Happy Halloween!

As Halloween always has been and will continue to be my favorite holiday, I wanted to wish everyone a Happy Halloween!

When I lived in China, it was a really fun experience celebrating because it is still a pretty new thing over there that only some people (mostly expats) take part in. The best part was having to be REALLY creative with our costumes since there was no such thing as a "Party City" out there to quickly buy supplies from to put a costume together with. As I recall, my roommate and I cut up some of our clothes and used the fabric to sew costumes, we used crafting paint on our faces and, of course, had a great time.

So again, have a great time tonight, be safe, and get your health back on track tomorrow ;)

Is Time The Missing Component In Health Care?

Slow Medicine. I like the sound of that.

Dr. Victoria Sweet recently wrote a memoir, God's Hotel: A Doctor, A Hospital, And A Pilgrimage To The Heart Of Medicine, about her experience working in San Francisco's own Laguna Honda Hospital. Laguna Honda is possibly one of the country's last almshouses which provides long-term care for the sick and poor. What she took away from her experience is the positive effect of spending time with her patients. In the modern hospital doctors can spend less than ten minutes with a patient, concentrating only on acute care which can lead to a cycle of patients going in and out of the emergency room. At Laguna Honda one patient she discussed stayed for two years.

I love this piece from the interview where Dr. Sweet talks about a nurse that she admired, Nurse Hildegard...

"Hildegard thought of the body as more of a plant than a machine and the doctor as more of a gardener than a mechanic. What's the difference? Well, someone has to fix a broken machine, but a plant can heal itself. So Hildegard had this idea that just as a plant has its own greening power to grow, so did human beings. We had a natural healing power."

This is the same feeling we have in TCM about healing and our body's innate ability to care for itself. Sometimes it just needs a little nudge in the right direction (a little TLC and plant food) to return to a healthy state.

You can read the transcript or listen to the full interview on NPR here: http://www.npr.org/2012/10/11/162715368/is-time-the-missing-component-in-health-care 

(sorry for the bad punctuation, this was a quickie post =) )

How a Fruit Juice Cleanse Affects Your Body

Fruit juice cleanses are very hip theses days and as a Traditional Chinese Medicine practitioner, I'm not too crazy about them. First, juice is generally considered cold in TCM, which means many people can't digest it well, get stomach aches, and can have loose stools. Second, they are naturally sweet which can produce phlegm and phlegm can contribute to a wide number of health conditions including headaches, congestion, dizziness, weight gain, and well... phlegm!

There are many types of cleanses out on the market (protein powder based, soy, pre-mixed cleanses, fruit juice, plant juice), but of all of them fruit juice concerns me most because of the high amount of sugar you will be consuming. Taking in all that juice will spike your blood sugar, which in turn raises your insulin production so your body can either use up the sugar for energy (but most likely won't in the case of a cleans because you will be taking in much more sugar than you need) or store it as fat.

Below is a great short article with some insight about what your body goes through when you are on an eight day juice cleanse. Enjoy and drink your juice sparingly =)

(I love to drink a little bit of pure dark cherry juice after a workout as a natural anti-inflammatory)

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How a Fruit Juice Cleanse Affects Your Body

Stripped of essential nutrients, detox diets can be downright dangerous

By Laura Beil, Photography By Dan Forbes

Thinking of signing up for a fruit juice cleanse? You might first consider how your body reacts to a week with no protein or fat and fewer than 1,000 calories a day.

After the first sip
Your brain's hunger signals are answered with a dump of pure fruit-juice sugar. And don't get any ideas—veggie-based body cleanses aren't any healthier.

The sweet stuff prompts the pancreas to squirt out insulin, which moves sugar—now in your blood in the form of glucose—into your cells.

After 30 minutes
As your cells suck up the glucose, your blood sugar level can start to plummet and you may feel dizzy.

Meanwhile, lacking enough calories, your body is operating off its supply of glycogen, a form of short-term energy stored in the liver and muscles.

After two days
With each shot of juice, your insulin levels skyrocket, then crash. Your glycogen stores are pretty much gone, leaving your tank on empty—and you feeling weak and listless.

Since you're getting only about half the calories you need, your body draws on two long-term power sources: triglycerides, a type of energy stored in fat cells (woo-hoo!), and protein, taken straight from your muscles (oops). You begin to lose muscle mass, even if you're still exercising every day.

