Who needs the PDR?

Only a few lines in this piece are about acupuncture, but I thought it was worth posting for the subject matter alone.  The thing they do not mention is that the PDR does not include drugs that are off patent, so it is basically a sales rep disguised as an important looking book.

8 drugs doctors wouldn't take

If your physician would skip these medicines, maybe you should, too

By Morgan Lord

With 3,480 pages of fine print, the Physicians' Desk Reference (a.k.a. PDR) is not a quick read. That's because it contains every iota of information on more than 4,000 prescription medications. Heck, the PDR is medication — a humongous sleeping pill. 

Doctors count on this compendium to help them make smart prescribing decisions — in other words, to choose drugs that will solve their patients' medical problems without creating new ones. Unfortunately, it seems some doctors rarely pull the PDR off the shelf. Or if they do crack it open, they don't stay versed on emerging research that may suddenly make a once-trusted treatment one to avoid. Worst case: You swallow something that has no business being inside your body. 

Of course, plenty of M.D.'s do know which prescription and over-the-counter drugs are duds, dangers, or both. So we asked them, "Which medications would you skip?" Their list is your second opinion. If you're on any of these meds, talk to your doctor. Maybe he or she will finally open that big red book with all the dust on it.

Celebrex 
Once nicknamed "super aspirin," Celebrex is now better known for its side effects than for its pain-relieving prowess. The drug has been linked to increased risks of stomach bleeding, kidney trouble, and liver damage. But according to a 2005 New England Journal of Medicine study, the biggest threat is to your heart: People taking 200 mg of Celebrex twice a day more than doubled their risk of dying of cardiovascular disease. Those on 400 mg twice a day more than tripled their risk, compared with people taking a placebo.

Your new strategy: What you don't want to do is stop swallowing Celebrex and begin knocking back ibuprofen, because regular use of high doses of nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs) can lead to gastrointestinal bleeding. A safer swap is acupuncture. A German study found that for people suffering from chronic lower-back pain, twice-weekly acupuncture sessions were twice as effective as conventional treatments with drugs, physical therapy, and exercise. The strategic needling may stimulate central-nervous-system pathways to release the body's own painkillers, including endorphins and enkephalins, says Duke University anesthesiologist Tong-Joo Gan, M.D.

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Competition!

Well, I knew it was bound to happen.  Doctors don't need acupuncture training to add it to their service list, chiropractors just assume they are qualified to be acupuncturists with or without a "certification course,"  and now physical therapists are getting in on the act!

Needling' Becoming More Popular To Treat Pain

DENVER (CBS4) ― Some physical therapists in Colorado are offering an alternative treatment for chronic muscle pain and stiffness.

On Tuesday, CBS4 health specialist Kathy Walsh sat in on a session of the new treatment called "trigger point dry needling."

Using very thin, solid needles to penetrate deep into areas of tension, dry needling promises to stimulate, reset and relax muscles.

One satisfied dry needling patient is Sgt. First Class Lee Holloway. According to Holloway, dry needling is an effective way to relieve muscle tension.

Although similar to acupuncture, Keil says that dry needling is actually its own distinct practice. 

"It's a very Western concept of muscle anatomy," said Keil. "As compared to the Eastern concept of the meridian through acupuncture."

Some licensed acupuncturists are skeptical of this claim.

The president of the Acupuncture Association of Colorado, Nancy Bilello, says dry needling is just a dubious form of acupuncture.

"Dry needling is the same thing as acupuncture with far less training and very little regulation," said Bilello.

While licensed acupuncturists must have a minimum of 1,800 hours of training, physical therapists hoping to practice dry needling require only 46 hours of training, according to Bilello,

Despite concerns like Bilello's, in 2005 the Colorado Department of Regulatory Agencies did approve dry needling for practice by trained physical therapists.

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WARNING!

Acupuncture. Put needles in. Take needles out. All out? Yes, all out. Periodically, patients with fluffy hair or slippery clothing may have a souvenir left when they put on their hat or pull on their socks due to obstruction of the needle. However, the following is a serious example of when not having a system for insertion and withdrawal can cause a heap of trouble.

