Acupuncture helps ease PCOS

[Celebration]

http://www.health24.com/news/Womans_health/1-956,51650.asp

Acupuncture can help ease symptoms in women with polycystic ovary syndrome (PCOS), a difficult-to-treat hormonal condition affecting about one in 10 women of childbearing age, a small new study shows.
Women with PCOS have high levels of testosterone and other "male hormones," cysts on their ovaries, irregular menstruation, and fertility problems, along with symptoms like excessive facial and body hair and acne. At present, Dr Elisabet Stener-Victorin of the University of Gothenburg in Sweden told Reuters Health, PCOS treatments are focused on symptoms, and frequently involve hormones.

Stener-Victorin and her colleagues' study was based on the idea that women with the condition have overactive sympathetic nervous systems, which are responsible for the "fight-or-flight" response. Reducing this activity - which has been linked to heart disease and a diabetes-like condition that is seen in women with PCOS - would help their symptoms, they figured.

The researchers assigned 20 women with PCOS to receive acupuncture for 16 weeks; to do activity that would bring their pulse up to 120 beats per minute for 30 to 45 minutes, at least 3 days a week, also for 16 weeks; or to a control group that received information on healthy diet and exercise but weren't instructed to change their habits.

snip............

After 16 weeks, sympathetic nervous system activity in the muscles was significantly lower in the acupuncture and the exercise groups compared to the control group. The exercisers lost weight, but the acupuncture group did not.

However, the acupuncture group did see a reduction in their waist size that didn't occur among the exercisers. The women who received acupuncture also had a reduction in menstrual irregularities and a drop in their testosterone levels, neither of which was seen in the exercise group.

[Peregrine]

1. There is no control group

The one that is described is not a control group for this type of study. Recent studies on acupuncture that use a control group that receives faux acupuncture shows no differences between the groups, which means that acupuncture is nothing but a placebo.

[LiberalEsto]

2. My younger daughter was born thanks to acupuncture

I needed fertility meds for my first child, and was told I'd need them again if I wanted another. I mentioned this to an acupuncturist I was seeing for back problems and vertigo. He said, "I think I can fix that." A needle here, a needle there, and two weeks later I conceived by "accident." When my pregnancy was confirmed some weeks later, he said he needed to stop treating my other problems because the treatment wasn't good for the pregnancy. In other words, he lost money by giving me up as a patient.

[Celebration]

3. I've seen those studies

I consider them good news. If a placebo can make my waist get smaller without losing weight, I would be really, really happy. In other words, I would be happy whether it was a placebo effect or not.

By the way, every study on exercise, counseling, etc. is not controlled for placebo. Yet, people seem to think that exercise helps various things. Could it all be ONE GREAT BIG PLACEBO EFFECT? Something to think about........