After three days
Your brain is not happy. It enters into semi-starvation mode and gobbles ketones, fuel that comes from the breakdown of fat. Ketones work, but they're like low-grade gasoline; as a result, you may feel unfocused or irritable. (Any "mental clarity" is likely due to a strong placebo effect.)
Sans a fresh protein infusion, your brain is also lacking amino acids, the raw materials that neurotransmitters need to maintain your mood. If you're prone to depression, you may start feeling blue.

The proteins in your shrinking muscles break down into ammonia and uric acid, unwelcome chemicals that invade your bloodstream. Now your kidneys are busy detoxing your detox.
Stay near the bathroom: The juice's high carbohydrate load causes a surfeit of water to enter the intestines. That extra H2O in your gut means you're apt to get diarrhea.

After four days
With no food to digest, your small intestine feels ignored. Its villi—the rows of tiny fibers that move food elements into the blood—start to atrophy. Your diarrhea may get worse, leading to dehydration... and there goes your rosy glow.

On the eighth day
Solid food! But uh-oh—you've lost muscle. Even if you go back to your regular eating habits, you now have less muscle mass to burn those calories; instead, the calories are more likely to be turned into fat. (Hence, one reason yo-yo dieting makes it harder to lose weight: Your reduced muscle-to-fat ratio messes up your metabolism and makes calories much harder to work off.)

Sources: Eric Ravussin, Ph.D., Nutrition Obesity Research Center, Pennington Biomedical Research Center; Timothy D. Brewerton, M.D., Medical University of South Carolina; Leslie P. Schilling, R.D., Schilling Nutrition Therapy; Lona Sandon, R.D., and Jo Ann S. Carson, Ph.D., R.D., University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center at Dallas

Link: http://www.womenshealthmag.com/weight-loss/detox-diet-side-effects

Stand up! Standing desks increase life expectancy

 I have been seeing a lot of patients recently with almost identical complaints about pains caused by their desk set-up. In the study below, participants reported that "87 percent felt more comfortable,  87 percent felt energized, 75 percent felt healthier, 71 percent felt more focused, 66 percent felt more productive, 62 percent felt happier, and 33 percent felt less stressed." 

Humans aren't really built to sit all day, we are made to be on our feet! Try standing at your desk and see how you feel. It will be an adjustment at first, and maybe even a little tiring, but you will soon adapt and be glad you did.
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Workers find they like taking a stand -- at their desks

CDC.gov, Preventing Chronic Disease

Sit-stand devices used in the Take-a-Stand Project in Minneapolis, Minnesota, 2011.
The Take-a-Stand Project was a partnership with a sit-stand device manufacturer, Ergotron, Inc, Eagan, Minnesota.

By Maggie Fox, NBC News

Office workers who spent an hour or so a day at stand-up workstations felt more energized, productive and even happier, researchers reported on Thursday. And if they keep it up, they may help reduce the damage done by sitting at a desk all day.

Study after study has shown that sitting all day long is bad for you. People risk developing lower back problems, kidney disease, heart disease and other ills – even if they exercise outside of work.

“If you go out for a 30 minute run , and then sit for eight hours at work, you could still have health problems because you are sitting all day,” said Nicolaas Pronk, a vice president at Minnesota-based HealthPartners, a non-profit health care organization that provides clinics, health insurance and does health care research.

Pronk decided to test special workstations on the organization’s employees.

They recruited 34 volunteers to test some of the commercial workstations on the market that allow users to sit or stand, as they like, without having to move all their stuff.  They tried models made by Ergotron, Inc. of Eagan, Minnesota.

“There are different devices out there. The ones we tested, you clamp them onto the desk. It has a keyboard tray and you push up or push down as you want to sit or stand,” Pronk said. “Ergotron is located in the same town as we are. So we partnered with them.”

The question is, will people use them and if they do, do they stand up for enough of their days to make a difference. And if so, how does that affect them?

Over seven weeks, 10 workers stayed at their usual desks, while 24 used the new workstations, Pronk and colleagues report in this week’s issue of the journal Preventing Chronic Disease.

