Quintell Williams is getting ready for what may just be the most relaxing part of her day. Believe it or not, it’s being poked with a dozen or so acupuncture needles.

Quintell is a two time breast cancer survivor. She’s gone through a mastectomy, reconstruction, chemotherapy and radiation. But what’s really hurting her now is a side effect of her breast cancer medicine.

“There’s joint pain. Sometimes you feel like your joints are on fire actually, you know. That’s the basic side effect that I would feel more than anything,” said Quintell.

Even though these drugs can reduce the risk of breast cancer recurring by almost 50 percent, the joint pain and stiffness cane be so severe.

“That a lot more women are stopping their medication than we originally realized and adherence is a big problem, which is unfortunate for a medication that works so well,” said Dr. Dawn Hershman, of New York Presbyterian-Columbia Medical Center.

But rather than add yet another drug like a painkiller, Dr. Hershman decided to see if acupuncture might help. Quintell volunteered for a study where half the women got acupuncture for their pain, and the other half got the acupuncture needles placed in a sham or fake way.

“To get your desired treatment effect you have to hit certain acupuncture points with the acupuncture needle and that is real acupuncture,” said acupuncturist Jillian Chapodice.

“There was about a 50 percent reduction in pain and stiffness in women that have gotten true acupuncture compared to the women that had gotten sham acupuncture, or fake acupuncture,” added Dr. Hershman.

Quintell was in the group that got real acupuncture and real pain relief.

“On a scale of 1 to 10, I would say maybe a 3. It had been a 10 because it was very painful,” said Quintell.

NEW YORK (CBS)

PHOBIA

Acupuncture may lessen fear of dentist

THE QUESTION When fear and apprehension keep someone from going to the dentist, might acupuncture help relieve the anxiety?

THIS STUDY involved 20 adults who had struggled with moderate to severe dental anxiety for an average of 10 years. Most had cancelled earlier appointments; a few had gotten some treatment under general anesthesia or after taking sedatives. When they arrived for a scheduled appointment for routine dental work, such as a cleaning, they first were given a five-minute acupuncture treatment, at two points on the head that have been shown to evoke relaxation. Their anxiety was measured before the acupuncture, which they did not know would be available, and after their dental treatment. On average, their scores on a standardized anxiety scale dropped from 28 (severe) to 11.5 (mild). Two people reported sleepiness. All of them completed their dental exam.

WHO MAY BE AFFECTED? People who avoid getting dental care because of anxiety, sometimes called odontophobia for severe cases. Relaxation techniques, behavioral therapy, biofeedback, hypnosis and sedatives help some but not all who have these fears.

CAVEATS The study included a small number of participants. Acupuncture was administered by dentists who had been trained in the technique.

FIND THIS STUDY March issue of Acupuncture in Medicine.

by Linda Searing

Acupuncture, a form of alternative medicine used to treat everything from back pain to weight control, is becoming more popular as a smoking cessation tool.

Though the idea may conjure up images of protruding needles, Springfield chiropractor Dr. G.T. Daubenspeck uses an electrical stimulator that resembles the instrument physicians use for ear checkups.

“It doesn’t hurt,” he said. “You may feel a tingle, but there is no pain involved.”

Daubenspeck became a licensed acupuncturist a year ago, not long after a law granting chiropractors the option was passed, he said.

He uses the electrical stem unit to stimulate ear points that he says are directly related to the smoking craving.

“The ear points decrease the sensation,” Daubenspeck explained. “You’re dealing with an addiction, so (the acupuncture) helps take away the craving.”

Because smoking is a “two-pronged attack” of craving and habit, Daubenspeck’s patients are also instructed on behavioral management to help break the habit of smoking.

“You’ve got to fight the addiction part and the habit part,” he said.

Studies cited by the National Cancer Institute state that success rates for acupuncture are not conclusive.

But Daubenspeck said more and more positive results are coming in about the procedure every day.

“We’ve always known that it works,” he said. “But now we’re starting to learn more about why it works.”

Daubenspeck said his patients typically have two acupuncture sessions a week for three weeks, at $50 per session.

His clinic at 2141 Park Road has offered acupuncture for about a year, but Daubenspeck hasn’t really advertised the addition.

He’s had three patients so far who “seem to do well,” he added.

By Bridgette Outten, Staff Writer http://www.springfieldnewssun.com

by Personal Liberty News Desk

According to a new study, acupuncture may be an effective way to treat depression in pregnant women.

Currently, nearly 20 percent of women report symptoms of despair during pregnancy, while approximately 10 percent meet the criteria for major depression. Coping with the disorder can be extremely difficult for many women who do not want to take anti-depressants during pregnancy out of concern for the developing fetus.

