Medical Acupuncture

12/12/2023

TCM for the Heart: New JAMA Study COMPOUND HELPS PATIENTS SUFFERING PARTICULARLY DANGEROUS FORM OF
MYOCARDIAL INFARCTION
You might think all heart attacks are equally life-threatening, but ST-elevation myocardial infarctions (STEMI) tend to be more severe and dangerous.
Findings published in the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA) suggest the TCM medicine Tongxinluo can improve clinical outcomes in STEMI patients in conjunction with guideline-directed care.
Patients assigned to receive Tongxinluo in conjunction with guideline-directed care had lower rates of 30-day, three-month and one-year major adverse cardiac / cerebrovascular events.

11/13/2023

https://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/traditional-chinese-medicine-may-improve-health-after-heart-attack

Tongxinluo, a type of traditional Chinese medicine, significantly improved health for some people after they experienced a heart attack, the findings of a trial showed.

09/27/2023

New Tools for Chronic Soft-Tissue Pain
by Steve Liu, LAc, BSEE
- An article from Acupuncture Today
https://acupuncturetoday.com/article/34251-new-tools-for-chronic-soft-tissue-pain
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An example of the treatment of shoulder supraspinatus tendonitis to illustrate how this protocol works:

Friction (transverse, cross-fiber) massage on the lesion (scar tissues site) for 10 minutes.
Apply the ah-shi acupuncture technique to the lesion site.
Apply electricity on the needles, low-level laser/LED light therapy (photobiomodulation) around the needles, and far-infrared heat over the treatment area for 25 minutes.
Generally, this protocol takes 8-10 treatment sessions, spaced twice weekly, for up to five weeks to heal the chronic pain.
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Author: Steve Liu. Title: New Tools for Chronic Soft-Tissue Pain. Summary: Western medicine identifies three healing phases, namely inflammation, proliferation and remodeling, for sports injuries great and small.

09/27/2023

Assessing and Treating the Root Cause of Low Back Pain With Medical Acupuncture

Summary:
While an MRI provides definitive information about structural issues in the back, it is not necessary for treating low back pain with acupuncture.
Before conducting any orthopedic or neurological assessments, ask the patient questions about their urinary and bowel health. Low back pain can sometimes be indicative of a more serious condition: cauda equina syndrome.
If the patient has spasming pain, begin with Yao Tong Xue; for non-spasming pain, open the governing vessel: SI 3 and BL 62. Then proceed with BL 60 (bilateral), BL 40 (bilateral), BL 53 (bilateral), and BL 23 (bilateral).

Acupuncture treatment protocol can be used to treat low back pain, regardless of etiology and whether there is an MRI with or without confirmation of structural issues. Patients’ bodies tell us stories about what is causing the problem at hand; we must listen and assess appropriately to treat the root cause.

- Courtesy article of Acupuncture Today
Dustin Vaughan, DAOM, Dipl. OM, PMD, AP

Article can be found at

02/04/2023

Efficacy of Acupuncture in Reducing Preoperative Anxiety: A Meta-Analysis

Background. Acupuncture has been shown to reduce preoperative anxiety in several previous randomized controlled trials (RCTs). In order to assess the preoperative anxiolytic efficacy of acupuncture therapy, this study conducted a meta-analysis of an array of appropriate studies. Methods

02/04/2023

Electroacupuncture Alleviates Diabetic Neuropathic Pain and Downregulates p-PKC and TRPV1 in Dorsal Root Ganglions and Spinal Cord Dorsal Horn

Diabetic neuropathic pain (DNP) is a common complication of diabetes. Streptozotocin (STZ)-induced changes of protein in dorsal root ganglion (DRG) and spinal cord dorsal horn (SCDH) are critical for DNP genesis. However, which proteins change remains elusive. Here, the DNP model was established by....

09/28/2022

https://www.aacinfonetwork.com/why-acupuncture-is-a-recommended-treatment/

According to American College of Physicians Back Treatment Guidelines, their updated prior guidelines recommend non-drug treatment first for back pain, including … Why is acupuncture a recommended treatment? According to American College of Physicians Back Read more…

06/08/2022

https://www.hindawi.com/journals/ecam/2016/2934340/

Although Chinese herbal compounds have long been alternatively applied for cancer treatment in China, their treatment effects have not been sufficiently investigated. The Chinese herb Spatholobus suberectus is commonly prescribed to cancer patients. HPLC analysis has shown that the main compo...

11/08/2021

https://www.eurekalert.org/news-releases/933436

Rutgers researchers studying COVID-19 have created a new way to deliver DNA molecules into skin cells, using a suction technique similar to the ancient healing practice of cupping.

04/26/2021

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4716222/

Duhuo Jisheng decoction (DJD) is considered beneficial for controlling knee osteoarthritis (KOA)-related symptoms in some Asian countries. This review compiles the evidence from randomised clinical trials and quantifies the effects of DJD on KOA.7 online ...

01/05/2021

Acupuncture for Migraines?

Systematic Review: Acupuncture vs Standard Pharmacological Therapy for Migraine Prevention

Background: Standard pharmacological treatment of migraine has many shortcomings. Acupuncture is becoming a more widely used therapy for the prevention and treatment of migraine, but its effectiveness is still in question when compared to the pharmacological treatments even though very few of these have Class A and B evidence for migraine prevention. This is a systematic review of data from existing randomized trials that compare the effectiveness of acupuncture treatment with conventional migraine preventative medications.

Methods: Custom-designed strategy was used for searching Pubmed (includes MEDLINE), Scopus (includes EMBASE). The inclusion criteria were English language and randomized trials. No date restriction was utilized. We included randomized trials and randomized controlled trials in adult patients that compared the clinical effects of acupuncture with a standard migraine preventive medication in patients with a diagnosis of chronic or episodic migraine with or without aura. We excluded letters and studies on acupuncture for headaches other than migraine. Two reviewers checked eligibility; extracted information on patients, interventions, methods, and results; and assessed the quality of the acupuncture intervention based on the American Academy of Neurology Classification of evidence matrix for therapeutic trials. The present review was not registered.

Results: Out of the 706 search results, 7 clinical trials, with a total of 1430 participants, met inclusion criteria for trials comparing the effectiveness of acupuncture to standard pharmacologic treatment. Several of the studies showed acupuncture to be more effective than standard pharmacological treatments for migraine prevention; however, methodological heterogeneity precluded aggregation of these data.

Conclusions: There is growing evidence that acupuncture is just as effective and has fewer side effects than many of the standard pharmaceutical agents that are currently used. However, the heterogeneity of the existing studies limits the effective comparison and analysis.

Keywords: acupuncture; migraine; preventive medications; review.

Niushen Zhang 1 , Tim Houle 2 , Nada Hindiyeh 1 , Sheena K Aurora 3
Affiliations expand
PMID: 31872864 DOI: 10.1111/head.13723
Abstract

© 2019 American Headache Society.