DAAN Chinese Herbs and Acupuncture » Women’s Health

Acupuncture can help with menstrual cramps

DAAN — Fri, 19 Feb 2010 09:59:25 +0000

Acupuncture has been shown to be effective in lessen menstrual cramps, as the latest study indicates.

Acupuncture may be helpful in alleviating menstrual cramps, which affect up to half of all young women, an extensive review of past studies has found.

Health

In a review of 27 studies that involved nearly 3,000 women, researchers from the Oriental Hospital at Kyung Hee University Medical Center in South Korea found that acupuncture may be more effective than drugs or herbal medicines.

“There is convincing evidence on the effectiveness of using acupuncture to treat pain as it stimulates the production of endorphins and serotonin in the central nervous system,” the researchers wrote in a statement.

Endorphins are compounds produced naturally by the human body during exercise and excitement and they result in a feeling of well-being. Serotonin is a brain chemical.

“Compared with pharmacological treatment or herbal medicine, acupuncture was associated with a significant reduction in pain,” they added in their paper, which was published in the latest issue of the BJOG: An International Journal of Obstetrics and Gynaecology.

The U.S. National Institutes of Health has cited acupuncture as a possibly effective way of dealing with menstrual cramps.

The causes for many cases of menstrual cramps are unknown and for some women, the pain — accompanied by bloating, nausea, vomiting, diarrhea, dizziness and headache — can become more severe or may last longer as they grow older.

Chinese herbs can help relieve PMS symptoms

DAAN — Thu, 03 Dec 2009 19:47:37 +0000

Chinese herbs have shown to be effective in relieving symptoms of PMS.

DAAN specializes in treating women’s health issues.

As many as 90 percent of all women deal with various degrees of premenstrual syndrome, ranging from moderate to severe aches, pains, bloating and emotional stress during their reproductive years. Reports show that as many as 40 percent have symptoms that are distressing enough to interfere with their daily lives.

Many women turn to over-the-counter drugs that only mask PMS symptoms for a few hours, but there are things you can do to repair the body from within. Here are five easy and natural cures that I’ve found get to the root of PMS symptoms and help repair your body naturally:

Bloating — Try some peach kernel (a fruit pit, not a nut). In the Chinese Herbal Materia Medica, peach kernel belongs to a category of herbs that invigorate the blood, expel stasis and moisten the intestines. All three of these actions help reduce bloating due to the menstrual cycle. The Chinese believe 10,000 diseases start in the intestines. The natural fats and oils contained in peach seeds help lubricate the intestines and unlock the bowels, thereby producing a gentle laxative effect. Not all peach kernels are created equal, so make sure you purchase the correct medicinal species. These can be found easily on the Internet, most Chinese markets or your local Chinatown. It’s extremely inexpensive and traditionally 5-10 kernels are crushed, boiled and made as a tea. You may also eat them raw, but use no more than 5-10 kernels. Some evidence says peach kernels may trigger an allergic reaction for those who have nut allergies. However slight, it may be better to avoid peach kernel if you have such allergies or if you’re pregnant.

The aphrodisiac qualities of ginseng

DAAN — Fri, 27 Nov 2009 23:28:57 +0000

Ginseng is known for its ability to increase energy and endurance, but it can also work wonders for your sex life:

To support my suspicions about what was causing my friend’s amorous behavior, the 2006 book “Ginseng Dreams: The Secret World of America’s Most Valuable Plant,” by Kristin Johannsen, reveals that one of ginseng’s medicinal properties is the aphrodisiacal effect. According to Johannsen, ginseng has a powerful aphrodisiacal affect based on several studies. Johannsen also discusses the research carried out by Laura Murphy, a scientist and instructor in the physiology department at the University of Southern Illinois. Murphy tested the effects of American ginseng on rats, and she was surprised at the results. She found the ginseng-fed rats’ libido and performance rate was much higher than that of the control group. The effects of ginseng were much more effective on the libido than cocaine, marijuana or prescription drugs. I think I will be cooking with ginseng oil all the time!

