Tag: anxiety

And it will provide food for thought for detractors of the ancient Chinese art, including many scientists. They claim the benefits of the practice are all in the mind and that patients benefit from the ‘placebo effect’ in which care, attention and the simple belief that the treatment will work lead to improvements in health.

The research team from the University Hospital in Essen, Germany, studied whether giving acupuncture affected how the brain reacted to electric shocks.

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It’s potentially hard to find any place where there is no arguing. Usually it’s the hostility within families that has given way to different forms of depression. When we dwell in the depth of its reasons, they are mainly insignificant. The Las Vegas domestic abuse attorney or the Las Vegas domestic violence attorney hears the similar stories everyday that results from this disturbance. Even when the problems of such people are lessened, they still require mental relaxation.

For that purpose, a growing practice is that of acupuncture. Though modern science is not still able to understand why actually acupuncture works, it has been proven to have significant healing effects. Once the acupuncture pins are inserted on the body, energy will start to circulate in a better way. Since the body is interconnected, so the acupuncture spots cannot be limited to little spots on the body, it casts its effects throughout the body.

You know quite well that acupuncture has its origin from the Chinese culture. They are people who have their own practices and beliefs which they happen to preserve and pass down from generation to generation. Acupuncture is also one such practice that has been maintained over the centuries. It happens to be one of their holistic practices that they practice in today’s world just as they used to in older times. The main idea of the Chinese acupuncture rests in the fact that balancing the whole energy inside the body is essential for establishing complete harmony within the body, mind and soul. You may be aware that some medical practitioners apply medical acupuncture to help in their surgeries however, the practices vary slightly from the ancient Chinese ones.

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GRIFFITH University School of Medicine study is hoping to help hay-fever sufferers with the prick of a needle.

John McDonald, a Southport acupuncturist of 40 years, and his research team are planning to reveal how acupuncture can treat irritating and chronic allergies via changes to the immune system.

Hay fever was more prevalent on the Gold Coast, where the allergy season was up to five times longer than the average two-month period of Melbourne, he said. This was because the Coast’s pollen season was longer.

About 15 per cent of Australians suffer from hay fever, commonly caused by grass pollen and dust mite.

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With acupuncture and moxibustion last week included on UNESCO’s Intangible Cultural Heritage list, their lesser-known compliments that don’t involve needles or breaking the skin and form the practice of zhenjiu, are also attracting attention.

“Although using needles is most common, there are other ways of zhenjiu to stimulate the points and meridians that work equally effective,” said Guo Changqing, professor of acupuncture and moxibustion at Beijing University of Chinese Medicine.

During nearly three decades of teaching and treating patients using traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) techniques, Guo, who is also a TCM doctor at Beijing’s Hong Yitang Hospital, said that alternatives such as ear acupressure, cupping and scrap-ing are methods of zhenjiu that were first recorded over 2,000 years ago in the ancient Chinese medical text Huangdi Neijing, also known as The Inner Canon of Huangdi.

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Atsuki Maeda pokes and needles his patients to health.

Literally. Maeda runs Maeda Acupuncture & Medical Therapy Group in Torrance, where he performs both Japanese and Chinese acupuncture.

While treating such symptoms as aches and pains, Maeda, 46, also uses acupuncture for stroke and dementia patients.

The Rolling Hills Estates resident has practiced acupuncture for 23 years, having trained in his native Japan as well as China.

What does your job entail?

I like to help people. I think the reason I became an acupuncturist and came to the U.S. is to use my knowledge to help people.

What do you use Chinese acupuncture for?

To treat stroke and dementia patients. It requires the Chinese way to manipulate the needle to stimulate the brain by activating blood flow to the brain to revive the damaged brain cells.

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A Griffith Health Institute research project is investigating how acupuncture helps to treat irritating and chronic allergies to potentially develop novel medicine for hay fever.

School of Medicine researcher John McDonald said previous research had shown that acupuncture helped to treat allergy and hay fever symptoms, but had not studied how it did this.

“As a practicing acupuncturist for 40 years, I have seen how effectively acupuncture can improve allergic conditions,” Mr McDonald said.

“However there is little understanding about acupuncture’s effects on our immune and nervous systems.”

More than 3.17 million Australians or 15.1 per cent of the population suffer from hay fever, commonly caused by grass pollen and dust mite.

