Helene Langevin


Helene Langevin is a professor in the University of Vermont College of Medicine's Department of Neurological Sciences. She is best known for characterizing certain cellular and mechanical effects of acupuncture. She is also a Professor in Residence of Medicine at Harvard Medical School, Brigham and Women's Hospital. Since 2013, Langevin is the Director of the Osher Center for Integrative Medicine, jointly owned by Brigham and Women's Hospital and Harvard Medical School, and since 2018, the Director of the National Center for Complementary and Integrative Health.
Langevin currently serves as principal investigator of studies funded by the National Institutes of Health. The Boston Globe describes her as a "celebrity" in the world of acupuncture.

Biography

Langevin received an MD degree from McGill University in 1978. She did a post doctoral research fellowship in Neurochemistry at the MRC Neurochemical Pharmacology Unit in Cambridge, England, residency in Internal Medicine and fellowship in Endocrinology and Metabolism at Johns Hopkins Hospital. She is a Professor in Residence of Medicine at Harvard Medical School, Brigham and Women's Hospital. She is also a part-time Professor of Neurology, Orthopedics and Rehabilitation at the University of Vermont College of Medicine. She is the Principal Investigator of two NIH-funded studies investigating the role of connective tissue in low back pain and the mechanisms of manual and movement based therapies. Her previous studies in humans and animal models have found that "needle grasp", the biomechanical component of de qi, may be caused by connective tissue winding around the needle.
Helene Langevin was appointed as Director of the Osher Center for Integrative Medicine at Harvard Medical School and Brigham and Women's Hospital in November 2012.

Research related to acupuncture

In December 2001, a study by Langevin and several other researchers at the University of Vermont College of Medicine regarding the "Biomechanical response to acupuncture needling in humans" was published by the peer-reviewed Journal of Applied Physiology, which examined the effects of mechanical tissue stimulation during tissue stretch and during acupuncture.