Ginseng is a perennial plant belonging to the Araliaceae botanical family, which includes carrots, celery and parsnips. The root is yellowish with a creamy texture like parsnips. The word ginseng literally means “man plant,” because the shape of the ginseng root is similar to that of a human being. Ginseng is also known as the tiger of the plant world, and as the plant that hides from man, because it grows slowly and favors the deep forests. The botanical name Panax was later given to ginseng, and it means “all healing” or “cure-all” in Greek.

History suggests that ginseng was discovered in the mountains of Northern China over 5,000 years ago. It is also believed that ginseng was used as a food source and a medicinal remedy over 3,000 years ago. Ginseng is highly prized and respected by American and Chinese herbalists. The belief is that ginseng helps the body and mind stay in balance. It is also believed that ginseng improves the function of the heart and nervous system, and that it stimulates the endocrine gland. The popularity of ginseng was so great at one point that the plant almost became extinct!

Three North American Indian tribes used the ginseng root for its medicinal power and health benefits. The American settlers discovered ginseng in the 18th century in the New England region of the United States. By 1850, so much ginseng was being harvested and exported to Asia that it almost became extinct. Initially, attempts to cultivate ginseng failed until the early 1900s, when the East Coast farmers began to grown ginseng in small gardens.

Healthy hair means a healthy you

DAAN — Sun, 15 Nov 2009 01:58:12 +0000

Susan Yen L.Ac

Now days, thinning or receding hairline is not a privilege reserved only for the middle-aged or retirees. Many young women limit their food intake to attain a pencil-like stature, whereas young men pile on the protein drinks and meat to beef up their muscle mass. This type of one-sided dietary habit is often a main culprit towards thinning hair and poor skin growth.

When caloric intake is very limited for periods of time, our body would ensure the limited fuel goes to our vital organs first and aesthetics of beautiful skin and hair would be of the least concern, since it is not vital for survival. In addition to eating balanced meals, taking blood and yin restoring herbs such as Dong Gui, He Shou Wu and black sesame would help to invigorate skin and hair producing cells.

For those carnivores that do not eat vegetables or fruits are doing themselves disservice because the fibers make sure the digestive tracks are swept clean and the arteries are free from clogging up. Without this cleaning action, the gunk inside will manifest itself onto the outside with such irritants as acne, oily skin and easy to fall out hair.

Traditional Chinese medicine for infertility

DAAN — Sun, 25 Oct 2009 22:01:26 +0000

A portrait of British doctor Xiao-Ping Zhai, who has has great success treating women for infertility using tradition Chinese medicine:

Watching a Zhai consultation is bizarre. She will check the tongue, the pulse, sleep patterns, whether a patient is thirsty, peeing a lot and their bowel movements. Often changes are made to the diet – no sugar, coffee, alcohol, dairy, wheat, spicy foods – and every month a woman is asked to keep a temperature chart.

Slowly, through the use of herbs and acupuncture, Zhai begins to regulate the vital energy, or Qi, that flows through the body. According to this ancient practice, good health and metabolism depend on Qi. As it flows, it provides warmth and distributes body fluids.

Each organ has its own pattern of Qi and each organ is represented on the tongue, which presents Zhai with a kind of map of the body’s health. If one organ is not functioning properly, it affects the rest of the body: “It only takes one thing to be wrong to throw the whole system out,” she explains.

Common diagnoses seem to be too much liver heat and blood stagnation, damp-heat obstruction in the abdomen, slow blood circulation to the ovaries – you get the picture.

Zhai says she can start seeing changes within three months but will not put a time frame on treatment: “Every woman is different.”

The herbs she uses are mostly shipped in from China and made up to her prescriptions, although she is currently looking at manufacturing them in the UK. They include carthamus flower (huang hua) for regulating the flow of Qi to alleviate pain, glossy privet fruit (nu zhen zi) for nourishing the kidney and liver, as well as peach kernel, angelica root and codonopsis root.

It is easy to see why many western clinicians distrust TCM. To them it seems so random, so weird, although acupuncture is slowly gaining more credibility for fertility. (Last year a Dutch and US research project published in the British Medical Journal revealed that for every 10 cycles of IVF with acupuncture there would be one extra pregnancy compared with cycles performed without acupuncture.)

Zhai is aware of the scepticism: “I wish TCM could be regulated,” she says, “I really do.”

