Feeling Prickly When it Comes to Acupuncture?

Quick question: If something has been healing millions of people for thousands of years, is it an alternative treatment?

While relatively new to the west, the practice of acupuncture is one of the oldest medical practices, and has been healing people for a recorded 2,000 years, with some authorities dating it back 4,000 or 5,000 years.

The track record spanning millennia, however, is not always enough to encourage those unfamiliar with it to even experiment with acupuncture. This is unfortunate because the list of conditions that can be treated by or improved with acupuncture is surprisingly extensive. Fortunately, more and more Western physicians are embracing the practice and referring their patients to acupuncture as part of their overall treatment plan.

Side-Effects?

Acupuncture falls under the heading of what is commonly referred to as Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM). The focal point for treatment has to do with the body’s vital energy, or Qi (pronounced chi), and circulation. When energy in the body is unbalanced we can get sick or become fatigued. Rather than putting something into the body or removing it, the aim of acupuncture is to regulate, or balance, this energy within the body.

If all this “energy” talk sounds a bit woo-woo, you may be comforted by the fact that there are almost no unwanted side effects and few who won’t benefit from it. It is very difficult to harm with this essentially gentle medicine. Side effects that do come up are all in the plus column, such as better sleep, more energy, better digestion, and reduced stress. The stress reduction can come as a surprise, as many don’t even realize that “stressed” is their norm.

The most common concern with acupuncture is pain associated with the needles. In general, however, we all experience far more tortuous and painful treatments elsewhere. It may be helpful to know that the needles are more like filaments and are inserted superficially.

A licensed acupuncturist will give a thorough intake and know what is contraindicated for each patient. They will ask about pacemakers, implants, replacement devices in your body, as well as any medications and conditions. They are trained to tune into all of these and make accommodations. While many very skilled health practitioners add acupuncture to their treatment options, a licensed acupuncturist has approximately 3,000 hours of training and a masters level degree of training in an authentic eastern medical model.

After an assessment, needles are inserted at particular spots that correlate with “stagnation” in the body as diagnosed by the acupuncturist. Communication is paramount in treatments, and patients are encouraged to speak up if they are uncomfortable in any way. After the needles are placed, patients are left to relax for what many refer to as a “healing nap,” which is usually a seemingly short 15 to 30 minutes.

Why see an acupuncturist?

Pain management is one of most common reasons to see an acupuncturist, and is also one of the most responsive conditions to the practice. For some the very first treatment is all but a miracle in relief, while others need a few treatments to see results. It is recommended to have two to three treatments before deciding if you are benefiting from them. Some practitioners will suggest a few treatments close together in the beginning to assess improvement.

As well as pain management, there are myriad conditions that respond well to acupuncture. Under the heading of neurological complaints that improve are headaches, neuralgia, stroke residuals, vertigo, and Multiple Sclerosis. Musculo-skeletal improvements include Arthritis, trauma or injury, Sciatica, and Fibromyalgia.

Allergies and other issues associated with repertory function often improve with treatment, as do many eye, ear and dental conditions. Many find acupuncture highly effective in the arena of women’s health, including infertility and reducing the symptoms of menopause. In fact, in Asian cultures, where acupuncture is common, women experience far fewer “symptoms” of menopause.

For some, their acupuncturist is their primary care physician, while many others simply include the practice as part of their overall approach to wellness. Because of the regulating nature of treatments, scheduling them monthly or quarterly can head off any number of complaints.

Take-away for the week: There is nothing to lose with acupuncture, and much that can be gained. The worst-case scenario is a lack of immediate results.

By Chris Fisk - For the Herald/Review

I am a Modern Acupuncturist!

The Evolution of Acupuncture

Three things happened to advance our medicine that are important to recognize. First, as acupuncture moved from China to the rest of the world, it changed. As the world expanded through transportation and communication, so did our medicine. It first reached Japan in about 6 AD and then trickled out to Korea, Vietnam, and other Asian nations, eventually reaching Europe and North America. With each new location, different diagnostic and treatment styles developed.

Second, treatment tools and sanitation techniques have expanded. Thank goodness! You can be glad you weren't an acupuncturist back in the stone ages. The popular treatment tools at the time were stone needles and knives. Ouch! Metal needles didn't arrive until the Bronze Age. Later, silver and gold needles became the new big thing.

Acupuncture became safer with the advent of modern sterilization techniques. Although autoclave machines haven't been used in common practice for quite some time, I actually had to study the settings for them in order to pass my exams in college. Can you imagine living in an era where you had to reuse acupuncture needles? Remember, those old silver and gold needles were expensive and you wouldn't want to dispose of them. Fortunately, reliable, clean and safe disposable needles as we know them today became common in about the 1970's. Of course, we now have many treatment options besides needles, which we'll talk about in a bit.

