Alternative treatments for fertility; boosting fertility naturally.

Infertility, defined as the inability to conceive after a year or more of trying, affects about 10 percent of couples — 6.1 percent of women between the ages of 15-44 according to the CDC. While many TV shows have covered it as of late, mainstream media can have many people thinking that the only options could be IVF Surrogates due to high profile celebrity practices in the public eye. 

There are many ways couples can boost their fertility naturally including acupuncture, Chinese medicine, supplements, fertility yoga and others. Most couples like to explore some of these options before venturing into more expensive — and invasive — treatments. Here, we look at a few of the top natural fertility boosters:

From MNN

Acupuncture

In regard to fertility, the Eastern perspective looks for energetic imbalances, where energy is blocked and how to get energy to flow more freely. From a Western perspective, acupuncture improves fertility by increasing blood flow to the uterus, and that in turn can thicken the endometrial lining, which makes implantation easier. “There is definitely a balancing and regulating affect on hormones that can regulate ovulation and can relax the uterus and decrease uterine contractions that interfere with implantation,” says LeGendre.

 

Acupuncture releases beta-endorphins, and in addition to having a stress relieving affect, it has been show to improve all of your reproductive hormonal functions. So, not only does it soothe the sympathetic nervous system, but it has an effect on the entire nervous system.

Chinese medicine

In addition to needling, most acupuncturists also prescribe Chinese herbs in correlation with regulating hormones and balancing your menstrual cycle. Different formulas are given depending on what each woman’s specific issues are.

 

A study in the journal Complementary Therapies in Medicine found women receiving Chinese herbal treatments were twice as likely to get pregnant within a four-month period as those receiving conventional Western medical fertility drug treatment or IVF. LeGendre says it usually takes about three months of once weekly treatments and she often sees a pregnancy in the three- to six-month window.

 

LeGendre also recommends women’s male partners have treatment, as acupuncture and Chinese medicine can improve both sperm count and quality.

 

Fertility yoga

“We all know what it’s like when shoulders and neck get tight, so imagine all the structures in your body doing that because of the stress of trying to conceive,” says Jennifer Colletti, a master yoga teacher and Ayurveda yoga specialist at Fertile Grounding Yoga in Minneapolis.

 

Stress really hardens the body, so fertility yoga works on opening up the body with a lot of flow movements and breath work that can open the heart and uterus, or the low  belly area — the musculature and ligaments there. Colletti explains that when we stress, we round in and crunch into the fetal position, and so the heart and uterus are shutting those areas of the body off. The idea is to soften and open those areas with gentle poses. Of course, yoga is a relaxing, stress-relieving and restorative treatment, too.

 

Some of Colletti’s clients are undergoing ART (artificial reproductive therapy), and some aren’t. “The way I look at it is if we want children in our lives, we have to make space for them and when our lives are overwrought with stress, there is no space for babies, so I teach them to find space in their lives so they can invite babies in.” Fertility yoga opens up that space in both your mind and body. Colletti said she doesn’t boast the successes, but she sees many, many pregnancies.

 

Fertility-friendly lifestyle

Researchers have found that 83 percent of couples living a fertility-friendly lifestyle got pregnant within one year.  That includes:

• Stop smoking
• Avoid environmental toxins
• Get plenty of sleep
• Avoid alcohol
• Skip recreational drugs
• Eat healthy

“We tell men not to sit in a hot tub, not to work outdoors in prolonged warm temperatures, avoid tight undergarments, and avoid biking for long time periods, as warm temperatures can affect the production of sperm,” says Maher Abdallah, M.D. FACOG, an OB-GYN at American Reproductive Center in Costa Mesa, Calif.

 

Being overweight can also greatly reduce fertility, so diet and exercise is crucial.

 

Other natural treatment approaches

Other natural fertility treatments include chiropractic adjustments, hypnosis, and colored glasses that control melatonin production and may increase fertility by simulating approaching winter, the time of maximum fertility.

original article here: http://www.mnn.com/health/fitness-well-being/stories/alternative-therapies-for-fertility

A natural folk remedy that can stop bedbugs in their tracks?

