Acupuncture and Nutrition Clinic – Houston

http://www.medpagetoday.com/PrimaryCare/AlternativeMedicine/34673

Of course this research comes as no surprise, but it’s nice to read that the authors of a meta-analysis concluded that “acupuncture provides more relief from various types of chronic pain than does usual care and should be considered a valid therapeutic option.” Research based on my patient base suggests the same results.

During my monthly call in radio show, people always have questions on pain. Whether it be neck, shoulder, back or migraine pain, many want to know if there are other options to hydrocodone, topomax, or even extra strength tylenol.

Part of the problem with acupuncture research is that results show benefits but the mechanism of action is very hard to define or measure. In Western style research, scientists like to be able to explain how and why the treatment works. The difficulty in part is trying to measure an abstract form of energy, we can Qi (chi). You can feel Qi, but cannot readily see it or measure it beyond feeling for it in the pulses. In spite of the mechanism of action not being completely understood, results of this study showed that acupuncture treatment for pain relief was statistically better when compared to sham acupuncture and even higher for no acupuncture.

Many researchers like to attribute the beneficial results of acupuncture due to placebo effect. To challenge that point, I often refer to veterinary acupuncture which started many years ago on race horses who were lame. More often than not, the horses and now dogs and cats, move better after being treated with acupuncture. No matter how lovable and smart our animals are, they do not have the capacity to fake it (to please their owners). Either they are limping or they are not after a treatment. The results speak for itself.

Because it is so difficult to define the mechanism of action, many researchers continue to report that treatments remain “highly controversial.” But to be fair, many results are inconclusive due to poor study parameters such as too few subjects and inconsistency of quality and reliability of studies. But it’s also worth considering whether positive results of studies should be disregarded solely due to uncertainty as to mechanisms of action.

This study however, included almost 18,000 subjects and “conducted an individual patient data meta-analysis based exclusively on high quality randomized trials that their findings should be considered “both clinically and scientifically important.” In addition, their finding of “true acupuncture having significantly greater effect than the sham procedure indicates that the effects of the procedure do extend beyond placebo.” They conclude that this is “of major importance for clinical practice,” meaning that acupuncture should be considered “a reasonable referral option for patients with chronic pain.”

Dr. Avins, one of the authors of the study wrote: “The ultimate question is: does this intervention work (or, more completely, do its benefits outweigh its risks and justify its cost)?” “For acupuncture, the current meta-analysis offers “some robust evidence” that acupuncture does provide greater chronic pain relief than usual care, mechanisms of effect aside.”

For many of my patients, this research will be consistent with their experience. But Chinese medicine will only be considered a valid form of medicine with medical doctors when clinically solid studies show clear benefit. More and more studies are being conducted that show thousands of years of medicine from China as being a consistently effective and safe option of treatment for many health concerns. If you are interested in reading more research on acupuncture, you can look at studies from the National Institutes of Health Complementary and Alternative Medicine Office.

The price of Gold: Chinese athletes left with huge spots after ‘cupping’ therapy in quest for Olympic glory
By KATY HASTINGS

Wang Qun’s cupping marks are clear to see while she trains at the National Aquatics Centre with just a few days to the games to go.

It might look like a giant case of chicken pox but in fact this Olympic swimmer is hoping her spots will lead her to a place on the medal podium.

Chinese swimmer Wang Qun was doing some last minute training in Beijing with marks left by cupping – a Chinese medicine technique to relieve ailments including back neck and shoulder pain.

Wang Qun’s cupping marks are clear to see while she trains at the National Aquatics Centre with just a few days to the games to go.
The procedure is said to move the energy, or ‘qi’, in the body and is used widely in folk medicine in eastern European and Asia.
It is performed by placing cups onto the skin by way of either heat or suction.

The spots are a tell tale sign of the treatment.

The swimmer limbers up at the pool following her treatment. The technique is said to help shoulder pain which swimmers in particular can be susceptible to.
The technique works by creating a vacuum inside a cup by inserting a flame, removing it and quickly placing the cup on to the body before the vacuum is lost.

The suction anchors the cup to the body and the skin covered is drawn up into it by a few millimetres.

Cupping is an ancient therapy which is said to help back complaints and draw toxins from the skin.
The cups are left on the body while the area beneath is treated and the energy, or qi, is moved.
Mild reddening is common, however this disappears after a few days.

