However help is at hand in the form of an age old Chinese herbal formula called Bao He Wan which is available at our clinic or from any herb store in Chinatown. It can be used either to treat a hangover or as a preventative if you take it before you start to drink.
Dogs, cats, birds and even elephants are getting acupuncture to help treat their arthritis and spinal injuries
ABVA education director Dietrich Graf Von Schweinitz – who recently treated his first alpaca – said: “Acupuncture is not limited by what kind of animal it is. Every animal has a nervous system and reflexes to stimulation. It’s how, where and when one creates a certain stimulus as to what effect it has.”
By Peter Wadsworth (Flickr) [CC BY 2.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0)], via Wikimedia Commons
The cost of chronic pain
Recently I attended a seminar on the topic and was immediately struck by the lack of attention to the expense of the nonpharmacological treatments being advised to take the place of opioids. I watched the doctors on the panel enthusiastically promote acupuncture, yoga, chiropractic care, biofeedback, massage, lidocaine patches, and TENS units. Yet, many of these treatments are not covered by most insurance plans and can be very expensive to pay for out of pocket.
Photo by Shutterstock 160707833. Image of infrared radiation hardening sourced from Shutterstock. Available here.
Analysis of a Kombucha Ferment
Kombucha = S.C.O.B.Y. Serendipitous Colony of Bacteria & Yeasts. The kombucha SCOBY is a living complex. a probiotic of life's energy.
By Kosovokelly (Own work) [CC BY-SA 4.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0)], via Wikimedia Commons
Guizhi tang and Miles Davis – an exploration in the harmony of Chinese herb formulas
One of the words for Medicine in Chinese is 藥 yao, the top part of which indicates plant and the bottom which translates as either happiness or music.
By Tom Palumbo from New York City, USA (Miles Davis) [CC BY-SA 2.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0)], via Wikimedia Commons
How To Make Healthy Herbal Jello
This recipe is for strawberry mint herbal jello with stinging nettle, but can be adapted to most herbal ingredients.
Image of the Parker Earle variety of strawberries (scientific name: Fragaria), with this specimen originating in Washington, D.C., United States. Source: U.S. Department of Agriculture Pomological Watercolor Collection. Rare and Special Collections, National Agricultural Library, Beltsville, MD 20705. Passmore, Deborah Griscom, 1840-1911. Image sourced from Wikimedia Commons. Available here.
The effectiveness and safety of acupuncture for poor semen quality in infertile males: a systematic review and meta-analysis
Acupuncture also has been used to improve semen quality. A Norwegian study reported that approximately 20% of infertile men preferred an alternative treatment like acupuncture.7 However, the therapeutic effects of acupuncture on poor semen quality remain uncertain.1 Therefore, systematic review on the effects of acupuncture on poor semen quality is required.
Vecteezy. (n.d.). [Hierbas frescas y una botella]. Vecteezy. Available here.
Electroacupuncture Therapy in Nicotine Dependence: A Double Blind, Sham-Controlled Study
Nicotine dependence (ND) is a global health problem with devastating outcomes (1). In the treatment of ND, in addition to pharmaceutical therapies, a range of therapeutic choices including acupuncture, psychotherapy, and education have been attempted.
By Geierunited (Sony Cyber-shot DCS-P93) [GFDL (http://www.gnu.org/copyleft/fdl.html) or CC-BY-SA-3.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/)], via Wikimedia Commons
This May Be How Acupuncture Tamps Down Stress
To find out if acupuncture was affecting chronic stress, Eshkevari and a team of researchers looked at what happened in a key pathway in dealing with stress for both humans and rats: the hypothalamus-pituitary-adrenal axis (HPA). It’s the same pathway targeted by some anti-anxiety drugs and antidepressants, Eshkevari says, and the HPA is involved in the production of the stress hormone cortisol.
Photo by Shutterstock 232755100. Image of acupuncture sourced from Shutterstock. Available here.
Acupuncture Cuts Neck Surgery Pain
Acupuncture is effective for pain relief after surgery of the cervical spine. Researchers find electroacupuncture applied to acupoints Hegu (LI4) and Neiguan (PC6) safe and effective for achieving significant pain relief. Surgery on the anterior cervical spine is a complex procedure. Analgesics including fentanyl and sufentanil may be used to alleviate postoperative pain. However, due to concerns regarding respiratory depression, they are often prescribed at low dosages leading to only a partial painkilling effect. The results of the perioperative research finds acupuncture effective for pain relief and for stabilizing hemodynamics during surgery.
By 4028mdk09 (Own work) [CC BY-SA 3.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0)], via Wikimedia Commons
Acupuncture for Chronic Pain: Unprecedented Advances
The last two decades have seen "unprecedented advances" in the use of acupuncture to treat pain conditions, with a "rapid rise" in the number and quality of related published studies, according to a physician who is an experienced acupuncture practitioner.
"Right now, we have a pretty solid foundation for the efficacy of acupuncture" for headache, osteoarthritis (OA), and musculoskeletal conditions, said Farshad M. Ahadian, MD, clinical professor of anesthesiology, University of California, San Diego.
