March National Links
From The Washington Post: A study published in December by the National Center for Complementary and Alternative Medicine (NCCAM), a part of the National Institutes of Health, found that 3.1 million adults and 150,000 children used acupuncture in 2007, seeking relief from ailments including headache or back pain, insomnia and attention-deficit disorders. That was about 1 million more adults than in 2002, when the last NCCAM survey was done. "In the consciousness of the American public, acupuncture has become white bread," said Joseph M. Helms, a physician who trains medical doctors in acupuncture techniques.
The people who go regularly for treatment swear by it. Some wouldn't miss a week. Others scoff that it's complete hokum and that you would get just as much help from a nap. The American Medical Association takes no position specifically on acupuncture; the AMA groups it with other alternative treatments, saying "there is little evidence to confirm the safety or efficacy of most alternative therapies." It says "well-designed, stringently controlled research" is needed to evaluate its efficacy.
www.washingtonpost.com
From The Washington Post: The impending national discussion about broadening access to health care, improving medical practice and saving money is giving a group of scientists an opening to make a once-unthinkable proposal: Shut down the National Center for Complementary and Alternative Medicine at the National Institutes of Health.
The notion that the world's best-known medical research agency sponsors studies of homeopathy, acupuncture, therapeutic touch and herbal medicine has always rankled many scientists. That the idea for its creation 17 years ago came from a U.S. senator newly converted to alternative medicine's promise didn't help.
Although NCCAM has a comparatively minuscule budget and although it is a "center" rather than an "institute," making it officially second-class in the NIH pantheon, the principle is what mattered. But as NIH's budget has flattened in recent years, better use for NCCAM's money has also become an issue.
www.washingtonpost.com
Chief Warrant Officer James Brad Smith broke five ribs, punctured a lung and shattered bones in his hand and thigh after falling more than 20 feet from a Black Hawk helicopter in Baghdad last month.
While he was recovering at Walter Reed Army Medical Center in Washington, his doctor suggested he add acupuncture to his treatment to help with the pain.
news.softpedia.com
For years, Dr. Ali Keshavarzian ignored “alternative” therapies because his Western-trained brain wanted more evidence that they actually worked. But Keshavarzian also knew conventional medicine often needed some assistance. And when he learned his patients were seeking out natural products, acupuncture, meditation and massage, he took a deep breath and dived in.
Ten years later, Keshavarzian straddles both worlds, using Western treatments along with a variety of alternative approaches, a combination known as complementary and alternative medicine, or CAM. “CAM is looking at a patient as a human being, rather than a disease,” said Keshavarzian, a gastroenterologist at Rush University Medical Center. “Instead of treating ‘ulcerative colitis,’ I treat ‘Mr. Jones.’”
www.projo.com
One is used to hearing about traditional cancer treatments like chemotherapy and radiation, but mainstream medicine is becoming more accepting of other less traditional therapies. In fact, studies have shown complementary therapies such as acupuncture may have a broad range of benefits for cancer patients.
Acupuncture is part of ancient Chinese medicine. It's been around for thousands of years. But only recently has it been offered to help patients cope with the side effects of chemotherapy and radiation. "These are therapies that have not traditionally been part of what medicine has offered patients, like massage, nutrition, counseling, and acupuncture," said oncologist Dr. Neal Rothschild.
cbs4.com
Eleanor Walker, MD, director of breast radiation oncology in the Henry Ford Health System, and lead author of a study entitled “Acupuncture for the Treatment of Vasomotor Symptoms in Breast Cancer Patients Receiving Hormone Suppression Treatment” (Walker EM, et al. Int J Radiat Oncol Biol Phys. 2008; 72(1 suppl):S103. Abstract 228) began this line of research when she discovered that traditional Chinese acupuncture had been used to treat hot flashes for many years. Dr Walker explained that this present study came about because “I was looking for something new and always had an interest in integrative medicine. I grew up in the Caribbean with a mother and aunties who treated us for various ailments with teas and the like. So I started researching and came upon a small study that described the use of acupuncture for hot flashes in prostate cancer patients who were on androgen-depression therapy. Because we have a center for integrative medicine here at Henry Ford, I was able to work with the doctors there,” to bring the study about. An abstract of this work was presented at the American Society for Therapeutic Radiology and Oncology conference in Boston in September 2008, and the full study will be submitted for publication in 2009.