Acupunture patient left with 'forgotten' needle

May 9 2008 Media Wales

An acupuncture patient returned home from treatment with a two-inch needle stuck in her back, she said today.

Back pain sufferer Wendy Dempsey had her first acupuncture session on Wednesday at a hospital in Newport, South Wales.

The 54-year-old claims she suffered excruciating pain as she drove the five miles to her Llanmartin home and only realised what was wrong when her nephew Ieuan Edwards started screaming.

Mrs Dempsey said: “I was a bit apprehensive before the treatment, as I’d never had it done before.

“At the end, he said he’d removed the needles, and I felt fine.

“My eight-year-old nephew lives with me, and as I was driving us home I had this most tremendous pain in my back.

“I was in absolute agony. I thought I wasn’t going to get home. I kept slowing down, and every time I changed gears the pain got worse.”

When she arrived home, Mrs Dempsey said she had to wait 15 minutes before moving from the car because of the pain.

She said: “I asked my nephew to have a look at my back when we were in the house.

“He let out an ear-piercing scream. Once he had seen the needle, he was petrified.

“It’s just scared him – and it’s not done too much for me either.

“By driving home, I think I’d pushed it in further.”

Mrs Dempsey was driven to the Royal Gwent Hospital, Newport, by a neighbour, where the needle was removed from near the bottom of her back.

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Military Service (for them)

In an effort to prevent the situation many of our veterans faced following Vietnam, the VA has made wonderful progress in helping our military personnel re-acclimate to their lives before war. Yet in some areas, the services are spectacular, while in others it is sub-par or non-existent. This is why folks like the ones below are a wonderful boon to our soldiers, especially those returning home with PTSD.

Acupuncturists serving the troops

May 4, 2008
Margaret Gargarian respects the fact that her son's high school in Belmont has a community service requirement. "I think it should be part of life," she said.

To do her part, Gargarian - an anesthesiologist at Massachusetts General Hospital who has training in acupuncture - recently joined an offshoot of Acupuncturists Without Borders.

Gargarian and licensed acupuncturists Margaret Ryding, Bill Kellar, and Patricia Burkhart, all of Arlington, offer free, weekly acupuncture treatments for US military personnel who have served in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Gargarian said she believes alternative therapies are valuable because they offer another tool to cure or manage health problems.

Benefits of acupuncture, she said, may include reduced anxiety and irritability; improved sleep, energy, and mental clarity; and the alleviation of flashbacks and nightmares.

Although a client may feel a "quick pinch" as the thin acupuncture needles are inserted,

Gargarian said the treatment is relaxing. Sessions typical last a half hour.

"Every time we treat someone," she said, "it makes us feel good, too."

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Ahhh, Research!

Finding a research study involving acupuncture that has any statistical significance or reproducible design is not an easy task. This one involving hot flashes and tamoxifen is decent, despite the argument that it is not reproducible because there is no pill involved (?!) and the results are subjective (um, last time I checked there was no lab value for pain or discomfort). An objector does bring up a reluctance to send one of his patients to an acupuncturist he is not familiar with, and that should make any practitioner realize that MDs can be an important component to a successful practice. From my standpoint, I would have liked to have known what treatment protocol was used, but with a little digging I am sure it is not difficult to find.

Acupuncture Can Relieve Hot Flushes Caused by Tamoxifen
Monday, 21 April 2008 20:53 Zosia Chustecka

Acupuncture reduced by half the hot flushes caused by tamoxifen in a small clinical trial involving 59 breast cancer patients after surgery. Relief was experienced both day and night, and the reduction in hot flushes was seen 3 months after the last acupuncture treatment.

The study involved a 10-week course of treatment (with sessions twice a week for 5 weeks, and then once a week for 5 weeks). A control group received sham acupuncture, with needles inserted shallowly (to a depth of 3 mm; in real acupuncture, needles are inserted to a depth of 3 cm), and in places far away from known acupuncture points. Ms. Hervik said that in both cases she aimed for a neutral atmosphere, with no soft music and minimal time spent talking to the patient, to reduce the placebo effect of the treatment.

