Acupuncture

Health benefits of acupuncture

One of the most valued places in alternative medicine surely belongs to the famous Chinese art of acupuncture healing, the mysterious and yet easily explicable aspect of their treatment system. Of course there are pros and cons when acupuncture is argued, though many thorough studies proved the efficiency and positive effects of acupuncture treatment in various patients and thus various conditions.

Although it is believed that acupuncture was first applied approximately 2500 – 3000 years ago in China, it has been believed throughout China and the entire Far East that it has been practiced even in the Stone Ages, when the abscesses where punctured and drained with knives made of stone or various sharp-edged tools. Chinese themselves will describe acupuncture by graphic sign “Chen”, which actually means “needle pricking”.

The very term “acupuncture” (meaning “needle puncture”) is actually a western term, introduced by physician Willem Rhyne, who spent time in the Far East, prevailing in Japan, in the seventeen century. It is important to say that Japanese acupuncture does originate from the Chinese, though its uniqueness is recognized as well as the original one. Acupuncture in Japan was known to be established in the 17th century, and was introduced to the world through famous Waichi Sugiyama, a known “blind acupuncturist” – one of the rare jobs a blind man could have got in Japan those days were acupuncture and massage therapy, where he had chosen to be an acupuncturist.

The cornerstone of acupuncture is the long, thin needle, which is pointed into the body in a variety of techniques. There are actually nine types of acupunctural needles though a large number of people practicing acupuncture (hereinafter: practitioners) use six of them. As well as the needles, there is a variety in the manner needles are inserted into a person’s body – a care must be paid to proper angles and ways a needle is spun or vibrated within the body. Of course, the first thing to start with is a perfect knowledge of all those sensitive points within human body, through which the pressure of the needle may be applied to get a desired effect, since Chinese practitioners from ancient times have believed and yet believe that proper insertion of the needle will draw needed positive energy to a certain part of the body, i.e. to the part which needs healing.

Provided needles are professionally placed, patients receiving the treatment of acupuncture will respond positively, since it has been said, not to mention proven by the receivers (patients), that acupuncture needles can cure most of the illnesses in a human being, from chronic pains to everyday misfortunes such as headache and cellulite. There are people who claim acupuncture actually cured their early stage diabetes. Even patients suffering from cancer claimed that they have been able to deal with pain and nausea so often triggered by classical cancer treatments such as chemotherapy or radiation. It has also been noticed that the pain in cancer patients was reduced to a manageable level without taking enormous doses of pain-killers. It is wonderful to read or hear results of acupuncture in relation to another modern age plague – the AIDS.

One of the most important acupuncture benefits to patients, regardless of their condition or disease, is the energy it provides to the body and mind after a session, almost regularly reducing some of the worst enemies people have today – stress and anxiety, which usually trigger most severe diseases. There are reports of the acupuncture receiving patients to feel more fit, happier and emotionally satisfied comparing to the times they were using various pharmaceutical products, such as tranquillizers or pain-killers.

Since the basic postulate of acupuncture itself is the belief in the positive energy, it is very important for every patient to actually trust the practitioner and believe into acupuncture. The flow of positive energy, boosted by the properly inserted needles, will surely prevent a healthy organism from getting ill, which is a similar with drinking prevention pills or other pharmaceutical products – but healthier in every aspect. It should not be a question at all whether a healthy person should go to acupuncture practitioners to stay healthy or drink whatever chemistry is prescribed to act as prevention from a disease. But the fact still remains that not many a physician or even a scientist will recommend traditional Chinese medicine over “traditional medication” medicine for treating or preventing illnesses.

Through the 4th quarter of the last century, there were numerous reliable and recognized studies that stopped acupuncture being seen or thought of as ridicule and a mere placebo. They actually spread the word throughout the world that acupuncture really helps.

There are over a hundred of scientific studies which were aimed to present the actual benefits of acupuncture, proving various conditions which had shown benefits from acupuncture. These are only some of them: allergies, rhinitis, asthma, angina, Crohn’s disease, anxiety, immunity, osteoarthritis, premenstrual syndromes, neuropathy, schizophrenia, reduction of weight and many others.

The conditions which had most benefit from acupuncture treatment would surely be after-treatments of various traumas (such as accidents), both in reducing pain and increasing the scope of movements in severely injured limbs, bones or human adjustment to prosthetics. It has been proven that acupuncture succeeded where no other medication did especially in the field of stopping the use of nicotine.

Having in mind that neurologic impulses our body sends to our brain cannot be neglected as a major indicator of our overall status, we must accept the fact that professional application of acupunctural needles does the work, since they aim to hitt the exact points of transfer.

