1. februar 2010
Akupunktur og WHO ´s anbefaling
WHO’s liste over sygdomme hvor akupunktur kan anbefales.
Listen blev kompileret på et interregionalt WHO-møde i Beijing 1979:
Luftvejssygdomme:
Akut bihulebetændelse
Akut rinitis (snue)
Forkølelse
Akut tonsillitis (halsbetændelse)
Akut bronchitis
Bronkial astma (især børn og patienter uden komplikationssygdomme)
Øjenlidelser:
Akut conjunctivitis (øjenkatar)
Central retinitis (nethindebetændelse)
Nærsynethed
Grå stær
Sygdomme i mundhulen:
Tandpine og smerter efter tandekstraktion
Tandkødsbetændelse
Akut og kronisk svælgkatar
Gastrointestinale sygdomme (lidelser i fordøjelsessystemet):
Spiserørsspasmer og mavemundsspasmer
Hikke
Gastroptose (medsunken mavesæk)
Akut og kronisk mavekatar
For megen mavesyre
Kronisk mavesår (i tolvfingertarmen, uden komplikation)
Akut og krinisk tyktarmsbetændelse
Akut bakteriel enteritis (tarmbetændelse)
Forstoppelse
Diarre
Paralytisk ileus (tarmslyng af lammelsestypen)
Lidelser i nervesystemet og bevægeapparatet:
Hovedpine, migræne
Trigeminysneuralgi
Facialisparese ( indefor de første 3 – 6 måneder)
Pareser (lettere lammelser )efter slagtilfælde
Perefere neuropatier
Følger af poliomuelitis (børnelammelse, indenfor de første 6 måneder)
Menières syge
Nervøst betingede blæreproblemer
Sengevædning
Intercostalneuralgi (nervesmerter mellem ribbenene)
Cervicobrachialsyndrol (hals-skulder-arm-syndrom)
Frossen skulder
Tennisalbue
Iskias
Lumbago
Osteoartritis (betændelser i led eller knogler)
Akupunktur
acupuncturist
Who says alternative medicine (acupuncture) is for quacks?
Following the decision of the FDA U.S. Food and Drug Administration to regulate the use and practice of alternative medicine, there might just be hope for millions of alternative therapists who have repeatedly been ridiculed by the medical profession. Commonly referred to as "quack doctors", healers who practice unorthodox treatments may finally get the recognition they have been seeking for centuries.
The practice of alternative medicine has been around long before medical schools and hospitals. "What's funny is that alternative medicine has often been regarded as baseless and misleading by traditional doctors when it is, in fact, the real traditional medicine," says Dr. Joe Bankston of the Office of Alternative Medicine.
The National Library of Medicine classifies alternative medicine as "an unrelated group of non-orthodox therapeutic practices, often with explanatory systems that do not follow conventional biomedical explanations." These include, but are not limited to, the following disciplines: folk medicine, herbal medicine, diet fads, homeopathy, faith healing, new age healing, chiropractic, acupuncture, naturopathy, massage, and music therapy.
Because these methods are unconventional and not thoroughly explained by scientific trials, the U.S. FDA had been hesitant in recognizing the legitimacy of these treatments. As a result, the practice has remained underground for decades, and patients have been resorting to shady deals in order to avail of drugs and services. Also, because alternative medicine has been shunned by the scientific community, the possibility of these therapies being studied further remained remote.
Prior to the FDA legislation, the Complementary Healthcare Consultative Forum started regulating the practice of alternative medicine by accrediting practitioners of alternative medicine, early last year. It also aimed to develop a more effective system of monitoring over the counter supplements
Director of the Office of Complementary Medicine Dr. Fiona Cumming says more surveillance will be placed on the safety of herbal products, and a new advertising code drawn up to regulate claims made by manufacturers.
"We have been looking at ways to streamline the regulations of complementary medicines, delivering absolutely safe quality products for consumers, but allowing more timely access onto the market," she said.