Gwyneth Paltrow includes cupping as one of the many alternative therapies she uses.
A number of celebrities are fans of this form of acupuncture including Geri Haliwell Paris Hilton and Gwyneth Paltrow – who have even been spotted sporting the tell-tale circular marks herself.
Miss Paltrow made no secret of her preference for the remedy when she appeared at a New York premiere several years ago covered in the large circular spots.

Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1041370/The-price-Gold-Chinese-athletes-left-huge-spots-cupping-therapy-quest-Olympic-glory.html#ixzz21pBudL6z

As I’ve written before, I really enjoy treating migraines and headaches because I used to suffer from headaches for many years. When patients respond so well and so quickly to acupuncture to reduce or eliminate headaches, it’s a wonderful feeling for me. It’s a daily reminder that I really love what I do.

Since many health care practitioners and patients alike are curious about research in the area of Chinese medicine, I thought I would reprint this article from Acupuncture Today.  In reality, there’s a lot of research being done on the efficacy of acupuncture and one only needs to search under complementary medicine under the NIH (National Institutes of Health) to see all the articles.

Acupuncture Provides Significant Benefits for Migraine Patients

by Michael Devitt

A new report published in the online version of the British Medical Journal has found that acupuncture is a useful, cost-effective treatment for chronic headaches, particularly migraines. The report found that over a 12-month period, headache patients who received regular acupuncture sessions reported fewer headaches, had a higher quality of life, missed fewer days from work, used less medication, and made fewer visits to a general practitioner than patients given standard treatment for headaches.

The research was conducted at a series of single acupuncture practices and general practices in Wales and Great Britain. In the study, the authors recruited 401 patients who suffered from chronic headaches, predominantly migraine headaches. The patients were randomized to receive either acupuncture or “usual care” from a general practitioner. In the acupuncture group, subjects standard care for headaches, and were also treated with acupuncture up to 12 times over a three-month period. Treatment patterns were individualized to each patient, and different points were used based on the discretion of the acupuncturist providing care. In the usual care group, patients received standard headache care from their general practitioner, but were not referred out for acupuncture.

At various times throughout the study, patients used a daily diary to track the frequency and severity of headache pain, and any related medication use. Headache severity was measured four times a day on a six-point scale, with the total summed to give a headache score. In addition, the patients completed the SF 36 Health Status Questionnaire at the start of the study, and at three months and 12 months after treatment. Patients also completed a series of questionnaires every three months that monitored use of different headache treatments, days missed from work due to illness, and other usual activities.

Initially, there was not much difference between patients in either group. By the 12-month interval, however, striking differences were noted in terms of frequency of headache, doctor visits and medication use:

• Patients given acupuncture had an average of 1.8 less days with headaches over the first four weeks of the study compared to the control group. When projected over 52 weeks, the authors estimated that acupuncture would result in an average 22 fewer days of headaches per year.
• The effects of acupuncture appeared to be long-lasting. At the start of treatment, the average weekly headache score among acupuncture patients was 24.6. Three months after the start of the study, the average score had dropped to 18.0; at 12 months, it had dropped by more than 34 percent, to 16.2. In the standard care patients, weekly headaches scores dropped only 16 percent over the course of the year.
• Results from the SF-36 questionnaire showed significant benefits for acupuncture patients in terms of physical role functioning, energy levels and changes in health. Over the course of a year, physical role functioning, energy and health change scores increased an average of 9.6, 7.4 and 10.3 points, respectively, for those in the acupuncture group. These scores also increased in usual care patients, but at much lower levels.
• Acupuncture patients used an average of 15 percent less medication to treat headaches than patients receiving only usual care. They also made 26 percent fewer visits to a general practitioner, and missed fewer days from work due to sickness.

“Acupuncture in addition to standard care results in persisting, clinically relevant benefits for primary care patients with chronic headache, particularly migraine, compared with controls,” the researchers commented. “We also found improvements in quality of life, decreases in use of medication and visits to general practitioners, and reductions in days off sick.”

In their conclusion, the researchers admitted they could not rule out the occurrence of a placebo effect, as the study did not include a sham acupuncture group. In addition, since the patients knew which treatment group they were assigned to, there remained the possibility that patients could give somewhat biased assessments of their treatments. However, the authors noted that the results of their study were similar to results seen in blinded, placebo-controlled trials, which “provides further evidence that bias does not completely explain the apparent effects of acupuncture.”

The authors recommended that their findings should be taken into account by policymakers when assessing the most cost-effective ways of treating patients. They also called for an expansion of acupuncture services for the treatment of chronic headaches in the National Health Service, which provides health care to millions of Britons each year.

