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  1. #61
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    Acupuncture can improve chances of successful fertility treatment

    Acupuncture can improve chances of successful fertility treatment
    By Maxine Frith Social Affairs Correspondent
    21 October 2004


    Acupuncture can improve a woman's chances of successful fertility treatment, research shows. Patients on needle therapy during IVF had higher rates of pregnancy and lower rates of miscarriage, the conference of the American Society for Reproductive Medicine in Philadelphia was told yesterday.

    Doctors and scientists long sceptical about complementary therapies are increasingly convinced they can aid conventional medicine. Acupunct-ure and hypnosis are now available on the NHS.

    Researchers from the Reproductive Medicine and Fertility Centre in Colorado Springs studied 114 women undergoing IVF. The transfer process can be uncomfortable and stressful, hampering the chances for a successful pregnancy.

    Half of the women had acupuncture during the transfer, with needles in their ears and other areas; the other half had normal treatment without needles. Acupuncture is based on ancient Chinese theories about pressure points and how they affect health and well-being.

    Only 36 per cent of the women on conventional treatment became pregnant, compared with 51 per cent of those who had acupuncture. Just 8 per cent of the acupuncture patients suffered a miscarriage, compared to 20 per cent of the other patients.

    The therapy also reduced the risk of ectopic pregnancy, where the embryo develops in the fallopian tube rather than the womb. Live birth rates in the acupuncture women were 23 per cent higher for each IVF cycle.

    Professor Edzard Ernst, professor of complementary med-icine at Exeter University said: "We are beginning to suspect acupuncture can have hormonal effects and it [could] influence fertility." He also said extra "tender, loving care" during treatment might have influenced results. He added: "These results deserve to be rigorously tested using placebo acupuncture to ensure the effect is real."
    26 October 2004 08:00

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    "Its better to build bridges rather than dig holes but occasionally you have to dig a few holes to build the foundation of a strong bridge."

    "Traditional Northern Chinese Martial Arts are all Sons of the Same Mother," Liu Yun Qiao

  2. #62
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    Ancient medicine for the masses

    The Daily Camera

    To print this page, select File then Print from your browser
    URL: http://www.dailycamera.com/bdc/healt...223527,00.html

    Joshua Lawton

    Mary Saunders, a licensed acupuncturist at the Community Acupuncture Clinic in Boulder, performs a treatment on a patient as fellow practitioner Jennifer McLemore prepares for her patient Sasha Jacobs in the background.

    Ancient medicine for the masses
    New clinic offers low-cost acupuncture

    By Lisa Marshall, Camera Staff Writer
    October 4, 2004

    In India, it is offered in drop-in, open-air clinics, where dozens of people are treated at once for little, if any, cost.

    In China, it's available everywhere from urban hospitals to rural health centers where anyone, regardless of income, can afford as many sessions as they need. But in the United States, says Boulder acupuncturist Mary Saunders, the 2,000-year-old Chinese medicinal art she practices has taken an unfortunate turn as it has grown in acceptance and popularity: It has largely become a remedy for the rich, out of reach for the people who need it most.

    "It has always been the medicine of the people. That is the nature of this medicine," says Saunders. "It is we, in this culture, that have turned it into this elitist, alternative thing. It is becoming so expensive that only people with lots of money or really good insurance can afford it."

    Saunders aims to buck that national trend with the opening last month of the new Community Acupuncture Clinic, a Boulder facility that offers group acupuncture at a sharply reduced price. The clinic, nestled in the quiet basement of a restored Victorian house, features four cozy recliners, three massage tables and one straight-back chair in a peaceful space where as many as eight patients can be treated at once. As many as three licensed acupuncturists will be at the clinic at any given time.

    Fees are based on a sliding scale — $30 to $60 for an initial visit and $15 to $45 for a follow-up. Private practitioners in the area charge anywhere from $55 to $85.

    The clinic is modeled after a first-of-its-kind facility, Window of the Sky, which opened in Portland, Ore., two years ago with the aim of making regular acupuncture treatments available to low-income patients. That clinic now treats as many as 100 patients per week and has the capacity to see 15 at a time.

    Window of the Sky founder Lisa Rohleder says she still makes a good living. "If you treat four people in an hour for $15, you still get $60, and they all get to come in," she says. "It's just not rewarding for me to get paid $85 a treatment but not be able to treat my neighbors."

    After one visit to the Portland clinic, Saunders, a 20-year veteran of the trade and former director of the Southwest Acupuncture College in Boulder, spearheaded a community effort to get a clinic started here. She says almost every piece of furniture in the place was donated, and she was given a break on rent by Partners in Health, the complementary medicine practice that leased her the space.

    She hopes to attract students and people of various economic and ethnic backgrounds who have yet to try acupuncture because of its cost. Saunders speaks fluent Spanish and has printed her fliers and delivered her answering machine message in both languages. She'd also like to see those who already get acupuncture but have a need for more frequent treatments able to get them.

    "This is the way they do it in China. You want to make it so people can come often. Then they can get real results," she says. "It is not like you are getting lesser care because you are getting group treatment."

    On a recent afternoon at the clinic, the quiet sounds of Native American flute echoed through the clinic as the smell of lavender essential oils and burning Moxa, a Chinese herb, wafted through the clinic.

    At the massage table in one corner, Saunders gently removed a hair-thin, stainless steel acupuncture needle from the forehead of Veronique, a middle-aged woman who came to the clinic for help with chronic fatigue. Meanwhile, two other women and one man kicked back, eyes closed, acupuncture needles firmly in place, blankets covering them, in the lazy chairs across the room.

    Meanwhile, Virginia Charnow, a 26-year-old who came to the clinic for help with hormonal problems, was making her next appointment.

    "I felt like I got the same care here as what I received one-on-one at a private facility," said Charnow, who is unemployed right now. "For this cost, this is definitely doable."

    Rohleder, of the Portland clinic, says she is thrilled to see another clinic following her lead, and she hopes to see the idea catch on nationally and filter into other forms of alternative medicine. Better access to such medicine, she believes, could translate to better preventive care and fewer costly visits to emergency rooms for the uninsured.

    "Alternative medicine, the way it is taught, practiced, and put out in the community is not accessible to working-class people," Rohleder says. "This is really how it was meant to be. It is a radical social justice undertaking. We are trying to change the way medicine is being practiced in this country."

    The Community Acupuncture Clinic will offer a free lecture on abdominal self-massage for women at 7 p.m. Oct. 12 at 2825 Marine St., Boulder. For more information on the clinic, call (303) 447-0443

    Copyright 2004, The Daily Camera. All Rights Reserved.
    "Its better to build bridges rather than dig holes but occasionally you have to dig a few holes to build the foundation of a strong bridge."