Treating infertility with alternative medicine

DAAN — Thu, 22 Oct 2009 03:02:39 +0000

Alternative medicine, including acupuncture, can boost the success of fertility treatments:

New research suggests that mind-body treatment can boost the odds that infertile women will become pregnant by in vitro fertilization — at least after more than one cycle.
Click here to find out more!

Dr. Alice Domar, who specializes in mind-body therapy in Boston, assigned one group of women undergoing in vitro fertilization (IVF) to take part in 10 sessions of a mind-body program; another group undergoing IVF did not take part. There was no difference in pregnancy rates between the two groups.

But things changed during the next cycle of IVF treatments. Then, 52 percent of the women who took part in the mind-body program became pregnant, compared with 20 percent of those in the other group.

Mind-body sessions appeared to be especially helpful for women who were more depressed, judging from test scores, the study found.

“It’s clear, based on this carefully designed study, that a holistic approach to infertility care leads to better outcomes for patients,” Dr. R. Dale McClure, president of the American Society for Reproductive Medicine, said in a news release from the organization.

In a related study, researchers from the University of California, San Francisco, surveyed 431 infertile couples undergoing treatment and found that 28 percent had tried complementary and alternative medical therapy. Acupuncture was the most common approach (22 percent had tried it), followed by herbal therapies (17 percent) and body work (5 percent).

Treating infertility with acupuncture

DAAN — Sat, 17 Oct 2009 17:13:35 +0000

Many women are turning to acupuncture and traditional Chinese medicine to treat infertility:

Felicia Selmensberger had no clue what was in store when she made her first appointment with an acupuncturist in Snyder. All she knew was that she wanted to get pregnant and carry her baby to term. After three miscarriages and a string of fertility doctors in Buffalo and Rochester, the 35-year-old was willing to give ancient Chinese medicine a try.

She is not alone. As a form of complementary or alternative health care, acupuncture –the traditional Chinese medicine that involves the insertion of fine needles at key points into the body – is making inroads on the regional health scene, with more than 25 facilities offering acupuncture services.

In September, Ongiara College in Fort Erie, Ont., welcomed its first class of acupuncture students. At Daemen College, students are offered a specialization in complementary and alternative health care, including a class in acupressure.

“My problem is not conceiving, but holding a pregnancy,” explained Selmensberger, of Lancaster. “I’m willing to do anything it takes. If this is natural and healthy for your body, maybe I need to switch to that gear.”

Acupuncture can balance body energy, body chemicals and hormones, stated Aihan Kuhn in her book “Simple Chinese Medicine.” No drugs are prescribed. The needles are not medicinally coated.

“I strongly believe there are pathways in the body that are different from what medical doctors dissect in the anatomy lab,” said Dr. David Kurss, an obstetrician/gynecologist and director of Women’s Wellness Center of Western New York. “These are called energy pathways or meridians, and they affect vitality of the entire body. Not infrequently, when doctors can’t determine the cause of a particular ailment, an acupuncturist, by opening up blockages, can initiate steps to resolving the problem.”

Acupuncture has been used in this country to help manage pain, stress, migraine headaches and infertility – but in other countries, specifically in England, acupuncture has been integrated with Western medicine as well as other forms of complementary therapy.

In 2006, an estimated 3.1 million U. S. adults and 150,000 children used acupuncture, according to the 2007 National Health Interview, the latest statistics available. The report included a comprehensive survey of complementary and alternative medicine use by Americans. But acupuncture can be difficult for the average patient to comprehend.

“The acupuncturist feels for energy,” said Justine Tutuska, director of health care studies at Daemen. “They’ll look at the tongue, palpate the stomach feeling for heat or cold. They’re looking to create balance. That’s why it is so strange for people. We are used to being told or labeled with a certain disease, and then given a medication to counter it.

“Chinese medicine is not good or bad,” Tutuska noted. “It’s just a different diagnosis.

Acupuncture to relieve back pain in pregnant women

DAAN — Sat, 17 Oct 2009 17:03:06 +0000

Acupuncture can relieve back pain in pregnant women safely and effectively:

A special acupuncture technique can help ease lower back and pelvic pain in pregnant women, new research shows.

