The Power of Using Acupuncture as Preventative Medicine

Healthcare in the United States is undergoing a significant transition as large portions of the population are now looking for wellness solutions that are proactive and forward-thinking.  For far too long, medicine in the West has relied upon a reactive model of treatment, one that offers relief after an ailment has occurred and already affected quality of life.  This shift in perspective is becoming quite prevalent; an example is currently being seen within the options presented by insurance providers.  These companies are now beginning to cater to their customers’ preferences for alternative medical options—something that was unheard of in the past.

Can Acupuncture Be Used As Preventative Medicine?

Over the past ten to twenty years there has been a considerable rise in the popularity and notoriety of alternative medicine—specifically acupuncture, which is now seen as a viable solution to promoting and supporting health and well-being.

Many people are looking outside the boundaries of Western medicine, as they now understand that maintenance of the body and prevention of illness require a forward-thinking and holistic approach.  Acupuncture offers this perspective as it has the ability to maintain health and the capability to resolve sickness, pain and suffering.

Research studies are currently being done to test the validity of the claims being made regarding the effectiveness of certain alternative modalities when treating specific ailments.  There are numerous studies that have been completed—and many that are now underway—which present supporting evidence regarding the efficacy of alternative medicine as either a complement to or a replacement of Western medicine.

The University Of Maryland Medical Center completed their research and concluded that acupuncture provided true pain relief and was not just a placebo effect. [Link] The Harvard Medical School published an article that also provided support stating that there is clear benefit to using acupuncture; specifically how low the potential adverse affects can be when compared with Western medications. [Link]

In a previous post titled “Why Do I Need Acupuncture,” we presented information about how useful acupuncture is to promote good health.  There was an analogy we shared which is applicable to the premise that acupuncture can be used as a preventative medicine.  The analogy is that every automobile that runs on gasoline is required to get its oil changed after driving a specific number of miles.  By performing this scheduled maintenance, the integrity of the engine will be maintained and mechanical issues will be prevented.  The engine needs fresh oil to properly function.  When the oil breaks down, friction can occur, leading to serious—and possibly catastrophic—issues.

The human body can be likened to a car engine as it has specific functions that require maintenance, care and attention.  Energy flows throughout the body.  When it gets blocked or becomes stagnant, health issues can arise.  When energy is able to move freely, the mind, body and spirit will be peaceful and harmonious.  Receiving regular, or semi-regular, acupuncture treatments provides the necessary support the body needs.  It will address any issues that might need to be focused on before they become a bigger problem.

So, to answer the question as to whether acupuncture can be used as a preventative medicine, the answer is yes, it certainly can be.  We wanted to also share our thoughts on how it can be used as a complement to Western medicine.  Let us be clear in this regard.  There is a place for both medicines to co-exist, and it is our hope that in the future Eastern and Western medicine can finally come together to provide a more holistic solution for humanity.  Each side has its strengths and weaknesses, its advantages and disadvantages.  To choose one without consideration of the other is to negate the potential for health and set aside possibilities for healing.

This article originally appeared on collective-evolution.com and was written by PAUL KERZNER

Emergency doctors are using Acupuncture to treat pain, now here’s the evidence

Emergency medicine is not all about life and death situations and high-tech solutions. Our study, the largest of its kind in the world, shows using acupuncture in the emergency department can relieve acute pain.

The study, published today in the Medical Journal of Australia, finds acupuncture is as effective as medication in treating pain for lower back pain and ankle sprain. But it took more than an hour for either to provide adequate pain relief.

Our study builds on previous research to show the effectiveness of acupuncture to treat chronic (long-term) pain.

Yet, there are several barriers to using acupuncture routinely in emergency departments.

What is acupuncture and who practices it?

Using acupuncture to relieve pain involves placing needles in various parts of the body to stimulate the release of endorphins and other neurochemicals, which can act as the body’s naturally occurring pain relievers.

For generations various cultures around the world have used acupuncture to treat multiple conditions, including providing pain relief. And in Australia, it is reimbursed through the Medicare Benefits Schedule when administered by a medical doctor.

Further reading: Modern acupuncture: panacea or placebo?

Acupuncture is one of the most accepted forms of complementary medicine among Australian general practitioners. It also appears in treatment guidelines for doctors in how to manage pain.

Why we ran the study and what we did

Anecdotally, we were aware that several emergency department doctors, in both public and private hospitals in Australia, were treating patients’ pain with acupuncture. But until this large federally-funded study, no-one had set up a trial like it to show how effective it was.

Our trial was an “equivalence” study, which means we aimed to see if the different treatments were equivalent rather than seeing if they were better than placebo. We did this as it would not be ethical to give a placebo to people coming to an emergency department for pain relief.

So, we randomly assigned more than 500 patients to receive standard painkillers, standard painkillers plus acupuncture, or acupuncture alone when they presented with back pain, migraine or ankle sprain at four Melbourne hospitals (some private, some public). While the patients knew which treatment they had, the researchers involved in assessing their pain didn’t (known as a single-blind study).

The type of acupuncture we used included applying needles at specific points on the body for each condition, as well as along points chosen by the treating acupuncturist. This was to reflect what would happen during regular clinical practice.