To be scientific, Pronk’s team checked in with workers several times a day to see whether they were standing or sitting and to see how they felt. “We provided all participants a prepaid cellular telephone and sent text messages at three random times throughout the course of the work day. Immediately upon receiving a text message, participants responded to the question, ‘Tell us what you are doing right now: sitting, standing, or walking?’ by using 0, 1, or 2 for sitting, standing, or walking, respectively,” the researchers wrote.

They also surveyed the workers more thoroughly three times during the study, once at the end of the seven weeks.

People really liked them, Pronk said. “People felt happier. They felt more confident. They were more productive. Across the board, the feedback was very positive.”

The workers who used the devices were lavish in their praise – 87 percent felt more comfortable,  87 percent felt energized, 75 percent felt healthier, 71 percent felt more focused, 66 percent felt more productive, 62 percent felt happier, and 33 percent felt less stressed.

“Not a single person in the intervention group indicated that they did not like the device,” Pronk said. In fact, HealthPartners now offers them to all employees.  “Around 30 percent have them. There are about 2,000 people today who have one at their station,” Pronk said.

People sat, on average just over an hour less every day. While standing didn’t help lower back pain, it reduced upper back and neck pain by 54 percent, Pronk found.

Research is piling in that that shows just the act of sitting most of the day can cut years off your life. Researchers reported in July that cutting the time that people spend sitting to less than three hours would increase the U.S. life expectancy by two years. And reducing the time spent watching TV to less than 2 hours daily would increase life expectancy by 1.4 years.

Last month, British researchers found that people who spent the least amount of time sitting were also the least likely to have chronic kidney disease.

Pronk is himself sold on the idea. “I don’t think this is a fad. It’s a new way of doing your work,” he said. He uses one now. “I probably stand about 80 percent of the time when I am in my office. I leave it up when I leave at night so it’s up when I come in in the morning,” Pronk said.

Part of the appeal may be that employees can control the device themselves. “You literally can push this device up with your hand and you can stand up,” he said.

“It has an impact on their work while they at work. The fact is that sedentary job tasks will end up making people sit for such long periods of time that it truly, literally, affects their longevity, so this is a very important area of intervention. The entire work force can go home more energetic and energized than they came in in the morning. That makes a huge difference from a work-life balance perspective.”

Link: http://vitals.nbcnews.com/_news/2012/10/12/14393489-workers-find-they-like-taking-a-stand-at-their-desks

Tasty Baby Food Recipe for Fall

Tasty baby food recipe in fall

(People's Daily Online)

15:16, October 12, 2012

(File Photo)

Edited and translated by Gao Yinan, People's Daily Online

Recipes recommended today are suitable for baby, toddler, and for grown-ups too. Make your baby or toddler a banana milk shake or pumpkin yogurt of baby’s autumn regimen-Easy Peasy. Banana and pumpkins are highly recognized as great baby food especially for autumn regimen by Chinese parents.

Traditional Chinese medicine believes that bananas are cool and sweet in its nature which helps baby’s regular bowel movement. Besides, bananas are an excellent source of vitamin B6, soluble fiber, and contain moderate amounts of vitamin C, manganese and potassium.

Pumpkins are very versatile in their uses for cooking. Most parts of the pumpkin are edible, including the fleshy shell, the seeds, the leaves, and even the flowers. TCM believes that Pumpkin is mild in its nature and has capacities of nourishing lung and it is also a stomach-friendly food that can be easily digested.

Banana Pumpkin Shake (12 months+)
Materials:
1-cup milk
2 tablespoons steamed pumpkin mash
(or homemade pumpkin puree)
1 banana
Cinnamon is usually added for flavor

Steps:
Blend in blender until smooth and foamy.
Serve immediately.


Pumpkin Yogurt
Materials:
1/4 cup pumpkin puree or pumpkin mash
1 cup of plain yogurt (Whole fat)
A dash of nutmeg, cinnamon, ginger would be added for better flavor

Steps:
Combine all ingredients and serve.
Link:  http://english.peopledaily.com.cn/90782/7975447.html

AARP: Acupuncture Does Help With Pain

"Overall, those treated with real acupuncture had their pain symptoms reduced by 50 percent."

Not to beat a dead horse over the head, but acupuncture works! It's great! 