In a study, women who had pressure needles held in place with tape at three acupuncture points in their ears for one week, were more likely to experience significant reductions in lower back and pelvic pain than those who had the needles placed at three “sham” points or women in a control group who didn’t get real or fake acupuncture.

Pregnant women often suffer from pain in the lower back and pelvis — and this can set the stage for chronic pain later on, Dr. Shu-Ming Wang of the Yale School of Medicine in New Haven, Connecticut and colleagues note in the American Journal of Obstetrics & Gynecology.

Ear acupuncture might offer a drug-free way to help ease pain in these women, Wang and colleagues say.

They randomly assigned 159 women in the 25th to 38th week of pregnancy to receive real acupuncture, acupuncture delivered to points that would theoretically not affect pain in the pelvic or lower back area, and a control group.

Every woman was also instructed to use self-care as needed, including resting, taking acetaminophen, and applying warm and cold compresses.

All of the 152 women who completed the two-week study reported some degree of pain reduction and improvement in their ability to function.

A 30 percent or greater reduction in pain was reported by 81 percent of women in the acupuncture group, 59 percent of women in the sham acupuncture group and 47 percent of women in the control group. The difference between the sham and control groups wasn’t statistically significant.

Thirty-seven percent of women in the acupuncture group were pain-free after a week of acupuncture, compared to 22 percent in the sham group and 9 percent of the control group. Improvements in function were significantly greater among women who had real acupuncture compared to those who got the fake version or received no treatment.

If you are in the San Francisco bay area, contact DAAN to schedule an acupuncture treatment.

The “Lady Drink” for PMS

DAAN — Thu, 15 Oct 2009 02:14:15 +0000

Dr. Chao Herbal Lady Drink, a new drink that includes the Chinese herb Herba leonuri, is targeted toward women and is designed to help alleviate PMS:

Dr. Chao Herbal Lady Drink, introduced in September at Whole Foods Market and other stores, professes to reduce symptoms of PMS, alleviate acne, promote ovarian health, excrete toxic substances and have anti-aging benefits, all with no sugar, calories, artificial sweeteners or preservatives, glutens and caffeine. But there are some who call for skepticism.

“It not only quenches thirst, but is also naturally beneficial to the body,” said Ted Chao, president of U.S. People’s Food and Beverages Co. of Claremont, California, manufacturer of Lady Drink and other herbal drinks.

The main ingredient in Lady Drink is Herba leonuri, better known as the motherwort herb. Although the herb has not been clinically tested in the West, it is a traditional Chinese medicine, used to promote blood circulation and calm the nervous system. The plant is originally from Central Asia.

“The motherwort herb is commonly used and is good for women’s health,” said Robert Streisfeld, naturopathic physician and founder of Personal Health Design Inc. in Chicago.

Acupressure for nausea during pregnancy

DAAN — Thu, 08 Oct 2009 02:42:55 +0000

A simple and effective technique for easing a variety of aches and ailments, acupressure can help with nausea associated with pregnancy:

eople use acupressure to treat many conditions. Acupressure is based on the belief that an invisible life energy called qi (sounds like ‘chee’) travels around the body along special pathways. Some people believe that, when this energy flow gets blocked, people have health problems. This is the same idea behind acupuncture. But unlike acupuncture, acupressure does not use needles. You can do acupressure yourself.

Acupressure involves putting pressure on certain points on the body in the belief that this will free the energy flow. You can use your thumbs, fingertips, or a band to apply this pressure. Acupressure to treat nausea and vomiting is usually on the P6 point. The P6 point is on your forearm, about the width of three fingers up from the crease of your wrist. By placing your fingers over your P6 point and applying pressure, you might prevent nausea.

You can buy a wristband that has a plastic disc that fits over the P6 point. This gives continuous acupressure while you’re wearing the band. These wristbands, such as Sea-Band, are usually used to prevent travel sickness.
How can it help?

In one study of women admitted to hospital with severe nausea and vomiting, women felt less sick and vomited less if they’d had acupressure at the P6 point, compared with women who’d had ’sham’ acupressure at another point on their wrist. [1]

The women in the study did acupressure by pressing with their thumbs on the P6 point three times a day for 10 minutes.