“Depression during pregnancy is an issue of concern because it has negative effects on both the mother and the baby as well as the rest of the family,” said study author Rosa Schnyer.

In the study, a total of 150 pregnant women meeting the standards for major depressive disorder were separated into three groups. One-third of the respondents were given acupuncture specific for depression, another one-third was given control or “sham” acupuncture and the others were treated only with massage.

The researchers found that the women who received depression-specific acupuncture experienced a significantly greater decrease in symptoms related to the disorder.

Acupuncture may also be used to help alleviate symptoms associated with headaches, lower back pain and menstrual cramps.

A new study has shown that acupuncture not only helps reduce hot flashes, but also improves sex drive of breast cancer patients.

The Henry Ford Hospital study revealed that acupuncture, when compared to drug therapy, has a longer-lasting effect on the reduction of hot flashes and night sweats for women receiving hormone therapy for breast cancer treatment.

Women also report that acupuncture improves their energy and clarity of thought, and improve their sense of well-being.

“Acupuncture offers patients a safe, effective and durable treatment option for hot flashes, something that affects the majority of breast cancer survivors. Compared to drug therapy, acupuncture actually has benefits, as opposed to more side effects,” said study lead author Eleanor Walker, M.D., division director of breast services in the Department of Radiation Oncology at Henry Ford Hospital.

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During the study, Walker and her research team recruited 50 patients tested the use of acupuncture to combat vasomotor symptoms in breast cancer patients as an alternative to drug therapy.

The patients were randomly assigned to receive either acupuncture or venlafaxine treatment for 12 weeks.

At the end of 12 weeks, all patients stopped their therapy and were followed for one year.

The study found that both groups initially experienced a 50 percent decline in hot flashes and depressive symptoms, indicating that acupuncture is as effective as drug therapy.

However, the acupuncture group continued to experience minimal hot flashes, while the drug therapy group had a significant increase in hot flashes.

The acupuncture group did not experience an increase in the frequency of their hot flashes until three months post-treatment.

The study is published online in the Journal of Oncology.

Source: Indian Express

Acupuncture Points

Please click on the thumbnail pictures or text description in order to get a very large expandable image.

PLEASE NOTE – These point location diagrams are made available by the University of Technology, Sydney. They are reproduced with the permission of the authors of the ‘Point Location and Point Dynamics Manual’. The diagrams are copyright and not for resale or commercial use without the permission of the authors, Carole and Cameron Rogers. Students and researchers however are free to download and use this material to assist them with their academic tasks. –

Acupuncture can help people with chronic low back pain feel less bothered by their symptoms and function better in their daily activities, according to the largest randomized trial of its kind, published in the May 11, 2009 Archives of Internal Medicine. But the SPINE (Stimulating Points to Investigate Needling Efficacy) trial raises questions about how the ancient practice actually works.

Compared to the group that got usual care, results were similar for all three of the SPINE trial’s acupuncture groups: individualized, standardized, and simulated (without going through skin). Of the people who got any kind of acupuncture, an extra one in five were functioning significantly better at the end of the seven-week treatment – and an extra one in eight were still functioning better at one year.

“This study suggests that acupuncture is about as effective as other treatments for chronic back pain that have been found helpful,” said SPINE trial leader Daniel C. Cherkin, PhD, a senior investigator at Group Health Center for Health Studies in Seattle. “But we found that simulated acupuncture, without penetrating the skin, produced as much benefit as needle acupuncture – and that raises questions about how acupuncture works.”

The SPINE trial included 638 adult patients at two nonprofit health plans: Group Health Cooperative in Seattle and Northern California Kaiser Permanente in Oakland. They all rated the “bothersomeness” of their chronic low back pain as at least a 3 on a 0-to-10 scale. None of them had received acupuncture before. They were randomly assigned to one of four groups:

• Individualized needle acupuncture, involving a customized prescription for acupuncture points from a diagnostician
• Standardized needle acupuncture, using a single prescription for acupuncture points on the back and backs of the legs, which experts consider generally effective for chronic low back pain
• Simulated acupuncture on those same standardized points, mimicking needle acupuncture but instead of a needle using a toothpick in a needle guide tube without penetrating the skin
• Usual care, which is the standard medical care they would have gotten anyway – and that all patients in all groups received

Everyone in the three acupuncture groups (individualized, standardized, or simulated) was treated twice a week for three weeks, and then weekly for four weeks. At eight weeks, half a year, and one year, researchers measured back-related dysfunction and how much symptoms bothered patients.

The SPINE team found that at eight weeks all three acupuncture groups were functioning substantially better, while the group getting only usual care was functioning only slightly better. Dysfunction scores improved significantly more for all three acupuncture groups than for the usual care group. These benefits lasted for a year, although they waned over time.

