Q: I had a stroke 7 years ago. It was due to a blood clot in the brain. I am making a good … but I am curious to know if … would benefit me. TimA: Tim, the best time to get …
Q: I had a stroke 7 years ago. It was due to a blood clot in the brain. I am making a good recovery,Guest Posting but I am curious to know if acupuncture would benefit me.
Tim
A: Tim, the best time to get acupuncture for stroke is immediately afterwards – ideally while still in the hospital, if the docs will allow it. Seven years is a long time to wait for acupuncture. But it still may help you… You won’t know unless you try it.
Scalp Acupuncture
Usually scalp style acupuncture is used for stroke. Needles are “threaded” along the scalp underneath the skin. There are at least three different scalp systems (Dr. Jiao Shun Fa’s original style from the 1970s, Dr. Zhu’s, and Dr. Yamamoto’s styles). Call local acupuncturists and find out if they have experience with scalp acupuncture.
How Many Treatments?
It may take 10-20 treatments to get results. In China, they treat patients every day. That’s not financially realistic here, but 2 or 3 times per week is good. In your case – after 7 years – it may take sustained and intense stimulus to make a change.
Complementary Therapies
You can also take herbal formulas to balance out the constitutional issues that led to the stroke, and help repair the damage. Acupuncture can be combined with physical rehab. It can improve both motor function (ability to move muscles) and sensory (ability to feel). You may recover function to some degree, but in more serious strokes there may be no response.
Will it Work for Me?
It’s hard to say whether an individual will respond and how much- partner with the acupuncturist – they will get to know you case thoroughly, integrate what they’re doing with your other medical providers. See the acupuncturist until you hit a plateau. Then your acupuncturist may try another system or strategy.
Stroke and Acupuncture Research
What’s clear from several studies is that very severe stroke patients may be less likely to respond to acupuncture. This issue has not been thoroughly researched. Typically, American researchers have used inadequate acupuncture (style, points, and frequency of treatments). They conduct and review studies using points that Chinese acupuncturists would not use, and then conclude that acupuncture doesn’t work. I say, “No, it’s your brain that doesn’t work, because you don’t do a thorough literature review before designing your studies!”
As James Rotchford, MD, (a medical doctor and acupuncturist who has reviewed hundreds of acupuncture research studies and reviews on his website, www.acubriefs.com) mentions below, there are many approaches within acupuncture. Scalp styles (there are 3 – who knows which is most effective when – a good research topic) appear to be best for neurological conditions like stroke, MS, and post-concussion syndrome. To study body acupuncture points for stroke demonstrates unfamiliarity with the work that has been done thus far.
Is the acupuncture (style, points, and frequency of treatments) studied in most research considered the most effective kind by acupuncture experts?
It is not.
Why study acupuncture points and styles that clinicians themselves don’t think work?
Three possibilities come to mind:
Arrogance: “Even though Chinese have been doing acupuncture for thousands of years, they don’t know anything about it.” This isn’t so implausible – mainstream American docs and researchers already ignore European research – why not Chinese, too? If their methodology differs from the drug-model, it’s because they aren’t as advanced as us. And if we disagree with the results, the methodology is criticized. Otherwise, it’s fine. Psychological studies of the research review process have proven this bias.
Idiocy: It’s hard to imagine that someone smart enough to do research isn’t smart enough to read the literature, but I suppose it’s possible, or
Conspiracy: “Let’s do the wrong acupuncture on purpose so we have proof that acupuncture doesn’t work.” This would be fool’s work, since there is already incontrovertible evidence that it does.
If the studies suck, then why review them?
Because a review of multiple studies carries more weight than just one study. It’s easier to convince people with a review.
The major issue with research reviews is that if the studies were inadequate in the first place, then the review’s conclusions will be wrong. Until the methodology and study designs are improved, what’s the point?
Again, we suggest researchers review the Chinese medicine literature. Rotchford advocates outcome studies rather than drug-style RCT’s. In outcome studies, no
How does acupuncture therapy work?
Acupuncture is a type of treatment that includes embedding flimsy needles through an individual’s skin to explicitly focus on the body.
The research proposes that it can help decrease pain, and it is used for a wide scope of different issues.
What is acupuncture?
Acupuncture includes embedding needles at specific parts of the body.
An acupuncurist will embed needles into an individual’s body with the point of adjusting their energy.
