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

What Acupuncture Can Teach Us About Science

 This is a great article from Huffington Post I wanted to share with everyone... Enjoy
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It turns out acupuncture works. It's not a placebo, and it's not a scam. It's a technique with documented efficacy.

I have little to say about the evidence involved, as I do not conduct such studies, but I do have two questions that I think need answering: Why did it take us so long to "discover" this, and why was there so much hostility among scientists toward even conducting these experiments?

A headline from The Atlantic tells the story: "Biological Implausibility Aside, Acupuncture Works."
The hostility came from the fact that acupuncture has no known causal mechanism, leading to an assumption that "we don't know how it would work; therefore it must not."

To an extent, this is a sensible approach to take. Given the thousands of potential hypotheses out there that don't conform to the way we believe the world works, why would we spend time investigating them instead of other more likely ideas? As a time management strategy, going with what you expect to work makes sense. The trouble is that, taken past a certain point, the notion of being hostile to an experiment because of your preconceived notions about the way the world works is as anti-scientific an approach as can be imagined.

This becomes particularly pernicious when the issues in question are championed by people outside the realm of what is socially acceptable in science -- a category that isn't supposed to exist but that self-evidently does. Even after we've read our Thomas Kuhn (and have sighed at how many active scientists refuse to think philosophy has anything to offer them), how do we make it easier for experiments with acupuncture to proceed while keeping climate change skeptics from tying up our labs and resources with endless experiments designed only to serve a political end?

This is a problem the scholars at Saybrook University know well. The faculty who founded the College of Mind-Body Medicine (now the School of Mind-Body Medicine) were some of the first researchers to get prestigious grants to study phenomena that, for decades, medical science refused to acknowledge existed. The techniques they are pioneering -- from using guided imagery to help cancer survivors to using biofeedback and meditation to reduce high blood pressure -- received the same kind of hostility acupuncture did (and still does) from the "respectable" scientific community, only to be even more clearly validated when the data were finally collected and examined.

The good news is that there is a culture change sweeping through Western medicine: recognition that the mind and body are connected in ways that the last generation's textbooks refused to acknowledge, and that better patient care requires integrative approaches to health.

The bad news is that the basic hostility to techniques that don't fit the old conceptual model is still very active and entrenched. I believe it begins all too often in our graduate curricula, where scientific imagination is frequently seen as an attack on received wisdom.

The solution, I think, comes from having humility in the face of our theories, and from giving our students a little more room to graze off the ranch, where they are likely to be wrong in useful ways and have the potential to teach us something truly new. The world is still a more interesting and undiscovered country than we have yet realized, and there is still plenty of room for it to surprise us. To the extent that this gives some shelter to opponents of climate change and evolution, we must be cautious, but it is also essential to conducting good science -- science able to ask questions that don't fit with its preconceptions.

If we want science to advance, we need to give it room to grow, and that means room to conduct experiments that are rigorous and well-developed but on the cutting edge. The benefits outweigh the inconvenience, and the truth itself may often prove inconvenient.

 Link: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/mark-schulman/what-acupuncture-can-teach-us-about-science_b_1982479.html



By:

Mark Schulman

President, Saybrook University

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

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

The Mythology of Science-Based Medicine

Below is a fascinating article with statistics about the effectiveness and potential harmfulness of western treatments. As a non-western practitioner, my medicine is commonly categorized an "alternative" or "folk" medicine, which gives the false impression that it is less effective/trustworthy/ proven/ thorough. However, as shown by the statistics below, western medicine is often less effective than it is presented to be. To me, the ratio of benefit to harm done by TCM treatments (not to mention cost!) is greatly favorable compared to many western treatments. But I digress... what do you think?

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By Deepak Chopra, Larry Dossey and Rustum Roy

The current healthcare debate has brought up basic questions about how medicine should work. On one hand we have the medical establishment with its enormous cadre of M.Ds, medical schools, big pharma, and incredibly expensive hospital care. On the other we have the semi-condoned field of alternative medicine that attracts millions of patients a year and embraces literally thousands of treatment modalities not taught in medical school.

One side, mainstream medicine, promotes the notion that it alone should be considered “real” medicine, but more and more this claim is being exposed as an officially sanctioned myth. When scientific minds turn to tackling the complex business of healing the sick, they simultaneously warn us that it’s dangerous and foolish to look at integrative medicine, complementary and alternative medicine, or God forbid, indigenous medicine for answers. Because these other modalities are enormously popular, mainstream medicine has made a few grudging concessions to the placebo effect, natural herbal remedies, and acupuncture over the years. But M.D.s are still taught that other approaches are risky and inferior to their own training; they insist, year after year, that all we need are science-based procedures and the huge spectrum of drugs upon which modern medicine depends.

