Market Day Daily World News

Should You Try Acupuncture?
Posted on October 2, 2006

by Richard Johnson

Acupuncture, a Chinese therapy that has been used for centuries, isbased on the theory that there is an energy called “chi” or “qi”flowing through the body.

Chi flows along energy pathways called meridians, and acupuncturistsbelieve a blocking or imbalance of the flow of chi at any point mayresult in illness. Acupuncture unblocks and balances the flow of chito restore health.

Acupuncture is most often used to relieve pain, and researchers haveverified results, citing body chemicals that have calming effects(opioid peptides) and affected glands (such as the hypothalamus) thatproduce pain-killing substances.

Traditional Chinese acupuncture usually is done by putting very thinneedles into the skin at certain points on the body to produce energyflow along the body’s meridians. Other types of acupuncture use heat,pressure, or mild electrical current.

In addition, North American psychological, physiological and medicalresearchers are also studying acupuncture (or Qigong) with interest.

Today more than 70 million Chinese practice Qigong daily, as acurative step for existing afflictions and as a preventative measure.

Jeanie Marie Kraft, L.Ac. MyAcuDoc.com

Acupuncture shows promise for hot flashes

Mon Sep 25, 2006 4:49 PM BST
By Amy Norton

NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - Acupuncture may offer women an alternative for easing hot flashes during menopause, preliminary research suggests.

In a study of 29 women with frequent, daily hot flashes, researchers found that those who received acupuncture began to have fewer and less severe symptoms during the night.

As nighttime hot flashes improved, so did the quality of the women’s sleep, the researchers report in the journal Fertility & Sterility.

Hot flashes are a common part of menopause, and women who get them often have difficulty getting a good night’s sleep. Hormone replacement therapy is effective at quelling hot flashes, but given the risks of the therapy — including increased risks of heart disease and breast cancer — many women are interested in alternative treatments.

The new findings offer preliminary evidence that acupuncture works, but it’s too early to recommend the procedure for hot flashes, senior study author Dr. Rachel Manber told Reuters Health.
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Jeanie Marie Kraft, L.Ac. MyAcuDoc.com

Acupuncture May Cool Hot Flashes

Sept. 22, 2006(WebMD) Acupuncture may nix nighttime hot flashes caused by menopause, according to a new study.

Researchers found seven weeks of acupuncture treatment reduced the severity of nighttime hot flashes by 28 percent among menopausal women compared with a 6 percent decrease among women who had a sham acupuncture treatment.

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Jeanie Marie Kraft, L.Ac. MyAcuDoc.com

Tips for relieving arthritis

This past summer was quite humid and damp here in New England. Most people and dogs who have any arthritic tendencies seemed to feel it more than usual. For both pets and humans one of the easiest and safe remedies for the stiffness and pain from arthritis is to take an Omega 3 oil supplement. Flax seeds or oil, Salmon oil or Cod Liver oil all come in liquid or capsule form.

Omega 3 oils lubricate the entire body, especially those creaky joints that seem to feel the brunt of damp weather. They also help skin, hair, hormonal balance and lubricate the intestines. Studies have shown that they also improve moods.

Acupuncture and herbal supplements can also relieve the pain and symptoms of arthritis and other ailments of the joints and bones. For more info on how acupuncture can help you please visit Four Paws Acupuncture
for dogs or Jeanie Marie Kraft, L.Ac. MyAcuDoc.com for people

Acupuncture relieves low back pain over long-term, study says

By Patricia Reaney
REUTERS

11:33 a.m. September 14, 2006

LONDON – Acupuncture can be effective in treating patients with low back pain and the benefits seem to improve with time, according to research published on Friday.

The ancient Chinese treatment, which involves inserting fine needles at specific meridians of the body, is a popular complementary therapy for a variety of ailments.

Hugh MacPherson and scientists at the University of York in England said the benefits of a short course of acupuncture were evident in their study of 241 back pain sufferers.
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Jeanie Marie Kraft, L.Ac. MyAcuDoc.com

Acupuncture can help treat effects of Parkinson’s disease:

Seoul professors
한겨레
Acupuncture works in treating motor disorders caused by Parkinson’s disease, a team of South Korean professors of Oriental medicine claimed Wednesday.

The team discovered that if the treatment is administered on the right side of patients’ bodies with kinetic function disorders, it can help heal areas on the other side of their body.