    "Traditional Northern Chinese Martial Arts are all Sons of the Same Mother," Liu Yun Qiao

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    Acupuncture Helps Treat Knee Pain

    Acupuncture Helps Treat Knee
    37 minutes ago

    FRIDAY, Nov. 19 (HealthDayNews) -- Acupuncture, used as a complementary therapy to drugs, is a more effective treatment for knee osteoarthritis than medication alone, says a Spanish study in this week's issue of the British Medical Journal.

    The study included 88 people with knee osteoarthritis who received either acupuncture and the anti-inflammatory drug diclofenac or dummy acupuncture and the drug. The patients were treated for 12 weeks and their levels of stiffness, pain and physical function were measured by the researchers.

    Patients in the acupuncture group had a greater reduction of pain and stiffness and improved functioning and quality of life compared to the patients in the placebo group.

    The study authors said future research should include longer observation periods after treatment to evaluate the duration of improvement offered by the combination of acupuncture and drug therapy.

    Knee osteoarthritis affects nearly 10 percent of people over age 55, the researchers said.

    More information

    The American Medical Association has more about knee osteoarthritis.
    "Its better to build bridges rather than dig holes but occasionally you have to dig a few holes to build the foundation of a strong bridge."

    "Traditional Northern Chinese Martial Arts are all Sons of the Same Mother," Liu Yun Qiao

  4. #64
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    AIDS & TCM

    TCM holds promise in treating HIV/AIDS
    Jia Hepeng
    2004-11-23 06:05



    When Lai Zuqin, a traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) doctor in Southwest China's Yunnan Province, tried in the late 1980s to develop a treatment for a strange syndrome which had a combination of symptoms - coughing, headaches, nausea, diarrhoea and hair-loss - he did not expect to become the inventor of China's first authorized anti-AIDS TCM: the Tang Herbal Tablet.

    In the early 1990s, he knew the disease was called AIDS and that AIDS was fatal for all.

    But to his astonishment, some of his AIDS patients were able to check the development of their illnesses after taking his medicine.

    The discovery led Lai to give up all of his clinical work and focus on researching a new medicine based on his prescription.

    He was joined by Qi Jieyuan, a Beijing-based pharmaceutical firm, in the medicine's research and development.

    It took Lai and the company 10 years to obtain final approval from the State Food and Drug Administration in April 2004.

    Like Lai, when TCM doctor teams of the Chinese Academy of TCM were sent to Tanzania to help treat local diseases in the early 1990s, they also thought of TCM.

    The only difference is that Lai and the company developed the TCM into a tablet, while doctors from the Academy insisted on using various prescriptions of herbs.

    More choices

    "Chinese doctors, with little knowledge about AIDS at that time, found many of its symptoms could be treated with TCM. Later, they developed some effective prescriptions against AIDS," said Wei Jian'an, deputy director of the Centre of HIV/AIDS Treatment under the Academy.

    Wei joined a Chinese TCM doctor team in Tanzania between 1999 and 2000, and chaired the research into using TCM when he returned to Beijing.

    On October 30, a TCM prescription - CATCM-II - developed by Wei and his colleagues and based on their experience in Tanzania, was ranked as a major scientific innovation by the Ministry of Science and Technology.

    Yet CATCM-II and the Tang Herbal Tablet are only a small part of nationwide efforts to treat HIV/AIDS with TCM.

    In March, SH - another TCM theories-based herbal medicine invented by Chinese researchers in Kunming, Yunnan Province - was approved by Thai drug authorities as a new drug.

    She Jing, vice-minister of health and the director of the State Administration of TCM, said at a news conference last month that another two were undergoing clinical trials.

    They are TCM, called Ke'aite, literally "the drug that overcomes AIDS," and Qiankunning, produced by the Chengdu-based Enwei Pharmaceutical Co Ltd.

    On October 31, Ke'aite reportedly passed the first stage of the trials and was approved by the Drug Administration to launch clinical trial II.

    Director of the research centre at Enwei said Qiankunning was in the third phase of a clinical trial and may get the approval from drug authorities within one or two years.

    Major advantages

    "All the development illustrates that TCM has great potential to deal with HIV/AIDS," Wei said.

    The disease is a new one to human beings as far as studies go, but its symptoms are not.

    TCM theories are based on the analysis of the whole human body at the onset of the virus or bacteria attacks from the symptoms. The prescriptions are then developed to improve bodily functions to fight attacks and relieve symptoms.

    Jin Lu, executive director of the Hong Kong-listed Golden Meditech Co Ltd, said that 200 AIDS patients were treated with TCM during the three clinical trial stages of the TCM, alongside another 200 in five hospitals in Beijing and Kunming.

    Golden Meditech acquired Qi Jieyuan in June this year after the latter obtained new drug licence for its Tang Herbal Tablet.

    All of the 200 AIDS patients taking the tablet during this trial are still alive, and most of their clinical symptoms have been reduced or even disappeared.

    Ninety per cent of them improved their CD4 - a major index used to evaluate immunology against HIV/AIDS - with 51 per cent of them increasing their CD4 by more than 30 per cent.

    Wei says one major advantage of using TCM to treat AIDS is its fewer side-effects, early treatment and lower cost.

    The commonly used ****tail therapy - using a combination of different AIDS drugs and antibiotics - can control HIV and prolong life for AIDS sufferers.

    But doctors say the therapy also has strong side-effects such as anorexia, insomnia and hair-loss.

    "In certain cases, some AIDS patients give up the treatments because of these strong side-effects," Jin said.

    The ****tail therapy has very strict standards on when to start treatment. If it is too early, the virus might develop strong drug-resistance.

    It is often difficult for AIDS patients to know when they contracted the disease, so many of them lose the best chance to receive treatment at the right time. But TCM prescriptions can be used at any time during the disease's development, Jin told China Daily.

    TCM researchers say the cost of using CATCM-II and the Tang Herbal Tablet is no more than 3,000 yuan (US$362.32) a year, and it could be lowered further when production costs are cut.

    In contrast, using generic chemical medicines - such as Zidovudine, Stavudine, Didanosine and Zalcitabine - produced by Chinese drug makers for ****tail therapy - costs about 10,000 yuan per year (US$1,210), including the drugs and necessary medical checks.

    For some poor countries which do not have the capability of producing generic chemical medicine against AIDS at a low cost, the expenditure is much higher.

