Written by Melanie Bowen of miladyknows.blogspot.com

Acupuncture and Health

Obtaining a diagnosis for cancer, such as a mesothelioma prognosis or a breast cancer prognosis, is a devastating time. The earlier a diagnosis is made, the higher the likelihood of living through the cancer. While treatment is often effective, particularly in the early phases of cancer, radiation and chemotherapy are also painful and cause problems like nausea and vomiting, which make it difficult to eat a nutritious diet.
Without a healthy diet, the immune system becomes weaker and makes it harder to fight the cancerous cells within the body. Fortunately, alternative medicine like acupuncture can help alleviate the symptoms of cancer treatment, allowing you to eat a healthy diet and improve your immune system.
Acupuncture is an alternative medicine that originates in ancient China. The acupuncturist uses hair-thin needles and inserts it into specific points in the body. Acupuncture is used to treat a wide range of potential illnesses, including nausea and vomiting, as well as improving the immune system. In cancer treatment, the primary purpose of the acupuncture is to alleviate some of the symptoms of the treatment. Acupuncture helps improve the situation for a wide range of cancers such as mesothelioma, breast cancer and lung cancer.
Upon going to the acupuncturist, cancer patients are asked about their current lifestyle, eating habits and the medications they are taking. It is important to answer all of the questions accurately and completely, just like answering a doctor. The acupuncturist then uses the information given during the questioning to determine which points to insert the needles to manage your specific problems.
For example, someone who suffers from nausea and is unable to eat a nutritious diet due to the cancer medication has a lower immune system. Telling the acupuncturist that you are nauseous and the medication that is causing the nausea determines that the appropriate points are those for nausea rather than those for problems like pain or hot flashes. The practitioner then inserts the needles to stop the nauseous feelings so you are able to eat again.
Unfortunately, acupuncture alone will not improve the situation. It is complementary to the treatment of a doctor and a healthy diet. To improve your likelihood of surviving cancer, you must also eat nutritious foods.
Plan your meals with plenty of vegetables, fruits and whole grains. Talk to your doctor about your nutritional needs before planning any diet and then ensure you have as many nutrients as suggested by your doctor. Use the acupuncture to keep food down. The combination of nausea relief, cancer treatments and a healthy nutritious diet will vastly increase your ability to fight off cancer and live, even after the dreadful diagnosis. It is possible to beat cancer and live for several years. For more relevant information from within this post, check out the MCA’s new blog and also search throughout Jade Acupuncture for great information.

News Author: Laurie Barclay, MD
CME Author: Désirée Lie, MD, MS Ed

May 18, 2011 — T'ai chi may benefit the elderly population in fall prevention, psychological health, and general well-being, according to the results of an overview of systematic reviews (SRs) reported Online First May 16 in the British Journal of Sports Medicine. The practice combines deep breathing and relaxation with slow and gentle movements and is based on the Confucian and Buddhist belief that health is controlled by 2 opposing life forces, yin and yang.

"Several ...SRs have assessed the effectiveness of t'ai chi for many conditions including hypertension, osteoarthritis and fall prevention; however, their conclusions have been contradictory," write Myeong Soo Lee, from the Brain Disease Research Centre, Korea Institute of Oriental Medicine in Daejeon, South Korea, and Edzard Ernst, from Complementary Medicine, Peninsula Medical School, University of Exeter in Exeter, United Kingdom. "...Ill health is viewed as an imbalance between yin and yang, and t'ai chi can reportedly rebalance such energy disturbances. Regardless of these assumptions, the slow movements between different postures that are normally held for short periods of time represent physical stimuli, which affect the cardiovascular and muscular systems."

The reviewers' goal was to assess critically SRs of t'ai chi in any benefits regarding medical conditions or clinical symptoms, based on a search of English, Chinese, and Korean electronic databases. Predefined inclusion criteria were met by 35 SRs, from which data were extracted for the overview.