"Generations of Eastern European housewives doing battle against bedbugs spread bean leaves around the floor of an infested room at night. In the morning, the leaves would be covered with bedbugs that had somehow been trapped there. The leaves, and the pests, were collected and burned — by the pound, in extreme infestations." 

Which has the medical and pest fighting communities working on it. 

Now a group of American scientists is studying this bedbug-leaf interaction, with an eye to replicating nature’s Roach Motel.

A study published Wednesday in The Journal of the Royal Society Interface details the scientists’ quest, including their discovery of  how the bugs get hooked on the leaves, how the scientists have tried to recreate these hooks synthetically and how their artificial hooks have proved to be less successful than the biological ones.

At first glance, the whole notion seems far-fetched, said Catherine Loudon, a biologist at the University of California, Irvine, who specializes in bedbug locomotion.

“If someone had suggested to me that impaling insects with little tiny hooks would be a valid form of pest control, I wouldn’t have given it credence,” she said in an interview. “You can think of lots of reasons why it wouldn’t work. That’s why it’s so amazing.”

But even though there is no indication that the bean leaves and the bedbugs evolved to work together, the leaves are fiendishly clever in exploiting the insects’ anatomy. Like the armor covering knights in medieval times, the bedbug’s exoskeleton has thinner areas where its legs flex and its tiny claws protrude — like the spot where a greave, or piece of leg armor, ends.

“The areas where they appear to be pierceable,” Dr. Loudon said, “are not the legs themselves. It’s where they bend, where it’s thin. That’s where they get pierced.”

This folk remedy from the Balkans was never entirely forgotten. A German entomologist wrote about it in 1927, a scientist at the United States Department of Agriculture mentioned it in a paper in 1943, and it can be found in Web searches about bedbugs and bean plants.

But the commercial availability of pesticides like DDT in the 1940s temporarily halted the legions of biting bugs. As their pesticide-resistant descendants began to multiply from Manhattan to Moscow, though, changing everything from leases to liability laws, the hunt for a solution was on.

The first task was to determine exactly how the hooks — the technical name is trichomes — worked. The process was viewed through an electron microscope, Dr. Loudon said. “The foot comes down onto the surface, but as it’s lifting up, it’s catching on these hooks,” she said. “The point is pointing down. So all of their legs get impaled.”

“And as soon as one leg gets caught,” she added, “they are rapidly moving legs around and try to get away on the surface. That’s when they get multiply impaled.”

Dr. Loudon and her co-authors — Megan W. Szyndler and Robert M. Corn from Irvine and Kenneth F. Haynes and Michael F. Potter of the University of Kentucky — then set out to mimic the mechanism.

Using a casting process similar to one a sculptor might choose, the scientists replicated, with polymers from different epoxies, the geometry of the trichomes, the sharp point on their tips and their flexibility and strength. Sometimes the tips of the hooks broke off during the molding process, resulting in a hybrid of biological and fabricated materials.

On the natural leaves, bugs were snagged, on average, after six steps, or locomotory cycles. (In one cycle, each of the insect’s six legs moves once.) Once stuck, they tried to free themselves, but they usually ended up just flailing in place around the impaled limb.

Read more: 

http://www.nytimes.com/2013/04/10/science/earth/how-a-leafy-folk-remedy-stopped-bedbugs-in-their-tracks.html?ref=science&_r=1&

Alternative Treatments For Easing End of Life Pain.

From the Chicago Tribune:

Of the countless painful decisions surrounding a loved one's end-of-life care, among the trickiest is how to provide physical comfort in a way that also provides a dignified ending.

"For end of life, the opioids are very important for pain management, but they do leave people very sedated," says researcher and physician Josephine Briggs, who heads the National Institutes of Health's National Center for Complementary and Alternative Medicine. "Some people are looking for adjuncts to help with that."

Increasingly, those adjuncts include acupuncture, massage and other complementary therapies.

"We're seeing increased interest in complementary approaches in hospice settings," Briggs says, "and recognition by patients and caregivers that some of these approaches may be helpful in this stage of life."

A comprehensive survey by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in 2007 found that 41 percent of hospice care centers offered complementary and alternative therapies (CAT), had a CAT provider on staff or under contract, or both.

