Decoding an Ancient Therapy

[bananas]

Source: Wall Street Journal

High-Tech Tools Show How Acupuncture Works in Treating Arthritis, Back Pain, Other Ills

Acupuncture has long baffled medical experts and no wonder: It holds that an invisible life force called qi (pronounced chee) travels up and down the body in 14 meridians. Illness and pain are due to blockages and imbalances in qi. Inserting thin needles into the body at precise points can unblock the meridians, practitioners believe, and treat everything from arthritis and asthma to anxiety, acne and infertility.

As fanciful as that seems, acupuncture does have real effects on the human body, which scientists are documenting using high-tech tools. Neuroimaging studies show that it seems to calm areas of the brain that register pain and activate those involved in rest and recuperation. Doppler ultrasound shows that acupuncture increases blood flow in treated areas. Thermal imaging shows that it can make inflammation subside.

Scientists are also finding parallels between the ancient concepts and modern anatomy. Many of the 365 acupuncture points correspond to nerve bundles or muscle trigger points. Several meridians track major arteries and nerves. "If people have a heart attack, the pain will radiate up across the chest and down the left arm. That's where the heart meridian goes," says Peter Dorsher, a specialist in pain management and rehabilitation at the Mayo Clinic in Jacksonville, Fla. "Gallbladder pain will radiate to the right upper shoulder, just where the gallbladder meridian goes."

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Read more: http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704841304575137872667749264.html?mod=djemHL_t

[TheDebbieDee]

1. Hey, I'm dying for someone to explain how/why Yoga works

for weight loss.

[Warpy]

3. Yoga reinforces that body/mind connection

and gets you to pay attention to how your body feels. That means you're more likely to stop cramming stuff into your face when your body says it's full.

That's about all I can think of, other than fat gets in the way when you're doing some of the postures so you're motivated to get rid of it.

[my2sense]

2. +1

[earcandle]

4. Anything that gets your metabolism rising will allow you to burn calories. Yoga can exert energy

when you hold the postures for a while.  

[Orrex]

5. I would very much like to see extensive clinical testing of acupuncture.

Particularly, the claims that it can actually cure disease.

[WillYourVoteBCounted]

6. thanks for posting this

haven't seen accupuncture mentioned in a long time.

[Dr.Phool]

7. My vet recommended acupuncture for my 13 yo dog's arthritis.

I found a new vet.

[Dream Girl]

8. Where do you live?

[arikara]

10. Why?

n/t

[arikara]

9. My accupuncture practitioner

diagnosed and treated my chronic back pain that I had been suffering with for 15 years. I had seen many many doctors and therapists for the pain and the only thing that would give some brief relief - a day or two, sometimes a week if I was lucky - was the chiropractor. It turned out to be a gall bladder issue and he treated it with accupunture, prescribed some herbs and the pain was gone in a day. Occasionally now if it acts up I pick up some more of the herb from him. Despite the 15 years of pain, I consider myself very lucky because had a regular doctor diagnosed it properly I have no doubt that their solution would have been to remove my gall bladder.

The funny thing was I wasn't even seeing him for the back pain, but for a frozen shoulder which he also fixed for me. If anyone has ever had that you know how difficult it is to treat. I just love that guy.

[HuckleB]

11. Placebo Effects Revisited

http://www.sciencebasedmedicine.org/?p=4304

"In the Wall Street Journal last week was a particularly bad article by Melinda Beck about acupuncture. While there was token skepticism (by Edzard Ernst, of course, who is the media’s go-to expert for CAM), the article credulously reported the marketing hype of acupuncture proponents.

Toward the end of the article Beck admits that “some critics” claim that acupuncture provides nothing more than a placebo effect, but this was followed by the usual canard:

“I don’t see any disconnect between how acupuncture works and how a placebo works,” says radiologist Vitaly Napadow at the Martinos center. “The body knows how to heal itself. That’s what a placebo does, too.”

That is a bold claim, and very common among CAM proponents, especially acupuncturists. As the data increasingly shows that acupuncture (and other implausible treatments) provides no benefit beyond placebo, we hear the special pleading that placebos work also.

But is that true? It turns out there is a literature on the placebo effect itself, and the evidence suggests that placebos generally do not work.

..."