    Thailand's drug authorities are fully supportive of the development of SH in a bid to meet the urgency for inexpensive AIDS drugs, according to Luo Shide, the inventor of SH and a professor at the Kunming Institute of Botany under the Chinese Academy of Sciences.

    Developing SH

    Luo has been researching AIDS medicine based on the combination of TCM theories and modern chemical techniques since the late 1980s, after he returned to China from Germany.

    His method is to first determine and purify the vital elements of herbal plants recorded by classic TCM books that treat poisons, and then to combine them into dozens of TCM prescriptions. In the end, some of these prescriptions proved effective in significantly reducing HIV levels.

    Luo said his research has not been done at the molecular level, however. It is still difficult to make sure exactly what a single herbal plant's chemical content is, let alone a compound consisting of 20 plants.

    He did not receive any government or company's financial support on his work for the first eight years.

    "At that time, it was widely considered that HIV/AIDS was not a big problem for China. And anyway, no one believed TCM could be really used to treat HIV/AIDS," Luo said.

    In 1998, Luo's research made some major progress and the achievement was posted in his institute's newspaper.

    "A visiting Thai public health official found the report and immediately contacted me," Luo said.

    The Thailand Government decided to finance Luo's research and offer the necessary equipment for clinical trials to take place.

    In China, encouraged by TCM's potential to treat AIDS, China's health authorities have launched a programme to offer free TCM-based treatments to AIDS sufferers.

    So far, the programme, chaired by Wei, covers 2,300 patients across five Chinese provinces. The number may double over next year.

    The Ministry of Health estimates there were 840,000 HIV/AIDS patients in China in 2003. Experts warn that without effective control measures, the number of HIV carriers may exceed 10 million by 2010.

    Challenges remain

    Despite the promises, David Ho at New York-based Rockefeller University and the inventor of ****tail therapy, said there was no compelling evidence published in internationally recognized journals that TCM actually enhances immunity.

    "I see no reason why TCM would not have some benefits for the immune system or for stopping the spread of HIV. But these claims must be supported by scientific studies. Too few of them have been done properly," Ho says.

    Wei and Jin say they have not published their clinical reports in international journals, partly because it is difficult to explain TCM in Western scientific jargon.

    They also say their medicines are so far better at improving immunity than directly stopping disease progression.

    Luo said TCM may not be powerful enough to kill the virus because many vital elements may be lost during the traditional processing methods.

    Luo said some purification work has been done in the United States to insure better purification of active ingredients of TCM. Jin said her company has been negotiating with the World Health Organization and another South Asian country to perform wider clinical research there.

    "Based on our current very limited knowledge of TCM at the molecular level, it is impossible for TCM to pass the evaluation process of the US Food and Drug Administration and the European Union's drug authorities," Jin said.

    There are still few regulations on using traditional Chinese medicine to treat HIV/AIDS. Any search on the Internet for TCM and AIDS will come up with dozens of websites claiming effective treatments. Even Ke'aite is sold online, yet this is still undergoing clinical trials.

    Wei admitted there was little national standardization in using TCM to treat AIDS. "To solve the problem, there should be some official indices to evaluate the true effects of TCM," Wei says.


    (China Daily 11/23/2004 page13)
    "Its better to build bridges rather than dig holes but occasionally you have to dig a few holes to build the foundation of a strong bridge."

    "Traditional Northern Chinese Martial Arts are all Sons of the Same Mother," Liu Yun Qiao

  5. #65
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    Acupuncture Increases Nocturnal Melatonin Secretion And Reduces Insomnia And Anxiety: a Preliminary Report: Part I.

    Provided by The Journal of Neuropsychiatry and Clinical Neurosciences on 12/1/2004
    by Spence, D Warren; Kayumov, Leonid; Chen, Adam; Lowe, Alan; Et al

    Originally Published:20040101.

    The incidence of insomnia is estimated to be 35% to 40% of the adult population. It currently affects more than 60 million Americans, and this figure is expected to grow to 100 million by the middle of the 21st century.1,2 The defining characteristic of insomnia in the context of anxiety is a pattern of multiple arousals from sleep. Anxious subjects have difficulty maintaining sleep, spend less time in deep sleep, and their sleep is more fragmented than that of normal subjects.3-5 Conversely, sleep deprivation may produce symptoms that fall within the total complex of anxiety.4 Although current opinion suggests that insomnia and anxiety are separate entities, their symptoms overlap considerably. Individuals with insomnia and individuals with anxiety have elevated psychosomatic profiles on psychological tests,6-8 maintain chronically high states of arousal, and rely on an "internalizing" style of conflict resolution (DSM-IV, 4th Edition).9 These commonalities have prompted speculation10 that a common thread underlies the conditions, although their exact relationship, namely whether insomnia is the product of or simply a correlate of anxiety, is still inconsistently viewed in current diagnostic systems (i.e., the ICD-IO, DSM-IV and ICSD [International Classification of Sleep Disorders]).11 It is nevertheless true that the dual diagnostic pattern of anxious insomnia is the most commonly seen problem in sleep disorder clinics today.12 The high rate of comorbidity between anxiety and insomnia, coupled with the high population incidence of insomnia, undoubtedly account for this phenomenon. Although we are unaware of any epidemiological studies on the incidence of anxiety which does not fulfill the criteria for a defined anxiety disorder, it is reasonable to infer that a large segment of the population may have "subsyndromal" anxiety, symptoms that are not associated with debilitating psychopathology, but which nevertheless produce a significant degree of mental discomfort.

    Traditional treatment strategies for anxious insomnia have emphasized benzodiazepines. The useful anxiolytic effects of these agents have made them the most widely prescribed of all pharmaceuticals.13 The risks of benzodiazepines, however, are well documented and involve physical as well as psychological effects. These include their potential to promote dependence or acute toxicity in overdose.14,15 Other adverse effects include sedation, psyc****tor and cognitive impairment, memory loss, potentiation of other CNS depressants, and treatment-emergent depression.16 Acupuncture, which relies on the release of neurally active agents from endogenous stores, has been shown to have a superior side effect profile compared to some psychoactive drugs17,18 and may thus represent a means for addressing the concerns about benzodiazepine therapy.

    Evidence supporting acupuncture's utility as a treatment for insomnia has come from a variety of sources, including the non-western scientific literature. Among these, investigations by Nan and Qingming,19 Jiarong,20 and Cangliang21 showed positive results. The shortcoming of these studies, however, is that their dependent measures have usually been inexact, relying mainly on subjective accounts of sleep experience or duration, and consequently, despite the consistency of their support for acupuncture, they are difficult to evaluate. Several European studies22-24 used polysomnography to measure acupuncture effects on sleep disorders, but all failed to monitor nocturnal neurochemical changes which would have strengthened their experimental design.