Doctors who were also qualified medical acupuncturists and practitioners of traditional Chinese medicine (registered in Victoria with the Chinese Medicine Registration Board of Australia) performed the acupuncture.

After treatment, we assessed patients’ pain after an hour, and every hour until discharge. We also rang them for an update 24-48 hours after being discharged.

What we found

We found acupuncture, either alone or with painkillers, was equivalent to drugs-alone in providing pain relief for lower back pain, ankle sprain, but not for migraine.

When patients looked back on their treatment, the vast majority (around 80%) were satisfied with their treatment regardless of which treatment they had.

However, no treatment provided good pain relief until after the first hour.

What are the implications?

Our findings suggest acupuncture may be a viable option for patients who come to the emergency department for pain relief. This is especially important for those who cannot or choose not to have analgesic drugs.

This is also an important finding in light of the potential for side effects and abuse with opioid analgesics, which might otherwise be used to relieve pain in the emergency department.

Previous research shows using acupuncture to treat chronic pain is comparable to morphine, is safer and doesn’t lead to dependence. Our findings suggest acupuncture also has a role in treating acute pain.

However, our research raises several issues, not only about conducting such research but also in implementing our findings in practice.

We had to overcome many ethical, policy and regulatory issues before we started. These included issues around the qualifications of medical and non-medical acupuncturists and employing traditional Chinese medicine practitioners to deliver acupuncture in a western medical hospital.

And to more widely implement our findings, we need to discuss the type of practitioners best placed to deliver acupuncture in hospital, what type of training they need to work in the emergency department and what type of conditions they should treat.

Hopefully, our study will spark further research to address these issues and lead to the development of safe and effective protocols for acute pain relief that may involve combining both modern and ancient forms of medicine to achieve rapid and effective analgesia for all emergency department patients.

This article originally appeared on theconversation.com

Acupuncture and Migraine Management

How acupuncture can help

There have now been many controlled trials of acupuncture for migraine, with some large, high-quality ones in recent years. The results of the latest reviews are quite consistent: acupuncture is significantly better than no treatment/basic care for managingmigraine, and appears to be at least as effective as prophylactic drug therapy, with few contraindications or unpleasant side effects (Linde 2009, Wang 2008, Sun 2008, Scott 2008).  Acupuncture has a similar or slightly better effect than sham procedures, which themselves can perform as well as conventional drugs, indicating that sham acupuncture is not an inactive placebo but a contentious alternative intervention. Acupuncture has been found to be cost-effective (Witt 2008; Wonderling 2004). As well as prevention it may also be used to alleviate symptoms in acute attacks (Li 2009). There is preliminary qualitative evidence from patients that acupuncture can increase coping mechanisms as well as relieve migraine symptoms (Rutberg 2009).

Migraine is thought to begin as an electrical phenomenon in the cerebrum that then affects blood vessels, biochemistry, and causes neurogenic inflammation.

Acupuncture can help in the treatment of migraine by:

• Providing pain relief - by stimulating nerves located in muscles and other tissues, acupuncture leads to release of endorphins and other neurochumoral factors and changes the processing of pain in the brain and spinal cord (Zhao 2008, Zijlstra 2003, Pomeranz, 1987)
• Reducing inflammation - by promoting release of vascular and immunomodulatory factors (Kim 2008, Kavoussi 2007, Zijlstra 2003).
• Reducing the degree of cortical spreading depression (an electrical wave in the brain associated with migraine) and plasmalevels of calcitonin gene-related peptide and substance P (both implicated in the pathophysiology of migraine) (Shi 2010).
• Modulating extracranial and intracranial blood flow (Park 2009).
• Affecting serotonin (5-hydroxytriptamine) levels in the brain (Zhong 2007). (Serotonin may be linked to the initiation of migraines; 5-HT agonists (triptans) are used against acute attacks.)
  
  This article originally appeared on acupuncture.org.uk

Does Acupuncture Work?

For certain conditions—particularly pain—there’s evidence it works. Exactly how it works is an open question.

You hear the term “acupuncture,” and visions of needles may dance in your head. But the 3 million Americans (and counting) who have tried it know there’s a lot more to the treatment than pokes and pricks.

A typical visit to an acupuncturist might begin with an examination of your tongue, the taking of your pulse at several points on each wrist and a probing of your abdomen. “They didn’t have MRIs or X-rays 2,500 years ago, so they had to use other means to assess what’s going on with you internally,” says Stephanie Tyiska, a Philadelphia-based acupuncture practitioner and instructor.

These diagnostic procedures inform the placement of the needles, Tyiska says. But a visit to an acupuncturist could also include a thoughtful discussion of your diet and personal habits, recommendations to avoid certain foods or to take herbal supplements and an array of additional in-office treatments—like skin brushing or a kind of skin suctioning known as “cupping”—that together fall under the wide umbrella of traditional Chinese medicine.

But does it work? Figuring out whether each one of these practices may be therapeutically viable is a challenge, and determining how all of them may work in concert is pretty much impossible. Combine them with acupuncturists’ frequent references to “qi,” or energy flow, and it’s easy for a lot of people to dismiss the practice as bunk.

This article originally appeared on time.com and was written by Markham Heid

Ask Smithsonian: Does Acupuncture Work?