This,Guest Posting it is asserted, can help support prosperity and may fix a few ailments.
Conditions are used for incorporating various types of pain, for example, cerebral pains, pulse issues, and challenging cough, among others.
How can it work?
Customary Chinese medication clarifies that wellbeing is the aftereffect of an agreeable parity of the reciprocal limits of “yin” and “yang” of the existence power known as “qi,” articulated “chi.” Illness is supposed to be the outcome of an unevenness of the powers.
Qi is said to move through meridians, or pathways, in the human body. These meridians and energy streams are available through 350 acupuncture focuses in the body.
Embedding needles into these focuses with fitting blends is said to bring the energy stream again into appropriate position.
There is no logical confirmation that the meridians of acupuncture focuses exist, and it is difficult to demonstrate that they either do or don’t, however various researchers recommend that acupuncture works for certain conditions.
A few specialists have used neuroscience to clarify acupuncture. Acupuncture focuses are viewed as spots where nerves, muscles, and connective tissue can be animated. The incitement expands blood stream, while simultaneously setting off the movement of the body’s regular painkillers.
It is hard to set up examinations using logical controls, on account of the intrusive idea of acupuncture. In a clinical report, a focus group would need to go through or a fake treatment, for results to be contrasted and those of real acupuncture.
A few investigations have reasoned that acupuncture offers comparative advantages to a patient as a fake treatment, however others have shown that there are some genuine advantages.
To find the best acupuncture therapy clinic, visit Maxwell Medical. Book your appointment today!
Examination completed in Germany has demonstrated that acupuncture may help alleviate pressure cerebral pains and headaches.
The NCCIH note that it has been demonstrated to help in instances of:
low back pain
neck pain
osteoarthritis
knee pain
Allergic rhinitis (including hay fever)
Biliary colic
Depression (including depressive neurosis and depression following stroke)
Dysentery, acute bacillary
Dysmenorrhoea, primary
Epigastralgia, acute (in peptic ulcer, acute and chronic gastritis, and gastrospasm)
Facial pain (including craniomandibular disorders)
Headache
Hypertension, essential
Hypotension, primary
Induction of labor
Knee pain
Leukopenia
Low back pain
Malposition of fetus, correction
Morning sickness
Nausea and vomiting
Neck pain
Pain in dentistry (including dental pain and temporomandibular dysfunction)
Periarthritis of shoulder
Postoperative pain
Renal colic
Rheumatoid arthritis
Sciatica
Sprain
Stroke
Tennis elbow
They list extra problems that may profit by acupuncture, however which require further logical affirmation.
In 2003, the World Health Organization (WHO) recorded various conditions in which they state acupuncture has been demonstrated successful.
These include:
sciatica
facial pain
dental pain
tennis elbow
morning disorder
high and low pulse
excruciating periods
looseness of the bowels
rheumatoid joint inflammation
Abdominal pain (in acute gastroenteritis or due to gastrointestinal spasm)
Acne vulgaris
Alcohol dependence and detoxification
Bell’s palsy
Bronchial asthma
Cancer pain
Cardiac neurosis
Cholecystitis, chronic, with acute exacerbation
Cholelithiasis
Competition stress syndrome
Craniocerebral injury, closed
Diabetes mellitus, non-insulin-dependent
Earache
Epidemic haemorrhagic fever
Epistaxis, simple (without generalized or local disease)
Eye pain due to subconjunctival injection
Female infertility
Facial spasm
Female urethral syndrome
Fibromyalgia and fasciitis
Gastrokinetic disturbance
Gouty arthritis
Hepatitis B virus carrier status
Herpes zoster (human (alpha) herpesvirus 3)
Hyperlipaemia
Hypo-ovarianism
InsomniaLabour pain
Lactation, deficiency
Male sexual dysfunction, non-organic
Ménière disease
Neuralgia, post-herpetic
Neurodermatitis
Obesity
Opium, cocaine and heroin dependence
Osteoarthritis
Pain due to endoscopic examination
Pain in thromboangiitis obliterans
Polycystic ovary syndrome (Stein-Leventhal syndrome)
Post-extubation in children
Postoperative convalescence
Premenstrual syndrome
Prostatitis, chronic
Pruritus
Radicular and pseudoradicular pain syndrome
Raynaud syndrome, primary
Recurrent lower urinary-tract infection
Reflex sympathetic dystrophy
Retention of urine, traumatic
Schizophrenia
Sialism, drug-induced (excessive salivation)
Sjögren syndrome
Sore throat (including tonsillitis)
Spine pain, acute
Stiff neck
Temporomandibular joint dysfunction
Tietze syndrome
Tobacco dependence
Tourette syndrome
Ulcerative colitis, chronic
Urolithiasis
Vascular dementia
Whooping cough (pertussis)
cerebral pain
headache
unfavorably susceptible rhinitis
chemotherapy-actuated queasiness and retching
some gastric conditions, including peptic ulcer
Different conditions for which the WHO state that acupuncture may help however more proof is required include:
neuralgia
spine pain
solid neck
fibromyalgia
Tourette condition
vascular dementia
The WHO additionally recommends that it might help treat various diseases, including some urinary contaminations and scourge hemorrhagic fever.
