FOX NEWS: Acupuncture may help some people with COPD (chronic lung disease).

From FOX NEWS: 

Three months of acupuncture improved breathing problems in people with chronic lung disease, in a new study from Japan.

According to one researcher, the benefits seen with the alternative treatment were on par with, or better than, what's been shown for conventional drugs and exercises used to treat the disease. But the study was small, he added, and more research will be needed to convince doctors and policymakers of acupuncture's usefulness.

"We don't know if this is going to extend life, but the study suggests it improves quality of life," said Dr. George Lewith, from the University of Southampton in England.

"If I had enough money and I was the patient, I would give acupuncture a try."

Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, or COPD, is irreversible impairment of lung function, including emphysema and chronic bronchitis, often caused by smoking. One large national health survey suggested 24 million Americans have the condition, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Shortness of breath is one of the main symptoms of COPD. Typical treatment includes steroids and bronchodilators, as well as breathing exercises.

Because of that, it's not totally surprising that an alternative therapy known to promote relaxation would help patients with breathing problems, according to Lewith.

"What acupuncture does is it seems to relax all the muscles around the chest wall," said Lewith, who wrote a commentary published with the new study in the Archives of Internal Medicine.

"It's absolutely consistent with what we're trying to do conventionally, which is help with their breathing exercises and their relaxation techniques."

Click to read more ...

Tai Chi helps ease Parkinson's Disease Symptoms.

Our last covereage of these ideas dealt with Medical QiGong as well, but this just came to our attention from the Huffington Post: 

Tai Chi helps ease Parkinson's Disease Symptoms: 

NEW YORK -- The ancient Chinese exercise of tai chi improved balance and lowered the risk of falls in a study of people with Parkinson's disease.

Symptoms of the brain disorder include tremors and stiff, jerky movements that can affect walking and other activities. Medications and surgery can help, and doctors often recommend exercise or physical therapy.

Tai chi (ty-CHEE'), with its slow, graceful movements, has been shown to improve strength and aid stability in older people, and has been studied for a number of ailments. In the latest study, led by Fuzhong Li of the Oregon Research Institute in Eugene, tai chi was tested in 195 people with mild-to-moderate Parkinson's.

The participants attended twice-weekly group classes of either tai chi or two other kinds of exercise – stretching and resistance training, which included steps and lunges with ankle weights and a weighted vest.

The tai chi routine was tailored for the Parkinson's patients, with a focus on "swing and sway" motions and weight-shifting, said Li, who practices tai chi and teaches instructors.

After six months of classes, the tai chi group did significantly better than the stretching group in tests of balance, control, walking and other measures. Compared with resistance training, the tai chi group did better in balance, control and stride, and about the same in other tests.

Tai chi training was better than stretching in reducing falls, and as effective as resistance training, the researchers reported. The improvements in the tai chi group continued during three months of follow-up.

Li said the study showed tai chi was safe. It's easy to learn, and there's no special equipment, he added.

Acupuncture: More studies show link to Migraine relief.

From Web MD 

Jan. 12, 2012 -- Acupuncture helps reduce days with migraines and may have lasting effects, according to a new study published in theCanadian Medical Association Journal.

In the study, almost 500 adults were treated with either traditional Chinese acupuncture or a sham treatment in which acupuncture needles were inserted in nonspecific points. The acupuncture treatment points were previously used to study migraine. Participants did not know which type of acupuncture treatment they were receiving during the four-week study.

After completing the study, all of the participants -- including those in the sham group -- reported fewer days with migraines than before the study began. Prior to the study, most suffered monthly migraines, on average six days of migraines a month. After the completing the study, they reported migraines on an average of three days in the month.

In the month following the treatment, all of the participants also reported improvements in the frequency and intensity of migraines.

However, lasting effects were seen only in study participants who received traditional acupuncture. Three months after treatment, people who received traditional Chinese acupuncture continued to report a reduction in migraine days, frequency, and intensity. People who received the sham treatment did not.

Although the study only showed a marginal benefit of real acupuncture over sham acupuncture, researcher Claudia Witt, MD, of University Medical Center Charité in Berlin, says previous research suggests that people who respond best to acupuncture treatments are those who have not been helped by other treatments and those who had past positive experiences with acupuncture.

Albrecht Molsberger, MD, a medical acupuncture specialist who wrote an editorial on the study, says that even in sham acupuncture, the simple insertion of needles into the skin, regardless of the exact points of insertion, can lead to fewer migraines and reduced pain.

“Putting needles in the patient twice weekly over six weeks does have a [physical] effect, but if we did it the Chinese way, we might be better off,” he says.

A previous study of 300 people showed that acupuncture is more effective than no acupuncture in the treatment of migraine. Another study of nearly 800 people showed that 11 acupuncture treatments over six weeks were at least as effective as the blood pressure drugs called beta-blockers -- often used for migraine prevention -- taken daily for six months, Molsberger tells WebMD. 

“Acupuncture should be an option for the first-line treatment of migraine to supplement other non-[drug] treatment options,” he writes in his editorial.

Read Full Article Here: 

http://www.webmd.com/migraines-headaches/news/20120112/acupuncture-may-be-effective-for-migraines