Cupping is one of the oldest methods of traditional Chinese medicine. The earliest recorded use of cupping dates to the early fourth century, when the noted herbalist Ge Hong wrote about a form of cupping in A Handbook of Prescriptions. Later books written during the Tang and Qing dynasties described cupping in great detail; one textbook included an entire chapter on “fire jar qi”, a type of cupping that could alleviate headaches, dizziness and abdominal pain.
How Cupping Works
Originally, practitioners would use hollowed-out animal horns for cups, and place them over particular points or meridians. Today, most acupuncturists use cups made of thick glass or plastic, although bamboo, iron and pottery cups are still used in other countries. Glass cups are the preferred method of delivery, because they do not break as easily as pottery or deteriorate like bamboo, and they allow the acupuncturist to see the skin and evaluate the effects of treatment.
How Cupping Can Help You
Cupping, like Moxibustion, is usually provided as a complimentary treatment to Acupuncture. Chinese herbal medicine could also be prescribed to further strengthen and compliment Cupping treatments.
Cupping Kit
Now with the Kangci Cupping Kit, you can do it at the comfort of your home! This cupping kit comes with 12 cups of different sizes for different parts of your body. Unlike traditional cupping treatments, this cupping kit does not require fire. It comes with a pump gun that creates vacuum inside the cups by simply sucking the air out. It also comes with an extended tube to assist you in applying the cups onto yourself. The instruction manual also includes a list of the most common illnesses and tells you where you should apply the cups for best result.
Original article and pictures take www.acupunctureclinichouston.com site
Acupuncture Can Help Alleviate Pregnancy Aches and Pains
Pregnancy can be filled with all sorts of aches and pains, such as hemorrhoids, morning sickness, back pain and constipation. For some women, these ailments can be debilitating. Acupuncture could bring them some relief.
According to the Mayo Clinic, acupuncture is an ancient Chinese medical practice where small needles are inserted into a patient's skin to alleviate pain or treat various physical, mental and emotional conditions. It's described as a technique for balancing the flow of energy or life force — known as qi or chi (CHEE) — believed to flow through pathways in your body. By inserting needles into specific points along these pathways, practitioners believe that your energy flow will rebalance.
From the very early stages of pregnancy, moms-to-be can turn to acupuncture to lessen the physical woes associated with pregnancy.
"Acupuncture is very safe in pregnancy, and in fact, very helpful," says Dr. John Zhang, a pioneer of minimally invasive fertility care and founder of the New Hope Fertility Center in New York City. "It has been used for centuries to treat threatened miscarriage, bleeding, premature contractions, as well as all of the discomforts women experience throughout the stages of pregnancy, such as nausea, sciatica, acid reflux, constipation and hemorrhoids."
Each maternity patient's treatment will depend on her symptoms and the severity of her aches.
"Often, we might start with two times per week if (the patient) is very uncomfortable and reduce to once per week when some improvement is observed," Zhang says.
Though the practice is safe during pregnancy, pregnant women should take a few precautions during treatment, such as lying in proper positions.
"After the first trimester, the position of the patient is important," Zhang says. "If lying faceup, then the bed should be raised so that she is sitting but reclined or lying on her side to ensure that blood flow is abundant."
Zhang suggests you ask your provider which acupuncture points are not advisable during pregnancy. Most acupuncturists have good training and will know what to avoid.
"If you aren't comfortable with the answer, then don't get the treatment," Zhang says.
Original article and pictures take images.parenting.mdpcdn.com site
Over the last 17 years I have worked with many women and couples to empower them to improve and boost their natural fertility with acupuncture and Fertility Attraction® Method 1:1 Sessions. I recommend an integrated approach and usually offer lifestyle advice in... Secondary infertility can be extremely upsetting but actually from a TCM point of view it can be explained very easily. Previous birth trauma, lack of correct nutrition, sleep deprivation and the sheer energy zapping nature of little ones could all be contributing to...