And finally, diagnosis and treatment strategies have evolved over time. As the diseases of the world have changed, so have our strategies for diagnosis and treatment. The recognition of infectious disease, known as "Febrile Disease," was introduced during the Han Dynasty (206 BC to 220 AD). The first existence of small pox, for example, can be traced back in Chinese medicine history to the Jin dynasty (281-341 AD). Modern disease like autoimmune disorders were not recognized during ancient times.

With the recognition of new diseases came new treatment styles such as moxibustion and cupping. Unlike treatment styles, diagnostic methods like pulse reading have not historically changed much — that is, until recent times. Advances in technology are bringing changes in diagnostic methods for modern acupuncture.

The Best of Both Worlds

Our medicine is unique and we should never forget the foundation from which it came. We have a holistic approach to treatment that's worked for more than 2500 years and has evolved into an amazing medicine with so many possibilities.

Don't ever forget where we came from, but remember this. Progress is good. The advancement of our medicine has been phenomenal up to this point. We, as individuals, can improve our treatment and diagnostic strategies without letting go of the traditional theory we learned in school. In fact, it's our duty to improve.

If you think we can't change because we are practicing the way we did 2000 years ago, it's time to wake up and realize we are not. The founders of Chinese medicine adapted and expanded as the world changed. They developed new theories and treatment styles that worked. I think they would be upset if we didn't continue to grow just as they did. Just because you studied "Traditional Chinese Medicine" doesn't mean you can't use modern technology in your practice. In the 21st Century, we get the best of both worlds! I am a Modern Acupuncturist. Are you?

By Kimberly Thompson, LAc

Chef and acupuncturist Idalee DiGregorio helps people find their destiny

Idalee DiGregorio (J.M. Giordano / June 10, 2015)

Laying out slabs of raw chicken, Idalee DiGregorio shuffles a few feet to the right, pushing her tray to the far end of the counter before heavily striking it with a silver meat pounder. On the other side of the counter, DiGregorio’s friend and co-worker Lisa Hillring is setting up a veggie platter, which they try to keep as far away from the chicken as possible.

The sporadic pounding fills up the small kitchen for the next five minutes, and with the chicken adequately flattened, DiGregorio maneuvers her way past tables and shelves to the refrigerator, in search of eggs. She carefully places a carton onto the counter, quickly cracking seven into a large glass bowl.

The eggs, from her own farm in south-central Pennsylvania, serve as the first ingredient in her chicken breading. DiGregorio prides herself on only cooking with raw ingredients. She says nothing she uses is prepared, giving her more control over the nutrition and quality of the food she serves as a chef. DiGregorio has been working at the 14 West Hamilton Street Club – which she describes as primarily an “old-school” lunch club – for the past year, since she was brought in by Hillring.

“I’m going to bread the cutlets!” she shouts to Hillring, before dipping thin pieces of chicken into the mixture of eggs, salt, black pepper, garlic, and oregano. DiGregorio and Hillring have been friends for years—they’ve been dubbed “IdaLisa” by many—spending time together as catering partners even before DiGregorio began at the club. And Hillring was also DiGregorio’s first acupuncture client.

Now a chef and acupuncturist, DiGregorio’s life has been full of re-created identities. She started out as a self-described theater kid at Baltimore’s Bryn Mawr School. After college in the Midwest, she wanted to be a chef—but she says it wasn’t the time. “I decided that I should have a ‘real job,’” she says.

DiGregorio tried a Ph.D., returning to Maryland for a degree in child psychology at College Park. She worked until her externship, when she realized clinical psychology wasn’t the future she wanted. Looking for a more hands-on job, she left the university with a master’s and headed down a 17-year trajectory in Human Resources. Though DiGregorio progressed into a high position as a vice president, she became disillusioned with how little she felt she could help people in her managerial role.

Then, while going through a tough divorce, one of DiGregorio’s friends suggested she get acupuncture. DiGregorio says most patients turn to acupuncture when they’ve tried everything else, and she was no different. She admits to being skeptical her first time—and afraid of needles. “We don’t talk about it hurting, we talk about it being exciting,” she says, adding wryly, “Certainly there are points that are more exciting than others.”

After her first appointment, she knew acupuncture was something she wanted to continue. Around the same time, she was having trouble finding another HR job and her acupuncturist thought DiGregorio’s background in psychology and her interest in health made her a perfect candidate for acupuncture school.

She’s been working in acupuncture at Ancient Arts Wellness in Mount Vernon for almost four years now. She specializes in helping people go through transitions, including anything from concrete life changes such as divorce to more general anxiety. Ideally, DiGregorio says her role as an acupuncturist is to help her patients find their “destiny”—which is what she believes acupuncture did for her.