"I think it's fair to say that acupuncture is here to stay. It's going to be a permanent addition to our tool box."
Photo by Shutterstock 232755100. Image of acupuncture sourced from Shutterstock. Available here.
“Insomnia identity” – misbelieving you’ve got sleep problems can be more harmful than actual lack of sleep
“In the dark, in the quiet, in the lonely stillness, the aggrieved struggle to rescue sleep from vigilance.” This arresting sentence introduces a new review of insomnia in Behaviour Research and Therapy that addresses a troubling fact observed in sleep labs across the world: poor sleep is not sufficient to make people consider themselves to have the condition… and poor sleep may not even be necessary. The paper, by Kenneth Lichstein at the University of Alabama, explores the implications of “Insomnia Identity”: how it contributes to health problems, and may be an obstacle to recovery.
See page for author [CC BY 4.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0)], via Wikimedia Commons
Pain Experts Push for Coverage of Alternative Therapies
Clinicians, health insurers, and other stakeholders have initiated meetings that many pain experts hope will result in extending insurance coverage to include yoga, acupuncture, and other integrated approaches to pain management.
The first-ever Integrative Pain Care Policy Congress was launched here at the Academy of Integrative Pain Management (AIPM) 28th Annual Meeting
Photo by Shutterstock 100744942. Image of pulse diagnostic hand on a cushion sourced from Shutterstock. Available here.
Heart surgery survival chances 'better in the afternoon'
The body clock - or circadian rhythm - is the reason we want to sleep at night, but it also drives huge changes in the way our bodies work. The research, published in the Lancet, suggests the heart is stronger and better able to withstand surgery in the afternoon than the morning. And it says the difference is not down to surgeons being tired in the morning.
By Garry Knight (Flickr: 4:06 PM) [CC BY-SA 2.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0)], via Wikimedia Commons
The Roots of Plant Intelligence
Plants behave in some oddly intelligent ways: fighting predators, maximizing food opportunities ... But can we think of them as actually having a form of intelligence of their own? Italian botanist Stefano Mancuso presents intriguing evidence.
Photo by Shutterstock 313843037. Image of dried gardenia fruit herbs used in treatments in Chinese medicine sourced from Shutterstock. Available here.
Teens Are Sleep-Deprived, And Screens Are Why, Study Suggests
As we wrote earlier this year, the National Sleep Foundation recommends teenagers get between 8 and 10 hours of sleep nightly. Contrast that to the findings by researchers, who say that beginning in 2009 when smartphone use became widespread, there was a 17 percent increase of students reporting sleeping 7 hours or less per night, which sleep experts term as insufficient.
Photo by Shutterstock 130173548. Image of a snoring man and a young woman, couple sleeping in bed sourced from Shutterstock. Available here.
Does acupuncture work by re-mapping the brain?
Our results suggested that both local and distal acupuncture improved median nerve function at the wrist. This suggests that the brain changes resulting from acupuncture might not just be a reflection of changes at the wrist, but could also drive the improved median nerve function directly by linking to autonomic brain regions that control blood vessel diameter and blood flow to the median nerve.
See page for author [CC BY 4.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0)], via Wikimedia Commons
Acupuncture for recovery after surgery in patients undergoing colorectal cancer resection: a systematic review and meta-analysis
We systematically searched four English language databases (Medline, Embase, CENTRAL (Cochrane Central Register of Controlled Trials), and AMED (Allied and Complementary Medicine Database)) and one Chinese database (CAJ, China Academic Journals). Randomised trials of acupuncture compared with usual/routine care, sham interventions or active comparators in patients undergoing colorectal cancer resection were eligible for inclusion. Postoperative symptoms and quality of life (QoL) were the primary outcomes for the review.
An inquiry into the process of nature in repairing injuries of the intestines: illustrating the treatment of penetrating wounds and strangulated hernia. Year: 1812 (1810s). Authors: Travers, Benjamin, 1783-1858
Image sourced from Wikimedia Commons. Available here.
Acupuncture for chronic pain and depression in primary care: a programme of research
The programme of research found that acupuncture was more effective than usual care and sham acupuncture for chronic pain, that it was one of the more clinically effective physical therapies for osteoarthritis and that it showed benefits in the treatment of depression.
Photo by Shutterstock 194164250. Macro detail of an acupuncture needle inserted on skin sourced from Shutterstock. Available here.
Differentiation and Treatment of Hepatitis C
In discussing hepatitis, it is best to base treatment on the classical approach. This is true for all diseases. We can treat modern diseases such as endometriosis, AIDS, and so on, but we still use the traditional method of differentiation, of treating the stage of the disease. Another way of saying this is that we treat the patient’s presentation, not the name of the disease.
Gray's Anatomy; edited by user Rao85. A plate from Gray's Anatomy, from the online edition of the 20th U.S. edition of Gray's Anatomy of the Human Body, originally published in 1918. Image sourced from Wikimedia Commons. Available here.