Harmony TCM Weblog

Herbal Medicine offers relief for Endometriosis: Study

Endometriosis is a condition where endometrial tissue, which normally lines a woman's uterus, is found outside of the uterus. This tissue can grow and shed during a menstrual cycle and cause pain, heavy menstrual bleeding, and infertility. "Medical treatment of endometriosis ranges from symptomatic management with nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs and analgesics to hormonal manipulations that include continual oral contraceptives, progestins, danazol, and gonadotrophin-releasing hormone agonists. However [according to the below study], the benefits are short lived, and symptoms often return to pretreatment levels within six months. Under the best of circumstances, more than a third of patients have symptom recurrence within two or three years after stopping therapy."

Symptoms of endometriosis have been treated with Chinese medicine for hundreds of years. Treatment involving herbal medicine, acupuncture, and dietary therapy have afforded women reduced pain, lighter periods, and restored fertility. While more severe cases of endometriosis may require surgery, Chinese medicine may offer an effective treatment for many women.

Chinese Herbs Show Promise for Endometriosis http://www.medpagetoday.com/PrimaryCare/AlternativeMedicine/15000

By Charles Bankhead, Staff Writer, MedPage Today Published: July 08, 2009 Reviewed by Robert Jasmer, MD; Associate Clinical Professor of Medicine, University of California, San Francisco and Dorothy Caputo, MA, RN, BC-ADM, CDE, Nurse Planner

HOUSTON, July 8 -- Chinese herbal medicine provided relief to symptoms of endometriosis that was equivalent or superior to conventional therapies following laparoscopic surgery, a systematic review indicated. Herbal medicine achieved symptom relief comparable to that of gestrinone but with fewer side effects, Andrew Flower, PhD, of Southampton University in Ringmer, England, and colleagues reported in the Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews. The pregnancy rate was similar with either treatment. Compared with danazol, Chinese herbal medicine led to better postsurgical symptom control with fewer side effects. "These findings suggest that Chinese herbs may be just as effective as certain conventional drug treatments for women suffering from endometriosis, but at present we don't have enough evidence to generalize the results," Dr. Flower said in a statement. The authors noted that more rigorous research is needed to assess the potential role of Chinese herbal medicine in treating endometriosis. Investigators initially identified 110 studies for their review. However, all but two had to be excluded because of methodologic flaws. Medical treatment of endometriosis ranges from symptomatic management with nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs and analgesics to hormonal manipulations that include continual oral contraceptives, progestins, danazol, and gonadotrophin-releasing hormone agonists. Hormonal therapies provide comparable symptom relief and reduction of endometriosis-related lesions, the authors said. However, the benefits are short lived, and symptoms often return to pretreatment levels within six months. Under the best of circumstances, more than a third of patients have symptom recurrence within two or three years after stopping therapy, the authors noted. Additionally, the benefits of conventional therapy have to be balanced against potentially serious adverse effects, the authors continued. Surgery also carries a risk of serious adverse events, such as bowel perforation and peritonitis, and offers no assurance of long-term symptom relief. "In summary, current treatments all have high rates of recurrence and their short-term benefits have to be balanced with concerns over immediate and longer-term side effects," they said. Chinese herbal medicine has a clinical history that dates back to ancient times. Among the medical applications is treatment of symptoms associated with endometriosis. The origin of Chinese herbs' activity in endometriosis is unclear. Suggested mechanisms have included regulation of endocrine and immune systems, improved circulation, and anti-inflammatory activity. But no English-language systematic review had been conducted to determine whether Chinese herbal medicine has a role in the treatment of endometriosis. To address that void, Dr. Flower and colleagues searched multiple databases for randomized controlled trials of Chinese herbal medicine versus placebo, conventional medical therapy, another Chinese herb, or as an add-on to conventional therapy. Of 110 studies originally considered, only two met the authors' inclusion criteria. All 110 studies were conducted in China and were reported in Chinese. The two studies involved a total of 158 women whose mean age was 30. Diagnostic criteria included laparoscopic diagnosis, American Fertility Society staging, and vaginal or rectal B-ultrasound. Additionally, all of the patients had been diagnosed according to traditional Chinese medicine as having stagnation of Qi (vital energy) and blood with an underlying kidney deficiency. All patients had laparoscopic surgery as primary therapy. One study compared a Chinese herbal medicine enema and gestrinone. In the second trial, patients were randomized to Chinese herbal medicine pills alone, herbal pills plus an herbal enema, or danazol. Gestrinone led to a symptomatic relief rate of 93.87% compared with 95.6% for the Chinese herbal medicine enema. During 24 months of follow-up, 69.6% of women assigned to the enema became pregnant, as did 59.1% of patients treated with gestrinone. Neither difference achieved statistical significance. No adverse events occurred in patients treated with the Chinese herbal medicine enema. In contrast, 13 of 49 patients treated with gestrinone developed acne, while19 had elevated liver enzymes, and 31 had oligomenorrhea. In the second trial, oral Chinese herbal medicine alone or in combination with an herbal enema led to significantly greater symptom relief compared with danazol (RR 5.06, 95% CI 1.28 to 20.05 and RR 5.63, 95% CI 1.47 to21.54, respectively). Additionally, the combined Chinese herbal medicine reduced dysmenorrheal pain significantly more than danazol and resulted in a significantly higher rate of disappearance or shrinkage of adnexal masses (MD -2.90, 95% CI -4.55 to -1.25, RR 1.70, 95% CI 1.04 to 2.78, respectively). Four of 16 patients randomized to Chinese herbal pills alone had dry mouth, and one patient developed acne. Among 24 patients randomized to herbal pills and an herbal enema, two had dry mouth, while 11 developed rectal tenesmus during the first two weeks of treatment, and one patient had weight gain of 3 kg. Of 18 patients treated with danazol, 13 developed acne, while three had weight gain of 3 kg, two gained 2 kg, one gained 1.5 kg, two had elevated liver enzymes, and four had oligomenorrhea. The authors reported no relevant financial disclosures.