Medical conditions included in these SRs were cancer, aging, Parkinson's disease, musculoskeletal pain, osteoarthritis, rheumatoid arthritis, cardiovascular disease, osteoporosis, type 2 diabetes, and other chronic conditions. Outcomes studied in these SRs included muscle strength and flexibility, improvements in aerobic capacity, cardiovascular disease risk factors, lowering of resting blood pressure, bone mineral density, psychological health, fall prevention, and improvement of balance.

The conclusions reached in these SRs were contradictory in several cases. Overall, the evidence was relatively clear supporting the efficacy of t'ai chi in older people for fall prevention, improvements in psychological health, and general health benefits. In contrast, t'ai chi seemed to be ineffective for symptomatic treatment of cancer and rheumatoid arthritis.

Limitations of this overview include high risk for bias in many of the SRs reviewed, inability to ensure that all relevant articles were identified, and risk of diluting the results of high-quality studies by including low-quality data.

"Our overview showed that t'ai chi, which combines deep breathing and relaxation with slow and gentle movements, may exert exercise-based general benefits for fall prevention and improvement of balance in older people as well as some meditative effects for improving psychological health," the study authors conclude. "We recommend t'ai chi for older people for its various physical and psychological benefits. However, t'ai chi may not effectively treat inflammatory diseases and cardiorespiratory disorders."

Dr. Lee was supported by KIOM. Coauthor Edzard Ernst has disclosed no relevant financial relationships.

Br J Sports Med. Published online May 16, 2011. Abstract

Related Link
The National Council on Aging’s Fall Prevention Web site provides a number of resources useful for the development of fall prevention programs.

T'ai chi combines deep breathing and relaxation with slow gentle movements and has been claimed to be of benefit for a variety of conditions ranging from fall prevention in older people to cardiovascular disease such as hypertension. Different SRs have been performed to examine its efficacy.

This is a review of SRs on t'ai chi to gather information on the types of conditions for which t'ai chi may be beneficial and to review the evidence for efficacy for different conditions.

• The investigators conducted electronic searches in July 2010 in the databases of MEDLINE, EMBASE, AMED, CINAHL, the Cochrane library, 6 Korean Medical Databases, and a Chinese database without restrictions.
• To be included, SRs had to specifically address t'ai chi as an intervention and include evidence from at least 2 clinical trials.
• The researchers assessed the quality of the primary trials using the Overview Quality Assessment Questionnaire.
• The search generated 55 articles, of which 35 met inclusion criteria.
• The SRs were published between 2002 and 2010.
• First authors originated from the United States (n = 10), the United Kingdom (n = 9), Korea (n = 9), France (n = 2), Australia (n = 2), the Netherlands (n = 2), Canada (n = 1), New Zealand (n = 1), Singapore (n = 1), and Sweden (n = 1).
• SRs were based on 2 to 47 primary studies.
• 10 reviews incorporated a meta-analytic approach.
• The quality of the SRs varied.
• 17 had minimal bias, 11 had major flaws, and the remaining had moderate flaws.
• The following conditions were examined: cancer, general healthcare in older adults, Parkinson's disease, musculoskeletal disorders, muscle strength, aerobic capacity, blood pressure, osteoporosis, diabetes, balance, and other chronic conditions.
• 7 SRs concluded that data were insufficient to draw conclusions, 8 concluded that t'ai chi did not have a beneficial effect, and 20 reported that t'ai chi may be effective.
• Of 9 high-quality SRs, 1 SR arrived at a positive conclusion, and 5 arrived at a negative conclusion. In 3 SRs, no clear conclusions were drawn.
• A clear consensus was found that t'ai chi improved the general health of older persons, improved psychological health, and prevented falls.
• Of 4 SRs that investigated fall prevention, 3 showed a positive effect.
• For psychological health, 4 of 5 SRs showed a positive effect.
• All 3 SRs evaluating psychological health in older persons found a positive effect.
• The evidence for rheumatoid arthritis and cancer was clearly negative in 2 SRs.
• There was contradiction about the role of t'ai chi for improving cardiovascular function and aerobic capacity, and improving balance.
• The authors concluded that, at the present time, positive effects of t'ai chi were only shown for fall prevention and improvement of psychological health in older people.

