Acupuncture and herbal medicine has been found to be effective in treating menopause of various stages.

Acupuncture and herbal medicine has been found to be effective in treating menopause of various stages.

Excessive sweating, heart palpitations, numb skin, dizziness, headaches, hot flashes, mood changes, and irritability… does that ring a bell? Women goes through the menopause phase typically around the ages of 45 and 55 years old, when the woman’s body is in the process of ceasing to menstruate. (1) From what I understand, it’s not a whole lot of fun.

China uses acupuncture for many different ailments, including menopause and they have found it to be incredibly effective for women.

There is a different mindset between Western and Eastern medicine.

Acupuncture is a form of a holistic health care system in China, called Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM). It has been practiced for many years with the use of herbs and other therapies. Acupuncture, in conjunction with the proper diet and herbal medicine has been shown to be effective for the Chinese women.

The America, women are suggested by their doctors to use hormone replacement therapy of either estrogen or a combination of estrogen and progesterone, but the side effects always remain questionable. The international Agency for Research on Cancer found that “combined estrogen-progesterone menopausal therapy is carcinogenic to humans.” (1)

In China, Asian women use a natural and safe alternative to artificial hormone replacement. Interestingly, it is found that only 10% of Asian women experience noticeable menopausal symptoms compared to 75% of women in the United States! (2)

Use these approaches to alleviate menopausal symptoms naturally.

The Chinese women do not fear this stage in life, possibly because they do not experience the adverse symptoms as the American women do. They do not consider it something to develop anxiety over nor is it an illness needing some medication. This stage of change is embraced and found to be deeply valued as they enter the new stage of life. (3)

The steps that TCM typically take in order to help women going through various menopausal phases are quite simple: diet, acupuncture, and herbs.

1. Dietary therapy – Food is considered a medicine and a fundamental process in part of any diagnosis and treatment. Studies show that a diet rich in phytoestrogens can reduce the adverse symptoms associated with menopause. (2)
2. Acupuncture – In combination with Chinese herbal medicine, acupuncture has been found to be the most effective level of treatment. Studies have shown that this method is effective and offers an alternative to hormone replacement therapy. (2)(4)
3. Chinese Herbal Medicine – Women with any deficiencies or imbalances in the body are considered to have a higher chance to develop the risk of menopausal symptoms in the future. The Chinese practitioner can tell which organ in the body is most effective from the deficiency and will work to address the problem with herbal remedies. (2)

Acupuncture and Chinese herbs can also help treat women who develop menopause like symptoms such as irregular menstruation, black spots on face, and acne after stopping birth control pills.

Sources for this article include:

(1) www.webmd.com

(2) www.tcmpage.com

(3) www.chinesemedicineliving.com

(4) www.sciencedaily.com

(5) www.theepochtimes.com

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Acupuncture and Alexander Technique help relieve chronic neck pain

Acupuncture and Alexander Technique help relieve chronic neck pain

Troubled by long-term neck pain? Acupuncture and the Alexander Technique may offer relief, says a study in the Nov. 3, 2015, issue of the Annals of Internal Medicine.

British researchers recruited 517 patients who suffered from neck pain for an average of six years. They were randomly placed in three groups: one got up to 20 half-hour Alexander Technique lessons, the second had up to a dozen 50-minute sessions of acupuncture, and the third group received standard treatments, such as medications and physical therapy.

Acupuncture uses hair-thin needles to stimulate specific points on the body, which is thought to trigger physiological processes that relieve pain. The Alexander Technique is an educational method that teaches people how to avoid unnecessary muscle tension and improve posture and body alignment.

After 12 months, pain declined by 32% for the acupuncture patients and 31% for those who had Alexander lessons. The usual care group reduced their pain by 23%, which is less than the 25% considered clinically relevant, according to the study.

“These treatments may be viable options for people with longtime neck pain, or for those who have not responded to conventional treatments,” says lead author Dr. Hugh MacPherson of the University of York.

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Acupuncture And Alexander Technique Can Help Chronic Neck Pain

Acupuncture And Alexander Technique Can Help Chronic Neck Pain

Neck pain can cause a lot of lost work and disability.

About one out of every six Americans has some form of neck pain, and chronic sufferers have few treatment options. But acupuncture or the Alexander technique, a system for adjusting posture, could provide some long-term relief for chronic neck pain.

Typical care for neck or back pain often involves some pain medication and visits to a physical therapist, orthopedic surgeon or chiropractor. For chronic pain, the kind that sticks around year after year, these mainstream treatment options can be a bit ineffective.

"The thing with chronic pain is you may actually not be able to reduce any pain," says Dr. Andrea Furlan, a physician and acupuncturist at the University of Toronto and an editor for the Cochrane Back and Neck medical review who was not involved with the study.

But it looks like tacking on acupuncture treatment or Alexander technique lessons could reduce pain just a bit further than usual care. The researchers provided over 345 people with chronic neck pain with a few months of acupuncture or the Alexander technique and compared them to 170 people who just received usual care for a year. By three months, people receiving acupuncture or the Alexander technique had about 10 percent less pain than the people who hadn't received the extra care, the researchers reported in the Annals of Internal Medicine on Monday.

The improvement persisted. "There was a statistically significant difference between these groups. And it was also there at six and 12 months. That's the remarkable thing," says lead author Hugh MacPherson, a senior research fellow at the University of York in the United Kingdom. "Most trials looking at neck pain show the benefits wear off after a time, but we were finding these sustaining benefits."

That might be because treatments like the Alexander technique and acupuncture try to engage patients in their own recovery through lifestyle changes that typical care doesn't, says MacPherson. "The patients that embedded the changes that they were asked to make by their acupuncturist did better."

The Alexander technique tries to adjust posture and body movement to become more natural and efficient, which participants can practice for the rest of their lives. And acupuncture providers often offer diet and exercise advice along with needling. After six months, people receiving Alexander technique lessons or acupuncture had an over 30 percent reduction in pain on average compared with over 20 percent for those without the added care.

That extra drop of relief could help some people. "But it doesn't seem like a lot," Furlan cautions. "The problem I have with referring my patients to Alexander technique is that it's expensive." She adds: "Not all insurances will pay for that, and not all people can pay for it."

Acupuncture sessions typically run around $100, about the same cost of several group classes of Alexander technique. A course of private sessions would cost $400 to $500.

What's more, these studies are terribly vulnerable to biases from the patient and the caregiver. Some people who are receiving acupuncture or Alexander technique lessons may feel better simply because they're receiving more attention. "You can't blind people to these types of studies, so their outcomes may be affected by knowing they were in one group versus another," writes Eric Hurwitz, an epidemiologist and chiropractor at the University of Hawaii who was not involved with the story, in an email.

But Hurwitz says he likes the study in spite of its flaws. "It was overall very well done," he writes. "Neck and back pain have among the highest disease burdens, e.g. disability, lost work days." If those people can find even a marginal amount of relief and gain back some of their life, then it could still be worthwhile.

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