Manual acupuncture effect on superoxide dismutase enzyme immediately after acute physical exercise in untrained man

Physical exercise is important for health but can also increase oxidative stress that induce Reactive Oxygen Species (ROS). Superoxide dismutase (SOD) is endogenous antioxidants found in the body, an enzyme that catalyzes the dismutation of radical superoxide ions (O2) into hydrogen peroxide (H2O2) and oxygen molecules (O2) against oxidative stress Acupuncture is one of the therapeutic modalities that is expected to reduce oxidative stress that occurs due to physical exercise. The study was conducted on thirty untrained men who were randomly divided into two groups, the manual acupuncture group (n = 15) performed acupuncture therapy at bilateral ST36 and SP6 acupuncture points, and the placebo group (n = 15) performed the needle stitching on the plaster without penetrating the skin. Acupuncture therapy is performed once for 30 minutes immediately after the subjects have finished acute physical exercise. Assessment of the blood SOD level was assessed before physical exercise and one hour after physical exercise. The results of this study showed a statistically significant difference in the difference between the level of SOD before and after physical exercise between the manual acupuncture group and placebo group p = 0.001.