Primary source: Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews Source reference: Flower A et al. "Chinese herbal medicine for endometriosis" Cochrane Database Syst Rev 2009; DOI: 10.1002/14651858.CD006568.pub2.

 

You can take Iron and not get constipated

In the past few years I have met several women who were advised by their medical doctors to take iron supplements, but didn't follow the advice because of iron's constipating effects. These were women who were anemic or who had some other reason they were recommended to take iron. So in order to avoid constipation, these women endured symptoms that ranged from fatigue, cold hands & feet, rapid heart beat, dizziness, and headaches.

There are non-constipating iron supplements. These include iron bisglycinate and iron as an amino-acid chelate. A product I frequently recommend is Solgar brand "Gentle Iron." This is available at most health food stores. But so long as the form of iron is one of the above, it is not constipating.

In sum, you can take Iron without the concern of becoming constipated.

"Acupuncture may boost pregnancy"

Study: Acupuncture may boost pregnancy By MARILYNN MARCHIONE, AP Medical WriterFri Feb 8, 1:50 AM ET It sounds far-fetched — sticking needles in women to help them become pregnant — but a scientific review suggests that acupuncture might improve the odds of conceiving if done right before or after embryos are placed in the womb. The surprising finding is far from proven, and there are only theories for how and why acupuncture might work. However, some fertility specialists say they are hopeful that this relatively inexpensive and simple treatment might ultimately prove to be a useful add-on to traditional methods. "It is being taken more seriously across our specialty," and more doctors are training in it, said Dr. William Gibbons, who runs a fertility clinic in Baton Rouge, La., and is past president of the Society for Assisted Reproductive Technology. "I have not seen proof ... but we wouldn't mind at all" if it turned out to work, he said. The analysis was led by Eric Manheimer, a researcher at the University of Maryland School of Medicine, and paid for by a federal agency, the National Center for Complementary and Alternative Medicine. Results were published Friday in the British medical journal, BMJ. Acupuncture involves placing very thin needles at specific points on the body to try to control pain and reduce stress. In fertility treatment, it is thought to increase blood flow to the uterus, relax the cervix and inhibit "fight or flight" stress hormones that can make it tougher for an embryo to implant, Manheimer said. The analysis pools results from seven studies on 1,366 women in the United States, Germany, Australia and Denmark who are having in vitro fertilization, or IVF. It involves mixing sperm and eggs in a lab dish to create embryos that are placed in the womb. Women were randomly assigned to receive IVF alone, IVF with acupuncture within a day of embryo transfer, or IVF plus sham acupuncture, in which needles were placed too shallowly or in spots not thought to matter. Individually, only three of the studies found acupuncture beneficial, three found a trend toward benefit and one found no benefit. When results of these smaller studies were pooled, researchers found that the odds of conceiving went up about 65 percent for women given acupuncture. Experts warn against focusing on that number, because this type of analysis with pooled results is not proof that acupuncture helps at all, let alone by how much. IVF results in pregnancy about 35 percent of the time. Adding acupuncture might boost that to around 45 percent, the