If a pill or surgery won’t do the trick, most patients are sent home to await their fate. There is an implied faith here that if a new drug manufacturer has paid for the research for FDA approval, then it is scientifically proven to be effective. As it turns out, this belief is by no means fully justified.

The British Medical Journal The British Medical Journal recently undertook an general analysis of common medical treatments to determine which are supported by sufficient reliable evidence. They evaluated around 2,500 treatments, and the results were as follows:

• 13% were found to be beneficial
• 23% were likely to be beneficial
• 8% were as likely to be harmful as beneficial
• 6% were unlikely to be beneficial
• 4% were likely to be harmful or ineffective.

This left the largest category, 46%, as unknown in their effectiveness. In other words, when you take your sick child to the hospital or clinic, there is only a 36% chance that he will receive a treatment that has been scientifically demonstrated to be either beneficial or likely to be beneficial. This is remarkably similar to the results Dr. Brian Berman found in his analysis of completed Cochrane reviews of conventional medical practices. There, 38% of treatments were positive and 62% were negative or showed “no evidence of effect.”

For those who have been paying attention, this is not news. Back in the late 70′s the Congressional Office of Technology Assessment determined that a mere 10 to 20% of the practices and treatment used by physicians are scientifically validated. It’s sobering to compare this number to the chances that a patient will receive benefit due to the placebo effect, which is between 30% and 50%, according to various studies.

We all marvel at the technological advances in materials and techniques that allow doctors to perform quadruple bypass surgeries and angioplasties without marveling that recent studies indicate that coronary bypass surgery will extend life expectancy, in only about 3% of cases. For angioplasty that figure sinks to 0 percent. Those numbers might be close to what you could expect from a witch doctor, one difference being that witch doctors don’t submit bills in the tens of thousands of dollars.

It would be one thing if any of these unproven conventional medical treatments were cheap , but they are not. Angioplasty and coronary artery bypass grafting (CABG) alone cost $100 billion annually. As quoted by President Obama in his drive to bring down medical costs, $700 billion is spent annually on unnecessary tests and procedures in America. As part of this excess, it is estimated that 2.5 million unnecessary surgeries are performed each year.

Then there is the myth that this vast expenditure results in excellent health care, usually touted as the best in the world (most recently by Rush Limbaugh as he emerged from a hospital in Hawaii after suffering chest pain). But this myth has been completely undermined. In 2000 Dr. Barbara Starfield, writing in the Journal of the American Medical Association , estimated that between 230,000 and 284,000 deaths occur each year in the U.S. due to iatrogenic causes, or physician error, making this number three in the leading causes of death for all Americans.

In 2005 the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported that out of the 2.4 billion prescriptions written by doctors annually, 118 million were for antidepressants. It is the number one prescribed medication, whose use has doubled in the last ten years. You would think, therefore, that a remarkable endorsement is being offered for the efficacy of antidepressants. The theory of behind standard antidepression medication is that the disease is caused by low levels of key brain chemicals like serotonin, dopamine, and norepinephrine, and thus by manipulating those imbalanced neurotransmitters, a patient’s depression will be reversed or at least alleviated.

This turns out to be another myth. Prof. Eva Redei of Northwestern University, a leading depression researcher, has discovered that depressed individuals have no depletion of the genes that produce these key neurotransmitters compared to people who are not depressed. This would help explain why an estimated 50% of patients don’t respond to antidepressants, and why Dr. Irving Kirsch’s meta-analysis of antidepressants in England showed no significant difference in effectiveness between them and placebos.
You have a right to be shocked by these findings and by the overall picture of a system that benefits far fewer patients than it claims. The sad fact is that a disturbing percentage of the medicine we subject ourselves to isn’t based on hard science, and another percentage is risky or outright harmful. Obviously, every patient deserves medical care that is evidence-based, not just based on an illusory reputation that is promoted in contrast to alternative medicine.

We are not suggesting that Americans adopt any and all alternative practices simply because they are alternative. These, too, must demonstrate their effectiveness through objective testing. But alternative modalities should not be dismissed out of hand in favor of expensive and unnecessary procedures that have been shown to benefit no one absolutely except corporate stockholders.

For more information go to deepakchopra.com 
Follow Deepak on Twitter

Read more: http://blog.beliefnet.com/intentchopra/2010/01/the-mythology-of-science-based.html#ixzz20oq69OF2

Acupuncture Can Increase Weight Loss

7 Jun 2012

Yes, it's true! Acupuncture and herbal medicine have been utilized in China for centuries to manage weight and overall health. As stated below, acupuncture is not a "quick fix" that will help you shed pounds after one 20 minute session. Instead, it addresses your underlying causes of that weight gain and helps to increase metabolism and regulate the imbalances in your body for a more sustainable and healthy weight loss. There are a myriad of causes for putting on the pounds ranging from poor lifestyle choices and stress to thyroid imbalances and menopause.

