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January 2013

Penelope Cruz with Acupuncture Ear Beads

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http://abcnews.go.com/blogs/health/2013/01/24/penelope-cruz-sports-acupuncture-beads/

 

Cruz was spotted wearing auriculotherapy at the January 10 premiere of “Venuto Al Mondo.” (Image credit: Carlos Alvarez/Getty Images)

The swath of tiny studs in Penelope Cruz’s ear isn’t the latest piercing fashion – it’s auriculotherapy, a form of acupuncture used to fight stress, pain and infertility.

The gold beads were spotted Jan. 10 at the Madrid premiere of “Venuto Al Mondo,” sparking rumors about whether the 38-year-old actress and husband Javier Bardem were hoping to give their toddler son a sibling.

“Auriculotherapy can be used for fertility, but those are not fertility points on her ear,” said Jill Blakeway, director of the Manhattan-based YinOva Centerfor complementary medicine. “Hers is a very standard protocol for people with stressful, busy lives.”

CLICK HERE to read about other celebrity remedies.

Auriculotherapy uses relexology points on the ear to tap into distant parts of the body, according to Blakeway.

“It’s almost like there’s a little homunculus; a little representation of the body that comes during embryonic development,” she said, describing how points in Cruz’s ear help calm the heart, mind and spleen, and bring the body into balance. “Auriculotherapy is remarkably effective,” she said.

During a treatment session, auriculotherapy needles are inserted about a quarter inch into the outer ear. When the session is over, Blakeway said the needles are removed and replaced with tiny gold or silver beads affixed with a sticky bandage that “potentiates the treatment.”

“It’s quite popular for relaxation,” Blakeway said of auriculotherapy. “We also do a lot for hunger, for people on diets.”

Acupuncture is gaining popularity in the U.S. as patients — and doctors — embrace a more holistic approach to medicine.

“Western medicine is very good for some things and not very good for others,” said Dr. Tony Chon, a medical acupuncturist with the Mayo Clinic’s Complementary and Integrative Medicine Program. “Treatments like acupuncture and stress management therapy look at patients as more of a whole rather than their individual parts.”

But studies on acupuncture have yielded a “hodgepodge of results,” Chon said, because the gold standard placebo-controlled trial doesn’t always work. “It’s hard to study because people have pain and stress for different reasons,” he said.

Blakeway said acupuncture is “particularly good for treating chronic long-term imbalances like arthritis, irritable bowel, asthma, allergies and hormonal imbalances that cause infertility.” Her husband, YinOva Center co-director Noah Rubenstein, performed acupuncture on Kristen Davis during an episode of  ”Sex and the City.” Davis’ character, Charlotte, was undergoing in vitro fertilization.

“Some studies have shown that acupuncture increases IVF rates,” said Dr. William Hurd, division chief of reproductive endocrinology and infertility at University Hospitals Case Medical Center in Cleveland. “Based on the limited data, we don’t recommend it, but we do offer it.”

Acupuncture’s stress-relieving effects in some patients can also boost the odds of becoming pregnant, Hurd said.

“The stress of not getting pregnant makes it less likely to get pregnant, so we encourage everyone to try anything they find helpful for stress as we help them with the medical side of it,” said Hurd.

Insomnia? Try Acupuncture

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http://www.healthcmi.com/index.php/acupuncturist-news-online/669-discoverysleepst36acupuncture

Electrical engineers in a medical research team discovered how acupuncture benefits sleep. They did it by measuring brain activity with EEG (electroencephalography) before, during and after an acupuncture treatment. Results were conclusive, acupuncture significantly increases slow wave activity of the brain relative to fast wave activity in both the frontal and central lobes. This phenomena is known to benefit the quality and duration of sleep.

EEG

The acupuncture point used in this study increases the delta band power density, a known sleep related brain wave band. In addition, acupuncture at this point downregulates alpha and beta band activity relative to delta band activity. The decreases in these bands also enhances sleep quality.