“I don’t make the money I used to make; I will never make the money I used to make,” she says. “But I am having a blast. It’s just fun!”

Acupuncture encouraged DiGregorio to do things she loves—which included finally pursuing her dream of becoming a chef. And acupuncture informs her cooking, too. DiGregorio says she’s a “five-element acupuncturist,” using the elements wood, fire, earth, metal, and water to guide her patients’ treatment. Much of the theory relies on following the seasons, in terms of eating, sleeping, and working habits.

Because of this, she tries to buy locally as much as possible, and refuses to use any food that is out of season. “In acupuncture we talk about the fact that you should only eat what is available in nature at any given season,” she says. “So eating salad in the middle of winter is not good for you, because it’s cold food and it’s already cold.”

DiGregorio’s parents bought a farm in south-central Pennsylvania when she was 10 years old, so she was taught to raise and cook her own food from a young age. She took over the farm a few years ago, after her father had a stroke and her mother developed dementia. “I thought about stopping the farm, but it didn’t make sense to me,” she says.

“That was the lifelong goal of my dad and my mom, for us to get to the point where we could sell,” she continues. Today, she’s put in the work to fulfill this goal, selling the farm’s eggs, chickens, and produce to individuals and retailers, including Parts & Labor.

Between the farm and her two careers, DiGregorio doesn’t have much free time. Still, she sees herself sticking with acupuncture and cooking for the long run—though some are unconvinced after her many career transitions. “I’ve remade myself so many times, it’s hilarious,” she says. “Everybody’s always like, ‘so what’s your career now?’”

But both cooking and acupuncture force her to continue to learn and teach herself. Back at the Hamilton Street Club, DiGregorio and Hillring have left the windowless kitchen for the second-floor porch, where they’re enjoying the 70-degree weather while planning meals for the following week. For the past half-hour, they’ve been looking over pork, risotto, and carbonara sauce recipes, skimming through cookbooks, cooking magazines, and smartphone searches.

“This is kind of weird. You cook it in milk,” DiGregorio muses out loud, while reading a recipe for cod. “Fish is something I need to learn more about. No doubt about it.” 

By Jessica Kim Cohen City Paper

10:53 a.m. EDT, June 16, 2015

Copyright © 2015, Baltimore City Paper

Migraine Relief

Migraine sufferers Amy O’Brien and Bonnie Sue Garcia both needed relief without medication. Their separate paths led them to the same place: acupuncture.

O’Brien, who is pregnant and can’t take the migraine medicine she’s relied on for years, chose treatment with a licensed acupuncturist. Garcia, who started getting migraines right before she turned 50, found answers with a medical doctor who uses acupuncture in her practice.

“We’re kind of trying to keep a foot in Western medicine but bringing what Eastern medicine can offer on top of that,” says Dr. Claudia Harsh, a specialist in medical acupuncture and integrative medicine with the Integrative Medicine Program at Baylor Charles A. Sammons Cancer Center at Dallas. Harsh is Garcia’s physician.

Garcia turned to Harsh after taking migraine medication that only gave her temporary relief and unwanted side effects. She wanted to find the root cause of the debilitating migraines that had suddenly taken over her life.

“I had a pile of medication that I refused to take because it wasn’t making me feel any better,” says Garcia, whose neurologist then suggested Botox. “That just kind of freaked me out. That was my last straw. I’m not doing Botox in my head. I am not comfortable with that.”

Her research for a more holistic approach led her to The Pain Cure: The Proven Medical Program That Helps End Your Chronic Pain by Dharma Singh Khalsa. Next, she found out about the American Academy of Medical Acupuncture and Harsh.

“What I liked about her approach was that she interviewed you to try to understand your lifestyle, how much stress you have in your life and your nutrition,” says Garcia, who lives in Grand Prairie and works in banking in downtown Dallas.

“I knew I was connected to the right person.”

O’Brien of Lake Highlands was also looking for alternatives last fall when her obstetrician- gynecologist told her that the excessive caffeine in Excedrin Migraine medicine was out of the question, as were Botox injections. O’Brien, who is due in August, says her migraines intensified in her first trimester.

“I went from having three to four migraine attacks per month to two per week where I was shut down 16 hours, can’t move, hanging out in the bathroom, dark, quiet, no lights, no sound, nothing,” says O’Brien, a physician recruiter for Staff Care in Irving. “I finally went to my doctor and said, ‘I can’t do this anymore. I have to go to work still.’”

O’Brien’s doctor said that his aunt was seeing relief through acupuncture. O’Brien booked an appointment with Ellee Carlson, a licensed acupuncturist at Southwest Acupuncture Clinic in Richardson.

“I wish I had known about this in the first trimester because that would have been fantastic,” says O’Brien, who has suffered from migraines since age 7. “For the longest time I didn’t know there were any options. I never would have thought about acupuncture, just because you don’t hear about it.”

