19. juli 2011
Acupuncture and pregnancy
Acupuncture and pregnancy by IVF
Course of acupuncture (akupunktur) may raise success of IVF treatment by 65%
Women who undergo IVF increase their chances of pregnancy if they are also treated with acupuncture, a new analysis suggests.
The benefits may be large — a 65 per cent increase in the chance of becoming pregnant, and a 91 per cent increase in the number of live births.
The results have emerged from a meta-analysis, a technique in which the results of many previous trials are pooled. A team led by Dr Eric Manheimer of the University of Maryland School of Medicine scanned medical literature for trials that attempted to measure the effect of acupuncture on IVF success.
They found 108 trials, but rejected all but seven because of defects of methodology — such as that acupuncture was not administered within a day of IVF or was used as a form of pain relief. The seven they retained, all published since 2002 and carried out in four Western countries, involved 1,366 women. In all the trials the women were given acupuncture immediately before or after the test-tube embryo was transferred to their wombs. All the acupuncture sessions lasted 25 to 30 minutes.
In British Medical Journal online, the team reports that almost all these trials reported positive findings. Taken together they showed a 65 per cent increase in establishment of pregnancy, an 87 per cent increase in continuing pregnancy, and a 91 per cent increase in live births.
All these results were statistically significant, measured by the criterion of odds of less than one in 20 of having come about by chance. But the team says that these figures overestimate the benefits, since success rates even without acupuncture are relatively high.
It is more realistic, the report says, to measure the results on a “number needed to treat” basis. This is the method that assesses how many women need to be treated to achieve a single extra pregnancy — and the answer is ten.
Even on this basis it is a striking result, especially as nobody has any idea why acupuncture (akupunktur) should be having this effect.
Professor Edzard Ernst of Peninsula Medical School in Plymouth said: “On the face of it these results sound fantastic. I would, however, be very cautious as much of the observed effect could be due to a placebo response. IVF may not seem to be ‘placebo-prone’ but it probably is: if women expect it to be helpful they are more relaxed which, in turn, would affect pregnancy rates.”
Success rates in IVF vary greatly from clinic to clinic, and the analysis found that where success rates were high the benefit of acupuncture (akupunktur) was smaller and not statistically significant. That may mean that acupuncture (akupunktur) was simply a “marker” for clinics where a lot of care is taken to see that women are calm and relaxed.
The team suggests that acupuncture (akupunktur) may influence the menstrual cycle, stimulate blood flow to the womb, or produce mood chemicals that reduce the stress response to IVF. From the Times.
1. februar 2010
Acupuncture really does have a point
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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Web Links and Publications:
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Emergency Acupuncture
“Is there a doctor on board?” Was the urgent plea for help from the pilot of a Boeing 747 on an Air China flight from Beijing to Heathrow on Saturday, February 23, 2008.
Pupils from the Bishop Challoner School in south-east London were returning from a nine-day school trip to China when several of the students became critically ill from food poisoning picked up from their last meal in their hotel in Beijing.
The students had become severely dehydrated and went into shock from relentless vomiting part way through the 11-hour flight.
Dr Wendong Qin, a doctor of Chinese medicine from Shandong province, came to the rescue. There were no Western medicines on board to help the students, but Dr. Qin was able to utilize acupuncture points to relieve the symptoms that the teenagers were suffering from including stomach cramps, headaches and shock.
As more and more of the group became sick, the back of the aircraft was turned into a makeshift hospital. Before he had treated the teenagers, Dr Qin said that the pilot had considered making an emergency landing at an alternative airfield, but afterwards felt confident enough to fly on to London.
"About four-and-a-half hours before we arrived in London, the pilot sent a message asking if there was a doctor on board. I went to see what was wrong and found many boys and girls suffering sickness and diarrhea accompanied by severe stomach pains and a high fever.” Dr. Qin said when interviewed.
"The aircraft did not have the necessary medicines so I decided to use traditional Chinese methods, including acupuncture. Unfortunately, I had no needles, as you are not permitted to carry sharp objects on an aircraft, so I used my fingers instead on the acupuncture points of the boys worst affected and the symptoms lessened.
"I treated each patient for 10 to 15 minutes and they felt much better, the sickness and diarrhea had stopped and the pain had gone."
Emergency Acupuncture Source: Arbroath Herald, February 2008
Course of acupuncture (akupunktur) may raise success of IVF treatment by 65%
Women who undergo IVF increase their chances of pregnancy if they are also treated with acupuncture, a new analysis suggests.
The benefits may be large — a 65 per cent increase in the chance of becoming pregnant, and a 91 per cent increase in the number of live births.
The results have emerged from a meta-analysis, a technique in which the results of many previous trials are pooled. A team led by Dr Eric Manheimer of the University of Maryland School of Medicine scanned medical literature for trials that attempted to measure the effect of acupuncture on IVF success.
They found 108 trials, but rejected all but seven because of defects of methodology — such as that acupuncture was not administered within a day of IVF or was used as a form of pain relief. The seven they retained, all published since 2002 and carried out in four Western countries, involved 1,366 women. In all the trials the women were given acupuncture immediately before or after the test-tube embryo was transferred to their wombs. All the acupuncture sessions lasted 25 to 30 minutes.