The researchers applied manual acupuncture to humans at acupoint ST36. It was found that this acupoint significantly increases the power ratio index of slow waves to fast waves following an acupuncture treatment. Stainless steel 0.2 mm diameter acupuncture needles were applied to the subjects. The needles were applied and retained for an initial two minutes followed by manual rotation of the needles applied for another two minutes. Measurements were taken throughout the brain of the delta (0 – 4 Hz), theta (4 – 8 Hz), alpha (8 – 13 Hz) and beta (13 – 30 Hz) bands. Notably, there were increases in the delta band power in five major brain areas during and after acupuncture.

The researchers note that “acupuncture at ST36 can induce obvious changes in different EEG rhythms in healthy subjects.” They also note that acupuncture modulations of brain activity resulting from acupuncture point stimulation show “that the  brain plays a key role in acupuncture research.” They also suggest that “cortical electrical activities may be an important mechanism by which acupuncture exerts its complex multisystem effects.”

 

 

ST36 Acupuncture EEG

 

Reference:
Chin. Phys. B Vol. 22, No. 2 (2013) 028703. Modulation of electroencephalograph activities by manual acupuncture stimulation in healthy subjects: An
autoregressive spectral analysis. Yi Guo-Sheng, Wang Jiang, Deng Bin, Wei Xi-Le, and Han Chun-Xiao.
a)School of Electrical and Automation Engineering, Tianjin University, Tianjin, China
b)Tianjin Key Laboratory of Information Sensing & Intelligent Control

Acupuncture for Plantar Fasciitis

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New research concludes that acupuncture is effective for treating plantar fasciitis, a painful inflammatory foot condition. Plantar fasciitis typically presents with pain on the underside of the foot and heel. The pain is often most severe when first stepping out of bed onto the floor in the morning. Another telltale sign of plantar fasciitis is pain upon dorsiflexion, lifting the foot towards the shin.

In this controlled clinical investigation, the acupuncture group demonstrated a significant reduction in foot pain while the control group showed only minimal changes. The control group received five weeks of analgesic medications, stretching exercises and shoe modifications. The acupuncture group received the same therapies plus electro-acupuncture treatments. The researchers concluded that, “Electro-acupuncture coupled with conventional treatments provided a success rate of 80% in chronic planar fasciitis which was more effective than conventional treatments alone.”

Another recent study demonstrates that acupuncture is effective for the treatment of plantar heel pain. The researchers note that acupuncture has more significant improvements in both pain relief and the restoration of function than a standard regime of care that includes non-steroidal anti-inflammatory medications. Based on these findings, the researchers formally recommend acupuncture for the treatment of plantar heel pain.

In yet another study, investigators concluded that acupuncture at acupoint P7 (Daling, “Big Tomb”) relieves the pain of plantar fasciitis. P7 is located in the middle of the transverse crease of the wrist. P7 is a Shu-Stream point and Yuan (Primary) acupuncture point that is known for the treatment of Heart and Spirit related issues including myocarditis, palpitations, insomnia, mental illness, irritability, and cardiac pain. P7 is also used for Stomach related conditions, however, nearby point P6 is a more common point for the treatment of Stomach issues such as stomachache, nausea, and vomiting.
According to Chinese medicine and acupuncture theory, Shu-Stream points treat a heavy sensation of the of the body and painful joints. P7 is therefore a common point for the treatment of wrist pain because it is a Shu-Stream point located at the wrist . However, the researchers have chosen P7 for the wrist’s distal relationship to the ankle and heel region. At a six month follow-up examination, the P7 acupuncture group showed a significant improvement over the control group.
Plantar fasciitis affects approximately 2 million US citizens annually. These findings demonstrate that acupuncture is an important treatment modality for inflammation of the connective tissue on the bottom of the foot. Advantages to acupuncture treatment are that it is both safe, acupuncture is nontoxic and is nonsurgical, and effective.
References:
The American Journal of Chinese Medicine, An International Journal of Comparative Medicine East and West. Efficacy of Electro-Acupuncture in Chronic Plantar Fasciitis: A Randomized Controlled Trial. Wipoo Kumnerddee and Nitsara Pattapong. Volume 40, Issue 06, 2012.