In an interview with the BBC, Dr. Mike Cummings, the medical director for the British Medical Acupuncture Society, called the study “innovative” and agreed with the authors’ assertions.2

“It is very positive for us,” he said of the research. “This should help to lift acupuncture out of what is seen to be alternative to mainstream medicine É It should be made available in primary care to treat pain and to prevent costly referrals to hospitals.”

References

1. Vickers AJ, Rees RW, Zollman CE, et al. Acupuncture for chronic headache in primary care: large, pragmatic, randomized trial. British Medical Journal Online First; doi:10.1136/bmj.38029.421863.EB. Published March 15, 2004. Available at www.bmj.com.

2. Acupuncture beats headache pain. BBC News, March 15, 2004.

Reposted with permission from Acupuncture Today

If you suffer from headaches or migraines, or know of anyone who does, encourage them to give acupuncture a try. It’s really a great way to manage or eliminate headaches and migraines without the side effects of drugs.

What to do when someone has multiple areas of pain? Fibromyalgia is a good example of pain, aches and muscle soreness all over the body and/or at multiple joints. I recently had a patient come in with back pain, sciatica pain, knee pain, hip pain and neck and shoulder pain. The frequent question being is can more than one area of pain be treated at one time?

Another patient recently reported “I tried acupuncture many, many years ago. It’s probably about 15 years ago. It didn’t seem to do much for me at that time. Since then I’ve tried chiropractic, physical therapy, including epidurals. Epidurals helped me for about a year, but when I took it the second time around it wasn’t much help. So I was wondering if there had been any change in the treatments which could help the pain.”

I told this man that there are variables that can affect outcome. The main variable is how long a patient has had a certain condition. The longer it’s been around, the longer it usually takes to resolve, especially if one wants to do it gently and naturally without the use of drugs or shots. Patients typically come to my office when Western medicine can no longer help beyond giving drugs to alleviate the pain. Many patients do not like the efffects that pain medication or steroids have on their bodies.

Also, with regard to prior experiences with acupuncture, outcomes can be influenced by frequency, proximity of repeat treatments and duration of treatments. For long standing problems, it may not be unusual to need 20 or more treatments. One of my teachers, Dr. Tan, explains acupuncture treatments this way. “Acupuncture is like a therapy. The treatments build on each other over time.” When my patients tell me they feel better after the first treament, I am honest with them and tell them it’s a very good sign they responded so quickly, but “what I can’t promise is how long this treatment is going to hold.” Like chemotherapy or psychotherapy, the treatments build on each other for maximum effectiveness.

Also, one much take into account their age, lifestyle, daily actitivies, exercise, diet and stress. These all affect how the body heals.

So, back to the issue of multiple areas of pain. When there are so many areas that have pain I can either chase the pain and put needles all over the areas of pain or try to come up with a strategy that can efficiently move energy all over while still targeting some areas of pain. So many areas of pain makes me think of Times Square in NYC at rush hour. All lanes in all directions are backed up, everyone’s honking and nothing is moving. My typical approach to this is to create energy flow all over the body and then see what pain is left over. It’s called a global treatment and moves energy at the various levels that it flows in the body.

Because the channel system is a closed circuit system, it’s easy to move all twelve channels with just a few needles. Once energy is moving smoothly, there is less pain and then I will be more inclined to do a targeted treatment of the pain that is left over.

This was a call from one of my monthly radio shows taking call in questions.

“I would like to ask the Acupuncture & Nutrition Clinic if they can help my husband. He is 67 years old and has a lot of hip pain. He is still very active and very much works 40 or 60 hours a week. The pain radiates down the side of his leg into the knee area. Do they think that they might be able to help that?”

Our response: “We treat a lot of hip, low back and sciatic type pain. Pain down the side of the legs does sound like a type of sciatica that’s coming from the low back, maybe the hip. We do treat a lot of sciatica at our clinic. The usual location of needles would be on the opposite shoulder. We would actually needle various joints of the shoulder because that mirror-images the hip and then down the middle of the upper arm to the elbow which would mirror the knee. Once the needles are in we would ask him to move in a way that normally would elicit pain. If it’s better, then we’ve done our job well. If not, we need to go back and reassess our diagnois of the channel problem. Sciatica down the side of the leg is actually a very treatable condition.”

