Tag: hay fever

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.

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.

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.

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.

A new study shows that acupuncture is an effective treatment for nocturnal enuresis (bedwetting). Nocturnal enuresis is involuntary urination during sleep and is most typical among children. Most children overcome this disorder by age seven but clinical conditions may persist indefinitely in some patients if left untreated.

In a surprising finding, acupuncture was shown to be more effective than bedwetting alarms. Bedwetting alarms, a standard in conventional medicine, detect moisture and wake the patient with an audible tone. The study also concluded that electro-acupuncture achieved better clinical results than acupuncture without electricity. The researchers note that, “Acupuncture can influence spinal micturition centers and parasympathetic innervation to the urinary tract and is known to modulate brain function via the descending serotonergic system.”

Nocturnal Enuresis According to Chinese Medicine Theory
Nocturnal enuresis is caused by deficiency of Kidney Qi leading to the inability of the urination bladder to regulate urination. The kidneys form urine and the bladder stores and excretes urine. If the kidneys are deficient they are unable to support the function of the bladder in regulating urinary output.

Pop diva Mariah Carey has revealed how daily acupuncture sessions helped her get pregnant. The 40-year-old singer-actress claims the treatment reduced her stress levels — deemed to be an important factor for women trying to conceive. “I was doing it once a day at least.

It was on a schedule,” she said during an interview on US television. “For the first time in my life, I spent time in one place.” Carey, who suffered a miscarriage in 2008, said she decided to give acupuncture a go after fellow songstress Celine Dion spoke about it in a magazine interview. “She was talking about acupuncture. I used to get acupuncture, but I never thought about it with regards to the trying to conceive situation.

I put my body through a whole kind of cleansing situation and prepared,” she said. The Hero singer also revealed how taking the hormone progesterone caused her to put on weight — and led to people spotting her pregnancy. “I did end up being on progesterone every month to go through the cycles — especially after going through operations and stuff,” she said. “It helps seal the pregnancy, but it also bloats you, it also puts on weight.

Diagrams of Acupuncture Manipulations by Professor Liu Yan is an acupuncture needling technique book featuring everything from basic needling skills to expert acupuncture techniques. The diagrams are simple drawings that clearly delineate the information needed to understand the acupuncture methods presented. The text accompanying the diagrams is written in both English and Chinese making this book accessible to a very wide audience. The text is both clear and concise and is successful in communicating the acupuncture methods and their clinical applications for most of the acupuncture procedures presented.

This is definitely a book specifically designed for practicing acupuncturists. We would like to have seen the acupuncture points labeled with letter-number combinations but only the Chinese characters and English pinyin names are presented. We do like that needling sensations are carefully described along with exact needling methods for each clinical application presented.

There is something in this book for all acupuncturists from the beginning student to the veteran expert. The book starts with very basic acupuncture practice techniques and quickly shifts to many highly advanced methods for treating disease processes. 30 supplementary, 8 strengthening and reducing, 20 complex, 30 penetrating, and 23 types of artistic needling techniques are presented. Finally, the author presents an additional 11 special acupuncture techniques. However, several of the special acupuncture techniques are beyond the scope of an acupuncture practice unless situated in a hospital setting.

I am resurfacing after several busy work weeks that left me with little time to think beyond the tasks at hand, much less put extracurricular thoughts to keyboard.
Now that I can breathe, I thought a good Monday Strategy topic would be what I do to counteract the stressful days and weeks of an up-to-my-eyeballs work schedule. Like many of us — if the crowd milling around the “wine guy” at my Glen Ellyn Trader Joe’s would indicate — pouring a nice glass of wine after work certainly helps. Cooking a good meal also helps. Performing a simple task, like chopping vegetables for a stir fry, always gets me to unwind. It’s methodical and it has almost instant gratification as the leap from cutting board to sizzling wok to plate is rather quick.
But there is one other thing I do during high octane periods that really puts the “calm” in calm down — and that is getting an acupuncture treatment.
You mean, being pricked by needles?? Exactly.
Now for some, the thought of needles being inserted anywhere on the skin doesn’t exactly produce a flood of endorphins. Quite the opposite. But trust me, that’s exactly what acupuncture does, at least in my experience.

Chinese herbs are gaining popularity among people, especially against the effects of the haze.

Channel NewsAsia spoke to some conventional Chinese Medicine practitioners, who reported that in the last two days, there has been a spike of 40% sale of Chinese herbs.

The practitioners also said that increasing number of people—almost 20% are coming to them for the treatment of dry eyes and sore throats.

As per a recent report in China Daily, acupuncture in especially growing in popularity in Brazil, after President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva said that his shoulder arthritis problem was cured with this traditional therapy.

A delegation of physicians gathered in Brazil in the year 2006 to educate people about the useful effects of Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) in several skin problems, menopause symptoms, insomnia, anxiety, dementia, joint pain, rheumatism, diabetes, and other illnesses.

At the Tiffani Kim Institute, I’m proud that besides working with some of the best medical professionals in “traditional” Western medicine, we also have first-class practitioners of Oriental medicine. And one of our main wellness focus areas is acupuncture. While we feature it all year–including couples acupuncture around Valentine’s Day to help balance their energies and during cold-and-flu season to helps to boost the immune and digestive systems–I believe ANY time of year is a good one for an acupuncture tune-up.

There’s a reason why for thousands of years, Chinese and other Asian medicine practices have treated people for conditions BEFORE they got them sick. Way back then, acupuncturists knew the value of prevention, helping keep ailments and diseases from taking root in people’s bodies.

But as I know from talking to clients at the Tiffani Kim Institute, not everyone’s convinced. I understand–an ancient technique that involves being stuck with sharp pointy objects (even though the needles are hair-thin!) probably sounds unbelievable. That is, until you try it.