Putting Ice On Injuries Could Slow Healing

Very exciting to see research going into the effect ice has on musculoskeletal injuries. In Chinese medicine we generally advise against the use of ice as it stagnates Qi and Blood, which can be a cause of pain in and of itself. Also, without Qi and Blood flowing properly, essential nutrients won't be supplied to the injury, causing healing to be much slower.

Next time you pull a muscle or feel sore after a workout, consider taking a hot bath and drinking plenty of water in exchange for an ice pack and pain pills.

Slapping a packet of frozen peas on a black eye or a sprained ankle may prevent it getting better, new research suggests.

This discovery turns the conventional wisdom that swelling must be controlled in order to encourage healing and prevent pain

For years, people have been told to freeze torn, bruised or sprained muscles to reduce the swelling.

But now for the first time, researchers have found that it could slow down the healing as it prevents the release of a key repair hormone.

This discovery turns the conventional wisdom that swelling must be controlled in order to encourage healing and prevent pain.

It could also lead to new therapies for acute muscle injuries that lead to inflammation.

The study, published in the Federation of American Societies for Experimental Biology journal, suggests muscle inflammation after acute injury is essential to repair.

Professor Lan Zhou and colleagues at the Neuroinflammation Research Centre at the Cleveland Clinic in Ohio discovered inflamed cells produce a high level of a hormone called insulin-like growth factor-1 (IGF-1) which significantly increases the rate of muscle regeneration.

During the study, scientists studied two groups of mice. The first group was genetically altered so they could not form an inflammatory response to injury.

The second group was normal.

All mice were then injected with barium chloride to cause muscle injury.

The first group of mice did not heal, but the bodies of the second group repaired the injury.

When they studied the muscle tissue they saw the healthy mice produced a high level of IGF-1 in their inflamed tissue.

Prof Zhou, said: "We hope that our findings stimulate further research to dissect different roles played by tissue inflammation in clinical settings, so we can utilise the positive effects and control the negative effects of tissue inflammation."

This discovery could change how much patient monitoring is required when potent anti-inflammatory drugs are prescribed over a long period.

Gerald Weissmann, editor of the Federation of American Societies for Experimental Biology journal, said: "For wounds to heal we need controlled inflammation, not too much, and not too little.

"It's been known for a long time that excess anti-inflammatory medication, such as cortisone, slows wound healing.

"This study goes a long way to telling us why – insulin-like growth factor and other materials released by inflammatory cells helps wound to heal."

Link: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/health/healthnews/8087777/Putting-ice-on-injuries-could-slow-healing.html

Acupuncture Reverses Plantar Fasciitis - New Research

So many people suffer from mild to moderate plantar fasciitis with pain ranging from the arch just below the ball of the foot to pain in the bottom/back of the heel. Often times it can be reduced with proper stretching, strengthening, and shoe choices; however, this isn't enough for everybody and in those cases acupuncture and herbal medicine can be an amazing relief. The article below demonstrates just one treatment protocol for this condition and it's great success in relieving symptoms.  
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New research concludes that acupuncture is effective for treating plantar fasciitis, a painful inflammatory foot condition. Plantar fasciitis typically presents with pain on the underside of the foot and heel. The pain is often most severe when first stepping out of bed onto the floor in the morning. Another telltale sign of plantar fasciitis is pain upon dorsiflexion, lifting the foot towards the shin.
HealthCMi News 
In this controlled clinical investigation, the acupuncture group demonstrated a significant reduction in foot pain while the control group showed only minimal changes. The control group received five weeks of analgesic medications, stretching exercises and shoe modifications. The acupuncture group received the same therapies plus electro-acupuncture treatments. The researchers concluded that, “Electro-acupuncture coupled with conventional treatments provided a success rate of 80% in chronic planar fasciitis which was more effective than conventional treatments alone.”

Another recent study demonstrates that acupuncture is effective for the treatment of plantar heel pain. The researchers note that acupuncture has more significant improvements in both pain relief and the restoration of function than a standard regime of care that includes non-steroidal anti-inflammatory medications. Based on these findings, the researchers formally recommend acupuncture for the treatment of plantar heel pain.

In yet another study, investigators concluded that acupuncture at acupoint P7 (Daling, “Big Tomb”) relieves the pain of plantar fasciitis. P7 is located in the middle of the transverse crease of the wrist. P7 is a Shu-Stream point and Yuan (Primary) acupuncture point that is known for the treatment of Heart and Spirit related issues including myocarditis, palpitations, insomnia, mental illness, irritability, and cardiac pain. P7 is also used for Stomach related conditions, however, nearby point P6 is a more common point for the treatment of Stomach issues such as stomachache, nausea, and vomiting.

According to Chinese medicine and acupuncture theory, Shu-Stream points treat a heavy sensation of the of the body and painful joints. P7 is therefore a common point for the treatment of wrist pain because it is a Shu-Stream point located at the wrist . However, the researchers have chosen P7 for the wrist’s distal relationship to the ankle and heel region. At a six month follow-up examination, the P7 acupuncture group showed a significant improvement over the control group.

Plantar fasciitis affects approximately 2 million US citizens annually. These findings demonstrate that acupuncture is an important treatment modality for inflammation of the connective tissue on the bottom of the foot. Advantages to acupuncture treatment are that it is both safe, acupuncture is nontoxic and is nonsurgical, and effective.