researchers said. The authors include doctors from the Netherlands and Georgetown University in Washington, D.C. One is an acupuncturist but had no role in any studies that were analyzed. The American Society for Reproductive Medicine has no policy on acupuncture. "There's been a lot of conflicting research" on its usefulness, said spokeswoman Eleanor Nicoll. "It looks like, from the body of evidence out there, that some patients benefit," said Dr. James Grifo, head of the infertility program at New York University. However, Dr. Zev Rosenwaks, director of infertility treatment at New York-Presbyterian Hospital/Weill Cornell Medical Center, said other studies, reported at recent medical meetings and not included in the published analysis, did not find it helped. "The jury is still out," he said, but added, "It's unlikely that acupuncture does any harm." Dr. Ann Trevino, a 37-year-old family physician who recently moved to Houston, is pregnant, and a believer. She had three unsuccessful pregnancy attempts with intrauterine insemination before trying acupuncture with IVF at a fertility clinic in San Antonio where she used to live. "I had been reading about acupuncture, probably like every other patient on the Internet. I was just willing to do anything possible to improve our chances," she said. With acupuncture, "I just felt very warm and relaxed" when the embryos were placed. Dr. Francisco Arredondo, who runs Reproductive Medicine Associates of Texas where Trevino was treated, said he started offering acupuncture in October, after patients requested it and because some studies suggested it helped. Acupuncturist Kirsten Karchmer said she places about a dozen needles in the ears, hands, feet, lower legs, abdomen and sometimes the lower back. It costs $500 a month for treatments twice a week, and patients typically go for three months, she said. IVF costs around $12,000 per attempt, so a treatment that improves its effectiveness might save money in the long run, Manheimer said. Source: Associated Press Date Posted: Friday, 08 February 2008

Can Ancient Herbs Treat Cancer?

The herbs are not so ancient, they are still grown today. It's not like they're fossilized. Anyway, here's a good article looking at how Chinese herbal medicine, in particular Scutellaria (Ban Zhi Lian) is used to treat cancer.

Chinese medicine is getting better known for its treatment of the side effects of cancer therapies such as nausea, fatigue, pain, and low blood cell count. This article highlights how herbal medicine can be complementary to modern therapies.

http://www.time.com/time/health/article/0,8599,1671684,00.html?cnn=yes

Spring 2009 Newsletter

Harmony Traditional Chinese Medicine

Gerry Harrington, L.Ac., M.S.T.O.M.

 

Spring 2009 Newsletter

 

“Everything under heaven and on earth overflows with vigor and everywhere seems a picture of exuberance.”

Spring is finally here! Since the last newsletter I began teaching at Pacific College of Oriental Medicine and have opened up a new treatment location. The weather is getting warmer, everyone's in a better mood, or sick, or both. But this is how spring goes. 

  In this newsletter you will find:

• Treatment location updates
• Springtime in Chinese medicine
• Chinese medicine in the news
  
• Chinese medicine inspiration: Wang Ji Wu's Principles of Living a Healthy Life
  

 

Treatment Location Updates

I am currently seeing patients at three locations. The new Yoga Room in LIC is up and running. Between these locations, appointments are available every day except Sunday. Appointments can be made by phone at (347) 563-3861, by email at harmonytcm@yahoo.com, or at the Yoga Room phone numbers below.

