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Recent research concerning the effects of Acupuncture has demonstrated its effectiveness in treating a wide variety of disorders.
Findings from basic research have begun to elucidate the mechanism of action of acupuncture... There is sufficient evidence of acupuncture's value to expand its use into conventional medicine and to encourage further studies of its physiology and clinical value. Promising results have emerged showing efficacy of acupuncture in:
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postoperative and chemotherapy nausea and vomiting
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postoperative dental pain
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alcohol and drug addiction
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stroke rehabilitation
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headache
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menstrual cramps
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tennis elbow
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fibromyalgia
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myofascial pain
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osteoarthritis
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low back pain
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carpal tunnel syndrome
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asthma
Further research is likely to uncover additional areas where acupuncture interventions will be useful.
| --The NIH Consensus Statement on Acupuncture. 1997 |
"A randomized, controlled trial in obeses patients attending a general practice clinic in Australia followed the same diet and exercise regimen. The acupuncture group lost average 72kg after 5 weeks comaring to the 36kg average weight loss in control group. The difference was statistically significant (p=0.06)."
--Medical Acupuncture, A Journal By Physicians Volume17. Number 2(Jan. 2006)
"The fertility index increased significantly (p< 0.05) following improvement in total functional sperm fraction, percentage of viability, total motile spermatozoa per ejaculate, and integrity of the axonema (p< 0.05), which occurred upon treatment."
| --Male Fertility Lab, Bar-Ilan Univ. of Israel. Archives of Andrology 39:155-161.1997 |
"Acupuncture increases the pregnancy rate significantly (p= 0.03) in patients who undergo assisted reproduction therapy."
| -- Journal of Fertility and Sterility 77 (4). April 2002 | "The mean net photosynthesis rate of plants subjected to acupuncture increased about 25%. In addition, treated plants flowered three days earlier and had 14.4% more fruit than the untreated control plants."
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--Institute of Human Genetics, Univ. of Minnesota. American Journal of Chinese Medicine 25 (2):135-142. 1997
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"Moxibustion (stimulate acupoints with heat) for I to 2 weeks increased fetal activity during the treatment period and cephalic presentation after the treatment period and at delivery."
| --Randomized controlled trial on correction of breech presentation using acupuncture point, Journal of American Medical Association 280 (18):1580-1584. 1998 |
"Acupuncture is being used to treat depression. Until recently, no one had devised an effective means of conducting rigorous, controlled trials for acupuncture, but a University of Arizona neuroscientist appears to have overcome this obstacle. The innovative study shows acupuncture promising as depression treatment."
| --Clinical Psychiatry News. 1998 |
"Acupuncture leads to persisting, clinically relevant benefits for primary care patients with chronic headache, particularly migraine. Expansion of NHS acupuncture services should be considered."
| --British Medical Journal 2004; 3-8:744(27 March) | "A randomized, controlled trial shows acupuncture provides improvement in function and pain relief for osteoarthritis of the knee. The true acupuncture group experiences significantly greater improvement than sham group in WOMAC function score, WOMAC pain score, and patient global assessment."
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--Annals of Internal Medicine Volume141. Number 12 (21 Dec. 2004) |
Acupuncture can be helpful for treating alcohol and smoke addiction; appetite and weight control, pain management; stress reduction; enhancing immunity and energy; slowing-down the aging; relief of weakness, stiffness, pain, and fatigue from chronic illnesses such as arthritis, migraine, fibromyalgia, allergies, asthma, even AIDS or cancer, and more.
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menstruation related conditions
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PMS, dysmenorrhea, endometriosis, fibroids and cysts
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pregnancy related conditions
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infertility
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morning sickness
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fatigue
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back and joint pain
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breech presentation
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overdue delivery postpartum exhaustion/depression, postpartum overweight
43 conditions which acupuncture has proven successful, including:
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infections: colds, bronchitis, etc
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dermatological: eczema, acne, herpes
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mental and emotional anxiety, depression, stress, insomnia
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internal conditions hypoglycemia, asthma, high blood pressure, ulcers, indigestion, hemorrhoids,diarrhea, constipation, diabetes
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genito-urinary & reproduction impotence, infertility, pre-menstrual syndrome, pelvic inflammatory disease, vaginitis, irregular periods of cramps, morning sickness, menopause symptoms, urinary tract infections, and ovarian cysts
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eyes, ears, nose & throat hearing loss, ringing in the ear, earache, poor eyesight, dizziness, sinus infection, sinusitis, rhinitis, eye pain, sore throat, hay fever, toothache, and nosebleed
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musculo-skeletal & neurologic arthritis, neuralgia, sciatica, back pain, bursitis, tendonitis, stiff back, Bell's palsy, trigeminal neuralgia, headache, stroke, cerebral palsy, polio, sprains, muscle cramps, foot problems, carpel tunnel syndrome, TMJ, and whiplash
A consultation with a medical acupuncturist consists of three parts: history, examination, and treatment. In order to decide the underlying cause of the symptom, using Chinese medical differential diagnostic system, careful listening to the patient's description of the problem and related history, and asking the patient questions to clarify the specific detail of the complaint and patient's overall conditions are very important. The form of the examination which is specific to acupuncture and Chinese medicine include the pulse taking, tongue inspection. A discussion with the patient about the diagnosis and treatment plan will be followed. This is also the time to answer patient's questions.
We use individually packed, sterile and disposable needles. The needles are very thin, not much thicker than a hair (about 0.18 mm in diameter). The needles are inserted a fraction of an inch into the specific areas on the skin, called acupoints. You will not feel pain or might not feel anything when the needle is going in. Usually no more than six needles are used at one time. The treatment usually takes about 30 to 40 minutes.
Acupuncture "awakes your body's intelligence" -it facilitates the body's self-repair and healing mechanism. Acupuncture sends signals to the body through special channels called meridians, which connect the acupoints on the skin to the internal organ and nerve system; and trigs the series of specific responses/changes on the cellular and biochemical level to start the healing process. No side-effect but could be as powerful as chemical drugs. That is why Chinese anesthesiologists use acupuncture anesthesia in surgeries for patients who are allergic to the chemical drugs. The further researches have found that under acupuncture anesthesia, the body's central nerve system can produce more naturally occurred endorphin, which is many times powerful than the chemical, morphine.
"It has been reported that more than I million Americans currently received acupuncture each year..." reported by The NIH Consensus Statement on Acupuncture in 1997. The number of people who have discovered acupuncture has kept growing since then. According to the Arthritis foundation, acupuncture treatment has become one of the most popular unconventional therapies in the U.S. today, with about 15 million Americans having tried acupuncture so far. |