From a TCM perspective, weight gain can often be attributed to a dysfunction in the Spleen and Liver. The Spleen is responsible for our digestion and transformation of food into Qi, the vital energy in our bodies. If the Spleen is out of balance, it can lead to “Dampness”, producing symptoms like fatigue, poor digestion, a heaviness feeling, and weight gain. The Liver is our mood regulator--it is responsible for the smooth flow of QI and Blood in our whole body. When we feel stressed, anxious, angry, or unhappy there will most often be a Liver Qi stagnation, meaning the Qi and Blood in our bodies is not flowing properly.

Regular acupuncture treatments and herbal supplements are some of the best ways to keep your Liver “smooth” and your Spleen “dry”, but for the busiest among us, another great option is attending an ear acupuncture clinic! Ear clinics are quick (usually about 20-30 minutes per session) and very affordable, many offering treatments on a sliding scale from $5-$15.

Spot of Qi Acupuncture & Herbal Medicine is now in the process of setting up an ear clinic, so if you are interested in trying it out, stay tuned!

Here's to your health,
Brenda Hatley, L.Ac, Dipl.OM

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Acupuncture is an ancient Chinese traditional medicine (TCM) that goes back thousands of years. Traditional acupuncturists believe that illness occurs when the body’s vital energy cannot flow freely.

If one of the energy points (chakras) becomes blocked, this can result in problems.

By using tiny needles and placing them at various different acupuncture points, any blocked energy can be released, restoring the body’s overall physical, mental and emotional balance.

Often, a person who is overweight is blamed for eating too much but this may not be the case. Being overweight or obese can be caused by underlying illnesses such as thyroid dysfunction, polycystic ovaries or diabetes, to name just a few.

Acupuncture isn’t a magic instant fix where you stick a few needles in and suddenly begin to lose weight, but it can be used to address any underlying health issues that are causing weight gain and thus help to correct the problem.

Is There Scientific Evidence for Acupuncture?

Yes! Acupuncture for weight loss is used widely in China and there are many published scientific papers showing that it can help.

For instance, a study at Nanjing College of TCM found that acupuncture affected the sympathetic adrenal system and the hypothalamus-pituitary-adrenal system and helped them to function better, resulting in weight loss.

A study in Poland looking at post-menopausal obesity in women who qualified for hormone replacement therapy, found that acupuncture with a low calorie diet was more successful at treating menopausal obesity than the low calorie diet alone.

The authors concluded, "Acupuncture seems to be an additional useful healing method in treatment of menopausal obesity."

A more recent study held at Chang Gung Memorial Hospital, Kaohsiung Medical Center in Taiwan in 2010 found that a new method of acupuncture, laser acupuncture, had a therapeutic effect on people with obesity.

Researchers recorded the patient’s body weights and body mass index before treatment and four weeks after treatment, and found that acupuncture resulted in a mean reduction in body weight of 3.17kgs and in a body mass index reduction of 1.22kgs.

The authors concluded, "Acupuncture was found to exert a therapeutic effect on simple obesity by reducing both body weight and body mass index."

Acupuncture Can Suppress Appetite!

Acupuncture has also been shown to help you lose weight by suppressing your appetite and lessening those urges to snack on unhealthy foods. Researchers from the University of Adelaide in Australia found that if they attached a transcutaneous electrical nerve stimulation device called an AcuSlim to acupuncture points on the ear and stomach, they could help the patient lose weight.

Sixty overweight patients were put on a slimming diet. One group was then given the AcuSlim stimulation of their ear and stomach acupuncture points, and the other group was given the AcuSlim stimulation on their thumb (where there are no acupuncture points).

Only four of the patients in the thumb group managed to lose any weight, whereas the number of people losing weight in the ear and stomach group was significantly higher and 95 percent of them noticed a reduction in appetite.

The authors concluded, "Frequent stimulation of specific auricular acupuncture points is an effective method of appetite suppression which leads to weight loss."

These are just a few examples of the scientific evidence that is available showing acupuncture assisting in weight loss.

A Word of Warning

If you see any Chinese herbalists advertising weight loss pills in their window or on a website, DON’T take these pills. They are diuretics. They make you lose water.

While this may help you to lose weight initially, it is actually dangerous and may affect your metabolism and actually increase your weight in the long term.

Acupuncture on its own or with a sensible diet is perfectly good enough at treating weight problems and you do not need to take diuretic pills.