Sweeping new study finds it helps more than standard treatments

Millions of Americans who use acupuncture can take heart from a new study that provides evidence that the ancient Chinese healing therapy can help reduce chronic pain by as much as 50 percent — welcome news for sufferers of back pain, arthritis, headaches and other painful conditions.

Acupuncture can be quite effective in pain management. — Chris Crisman/Corbis

A rigorous review of 29 randomized controlled trials, involving nearly 18,000 patients, shows that acupuncture was better at relieving pain than over-the-counter medicines and other common treatments, says Andrew Vickers, a researcher at Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center in New York, who led the multinational study.

"What this study provides is fairly strong evidence that acupuncture is an effective treatment for chronic pain," Vickers says, adding that about 3 million Americans use acupuncture each year.

In these trials, some people suffering from back and neck pain, osteoarthritis, chronic headache and shoulder pain received standard acupuncture treatment, in which tiny needles are inserted into traditionally specified points on the skin. Others received fake acupuncture treatments, in which the needles were inserted at random points on the skin, or they were "treated" with needles that retracted into handles instead of entering the skin. Additional participants received no needle-based treatment at all.

Overall, those treated with real acupuncture had their pain symptoms reduced by 50 percent. Those who received sham needling saw a 43 percent drop in pain, while the no-acupuncture group reported their pain was reduced by 30 percent. A placebo effect — the strong psychological belief in a treatment's effectiveness — likely accounts for the greater improvements seen with sham therapy than no therapy. The study, funded by the National Institutes of Health and published in the Archives of Internal Medicine, drew on the work of dozens of researchers across the United States and Europe. Vickers says he and his collaborators painstakingly checked the original patient data as part of their review.

"It's a potentially very important article," says Edgar L. Ross, M.D., director of the Pain Management Center at Brigham and Women's Hospital in Boston and an associate professor at Harvard Medical School. Ross, who works with an acupuncturist at his center, says he sees similar benefits, although the average 50 percent pain reduction reported in the study was greater than that experienced by his patients. In his practice, "it's closer to 25 or 30 percent reduction in pain scores."

Western-trained doctors are increasingly willing to recommend acupuncture to their patients, but there's still no clear scientific explanation for why it works, Ross says. One theory is that acupuncture triggers the release of endorphins, natural painkilling compounds in the brain. Another is that it affects neurotransmitters, the chemical messengers that help brain cells communicate pain.

"It's very safe in trained hands," Ross says, though he also believes in a pain management plan that uses a mixture of techniques. Acupuncture "is certainly a very viable therapy," but it should be considered as one part of a whole pain treatment plan, he adds.

Link: http://www.aarp.org/health/healthy-living/info-10-2012/acupuncture-helps-with-chronic-pain.html

Software scans tongue for signs of disease

Oh no, I might be out of a job if these tongue-assessing robots keep improving their technology!

For 5,000 years, the Chinese have used a system of medicine based on the flow and balance of positive and negative energies in the body. In this system, the appearance of the tongue is one of the measures used to classify the overall physical status of the body, or “zheng”.

“Knowing your zheng classification can serve as a pre-screening tool and help with preventive medicine,” says Dong Xu, chair of the computer science department at the University of Missouri.

“Our software helps bridge Eastern and Western medicine, since an imbalance in zheng could serve as a warning to go see a doctor. Within a year, our ultimate goal is to create an application for smartphones that will allow anyone to take a photo of their tongue and learn the status of their zheng.”

Straight from the Source

Read the original study

The software analyzes images based on the tongue’s color and coating to distinguish between tongues showing signs of “hot” or “cold”” zheng. Shades of red and yellow are associated with hot zheng, whereas a white coating on the tongue is a sign of cold zheng.

“Hot and cold zheng doesn’t refer directly to body temperature,” says Xu. “Rather, it refers to a suite of symptoms associated with the state of the body as a whole.”

For example, a person with cold zheng may feel chills and coolness in the limbs and show a pale flushing of face. Their voice may have a high pitch. Other symptoms of cold zheng are clear urine and loose stool. They also may prefer hot foods and drinks and desire warm environments.

In Chinese traditional medicine both hot and cold zheng can be symptoms of gastritis, an inflammation of the stomach lining frequently caused by bacterial infection.