What regulation can do
"Regulating alternative medicine may only be beneficial to patients and consumers, because this would give patients more options in choosing legitimate health care, not being limited to conventional treatments," says Oregon Representative Peter DeFazio. Rep. DeFazio pushed for the law which gave the National Institutes of Health's Office of Alternative Medicine the power to provide funding for independent research into alternative health care methods.
The formation of regulation policies will provide a new approval mechanism for natural medicinal products, in order to make potentially life-saving treatments more widely available to consumers, as opposed to the excessive limits on the availability of alternative medical treatments in the past.
With the growing acceptance of alternative medicine as a legitimate treatment for various conditions, the public can only expect a wider array of such medical products and services in the market. The patient will be able to select which kind of treatment he or she wants, without any fear of rejection or castigation by conventional practitioners. Although this is probably far from happening, it might not be long before you find alternative healers side-by-side with your physicians in the hospital.
acupuncture By Shakira Andrea Sison
Piller mod kolesterol: Har de en bagside?
Piller mod kolesterol forlænger livet ved åreforkalkning og måske også ved hjertesvigt. Men nye tal tyder på, at mange får alvorlige bivirkninger, der kunne være undgået med Q10.
Titusinder af danskere får nu kolesterolsænkende medicin af den type, der kaldes statiner. Patienterne har oftest forkalkede kransårer i hjertet, og statinerne skal beskytte dem mod yderligere åreforkalkning, blodprop og slagtilfælde. De virker, om end i mindre grad, end mange tror.
Giver man dem til hundrede 40-80-årige personer, der er i højrisiko pga. kransåreforkalkning eller sukkersyge, forhindrer man rundt regnet ét tilfælde af enten blodprop i hjertet eller slagtilfælde om året. I løbet af fem år undgår man ca. to dødsfald.
Mange af de behandlede får imidlertid på et tidspunkt hjertesvigt – svækket pumpefunktion af hjertet – fordi åreforkalkningen skader hjertemusklen varigt. De begynder at klage over træthed og tiltagende åndenød. Flere og flere får hjertesvigt.
Er det i den situation risikabelt at tage de kolesterolsænkende piller? Det har man diskuteret. Diskussionen skyldes den måde, medicinen virker på. Den blokerer leverens dannelse af stoffet mevalon-syre, som er udgangspunkt for dannelsen af kolesterol – men også for dannelsen af det livsvigtige Q10! Det er ikke kun blodets kolesterolværdi, der falder. Blodværdierne for Q10 falder samtidig.
Da Q10 er nødvendigt for at vævene kan danne energi, er det let at forestille sig, at en hjertemuskel, som er svækket af hjertesvigt, svækkes endnu mere, når den fratages Q10.
Tilsyneladende går det dog alligevel. Statiner synes at forlænge livet ved hjertesvigt. Ikke fordi de sænker kolesterolet – det er måske ligefrem skadeligt, når man har hjertesvigt – men fordi statiner har andre virkninger end den kolesterolsænkende. Bl.a. er de antioxidanter og modvirker inflammation. Desuden fremmer de nydannelsen af blodkar i hjertemusklen. Ingen af delene har noget med kolesterol at gøre.
Måske vinder man på gyngerne – de gunstige virkninger af statinerne – hvad der er tabt på karrusellerne, nemlig det dramatiske tab af Q10. Alligevel er det svært at tro, at dette tab er fuldkommen uskyldigt, især ved hjertesvigt.
Den amerikanske hjertelæge PH Langsjoen er en af dem, der advarer:
- Vi befinder os midt i en epidemi af hjertesvigt, hvis årsager er uklare, skrev han i 2003, og mente, at statiner kunne være en af grundene.