If you wish to find a reputable acupuncturist, please go to the American Academy of Medical Acupuncture to find an acupuncture physician near you: http://medicalacupuncture.org/

Sources:

1. Acupuncture for Weight Loss, The London Acupuncture Clinic. Web. 6 June 2012. http://www.londonacupuncture.co.uk/showCondition.asp?ArticleID=46

2. What is Traditional Acupuncture? Acupuncture.org.uk. Web. 6 June 2012.

http://www.acupuncture.org.uk/index.php?option=com_k2&view=item&layout=i...

3. Effect of acupuncture on weight loss evaluated by adrenal function, J Tradit Chin Med. 1993 Sep;13(3):169-73.

Abstract:http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/8246584?dopt=Abstract

4. [The effectiveness of low-calorie diet or diet with acupuncture treatment in obese peri- and postmenopausal women], Ginekol Pol. 2003 Feb;74(2):102-7.

Abstract: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/12715418?dopt=Abstract

5. Clinical observations on laser acupuncture in simple obesitytherapy, Am J Chin Med. 2010;38(5):861-7.

Abstract: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/20821818

6. Stimulation of auricular acupuncture points in weight loss, Aust Fam Physician. 1998 Jul;27 Suppl 2:S73-7.

Abstract: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/9679359?dopt=Abstract

Joanna is a freelance health writer for The Mother magazine and Suite 101 with a column on infertility, http://infertility.suite101.com/ She is the mother of five children and practices natural childbirth, delayed cord clamping, full term breastfeeding and organic food diet.

Reviewed June 6, 2012

by Michele Blacksberg RN

Edited by Jody Smith

By Joanna Karpasea-Jones HERWriterJune 6, 2012 - 4:14am

Ginseng Significantly Improved Fatigue in Cancer Patients after Just 8 Weeks

5 Jun 2012

American Ginseng, aka Xi Yang Shen 西洋参, is an ancient Chinese herb that is commonly prescribed for Qi and Yin deficiencies and Yin deficient heat. Now there is research showing its effectiveness in treating long-lingering fatigue in cancer patients. I love Chinese medicine!

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BY CHRISTINE HSU | JUNE 04, 2012

High doses of the herb American ginseng helped patients fight cancer-related fatigue, according to Mayo Clinic researchers.

In a study of 364 cancer patients from 40 community medical centers around the U.S. and Canada, participants were randomly assigned to take either a 2,000 milligrams of ginseng administered in capsules containing pure, ground American ginseng root or a placebo for eight weeks.

Photo: Sheng Li/Reuters
Ginseng has been used in traditional Chinese medicine as a natural energy booster for thousands of years, and scientists have recently found that the herb can also fight off debilitating fatigue that occurs in up to 90 percent of cancer patients.

Although patients taking the ginseng capsules experienced only a slight improvement in fatigue symptoms four weeks into the study, their feelings of general exhaustion significantly improved at eight weeks compared to those in the placebo group. 

"After eight weeks, we saw a 20-point improvement in fatigue in cancer patients, measured on a 100-point, standardized fatigue scale," Mayo researcher Debra Barton said in a statement, adding that the herb had no apparent side effects.

Half of the patients studied were undergoing cancer treatment at the time of the study and the other half had already completed cancer treatment.

Barton said that cancer-related fatigue can last up to five years after chemotherapy or radiation treatment and exhaustion can be associated with greater inflammation and an inability to regulate stress hormones, like cortisol.

Barton added that previous animal and laboratory research also found that ginseng can also decrease inflammation and regulate cortisol. 

Ginseng has been used in traditional Chinese medicine as a natural energy booster for thousands of years, and the recent study is the first to show that the herb can also fight off debilitating fatigue that occurs in up to 90 percent of cancer patients.

"We are making progress in cancer treatment, and we do have more survivors than ever before, so we can’t just ignore these quality-of-life factors once the cancer is gone,” she said, according to WLS Radio 890AM.

Health professionals often warn patients against taking supplements that might interfere with their cancer treatment medication, and in recent years, patients undergoing cancer treatment have reported adverse reactions after taking ginseng.

However Barton said that the latest findings on ginseng are encouraging, and she noted that it was important for patients to tell their doctors about all the supplements they’re taking.

Barton plans to study how ginseng affects cancer-related biological factors like levels of inflammation and the stress hormone cortisol.

"Cancer is a prolonged chronic stress experience and the effects can last 10 years beyond diagnosis and treatment," she said. "If we can help the body be better modulated throughout treatment with the use of ginseng, we may be able to prevent severe long-term fatigue."

The findings were presented at the American Society of Clinical Oncology's annual meeting.

Published by Medicaldaily.com