For the study, 263 gastritis patients and 48 healthy volunteers had their tongues analyzed. The gastritis patients were classified by whether they showed infection by a certain bacteria, known as Helicobacter pylori, as well as the intensity of their gastritis symptoms. In addition, most of the gastritis patients had been previously classified with either hot or cold zheng. This allowed the researchers to verify the accuracy of the software’s analysis.

“Our software was able to classify people based on their zheng status,” says study co-author Ye Duan, associate professor of computer science at MU.

“As we continue to work on the software we hope to improve its ability,” Duan says. “Eventually everyone will be able to use this tool at home using webcams or smartphone applications. That will allow them to monitor their zheng and get an early warning about possible ailments.”

Doctoral student Ratchadaporn Kanawong is the first author of the study that has been accepted for publication in the journal Evidence Based Complementary and Alternative Medicine.

Link: http://www.futurity.org/top-stories/software-scans-tongue-for-signs-of-disease/

New Landmark California Acupuncture Health Insurance Law

Having Acupuncture included in the health care reform could transform lives. The legislation isn't perfect, but it's a great start. Let's hope California makes it happen!

Best wishes to your health,

Brenda

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New landmark legislation establishes acupuncture health insurance benefits for California citizens. California Governor Jerry Brown signed California State Legislature Assembly Bill AB 1453 into law on September 30th. The bill, authored by Assembly member Bill Monning (D-Carmel), establishes the details for California’s essential health benefits and takes effect in 2014.

Acupuncture CareEssential health benefits were defined in the federal Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (PPACA), often referred to as Obamacare. It is up to individual states to determine the precise details of the essential health benefits that are broadly outlined in the federal law. This new California law defines and enacts provisions for California essential health benefits and includes acupuncture for the treatment of pain and nausea. Other services defined as essential health benefits include ambulatory patient services, hospitalization, maternity care, newborn care, vision screening and tobacco cessation.

This new law and its acupuncture provisions apply to all individual health insurance policies and small group policies including all HMOs and PPOs. Small group policies are all policies written for companies with 50 or less employees. In 2016, the definition of small group policies changes and the new California law will apply to all companies with 100 or less employees.

The new California law does not apply to self-insured plans, grandfathered plans and large employers. Grandfathered plans are those plans officially designated as a grandfathered plan as of March 2010. Any grandfathered plan that has either a change in benefits or cost structure will no longer be considered a grandfathered plan and will no longer be exempt from the new law’s provisions. As a result, the impact of grandfathered plans is expected to be minimal.

The new California health insurance law defines and establishes essential healthcare benefits for California citizens. It does not cover payment issues such as copays, deductibles and payments to providers. As a result, copays and other payment issues may fluctuate up or down from the Kaiser Permanente $30 copay plan from which the new law has been modeled upon. Although this California law does not apply to payment issues, limitations on cost sharing and actuarial value have been implemented in the new federal health reform law. Regulations for the federal law have not been written yet. As a result, upcoming federal regulations have the opportunity to help ease affordability issues for the insured.

The definition of essential health benefits as stated in this new California law was formulated using the Kaiser Permanente Small Group Agreement Plan 1637 Plan 3-N as a basis for determining standard medical provisions for health insurance policies originating in California. Medical treatment limitations can be no greater than those imposed in the Kaiser plan. As a result, no cap on the maximum number of acupuncture office visits per year may be imposed although a physician’s referral may be required by some health insurance plans.

The new law does not have language regarding network limitations such as participation in provider networks. As a result, insurance companies may allow only limited numbers of acupuncturists within a given network to provide acupuncture care. Also, medical necessity limitations may be imposed by insurance providers wherein a service will only be covered if it is deemed medically necessary. Despite these limitations, the new California law establishes a baseline of treatment coverage provided by health insurance policies and is likely to prevent many unwanted surprises when patients get their medical bills.

“With the passage of AB 1453, California is one step closer to the full implementation of federal health care reform," stated Assembly member Monning. “For many, this action is transformative. This law will prioritize prevention, health and wellness while offering individuals and small businesses comprehensive and affordable healthcare coverage.”

Link: http://www.healthcmi.com/index.php/acupuncturist-news-online/625-californiaacupunctureceushealthinsurancemonning

New scientific breakthrough proves why acupuncture works

FASCINATING!

P.S.

