Journal of Menopause: Acupuncture found to be effective to reduce menopausal hot flushes

The latest issue of Menopause (peer reviewed American journal) has published a new study comparing effectiveness of acupuncture and Chinese herbal medicine treatment for the hot flushes.

The study concludes that acupuncture is effective, but fails fo find benefit of the herbal supplement. Perhaps it was due to the fact that they haven’t used differentiation of syndromes and used a single herb instead of a more common practice of prescribing a formula composed of a few herbs.

Differentiation of syndromes is very important in Chinese medicine.  In a recent study researchers from Universty of Adelaide found that differentiation of syndromes was essential to the effectiveness of herbal medicines for fertility.

Interested to know more about acupuncture, herbs and hot flushes? Ask your question in comments.

Reference: journal of Menopause (2013 May 13) Effects of acupuncture and Chinese herbal medicine (Zhi Mu 14) on hot flushes and quality of life in postmenopausal women: results of a four-arm randomized controlled pilot trial

Are these new transcranial therapies really novel? The treatment seems to be strikingly similar to scalp electro acupuncture, which has been used safely and effectively for decades.

We have numerous studies supporting scalp acupuncture for treatment of conditions such as

• pain, complex regional pain syndrome,
• insomnia, depression, stress, post-traumatic stress disorder
• cognitive and memory enhancement, autism
• acute ischemic stroke rehabilitation and prevention, low limb dysfunction of patients with stroke, apoplectic aphasia
• Parkinson’s disease

Acupuncture is much cheaper compared to transcranial therapies

• US$300 is a cost of a typical transcranial magnetic stimulation session
• NZ$70 (US$57) cost of a typical acupuncture session in New Zealand

As brain mapping techniques are becoming more accessible and we’re getting a better understanding of the human brain. This opens opportunities to design new treatments for numerous other conditions with electro-acupuncture, transcranial current stimulation and transcranial magnetic stimulation.

The image: mapping of the White Matter fibers

Acupuncture is great at reducing stress. Even the patients who are seeing me  for treatment of other health issues with acupuncture such as infertility report reduced stress. One of the first things they often notice is that sleep improves and they experience reduced irritability. They feel more relaxed at work and at home.

Even though we had viable theories how and why acupuncture helps stress, we know very little about what exactly happens on the cellular level. Researchers at the Georgetown University Medical Center made a major contribution to understanding how acupuncture helps stress. They discovered that acupuncture interferes with the mechanism of stress. It  blocks the chronic, stress-induced elevations of the HPA axis hormones and the sympathetic NPY pathway.

The HPA Axis (Hypothalamic–pituitary–adrenal axis) plays an important role in neurohormonal regulation. It’s involved in the neurobiology of  anxiety disorder, bipolar disorder, insomnia, post traumatic stress disorder, borderline personality disorder, ADHD, major depressive disorder, burnout, chronic fatigue syndrome, fibromyalgia, irritable bowel syndrome, and alcoholism.

Other recent studies on mechanism of acupuncture have shown that acupuncture triggers an increase in neurotransmitter adenosine an incredible 24-fold, it normalises the sympathetic nervous system to help PCOS patients and restores ovulation.

Considering acupuncture for stress? Contact Dr Vitalis Acupuncture. Learn more about acupuncture for depression, acupuncture for insomnia.

Reference: Journal of Endocrinology

This finding will help us to treat Bell’s Palsy with acupuncture more effectivelly. It is also important, because it adds to the evidence that acupuncture effect is much more than just a placebo.

Acupuncture for Bell’s Palsy: Need a celebrity endorsement?

Carnie Wilson says “Ps Who believes in Acupuncture? I’m treating my Bell’s Palsy with it. IT’S WORKING.” (more on medicaldaily.com)

Reference: reference:
Xu SB, et al “Effectiveness of strengthened stimulation during acupuncture for the treatment of Bell palsy: A randomized controlled trial” CMAJ 2013; DOI: 10.1503/cmaj.121108

“Instead of taking these over-the-counter drugs to combat symptoms when they flare up, sufferers should try treatments that help prevent headaches in the first place – including acupuncture – according to official advice from the National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence (Nice).” (Source: The Telegraph)

Lear more about how acupuncture helps headaches.

Your reproductive endocrinologist will be able to do more for you if you take an active role in your treatment. This book is about your first step of taking a seat of a co-pilot rather than a passenger in your fertility journey.