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Acupuncture for Miscarriage
Miscarriage can have a devastating effect on you and your partner. It’s generally recommended to wait for 3 months before trying to conceive, the important distinction that is often overlooked is that from a TCM point of view there must be treatment to heal and...
Original article and pictures take abintra.co.uk site
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.
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)
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)
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.
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.
Original article and pictures take www.corespirit.com site
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.
Original article and pictures take media.npr.org site
Acupuncture Affords Back Pain Relief From Disc Herniations
Acupuncture and electroacupuncture relieve lower back pain due to disc herniations. Heilongjiang University of TCM researchers investigated the analgesic effects of both manual acupuncture and electroacupuncture. Both types of acupuncture successfully relieved focal lower back pain and sciatica.
Electroacupuncture outperformed manual acupuncture in achieving the greatest number of positive patient outcomes. The total effective rate for the relief of pain was 97.5% for electroacupuncture and 89.5% for manual acupuncture in the randomized controlled trial. The total effective rate included patients with significant reductions or elimination of pain, improved lower limb reflexes, ability to resume work, and significant improvements in range of motion.
The researchers applied acupuncture to the following acupoints:
BL31, Shangliao
BL32, Ciliao
BL33, Zhongliao
BL34, Xialiao
BL54, Zhibian
BL40, Weizhong
BL60, Kunlun
A manual acupuncture group was compared with an electroacupuncture group whose BL31, BL40, BL34, and BL60 acupoints were stimulated with continuous wave stimulation at a comfortable intensity level. Electroacupuncture was only added after the arrival of deqi at the acupoints. Total needle retention time was 30 minutes per acupuncture session for both groups. All patients received acupuncture at a rate of once per day for ten days. The researchers concluded that both acupuncture and electroacupuncture are safe and effective for the treatment of lumbar disc herniation pain.
The researchers conducted a protocolized study using a predetermined acupuncture point prescription for all participants in the investigation. No customization of the acupuncture point prescription was made based on individual symptoms or differential diagnostics. This approach differs from standard clinical usage wherein a licensed acupuncturist customizes the treatment protocol based upon signs and symptoms. The predetermined acupuncture point prescription is common in research due to the efforts of investigators attempting to eliminate experimental variables.
The researchers note that one part of the investigation was to test the efficacy of needling the Bladder Foot-Taiyang acupuncture meridian for the treatment of lumbar pain. Citing a historical precedent in Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) principles and usage, the researchers applied a modern biomedical experiment to test the ancient indication for use of Bladder Foot-Taiyang acupoints for the treatment of lower back pain. Based on the findings of the investigation, the researchers conclude that needling Bladder Foot-Taiyang acupuncture points are effective in the relief of lumbar disc herniation related pain. Moreover, the researchers conclude that the addition of electroacupuncture is more effective than using only manual acupuncture.
This investigation tests manual acupuncture, electroacupuncture, and TCM theory on the effectiveness of Bladder Tai-Yang meridian usage for lower back pain treatment. Using a modern randomized controlled study, investigators tested the principle of treating pain along the course of a meridian’s pathway with acupoints located on the meridian. In addition, TCM principles state that lower back pain may be treated with the application of Bladder Tai-Yang meridian points. The results confirm this ancient principle making this an intriguing study in that both clinical results and ancient TCM theory align in a modern investigation.
References:
Xiao F, Cai HB, Ren H & Tao YM. (2015). Clinical Evaluation on Analgesic Effect of Electro-acupuncture at Points of Bladder Meridian on Lumbar Disc Herniation. Acta Chinese Medicine and Pharmacology. 43(4).
Zou R, Xu Y & Zhang HX. (2009). Electroacupuncture and acupoint injection in treating lumbar disc herniation and their analgesic effects. China Journal of Orthopedics. 22(10): 759-761.
Original article and pictures take www.healthcmi.com site