Women treated with real acupuncture reported a 50% reduction in hot flushes, both day and night, and reported a further reduction in hot flushes when assessed 3 months after the last acupuncture treatment. The women in the sham group reported no changes in hot flushes during the day, and a slight reduction in hot flushes at night while the treatment was ongoing, but they increased once the treatment stopped.

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Fellowship Opportunity

If you like the cold and the security of working within the Western Medical setting, this sounds like a winning experience. I had not visited MCAOMs website before (http://www.nwhealth.edu/index.html) but the programs look impressive. This was actually from a chiropractic newsletter.

Northwestern Health Sciences begins acupuncture fellowship program

The Minnesota College of Acupuncture and Oriental Medicine (MCAOM) at Northwestern Health Sciences University now offers a post-graduate fellowship opportunity in collaboration with the Woodwinds Health Campus in Woodbury, Minn.

The one-year fellowship, launched in November 2006, provides a licensed acupuncturist with post-graduate experience in a hospital setting. Mark McKenzie, LAc, MOm, dean of MCAOM, said he believes there are no other acupuncture and Oriental medicine schools in the United States partnering with hospitals to offer such a paid fellowship.

The fellowship is partially funded by HealthEast Care System. Ian Johnson, LAc, MOm, a 2006 graduate of MCAOM, has been selected to carry out the year-long fellowship. He will be working under the guidance of Wei Liu, BMed, LAc, a professor at Northwestern.

According to McKenzie, the fellowship program would not have happened in the Midwest 10 years ago due to lack of understanding about the field.

MIA Message

The news in the acupuncture world has been dismally uninteresting of late. Lots of private practice press releases and "did you know acupuncture was good for" types of news are the bulk of what I have been receiving. I have not felt compelled to pass along things I have already covered, but I also lost total track of time ans I see it has been over two months since my last post! I have not attend any more CEU seminars to report back on either, shame on me, and I am in a quandary as to weather I am going to go see Richard Tan or Mary Elizabeth Wakefield this summer.

However, the other reason for the delay is general life. I started nurse practitioner school this semester and just moved into a new house a few days ago (we had been looking and planning for nearly a year). My practice is continuing to grow and I am hoping to change my office in the next few months.

It somehow seems like a lot more when you live it as opposed to when you write it.

*Cringe*

Hearing this sort of thing makes me cringe for a variety of reasons. Some of them are from being a woman and some are from professional fear of being accused of anything inapproprite. Even though I am slightly less at risk because I am female, that does not mean I can be cavilere.

This is not on par with alleged abuse, but I know I lost at least one patient when I was in school because his girlfriend though I was flirting with him (backstory: we were allowed to give a certain number of free treatments per semester and I had made it my policy that the week before Christmas Holiday I would give out all my freebies. He was the first patient of the week and when his girlfriend, who had an appointment later in the week, found out, she was upset to say the least).

But I digress.

May the truth come out.

Acupuncturist Accused of Assaulting Clients
Lauren Leamanczyk

PEWAUKEE - Robyn McKenna tried acupuncture on a whim. Her first visit to acupuncturist Samy Elawady went well, so she continued with the treatment. Then, she says, at the end of a visit, something disturbing happened. “This time he lifted my bra up over my breasts. After he took the needle out, he started massaging them," she said. McKenna says it made her uncomfortable. Still, she brushed it off as part of the treatment. It wasn't until it happened a second time that she canceled the rest of her appointments. She did not complain or call police.

Then she spoke with Suzette Steinbach - Mineau.Steinbach-Mineau is also accusing Elawady of sexual assault.

She described her acupuncture session to TODAY'S TMJ4 Reporter Lauren Leamanczyk. "He started putting this oil or lotion kind of stuff on my stomach'" she said. "And them when he got up to my breast area he pulled my bra up and started putting the oil on my breasts.”She too kept the incident to herself. After she realized other women claimed to have similar experiences, Steinbach-Mineau called police."As a woman I want to protect other women,” is the reason she gives for coming forward.