Those numbers have likely gone up, experts say.

"It's certainly been gaining momentum in the past four of five years," says Dr. Porter Storey, executive vice president of the American Academy of Hospice and Palliative Medicine.

"There are patients who are not getting adequate relief from usual medications," Storey says. "Sometimes it's people who don't tolerate medicine well or get bad side effects and still have the pain or nausea. And sometimes it's people who value mental clarity so much they would rather have the symptoms than any kind of drowsiness.

"We try really hard to make sure whatever we're doing matches the patient's goals and desires and is most likely to provide the most relief with the fewest side effects."

Acupuncture proves particularly helpful with nausea, Briggs says.

Read the full story here: 

http://articles.chicagotribune.com/2013-03-27/health/sc-health-0327-dying-complimentary-therapies-in-th-20130327_1_acupuncture-nausea-end-of-life-care

Acupuncture as a cure for allergies | Time Magazine

Acupuncture already helps to relieve pain in some patients, and the latest study hints that it might relieve sneezing and itchy eyes as well.

From Time/CNN

Most patients plagued with sniffles brought on by seasonal allergies turn to antihistamines for relief, but when they don't get relief, some opt for alternative treatments like acupuncture, in which tiny needles inserted just under the skin at specific points in the body are used to reduce certain symptoms.

In a study published in the journal Annals of Internal Medicine, researchers examined 422 people who tested positive for pollen allergies and had allergic nasal symptoms such as a runny nose. The participants reported their symptoms as well as what medication and doses they used to treat them.

The researchers then divided them into three groups; one received 12 acupuncture treatments and took antihistamines as needed, a second group received 12 fake acupuncture treatments (needles placed at random, non-meaningful points in the body) and took antihistamines as needed, while the final group only took antihistamines for symptoms.

After two months, the researchers asked the patients about their symptoms and how much medication they used. The participants who received the real acupuncture treatments with their antihistamines showed a greater improvement in their allergy symptoms and less use of antihistamines compared to the other groups.

But the fact that even the participants receiving the sham acupuncture therapy reported some relief of their symptoms suggests that a strong placebo effect may be responsible for at least part of the improvement.

That possibility was supported by the fact that after four months of follow-up, the difference between the groups was less pronounced. The researchers speculate that the patients' expectations of how much the acupuncture might help them could have influenced their reports of improved symptoms.

But if the treatments are providing some type of relief, then acupuncture's potential role in treating allergies should be investigated further, the authors say. "The effectiveness of acupuncture for (seasonal allergies) compared with other antiallergic interventions and the possible underlying mechanisms of any effect, including context effects, need to be addressed in further research," they write in the study.

Read more: Acupuncture for allergies

QiGong study shows increase of quality of life among female cancer patients.

From Psychcentral 

New research has found that qigong, an ancient Chinese mind-body practice, has been found to reduce depression and improve the quality of life in women undergoing radiation for breast cancer.

The study examined qigong in patients receiving radiation therapy and included a follow-up period to assess its benefits over time, according to researchers.

“We were [...] particularly interested to see if qigong would benefit patients experiencing depressive symptoms at the start of treatment,” said Lorenzo Cohen, Ph.D., a professor in the University of Texas M. D. Anderson Cancer Center’s Departments of General Oncology and Behavioral Science.

“It is important for cancer patients to manage stress because it can have a profoundly negative effect on biological systems and inflammatory profiles.”

For the study, Cohen and his colleagues recruited 96 women with stage 1-3 breast cancer from Fudan University Shanghai Cancer Center in Shanghai, China.

About half of the women — 49 — were randomly assigned to a qigong group consisting of five 40-minute classes each week during their five-to-six week course of radiation therapy. The remaining 47 women comprised a control group receiving standard care.

The program incorporated a modified version of Chinese medical qigong, which consisted of synchronizing one’s breath with various exercises, the researchers explained.

Participants in both groups completed assessments at the beginning, middle and end of radiation therapy and then one and three months later. Different aspects of quality of life were measured, including depressive symptoms, fatigue, sleep disturbances, and overall quality of life.