    It is known that stress mediation is multifactorial and strongly influenced by GABAergic25 and dopaminergic neurotransmission.26-27 The neurohormone melatonin may also be involved in these effects. Melatonin is a CNS depressant with anxiolytic,28-29 mild hypnotic30 and anticonvulsant actions31 which may be related to its enhancements of GABAergic32-33 and striatal dopaminergic34-35 transmission. The effect of melatonin on mood and chronobiological functions has been established in a number of studies. The pattern of melatonin secretion over a 24-hour period is widely accepted as a measure of circadian activity in humans.36"37 This pattern is disrupted in insomnia. Compared to normal patients, those with insomnia have suppressed nocturnal outputs of melatonin38-39 and are more likely to have histories of depression.40 As noted above, the anxiolytic effects of melatonin have been recently established in rodent models.41-43 In humans, abnormalities in melatonin secretion have been confirmed in patients with bipolar I disorder.44 Taken together these findings support the inference that melatonin deficiency may play a key role in anxiety-associated insomnia.

    Some evidence has also been provided that melatonin interacts with the opioid peptides.45-46 Melatonin is both utilized and synthesized following acute pain episodes in humans,47 the function of which may be to modulate fluctuations in opioid receptor expression and levels of beta-endorphin.48 The relationship of melatonin with the opioidergic system is complex and not completely understood, although there is evidence that it has mixed opioid receptor agonist-antagonist activity.49 In aggregate these findings lend support to the postulate of a "melatonin-opioid axis"48 possibly serving a variety of protectant functions.
    "Its better to build bridges rather than dig holes but occasionally you have to dig a few holes to build the foundation of a strong bridge."

    "Traditional Northern Chinese Martial Arts are all Sons of the Same Mother," Liu Yun Qiao

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    Part II:

    Evidence of the endogenous opioid basis of acupuncture analgesia has been supported both in human50"51 and animal studies.52-53 These have shown that acupuncture analgesia treatment increases CSF levels of met-enkephalin, beta-endorphin, and dynorphin and can be reversed by the opiate receptor blocker naloxone. These findings are relevant to the present study inasmuch as the opioids not only mediate analgesia they also play a central role in subjectively experienced stress. In normal human subjects plasma beta endorphin levels are increased just before or after a stressful experience,54-55 and are associated with feelings of euphoria that is reported following, for example, bungee jumping.56 In depressed patients elevated plasma beta endorphin levels are positively correlated with severe stress and phobia,57 while anxious subjects show increases in beta endorphin immediately before and after cognitive and social Stressors.58 There is thus a reasonable basis for the inference that acupuncture modulates anxious responses and that these effects are mediated by the endogenous opioid system.

    At the present time there have been only a few studies of acupuncture's effects on melatonin. In one of these however59 acupuncture was found to promote increases in melatonin in the pineal, the hippocampus, and in serum in rats.

    The present study sought to use objective measures, including an analysis of 24-hour melatonin levels in urine, to evaluate acupuncture's effects on insomnia and anxiety. The hypotheses for this study were that a 5-week regimen of acupuncture would promote statistically significant improvements in polysomnographic markers of sleep quality, reduce anxiety (scores on the STAI), and enhance endogenous melatonin production in individuals scoring high on measures of anxiety and insomnia.

    METHODS

    Eighteen adult volunteers served as subjects in the study. To fulfill the inclusion criteria they had to report having symptoms of insomnia for at least two continuous years immediately prior to the study and to score above 50 (anxiety range) on the Zung Anxiety Self Rating Scale. The Zung is a validated self-administered rating scale60 employing a 20-item list of symptoms in a Likert scale response format. The selected subjects had symptoms of anxiety but did not fulfill DSM-IV criteria for any particular anxiety disorder (i.e., their condition was subsyndromal). Of the 18 subjects 11 were women and 7 were men. all subjects were between the ages of 18 and 55. Their mean age was 39.0 ± 9.6 years. One was of Chinese descent, two were black, and 15 were Caucasian. Prior to participation in the study all had heard of acupuncture and three reported having had acupuncture treatment in the past for conditions unrelated to their sleep problems. In no instance did any of the subjects have acupuncture treatment in the two years prior to participation in the study. The subjects were recruited through several sources, including newspaper advertising, posters placed on hospital bulletin boards, announcements made through the local chapter of an independent sleep-wake disorders patient support group, and occasional notices on a public service program of a local television station.

    An initial screening interview was carried out by a psychiatrist or by an associate qualified in psychological interviewing. A preliminary diagnosis for inclusion in the study was made on the basis of the International Classification of Sleep Disorders. The subjects had to report having at least two symptoms of insomnia (fragmented sleep, frequent awakenings, early morning awakenings followed by an inability to fall back to sleep, feeling tired in the morning despite having spent a normal period of time in bed) for at least two years duration and that this experience was not related to an obvious environmental stressor. Potential participants with any concurrent medical, psychological, or psychiatric factors which might account for their sleep difficulties were excluded from the study. Other exclusion criteria were: a history of shift work within five years prior to the study, presence of other sleep disorders, age of less than 18 or greater than 55, a history of alcohol or drug abuse, current use of neurally active medications, or concurrently undergoing psychotherapy. The study protocol was approved by the Human Ethics Committee of the University of Toronto, and written informed consent was obtained from all participants after the procedures had been fully explained. all subjects were asked to sign a Committee-approved consent form confirming that they understood the goals, risks, and potential benefits of the study and their right to withdraw from the study at any time.

    The study investigated the use of traditional (symptomatic) acupuncture without augmentation from herbs, pharmaceuticals or hormonal agents. Concentrations of a major melatonin metabolite 6-sulpha toxymelatonin (aMT6s) in urine were measured before and after the study (as described below). This was to evaluate changes in the neurohormone as released from endogenous sources (melatonin was not administered as an experimental treatment). For each subject the trial was conducted over a 7-week period during which the active phase of acupuncture therapy was 5 weeks (two sessions per week, 10 sessions in total). The acupuncture was administered by a master acupuncturist (AC) who was also the director of an acupuncture training program and clinic. The acupuncture needles were disposed of immediately after use and sterile technique was strictly observed. Each acupuncture session lasted approximately one hour. During the 1-week period preceding and following the active treatment phase, subjects were tested with polysomnography at an administratively convenient time in the Sleep Research Laboratory of the University Health Network, Toronto Western Hospital site. Figure 1 illustrates the design of the study.

