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&

New Study: Acupuncture can relieve pain on par with morphine.

Researchers from the University of California at San Francisco have determined that acupuncture stimulation reduces pain. The acupuncture induced pain relief was determined to be the equivalent of a moderate dose of morphine. Dr. Goddard from the renown University of California, Department of Oral and Maxillofacial Surgery Department conducted a laboratory experiment to measure the effects of needling acupuncture point ST36, located on the lower leg.

In detail (Acupuncture "shop talk") 

Acupuncture point ST36 (Zusanli, Leg Three Measures) has a function within Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) to activate the Stomach (Yangming) channel and relieve pain. Although more commonly known for its ability to tonify Qi, Blood and Yin, ST36 is indicated for the treatment of leg, back, chest, breast, abdominal, eye and knee pain. Headaches are also indicated. In general, ST36 is indicated for pernicious cold damp painful obstruction related disorders.

ST36 treats channel specific pain. The research of this study measured the analgesic effects of ST36 for electrically induced pain of the lower incisor. It is not surprising that ST36 was found effective given that the channel runs along the gums and jaw. The primary Stomach channel begins at acupuncture point LI20 beside the nose and ascends to the root of the nose where it intersects UB1. Next, the Stomach channel descends along the lateral aspect of the nose and enters the upper gum and joins with acupuncture point DU26. The channel then circles around the corner of the mouth and meets with CV24 at the mentolabial groove. Next, the Yangming channel follows the angle of the jaw and runs upward in front of the ear. At this point, the primary channel traverses other regions of the body.

New Study: How Acupuncture Reduces Stress Levels

Good news, acupuncture fans: It really does help relieve stress. And now, a new study is giving a closer look at why.

The new study explores the biological mechanisms involved in acupuncture's stress-relieving abilities, something science has yet to fully understand.

The researchers discovered that stress hormones were lower in rats that had received electronic acupuncture. Results were published in the Journal of Endocrinology.

"Many practitioners of acupuncture have observed that this ancient practice can reduce stress in their patients, but there is a lack of biological proof of how or why this happens. We're starting to understand what's going on at the molecular level that helps explain acupuncture's benefit,” study researcher Dr. Ladan Eshkevari, an associate professor of nursing at Georgetown University School of Nursing and Health Studies, said in a statement.

For the study, Eshkevari and colleagues designed a series of tests with electronic acupuncture to ensure that each rat received the exact same dose of pressure. Eshkevari targeted the spot below the knee, or the “Zusanli” point, with the needle. This area is the same in rats and humans and it is reported that stimulating it can alleviate stress and other conditions.

For the 10-day experiment, researchers split the rats into four groups. One group was a control group with no added stress and no acupuncture; one group was made to be stressed out for an hour each day but didn't receive acupuncture; one group was made to feel stressed for an hour each day but received "sham" acupuncture by their tails; and one group was made to feel stressed and received the genuine acupuncture treatment at the Zusanli area.

The body secretes an assortment of hormones into the bloodstream as a reaction to stress, which the researchers were then able to measure in the rats. They assessed blood hormone levels secreted by the hypothalamus, the pituitary gland and the adrenal gland -- together these are known as the hypothalamus pituitary adrenal (HPA) axis. They also measured a peptide involved in creatures' "fight or flight" responses, called NPY.

Researchers discovered that the "...electronic acupuncture blocks the chronic, stress-induced elevations of the HPA axis hormones and the sympathetic NPY pathway,” Eshkevari said in the statement.

Since stress has been linked with detrimental health effects including heart disease and even brain shrinkage it’s important to study any measures to combat its detrimental nature.

Autism: For some children, recovery is possible.

Feb. 20--When doctors diagnosed Kieran Rege with autism at age 4, they painted a bleak portrait of his future.

"We were told he's not going to get married. He will probably not have friends. He will always need additional support," said Kieran's mother, Jill Rege, of Palo Alto.

Undaunted, she and her husband tried every treatment they could find. Today, at age 15, Kieran has friends, is active in theater at Menlo Park's Mid-Peninsula High School and takes Caltrain by himself to school. And he no longer is diagnosed with a disorder once thought to last a lifetime.

Anecdotal reports of children like Kieran recovering from autism have been around for decades, even as autism diagnoses continue to rise. But a new clinical study from the University of Connecticut has removed much of the doubt that recovery from the affliction is a real phenomenon.

"This study will help researchers believe reports of families and clinicians who say that their child has recovered from autism," said psychologist Grace Gengoux, an autism specialist in the Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences at Stanford University.

Still, the University of Connecticut researchers say it remains a mystery why certain children recover and what treatments cured them.

Kieran's parents say their son began displaying many of the classic signs of autism at age 2. He had no social interaction and little meaningful speech. He was running in circles and walking on his

toes.

Because Kieran was more affectionate than most autistic children, his doctors did not diagnose him right away. But when he was 31/2, even before he was formally diagnosed, Kieran's parents began trying everything from scientifically documented treatments -- including speech therapy and intensive therapy aimed at extinguishing certain behaviors -- to unproven treatments such as vitamin B-12 shots and gluten- and casein-free diets.

"I was willing to crawl through glass for a 1 percent improvement," his mother said.

Within two years, she said, things started to turn around. "It wasn't rapid. It was hard work. It was expensive. But in our case, it paid off."

Kieran's IQ, first tested at age 4, jumped from 80 to 130 by age 8. The median IQ for the general population is 100.