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New groundbreaking research shows that the insertion of an acupuncture needle into the skin disrupts the branching point of nerves called C fibres. These C fibres transmit low-grade sensory information over very long distances by using Merkel cells as intermediaries. Dr. Morry Silberstein of the Curtin University of Technology will publish his research in the Journal of Theoretical Biology later this year.

We have never really had a scientific explanation for how acupuncture actually works,” he said. In the absence of a scientific rationale, acupuncture has not been widely used in the mainstream medical community. If we can explain the process scientifically, we can open it to full scientific scrutiny and develop ways to use it as a part of medical treatments.”

Dr. Silberstein mentions that they have known, for some time, that the acupuncture points show lower electrical resistance than other nearby areas of the skin. His research specifically pinpoints that the C fibres actually branch exactly at acupuncture points. Scientists don’t know exactly what role C fibres play in the nervous system, but Dr. Silverstein theorizes that the bundle of nerves exists to maintain arousal or wakefulness. The insertion of the acupuncture needle disrupts this circuit and numbs our sensitivity to pain.”

Acupuncture for pain relief is actually being taught to American Air Force physicians deployed to Iraq and Afghanistan (2009) by Dr. Richard Niemtzow MD, PhD, MPH and editor of Medical Acupuncture. His technique called “Battlefield Acupuncture” relieves severe pain for several days and is a variation of acupuncture, which inserts very tiny semi-permanent needles at specific acupoints on the skin of the ear that blocks pain signals from reaching the brain.

"This is one of the fastest pain attenuators in existence," said Dr. Niemtzow, who is the Consultant for complementary and alternative medicine for the Surgeon General of the Air Force, and is affiliated with Uniformed Services University of the Health Sciences in Bethesda. "The pain can be gone in five minutes."

It has taken quite a long time for Western medicine to embrace acupuncture even though it was introduced in the early 1970’s after contacts with China improved.

Professor Tsuei mentions: “In 1972 the respected New York Times columnist James Reston underwent an emergency appendectomy while in China. He later wrote about acupuncture treatment for post-operative pain that was very successful. This report attracted attention and many American physicians and researchers went to China to observe and learn acupuncture techniques.”

Since then, only a few controlled studies were done in the West. Yale researchers proved its effectiveness for cocaine addiction in 2000 and published their findings in the August 14 issue of the Archives of Internal Medicine.

A North Korean researcher, Kim Bonghan, published papers in the early 1960’s and his research was confirmed by the Japanese researchers Fujiwara and Yu in 1967. Unfortunately his research took almost 40 years to be confirmed through studies done on rats, rabbit and pigs with Stereo-microscope photographs and electron microsopy.

The amazing photo shows the stereomicroscopic image of acupuncture meridians:

“Assemblies of tubular structures 30 to 100 micro-meters wide (red blood cells are 6-8 micro-meters in diameter). Apparently these structures have remained undiscovered for so long because they are almost transparent and so thin that they are barely visible with low-magnification surgical microscopes. They are also easily confused with fibrin, which coagulates and obscures these structures when there is bleeding in dissected tissues. Now that they have been rediscovered, researchers are investigating their composition and function. The tubular structures that make up Bonghan channels contain a flowing liquid that includes abundant hyaluronic acid, a substance that cushions and lubricates the joints, eyes, skin and even heart valves. Also visible in the photographs are small granules of DNA or microcells about 1-2 micro-meters in diameter that contain chromosomal material highly reactive to stem-cell antibody stains. When these cells were isolated and then induced to differentiate, they grew into cells of all three germ layers. These may be our body's natural source of pluripotent adult stem cells, with the potential to develop into any cell in the body”

Russian researchers in 1991 at The Institute for Clinical and Experimental Medicine in Novosibirsk, USSR, in a research project lasting several years, discovered how the human body conducts light. They found that the light conducting ability of the human body exists only along the meridians, and can enter and exit only along the acupuncture points. Dr. Kaznachejew, a professor of physics said:

“This seems to prove that we have a light transferal system in our body somewhat like optical fiber. It appears that the light can even travel when the light canal is bent, or totally twisted. The light appears to be reflected from the inner surface, appearing to go in some sort of zigzag track. You can explain this through traditional electromagnetic light theory as it is used in optical fiber communications.”