According to the researchers, patients in the qigong group reported a steady decline in depressive symptom scores beginning at the end of radiation therapy, with a mean score of 12.3, through the three month post-radiation follow-up with a score of 9.5. No changes were noted in the control group over time, the study found.

Read More Here: 

http://psychcentral.com/news/2013/01/27/qigong-improves-quality-of-life-for-breast-cancer-patients/50826.html

Brian Jennings, NFL pro practices Yoga as part of his fitness.

"Some people do it with their health and some people don't," Jennings said. "My goal is to play as long as I can and finish the game as healthy as I can be."

 Jennings, a 12-year NFL veteran, has already carved his path to a long, healthy career. It helps that he is a long-snapper, on the field maybe a dozen times a game, the position minimizing the number of punishing hits he has taken.

But he also owes his health and career longevity to what he calls a "wellness lifestyle" that includes the practice of yoga as a major component.

 "The first time I did yoga, it just felt right to me," Jennings said.

Jennings' wellness lifestyle also include massages, chiropractic care, acupuncture, Chinese herbs, nutrition and supplements.

 "I do a lot of things that are considered alternative," Jennings said. "It's probably unusual being in a self-destructive business."

 Jennings is 36, with a durable NFL career that goes beyond the physical. Drafted by the 49ers back in 2000, he has survived four coaching changes, hundreds of new teammates and thousands of pages of new schemes and plays. His name is on the team's 10-year wall, next to legends such as Jerry Rice and Bryant Young.

Nestlé develops Traditional Chinese Medicine.

For the purpose of combating medical issues like obesity, heart disease, and diabetes through developing personalized nutrition treatments, Nestlé began the health science business in 2011. The new NSP venture will focus initially in the United States on gastro-intestinal treatments, ulcerative colitis and Crohn's disease, possibly branching out in the future into metabolic diseases and brain health.

Nestlé Health Science's CEO Luis Cantarell was quoted by Bloomberg News as saying on a conference call, “We believe traditional Chinese medicine has a real potential to become part of innovative solutions.” Chi-Med chief executive Christian Hogg said, "Botanical are in the forefront in our view in the search for new medicines." One fifth of the global population is believed to rely on traditional healthcare and, according to WHO, 119 countries have regulatory traditional medicine frameworks. Dr. Zhang Qi, coordinator of the WHO's traditional and complementary
medicine unit is quoted on Voice of America news as saying, "This shows we should recognize the existence and harness the potential of TM [traditional medicine] to contribute to healthcare."

Read the full story here: http://www.examiner.com/article/new-nestl-chinese-medicine-and-world-health-organization

Athletic Acupuncture: for Football Players, the treatment shows results.

Professional football players partake in a violent game, and as the season progresses, they spend more time in training rooms than on practice fields. They visit chiropractors and massage therapists, practice yoga, undergo electronic stimulation and nap in hyperbaric chambers. But in the last few years, there has been a significant uptick in the amount of professional athletes receiving Acupuncture as a treatment. 

From the New York Times: 

Acupuncturist Lisa Ripi, 46, travels at least 20 days each month during the season, treating 40 players on five teams (the Ripi Division: Jets, Giants, Steelers, Bengals and Dolphins). She flies to Miami on Sunday, Pittsburgh on Monday, New York on Tuesday, Cincinnati on Wednesday, back to Pittsburgh on Thursday and back to New York on Friday. She works 96 hours a week and naps mostly on airplanes. By Friday, even her assistant sends “hate texts,” Ripi said.

Players require individualized treatment. Steelers linebacker James Harrison takes more than 300 needles, and Giants defensive end Osi Umenyiora begs for fewer than 40. Jets cornerback Darrelle Revis hates needles and grips the table as if under attack.

She spends roughly 12 hours each Thursday treating at least 10 players at Farrior’s house, where the Steelers hold their men’s “spa night” featuring acupuncture. Ripi cooks dinner for them, and they play cards while they wait turns. She starts with nose tackle Casey Hampton at 3:30 p.m. and finishes with Harrison roughly 12 hours later.

Ripi can tell the position each plays simply on the location of the pain: wide receiver (legs, shoulders), offensive lineman (elbows, back), quarterback (throwing shoulder), defensive lineman (back), running back (hamstring).