Long Island City	Astoria	Manhattan
The Yoga Room LIC	The Yoga Room Astoria	130 E 40th Street
10-14 47th Road	32-32 Steinway St. 2nd Fl	Suite 1205
L.I.C., NY 11101	Astoria, NY 11103	New York, NY 10016
(718) 786-7962	(718) 274-0255	(347) 563 - 3861

 The Yoga Room LIC will be having an open house on 3/28 and 3/29.

 Come by for discounted Yoga and Acupuncture. There will be a party there Sunday 3/29 from 6-9pm.

Springtime in Chinese medicine

        In spring, all living things come to life again, the days grow longer, and human metabolism becomes more vigorous. As nature shifts from cold to warmth, the energy of nature ascends. At this time, the Yang energy of the body also moves upwards and outwards. Therefore the theme of self-care in the spring is growth and expansion.

        It is important to live in accordance with these changes. As energy moves upwards and outwards, we may feel a need to move more, to get out and do things. This is not unlike the feeling of being stir crazy. This is the time to let our hair down, loosen up our clothes, limber up our bodies, and take a long walk or do some exercise. We should also try to keep our minds at ease to let the energy of the spring flow smoothly. If we do not facilitate this outward energy either by not moving our bodies or by not making the effort to keep our minds calm, the energy may stagnate and cause disease. This is one reason many chronic diseases flare up in the spring. This is the time to get outside, exercise, activate our bodies, our minds, our lives.

        Chinese medicine believes that the spring is plagued by wind-type diseases. These are diseases that are either carried by the wind, such as allergens or viruses, or diseases which behave like wind. Wind is said to be light and buoyant, swift and changeable, and blusterous and violent. Wind-type diseases affect the upper portions of the body, have changing locations, and can cause severe damage quickly. Wind-type diseases include Bell’s palsy, stroke, joint pain, shingles, allergies, dizziness, and headache.

Chinese Medicine in the News

• A skeptical doctor strongly recommends acupuncture (video).

• Acupuncture as Good as Drug at Reducing Hot Flashes in Breast Cancer Survivors.

• Ginseng and Colon Cancer

 

Chinese medicine inspiration: Wang Ji Wu’s Principles of Living a Healthy Life

“One must always maintain a calm heart, even when influenced by the seven emotions; joy, anger, happiness, worry, sadness, fear, and surprise. The heart must remain as calm as still water, never allowing personal desires to stir up a ripple of disturbance. My thoughts are pure, in spirit I seek to forget myself and transcend the common affairs of the world, keeping my life simple and my desires few. With a clear heart, I do not contend with others or make demands upon the world, but rather seek to contribute what I can for the benefit of all, aiding those in need and protecting those in danger.”

 “Without desire one is strong, without desire one is quiet, without desire one may return to that which is natural, without desire one returns to the original state. With a heart like still water, from the extreme stillness will spring action, from the void comes that which is alive, yin and yang are in harmony and the qi flows unimpeded. With a heart like still water the qi is sufficient and the spirit is full. When the qi is sufficient and the spirit is full, the organs function normally, the blood is nourished, the meridians, nerves, digestion and circulation are all healthy and the metabolism stimulated. When the factors which prevent aging are all strong, one may prevent illness and live a long and healthy life. “

            -Wang Ji Wu (1891-1991) Chinese medicine healer and martial artisit

Institute of Medicine Integrative Medicine Summit

In February, the Institute of Medicine convened for their Integrative Medicine Summit. Medical leaders from around the country met to discuss how the view of health and disease is changing. The meeting embraced a holistic approach to healthcare and preventative medicine, and explored how healthcare will change in the coming years.

To see videos from the summit click here: http://www.imsummitwebcast.org/

The below article from Medscape.com discusses some of the highlights of the summit:

IOM Integrative Medicine Summit: New Paradigm in Healthcare Needed

Bob Roehr

March 4, 2009 (Washington, DC) — The term integrative medicine "is a little like showing someone a Rorschach blot and asking, what do you see," said Harvey V. Fineberg, MD. The president of the Institute of Medicine (IOM) was speaking here at the opening of the 3-day IOM Summit on Integrative Medicine and the Health of the Public last week.

