Know your birth rights….Christine Northrup http://retwt.me/ZNvl

Osteoarthritic knee pain? Get acupuncture! Latest research from “Pain” http://bit.ly/4rUZyB

A little known Chinese herb has been receiving a lot of attention for its benefits for Polycystic Ovarian Syndrome, inhibiting tumor growth and now for Rheumatoid Arthritis (RA). In PinYin (the Romanization of Mandarin) it is known as Lei Gong Teng. Its botanical name is Tripterygium Wilfordii . Two thousand years ago the Chinese classified this herb as one that “dispels wind and dampness”. RA is often known as a wind and damp condition in Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM). Read the rest of this entry »

“Clinical and endocrinological changes after electro-acupuncture treatment in patients with osteoarthritis of the knee” Sadia Ahsinab et al, Pain, Sept 2009
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Watch: acupuncture helping dogs and cats http://tinyurl.com/nnhg68 reduces pain, increases vitality and flexibility

I know so many friends, especially ones with young kids, that have such a fear of sunlight. We need sun and it is my belief that children need to be in the sun, not coated with chemicals that are toxic and cause cancer! Yes sunscreen can cause cancer because we are lathering on chemicals that then cause oxidative damage to our DNA. The current medical thinking is that the most important reason we want to be in the sun is to increase our Vitamin D levels. Michael Holick MD a researcher at Boston University (an alma mata of mine) has a great presentation about Vitamin D and sunlight. Read the rest of this entry »

In a study with 80 subjects diagnosed with major depression the use of acupuncture reduced the amount of fluoxetine required as well as reducing the duration of administration.   The authors concluded: “…acupuncture to low-dose fluoxetine for depression is as effective as a recommended dose of fluoxetine treatment. Depressive patients with severe anxious symptoms and/or intolerable side-effects of antidepressants can benefit from it.”

Read the study here. (journal subscription required)

From Science Daily

Acupuncture has been used for over two millennia in East-Asian medicine to treat pain. Using brain imaging, researchers have provided novel evidence that traditional Chinese acupuncture affects the brain’s long-term ability to regulate pain. Their findings show acupuncture acts as more than a placebo, and can activate receptors in the brain that process and dampen pain signals.

Read the entire article here

In a sham-controlled study involving 60 adult subjects reporting insomnia for 3 or more nights per week for a period of at least 3 months, treatment with acupuncture (electroacupuncture), 3 times per week for a period of 3 weeks, was found to improve sleep. Subjects were divided into 2 groups. One group received real acupuncture (electroacupuncture at points: Yin Tang, DU-20, bilateral ear Shen Men, Sishencong, Anmian), while the other group received a sham treatment (“placebo acupuncture” at the same acupuncture points with Streitberger needles that do not pierce through the skin). As compared to pre-treatment, subjects in both groups reported significant improvements in sleep. Improvements were measured according to sleep diaries, 3-day actigraphy, self-reported questionnaires, and scores on the Insomnia Severity Index. Subjects who received real acupuncture were found to have significantly greater improvement, assessed via sleep diary and actigraphy. Moreover, a significantly greater percentage of subjects in the real acupuncture group were found to have sleep efficiency of 85% or greater, and a significantly greater percentage were found to have less than 30 minutes of wake after onset of sleep. These results suggest that acupuncture may be a safe and effective treatment for patients with primary insomnia – a debilitating disorder that has wide-ranging adverse implications. The authors conclude, “Because of some limitations of the current study, further studies are necessary to verify the effectiveness of acupuncture for insomnia
Source: VitaSearch http://www.vitasearch.com/get-clp-summary/38490

Migraine headaches have many causes as well as many effective treatments.   Often migraines can be triggered by the foods we eat.   The Mediator Release Blood testing I perform helps identify trigger foods that are then removed from the diet and In the vast majority of the cases the migraine headaches are relieved.

However I also use acupuncture to treat migraines and have found that it is very effective at eliminating the severity, duration, and frequency of migraines.   In a recent randomized controlled trial out of China with  253 migraine sufferers received treatment with acupuncture focusing on the Liver and GallBladder Read the rest of this entry »