ACUPUNCTURE PARK

Article from TIME Magazine written By: Jeffrey Kluger

www.time.com

Disclaimer: Any ideas, words, terms, evidence etc. in this article are not from Acupuncture Park. The intention posting of this article in Acupuncture Park�?¢??s website is solely for sharing the interesting facts about acupuncture and its benefit to peoples�?¢?? health. The Mystery of Acupuncture Why it works is a matter of debate, but research shows that the ancient technique is effective for treating everything from menopause to backaches. �?¢??By Jeffrey Kluger (Article taken from TIME Maganzine�?¢??s issue �?¢??Alternative Medicine�?¢?? 1/11/13) THE HISTORY OF MEDICINE IS THE HISTORY OF PREPOSTEROUS IDEAS that turned out to be right. Illness couldn�?¢??t be cause by invisible creatures that invade the body. Then Antonie van Leeuwenhoek invented the microscope and we discovered bacteria. Deliberately infecting people with an extremely mild case of a disease shouldn�?¢??t be the best way to protect them from catching a serious case of it. The Edward Jenner hit upon smallpox immunization and the era of the vaccine was born. And you shouldn�?¢??t be able to treat all manner of afflictions from headaches to backaches to depression to addiction by letting someone stick needles into any number of 360 specific spots on your skin. Especially if the best explanation anyone can give you for why the treatment works is that it frees up the life force, or �?¢??qi,�?¢?? that flows through the human body along 14 different lines, or �?¢??meridians.�?¢?? Yet the lure (some would say lore) of the ancient Chinese art of acupuncture is irresistible all the same, and not only in the Far East. The World Health Organization has declared acupuncture a useful adjunct for more than 50 medical conditions, including emotional woes like chronic stress, In the U.S., the National Institutes of Health (NIH) agrees, endorsing acupuncture as a potentially useful treatment for addiction, migraines, menstrual cramps, abdominal pain, tennis elbow, nausea resulting from chemotherapy and more. NIH statistics from 2007 showed that 3.1 million American adults and 150,000 children had undergone acupuncture in the previous year. From 2002 to 2007, the number of adult users alone jumped by more than 1 million. In 2009, the U.S. Air Force became a believer too, implementing battlefield acupuncture in Iraq and Afghanistan �?¢?? a treatment that can include the implementation of semi-permanent needles in key acupoints to block or disrupt pain signals. Acupuncture is increasingly used by the military to deal with post-traumatic stress disorders as well. Now NATO forces are considering following the American�?¢??s lead. The Chinese military, of course, uses it routinely. Civilian practitioners have embraced acupuncture in an even bigger way. Leading American hospitals like Mayo Clinic and the Cleveland Clinic offer it as a part of their alternative-care packages. And numerous groups �?¢?? including the American Medical Association �?¢?? are pushing to get either the federal government of the states to designate acupuncture an �?¢??essential health benefit�?¢?? under the 2010 Affordable Care Act. The move would require health insurers to include it on their list of covered services. But just because a treatment is popular �?¢?? even one that has been around for millennia �?¢?? doesn�?¢??t guarantee that it is effective. If it were, we�?¢??d long since have cleansed, Rolfed, and low-carbed our way to immortality. More and more, though, acupuncture is getting the close empirical scrutinity that modern drugs and medical procedures are routinely subjected to. And the results are, well, mixed. A growing body of experimental evidence shows that acupuncture does indeed work �?¢?? in some cases extraordinarily well. Another body suggests that it may very well work, but nit for the reasons believers think. And yet a third body of �?¢??beats me�?¢?? findings is sufficient to keep partisans on both sides arguing. In any case something is clearly going on �?¢?? and that something may, at least in some cases, be a cure for what ails you. Crunching the numbers After colds and flu, pain is the most common cause of visits to physicians �?¢?? with lower-back pain clocking in at No. 1 on that very long list. Up to 85% of us will eventually suffer from back pain of some kind. Untreated �?¢?? or inadequately treated �?¢?? it�?