He focused on 5 primary dimensions of integrative medicine. "It is in a way the fulfillment of the old [World Health Organization] definition of health, which was clearly more than the absence of disease...the extension and comprehension of heath embodying its physical, mental, emotional, and spiritual dimensions altogether."

Integrative medicine extends across the whole spectrum of interventions, Dr. Fineberg said, keeping health and restoring health. It thinks about the coordination of care across the spectrum of services. At its most basic, integrative medicine "is the embodiment of patient-centered care."

"Finally, it conveys an openness to multiple modalities of care," both traditional and nontraditional, said Dr. Fineberg. The standard for evidence should be consistent, demanding no more or no less, "open to a variety of modalities, so long as they work."

Conference chairman Ralph Snyderman, MD, from Duke University in Durham, North Carolina, compared the $2.4 trillion US medical "industry" to the airline industry in that both hold the consumer in low regard; "both are built on technology and systems that assume that people will be there because they have no choice, but [they] pay little attention to the specific needs of the individual."

He said germ theory transformed American medicine in the early 1900s with "an incredible focus on the pathophysiology of disease." It resulted in "a find it and fix it" focus on the treatment of a single causal factor.

Genomics is ushering in a second transformation of medicine "where we can anticipate things before they occur...and transform it into personalized, predictive, preventative healthcare," Dr. Snyderman said.

"If you buy into the idea that health is your most precious possession," then these and other quickly evolving tools will give patients a roadmap of their health risks over the course of a lifetime. Dr. Snyderman pointed out that people could then invest in lifestyle changes that will optimize their long-term health.

The Science

One of the principal themes of the summit was the need to move from treating acute symptomatic disease to the earlier identification of risks for developing disease, as well as use of lifestyle and biomedical interventions to slow or preclude progression to disease.

Dean Ornish, MD, briefly reviewed literature demonstrating the negative impact of stress and depression on physiological factors such as blood flow, immune function, inflammation, brain volume, cardiovascular disease, and even gene expression. Changes in lifestyle activities can greatly ameliorate negative states.

"It really captures peoples' imagination to know that if you change your lifestyle, you can actually change your genes, at least to some degree," said the University of California San Francisco (UCSF) researcher. It can be a useful counter to the sense of "genetic nihilism, that there is nothing I can do."

"Pain can be a powerful catalyst to transformation," Dr. Ornish said. "Sustainable choices in lifestyle changes are based on joy and pleasure, not on risk factor reduction.... What is sustainable is pleasure, and joy, and fun."

He noted that illness begins with "I," wellness with "we." The core of integrative medicine gets the person out of the self and into the group, he said.

"The ability to make lifestyle changes and engage in healthy lifestyles is very much patterned by our social status," said his UCSF colleague Nancy Adler, PhD. There is almost a 5-fold difference in health status between the top and bottom quintiles of income; "this is a huge effect."

"Lower socioeconomic status accelerates the aging process," she said. "Things that change with aging — higher blood pressure, higher [body mass index], greater abdominal fat acquisition, a drop in cortisol — happen at earlier ages among those lower on the social ladder. We can see it even at the cellular level."

The National Institutes of Health's Esther Sternberg, MD, said that 10 to 15 years ago there was skepticism about stress as an illness. Today, "Nobody is questioning that chronic stress can make you ill." Researchers can trace how interventions can shift dopamine, endorphin, and immune function signaling pathways, she said.

"It is hard to do that with belief. We can stress an animal and stress a person and measure something. It is really hard to tell a person, believe and we are going to measure something; it is impossible to do that to a rat."

Dr. Sternberg is working to identify the complex mix of biomarkers that form "a signature, an individualized pattern of health or disease that tells us what this individual needs to do to help them maintain health or reverse disease."

Drawing blood to analyze these biomarkers can affect things such as levels of stress. Her research team has developed a patch that gathers sweat for analysis of markers. "There is a very, very tight correlation between what we could measure in sweat and in plasma," she said.