The “Must-Ask Questions for IVF Newbies” for your PC or a multimedia tablet is available for $2.99 from Amazon.

If you would like to learn more about acupuncture and IVF research, check out this website.

The researchers used evaluated cognitive function, life quality and measured 8-OHdG (markers of oxidative stress in the urine) before and after acupuncture. Their findings confirmed that acupuncture reduces the levels of 8-OHdG and improves cognitive function and quality of life in vascular dementia patients.

The findings were published in the current issue of the Journal of Traditional Chinese Medicine [2012, 32(2):199-202].

They discovered that almost all of the studies compared acupuncture to using of antidepressant medications, and that acupuncture was as effective as medications, but with fewer side effects and adverse reactions.

Obviously at the early stage of the disease most of the post stroke patients will have a difficulty to travel to an acupuncturist to have treatments. But those who are lucky enough to have an acupuncturist travel to their hospital to help their stroke recovery, should remind acupuncturist to take their mental state into account when designing a treatment plan.

reference here

Dysmenorrhea is a medical term for menstrual pain. Dysmenorrhea is differentiated into primary and secondary. When the doctors can diagnose a condition which causes the period pain, they call it secondary dysmenorrhea. When there is no clear cause for pain, the period pain is called primary dysmenorrhea.

The researchers from Chengzhong People’s Hospital researched 66 women suffering from primary dysmenorrhea. They found that all of the patients improved after a few acupuncture sessions. They concluded that acupuncture was effective in alleviating pain in primary dysmenorrhea patients. The results appear in the latest issue of World Journal of Acupuncture-Moxibustion.

Acupuncture helps to heal liver fibrosis by significantly enhancing effects of curcumin

Liver fibrosis happens when the proteins including collagen surrounding liver cells start to accumulate excessively.  Liver fibrosis is often a result of all types of liver diseases.

Science used to consider liver fibrosis to be irreversible condition, but recent evidence suggests the opposite.

Acupuncture has been increasingly used to treat chronic liver diseases. And we’re obviously interested to know how acupuncture can be helpful with liver fibrosis. A study published in the current issue of peer-reviewed international journal Acupuncture in Medicine tried to understand what exactly acupuncture does in combination with curcumin for liver fibrosis.

They found that acupuncture significantly enhances curcumin effects for liver fibrosis. They also found biochemical changes at the cellular level.  The effects were attributed to acupuncture and curcumin disrupting platelet-derived growth factor ? receptor/extracellular signal-regulated kinase signalling and stimulates extracellular matrix degradation. Curcumin is the principal active ingredient of turmeric.  This is yet another great example of how acupuncture and herbal medicines go hand in hand and enhance each others effect.

Ref: Acupuncture combined with curcumin disrupts platelet-derived growth factor ? receptor/extracellular signal-regulated kinase signalling and stimulates extracellular matrix degradation in carbon tetrachloride-induced hepatic fibrosis in rats. Acupuncture in Medicine doi:10.1136/acupmed-2012-010167

We already have some research to back up use of acupuncture use for weight loss.  Some patients who try acupuncture for weight loss get great results.

Thanks, Stephen for the emailed video.  It is funny that acupuncturist in the video actually would benefit from some weight loss himself

Acupuncture has made its way into mainstream in military medicine in USA as a battlefield pain relief.

The explanation why military embraces acupuncture may be simple: “As some top medical officers put it, though, there’s nothing like pain to make someone open-minded”

Listen to npr radio report covering this topic here:

Studies have shown that addressing tension in the neck, which often accompanies migraines and headaches can be very helpful reducing the severity and frequency of the headaches. I can see in my practice that combining acupuncture with gentle mobilisation of the neck muscles is the most effective way to manage acute migraine and to prevent migraines. It will be interesting to see more studies looking into the combination of these treatments in the future.

This study designed by scientists from China and USA (Department of Cardiothoracic Surgery, Shu Guang Hospital and George Washington University, Washington, USA) has sheded some new light on a combined approach of acupuncture plus local anaesthesia in patients undergoing open heart operation under cardiopulmonary bypass.

Compared with the general anesthesia patients, the acupuncture and local anaesthesia patients used less of narcotic drugs and shorter stay in intensive care unit.  Surprisingly they also had less postoperative pulmonary infection. Using acupuncture to aid with open heart surgery reduced cost of the treatment significantly.

The results of the study were published in the current issue of International Journal of Cardiology.