The Impact of Traditional Chinese Non-Pharmacological Therapies on Blood Pressure Control in Community Patients with Hypertension

Abstract

In the context of the “mean target attainment” bottleneck in community hypertension management in the United States, this study innovatively focuses on blood pressure variability (BPV), a key indicator that has been largely overlooked. Through a large-scale cluster-randomized controlled trial conducted in 12 federally qualified health centers in Dallas County, Texas, 913 patients with typical high-salt diets and sedentary lifestyles were randomly assigned to a 12-week standardized acupoint massage and Shenque acupoint plaster intervention, while maintaining ACEI/ARB-based treatment. The study systematically evaluated the quantitative transition of the 24-hour blood pressure curve from abnormal fluctuations to a stable state. The results confirmed that the intervention significantly increased the blood pressure control target attainment rate by 30 percentage points, reduced the nighttime systolic blood pressure peak by 8.9 mmHg, and decreased the 24-hour systolic blood pressure standard deviation by 4.0 mmHg. This study was the first to demonstrate in a multi-ethnic Western population that traditional Chinese external therapies can achieve the dual goals of “reducing blood pressure” and “stabilizing blood pressure.” The incidence of skin adverse events was less than 2%, significantly better than the side effects of increased drug dosage, such as electrolyte disturbances and dry cough. If this protocol were to be implemented statewide in Texas, it is estimated that it could prevent 800 stroke events annually and save over one hundred million dollars in medical insurance expenditures. This provides a direct evidence-based medical basis for Medicare’s planned “non-pharmacological blood pressure reduction bundled payment” model and contributes a replicable community intervention model for the global paradigm shift in chronic disease management from “numerical target attainment” to “curve stabilization.”