"Women who had a history of depression had an elevation of proinflammatory cytokines.... Their stress response shifted away from the vagally mediated relaxation response toward a sympathetic adrenaline-mediated response. These patients were asymptomatic." Dr. Sternberg hopes the patch approach might eventually be moved into the clinic so that patients might take the information and modify behavior before disease symptoms develop.

"I think the biggest challenge we have in organized medicine today is that we are not asking the right questions anymore," said Mehmet Oz, MD, the holder of joint positions with Oprah and Columbia University in New York City. "If you cannot fund the trial, you are not going to ask the question."

The level of evidence for making decisions is another concern. The randomized controlled trial is a superb tool for answering reductionist questions, but is less useful when trying to assess more complex, intermodal interventions.

"About 95% of heart disease is preventable today with diet and lifestyle," Dr. Ornish said. The evidence is that unless one is having a heart attack, angioplasty and bypass surgery don't prevent heart attacks or prolong life, yet the US continues to devote $100 billion a year to those procedures. The evidence suggests that the number of these procedures should decline, but they have not, he said.

Dr. Ornish concluded, "Let's take an evidence-based approach and apply it across the board, and not just to so-called integrative medicine."

Structural Issues

The body fixes itself, and the goal of the physician should be to abet this process, said Victor Sierpina, MD, from the University of Texas Medical Branch in Galveston. "We need to be out where people are, changing their lifestyles" so that the harm is stopped and healing can proceed.

But the current "find it and fix it" mentality has resulted in a reimbursement system that rewards more therapy, not spending time with patients to assist the body in healing itself, he said.

In most countries "the ratio of primary to specialty care [physicians] is roughly 3:1; in the United States, the pyramid is inverted, we have 60% specialists, 40% primary care doctors," Dr. Sierpina said. And the problem will get worse because fewer than 5% of medical school students choose primary care as their specialty.

Primary care also needs a major structural redesign, said Emory University's Kenneth Thorpe, PhD. Some "83% of primary care practices are in groups of 1 or 2, and they account for about 40% of primary care capacity." They also are the segment of providers least likely to have electronic medical records systems in place.

Dr. Thorpe said that the health system needs to find ways to better integrate these primary care physicians into the team approach to medicine and the continuity of care that the new health paradigm demands. Primary care physicians must gain the tools to better fulfill their role as coordinator of care. That is particularly true when one considers that 75% of current healthcare dollars go to treat chronic disease, not acute disease

Dr. Sierpina called for a change in reimbursement with some form of capitation, creation of time to spend with the patient, and creation of incentives for primary care. There was agreement that a resolution must address the burden of medical school debt and the status of primary care within the profession.

Dr. Snyderman said the model of physician-patient interaction will change. The physician-directed health team will serve more as a mentor to the patient, identifying the problem and offering guidance to turn it around.

A consensus seemed to emerge at the summit that the term "integrative medicine" may be a misnomer that mistakenly forces the issue into a clinical framework of disease. Rather the concept and language should be one of "integrative health," which embraces elements such as eating, exercise, and the built environment to foster health and allow the body to exercise its own healing functions.

Resource materials from the Institute of Medicine Summit on Integrative Medicine and the Health of the Public are available at http://www.iom.edu/?ID=52555. A video Webcast of portions of the meeting will be available after March 4, and a paper is forthcoming.

Why Acupuncture? From the Mayo Clinic

Why Acupuncture? From the Mayo Clinic

This article is from SunSentinel.com

By Ronald Reimer M.D., Neurosurgery, Mayo Clinic, Jacksonville
December 31, 2008

Dear Mayo Clinic: What do you think of acupuncture as a treatment for various ailments? How does it work?

Acupuncture, which has been used and studied throughout the world for more than 4,000 years, can be utilized to rebalance the flow of energy (Qi) in the body and effectively treat many conditions. At Mayo Clinic, acupuncture has been used successfully for pain management, postoperative nausea, anxiety relief, drug addiction, insomnia and headaches, to name a few.

Acupuncture is administered by inserting up to a dozen or more tiny needles into very precise locations (points) determined by symptoms. The needle insertion points are based on a series of points along meridians or channels that interconnect throughout the body, each with a different function. There are 12 principal meridians within the body, containing almost 400 acupuncture points.