They bring up, in any case, that “lone public wellbeing specialists can decide the ailments, manifestations, and conditions for which acupuncture treatment can be suggested.”
When people think of acupuncture,Guest Posting they generally picture a person lying or sitting in an acupuncture clinic with several needles in key areas to alleviate back pain or neck pain or other ailments. This is a good picture of a patient that is having an acupuncture treatment. But is this all there is to acupuncture and are there different approaches?
Well, as with most therapies, there are variations in acupuncture treatment that can be adopted depending on the individual circumstances and ailment being treated. For example back pain acupuncture treatment would vary to acupuncture treatment for other ailments. Here are some of the types of acupuncture.
Traditional Chinese Acupuncture. This is a widely practiced form of acupuncture. According to traditional Chinese medicine, the human body contains lines or channels through which the body’s energy flows. These channels act as points of entry into the body, called acupuncture points. Fine needles are inserted into these Chinese acupuncture points to remove blockages and imbalances in the body’s energy flow. Removing these blockages allows energy and blood to circulate smoothly throughout the body, stimulating the body to heal itself. This type of acupuncture is a very common form of back pain acupuncture treatment. It is used throughout Australia, including in acupuncture Sydney clinics.
Five Element Acupuncture is an ancient form of acupuncture. This form of acupuncture treats the mind, body, heart and spirit. The five elements are fire, earth, metal, water and wood, which correspond to emotions that need to be balanced to maintain good health. Practitioners using Five Element acupuncture consider factors such as skin colour, vocal sound, body odour, emotional state and pulse to diagnose and treat the imbalance.
Auricular acupuncture. This form of acupuncture focuses on acupuncture points on the outer ear, using either needles or electro acupunctoscopes. Each acupoint on the ear, when treated, triggers electrical impulses from the brain to the specific area of the body that is being treated.
Trigger Point Acupuncture is a form of acupuncture that targets tight or knotted muscles. The practitioner uses touch to locate muscular tightness, then inserts an ultra-thin, single-use acupuncture needle into the suspect muscle and gently probes. This produces localized involuntary twitching, which works to reduce tightness. This form of acupuncture is also used for back pain acupuncture treatment and is also available throughout Australia, including in acupuncture Sydney clinics.
Electro acupuncture. As the name suggests, electro acupuncture uses a mild electric current running through the acupuncture needles. Electro acupuncture generally uses the same meridians as Traditional Chinese Acupuncture, but uses a small device that clips onto the needles. The device sends electric pulses that the acupuncturist can adjust depending on the intensity needed. Those who are squeamish about needles may prefer electro acupuncture because it can be done with electrodes instead of needles to attain the same results.
and Answers about … In April 2003, I was … by Anupam Sharma, a … with the magazine from India, Fourth … which reaches 171,000 readers monthly both there
Questions and Answers about Acupuncture
In April 2003,Guest Posting I was interviewed by Anupam Sharma, a journalist with the magazine from India, Fourth Dimension, which reaches 171,000 readers monthly both there and abroad. I thought you’d like to read it, because I answered a lot of the commonly asked questions about acupuncture that I haven’t written about on the Pulse of Oriental Medicine (PulseMed.org), and because you probably won’t be able to get that magazine.