We frequently tell patients to remember that acupuncture is like a therapy: chemotherapy or psychotherapy. The treatments build on each other until the body is able to maintain the “re-routed” circuitry. If someone has had a condition for 20 years, it’ going to take more than a few treatments to make it better. It’s good to be realistic in those expectations.

Even if you think about one month of treatment per year. Obvioiusly that’s a lot of treatments and its doubtful that many treatments would be necessary. But the take home message is about being patient and recognizing that Chinese medicine is a gentle form of medicine that nudges the body to work in a way that it used to know how to do. There is memory. Once you really promote healing in the area that’s hurting or diseased, the body will respond in the majority of cases.

In the previous blog, I gave a brief description of what Yin and Yang represent. In short, it’s about warming and cooling energy. This blog is taking you to another level of understanding in Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM). This post will explore the concepts of Qi (chee) and Blood and how and why they are fundamental components in TCM.

The concept of energy in TCM, is referred to as Qi (chee). The Qi energizes the body, moves and warms. Therefore Qi has Yang energy. (See Yin and Yang from previous blog). Blood and body fluids are sustenance for the body. They nourish and moisten the whole of the body and therefore are Yin in nature.

The strength of our Qi comes from our Prenatal or Congenital Qi (our parents) and Acquired Qi from our food and air. Qi is the source of movement in all directions. Qi protects the body like a shield against pathogens (i.e. viruses) and allows for bodily functions to work efficiently. Qi warms the body and ensures the appropriate flowing/movement of substances in the body, like blood and body fluids.

Qi can be deficient as in infirmity of old age, chronic illness or malnutrition. It can collapse as in prolapse of organs (bladder, uterus). Stuck Qi (stagnant Qi) results in feeling deep, achey pain, a sense of distention and/or emotional upset. Qi can also flow in the wrong direction (rebellious Qi) manifesting as cough, nausea, vomiting, hiccups, dizziness and diarrhea.

Blood as we know it is a thick liquid and therefore one of the most dense forms of Qi (Yin in nature). In TCM like in Western medicine, Blood functions to nourish the body. In TCM it is understood to flow and circulate in the meridians. Blood flow in the meridians includes the organs and tissues of the body as well as body hair, tendons, ligaments, bones and viscera. It moistens and nourishes the whole body, especially the eyes and tendons. Hair growth is related to quality and amount of blood.

In TCM the three most important organs related to Blood are the Liver, Heart and Spleen:
-“Liver stores and regulates the blood; when the body moves, the blood will flow through the channels. When the body rests, the blood returns to the Liver and is stored.”
-“The Heart governs the blood, which means the Heart pumps the blood.”
-“The Spleen contains the blood which means the Spleen manages the blood by preventing the
blood from spilling out into the vessels, i.e.: hemorrhaging, bruising.”

Qi (energy, life force) moves the blood and keeps it circulating. Without strong Qi to move the blood, the blood will gather and get stuck. The areas where blood stagnates will result in pain and disease as a result of inadequate blood moving and nourishing the body. The interaction between Qi and Blood is significant. If our Qi is weak, it won’t be able to sufficiently move the blood. If our blood is deficient it won’t nourish and moisten the body and will also result in disease and pain.

Disorders of the Blood include blood deficiency, blood stagnation and heat in the blood. The reasons for this could be from blood loss, reduced blood production or the blood nourishing qualities being reduced. General signs of blood deficiency include dizziness, palpitations, lusterless complexion, pale lips, insomnia, dry skin and hair. It may not show up as anemia in Western medicine but would still be considered blood deficiency in TCM. Other problems related to blood deficiency include amenorrhea or shortened menstrual cycle, and dry, itchy skin.

Some of the causes of blood stagnation come from Qi deficiency not moving the blood, heat in the blood and impact trauma causing hemorrhage or bruising. The generals signs of blood stagnation include purplish lips and tongue and/or papules on the tongue. Local areas of blood stagnation would manifest in painful swelling or knife-like stabbing pain. Bleeding can occur when the blood vessels can no longer hold the pressure caused by the stagnation and the blood will be a dark purple-black. Western diseases that relate to blood stagnation would include a heart attack or stroke.

Heat in the blood is a result of heat toxins entering the blood. It is characterized by rapid blood movement, hemorrhage and/or deep red rashes, eruptions on the skin or hives, and dry mouth. Heart-Blood heat will cause anxiety, mental illness and mouth ulcers. Blood heat in the uterus will cause excessive bleeding during the menstrual cycle.