Shi Ping Zhang, Tsui-Pik Yip, and Qiu-Shi Li.  Acupuncture Treatment for Plantar Fasciitis: A Randomized Controlled Trial with Six Months Follow-Up. Evidence-Based Complementary and Alternative, Medicine, Volume 2011 (2011), Article ID 154108.

Acupunct Med. doi:10.1136/acupmed-2012-010183. The effectiveness of acupuncture for plantar heel pain: a systematic review. Richard James Clark, Maria Tighe.

http://www.healthcmi.com/index.php/acupuncturist-news-online/661-acupunctureceusplantarfasciitisea

Acupuncture Reduces Knee Pain

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A new study concludes that acupuncture reduces knee pain and increases mobility for patients with osteoarthritis. This new randomized, controlled, double-blinded study also revealed some differences in acupuncture treatments. The researchers compared non-specific (sham) needling, modern acupuncture and classical acupuncture treatments.

The results showed that sham acupuncture only achieved a patient pain reduction rate in 48% of patients while modern acupuncture achieved a 64% rate and classical acupuncture achieved a 73% rate. Sham acupuncture did not improve knee mobility but modern and classical acupuncture made significant, measurable improvements in knee mobility. The researchers concluded that there is “a specific effect of acupuncture in knee mobility.” The researchers also note, “With respect to knee motility, individualised classical acupuncture achieved twice the effect of semistandardised modern acupuncture.”

Acupuncture for Knees

The sham acupuncture bodily points were those not specifically noted for the treatment of knee pain in Chinese medicine texts. The modern acupuncture points were those suggested based on the biomedical condition of knee osteoarthritis. The acupuncture points were: ST36, ST34, EX32, SP9, SP10, SP6, GB34, LI4. The classical acupuncture points chosen were based on a customized differential diagnosis based on tissue tenderness, tongue diagnosis, pulse diagnosis, syndrome differentiation and symptoms. Needles chose for the study in all cases were 0.22 X 40mm copper needles. Ear and hand points were excluded from the study. Needle stimulation was applied and needle retention was a total of 30 minutes per treatment.

The researchers note, “This suggests a considerable specific effect of acupuncture in objective knee flexibility, an effect that appears to be method-specific as well… we observed a rapid improvement of knee flexibility immediately after classical acupuncture, which was twice the effect observed after modern acupuncture and absent after non-specific needling.”

This is not the first study showing the effectiveness of acupuncture for the treatment of knee disorders. One recent study discovered that acupuncture is more effective than both sham acupuncture and biomedicine for the treatment of knee pain. A meta-analysis of 14 random controlled clinical trials involving 3,835 patients states, “Acupuncture provided significantly better relief from knee osteoarthritis pain and a larger improvement in function than sham acupuncture, standard care treatment, or waiting for further treatment.” The study notes that acupuncture for the treatment of knee osteoarthritis is “better at relieving pain and restoring function” than both standard biomedical care and sham acupuncture.
References:
Max Karner, Frank Brazkiewicz, Andrew Remppis, et al., “Objectifying Specific and Nonspecific Effects of Acupuncture: A Double-Blinded Randomised Trial in Osteoarthritis of the Knee,” Evidence-Based Complementary and Alternative Medicine, vol. 2013, Article ID 427265, 7 pages, 2013. doi:10.1155/2013/427265

Sau. Med J. 2012 May;33(5):526-32. Needle acupuncture for osteoarthritis of the knee. A systematic review and updated meta-analysis. Cao L, Zhang XL, Gao YS, Jiang Y. Department of Orthopedic Surgery, Shanghai Sixth People’s Hospital, Shanghai Jiaotong University, Shanghai, China.

http://www.healthcmi.com/index.php/acupuncturist-news-online/671-acupuncturereducekneeflexibility