Anupam Sharma (AS): Dr. Brian Carter, Thank you for the prompt reply and agreeing to do this interview. Tell me, doctor, how does Acupuncture work? Please explain the science behind this traditional method of healing
Brian B. Carter (BBC): Acupuncture is based on Chinese medicine. Chinese medicine (CM) has its own system of diagnosis and treatment, and acupuncture is only one therapy within that medicine. Those who have developed CM since before 2500 B.C. (when our first literary work, the Yellow Emperor’s Classic of Medicine, was written) used both symptoms and signs to diagnose disease before treating it. They developed a unique form of diagnosis called ‘pattern differentiation.’ Patterns are sets of specific symptoms and signs. For us, finding the signs includes the feeling the pulse and looking at the tongue.
For acupuncture specifically, there is also diagnosis according to the channels. It’s actually a very complicated system of theories… not as simple as it first seems. That complexity allows for a sophisticated flexibility in diagnosis and treatment that can adapt to most clinical situations. According to modern science, acupuncture works via the immune and nervous systems. It has local peripheral nervous system and central nervous system effects. Professor and physicist Zang-hee Cho has begun to use PET scans to map the brain loci affected by specific acupuncture points. Acupuncture affects neurons, electrolytes, neuro-transmitters, and neuropeptides. But even once all that data is in, the traditional system of channels and pattern differentiation will still be the clearest map of how acupuncture works. The biomedical view of physical phenomena is not always well-integrated.
My best analogy is that your brain is a computer, and the acupuncture points are the keyboard; you do the right points, and that tells the brain how to change the configuration of the mind and body.
AS: In which diseases is acupuncture the most effective?
BBC: Most people are familiar with acupuncture’s effectiveness for pain. Most importantly for pain, it can prevent chronic pain syndromes where the nervous system still produces pain signals even in the absence of the original problem. In 1997, the NIH came up with a list of diseases for which the scientific literature supported efficacy, which included nausea and vomiting, pain, tennis elbow, menstrual cramps, and fibromyalgia.
That list was much shorter than what acupuncture has traditionally treated, of course. Since 1997, even more studies have shown effectiveness for early post-stroke, acute spinal cord injury, as an adjunct in alcoholism, labor pain, migraine, post-surgical nausea and vomiting, and as part of a smoking cessation program. These are the highest quality studies: randomized placebo-controlled trials (RCT’s) with more than 33 subjects per group. There are plenty more studies that don’t meet that high standard, but still may offer valuable insights for clinical practice.
There is currently a study of acupuncture for high blood pressure going on at Harvard, and early reports are that it’s very effective. I personally got a diabetic man disqualified from his free blood pressure medication study with a modern Chinese point prescription. Our weekly acupuncture treatments brought his blood pressure down below the study’s minimum requirement. Acupuncture also is great for a number of psychological conditions. There are 17 other RCT’s currently ongoing, all funded by the National Institutes of Health.
AS: Do you think that the modern western medicine has failed in curing certain kind of diseases like backaches, mental tension, or headaches?
BBC: It always depends on the cause. For backaches, we need an x-ray to see if the spine is involved. For a backache or headache due to a tumor, I would certainly want MRI’s and CT scans, and surgery. Of course, for cancer, we can do drug or Chinese herb chemotherapy. Or you can do drug chemo with supportive herbs to boost the immune system. For headaches, acetaminophen, aspirin, and NSAID’s are very useful, though acetaminophen is the leading cause of liver failure in hospitals, and NSAID’s can cause stomach ulcers. The new triptan drugs for migraines are very helpful for the acute migraine, but may not be as good as acupuncture and herbs for preventing recurrence. For any stubborn problems, or those for which western medicine cannot find the cause, acupuncture and herbs are superior.
As far as mental tension or stress goes, acupuncture and herbs work wonders. Western medicine uses sedatives and antidepressants. Most people don’t want to be sedated, some antidepressants have debilitating side effects like impotence, and others are difficult to come off of safely… some even will create a dependency of sorts such that you get a rebound depression after you’ve been off of them for a number of months.
AS: Alternative healing methods like yoga and meditation and acupuncture becoming more popular among the people in the west? If yes, why?
A lot of people like yoga because it’s physical. Meditation is hard for fast-paced noisy-headed Americans. Most people say they just can’t stop thinking. They don’t realize that they’re always thinking like that. We’re over-stimulated here.