    Two consecutive overnight polysomnographic studies were performed at baseline (before treatment) and at the end of the 5 weeks of treatment with acupuncture. Polysomnographic results obtained on the first night during the before and after stages of the experiment were not included in the analysis to avoid a possible "first-night" effect.61 The sleep parameters included the sleep latency, sleep efficiency, the total sleep time, the arousal index, the percentage of REM sleep and REM latency, and the amount of time spent in stages 1 through 4. Additionally data were collected on the Alpha rating, an evaluative index of sleep quality62 which included an assessment of sleep fragmentation. For the baseline recordings, subjects chose their own retiring and wake up times as was consistent with their normal routine. just before retiring on the second night of polysomnographic testing subjects were also asked to fill out several paper and pencil tests of mood and cognitive efficiency. These included the Toronto Alexithymia Scale,63 a standard pre-sleep questionnaire; the Stanford Sleepiness Scale (SSS)64; and a seven-item Fatigue Scale. Additionally they were asked to fill out the State-Trait Anxiety Inventory65 to gauge the effect of acupuncture on anxiety. The Center for Epidemiological Studies Depression Scale (CES-D)66 was used to assess the presence of depressive symptoms.
    "Its better to build bridges rather than dig holes but occasionally you have to dig a few holes to build the foundation of a strong bridge."

    "Traditional Northern Chinese Martial Arts are all Sons of the Same Mother," Liu Yun Qiao

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    Part III:

    On the following morning, immediately after awakening, each subject completed a standard post-sleep questionnaire, the SSS, and the Fatigue Scale. Approximately 20 minutes after awakening, subjects assessed their level of fatigue and sleepiness using the following scales: the Fatigue Severity Scale, the Epworth Sleepiness Scale,67 the Toronto Western Hospital Fatigue Questionnaire, the Fatigue Scale, and the FaST Adjective Checklist. The results from testing were consolidated to form a composite fatigue score (comfatigue), which has been validated in studies on patients with multiple sclerosis.68

    After completing the fatigue questionnaires, the subjects were asked to complete a complex verbal reasoning task.69 Accuracy and tune to complete the test were assessed.

    During both the pre- and posttest assessment phases urine samples were collected and the concentration changes of aMT6s (which reflects the changes in endogenous levels of melatonin) were subsequently measured with a commercially available competitive immunoassay ELISA kit (Buhlmann Laboratories AG, Allschwil, Switzerland). At aMT6s concentrations 2.0 and 12.5 ng/ml the intraassay coefficients of variation were 5.5% and 3.5%; at concentrations 5.0 and 40.0 rig/ml the interassay coefficients of variation were 0.7% and 9.7%. As discussed above, the pattern of melatonin secretion has been widely accepted as a measure of circadian activity in humans,36,37 and there is further evidence of decreases in melatonin output in patients suffering from insomnia. 39,40,70
    Statistical Analysis

    The results of the polysomnographic recordings and psychometric testing were compared on a before and after basis for all subjects and are shown here as mean, scores. The matched pairs t test was used to assess the statistical significance of these changes. The melatonin analysis was treated as a "two within-subjects variables experiment," a type of multiple repeated measures test, where the two within-subject factors were (a) "time of day" and (b) "phase of the experiment" (i.e., before or after the experiment). These comparisons were carried out using the Statistical Package for the Social Sciences software (SPSS for Windows). The null hypothesis was rejected if the differences were significant at the 5% level.

    RESULTS

    The major objective and subjective measures obtained in the before and after stages of the experiment are displayed separately for convenience in Table 1 and Table 2. Objective measures (i.e., the polysomnographic recordings) are separated into three categories: sleep continuity, sleep architecture, and REM sleep, as shown in Table 1. The subjective variables, based on self-report questionnaires and performance tests, are separately identified in Table 2. The means, their differences, standard deviations, and two-tailed significance levels are also shown for each sleep and test variable.

    Sleep Duration and Sleep Quality Variables

    The acupuncture treatment used in this study improved several polysomnographic parameters of sleep architecture. Among the sleep continuity variables, sleep onset latency (SOL) and the arousal index dropped significantly (p = 0.003 and p = 0.001, respectively), reflecting improvements in both sleep initiation and maintenance. The total sleep time (TST) and sleep efficiency similarly increased (p = 0.001 and p = 0.002, respectively). The Alpha index also improved significantly (p = 0.017). Some improvement in sleep quality was confirmed by the increase in the amount of time spent in stage three (slow wave) sleep (p = 0.023), but the amount of time spent in stage four sleep did not significantly change in the before-after comparison. The percentage of REM sleep and REM sleep latency, as well as the amount of time spent in stages one and two sleep remained unchanged following acupuncture.

    Subjective Variables: Psychological Factors, Sleepiness, Fatigue, and Alertness

    As shown in Table 2, both state and trait anxiety scores significantly improved (p = 0.049 and p = 0.004, respectively) following acupuncture. Additionally, scores on the CES-D showed significant improvements (p = 0.001). Scores on the Alexithymia Scale did not change significantly.

    Scores on the Stanford Sleepiness Scale (SSS) indicated no significant differences (in the before and after comparison) when the test was administered just before the second night of sleep, but did show significant improvements (p = 0.019) when subjects were asked to report on their subjective sleepiness in the morning after the second night of sleep. The Fatigue Scale scores revealed a somewhat similar profile, with scores before sleep not showing any significant differences, but scores on the following morning indicated a significant improvement (p = 0.045) after 5 weeks of acupuncture. The improvement in fatigue scores were not paralleled by increases in alertness however: the ZOGlM-A, a test which measures alertness, indicated that the subjects felt significantly (p - 0.004) less alert following acupuncture. The composite fatigue scores (comfatigue) did not indicate any significant change. The timed test of cognitive skill indicated that subjects were able to perform the test more quickly (p = 0.001) following acupuncture, but the performance accuracy, while showing a small improvement, was not statistically significant.

    6-Sulphatoxymelatonin Analysis

    Urine analysis showed that nocturnal physiological levels of aMT6s increased following acupuncture and decreased during the morning and early afternoon (Figure 2).

    Analysis of the main effects showed a significant (p = 0.001) interaction between the two variables "time of day" (representing the four measurement periods 9 p.m. to midnight; midnight to 8 a.m.; 8 a.m. to 3 p.m. and 3 p.m. to 9 p.m.) and "phase of the experiment" (before versus after acupuncture), thus supporting the validity of individual time period comparisons on a pre- and post-treatment basis. No detectable changes (in urinary concentrations of aMT6s) were found for pairwise comparisons of periods 1 and 4 (9 p.m. to midnight, and 3 p.m. to 9 p.m.). Differences for periods 2 (midnight to 8 a.m.) and 3 (8 a.m. to 3 p.m.) however were significant (p = 0.002 and p = 0.037) reflecting postacupuncture increases in melatonin production at night and decreases during the morning and afternoon.

