sensitive areas of the neck and head and stimulates the sympathetic nerves, people with unstable blood pressure will easily experience a temporary spike in blood pressure. Of course, acupuncture is not completely impossible. Last year, I met a young man in his 20s who was so afraid of getting an acupuncture for the first time that he felt tense all over even after the disinfection. His palms were sweating immediately after getting a Hegu injection. When his blood pressure was 152/94, I quickly pulled out the needle and handed him a cup of warm sugar water. After sitting for less than ten minutes, it returned to 120/78. It was purely an over-stressed stress reaction and had nothing to do with the stimulation of acupuncture itself.

In fact, our blood pressure is like the pressure of the water pipe at home. Regular acupuncture and massage are equivalent to asking a knowledgeable master to help you adjust the valve, reduce the excessive pressure, and open the blocked areas. If you find someone who doesn't know anything to twist it, either the pressure will be too high and the water pipe will burst, or the pressure will be too low and no water will come out. The problem is always the operator, not the tool itself.

There are still a lot of debates on the Internet. Some people say that massage will raise blood pressure, so patients with high blood pressure should not use it. Some people say that acupuncture is absolutely safe and can be used by anyone. In fact, these are too extreme. I have seen a small sample study before, saying that for some people with abnormally excited sympathetic nerves, even a regular upper back massage may cause a small increase in blood pressure of 10-20mmHg, but it will usually fall back on its own within 15 minutes. It is not considered a pathological injury at all, and there is no need to be overly anxious.

If you really have high blood pressure, whether you go for acupuncture or massage, it is more reliable to tell the doctor in advance about your underlying diseases, recent blood pressure control, and whether you take antihypertensive drugs than to worry about which of the two items is more likely to raise blood pressure. After all, a qualified practitioner will adjust the amount of stimulation according to your situation, avoid taboo areas, and will not let your blood pressure rise randomly.