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

Study: Acupuncture Helps With Cancer Treatment Fatigue.

A new study shows the benefits from acupuncture to help reduce cancer & treatment fatigue.

The study published in October has been highlighted by many media outlets for showing promising results for women suffering with the chronic fatigue that comes with breast cancer and treatments. As many as 40 percent of breast cancer patients experience significant fatigue from moderate to severe during and after their cancer treatments. 

In the published study, the authors focused on more than 300 women with breast cancer who were being cared for as outpatients at one of nine health care facilities across the United Kingdom.

At the time of the study, participants had been diagnosed with either stage 1, 2 or 3 breast cancer, and all had been experiencing at least moderate levels of fatigue for an average of 18 months. Most were white, and their average age was 53.

For a six-week period, all patients continued to receive the same care they had been receiving before the study, and all were additionally given an information booklet that tackled the issue of fatigue management.

However, more than 200 of the patients also were randomly chosen to undergo weekly 20-minute acupuncture sessions that involved needle placement at three different entry points. By the end of the six-week period, those who had received acupuncture appeared to fare better on every measure of fatigue that the team assessed.

Specifically, those in the acupuncture group reported feeling notably better than the "usual-care" group in terms of overall fatigue, physical and mental fatigue, anxiety and depression levels, functional well-being, emotional well-being, social functioning, and overall quality of life.

from the Journal of Clinical Oncology

Ancient medical remedies further practiced for dengue fever.

As we have been covering the dengue fever epidemic in India, trends of treatment have shown great success in ancient remedies and homeopathy. 

From Forbes Magazine: 

A viral outbreak at the southern tip of India has pushed an old village treatment into clinical trials as a treatment for dengue fever.

Dengue, a disease delivered through the sting of mosquitoes, is reaching epidemic proportions across the world’s tropical latitudes, especially in the Indian state of Tamil Nadu (where I am currently based). The number of cases quadrupled this year, representing nearly a quarter of all reported cases and deaths in the country. The state reported 60 deaths and 9,000 victims through November, a tally that may be underreported.

Last month, the state health minister asked government hospitals to furnish dengue patients with a “mocktail” of juice made from neem and papaya leaves. The elixir dates back 2,500 years to the birth of Siddha medicine, a South Indian practice that is a close cousin of ayurvedic medicine.

Then, this week, the King Institute of Preventive Medicine, a flagship government hospital in the Tamil Nadu capital of Chennai, announced its intention to do a double-blind study to see how effective the neem-papaya mix is in battling dengue. This month it started a trial in rats to make sure the treatment isn’t toxic.

Dengue fever is usually not fatal, but its main symptoms are high fever, muscle aches and pain. Western medicine has no cure for dengue, relying instead on pain relievers and fever reducers.

The neem tree is something of a miracle plant in India. It is a shade tree that grows well in areas without much rain. Its bitter leaves are an ingredient in South Indian rasam and curries, and its oil is a common additive to cosmetics, laundry soap, shampoos and toothpaste. Powder made from neem seeds are used in traditional Indian agriculture to ward off insects, and a meal made from neem is plowed into soil as a fertilizer.

QiGong as treatment for Fibromyalgia shows success in recent studies.

In study after study, those that engage in practicing Qigong shows a reduction in patiens suffering from fibromyalgia and helps general well being. 

By Nancy Walsh, Staff Writer, MedPage Today

Published: August 09, 2012

Reviewed by Robert Jasmer, MD; Associate Clinical Professor of Medicine, University of California, San Francisco and Dorothy Caputo, MA, BSN, RN, Nurse Planner

Routine practice of qigong (chi gung) seemed to significantly improve pain in patients with fibromyalgia and lessened the impact of the disorder, a randomized trial showed.

After 8 weeks of regular practice of this "meditative movement," pain as measured on a 10-point scale decreased by 1.55 points, compared with a change of only 0.02 points in controls (P<0.001), according to Jana Sawynok, PhD, and colleagues from Dalhousie University in Halifax, Nova Scotia.

And on the 100-point Fibromyalgia Impact Questionnaire, which quantitates the effects of multiple disease components including pain, function, sleep, and psychological distress, there was a decrease of 18.45 points compared with a change of 0.93 points in controls (P<0.001), the researchers reported online in Arthritis Research & Therapy.