    DISCUSSION

    Our initial hypotheses were confirmed by the results of the present investigation. In an open clinical trial of 18 subjects, the administration of 5 weeks of acupuncture, totaling ten treatment sessions, was associated with normalization in a 24-hour profile of urinary aMT6s and a number of objectively measured improvements in sleep continuity and sleep architecture. Additionally, significant improvements in self-reported fatigue and sleepiness paralleled these changes. The exception to this trend was the reduction in alertness as measured by the ZOGIM-A test. As discussed below the apparent inconsistency of reduced alertness following improvements in sleep quality may possibly have been the result of a transition into a more adaptive and qualitatively different type of alertness. Self assessed feelings of anxiety and depression decreased following acupuncture. These findings are fairly consistent with the results of previous investigations showing that acupuncture has a generalized anxiolytic effect,71"73 and with other polysomnographic studies of acupuncture effects in insomnia.22"24
    "Its better to build bridges rather than dig holes but occasionally you have to dig a few holes to build the foundation of a strong bridge."

    "Traditional Northern Chinese Martial Arts are all Sons of the Same Mother," Liu Yun Qiao

  8. #68
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    Part IV:

    The findings of nocturnal elevations in urinary aMT6s, indicating increased melatonin secretion, paralleled these changes. Melatonin regulates the rhythm of many functions and alterations in its secretory pattern have been found in a number of psychiatric disorders. These have included seasonal affective disorder, bipolar disorder, unipolar depression, bulimia, anorexia, schizophrenia, panic disorder, and obsessive-compulsive disorder,74 but at present it has not been confirmed if these changes are causal to or simply a marker of other neurochemical dysfunctionalities. Further, it is not known if melatonin is equally involved in the development of the pathophysiology of each of these disorders. Due to practical limitations we were able to investigate changes in only one neurally active agent, but clearly it would have been desirable to study acupuncture's effects on a range of neurotransmitters which are known to be closely linked to the etiology of anxiety or insomnia. Dysregulation of catecholamine secretion for instance has circadian variations which correlate closely with pathological anxiety states75 and moreover have been shown to be regulated by melatonin injections.76 Our findings thus raise intriguing questions about the nature and course of acupuncture effects at the neurochemical level. Studies are needed to further elucidate the role of norepinephrine as well as that of serotonin, dopamine, GABA in the changes we observed in melatonin secretion.

    The results for the sleep architecture measurements showed no increases in the percentage of time spent in stages one or two, findings which have doubtful relevance for this clinical sample. Large improvements were seen however in the subjects' transition to stage three or slow wave sleep, reflective of significant gains in the quality of their sleep. A wide variability of responses in this observation reduced the significance level to p = 0.023. The percent of stage three sleep increased from a mean of 4.2% before treatment to a mean of 6.1% following treatment, closely approximating the normal mean of 7%. There was considerable variability in the amount of time spent in stage four sleep, with a number of subjects showing no improvement at all, thus accounting for the lack of statistical significance. The variability in responsiveness to acupuncture seen in, for instance, acupuncture analgesia treatment77 has been known clinically and in scientific studies for some time. Although this variability has not been satisfactorily accounted for, one hypothesis is that psychological factors may be an impediment to treatment effectiveness. This is consistent with the findings of Widerstrom-Noga78 and Creamer79 showing that trait anxiety (measured by the STAI) can interfere with the effectiveness of acupuncture analgesia treatment. In this context our findings that, despite the variability of response, acupuncture improved overall sleep quality and had significant effects on anxiety are therefore noteworthy. The possibility that extreme scorers on trait anxiety are poor treatment candidates, or perhaps require additional treatment to show measurable changes, needs to be explored further with a sample that is larger than the one used in the present study.

    In the present study subjects were screened to exclude those with clinical levels of psychopathology, including depression. Nevertheless a number of subjects showed elevated scores on the CES-D (depression) scale. This is in accordance with other findings showing that patients with insomnia may have symptoms of anxiety or depression which do not meet criteria for a specific mental disorder (DSM-IV, 4th Edition).9 In fact, symptom cooccurrence of anxiety and depression frequently exists in non-clinical samples which do not show serious sleep disturbance.80 These symptoms were nevertheless reduced by acupuncture and are consistent with previous reports of acupuncture's effectiveness in treating mood disorders.81^82

    A finding that merits closer examination is the apparent lack of consistency implied in the failure of improvements in sleep quality to be accompanied by increasing alertness during the day. In our sample daytime alertness, as evaluated by self assessments or indirectly through measures of performance accuracy, either became worse or showed no improvement even though sleep quality was enhanced. Generally there is a positive correlation between tests of sleepiness (such as the Multiple Sleep Latency Test or MSLT) and daytime alertness (e.g., the Maintenance of Wakefulness Test, the MWT) (i.e., the better the nighttime sleep the greater the alertness during the day). In depressed patients however a negative relationship between the two tests is sometimes found.83 Kayumov et al.84 investigated this phenomenon in clinically depressed patients who also scored high on anxiety measures. In the depressed group the sleep latency on the MWT showed paradoxical increases (i.e., was reflective of alertness) in concordance with the severity of sleep disturbance, whereas in the non-depressed group this did not occur. Our own findings are consistent with these previous studies and support the view84 that in depressed or anxious subjects the underlying factors which cause sleep disturbance will also produce heightened alertness during the day. This view emphasizes that qualitative differences exist in the "adaptive" alertness of non-anxious subjects, which is mobilized by relevant environmental Stressors, and the accentuated or "vigilant" alertness of individuals suffering from excess emotional tension. In this group alertness is chronic and preferentially driven by internal rather than environmental demands, thus conferring to it a more invariant and non-discriminatory quality. Our finding therefore that alertness actually decreased following acupuncture may imply the substitution of one type of alertness for another rather than representing a decrement in cognitive efficiency. This possibility needs to be explored with testing instruments which are sensitive to these differences.

    In this preliminary study acupuncture was shown to be of value as a therapeutic intervention for insomnia in anxious subjects and may therefore represent an alternative to pharmaceutical therapy for some categories of patients. Further, the central role attributed by classical and modern theories of personality to anxiety as the basis of most psychological defense mechanisms,85'86 as well as the evidence that abnormalities in melatonin secretion are involved in a number of psychiatric conditions,74 suggest that acupuncture may have broad applicability to other types of psychopathology in which quality of sleep is impaired. An important shortcoming of this study however was its lack of a control group with a placebo acupuncture condition. The findings therefore need to be confirmed with a study employing a more rigorous design.