• The benefits of t'ai chi have been investigated for many conditions including neurologic, cardiovascular, orthopaedic, and psychological conditions, but the quality of evidence varies.
• Evidence for benefit of t'ai chi is shown for psychological health and fall prevention in older people but not for cardiovascular disease, cancer, or rheumatoid arthritis.

We are pleased to announce that we can now accept Harvard Pilgrim subscribers for acupuncture and Chinese herbal medicine.  Harvard Pilgrim has plans which cover up to 12 treatments, once the benefit is exhausted, under our contract, the subscriber will receive discount off regular prices.

We also can accept Mass. Blue Cross and Blue Shield, patients who do not have acupuncture rider will receive 10% discount.   There are several other insurers who contracted with us to give their members 10% discount.

Patients with work related injuries, or auto accident related injuries, do not need any health insurance - we can bill the insurance companies directly.

Effect of Chinese Herbal Medicine on Breast Cancer

Submitted by Chad Dupuis on Tue, 01/18/2011 - 11:04am

Chinese Herbal Medicine is widely used both as an adjunctive therapy or even in lieu of western treatments for various cancers. Many of the components of herbal medicine have been studied extensively including some studies on traditional formulas yet strong studies on which formulas, herbs and dosages are most effective is lacking. While there is strong enough evidence for practitioners of Chinese Medicine to make recommendations, there is not enough for the western medical establishment to recommend these techniques nor are there enough studies to understand the implications of using both western chemical medicine at eastern herbal medicine at the same time.

In this study researchers from the Unit of Integrative Medicine at the Tel Aviv Sourasky Medical Cetner in Israel looked at the effects of herbal treatment on breast cancer cell lines in vitro. Researchers used three breast cancer lines (MDA-231, MDA-453, and T47D). They exposed these lines to powdered Chinese Herbal Medicine for 72 hours and used a variety of measures to determine any anti-cancer effects.

Researchers found that the Chinese Herbal Medicine treatment increased apoptosis (cell death) which is a measurable function of anti-cancer activities. Due to these results they currently have a randomized clinical trial undergoing to use Chinese Herbal Medicine in conjunction with Chemotherapy treatment to see if clinical outcomes are improved.

While in our work we rely heavily on Tong Ren Therapy (a form of energy healing) for cancer (study here) there are Herbal Formulas such as Kang Zhong Wan (and many others) which have shown similar anti-cancer activity in a broad range of cancers. One individual herb, Ban Zhi Lian, (which is in Kang Zhong Wan) is in the process of being approved by the FDA for a trial treating stage IV metastatic breast cancer.

All in all there are many treatment options for people with cancer particularly in countries where access to western drugs is difficult. That said, there is much work to be done particularly in exploring the viability and effectiveness of combining approaches.

PERSONAL INJURY - yes, we treat all types.

We can treat all types of injuries and we accept all auto insurances, all workers compensation insurances.  We are also approved by United States labor Department, OWCP (Office of Workers Compensation Program) - FECA, Energy Department, Black Lung program as well.  This means that all postal service,employees, nuclear power station employees and so on, can be treated in this office without charges to the patient.

Acupuncture in Worcester

Our office is giving a new meaning to "holistic therapy" definition.  We offer not only acupuncture but also Chinese herbs, Reiki, medical Qi Gong and other alternative medicine modalities described on our main pages.  Our office is the only one, that we know of, where oriental medicine doctor shares space and expertise with western physicians such as orthopedic trauma surgeon, pain management, physical medicine and rehabilitation expert, and has availability of neurologist, plastic and reconstructive surgeon.  We also have a small gym which is available to our patients at no charge.  For patients who are afraid of needles we offer sound frequency treatments with tuning forks. 

We will not discuss any of your problems with the western doctors without your specific permission.  If you desire such consultation, this is a true East-meets-West situation.

This is the beginning of our blog, additional posts will be added here so please check often for new announcements.