Steinbach Mineau claims she lost her job as a receptionist at the Oriental Wellness Center because she filed charges. She says Elawady continues to practice acupuncture at the center.Elawady, through his attorney, declined to comment. He is charged with five counts of 4th degree sexual assault.

"Would you go to a blind acupuncturist?"

I only have two words for this: Toyohari Acupuncturists

Blind woman tries again for state acupuncture license
Associated Press

AUSTIN — A blind student of acupuncture is making a second request for a state license to practice the trade after being rejected last year because of her lack of vision.

The licensure committee of the Texas State Board of Acupuncture Examiners was set to rehear Juliana Cumbo's request for a license today. She would be the first blind person to be issued a state license, board members said.

"I wanted to be more involved in health care ... and I thought it was a perfect profession for a blind person," Cumbo said of her decision to pursue acupuncture, a method of diagnosing, treating and preventing illness by placing thin needles along specific points on the body.

The 31-year-old practices as a graduate intern in the student clinic of the Academy of Oriental Medicine at Austin. She has earned a master's degree in acupuncture and Oriental medicine and passed the national board exams.

"Juliana is an exemplary practitioner ... and she is extremely talented," said Will Morris, president of the Austin academy. "I am proud to sign her diploma."

Meng-sheng Lin, the licensure committee chairwoman, said she's inclined to repeat her vote against Cumbo's application. She said Cumbo's case was the first time she had encountered the issue.

"I'm just trying to fulfill my duty to protect the public," said Lin, an acupuncturist in Dallas. "Would you go to a blind acupuncturist?"

Lin said acupuncture can lead to bleeding, which could be a problem if it went unnoticed and created a situation where the acupuncturist or patient could become contaminated.

Hoang Ho, a member of the acupuncture committee who also voted against Cumbo's license, said licensing Cumbo would be a liability for the board if something were to go wrong.

"You have to know exactly the point" to insert the needle, said Ho, who practices acupuncture in Kerrville and San Antonio. "There are a lot of blood vessels, and there can be injuries."
Cumbo, who said she also has a bachelor's degree in classical guitar, completed 3,218 hours of training in acupuncture. About a third of that was clinical experience in which she worked on 592 patients without any formal safety complaints, said Xiaotian Shen, the director of the Austin clinic and one of Cumbo's teachers.

Cumbo received extra hands-on training, and now she is better at finding acupuncture points than many students who can see, Morris said.

Shen said Cumbo was tested on a live model to pass the national boards.

Dr. Terry Rascoe, the acupuncture board's presiding officer, said the committee could approve Cumbo's request, reject it or ask the full board to consider it. The case could also go before a state administrative judge.

Cumbo's lawyer, David Cohen of Austin, said denying Cumbo a license "on the basis of her blindness alone" would violate the Americans with Disabilities Act.

Bob Simpson, general counsel to the board, said there are no state laws prohibiting the licensing of a blind person.

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.

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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

Needling Addiction

Having worked in in-patient psych facilities as a nurse, I often wanted to do a little community acupuncture while the patients were in group therapy. The big problem (especially in KY where we received and "F" for mental health) is insurance companies don't want to pay for the minimum proven therapies, let alone anything extra like acupuncture. 28-day programs are reserved for those with tri-care, those with MDs who want to milk every possible day out of Medicaid/Medicare benefits (whether the patient needs it or not), or the affluent. Luckily, there are some progressive thinkers who see acupuncture as a useful tool for fighting addiction and helping prevent relapse.

Acupuncture-based pilot program helps fight addictions
BY KELLI LACKETT

Mike Allen had tried to stop drinking before.

And he'd succeeded for a few months at a time. But he always went back to the bottle.

That was until he was arrested on a drug charge, served a short time in jail as part of a probation sentence and then started receiving acupuncture this spring while on probation.

Allen said the acupuncture helped with the physical symptoms of withdrawal and supplemented the work he was doing through recovery groups and counseling.

Allen was one of 30 clients of three agencies who received acupuncture as part of a voluntary pilot program started in March. Fort Collins licensed acupuncturist Abbye Silverstein treated the clients in the joint venture of Larimer County Community Corrections, the state 8th Judicial Probation Department and Larimer County Department of Human Services.