¢??s the most common reason for disability claims and employee absenteeism. Acupuncture is often recommended as one way to treat the problem. In 2007, investigators at University of Regensburg in Germany gathered a group of 1,162 patients with long histories of lower-back pain to determine whether it could actually make a difference. Patients were given two half-hour treatment sessions per week for five weeks. About a third of the group underwent traditional, lower back acupuncture, with needles inserted at the prescribed points. Another third got sham acupuncture, which involved real needles inserted at random spots on the lower back. The remaining third received conventional treatment, consisting of physical therapy and exercise, along with the drugs they were taking. At the end of the five weeks, the subjects were examined to determine how much pain relief they�?¢??d gotten and to what extent their physical functioning had improved. The results: 47.6% of the real acupuncture group experienced significant relief in both categories; in the sham acupuncture group, 44.2% did. In the traditional group, it was just 27.4%. The researchers saw the glass as more than half full, writing sunnily that �?¢??acupuncture gives physicians a promising and effective treatment option for lower-back pain, with few adverse effects or contra-indications.�?¢?? But does it? There is no denying that both groups that received some kind of acupuncture did better that the one that didn�?¢??t. But there�?¢??s also no denying that the results of the sham procedure make the idea of 360 carefully mapped entry points on the body look a little silly. Problem is, results like that aren�?¢??t at all uncommon in acupuncture research �?¢?? and that�?¢??s not the best news for a treatment trying to prove its worth. In 2011, for example, a study at Sweden�?¢??s Karolinska Institute separated patients suffering from chemotherapy-related pain and nausea into the same three experimental groups: real acupuncture, sham acupuncture, and conventional therapy. This time the sham acupuncture involved blunt needles that didn�?¢??t even break the skin. Again, both the fake and real groups showed improvement �?¢?? both more than the Western medicine group. In yet another study, this one looking at the effects of acupuncture on women trying to get pregnant through in vitro fertilization, sham acupuncture actually produced better results �?¢?? a higher pregnancy rate �?¢?? than the real thing. �?¢??When treatment is truly effective, studies tend to produce more convincing results as time passes and the weight of evidence accumulates,�?¢?? wrote Harriet Hall, a former Air Force flight surgeon and an alternative-medicine skeptic, in a 2011 issue of the Journal of Pain. �?¢??Taken as a whole, the published (and scientifically rigorous) evidence leads to the conclusion that acupuncture is no more than a placebo.�?¢?? Critics also point out that despite the common wisdom that even if acupuncture doesn�?¢??t help, it can�?¢??t hurt, there are, in fact, risks involved. Pregnant women, people with bleeding disorder, and people with pacemaker (because of possible interference from the mild electricity that is someone applied to the needles) should be especially cautious. Even healthy people can suffer organ injury, infection, or soreness if the procedure isn�?¢??t performed well. And yet for every study that yields murky or even negative results, plenty of others present a clear win for the pro-acupuncture camp. Women going through menopause received significant relief for their hot flashes and mood swings with acupuncture, and those who got real acupuncture showed far more improvement than those who got the sham version. What�?¢??s more, blood tests bolstered the results, showing that the level of estrogen rose while luteinizing hormone fell significantly after real acupuncture �?¢?? the opposite of the direction those hormones usually move during menopause. Similarly, the U.S. national Institute on Drug Abuse found that real acupuncture �?¢?? with needles inserted in spots in the ear said to modulate cravings �?¢?? is overwhelmingly more effective than the fake kind and none at all in treating cocaine addiction. In patients who underwent the proper needle sticks, 53.85 had clean drug screens at the end of the study, compared with 23.5% of subjects getting the sham routine and 9.1% of those who received no acupuncture at all. Whatever the exact numbers, some relief is obviously better than none �?