Patients rarely have any discomfort with needle insertion. Needles remain in place for 15 to 45 minutes. During a treatment, the acupuncturist may gently stimulate the needles manually, apply heat with a ceramic lamp at a safe distance, or attach low-frequency electrical stimulation. The goal is to improve energy flow in the body, thus relieving pain and other symptoms, allowing people to improve their quality of life.

For some conditions, one treatment provides rapid relief. Other situations, such as chronic pain management, may require a series of treatments. In some cases, symptom relief is not always immediate and may require a period of two to three days for the positive effects to be noted. This is in part related to delayed secretion of endorphins. While some patients and providers remain skeptical of its therapeutic value, acupuncture is becoming more mainstream in Western medicine as a stand-alone treatment or as one element of a comprehensive treatment plan.
As a practicing neurosurgeon, I can cite several examples of acupuncture's beneficial effects. These stories from our patients illustrate the scope of acupuncture's benefits.

Post-surgery nausea

Nausea and vomiting after surgery can be a serious side effect of anesthesia for some patients. It can slow recovery and require some patients to remain in the hospital for weeks on IV fluids. Potential complications of extended bed rest include increased risk of pneumonia and blood clots. One acupuncture treatment can abate the nausea.
A colleague of mine needed neck surgery and had a history of postoperative nausea that resulted in prolonged hospital stays. We performed acupuncture within an hour of surgery. At that point, she was already developing nausea. Following one treatment, she didn't need anti-nausea medication, slept well and sailed through her recovery. She and her husband considered the benefit dramatic. We also have seen dramatic results in liver and heart transplant patients with relief of nausea and quicker recovery.

Tennis and golf elbow (epicondylitis)

Another patient, an avid tennis player, thought he was permanently sidelined because of elbow pain. Aggressive physical therapy and steroid injections hadn't helped. With one acupuncture session, his pain was eliminated, and several days later he played in a doubles match - and won. Studies have shown that, for this type of pain, acupuncture can be more effective than steroid injections or physical therapy alone.

Cancer recovery

Another patient had difficulty bouncing back after surgery - an esophagus resection to treat cancer. Like many patients, he had problems eating, lost weight and wasn't able to work or exercise. After he'd lost almost 50 pounds and nothing else helped, he tried a series of acupuncture treatments. He says the acupuncture gave him his life back. He has returned to work and more normal activities, has gained needed weight and works out regularly with a trainer.

Growing acceptance

Granted, these are anecdotes. Not everyone will experience similar results, nor might everyone even be a candidate for acupuncture. Acupuncture has an excellent safety profile, with negligible risk of infection or bleeding. It can safely be performed on patients who are on blood thinners, unlike many other pain management modalities. Patients should seek treatment by physicians who've received extensive training in the art and science of acupuncture.

*Please Note The majority of acupuncturists are not M.D.'s but are highly qualified to perform acupuncture. Most Acupuncturists have obtained a A Master's degree in Chinese Medicine from an accredited four year program and passed a National exam.

Overall, an ever-growing body of research confirms the benefits of acupuncture.

One treatment can cost from $100 to $200, and most insurance companies do not cover acupuncture.Coverage is slowly becoming more common, as insurers see that acupuncture can help reduce health-care costs when fewer pain medications are needed and patients can be discharged more quickly from the hospital.

Send questions to medicaledge@mayo.edu or Medical Edge from Mayo Clinic, c/o TMS, 2225 Kenmore Ave., Suite 114, Buffalo, NY 14207. For more information, go to mayoclinic.org.

Save your money on the supplements, get some sleep instead

The below article by the "YOU" docs demonstrates the effect that getting adequate sleep has on preventing colds.

In Chinese medicine, sleep and night are considered Yin. Wakefulness and daytime are considered Yang. In general, balancing Yin and Yang in our bodies will keep us healthy and prevent disease. Getting enough sleep nourishes the Yin aspects of our physiology and will allow for better functioning of our Yang aspects. In this case, nourishing Yin means allowing the body to repair, rebuild, digest, and generate the Yin aspects of our body like appropriate hormones, blood cells, and antibodies. By allowing ourselves to fully rest and relax, our Yang aspects of warming the body, having more energy, and protecting ourselves from infection will be more efficient.

