The movement was my concern
I remember when I had an MRI they were rather perturbed to find that I had taken a metal splinter in my eye like a decade prior to the exam. The process needed to be delayed while they did this extensive series of X-rays to see if there weren't any fragments of the splinter left, telling me that if there were, the MRI would rip it right out of my eye. There weren't, which is what I had told them at the onset. I guess it's good that they were prudent but the extra X-ray charges felt like getting nickel & dimed.
Gold is non-magnetic. Your point about 'real gold' is well taken.
Acupuncture is being used by elite athletes
Almost every week I come across an article extolling the benefits of acupuncture as used by the most elite athletes. Kobe Bryant, olympic medalists and Tour-de-France cyclists are using acupuncture to give them the winning edge.
Increasingly, acupuncture's effects are being scientifically validated, although there is much controversy regarding its specific mode of action. Regardless, the data is convincing enough that the US military is now investigating using acupuncture protocols for treating both veterans and active duty soldiers in the field. But more about that later. For the present discussion, I've quoted an abstract from the American Journal of Chinese Medicine, a peer reviewed scholarly journal:
Quote:
Am J Chin Med. 2009;37(3):471-81.
Effects of acupuncture stimulation on recovery ability of male elite basketball athletes.
Lin ZP1, Lan LW, He TY, Lin SP, Lin JG, Jang TR, Ho TJ.
Author information
Abstract
Developing effective methods for helping athletes recover from muscle fatigue is deemed essential, particularly on the eves' important competitions. This study aimed to investigate the effects of acupuncture stimulation on athletes' recovery abilities. Subjects were selected from 30 male elite university basketball players who were randomly assigned to 3 groups: acupuncture group, sham group, and normal (control) group, each containing 10 subjects. Acupuncture was carried out on each athlete in acupuncture group at the Neiguan (PC6) and Zusanli (ST36) acupoints, beginning at 15 min prior to exercise and continuing until exhaustion of the subject. Similar acupuncture was also carried out on each athlete in the sham group but the positions were 1 cm away from the PC6 and ST36 acupoints. No acupuncture was conducted on the athletes in the normal group. During the experiments, each subject performed separate runs on the treadmill. The data of heart rate (HR(max)), oxygen consumption (VO(2max)), and blood lactic acid were measured during the rest period and at 3 recovery points of time (5th, 30th and 60th min) post-exercise. The results showed that the acupuncture group (PC6 and ST36) has significantly lower HR(max), VO(2max) and blood lactic acid than both the sham and normal groups at the 30th min post-exercise. Blood lactic acid of the acupuncture group was also significantly lower than that of the other two groups in the 60th min post-exercise. Our findings have shed some light on the development of effective acupuncture schemes to enhance the recovery ability for elite basketball athletes.
Pubmed Entry here: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/19606508
The above quoted study implies that acupuncture can help with recovery in athletes - do you think you could benefit from it in your martial practice as well?
in health,
herb ox
Think acupuncture is all in your head? Think again...
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3725933/
As published in J Am Assoc Lab Anim Sci. 2013 Jul; 52(4): 475–480
Acupuncture as an Adjunct Therapy for Osteoarthritis in Chimpanzees
Abstract:
Quote:
Acupuncture is an ancient practice that is currently used to treat disorders ranging from osteoarthritis to cardiomyopathy. Acupuncture involves the insertion of thin, sterile needles into defined acupuncture points that stimulate physiologic processes through neural signaling. Numerous scientific studies have proven the benefits of acupuncture, and given this scientific support, we hypothesized that acupuncture could benefit the nonhuman primates at our facility. As our chimpanzee colony ages, we are observing an increase in osteoarthritis and have focused our initial acupuncture treatments on this condition. We successfully trained 3 chimpanzees, by using positive-reinforcement training techniques, to voluntarily participate in acupuncture treatments for stifle osteoarthritis. We used 3 acupuncture points that correlate with alleviation of stifle pain and inflammation in humans. A mobility scoring system was used to assess improvements in mobility as a function of the acupuncture treatments. The 2 chimpanzees with the most severe osteoarthritis showed significant improvement in mobility after acupuncture treatments. Acupuncture therapy not only resulted in improved mobility, but the training sessions also served as enrichment for the animals, as demonstrated by their voluntary participation in the training and treatment sessions. Acupuncture is an innovative treatment technique that our data show to be safe, inexpensive, and, most importantly, effective for chimpanzees.
What gets me is that some researchers and doctors want to continue to insist that acupuncture's effects are based upon expectations or placebo, and yet, animal models show an effect and fMRI shows substantially different brain activity patterns when a "verum" point is needled versus an off-channel point.
But, then again, Sammelweis' idea that hand washing could reduce postpartum deaths was ridiculed for years by the medical community who refused to acknowledge the idea that the doctors could be spreading the disease!
in health,
herb ox
Too weird not to post here
There's a vid if you follow the link.
Quote:
Komodo Dragon gets acupuncture for aching back
Hannah the Komodo Dragon has been in pain. To relieve it, her doctors and keepers are taking an approach that has not yet been tried on an animal at the Palm Beach Zoo: acupuncture. Dr. Cara Pillitteri, who has been treating Hannah, said, "Although the research is still inconclusive, current findings suggest that the mediators released by acupuncture may serve to lessen or block the pain response." Additionally, Hannah recently had a CT scan, commonly known as a cat scan, to try to better pinpoint the source of her pain. Neck pain has left her unable to eat at times and has her sidelined from the breeding program. Hannah is the first animal at the Palm Beach Zoo to have acupuncture treatment.
Amy Beth Bennett
Staff Photographer
Hannah the Komodo Dragon has been in pain. To relieve it, her doctors and keepers are taking an approach that has not yet been tried on an animal at the Palm Beach Zoo: acupuncture. Additionally, Hannah recently had a CT scan, commonly known as a cat scan, to try to better pinpoint the source of her pain. Neck pain has left her unable to eat at times and has her sidelined from the breeding program. Hannah is the first animal at the Palm Beach Zoo to have acupuncture treatment.