Friday, January 25, 2008

Acutonics and Placebo

Acutonics has been getting some attention lately. For a couple of years I have been incorporating some of the techniques in my practice with a pair of Om Tuning Forks. The majority of my patients give a positive review. What I like about this piece is the quote about placebo effect:

"One out of three people, which is a pretty big number, get relief from placebos because pain is a mind/body type of phenomenon."

What's wrong with that? I would love to be able to placebo away my ailments - a placebo pill is usually safer than the real thing! I find it amusing when people dismiss a modality because it is unfamiliar or because they don't want to accept it by saying, "it's just the placebo effect." I hear that a lot with students in the western medicine field because to them, if you can't be objectively assessed, than it is not real.

Bunk.

The mind has amazing control over the body. If a modality works for you, than it is what your body AND your mind needed to fix the problem. For some people it is a drug or surgery. For others it is yoga or Reiki. And then there are those who get well by activating a tuning fork and letting it buzz on acupuncture points. A patient for every treatment and a treatment for every patient.

Good vibrations without the use of acupuncture

Have you always wanted to try acupuncture but are afraid of needles? Now, there's a therapy that promises the same relief but doesn't involve any poking at all!

It's the latest alternative therapy to treat all kinds of ailments. It's called "Acutonics®," a modern technique that blends different forms of ancient Chinese medicine.

Kristi Marshall, an Acutonics® fan, "The minute I experienced it, it's like, I wanted it more and more."

Donna Carey co-created the technique. She says the vibrations open up energy pathways in our bodies, which are made up mostly of water.

Carey says," Sound travels four times faster in water and through water than it does in air. Our body is a sound resonator."

In a typical session, a practitioner will stimulate pressure points. But, instead of using needles, like with acupuncture, the treatment involves vibrations from tuning forks.

Read More

Thursday, January 17, 2008

2008 Sensationlism

Both Oprah and US News and World Report are talking about acupuncture (and CAM in general). What a boon to the profession!


From Oprah.com:

Oprah is ready to take a step toward the frontier of medicine…but she's a little scared of the whole needle part. Daniel was ready to ease her fears. "The needles that [Daniel] is going to use would actually fit through the hole in the needle that they use to take the blood from your arm," Dr. Oz says."Acupuncture treats any condition from allergies to, obviously, pain to gastrointestinal issues—a wide range of chronic diseases," Daniel says.Oprah doesn't suffer from those particular ailments, so Daniel recommends a wellness acupuncture treatment, which will help boost Oprah's immune system. This normally requires about 10 needles, he says, and the positive effects will be felt anywhere from 20 minutes to days afterwards."It's really not bad," Oprah says. "It's not as bad as getting your ears pierced, I'll tell you that."

http://www2.oprah.com/tows/slide/200702/20070213/slide_20070213_350_201.jhtml


From US News and World Report:

Embracing Alternative Care
Top hospitals put unorthodox therapies into practice
By Avery Comarow

Posted January 9, 2008
"To be blunt, if my wife and I didn't think it was helping him, we wouldn't have continued with it," says Dan Polley. He's talking about Mikey, the Polleys' 2½-year-old in the next room, who was diagnosed with acute lymphocytic leukemia when he was 6 months old. Chemotherapy, radiation, and a bone marrow transplant have been crucial elements of Mikey's treatment. But the "it" his father speaks of is nothing like these aggressive, costly, and heavily researched exemplars of western care—it is a kind of touch therapy, from the camp of alternative medicine. Gentle and benign, "healing touch" is intended to rebalance the energy field that its practitioners believe surrounds the body and flows through it along defined pathways, affecting health when disrupted. Several times a week, therapist Lynne Morrison spends 20 minutes unblocking and smoothing Mikey's energy field, which energy healers like Morrison say they can feel and correct.

http://health.usnews.com/articles/health/2008/01/09/embracing-alternative-care.html