In overall knowledge about medicine, including TCM (Traditional Chinese Medicine), there is a major thing to admit – overcoming the cultural and perhaps even a historical gap between the West and the East is a must. Whether the application of acupuncture may consist of our belief it will work and whether it has a partial placebo effect on healing, it should definitively be a choice, if not a primary one, then surely not the one to be neglected as a “layman’s” way of treating illnesses.

If you and your partner are struggling to conceive a child and have a successful pregnancy, you may be wondering about some of the alternative therapies that are available today – one of the most important being the combination of acupuncture and IVF. The problem with researching these alternative therapies – such as group therapy, yoga, acupuncture, and herbal supplements – is that you’re likely to find a lot of conflicting information. Some people will say that alternative therapies don’t boost your fertility at all, and others will say that they’re all you need to have a baby. However, evidence is mounting that greater care for one’s general health leads to a improvement in reproductive health, and adding acupuncture to one’s IVF procedure shows a strong indication of higher pregnancy success.

Not unlike most complementary therapies, there are some studies that suggest acupuncture is not particularly effective for enhancing pregnancy rates. However, as more studies are conducted worldwide, the growing body of knowledge strongly indicates that acupuncture combined with an IVF procedure will help increase pregnancy rates, in some cases by a remarkable amount. While acupuncture isn’t a magic bullet to getting pregnant, it’s certainly a treatment you’d be wise to try.

The Evidence for Acupuncture’s Effect

Again, if you run a random Internet search for acupuncture and its effects on infertility, you’ll find all kinds of conflicting data. There are, however, plenty of studies that strongly support acupuncture as an aid to IVF in particular, so you should certainly look at the results of these studies when making your decision.

The first major study on acupuncture’s effects on IVF success rates was conducted in 2002 in Germany. During this study, 43% of women who underwent acupuncture before and after a round of IVF became pregnant, and only 26% of women who didn’t use the complementary therapy became pregnant. In a later American study, 51% of women who used acupuncture to complement IVF became pregnant, but only 36% of the women who used IVF alone became pregnant. And in that same study, they found that the acupuncture group had a miscarriage rate reduced to only 8% of the women who became pregnant, while the non-acupuncture group miscarried 20% of the time. A study out of Italy shows that acupuncture made women 24% more likely to become pregnant.

Another study conducted by the University of Maryland’s School of Medicine reviewed 1,366 women who had undergone IVF, and compared those who received acupuncture against those who received either “fake” acupuncture treatments or no additional therapy at all. The results were astounding – those women who received “real” acupuncture had an increase in pregnancy rates 65% higher than those who received the fake treatment or none at all. These studies point very strongly toward acupuncture as a great complementary therapy for IVF.

In seeming conflict is another study from the University of Hong Kong that suggests “placebo acupuncture” may be as much or more effective that real acupuncture. Published on November of 2008 in Human Reproduction, placebo acupuncture is described as using needles that retract into the handle, still giving the sensation and appearance of entering the skin. Women who received this therapy actually had a slightly higher pregnancy rate than those receiving the real thing. Analysts attempting to explain these results suggest that placebo acupuncture is quite similar to acupressure, which is already a recommended pregnancy-enhancing therapy. Another view is that women who undergo these treatments significantly reduce their stress levels, another known positive factor in pregnancy success.

While scientists are still debating about whether or not acupuncture is helpful in itself and, if so, what makes it helpful, the evidence continues to mount. More and more doctors and researchers are taking on this interesting issue and are seeing results.

Who it Helps

One problem with the studies on acupuncture is that the groups of women these studies have chosen are very different. Some studies collect results after the fact – that is, the patients have already decided for themselves whether or not to add complementary therapies like acupuncture to their IVF procedure, and the pregnancy rates are analyzed after the procedures have taken place. Criticism of this analysis method includes the suggestion that couples with more severe infertility problems may be more likely to choose acupuncture on their own, therefore skewing the test results. Other doctors endeavor to eliminate this possibility by asking couples to be part of a study and dividing the agreeing groups randomly into acupuncture and non-acupuncture groups.

How it Helps

Scientists who can’t agree on whether or not acupuncture helps during IVF are even less likely to agree about how the process actually works. Those who put some stock in the complementary therapy, though, tend to think that the treatment relieves stress, and there is significant evidence that women who are less stressed are more likely to become pregnant. Some skilled acupuncturists even say that the therapy can balance hormones in the body, which also makes sense in helping boost fertility rates. Others describe specific acupuncture methods that increase blood flow to the uterus, therefore thickening the wall and making it more receptive for the new embryo.

Regardless of how it works, though, there is certainly plenty of evidence out there that acupuncture does work for many couples trying to conceive. Besides this, it’s a very safe therapy, and it’s relatively affordable. While there are never any guarantees in the inexact science of Assisted Reproductive Technology, acupuncture is certainly worth a shot if you’re about to undergo IVF.