Fwd: Acu for aches and pains

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Twyla <twylahoodah wrote: Sat, 24 Mar 2007 14:43:13 -0700

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Twyla <twylahoodah

Acu for aches and pains

twylahoodah

 

this article was on news Acupuncture for Aches and Pains Posted by

Nicholas DiNubile, M.D.

on Mon, Mar 12, 2007, 3:51 pm PDT

 

 

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In my last blog entry I talked about my own personal eye-opening experience

with alternative medicine, specifically Eastern medicine that is practiced in

mainland China.

 

In the past 20 years, since I was fortunate enough to be part of a sports

medicine exchange program to China, we have seen alternative medicine go

mainstream, especially in the U.S.A. I believe this is a good thing. Many

patients who have not done well with traditional medical interventions have

found some relief in the hands of alternative medicine practitioners.

 

Although " alternative medicine " encompasses a wide range of treatments and

approaches, the one area that has made tremendous strides in not only becoming

accepted, but also in showing scientific proof of its benefits, is acupuncture.

Acupuncture has been shown to be effective in managing a wide variety of

musculoskeletal ailments (i.e. problems with muscles, bones and joints). Done

properly, there can be terrific results with minimal, if any, risk.

 

Scientific research has shown acupuncture to be helpful in the following

musculoskeletal conditions and ailments:

 

Arthritis

Back pain

Neck pain

Sciatica

Carpal tunnel syndrome

Tennis elbow

Other " pinched nerves "

Other " chronic pain " situations

 

A recent study published in the November 2006 issue of the medical journal

Arthritis and Rheumatism also got my attention. It was a well-done study from

Germany that looked at the role and effectiveness of acupuncture for individuals

with chronic hip and knee pain related to arthritis.

 

A very large group of patients were treated with usual traditional medical

care for their arthritis for three months. Following that time period,

acupuncture was added as an additional therapeutic intervention for one portion

of that patient group, while the others continued with medical care only (i.e.

no acupuncture).

 

The results of the study revealed that those patients who had acupuncture

added to their treatment regime had significant and persistent improvements in

not only their arthritis symptoms, but also in their overall quality of life.

They did much better than those patients receiving medical care only for the

arthritis, without acupuncture.

 

There have been other interesting studies that are allowing us to begin to

understand how acupuncture may actually work, and I think you'll see much more

of this in the upcoming months and years. Our ability to understand

acupuncture's effects was heightened by the invention of the functional MRI

(also known as fMRI).

 

The fMRI is an MRI type machine that actually can show changes in physiology

and biochemistry in certain body parts. For example, it can actually show

predictable and reproducible changes in very specific areas of the brain when

acupuncture needles are placed in appropriate sites around the body. This really

opens the door to understanding the capabilities and effectiveness of this

ancient healing art.

 

Have you had acupuncture? For what condition? Did it help? How did you find an

appropriately trained and experienced acupuncturist in your area? One of the

additional extremely important findings of the acupuncture study mentioned

above, was that the most important factor in getting good results with patients

were the qualification and clinical experience of the acupuncturist!

 

Finding the best acupuncturist can be tricky since this whole medical area is

relatively new to the U.S.A., and since it has become more mainstream, many are

jumping on the bandwagon by taking a course or two, and hanging up a shingle

claiming that they are an expert. So it becomes very important to do a little

research before getting needled and poked.

 

 

" Thus the sage rules by stilling minds and opening hearts, by filling

bellies and strengthening bones... "

 

www.SpiritcareAcupuncture.org

 

 

 

 

 

 

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