His father, Ojas Rege, held guarded optimism during Kieran's long recovery. "You don't know if those signs you're seeing are just something temporary," he said.

The moment he first truly knew his son's recovery was real came when Kieran starred in a sixth-grade school play about the Dalai Lama. "Just six years before, I didn't know if my son would ever talk," he said. "At that point I thought, 'If he can come this far, we can give him his life back.'"

Kieran's parents say his special diet, medical interventions to support his immune system and occupational and speech therapy were the most effective treatments. And they talk openly with him about his journey from autistic child to the sociable, confident teenager he is today.

Kieran, who has two brothers, preferred not to be interviewed for this story. But according to Jill Rege, he embraces his journey and "thinks it's important to let people know that kids can recover."

There are no solid numbers showing what percentage of children diagnosed with autism eventually lose that diagnosis. But the idea that autistic children could recover began to gain traction in 1987 when UCLA psychology professor Ivar Lovaas said he saw a 47 percent recovery rate using intensive behavioral therapy. Many researchers, however, questioned whether some of the children in that and other studies truly had autism in the first place.

The new study, published in the Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry, has put these questions to rest, autism experts say.

For the study, a team of psychiatrists led by Deborah Fein of the University of Connecticut recruited 34 people who had been diagnosed before age 5 and had since lost their diagnosis according to the team's extensive interviews and behavioral observations. The team also solicited independent verification of the children's initial diagnoses.

Fein is quick to caution that the overwhelming majority of children with autism will not recover. "I've seen hundreds and hundreds of kids who got great therapy and excellent parenting," she said. "They all made progress, but very few of them reached that stage."

In general, she added, "it's very hard to predict who is going to respond rapidly to intervention."

Another unknown is how recovery comes about. Most families try several therapies, often several at once, making it difficult to tease out which are most important for producing optimal outcomes.

Like the Reges, Kim Rice, of Pleasanton, tried almost every intervention offered to her son Sammy, who at age 2 was diagnosed with a mild form of autism.

Rice began immediately with the interventions recommended by Sammy's doctors, including behavioral, speech and occupational therapy. But when Rice heard of the potential link between autism and digestive disorders, she systematically removed foods from his diet to assess their effect on his health.

Rice found that Sammy kept improving the more she eliminated sugar and gluten from his meals. And within six months, Sammy's therapists said he was hard to distinguish from a typical child.

Now 61/2, Sammy is in a mainstream class without an aide. He plays soccer, chess, tennis and piano.

Both Rice and Rege stressed the importance of pushing hard with all of the treatment tools available.

"It's like a symphony," Rege said. "You can't take any one piece out and have it work the same."

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

Chinese, Taiwanese Scientists teaming up to find a natural treatment for Metabolic Syndrome / Obesity.

Obesity might be a very modern problem, but a team of scientists from Taiwan and China is turning to the age-old principles of traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) to help fight it. Breaking research published in the Journal of Biomolecular Structure and Dynamics indicates a possible new direction for the treatment of metabolic syndrome.

TCM compounds have long been recognised as potential lead candidates in creating anti-viral, anti-tumour and anti-inflammation agents. To see whether they might also be used to design agonists targeting PPAR-a, PPAR-g, and PPAR-∂ in the fight against metabolic disease, the researchers consulted the TCM Database@Taiwan, which lists more than 30,000 small-molecule compounds of TCM origin. The team ran a series of models and simulations to virtually screen the database, establishing structure-based pharmacore models for each PPAR protein in order to identify the key actions during docking; molecular dynamics simulation and homology modelling were also performed.

Metabolic syndrome, a collective disorder characterised by obesity and multiple clinical disorders, is on the rise. Obesity itself is an endocrine disease caused by the body's inability to handle excessive energy intake. It can lead to serious chronic diseases like hypertension, osteoarthritis, cardiovascular disease, sleep apnea, stroke and type-2 diabetes.

Peroxisome proliferator-activated receptors (PPARs) are key regulators of lipid and carbohydrate metabolism; they are involved in regulating many physiological functions initiated by nutrients, nutraceuticals and phytochemicals. There are three subtypes of PPARs -- PPAR-a, PPAR-g and PPAR-∂ -which all play important roles. Because of these roles, the three are also important drug targets for treating metabolic syndrome.

Battlefield Acupuncture : Service Members Opt for Therapy Over Medication.

While we have covered battlefield acupuncture (and even the new meditation techniques being implemented by special operations forces) the following report is from Spc. Brian Dutton, an enlisted military journalist in the field.

PAKTYA PROVINCE, Afghanistan - Army 1st Lt. Robert Blume, the physician assistant for 1st Battalion, 187th Infantry Regiment, 3rd Brigade Combat Team "Rakkasans," 101st Airborne Division (Air Assault), performed battlefield acupuncture on a U.S. civilian contractor on Combat Outpost Champkani, Afghanistan, Jan. 27.

The patient had come to Blume complaining of massive back pain sustained from years of being enlisted in the military and had opted for acupuncture.

"Battlefield acupuncture is done so as to augment therapy for people who don't want to take pills everyday," said Blume.

Two needles were inserted through both ears of the patient without flaw or complications and he was able to walk out with no complaints of back pain.

Battlefield acupuncture may be still in the beginning phases within the military but many service members are opting for therapy over medication.

Read original story here: Defense Industry Videos & Images