In British Medical Journal online, the team reports that almost all these trials reported positive findings. Taken together they showed a 65 per cent increase in establishment of pregnancy, an 87 per cent increase in continuing pregnancy, and a 91 per cent increase in live births.
All these results were statistically significant, measured by the criterion of odds of less than one in 20 of having come about by chance. But the team says that these figures overestimate the benefits, since success rates even without acupuncture are relatively high.
It is more realistic, the report says, to measure the results on a “number needed to treat” basis. This is the method that assesses how many women need to be treated to achieve a single extra pregnancy — and the answer is ten.
Even on this basis it is a striking result, especially as nobody has any idea why acupuncture (akupunktur) should be having this effect.
Professor Edzard Ernst of Peninsula Medical School in Plymouth said: “On the face of it these results sound fantastic. I would, however, be very cautious as much of the observed effect could be due to a placebo response. IVF may not seem to be ‘placebo-prone’ but it probably is: if women expect it to be helpful they are more relaxed which, in turn, would affect pregnancy rates.”
Success rates in IVF vary greatly from clinic to clinic, and the analysis found that where success rates were high the benefit of acupuncture (akupunktur) was smaller and not statistically significant. That may mean that acupuncture (akupunktur) was simply a “marker” for clinics where a lot of care is taken to see that women are calm and relaxed.
The team suggests that acupuncture (akupunktur) may influence the menstrual cycle, stimulate blood flow to the womb, or produce mood chemicals that reduce the stress response to IVF. Fra the Times.
Akupunktur og IVF. Det er vigtigt at vælge en akupunktør, der har erfaring imed barnløshed samt både akupunktur og IVF behandling så at dine IVF behandlinger forbederes og lever op til de forskelige udelandske forsøg.
Success of acupuncture and acupressure of the Pc 6 acupoint in the treatment of hyperemesis gravidarum.
Habek D, Barbir A, Habek JC, Janculiak D, Bobić-Vuković M.
Clinical Hospital Osijek, Croatia.
OBJECTIVE: The aim of this study was to evaluate the antiemetic effect of acupuncture (AP) and acupressure (APr) of the Pc 6 acupoint in pregnant women with hyperemesis gravidarum (HG). METHODS: A prospective, placebo-controlled trial included 36 pregnant women with HG. Two methods of acupuncture were used: bilateral manual AP of the Pc 6 (Neiguan) acupoint (group 1, n = 10) and bilateral APr of the Pc 6 acupoint (group 2, n = 11); furthermore, superficial intracutaneous placebo AP (group 3, n = 
and placebo APr (group 4, n = 7) was carried out. RESULTS: Anxiodepressive symptoms occurred in 9 pregnant women with HG from group 1, 8 women from group 2, 7 women from group 3, and 5 women from group 4 (p < 0.001). The average gestation age at the occurrence of HG symptoms and the beginning of treatment was 7 weeks in group 1 and 8 weeks in groups 2, 3, and 4. Four women from group 1 and 7 women from groups 2, 3, an 4 needed intravenous compensation of liquid and electrolytes. The antiemetic metoclopramide was given intravenously to 1 woman from group 1, 2 women from group 2, 6 women from group 3, and 4 women from group 4. Promethazine was given to 1 woman from group 2, 1 woman from group 3, and to 3 women from group 4. The efficiency of the HG treatment with AP of the point Pc 6 was 90%, with APr of the Pc 6 63.6%, with placebo AP 12.5%, and with placebo APr 0%. CONCLUSION: Acupuncture (p < 0.0001) and acupressure (p < 0.1) are effective, nonpharmacologic methods for the treatment of HG. acupuncture
Acupuncture Can Lower Blood Pressure as Much as 40 Percent
Acupuncutre and blood pressure The Susan Samueli Center for Integrative Medicine at the University of California, Irvine, dedicated to advancing patient care through education, evidence-based research and applied integrative medical therapies, today released findings that show acupuncture can help normalize blood pressure — lower pressure when it is elevated or raise pressure when it is too low — and complements treatments for cardiovascular patients. The Center found that acupuncture combined with low levels of electrical stimulation can lower elevations in blood pressure by as much as 40 percent.
In treating patients at their clinics, the Center also found once-weekly 30-minute acupuncture sessions will give substantial pressure reductions of 15-25 mmHg in three to four weeks. Acupuncture is a 3,000-year-old form of Chinese medicine that involves inserting needles at specific points on the body to help cure disease or relieve pain.
"At the Samueli Center, we are dedicated to promoting the integration of ancient healing practices with modern medical treatments to help develop optimum treatment solutions for patients," said Dr. John Longhurst, director of the Susan Samueli Center for Integrative Medicine, acupuncture and study leader. "We believe these new findings on acupuncture and hypertension will help educate both Western and alternative medical practitioners while encouraging dialog on developing integrative treatment solutions."