The YOU Docs: Prevent common cold by getting plenty of sleep

By Dr. Michael Roizen and Dr. Mehmet Oz

Published Friday, February 20, 2009 http://www.tampabay.com/news/health/article977828.ece#

---

Cold and flu season is late this year, but seems to be coming with a vengeance. So how — in addition to flu shots — do you prevent the old garden-variety flu and common cold? The answer starts with a Z. Not zinc, but a few Zs.

That's right, while zinc can shorten the duration of a cold, it appears that getting enough sleep can radically protect you from one — as if you have a machine gun and the intruding virus has only a slingshot. Sometimes the slingshot will win, but not often.

Researchers led by Dr. Sheldon Cohen at Carnegie Mellon University paid healthy adults $800 each to have cold viruses sprayed up their noses, then wait five days in a hotel to see if they got sick (we hope it was a nice hotel). Habitual eight-hour sleepers got sick only a third as much as those who slept less than seven hours or those who slept fitfully.

Cold and flu symptoms such as sore throats and runny noses are caused by your body's fight against viruses. People whose bodies rightsize the number of immune cells that are called into action and who have an appropriate immune response may not even know they are fighting a virus. Sleep may help your body regulate the perfect response.

So fighting off the common cold and flu joins the other benefits of sleeping well for seven to eight hours — including being thinner and being less likely to develop high blood pressure, type II diabetes, stroke and heart disease.

4 steps to better sleep

• Use your bedroom only for sleep and sex. Get all the computers and TVs out: People with TVs in the bedroom have 50 percent less sex and 15 percent less sleep than those without TVs there.

• Set a regular bedtime. It should be about 7.5 hours before your alarm needs to sound.

• Make time for the essentials. Thirty minutes before bedtime, set aside 10 minutes each for hygiene, meditation and to take care of tomorrow's essentials, like packing the kids' lunches.

• Have only red or blue lights in your bathroom. Those wavelengths keep your melatonin switch "on," allowing this sleep-helping hormone to flow.

 

Ginseng for Colon Cancer

from Cancermonthly.com:

Colorectal Cancer and Ginseng

"An herb many Americans take to get an energy boost might also help doctors treat one of the most common—and deadly—cancers. Researchers have discovered that ginseng, particularly when heated, may be very effective against colorectal cancer, according to a study in The American Journal of Chinese Medicine.

Colorectal cancer is one of the most common types of cancer in the United States, and among the deadliest. Half of patients diagnosed with colorectal cancer eventually die from the disease, and less than 10 percent of patients with colorectal cancer that has spread will survive more than five years after diagnosis.

Because chemotherapy and other standard treatments aren’t always effective and may have serious side effects, many patients have turned to herbal remedies. Ginseng has been a staple of Asian herbal medicine, and studies have indicated that it might help not only prevent cancer, but also relieve some of the side effects (such as nausea and vomiting) of cancer therapies...."

click here to read the full article

High Fructose Corn Syrup makes you fatter

From RealAge.com:

Which Sugar Is Worse?

Can your choice of sugar affect your waistline? It may be too soon to tell, but a very small study recently cast fructose in a worse light.

In the study, the sweet stuff dramatically enhanced lipogenesis -- the process by which the body converts sugar into fat.

Double or Nothing?
In fact, people in the study who consumed a fructose-laced breakfast drink produced double the body fat in a subsequent 4-hour period, compared with the people who had a glucose-only breakfast beverage.

Where You Get It
Fructose is found in fruit and fruit juice. But you probably get most of yours from processed foods, because hundreds of them have it in the form of high-fructose corn syrup (HFCS) -- from soups and salad dressings to breads, cereals, crackers, and sweetened beverages. HFCS is a major source of excess calories, according to the American Dietetic Association. So regardless of whether it’s a dietary evil, you may want to cut back. In fact, the YOU Docs recommend ditching HFCS whenever possible.

References: Dietary sugars stimulate fatty acid synthesis in adults. Parks, E. J. et al., Journal of Nutrition 2008 Jun;138(6):1039-1046.