This finding has been confirmed by a 1992 study in the Journal of Traditional Chinese Medicineand a 2005 study in the Journal of Alternative and Complementary Medicine where moxibustion and infrared thermography were used to trace meridian pathways.

There might be a “light body” after all.

Read more of Tima Vlasto's articles

Resources:

Studies:

A Randomized Controlled Trial of Auricular Acupuncture for Cocaine Dependence.S. Kelly Avants, PhD; Arthur Margolin, PhD; Theodore R. Holford, PhD; Thomas R. Kosten, MD Arch Intern Med. 2000;160:2305-2312.

Immunomodulatory Effects of Acupuncture in the Treatment of Allergic Asthma: A Randomized Controlled Study.Stefanie Joos, M.D. Department of Anaesthetics, University of Heidelberg, Heidelberg, Germany.

Research:

Meridians conduct light by Dr. Sergei Pankratov, Moskow, Published by Raum and Zeit, Germany,1991.Translated from the German by Wolfgang Mitschrich

Bonghan Channels in Acupuncture By David Milbradt, LAc, Acupunture Today

Bonghan Duct and Acupuncture Meridian as Optical Channel of Biophoton

Curtin University of Technology These C fibres transmit low-grade sensory information over very long distances by using Merkel cells as intermediaries.

Scientific Evidence in Support of Acupuncture and Meridian Theory  Professor Julia J. Tsuei M.D., F.A.C.O.G.

Medical acupuncture gaining acceptance by the US Air Force

Acupuncture is promising treatment for cocaine addiction, Yale researchers find

Photo Credit: Acupuncture Today: A stereomicroscopic image of the lymphatic vessel around the caudal vena cava of a rat. The photograph (left) and its illustration (right) show the novel threadlike structure (solid arrow) that passes throw the lymphatic valve (open arrow). The photograph was taken in vivo and in situ, and a piece of black paper was put under the lymphatic vessel to exhibit the target clearly. The scale bar is 100 micro-meters.. 

Wikimedia Commons: Physican inserting needle

Link: http://www.examiner.com/article/new-scientific-breakthrough-proves-why-acupuncture-works

ACUPUNCTURE SHOWN TO REDUCE HEADACHES, BACK PAIN

Great short article about the effectiveness of acupuncture in the treatment of various types of chronic pain. 

*A quick note before your read: "fake" acupuncture or "sham" acupuncture as it is also commonly called, is still acupuncture! This is why there is usually some degree of benefit reported by those in these types of studies. In TCM, there are 15 primary meridians and numerous more minor and/or esoteric meridians in the body that practitioners use to select acupuncture points. Most studies only take into consideration the points on the 15 primary meridians and don't realize that the "sham" acupuncture points are very likely hitting these slightly less commonly utilized meridians, and therefore benefiting the patient. Moreover, there is an ancient adage that says "where there is pain, there is an acupuncture point." These points are called "Ashi" points, as in "Ah, yes that's the spot" in Chinese. =)

Enjoy the quick read!

ACUPUNCTURE SHOWN TO REDUCE HEADACHES, BACK PAIN

Suffering from headaches, back pain or both? A new study conducted by researchers from Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center in New York shows acupuncture outperformed both placebo and conventional pain therapies. They published the study results in the Archives of Internal Medicine.

The findings “provide the most robust evidence to date that acupuncture is a reasonable referral option,” the authors wrote in the article.

The research, funded by the National Center for Complementary and Alternative Medicine, had researchers conduct a meta-analysis of data from 29 prior studies involving nearly 18,000 adults, according to an article in The Sunday Leader.

The original studies were done with patients reporting chronic pain from a variety of issues, including neck, shoulder and back pain, arthritis, and recurring headaches. Participants in each study were randomly assigned to treatment with acupuncture, standard treatments such as drugs and physical therapy, or fake acupuncture, which inserted needles at points other than the traditional meridians, the report stated.

Using a scale from zero to 100, the average participant’s pain measured 60 before anything was tested on them. Conventional methods brought the pain down to 43, fake acupuncture brought it down to 35, and the actual acupuncture dropped pain to 30, according to the research.

Link: http://www.elevatedexistence.com/blog/2012/10/11/acupuncture-shown-to-reduce-headaches-back-pain/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=acupuncture-shown-to-reduce-headaches-back-pain