Acupuncture is nice because it helps you stop thinking, reduces anxiety, produces calmness. You can meditate while the needles are in. Acupuncture is more popular here than Chinese herbs are because more MD’s accept it. There’s enough scientific evidence, and a number of MD’s are practicing acupuncture full-time. Americans still don’t understand herbal formulas, or the system of medicine that underpins Chinese herbs. They’re used to going to a health food store and buying the latest single herb for a single symptom. And there aren’t enough Chinese style herbalists in the U.S. to expose everyone to it yet.
AS: How long have you practiced acupuncture?
BBC: I’ve only been practicing a few years. I follow the idea that we need to learn true classical Chinese medicine before we can innovate intelligently, so I have a couple of mentors (Philippe Sionneau and Robert Chu) who have been practicing for about 10 years each. The formal school education is just the beginning. Our generation has a lot of translating to do to get Chinese medicine into English. Probably less than 1% of the literature has been translated. We have some of the most important and basic works, but we still have a lot to learn.
My job as I see it is to be a communicator. I have written hundreds of articles on my site (The Pulse of Oriental Medicine, www.pulsemed.org) and in other magazines that have reached more than 100,000 English-speaking patients. I have books and radio appearances in the works. There’s too much for any one of us to know everything, so I keep in touch with a broad range of experts – translators, scholars, MD’s, authors, so that I’m speaking authentically and accurately.
AS: Do you think acupuncture offers a better treatment than the allopathic medicine? If yes, then why isn’t it as popular as the latter?
BBC: Even in its country of origin, Chinese medicine has lost some popularity. When the communists took over in the 1950′s, they almost destroyed the traditional medicine. They wanted to catch up with the west and get our approval. But when Mao Tse-Tung got facial paralysis, it was acupuncture that fixed him. So he ordered the systemization of TCM. Now there are 3 branches of medicine in China: Chinese, Western, and the combination of the two. The latter is the most interesting, and probably the future of all medicine. For example, you can have an elevated Alk Phos level (a liver function test), with no western gallbladder pathology, but have symptoms of pain or discomfort along the Chinese acupuncture Gallbladder channel.
I don’t think we should say either acupuncture and western medicine is better. Each has their strengths and weaknesses. And to be accurate, we have to say that most of Chinese herbal medicine is allopathic, because allopathic means treating with opposites. We reduce excesses, and strengthen deficiencies, for example. What we do need to do is cooperate; practitioners of various kinds of medicine should work together for the benefit of each patient. To only use one kind of medicine is more of a religion than a medical practice. Chinese medicine practitioners need to learn what western medicine is good and bad at, and vice versa. Same goes for chiropractors, Ayurveda, Homeopathy, massage, etc.
The popularity or acupuncture in the west is a function of time, politics, and finance. Acupuncture has only been in America for 30 years. Now many insurances and workers compensations cover it, MD’s are learning it, it’s always in the news, sports teams are using it. There are about 800,000 MD’s, and 15,000 acupuncturists in the U.S. So it’ll be awhile before it’s an unquestioned part of the healthcare system. Even then, we’ll still have to deal with some people’s egos.
AS: How can one become an acupuncturist? What are the qualifications required for becoming one? Is there a similar degree as an MBBS?
BBC: The average in the U.S. is 3-4 years of school, graduating with a Master’s of Science in Traditional Oriental Medicine. Regulations vary by state. California has the highest standards; we are tested on the medicine, acupuncture, herbs, law, etc. Actually, acupuncture is only 17% of the test! Again, acupuncture is only one of Chinese medicine’s therapies. The standard is slowly being raised to the PhD level. There are now 3 nationally approved PhD programs for Chinese medicine. All 3 are on the west coast. I think eventually that will be the entry level. We have to do that to get on par with the chiropractors, MD’s, and DO’s.
AS: What do you think is the future of Acupuncture? I mean rest of the world.
BBC: Chinese medicine has been in Australia for more than 100 years. It’s all over Korea, Japan, and Taiwan. I haven’t heard much about it in South America. They have it in Canada, but I think it’s not well regulated or accepted. In France, you have to be an MD to practice it. So it’s different everywhere. But here in America, we are doing more and more research, and the results are affirming and interesting. So I think that the MD’s, who hold most of the political and financial cards in international medicine, will be less and less able to resist the importance of acupuncture. Herbal medicine has a longer battle; because, in a way, it competes with pharmaceutical medicine. It shouldn’t have to, though, because some studies we have read show that herbs ameliorate drug side effects and increase their effectiveness. This has to be done in accordance with both western and eastern medical principles, though.