    The authors gratefully acknowledge the help of Dr. Raed J. Hawa of the Department of Psychiatry, University Health Network, Toronto, Ontario, in interviewing ana screening patients and for his thoughtful suggestions in reviewing the manuscript.

    This investigation was supported by REST Foundation, Scotland
    "Its better to build bridges rather than dig holes but occasionally you have to dig a few holes to build the foundation of a strong bridge."

    "Traditional Northern Chinese Martial Arts are all Sons of the Same Mother," Liu Yun Qiao

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    Acupuncture Improves Osteoarthritis, Trial Shows

    2 hours, 39 minutes ago

    By Karla Gale

    NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - Acupuncture added to conventional therapy for osteoarthritis of the knee improves function and reduces pain, according to a clinical trial conducted at the University of Maryland School of Medicine in Baltimore.

    "We now have a result that suggests, in the largest, longest and most rigorously conducted study of acupuncture ever, that we have a new (add-on) therapy for millions of patients with degenerative arthritis," Dr. Stephen E. Straus, director of the National Center for Complementary and Alternative Medicine, said at a press conference.

    The study, led by Dr. Brian M. Berman and reported in the Archives of Internal Medicine (news - web sites), involved 570 patients with moderate to severe osteoarthritis, all of whom continued with their prescription treatments.

    They were also assigned to 23 sessions of traditional Chinese acupuncture or sham non-piercing acupuncture over the course of 26 weeks, or to a control group that received 6 two-hour education sessions over 12 weeks.

    After eight weeks, participants in the true acupuncture group had a 10.77-point improvement in a standard osteoarthritis function score, significantly greater than those in sham acupuncture group (7.84-point improvement) or the education-only group (5.30 points).

    After 26 weeks, both pain and function scores were significantly more improved in the true acupuncture group than in the sham group.

    At the press conference, researcher Dr. Marc C. Hochberg said that "the maximum improvement in the sham group was about 30 percent in terms of calculated pain score and also the calculated score on functional impairment." In the true acupuncture group, the improvement was "between 40 percent and 45 percent in both pain and function scores."

    Moreover, added Dr. Berman -- particularly in light of recent news about arthritis drugs -- "there were very few adverse events reported, none on which was thought to be treatment related."

    SOURCE: Archives of Internal Medicine, December 21, 2004.

    http://news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=stor...e_dc&printer=1
    "Its better to build bridges rather than dig holes but occasionally you have to dig a few holes to build the foundation of a strong bridge."

    "Traditional Northern Chinese Martial Arts are all Sons of the Same Mother," Liu Yun Qiao

  10. #70
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    Special Acupuncture Lowers Blood Pressure -- Study

    1 hour, 38 minutes ago

    WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A specialized acupuncture treatment that uses low levels of electrical stimulation can lower blood pressure dramatically in rats, U.S. researchers reported on Monday.

    "This study suggests that acupuncture can be an excellent complement to other medical treatments, especially for those treating the cardiac system," said Dr. John Longhurst of the University of California, Irvine, who led the study.

    "The Western world is waiting for a clear scientific basis for using acupuncture, and we hope that this research ultimately will lead to the integration of ancient healing practices into modern medical treatment."

    Writing in the March issue of the Journal of Applied Physiology, Longhurst and colleagues said they inserted acupuncture needles at specific points on the front legs of rats with artificially elevated blood pressure rates.

    This is equivalent to the inside of the forearms, slightly above the wrists in people.

    Acupuncture alone had no effect on blood pressure in the rats, Longhurst's team found. But adding electrical stimulation at low frequencies lowered the blood pressure, although it did not bring it to normal.

    The effects lasted for up to two hours.

    "This type of electroacupuncture is only effective on elevated blood pressure levels, such as those present in hypertension, and the treatment has no impact on standing blood pressure rates," said Longhurst, a cardiologist .

    "Our goal is to help establish a standard of acupuncture treatment that can benefit everyone who has hypertension and other cardiac ailments."

    His team is now testing the technique on people.

    High blood pressure is a major cause of heart disease, and can lead to heart failure, stroke, kidney failure and other conditions.

    Yahoo! Health
    Have questions about your health?
    Find answers here.

    http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmp...acupuncture_dc
    "Its better to build bridges rather than dig holes but occasionally you have to dig a few holes to build the foundation of a strong bridge."

    "Traditional Northern Chinese Martial Arts are all Sons of the Same Mother," Liu Yun Qiao

  11. #71
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    Acupuncture Therapy Rapidly Terminates Intractable Hiccups Complicating Acute Myocardial Infarction


    Feng-Cheng Liu, MD; Chiou-An Chen, MD; Sung-Sen Yang, MD; Shih-Hua Lin, MD

    South Med J. 2005; 98 (3): 385-387. ©2005 Lippincott Williams & Wilkins
    Abstract and Introduction

    Abstract

    Acupuncture is a well-known alternative therapy in practice worldwide. Its dramatic effect on hiccups has been rarely reported. We describe a 77-year-old male who had hiccups after an acute myocardial infarction. Despite aggressive treatment including breath-holding to interrupt the respiratory rhythm, continuous positive airway pressure, and medication with metoclopramine, prochlorperazine, chlorpromazine, haloperidol, mephenesin, diphenylhydantoin, baclofen, and phenobarbital, the hiccups persisted for 7 days. Eventually, the hiccups were rapidly terminated by acupuncture at acupoint GV14 (Da zhui). To the best of our knowledge, this is the first report of acupuncture's reversing intractable hiccups after an acute myocardial infarction. Acupuncture may be considered for patients with hiccups refractory to conventional therapy.
    "Its better to build bridges rather than dig holes but occasionally you have to dig a few holes to build the foundation of a strong bridge."

    "Traditional Northern Chinese Martial Arts are all Sons of the Same Mother," Liu Yun Qiao

  12. #72
    Quote Originally Posted by dwid

    I think possibly the biggest obstacle to making much of traditional medicine a part of modern medicine is the zealots who say you can't have the baby without the bathwater, so to speak.

    .
    I think the biggest obstacle is western doctors and insurance companies.

    Acupuncture costs nothing compared to western therapies. Doctors will not get rich doing acupuncture unless they have a rich clientele.

    Acupuncture is like chiropractic. It is something that goes on and on. Insurance companies are in the business of making money. They can't be paying for regular acupuncture treatments and still make money. Insurers have been fighting covering chiropractic treatments for decades.

    They only make money if you pay them insurance all year long and only go in for a checkup where the doctor tells you to go away until next year.