Ved en kongres i Los Angeles i foråret forelagde han tal, der tyder på hidtil oversete bivirkninger. To tredjedele af 51 nyhenviste statinbehandlede patienter klagede over muskelsmerter, mere end 80 % var abnormt trætte, og knap 60 % havde åndenød. Da de ophørte med statin og i stedet fik Q10 (240 mg/dag), blev langt de fleste symptomfrie.
Ved samme kongres viste et lodtrækningsforsøg, at muskelsmerter og træthed forekom hos hver tiende af de statinbehandlede, men forsvandt, når de fik Q10 (100 mg/dag). Nok så væsentligt: Mere end hver anden fik forbedret livskvalitet, og flere fik bedre hjertefunktion.
Piller mod kolesterol forlænger livet, men det er nødvendigt at tage Q10, hvis livskvaliteten skal følge med og gøre det umagen værd at leve længere.
3. august 2005 Fra: Vitalraadet
Referencer:
1. Heart Protection Study Collaborative Group. MRC/BHF Heart Protection Study of cholesterol lowering with simvastatin in 20 536 high-risk individuals: A randomised placebo-controlled trial. Lancet 2002;360:7-22.
2. Langsjoen PH et al. The clinical use of HMG CoA-reductase inhibitors and the associated depletion of coenzyme Q10. A review of animal and human publications. Biofactors. 2003;18(1-4):101-11.
3. Liao JK. Statin therapy for cardiac hypertrophy and heart failure. J Investig Med. 2004 May;52(4):248-53.
4. Bandolier. Statins in heart faikure. http://www.jr2.ox.ac.uk/bandolier/booth/cardiac/statHF.html
5. Fourth Conference of the international coenzyme Q10 Assoxiation. Los Angeles April 14-17 2005.
Piller mod kolesterol, prøv akupunktur
www.akupunktur-akupunktoer.dk/sygdomme-lidelser/kolesterol-akupunktur/
Acupuncture and neck pain
A study has found that acupuncture not only helps to relieve pain but is a cost-effective way of doing so.
More than 3,400 patients suffering from neck pain were studied over a three-month period by scientists based at the Berlin Institute of Social Medicine. About half received acupuncture in addition to routine care.
The researchers, whose study is reported in the journal Pain, found that the extra cost of the acupuncture treatment resulted in health benefits that were great enough to make the treatment cost-effective.
“Acupuncture isn’t controversial any more,” said Claudia Witt, who led the project. “We’ve shown that it works.” She added that it was in no way comparable to other alternative therapies. ”
One in five people in Britain suffers from long-term pain and about half of these have taken time off work because of it. While acupuncture is provided in the majority of pain clinics in Britain, access to the treatment is limited.
Acupuncture and pain by Hannah Devlin from The Times
"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.
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Acupuncture for stroke Sham-controlled, double-blind, randomized trial. Inclusion Criteria
Patients of any age with a recent (<4 weeks) clinically or radiologically confirmed stroke (ischemic or hemorrhagic) were eligible for inclusion. Exclusion Criteria
Patients with preexisting disabilities leading to modified Rankin scores of 3 or more, recent history of other serious diseases such as cancer or diseases transmissible by blood, fear of needling, stroke that had occurred under general anesthesia, history of previous acupuncture, or the likelihood of full recovery within 2 weeks. Patient Involvement:
All patients were randomized to receive 12 sessions of either real or sham acupuncture during a 2-week period. Primary Outcome:
The change in Barthel activities of daily living score from the beginning to the end of treatment. Secondary Outcome:
National Institutes of Health Stroke Scale score, motoricity index, quality of life (EQ-5D [EuroQoL–5 Dimensional form] and EQ-VAS [Euro-QoL–Visual Analog Scale]), Nottingham Extended ADL score, Ashworth scale for muscle spasticity, timed 10-m walk, 9-hole peg test, swallowing status (“safe” or “unsafe” swallow based on a bedside swallow screening test), and the patient’s blinding regarding treatment. Results: Acupuncture for stroke |
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| Source of Information: Arch Intern Med. 2005;165:2026-2031. |
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