The findings are “significant because acpuncture treatment can be employed as a preventive therapy for degenerative brain diseases, and it is also applicable to improving symptoms of Parkinson’s patients,” said Lim Sabina, a professor of Oriental medicine at Kyung Hee University who led the project.

The team was searching for “acupoints” on the bodies of Parkinson’s patients first, then hoped to reveal how the treatment works after conducting brain mapping studies using functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI), Lim said.

Acupuncture has traditionally been used as a form of healing in East Asian countries, including China, Korea and Japan. It works by piercing specific body parts with fine needles to relieve pain or produce a natural kind of local anaesthetic.

Seoul, Sept. 13 (Yonhap News)

기사등록 : 2006-09-13 오후 08:47:10
ⓒ 한겨레 (http://www.hani.co.kr). 무단전재 및 재배포금지

Jeanie Marie Kraft, L.Ac. MyAcuDoc.com

Searching for a Star

The NCCAOM is looking for a celebrity spokesperson who is a consumer of acupuncture to be the public representative for the profession for AOM Day and the upcoming 25th Anniversary celebration. We are asking our Diplomates us find the right person to reach out to the public and explain the benefits of acupuncture and Oriental medicine treatment. We hope to be able to shine the spotlight on AOM. However, in order to get media and the public’s attention, we need the right person and we know that we can’t find this person without you! If you have a suggestion or know of celebrity (movie, TV star or personality, political figure, journalist) that has benefited from acupuncture and/or OM and would be willing to be a spokesperson for the profession, please contact Mina Larson

Jeanie Marie Kraft, L.Ac. MyAcuDoc.com

Body & Soul Massage & Wellness Center of Salem, MA is now offering acupuncture!
Body & Soul Massage & Wellness Center

Alternative medicine: Getting their point across

By BLYTHE BERNHARD
The Orange County Register

Expansion plans for the acupuncture school at Kyung San University are helping to meet the growing demand in O.C. for alternative medicine.

Hyeong Soo Jin walked into Kyung San University on Monday with a sore shoulder and stiff neck. As he lay shirtless on the exam table, Jin relaxed as Elizabeth Ohm tapped tiny needles into his hands, feet, shoulder blades and neck. It felt like a mild electric shock, said Jin, who didn’t flinch when the needles went in. Jin, a 54-year-old Buddhist monk from Los Angeles, occasionally receives acupuncture treatment from Ohm, a doctor of Asian medicine and president of Kyung San. Before Ohm inserted the needles, she quizzed a student on where she should stick them. The student handed her the correct needle and then threw them away a few minutes later when she pulled them out of Jin’s body. A smiling Jin stood up, rolled his head and said the pain was gone.

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Jeanie Marie Kraft, L.Ac.
MyAcuDoc.com

Body & Soul Massage & Wellness Center of Salem, MA is now offering acupuncture!
Body & Soul Massage & Wellness Center

Relieve stress, emotional disturbances through acupuncture

Vashi2Panvel.Com: Navi Mumbai: August 10: Off late, there has been a tremendous increase in health-related problems. Most of us have a difficulty in finding out ways to relieve this stress. The well-found way to de-stress and relax is Acupuncture. “This is a method of encouraging the body to promote natural healing and to improve functioning. This is done by inserting needles and applying heat or electrical stimulation at very precise acupuncture points,” says Dr.Bharat, a Kandivali-based acupuncturist.

Acupuncture is the most sought after treatment option in the present scenario. “People mostly go for these kind of options because it doesn’t have any side effects,” he says. The cost linked with this kind of treatment does not make any difference. “People mostly think of health and fitness as their first priority. They mostly do not think much about the price in these cases,” he informs.
There are many people across the city who have been benefited by this method. “Every kind of disorder can be treated by this method. This has helped me in many ways. The back pain which was troubling me since long has been cured very effectively in two months time,” says Krishna Gupta, a homemaker, Kharghar.

There are many other serious diseases, which has been cured by acupuncture. “I was not able to move my hand as it had been struck off paralysis two years back. The situation was terrible but with the help of meridian acupuncture I was cured completely. I always recommend people to think about this option as a treatment,” says Raghuvendra Tripathi, a business man in Vashi.

Acupuncture is particularly useful in resolving physical problems related to tension, stress and emotional disturbances. The rejuvenation of the energies helps one to relax and remain in the calmer state of mind. The treatment relaxes you to the core.

Smriti Mishra

HOW DOES ACUPUNCTURE WORK?