References:
The American Journal of Chinese Medicine, An International Journal of Comparative Medicine East and West. Efficacy of Electro-Acupuncture in Chronic Plantar Fasciitis: A Randomized Controlled Trial. Wipoo Kumnerddee and Nitsara Pattapong. Volume 40, Issue 06, 2012.
Shi Ping Zhang, Tsui-Pik Yip, and Qiu-Shi Li.  Acupuncture Treatment for Plantar Fasciitis: A Randomized Controlled Trial with Six Months Follow-Up. Evidence-Based Complementary and Alternative, Medicine, Volume 2011 (2011), Article ID 154108.

Acupunct Med. doi:10.1136/acupmed-2012-010183. The effectiveness of acupuncture for plantar heel pain: a systematic review. Richard James Clark, Maria Tighe.\

Link: http://www.healthcmi.com/index.php/acupuncturist-news-online/661-acupunctureceusplantarfasciitisea

Centuries-Old Art of Cupping May Bring Some Pain Relief

Finally an article about cupping! I love cupping and use it not only on myself for various sports injuries, but also for my patients with complaints ranging from tired backs, pulled muscles, and tight shoulders from using the computer, to even the common cold.

The most common questions I get asked about cupping are:
1) Will it burn me? 
2) Will it hurt?
3) How long will the marks last?

And the answers are as follows:
1) No it will not burn you. The flame used creates a vacuum in the cup so it can suck onto the skin. The flame is inside the cup for about one second or less, hardly enough time to make the glass hot.
2) Cupping feels great! The practitioner has the ability to adjust how tight the cups are on the body, making it more or less intense. Stationary cups give a more concentrated sensation and moving cupping is very akin to a deep tissue massage.
3) The marks very greatly from person to person and from treatment to treatment. Typically those who are more fair skinned mark more easily and stationary cups leave more of a mark than moving cupping. I usually tell my patients the marks can last anywhere from one day to a week and a half. Cupping's cool, wear the marks as a fashion statement!

I love how these articles like to suggest that these treatments may just be placebo effect, but the fact remains, if patients feel relief then it works. (And it really does work.)

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Link: http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424127887324073504578114970824081566.html?mod=googlenews_wsj

The ancient art of applying suction cups to the body has gotten a boost from several new studies that show it helps relieve a variety of painful conditions. But scientists say larger, more rigorous studies are needed.

Fairbanks Daily News-Miner/ZumaPress.com

Cupping, as the practice is called, was performed traditionally in China and other countries, and is now available from acupuncturists, and some chiropractors and massage therapists in the U.S. In the traditional method, called fire cupping, a ball of burning cotton is briefly placed inside a glass cup to heat the air inside, which then creates a partial vacuum as it cools. Newer-style plastic or silicone cups have valves that attach to hand pumps used to create suction.
Until recently, there was scant published evidence in favor of cupping for pain relief. Over the past three years, a handful of new studies have shown it helps relieve back, neck, carpal tunnel and knee pain.

There are a number of theories on how cupping may work to relieve pain. A widely held one is that suction on the skin "increases blood flow to the area and creates a mild immune response," says Kathleen Lumiere, an assistant professor of acupuncture and oriental medicine at Bastyr University in Kenmore, Wash. It also helps release fascia, connective tissue that can pull on muscles causing pain or limited motion, clinicians say.

Typically cups are on for up to 20 minutes and leave a temporary reddish mark that looks "like rare roast beef," says Brian K. Nathanson, a Norwalk, Conn., chiropractor who has been doing cupping for about five years.

Some clinicians slide the cups on the body, using them as massage tools in a technique sometimes called running cupping. "People who love deep-tissue massage love cupping," says Gabrielle Francis, a Manhattan chiropractor and acupuncturist who does both static cupping and running cupping. Both can cause mild discomfort in some patients, clinicians say.

The intrepid can opt for "wet cupping," in which the skin is punctured with a lancet before the cups are applied. The technique, which draws out a small quantity of blood, can have a powerful effect—particularly on areas where you can feel a hard lump of knotted muscles, says Kristine Tohtz, a Chicago chiropractor and acupuncturist who does wet and dry cupping.

Cost of cupping varies widely, from $40 to $100 or more for a half-hour session. It shouldn't be done on pregnant women, people with heart conditions or people with bleeding disorders, clinicians say. Caution should be used if a person has thin skin that might tear easily.

In a study of people with neck pain caused by computer use, "cupping therapy was effective in reducing pain," says Tae-Hun Kim, a researcher at the Korea Institute of Oriental Medicine in Daejeon, South Korea. The 40-person study, published online in September in the Journal of Occupational Health, found that six cupping sessions over two weeks was more effective on average in relieving pain than a heating pad—and the benefit lasted a month after treatment ended.

But, says Romy Lauche, a scientist at the University of Duisburg-Essen in Essen, Germany, "the studies are very preliminary. We cannot say it has proven its efficacy."
Dr. Lauche co-authored a 50-person study published last year that found a single wet-cupping treatment on average significantly reduced chronic neck pain three days after the treatment, compared with a control group that had no treatment. Location of the cups varied with each patient but typically was on the trapezius muscle, which spans the neck, shoulders and upper back. In unpublished results, she adds, scientists found the pain relief lasted for months.

In a 40-person German study published in October, cupping therapy significantly relieved knee arthritis pain compared with patients who received no treatment. But the study's lack of a control group treated with a sham technique "raises questions of whether it is cupping that is really working or if it has a placebo effect," says David Felson, who directs an arthritis research program at Boston University School of Medicine.

Dr. Lauche agrees that lack of a placebo control is a flaw in the studies. A new study, currently ongoing for fibromyalgia pain, is testing cupping against a sham cup that attaches with adhesive and provides minimal suction, she says.

By LAURA JOHANNES
—Email aches@wsj.com
Write to Laura Johannes at laura.johannes@wsj.com

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

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