DAAN Chinese Herbs and Acupuncture » Acupuncture

Acupuncture can help you quit smoking

DAAN — Sun, 29 Aug 2010 10:45:23 +0000

If you are trying to quit smoking, you may want to turn to acupuncture as many have found to be effective in kicking the habit.

Dr. William Terrell uses acupuncture to treat smoking at the Iowa Acupuncture Clinic in Clive, but with a slightly different method. He puts acupuncture needles in the ear’s auricle (the outer portion of the ear). The cost is around $58 a treatment, but Terrell offers a sliding scale. “The ear is basically the control panel for the whole body,” Terrell said. “Smoking calms you down, and that’s what acupuncture does. It’s tuning up your central nervous system and getting more blood flowing to the brain. It’s the same reason you feel so good after exercising.” Exercise releases endorphins, which leads to the feeling known as a “runner’s high.”

Acupuncture and arthritis

DAAN — Thu, 26 Aug 2010 10:01:06 +0000

Acupuncture can provide relief for arthritis sufferers which can provide increase mobility and quality of life for those who suffer from this illness.

For almost everyone who lives long enough, arthritis will be a part of life. The effects of arthritis rob us of our mobility and ability to live our lives fully. In Western medicine, these changes in the joints are known as degenerative joint disease or osteoarthritis. Often, the patient is given pain pills and expected to live a life of increasing discomfort and disability. At some point, joints may be replaced. And that is all there is to look forward to. After all, our bodies just degenerate over time and then we die. How depressing! Especially since this is untrue.

Acupuncture and chronic headaches

DAAN — Wed, 25 Aug 2010 10:51:38 +0000

Acupuncture can greatly reduce chronic headaches and it works better than asprin in providing relief.

Acupuncture works better than drugs like aspirin to reduce the severity and frequency of chronic headaches, U.S. researchers reported on Monday.

A review of studies involving nearly 4,000 patients with migraine, tension headache and other forms of chronic headache showed that that 62 percent of the acupuncture patients reported headache relief compared to 45 percent of people taking medications, the team at Duke University found.

“Acupuncture is becoming a favorable option for a variety of purposes, ranging from enhancing fertility to decreasing post-operative pain, because people experience significantly fewer side effects and it can be less expensive than other options,” Dr. Tong Joo Gan, who led the study, said in a statement.

Acupuncture: effective painkiller

DAAN — Wed, 18 Aug 2010 10:05:32 +0000

Acupuncture has been proven as an effective painkiller.

Acupuncture is fast gaining acceptance in mainstream medicine right across the Western world. It’s already used routinely in several Australian emergency departments and is now undergoing a randomised, controlled trial in three Melbourne hospitals to alleviate pain from acute migraines, back pain and ankle sprain.

Researchers at the University of York and Hull York Medical School in the UK have just mapped acupuncture’s effect on the brain and have found that it changes specific neural structures, deactivating the areas in the brain associated with the processing of pain

Exploring alternative medicine

DAAN — Mon, 16 Aug 2010 10:34:04 +0000

Contrary to contemporary medicine, alternative medicine, such as acupuncture, treats the person’s health from a holistic perspective rather than treating the symptoms.

Acupuncture can be helpful for nausea and pain for cancer patients during treatment. Pain can often be decreased or doses of medication lowered in conjunction with acupuncture. Up to 40% of his patients are dealing with infertility.

If a woman chooses, his care is integrated into the treatment plan created by the infertility specialist. In his mind, this integration with complementary medicine rather than segmentation helps healing work on many levels including emotional, physical and spiritual.

Hollywood celebrity uses acupuncture to lose weight

DAAN — Sat, 07 Aug 2010 11:56:35 +0000

Jennifer Lopez, the international music superstar, uses acupuncture to lose weight.

According to the Acupuncture America website, acupuncture for weight loss is successful because the practice “balances the electrical forces and allows the body and all its organs to function properly”. In a recent article from OK! magazine, Lopez reportedly dropped 15 pounds utilizing acupuncture along with Chienese herbs and weight-loss treatments.

Should you try acupuncture

DAAN — Fri, 06 Aug 2010 10:57:47 +0000

If you are thinking of trying acupuncture, this article provides a good introduction and the benefits associated with acupuncture.

A healing tool of Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM), acupuncture has been successfully administered for more than 2,500 years. According to the TCM view, a vital energy called qi flows through the body along channels called meridians. I like to think of these channels as a sprinkling system for the body, bringing qi to vital organs and extremities in much the way hoses bring water to your garden. In the TCM model of health and disease, when qi flow is blocked it stagnates. Stagnating qi causes illness. Acupuncture therapy unblocks the qi flow, strengthens or weakens the qi (think opening and closing the garden spigot) and directs it to areas of need.

A holistic practice, acupuncture seeks to re-establish the body’s healthy equilibrium and function, as opposed to forcing healing using surgery or pharmaceuticals. Interestingly, Chinese practitioners were not the only (and may not have been the first) to identify these energy pathways in the body. The frozen body of a man recovered well-preserved from the Alps features tattoos that correspond to Chinese acupuncture’s qi meridians.

Acupuncture provides relief for chronic headaches

DAAN — Tue, 03 Aug 2010 08:43:17 +0000

If you suffer chronic headaches, you are in luck. Acupuncture can provide relief that you’ve been looking for.

Acupuncture may bring some added pain relief to people with chronic headaches, a new study suggests.

The study, the largest to date on using acupuncture to ease headaches, adds to a conflicting body of evidence: Some research has suggested that adding acupuncture to standard headache medication brings patients additional pain relief; other studies, however, have found that “sham” acupuncture — using blunted needles that do not pierce the skin — is as effective as the real thing.

Chinese medicine and cancer

DAAN — Sun, 01 Aug 2010 13:07:13 +0000

Chinese medicine and acupuncture have the effect of slowing down tumor growth, treat the pain from cancer and minimize side effects from chemotherapy.

Chinese Medicine and acupuncture does not ‘treat” cancer, what it does is prevent tumor growth and treat the pain the cancer can cause, and the side effects of treatments like chemotherapy and radiation. It also helps to prepare the body for surgery and get it back in shape post-op. There are several tools to tackle with. Three are discussed here : Food Therapy, Herbal Medicine and Acupuncture.

Exploring Chinese medicine

DAAN — Fri, 30 Jul 2010 10:47:50 +0000

More people are exploring Chinese medicine and how they can benefit from this ancient practice.

Modern scientific equipment can help to observe energy channels in the body and measure changes that occur in patients undergoing Asian treatments. According to Richardson, not only have human energy flows been identified through heat-sensitive photography, they are located where ancient Chinese medicine has always said they are.

A recent article in the Wall Street Journal identified how acupuncture affects brain scans (“Decoding an Ancient Therapy,” March 22, 2010, www.wsj.com). “It’s fascinating to see the MRI pictures in the article that show a carpal tunnel patient’s brain before and after acupuncture,” Richardson said. In this example the brain region where pain is sensed was highly activated prior to the procedure; afterward, it was in a calm and restful state.