  13. #73
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    Acupuncture is more than a Placebo

    Acupuncture 'more than a placebo'


    Scientists say they have proof that acupuncture works in its own right.

    Sceptics have said that any benefits gained from acupuncture are merely down to a person's expectation that the treatment will work.

    But researchers at University College London and Southampton University say they have separated out this placebo effect.

    Their findings, based on a series of experiments and brain scan results, are published in the journal NeuroImage.

    Dummy treatment

    The researchers used positron emission tomography (PET) scans to see what was happening in the brains of people having acupuncture treatment for arthritis pain.


    The great bulk of trials to date do not provide convincing evidence of pain relief over placebo [dummy pill]
    Professor Henry McQuay, University of Oxford

    Each of the 14 volunteers underwent each of three interventions in a random order.

    In one intervention, patients were touched with blunt needles but were aware that the needle would not pierce the skin and that it did not have any therapeutic value.

    Another intervention involved treatment with specially developed "trick" needles that give the impression that the skin was being penetrated even though the needles never actually pierced the skin.

    The needles worked like stage daggers, with the tip disappearing into the body of the needle when pressure is applied. This was designed to make the patients believed that the treatment was real.

    The third intervention was real acupuncture.

    Brain activity

    When the researchers analysed the patients' PET scan results they found marked differences between the three interventions.

    Only the brain areas associated with the sensation of touch were activated when the volunteers were touched with the blunt needles.

    During the trick needle treatment, an area of the brain associated with the production of natural opiates - substances that act in a non-specific way to relieve pain - were activated.

    This same area was activated with the real acupuncture but, in addition, another region of the brain, the insular, was excited by the treatment.

    This was a pathway known to be associated with acupuncture treatment and thought to be involved in pain modulation.

    Sarah Williams of the British Acupuncture Council said: "This is very positive news for acupuncture and this latest research is an exciting illustration of what acupuncturists have known for a long time - that acupuncture works and its effectiveness goes beyond the placebo effect."

    Professor Henry McQuay, professor of pain relief at the University of Oxford and member of the Bandolier group that looks at the evidence behind different medical treatments, said: "The great bulk of the randomised controlled trials to date do not provide convincing evidence of pain relief over placebo.

    "Some people do report that acupuncture makes them feel better.

    "But it is extremely difficult, technically, to study acupuncture and tease out the placebo effect."

    Story from BBC NEWS:
    http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr/-/2/h...th/4493011.stm

    Published: 2005/04/30 22:57:58 GMT
    "Its better to build bridges rather than dig holes but occasionally you have to dig a few holes to build the foundation of a strong bridge."

    "Traditional Northern Chinese Martial Arts are all Sons of the Same Mother," Liu Yun Qiao

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    Fake acupuncture 'aids migraines'

    Fake acupuncture 'aids migraines'

    Fake acupuncture works just as well as the real thing in relieving migraines, scientists have found.
    In a study of more than 300 patients, both genuine and sham acupuncture reduced the intensity of headache compared with no treatment at all.

    But real acupuncture was no better than needles placed at non-acupuncture points on the body, the Journal of the American Medical Association reports.

    It goes against recent research showing acupuncture works in its own right.

    Placebo effect

    It has long been debated whether acupuncture works in a unique way or whether any benefits gained are merely down to a person's expectation that the treatment will work.

    The latter is called the placebo effect.

    To investigate this, Dr Klaus Linde and colleagues randomly assigned 302 people with migraines to one of three groups.

    One group received 12 sessions of genuine acupuncture over eight weeks.

    Another group received 12 similar sessions of acupuncture, except the needles administered were not placed in parts of the body thought to relieve migraine pain, hence any benefit would likely be placebo rather than real, according to the researchers.

    The third group received no treatment but were placed on a waiting list to see a migraine doctor.

    Less pain

    All of the patients kept diaries about their migraine symptoms.

    While the patients on the waiting list continued to have headaches just as often, the ones who received acupuncture - sham or real - had fewer headaches.

    The average number of days blighted by a headache went down from about five to two.


    Something else could have been going on
    Dr George Lewith of Southampton University

    This may be due to "non-specific physiological effects of needling, to a powerful placebo effect or a combination of both", said the researchers.

    But Dr George Lewith, who recently published work suggesting acupuncture has an effect above and beyond placebo, said although the present study was well conducted, it did not truly test the placebo effect.

    "We do not know whether this sham acupuncture is active or not. To test for placebo effect you have to use an intervention that only raises a patient's expectations.

    "The authors note themselves that something else could have been going on as well."

    The British Acupuncture Council said that using pre-prescribed acupuncture points for all patients might have skewed the results.

    "Acupuncture treatment is different for each person. The formulaic treatment part of the study would be inappropriate for some patients. This would reduce the apparent effectiveness in the acupuncture group."

    The council said there was good evidence to suggest acupuncture was helpful for treating migraine.

    Ann Turner of the Migraine Action Association said: "Acupuncture may be a good treatment option for migraine sufferers to explore."

    More than one-in-10 people in the UK experience migraines, two-thirds of whom are women.







    Story from BBC NEWS:
    http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr/-/2/hi/health/4508597.
    "Its better to build bridges rather than dig holes but occasionally you have to dig a few holes to build the foundation of a strong bridge."

    "Traditional Northern Chinese Martial Arts are all Sons of the Same Mother," Liu Yun Qiao

  15. #75
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    Acupuncture helps victims of dry mouth

    Acupuncture helps victims of dry mouth

    United Press International

    Thursday, June 16, 2005

    BALTIMORE, Jun 16, 2005 (United Press International via COMTEX) -- People who suffer from dry mouth -- a chronic condition caused by malfunctioning salivary glands -- get long-term relief from acupuncture, U.S. researchers say.

    Improperly functioning salivary glands cause xerostomia, or dry mouth, which can lead to painful sores, tooth decay, difficulty eating and other problems.

    University of Maryland researchers said acupuncture combined with head and neck radiation therapy helped seven patients achieve long-term relief from dry mouth symptoms.

    Researchers reported their findings in the Academy of Dentistry's journal General Dentistry.

    Lead author Warren Morganstein of the university's Baltimore College of Dental Surgery said most treatments provide only short-term relief while acupuncture provided longer-term help.

    After eight months, he said, the patients had increased saliva flow and greater ability to eat, speak and sleep.
    "Its better to build bridges rather than dig holes but occasionally you have to dig a few holes to build the foundation of a strong bridge."

    "Traditional Northern Chinese Martial Arts are all Sons of the Same Mother," Liu Yun Qiao

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