An Alternative Solution Acupuncutre and blood pressure
Though drug therapy and healthy lifestyle changes related to diet, exercise and weight loss are typically employed to treat high blood pressure, some patients are looking for alternative solutions. "In our real world of clinical practice, we´re encountering patients who find it difficult to make these changes or who continue to have high pressure despite making real changes. They´re looking for something else, and acupuncture is a potential solution that´s relaxing and relatively painless," said Dr. Longhurst.
Slow Onset, Prolonged Effects
The Samueli Center´s research also found that acupuncture has a slow onset and prolonged effect. If treatments were stopped, the pressure would stay down for another month or so, and then comes back up over a period of weeks.
How it Works
Elevated blood pressure is due to either increased vascular constriction and stiffness, or to the heart pumping excess volume into the blood vessels. Diuretics and other antihypertensives typically help with the latter; acupuncture appears to help with the former. Other recent studies from the Susan Samueli Center indicate that acupuncture relaxes vessels mainly through action in the central nervous system.
Acupuncture and blood pressure
Acupuncture treatment for pain: systematic review of randomised clinical trials with acupuncture, placebo acupuncture, and no acupuncture groups
Matias Vested Madsen, physician, Peter C Gøtzsche, director, Asbjørn Hróbjartsson, senior researcher
1 Nordic Cochrane Centre, Rigshospitalet, Department 3343, Blegdamsvej 9, DK-2100 Copenhagen, Denmark
Objectives To study the analgesic effect of acupuncture and placebo acupuncture and to explore whether the type of the placebo acupuncture is associated with the estimated effect of acupuncture.Design Systematic review and meta-analysis of three armed randomisedclinical trials.
Data sources Cochrane Library, Medline, Embase, Biological Abstracts, and PsycLIT.
Data extraction and analysis Standardised mean differences from each trial were used to estimate the effect of acupuncture and placebo acupuncture. The different types of placebo acupuncture were ranked from 1 to 5 according to assessment of the possibility of a physiological effect, and this ranking was meta-regressed with the effect of acupuncture.
Data synthesis Thirteen trials (3025 patients) involving a variety of pain conditions were eligible. The allocation of patients was adequately concealed in eight trials. The clinicians managing the acupuncture and placebo acupuncture treatments were not blinded in any of the trials. One clearly outlying trial (70 patients) was excluded. A small difference was found betweenacupuncture and placebo acupuncture: standardised mean difference –0.17 (95% confidence interval –0.26 to –0.08), corresponding to 4 mm (2 mm to 6 mm) on a 100 mm visual analogue scale. No statistically significant heterogeneity was present (P=0.10, I2=36%). A moderate difference was found between placebo acupuncture and no acupuncture: standardised mean difference –0.42 (–0.60 to –0.23). However, considerable heterogeneity (P<0.001, I2=66%) was also found, as large trials reported both small and large effects of placebo. No association was detected between the type of placebo acupuncture and the effect of acupuncture (P=0.60).
Conclusions A small analgesic effect of acupuncture was found, which seems to lack clinical relevance and cannot be clearly distinguished from bias. Whether needling at acupuncture points, or at any site, reduces pain independently of the psychological impact of the treatment ritual is unclear.
Acupuncture 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 acupuncture 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, Pain," 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 20-30 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." acupuncture
Acupuncture could boost the chances of a woman becoming pregnant after IVF by more than half
The women who underwent acupuncture were 65 % more likely to become pregnant
The effect is so significant that just 10 women needed to combine the treatments for one to conceive who would not otherwise have done so, a study showed.
It is not clear how acupuncture affects fertility. However, IVF is extremely stressful and it could be that the relaxation involved in the therapy helps, experts said.
The findings come from a review of seven scientific trials, involving a total of 1,366 women of all ages, published in the British Medical Journal today.
The study looked at pregnancy rates among women having acupuncture around the time that the embryo was transferred to the womb during IVF.
It compared the results with those given a fake acupuncture treatment and women who had no extra therapy. Acupuncture, IVF, pregnant.
acupuncture may be a cost-effective additional therapy in IVF because it is so cheap compared with repeated cycles of fertility treatment.
One in seven couples will experience difficulty conceiving. The average cost of one cycle of IVF in Britain is about £4,000, including drugs.
Around 32,000 patients a year have IVF with about 11,000 babies born annually as a result, accounting for one per cent of births.
A previous study suggested that women having acupuncture were actually less likely to get pregnant.
However, this was based on patients who sought out the therapy on their own rather than being randomly assigned as part of a trial, meaning they were probably resorting to it because their chances of conceiving were already poor.
Prof Edzard Ernst, of the Peninsula Medical School in Plymouth, said: "On the face of it, these results sound fantastic. I would, however, be very cautious as much of the observed effect could be due to a placebo response.
"IVF may not seem to be 'placebo-prone' but it probably is. If women expect it to be helpful, they are more relaxed which, in turn, would affect pregnancy rates."
The research paper said if the results were largely down to a placebo effect then there would have been increased pregnancy rates among the women who thought they were receiving real acupuncture, but were actually receiving a sham therapy, where the needles were placed at random. However, this was not the case.
Acupuncture, IVF, pregnant.
By Rebecca Smith, Medical Editor, The Telegraph
