Research news from Germany reports that acupuncture can improve exercise tolerance in patients suffering from chronic heart failure. The researchers gave such patients—who were on conventional medication and stable—10 sessions of acupuncture, focusing on the healing method’s pressure points that boost general strength, and according to traditional Chinese medicine, influence the nervous system and inflammation. The control group was treated with placebo needles that did not break the skin.

The needles did not increase the heart’s pumping function, but they seemed to have an influence on skeletal muscle strength, and increased the distance that the heart patients were able to walk in a given time. The acupuncture patients also recovered more quickly from the exercise and tended to feel less general exhaustion.

This finding could provide a useful option in the future if relatively low-cost acupuncture treatment can work to improve the prognosis for cardiac patients over the long term.