Notably, the outcomes for groups that received the needle and simulated forms of acupuncture did not differ significantly. So, although acupuncture effectively treated low back pain, that therapeutic benefit seemed to require neither tailoring acupuncture needle sites to an individual patient nor inserting needles into the skin.

“We don’t know precisely why people got back pain relief from the simulated acupuncture,” said Cherkin’s co-author Karen J. Sherman, PhD, MPH, a senior investigator at Group Health Center for Health Studies. “Historically, some types of acupuncture have used non-penetrating needles. Such treatments may involve physiological effects that make a clinical difference.” Or it might be all about the mind-body connection, she said: “Maybe the context in which people get treatment has effects that are more important than the mechanically induced effects.”

Western medicine does not have highly effective medical treatments for chronic back pain, Cherkin said. Back pain is the number-one reason that Americans use complementary and alternative medicine (CAM), including acupuncture.

The National Center for Complementary and Alternative Medicine (NCCAM), part of the National Institutes of Health, funded the SPINE trial.

“The findings of this research show that acupuncture-like treatments, including simulated acupuncture, can elicit positive responses,” said Josephine P. Briggs, MD, director of NCCAM. “This adds to the growing body of evidence that something meaningful is taking place during acupuncture treatments outside of actual needling. Future research is needed to delve deeper into what is evoking these responses.”

Cherkin and Sherman’s SPINE trial co-authors were Richard A. Deyo, MD, MPH, of Oregon Health & Science University in Portland; Partap S. Khalsa, DC, PhD, of NCCAM’s Division of Extramural Research; Andrew L. Avins, MD, MPH, Luisa Hamilton, MD, and Alice Pressman, MS, of Northern California Kaiser Permanente in Oakland; William E. Barlow, PhD of Cancer Research and Biostatistics and Group Health Center for Health Studies; and Laura Ichikawa, MS, Janet H. Erro, RN, MN, Kristin Delaney, MPH, and Rene Hawkes of Group Health Center for Health Studies.

Source:
Rebecca Hughes
Group Health Cooperative Center for Health Studies

Up to 80 percent of patients who have surgery complain of nausea and vomiting afterwards, but stimulating an acupoint in their wrists can help reduce these symptoms, finds a new evidence review.

Treatment for nausea and vomiting after surgery and anesthesia typically calls for the use of anti-nausea (antiemetic) medications. However, the cost and side effects of these medications have raised interest in finding more simple and noninvasive ways to prevent the symptoms. The aim of the systematic review was to determine whether stimulation of the wrist acupuncture point is an effective option.

The Pericardium (P6) point is in the wrist and its stimulation prevents nausea and vomiting, the researchers found.

The review appears in the current issue of The Cochrane Library, a publication of The Cochrane Collaboration, an international organization that evaluates research in all aspects of health care. Systematic reviews draw evidence-based conclusions about medical practice after considering both the content and quality of existing trials on a topic.

Author Anna Lee of the Department of Anesthesia and Intensive Care at The Chinese University of Hong Kong led the current review. It is an update of a previous 2004 Cochrane review, which Lee also led.

Stimulating the P6 point can occur by several methods such as acupuncture or acupressure. Acupuncture involves penetrating the skin with thin, metallic needles at defined points. It is one of the main medical treatments in traditional Chinese medicine and began there more than 2,000 years ago. One type of acupressure involves wearing a wristband that presses down on the P6 point.

Lixing Lao, a licensed acupuncturist and director at the Center for Integrative Medicine at the University of Maryland School of Medicine, described how the treatment works to prevent nausea.

“After a stimulation on the acupuncture point, the nerve system is then activated and signals the brain to release certain chemicals known as neurotransmitters, such as serotonin, dopamine or endorphins,” Lao said. “These then block the other chemicals that cause the sickness, nausea and vomiting, in this case, in the central nerve system. Therefore, the patient won’t feel that sick or nauseated.”

Lee and her colleague evaluated 40 studies comprising 4,858 patients. Most of the studies involved healthy adults undergoing elective surgery with general anesthesia. The studies all compared the stimulation of the P6 acupoint with sham (placebo) treatment or drug therapy with antiemetics for preventing nausea and vomiting after surgery.

The studies used 10 different methods of P6 stimulation, such as needle acupuncture, laser stimulation, transcutaneous (through the skin) nerve stimulation and acupressure wristbands. They used five different antiemetic drugs.

“Of the 40 trials included, the most common method of stimulation was wristband alone, in 17 studies,” Lee said. “The wristbands used to prevent both postoperative nausea and vomiting are the same sold for seasickness, travel sickness, morning sickness and chemotherapy-related nausea and vomiting.”