A high percentage of offenders who have been through the criminal justice system have substance abuse problems, said Les Rudner, probations supervisor for the state 8th Judicial Probation department.

"We were seeing offenders with substance abuse problems coming back through the system again and again. We were trying to look at what we could do that we weren't doing now to prevent present relapses. When I started doing the research, one thing that came up was acupuncture," Rudner said.

Research in other communities has shown that offenders who receive acupuncture as part of a recovery program were more likely to complete treatment for substance abuse. And there were lower re-arrest rates among those who received acupuncture in court-mandated programs.

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Mentor Spotlight

The word about acupuncture facelifts is getting around thanks to the New York Times, and two of my mentors, Mary Elizabeth Wakfield (Constitutional Facial Renewal) and Martha Lucus (Mei Zen Cosmetic Acupuncture), are mentioned. This comes just in time for my post-holiday promotions and will make a good addition to in-office literature.

Skin Deep
Hold the Chemicals, Bring on the Needles
By NORA ISAACS
Published: December 13, 2007

JANE BECKER, a composer and solo pianist, celebrated her 50th birthday at the dermatologist, paying $1,500 for shots of Restylane and Botox. But three months later, their wrinkle-smoothing effects wore off. So, she turned to a less-artificial youth tonic: facial acupuncture.

Like many women who have tried acupuncture in pursuit of beauty, Ms. Becker hoped that having needles strategically inserted into her face would be cheaper and last longer than her birthday injections.

Ms. Becker, now 53, started with 10 sessions in five weeks ($1,000) and has gone for monthly maintenance since ($105 a session).

Acupuncture didn’t end up being much of a bargain, but it pays in other ways, she said.
“I can really see a difference in my face,” said Ms. Becker, who sees Steven Sonmore, a licensed acupuncturist in Minneapolis. “It looks younger, smoother, brighter and uplifted.”

Early adopters like Ms. Becker first spread word of the virtues of a so-called acupuncture face-lift. Then before the 2005 Academy Awards, a crew of facial acupuncturists descended on Soho House, a makeshift celebrity hangout in Los Angeles, and A-listers jumped at the chance to transform their skin from the inside out.

Now, thanks to more robust marketing, cosmetic acupuncture has caught the attention of more of the wrinkled public. Its holistic approach appeals in particular to women who want to slow signs of aging, but don’t want to undergo surgery or to inject chemicals.

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CEU/PDA Alert

I had a wonderful time at this year's Pacific Symposium in San Diego. Although I only went for the weekend portion, I have already implemented many of the principles I learned from Alex Tiberi, Kiiko Matsumoto, Effie Chow, and Mark Kastner. Yet between flight, hotel, food, rental car, and incidentals, I could have paid for a the next 10 years worth of CEU credits. Lately I have been doing the one hour CEUs by Bob Flaws from Blue Poppy which are excellent, but there is a new company that has also started offering courses for those of us who live in the (acupuncture) sticks. I have yet to participate, but I will provide an update and review when I take a class.

Acupuncture continuing education courses online are offered by the Healthcare Medicine Institute (HealthCMI) at https://www.healthcmi.com/ . Acupuncture courses can be downloaded instantly and an online quiz is provided so that acupuncturists may receive California CEU, Florida CE, and NCCAOM PDA credit towards acupuncture license renewal. All acupuncture classes are certified for continuing education credit in all states that license acupuncturists. HealthCMI is currently upgrading their open source code to make the online experience more accessible and looks forward to presenting an expanded offering of online classes. All courses feature a secure online payment system using Geotrust SSL encryption. "Online classroom technology continues to expand at an incredible rate. HealthCMI will present several new classes using these open source solutions. Participants can look forward to a more streamlined online experience for immediate access to medical educational courses," said Executive Director of the Healthcare Medicine Institute, Adam White, L.Ac., Dipl. Ac. .

