Tag: acupuncture

Meta-Analysis of Acupuncture to Assist Fertility in Women Undergoing IVF

This is a pretty interesting overview of research that’s been done on using acupuncture in conjunction with IVF. Twenty clinical trials involving over 5,000 women were included. This review found increased pregnancy rates, live births and reduced miscarriages when acupuncture was included in the process. Interestingly, no statistical difference was found between the experimental groups and control groups receiving so-called ‘sham’ acupuncture. There is a lively discussion is the acupuncture community about whether it is really possible to do ‘sham’ acupuncture, but that’s a discussion for another time and place.

Joe Kelliher, Lic.Ac., M.Ac., Dipl.Ac. has decades of experience treating women and couples trying to get pregnant. See an overview of his experience here. If you’d like to include acupuncture as part of your fertility process call for an appointment!

https://www.rbmojournal.com/article/S1472-6483(18)30675-8/fulltext?fbclid=IwAR1HJnN60p9JhgkX-sUn5ECMoObHpznzEyvXYx2pSXxCbhKgHjMnDOn2mH8

Review of Research on Acupuncture with Radiation Oncology

This is a good review of studies done on the use of acupuncture concomitant with radiation for cancer patients. The upshot is that acupuncture studies show positive effects for conditions such as xerostomia (dry mouth), fatigue, nausea, vomiting and lack of appetite.

(https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5514158/)

All studies have shown that acupuncture is associated with better outcome in relieving disorders than the control groups.” This should be a pretty compelling argument to include acupuncture in cancer care plans everywhere. I am very fortunate to be part of the care team at the Winchester Hospital Cancer Care Center and have witnessed firsthand the benefits that acupuncture treatment can provide.

And it’s incredibly safe! “White et al published a cumulative review on acupuncture-related side effects and reported serious side effects at 0.05 per 10,000 patients treated.39 “ Any pharmaceutical intervention with this kind of success and safety record would be included in the standard treatment protocol. Why acupuncture isn’t more widely offered and covered by insurance, which it almost never is, is beyond me.

Insurance coverage is an ongoing battle, but in the meantime, if you or someone you love is involved in the cancer treatment battle, consider acupuncture treatment to help them get through it as comfortably as possible.

To Ice Or Not To Ice? Acupuncture Insights for Treating Pain

To Ice Or Not To Ice? Acupuncture Insights for Treating Pain

If it hurts, put ice on it, right? In medical circles recently, there has been quite a lot of discussion about when to use ice, or even whether to use it at all. Traditionally, in the West we have used ice after an injury because it keeps down inflammation. But lately there has been an argument that this is the wrong approach. When you injure your body, the argument goes, the injured area is supposed to get inflamed because this is how your body begins to heal. People use acupuncture for pain all the time, and the principles of acupuncture treatment give us some useful guidelines for when to use ice.

Interestingly, in Traditional Chinese Medicine ice is almost never used. Pain is thought to be caused by some form of stagnation or obstruction of the flow of body fluids and qi through the area that hurts, and cold things generally cause our bodies to constrict and contract, thereby exacerbating the obstruction to the free flow.

I thought this article was a pretty cogent  argument for the use of ice in acute injuries: https://mikereinold.com/is-icing-really-bad-for-you/

The bottom line is that a lot of the fears about using ice have not been corroborated by experimental evidence. The use of ice within the first 48 hours after an injury does not seem to slow down the healing process and can be useful to reduce swelling and pain. After the acute phase of an injury though, ice does little besides temporarily numb the painful site.

Here at the Acupuncture Center of Reading, I treat people with painful injuries, both chronic and acute, all the time, and I think the insights of Traditional Chinese Medicine are a little more nuanced when deciding how to treat pain. The effectiveness of acupuncture for pain conditions is very well documented (http://acupuncturecenterma.com/2018/06/08/acupuncture-for-pain/). I think that ice can be very useful and provide good relief for acute injuries. However I also see older people with chronic low back pain, for example, for whom icing is not helpful.

The principles of Traditional Chinese Medicine tell us that as we age all of us experience a diminishing of the energetic fire that enlivens us and gives us the energy we use to do our daily work, our yang qi. This is a natural and normal process, but it leaves us feeling colder and less energetic as we age. Another common element of the aging process is that we tend to suffer conditions of stagnation and obstruction more easily. So for older people with chronic low back pain, ice will often only make them colder and will increase the stagnation that is a large contributing factor to their pain.  For these people, I find that heat usually offers them far more relief than cold. I often urge people to try both and see for themselves which makes them feel better, because neither approach will injure them further. But I know that in most cases heat will offer greater relief.

Acupuncture is a great therapy for these long term, painful conditions also, because the whole idea of acupuncture is to use the needles like little lightning rods to conduct the qi through the areas where it has stagnated in order to reestablish the free and unimpeded flow of qi and body fluids.  Most of my treatments for chronic pain, especially in older people, involve heat and massage also, the goal being to relax the musculature, get the blood and qi circulating again and allow the body to get its own healing resources to the injured area.

Cancer Care

Specializing in Cancer Rehabilitation Care

Cancer care has become one of Joe’s areas of special expertise. Acupuncture has been shown to be very effective for treating the side effects of chemotherapy like nausea, peripheral neuropathy, fatigue and pain, as well as the emotional and mental difficulties of coping with a cancer diagnosis (National Cancer Institute article).

Although acupuncture is not able to cure cancer, it can be used to treat a variety of symptoms and conditions associated with the disease as well as the side effects of cancer treatments (especially chemotherapy). It has been shown in randomized clinical trials that acupuncture can effectively treat the nausea and vomiting often associated with chemotherapy. There is also clinical evidence supporting acupuncture as a successful treatment for managing or treating cancer-related pain, chemotherapy-related neutropenia, cancer fatigue, and radiation-induced xerostomia. The physical mechanisms behind acupuncture’s effectiveness are not completely understood, but its effectiveness has been documented.

In his work at the Winchester Hospital Cancer Care Center (where he is a Certified Cancer Rehab Provider) Joseph has treated many cancer patients and has seen many of them benefit from acupuncture. Some conditions which acupuncture may be able to help include chronic pain from the disease; chemotherapy side effects such as nausea and vomiting, sleep disruption, and dry mouth; anxiety and depression; edema (swelling); pain or numbness caused by the treatments; and others.

Contact us today for a free consultation.