The Cochrane reviewers found that compared to sham treatment, stimulation of the P6 acupoint can significantly reduce the risk of nausea and vomiting after surgery, with few side effects. Lee said that “for 100 people, of whom 80 would vomit or feel sick after surgery if given sham treatment, about 25 people would benefit from P6 stimulation and 75 would not.”

When compared to the use of antiemetic medications, however, the reviewers found no reliable evidence that showed any difference in whether acupoint stimulation is more effective in preventing postoperative nausea and vomiting. They concluded that it can be used as a “suitable alternative or addition to” the medications.

Lee concluded that reducing nausea and vomiting for surgery patients through P6 point stimulation could reduce costs, such as the cost of antiemetic medication and length of hospital stays, and improve the quality of patient care.

Lee said that in her homeland of Hong Kong, P6 stimulation methods are “not used widely, if at all.”

“Generally, physicians and patients are not aware of this type of treatment for preventing postoperative nausea and vomiting,” she said. “Translating the evidence from this updated Cochrane review into clinical practice will take time.”

The Cochrane Collaboration is an international nonprofit, independent organization that produces and disseminates systematic reviews of health care interventions and promotes the search for evidence in the form of clinical trials and other studies of interventions.

Lee A, Fan LTY. Stimulation of the wrist acupuncture point P6 for preventing postoperative nausea and vomiting. Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews 2009, Issue 2.

Source: Health Behavior News Service

by Reporting Mallika Marshall, MD

Millions of women suffer from severe PMS symptoms, and more and more of them are turning to the ancient technique of acupuncture, looking for relief.  Patty Gift remembers the severe pain of pre-menstrual syndrome, before she tried acupuncture. “I was not functional. So, I was irritable. I was very fuzzy in my thinking.”

She tried everything from dietary changes to over the counter medications. Even the things that typically work, didn’t work for Patty.  “I was exercising, which I had read would really help. At one point I was working with a gynecologist and taking birth control pills.”  Patty was beginning to lose hope until someone suggested the ancient Chinese treatment acupuncture.

Acupuncturist Dr. Frank Lipman says the number of women seeing him for PMS is increasing. While there are no major clinical studies on PMS and acupuncture, Dr. Lipman knows what he sees in his patients. “At least 75 percent of women get better with acupuncture for PMS,” Dr. Lipman said.

A practitioner will insert thin needles into specific parts of the body. Dr. Lipman says this releases blocked energy, easing symptoms like bloating and sweating. “They feel like this load has been released or this pressure that they were holding in has been released,” Lipman said.  Patty felt better after just one session. “I feel much more clear-headed. My mood is much better.”

The American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists has no stance on the treatment, but some members believe it can work.  “Acupuncture probably affects the hormones of the brain called endorphins, which make people feel better,” explained Dr. Veronic Ravnikar.  Dr. Ravnikar says she would never deter a patient from trying it, but stresses it’s important for women to see a doctor prior to any type of alternative treatment.  “Along with the treatments, I always suggest lifestyle changes: exercise, good nutrition, and multi-vitamins.”

Acupuncture for pre-menstrual syndrome typically lasts anywhere from 45 minutes to an hour per session. Most experts recommend regular treatments in order to maintain the best results.

By David Wood

Stephen M. Burns, a specialist in acupuncture, inserts a needle into the ear of Lt. Col. Catherine A. Reardon to treat her headaches and hand pain. (Baltimore Sun photo by Glenn Fawcett / December 9, 2008)

“We use acupuncture as an adjunct” to traditional therapy, said Niemtzow. “The Chinese have used it for 5,000 years. It works, and it’s powerful.”

The procedure developed by Niemtzow is a variation of Traditional Chinese medicine acupuncture in which long, hair-thin needles are inserted into the body at any of hundreds of points to ease pain.

Niemtzow’s variation uses one or more needles inserted into any of five points on the ear. The needles, which penetrate about a millimeter (or 4/100ths of an inch) into the skin, fall out after several days. The procedure can be repeated.

The ear acts as a “monitor” of signals passing from body sensors to the brain, he said. Those signals can be intercepted and manipulated to stop pain or for other purposes.

Even 18th-century pirates were convinced of the value, piercing their lobes with earrings “to improve their night vision,” Niemtzow said with a grin.

He calls his procedure battlefield acupuncture because it’s easily learned and requires no cumbersome equipment. A pack of needles can easily be carried in a pocket.

The method can be taught in a few hours to doctors, medics and combat troops, most of whom already have learned traditional battlefield first aid.

Col. Anyce Tock, chief of medical services for the Air Force Surgeon General, said yesterday that the service has authorized 32 active-duty physicians to begin “battlefield acupuncture”‘ training.