HealthCMI is pleased to announce several upcoming acupuncture continuing education courses online. "Acupuncture courses for continuing education credit provide important resources for clinical treatment to acupuncturists. The Healthcare Medicine Institute (HealthCMI) has contracted with professors from several acupuncture colleges and schools to provide high quality continuing education courses online. Our goal is to provide quality educational materials for licensed acupuncturists," said Adam White. "We expect our next course on the topic of pediatric disorders to be published shortly and several new courses will provide continuing education credits both for nurses and acupuncturists in all states that license acupuncture." HealthCMI plans to launch the nursing continuing education online department in early 2008 to complement its acupuncture continuing education department.

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New Study

Polycystic Ovary Disease/Syndrome seems to be cropping up more and more. It seems every one of my female clients having fertility issues have all been diagnosed with PCOS and the medications they are prescribing to aid it are less than friendly. Noe the University of Virginia is announcing a call for volunteers for a study to test the effectiveness of acupuncture on this growing disorder. Unfortunately, they are going with sham acupuncture as the control rather than no treatment, or doing a drug versus acupuncture study, but at least it is a beginning.

Acupuncture for PCOS

Stickin' It To Us

I came across this parody today that was marginally funny, although some of the other material on this site is downright hilarious. Have a laugh, check it out.

Acupuncture Proven to Relieve the Suffering of the Dead

Using the Needle After the Knife

Numerous articles came out today about the effects of decreasing the need for pain medicine following surgery. Of course, this came along with an onslaught of articles refuting the success of acupuncture for IVF, but I wanted to focus on the positive.

Studies find acupuncture cuts post-surgical pain
Tue Oct 16, 2007 5:35pm EDT

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The use of acupuncture before and during surgery reduces patients' post-operative pain as well as the need for pain-killing medication, researchers said on Tuesday.

Researchers at Duke University Medical Center in North Carolina analyzed the results of 15 clinical trials on the effectiveness of acupuncture -- a practice that originated in China of inserting thin needles into specific body points.


They concluded that it is valuable for pain control in surgery patients.

The 15 trials showed that patients getting acupuncture before or during various types of
operations had significantly less pain afterward than patients who did not get acupuncture.
These patients also required less morphine or other opioid pain medication after surgery, which reduced the side effects like nausea and vomiting from these types of drugs, the researchers said.

In terms of pain-drug side effects, the acupuncture patients experienced 1.5 times lower rates of nausea, 1.6 times fewer reports of dizziness and 3.5 times fewer cases of urinary retention compared to the other patients, the study found.

These findings augment a growing body of evidence on the value of acupuncture in improving the surgical experience for patients, the researchers said.

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A Weekend with Mei Zen

Since I can never get enough CEU's, this past weekend I attended the Mei Zen Cosmetic Acupuncture for the Face and I wanted to share a breakdown of the 2-day seminar.

The System: As I had to sign a releases that I cannot talk about specifics of treatment, I will leave the description general. As in other systems, Mei Zen includes a total body acupuncture treatment, uses the eight extraordinary point combinations, and is affiliated with a product line. What makes this system unique is that the same facial protocol is used on every patient and that it makes use of crossing and apex groups as described in the Huang Di Nei Jing. While I cannot disclose the points, I can tell you there are nearly 85 specialty needles in the face, all of which are inserted without a guide tube.

After watching the demo, I was surprised at the lack of "facial" as I typically incorporate masks and massage in my treatments, but the instructor states that is the practitioner's preference how much of this they want to incorporate in addition to the protocol. A wealth of nutritional, herbal, and marketing materials are provided which would be useful even if you did not want to practice cosmetic acupuncture.

Aside from cosmetic acupuncture, Mei Zen is about branding. At the seminar, T-shirts, hats, logo CDs, and cards were for sale, and Martha sponsors a Google group so the Mei Zen community has an open discussion forum. In order to be "certified" and listed on the main website, you must present cases and have your needling technique observed at a special certification seminar. This ensures standards of practice and is a good device for building further branding and loyalty. Above everything else, this is a well conceived business plan!