¢?? even if it�?¢??s sometimes conferred by what seems to be the power of the placebo. Besides, it�?¢??s an enduring truth of the placebo effect. Besides, it�?¢??s an enduring truth of the placebo effect that in order for a patient to experience relief, something has to have changed in the body. So when it comes to acupuncture �?¢?? real or fake �?¢?? what is that something? How it works Functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) has revealed that when volunteers are subjected to mild electrical shock while undergoing acupuncture, there is much less activity in four different pain-processing regions of the brain than usual. Although the pain stimulus continues, the brain notices it less. A fifth region �?¢?? the anterior insula, which governs the expectation of pain �?¢?? quiets down too. Often, the less pain you expect to feel, the less you do feel �?¢?? a tail-wagging-the-dog phenomenon that is key to the placebo effect. If sham acupuncture produces only partial results, it may be because it affects only the insula rather than all the areas that deal with pain sensation. In any case, something happens. �?¢??Acupuncture is supposed to act through at least two mechanisms: nonspecific expectancy-based effects and specific modulation of the incoming pain signal,�?¢?? says Nina Theysohn of University Hospital in Essen, Germany, who conducted the MRI study. Naturally occurring brain opiates appear to be activated by acupuncture as well: Imaging studies show that mu-opioid receptors �?¢?? the molecular attachment sites that help nerve cells process the pain-relieving chemicals �?¢?? have improved binding ability after treatment. Brain scans have also helped to validate an important part of the acupuncturist�?¢??s art: the rotation of the needles that leads to something known as �?¢??de qi,�?¢?? in which the body�?¢??s tissue seems to grab hold of the metal. There�?¢??s nothing mysterious about this; tissue fibers actually wind around the needle, making it significantly more difficult to remove it. Patients may report a tingle or electric sensation when de qi occurs, and this too travels to the brain, quieting pain centers. The tradeoff is a slug of analgesic effect for a little pinprick. Ultimately, it�?¢??s this minimally invasive quality that makes acupuncture so appealing. Yes, a natural skittishness accompanies being punctured by needles �?¢?? even exceedingly fine ones. And yes, those punctures can hurt a bit, depending on where the needles are inserted, and how deftly. Bur once they�?¢??re in place, treatment requires nothing more than that you lie still and relax. Maybe acupuncture produces enduring results, maybe it doesn�?¢??t. But as with any complementary treatment, it�?¢??s meant to be taken as part of a buffet of choices. And when you are suffering from something as frustrating as chronic pain, why wouldn�?¢??t you try whatever might help? �?¢??It�?¢??s the effects of the treatment that are important to the patient, even if those effects are caused by unspecific factors,�?¢?? says the Karolinska Institute�?¢??s Anna Enblom, who conducted one of the sham-acupuncture studies. Sure we need to figure out what those factors are, but that�?¢??s a job for doctors and other scientists. The patients�?¢?? only job is to reap the rewards. Pinpoint Accuracy Research hasn�?¢??t yet verified what acupuncture can do, so we asked Mark C. Lee, Mayo Clinic�?¢??s physicians acupuncturist, to rate (on a five-point scale) the therapy�?¢??s apparent helpfulness in five major areas. Pain management (5 for helpfulness; 5 for evidence) - Many studies have found success in easing back, neck, and arthritis pain, as well as migraines, menstrual cramps, and the discomfort of carpal tunnel syndrome. Mental Health (4 for helpfulness; 3 for evidence) - Most evidence shows a fair amount of promise in lessening anxiety, stress, and insomnia, but not as much for depression. Addiction (3 for helpfulness; 3 for evidence) - Auricular acupuncture, placing needles in the outer ear, is useful in treating dependency on cigarettes, alcohol, and other drugs. Gastrointestinal disorders (5 for helpfulness; 4 for evidence) - Growing evidence demonstrates benefits in managing nausea and constipation. Respiratory disorders (2 for helpfulness; 1 for evidence) - There are some indications that sinusitis, sore throat, hay fever, and the common cold may respond to treatment.

Posted June 7, 2013 at 1:43 PM