Mr McDonald said current medication included antihistamines, which were only effective in treating early stages of the allergic response.

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s the California governor’s race heats up, California acupuncturists may wonder where they stand with the candidates. Jerry Brown, the Democratic candidate, is the most predictable. In his first term as Governor of the State of California, he legalized the practice of acupuncture and supported the passage of several laws supportive of the acupuncture profession. Jerry Brown also supported chiropractors, osteopaths, and lay midwives. His track record is clear. A win for Brown is assuredly good news for acupuncturists.

Outgoing Governor’s Position

This would be a major change in the political winds for acupuncturists in California. Recently, Governor Schwarzenegger made aggressive moves to dismantle aspects of the laws protecting the rights of acupuncturists and their patients. He removed acupuncture from the Medi-Cal system which is designed to help the poor. As a result, acupuncturists can no longer take Medi-Cal insurance. Schwarzenegger also cut Medi-Cal benefits for dental, psychological, chiropractic, optometry, audiology, and podiatric care. Schwarzenegger also removed acupuncturists as primary care physicians in the worker’s compensation system and even went so far as to remove acupuncturists entirely from the worker’s compensation system for nearly two years until California legislators restored acupuncturists to the workers compensation system. Until acupuncture was restored to the system, workers could not receive acupuncture insurance benefits if injured at work. Moreover, Schwarezneggar actually disbanded the Medical Board of California, California Acupuncture Board. For approximately 8 months, there was no oversight of the entire profession in the State of California. Were the Acupuncture Board not reinstated, the profession may have needed to shut down in California.

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Recent Chinese study suggests that acupuncture may possibly be efficient in treating chronic fatigue syndrome.

Recently, Chinese researchers conducted a study that aims to prove the possible significance of acupuncture in treating chronic fatigue syndrome. In this study, the team did two treatments from Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) to test which one is more effective. The group used acupuncture and Shenmai injection; it possessed two common TCM herbs.

Researchers found that acupuncture shows more efficiency for the treatment than the other methods. Also, they said that that participants from this test experienced less fatigue and some fatigue-related syndromes were alleviated after the treatment.

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A recent study shows that acupuncture as a treatment for obstructive sleep apnea (OSA) has immediate effects in reducing nocturnal respiratory events, sleep disruptions, and desaturations (low oxygen levels in the blood). The researchers hypothesize that this improvement is due to acupuncture’s effects on serotonergic pathways and also acupuncture’s anti-inflammatory effects. Both manual acupuncture and 10Hz electro-acupuncture techniques were found effective. Both techniques produced superior clinical outcomes compared with 2Hz electro-acupuncture.

Acupuncture Technique used by Acupuncturists
The researchers used classical acupuncture techniques and acupuncture points in their study. The acupuncture points chosen for the study were: Lu6, Lu7, LI4, LI20, GV20, CV23, St36, St40, Sp6, K6, and extra point Shanglianquan (located near the hyoid bone). Copper-handle 40 X 0.25mm needles were used and inserted to traditional depths. Electro-acupuncture was applied to the neck points CV23 and Shanglianquan and a separate pair were connected to LI4 and St36. Electro-acupuncture stimulation had wave pulses of 0.45 ms2 at 10Hz and increased to an intensity of between 0.6 – 0.8 mA which produced a mild twitch. The manual acupuncture group receive manual stimulation to the needle until deqi (sensation of heaviness or numbness) was achieved at each acupuncture point. The needles were retained for 30 minutes.

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he Department of Health’s Bureau of Health Promotion is registering success using acupuncture to help university students stop smoking.

A survey of college students by bureau revealed that 7.5 percent are smokers, with 13 percent of males and 2 percent of females smoking. You Bo-cun, director of the bureau’s Office of Health Education, said the bureau is promoting smokeless campuses to reduce the smoking rate among young people.

Graduate student Chan Chian-chih at National Taiwan University of Science and Technology started smoking while still in middle school. He enrolled in a quit-smoking class after being bombarded by the school nurse’s lectures on how one should give up the bad habit.

“It’s weird. By around the fourth week, I suddenly couldn’t stand the smell of smoke anymore!” After eight weeks, plus acupuncture treatment and avoidance of invitations from friends, he has successfully kicked a multiyear smoking addiction.

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