The Instructor: Martha Lucas is all knowledge and no fluff - her matter-of-fact method really gibes with my learning style. She had a strong foundation in her particular style of acupuncture and is an enthusiastic, articulate presenter. Her supervised practice was invaluable, she was open to knowledge offered by seminar participants, and she was humble enough to only answer questions she knew the answer to. She kept good control over the seminar in terms of ensuring everyone stayed on task, was able to give detailed, individualized feedback of needling technique, and demonstrated great respect and deference to her own teachers.

My only criticism is that she did make some disparaging and somewhat uninformed comments about "rival" facial acupuncture instructors and their techniques. I have never taken Virgina Doran's seminar, but I did participate in Mary Elizabeth Wakefield's and there are many similarities between the two systems. That being said, I am would love to attend her Pulse Seminar and Mei Zen system for weight loss, infertility and health issues should they ever be located nearby.

The Product: Lili Flora is the affiliated skin care line that uses all natural western herbal ingredients. I was able to pick the founder's brain about the products, but I would have liked for her to have had some presentation time during the seminar. There was no sales pressure to buy these products and in fact, if you are at all crafty and like to experiment, it would be easy to make most of them in your kitchen. I have been using some of the products at home and feel they are of good quality and smell wonderful.

I am glad I attended this seminar if only for the great nutritional/herbal information and marketing ideas presented. I think Mei Zen is a solid system, and while the apex and crossing points are a good theory, but honestly, threading works and is no more uncomfortable that the Mei Zen way if performed properly. Ultimately, it is my patients who decide what method they prefer. I hope to continue to study with Martha in the future as she is a dynamic, innovative, and practical instructor who provides good value and knowledge for your CEU dollar.

Stabbed in the Back

The proclamation that acupuncture significantly outperforms conventional medication and physical therapy was published on multiple sites this morning. The only downside to the research is that they found sham acupuncture works almost as well, upping the potential for "quackery."

Acupuncture better at treating low back pain than conventional therapy
From our ANI Correspondent

Washington, Sept 25: A new study has revealed that six months of acupuncture is more effective than conventional therapy for treating chronic low back pain.

The study conducted by researchers at the University of Regensburg found that both sham acupuncture and traditional Chinese verum acupuncture, seem effective in treating chronic pain.

"Low back pain is a common, impairing and disabling condition, often long-term, with an estimated lifetime prevalence of 70 percent to 85 percent," the authors wrote."

It is the second most common pain for which physician treatment is sought and a major reason for absenteeism and disability," they added.

Michael Haake, Ph.D., M.D., of the University of Regensburg, Bad Abbach, Germany, and colleagues conducted a randomized clinical trial involving 1,162 patients (average age 50) who had experienced chronic low back pain for an average of eight years.

"At six months, response rate was 47.6 percent in the verum acupuncture group, 44.2 percent in the sham acupuncture group and 27.4 percent in the conventional therapy group."

"The superiority of both forms of acupuncture suggests a common underlying mechanism that may act on pain generation, transmission of pain signals or processing of pain signals by the central nervous system and that is stronger than the action mechanism of conventional therapy," the authors said.

"Acupuncture gives physicians a promising and effective treatment option for chronic low back pain, with few adverse effects or contraindications. The improvements in all primary and secondary outcome measures were significant and lasted long after completion of treatment.," they added.

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From the Associated Press: Study: Acupuncture Works for Back Pain

Funny Tidbit

Okay, this is not stricly acupuncture related, but it is amusing and possibly something to consider when treating patients with implants.


Bee sting burst breast implant

A Taiwanese woman's breast implant was reportedly burst by a bee sting.

The 31-year-old woman, from Miaoli town, was wearing a low-cut dress while riding her motorcycle when her right breast was stung by a bee.

"My right breast disappeared in only two days," said the woman, who received the implant three years ago, according to Southern China City News.

Surgeon Zeng Dingchang says the saline implant is supposed to resist pressure of up to 200 kg, and said it was "very strange" for one to deflate because of a bee sting.

"She is very skinny, and the implant made the skin of her breast even thinner, and therefore easy to penetrate," he said.

The surgeon has now performed a replacement implanted operation - but warns that acupuncture or yoga could cause it to burst again.