www.oncologynursingnews.com
NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - A survey of patients who take over-the-counter products containing kudzu extract or kudzu root, suggests that components of the vine may be of use in managing cluster headache. "Cluster headache patients, through trial and error, may have discovered a new cure for their horrible disorder," Dr. R. Andrew Sewell told Reuters Health.
In the medical journal Headache, Sewell points out that kudzu root was described in a Chinese medical texts some 1800 years ago and its rhizome continues to be used as an ingredient in a variety of traditional medicines. Among its effects is an increase in cerebral blood flow in the brain.
Sewell of Yale University School of Medicine, West Haven, Connecticut and colleagues surveyed 235 cluster headache patients by email regarding their use of complementary and alternative remedies. Kudzu was mentioned in such a way as to limit its appearance as a subject of particular interest. In all, 159 patients responded and 22 (14 percent) endorsed self-treatment with kudzu. Sixteen of this group -- 11 with episodic cluster headache and 5 with chronic cluster headache -- agreed to further evaluation.
www.reuters.com
From the New York Law Journal: Surgeons removed two needle fragments from the inside of the right ventricle of Maria Swezey's heart in 1999. No one knows how the shards got there, but Swezey's legal team believes they entered her body while she received acupuncture treatments to her back, then traveled up an artery into her heart. In a decision last week, the Appellate Division, 2nd Department, rejected that theory, and threw out Swezey's claims against two acupuncturists.
However, the panel upheld the denial of a motion to dismiss filed by the physician who allegedly misdiagnosed her symptoms, holding that a triable issue of fact existed as to his purported malpractice.
www.law.com
From US News and World Report: A new herbal formula based in ancient Chinese medicine may be able to control allergic reactions to peanuts and other foods, researchers from New York City's Mount Sinai School of Medicine report. "We can reverse the peanut allergic reaction," said lead researcher Dr. Xiu-Min Li, director of the Center for Chinese Herbal Therapy for Allergy and Asthma at Mount Sinai.
In addition, protection from allergic reactions to peanuts persisted for almost nine months after treatment was stopped, Li said. "The herbal formula can stop peanut allergy and produce a prolonged protection," she said. "This formula may be effective for human peanut allergy." The report was published in the February online edition of The Journal of Allergy and Clinical Immunology.
health.usnews.com
www.sciencedaily.com
www.modernmedicine.com
The majority of cancer patients use so-called "complementary methods" in addition to traditional treatments such as surgery and chemotherapy, according to a study conducted by researchers from the American Cancer Society and published in the journal Cancer.
"We receive thousands of phone calls each year about complementary methods at the American Cancer Society national cancer information center, and our Web pages on complementary methods are among the most popular on our Web site," lead author Ted Gansler said.
www.naturalnews.com
Acupuncture, which has been used and studied throughout the world for more than 4,000 years, can be utilized to rebalance the flow of energy (Qi) in the body and effectively treat many conditions. At Mayo Clinic, acupuncture has been used successfully for pain management, postoperative nausea, anxiety relief, drug addiction, insomnia and headaches, to name a few.
www.gather.com
Citronella (Cymbopogon nardus) has been used to treat rheumatic pain in the practice of traditional Chinese medicine; in many cultures, the leaves of citronella have been used for both aromatic and medicinal properties including the treatment of fevers, menstrual difficulties, digestive problems, intestinal parasites and also as use as an insect repellent.
aromatherapy.suite101.com