The classical Chinese explanation is that channels of energy run in regular patterns through the body and over its surface. These energy channels, called meridians, are like rivers flowing through the body to irrigate and nourish the tissues. An obstruction in the movement of these energy rivers is like a dam that backs up in others.

Acupuncture treatments can help the body’s internal organs to correct imbalances in their digestion, absorption, and energy production activities, and in the circulation of their energy through the meridians.

The modern scientific explanation is that needling the acupuncture points stimulates the nervous system to release chemicals in the muscles, spinal cord, and brain. These chemicals will either change the experience of pain, or they will trigger the release of other chemicals and hormones, which influence the body’s, own internal regulating system.

The improved energy and biochemical balance produced by acupuncture results in stimulating the body’s natural healing abilities, and in promoting physical and emotional well-being.

In skilled hands, acupuncture treatment is a relatively painless procedure. You may notice a temporary worsening of your condition, but this usually indicates that an effective response will occur later in the treatment. Treatment usually works in stages, in that the first one or two treatments may produce no effect or perhaps only a transitory effect. A course of six to eight sessions is usually required for effective symptom relief. When such relief has been obtained, it often lasts for three to nine months when one or two further treatments will “top-up” the therapeutic benefit.

When the acupuncture needles are actually inserted, they are generally left in place for between 15 and 30 minutes and often the acupuncturist will try and manipulate the needles so that you will feel a dull bursting or numb sensation around their site of insertion. This sensation is called “de qi” or “obtaining energy” and traditionally it is suggested that “de qi” may be an important part of the treatment process.

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Jeanie Marie Kraft, L.Ac. MyAcuDoc.com

Body & Soul Massage & Wellness Center of Salem, MA is now offering acupuncture!
Body & Soul Massage & Wellness Center

Acupuncture & Migraines

Ithaca Times

In the realm of unavoidable misery, it’s death, taxes and - if you’ve worked a day in your life you know this - headaches.
According to the American Headache Society a person in the United States goes to the emergency room with a headache or migraine at a pace that averages out to every 10 seconds. And each year in the United States, more than $1 billion is spent on over-the-counter medication by people seeking relief from a headache or migraine.
The most debilitating form of headache, the migraine, can be triggered by a number of different factors including stress, diet, bright lights, excessive noise or altering the sleep-wake cycle, according to the National Headache Foundation, which estimates that more than 29.5 million Americans suffer from migraines, with women three times more likely to be affected than men. Less than half of all migraine sufferers have been diagnosed with migraines according to the Foundation. In addition to migraines, headaches can also be associated with tension, medications, surgery and pregnancy.
Although most headache sufferers turn to the medicine cabinet to alleviate their pain, there might be a way to achieve permanent relief from chronic or migraine headaches. Some doctors have begun to recommend acupuncture or massage as a more effective pain management strategy for their patients.
Sharon Madison, co-owner of Invigorations Therapeutic Massage Wellness Center in Cortland, said acupuncture and certain types of massage can work well for headache sufferers depending on the cause. “When it’s muscle tension, massage can help a lot. The stretching of the muscles and the back helps,” Madison said.
Invigorations has been in Cortland for more than nine years. Madison said the business has treated many clients with migraines and other chronic headaches. “Acupuncture is great,” she said,” because it cleanses the whole system.”
Madison said the typical patient needs approximately three acupuncture treatments to notice lasting effects. Although acupuncture and massage are not usually covered by most insurance plans, she noted that people with flex payment health plans can usually have their treatments covered.
Vladimir Bobkoff, who works as a licensed acupuncturist with Invigorations in addition to operating a practice in Ithaca, has been practicing Japanese acupuncture for 27 years. Acupuncture is over 5,000 years old and was originally developed by the Chinese. According the Bobkoff, the difference between Japanese and Chinese acupuncture is the technology used in each practice. In addition to using different needles, the Japanese method does not use electric stimulation, whereas this is common in the Chinese practice.
“The Japanese don’t think that’s (electric stimulation) natural,” Bobkoff said.
An acupuncturist’s approach to treating headache and migraine pain does not focus on the head itself. “Migraine problems usually come from liver or gall bladder problem,” Bobkoff said. “Every organ has a passway of energy, and putting a needle there can change energy. It can make it more stable or increase it.”
Bobkoff said that acupuncturists believe headaches are “a stagnation of energy in the body.”
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Jeanie Marie Kraft, L.Ac. MyAcuDoc.com

Body & Soul Massage & Wellness Center of Salem, MA is now offering acupuncture!
Body & Soul Massage & Wellness Center