Tag: quit smoking

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.