Treatments for fibromyalgia -- a syndrome of widespread pain -- include the approved medications pregabalin (Lyrica), duloxetine (Cymbalta), and milnacipran (Savella), as well as psychological interventions, exercise programs, and alternative approaches, but all of these strategies have only limited efficacy.

Because some previous research has suggested the possibility of benefit with qigong, the Canadian researchers enrolled 100 patients with longstanding fibromyalgia, assigning them to an immediate treatment group or a wait-list group who served as controls for 6 months.

After 6 months, the controls entered the treatment program, and in the analysis were referred to as the delayed-treatment group.

The type of qigong used was Chaoyi Fanhuan Qigong, initially taught in a 3-day workshop. It includes seven specific movements and related exercises that emphasize relaxation, release, and distribution of "qi," or energy, throughout the body.

Participants returned for hour-long practice sessions once each week for 2 months, and were asked to perform the movements and exercises at home for 45 to 60 minutes each day for 6 months.

After 8 weeks, patients reported practicing for a mean time of 4.9 hours each week. By 4 months and 6 months, respectively, mean weekly practice times were 2.9 and 2.7 hours.

Almost all participants were women. Mean age was 52, and disease duration averaged 9.6 years.

Additional pain diagnoses included back pain in 44%, headache in 58%, osteoarthritis in 38%, and rheumatoid arthritis in 9%.

Previous treatments included medications, acupuncture, chiropractic, and massage, while current medications included anticonvulsants in 25% to 30%, antidepressants in 32% to 38%, nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs in 49% to 57%, and opioids in 23% to 36%.

Results in the delayed-treatment group were similar to those seen in the immediate-treatment group, with pain scores at 8 weeks decreasing by 1.28 points (P=0.01) and impact scores falling by 17.97 points.

The impact scores rebounded slightly after 4 and 6 months, but remained significantly improved.

Sleep quality also improved during the 8 weeks of practice, as was shown by decreases on a sleep quality index of 3.29 points (P=0.001) in the immediate-treatment group and 2.69 (P=0.009) in the delayed-treatment group.

Physical and mental well-being also showed consistent benefits. At 8 weeks, increases of 5.08 points (P<0.001) were seen on the short form-36 questionnaire–physical component in the immediate-treatment group and 3.17 points (P=0.01) in the delayed-treatment group.

Read original content here: 

http://www.medpagetoday.com/clinical-context/Fibromyalgia/34120

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 ...

Study: Acupuncture Relieves Carpal Tunnel Syndrome.

A recent study published in the Journal of Research in Medical Sciences concludes that acupuncture is effective for the treatment of carpal tunnel syndrome. There were 72 subjects in this randomized controlled study. The acupuncture treatment group received 8 acupuncture treatments over a period of 4 weeks and night splinting was used as an additional component to the medical are. The control group received night splinting, sham acupuncture (use of non-relevant acupoints in relation to carpal tunnel syndrome), vitamin B1 and vitamin B6. A follow up after the treatment regime measured a clinically significant nerve conduction velocity difference between the groups. The acupuncture group measured significantly better according to the nerve conduction study’s electrophysiological measurements. The researchers also conclude that acupuncture is effective in relieving the subjective symptoms of carpal tunnel syndrome.¹

This new acupuncture and carpal tunnel syndrome research from 2012 is not alone. Looking back to a less recent study from 2006 published in the Journal of the International Association for the Study of Pain, researchers measured the effectiveness of acupuncture for the treatment of carpal tunnel syndrome and discovered a brain pathway by which acupuncture exerts its therapeutic results. The researchers measured brain responses using fMRI technology to measure brain processing related to acupuncture stimuli in relation to neuropathic pain. The controlled study discovered that acupuncture caused greater activation of the hypothalamus and greater deactivation of the amygdala- both important brain centers. The researchers concluded that acupuncture benefits chronic pain sufferers “through a coordinated limbic network including the hypothalamus and amygdala.”²

For original article: 

http://www.healthcmi.com/index.php/acupuncturist-news-online/484-acupunctureceuscarpaltunnelsyndrome

For acupuncture treatment in St.Petersburg Florida, visit: Classical Medicine 

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