Acupuncture for migraine pain relief is not new but it’s becoming more mainstream since the medical community began embracing it.

The goal’s the same

“I find that we’re slightly behind the curve here in Dallas. Certainly on the East Coast and West Coast, it’s almost standard that people would go and get acupuncture for pain,” says Harsh, who has a medical degree from the University of Cincinnati College of Medicine and completed medical acupuncture training at UCLA.

Both Harsh and Dr. Chaouki Khoury, director of the Baylor Headache Center, point to a German study led by Klaus Linde and published in 2005 in the Journal of the American Medical Association. The trial consisted of 12 sessions over eight weeks. Experts compared the effectiveness of acupuncture for migraines against no acupuncture and sham acupuncture. The study showed an actual improvement for those receiving both acupuncture and sham acupuncture with no improvement for the control group.

Khoury also cites another study published in the Indian Journal of Physiology and Pharmacology in February 2015. “That study compares the effectiveness of acupuncture therapy and conventional drug therapy on the psychological profile of migraine patients,” he says.

Khoury, who refers patients out for acupuncture, says studies prove acupuncture for pain does have benefits, but he and many medical experts work off the theory that its stress-and-relaxation techniques are key.

“Is it truly because we’re hitting the Chinese points of your soul and your love and all the different acupuncture points per se?” he says. “No … it’s a stress-and-relaxation technique, the same way as yoga helps with headache, as Pilates helps with headache, acupuncture helps with headache.”

So while experts helping migraine patients may have different working theories, their goal is the same: alleviating the pain.

Carlson, who treats O’Brien, says treatment strategy depends on pinpointing the migraine’s root cause, which may involve hormones, body tissue or nerves.

“My perspective is probably quite different because I am approaching the patient’s diagnosis from an Eastern medicine paradigm. While I definitely take their biomedical diagnosis into consideration, I do not select a treatment strategy based upon that. I approach the patient from a holistic perspective analyzing how the entire system is functioning and responding to external and internal disruption,” Carlson says.

O’Brien and Garcia say they believe the needles inserted into their shoulder muscle, neck and head are key to their relief.

Carlson inserts needles into her tight neck and shoulder muscles, O’Brien says, as well as the scalp and in her eyebrows since her migraines start behind her eyes.

Pressure-release valve

“As a traditional Chinese medicine practitioner, I assess the overall presentation, looking to discern the pathomechanism behind the migraine and seek out the root cause. Are the migraines exacerbated by changing weather conditions? Fluctuations in the menstrual cycle? Certain foods? Stress? Muscle tension?” says Carlson, who has a bachelor of science in integrative biology from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and a master of science(traditional Oriental medicine) from Pacific College of Oriental Medicine in Chicago. “There are many possibilities, and it is my job to explore these options.”

After a few visits with Carlson, O’Brien says there was noticeable improvement.

“It’s amazing. I haven’t had to cancel any plans,” she says. “I don’t know where I’d be without her. I’d be miserable.”

Harsh and Carlson’s approaches are similar. Their initial assessment includes looking over medical history, lifestyle and nutrition. About eight to 16 needles are typically used in both Carlson and Harsh’s migraine treatment.

“It’s two paths up the same mountain,” says Harsh, who also is an OB-GYN with Texas Oncology. “We use the same terminology. Our perspectives are slightly different. I will always start with a medical model because I am a physician. But I try not to focus on the differences and say, ‘Hey, if I put a point in large intestine 4 on the hand, that’s where the licensed acupuncturist puts it, too.’ I might use different modalities and different nutritional supplements than they do — I don’t use herbs, for instance. Everybody finds the path that works for them.”

Patients O’Brien and Garcia have taken Harsh and Carlson’s nutrition, lifestyle and posture recommendations to heart. Both have scaled back on caffeinated drinks, and Garcia avoids nuts and yogurt, which seem to trigger her migraines.

After just a few 30-minute sessions of relieving tension in her shoulders and neck, “Those were the days I could sleep like a baby,” Garcia says. “If it wasn’t for me really pushing these doctors and doing my own research, I think I would have continued to struggle with them [migraines], and I refuse to live my life that way.”

Both O’Brien and Garcia say they are rethinking the stress in their everyday lives.

“We’re in a culture where we burn the candle at both ends and we get lauded for overdoing it and overbooking ourselves. It’s just not good,” says Harsh. “It will come out somewhere in our health, and migraines I think are kind of like a pressure-release valve.”

O’Brien expects to keep doing acupuncture even after her baby arrives. No need to take medicine. And that shift in her thinking is a healthy one, Harsh says.

“We have to change our mentality: ‘I hurt, let me take this pill,’ to ‘I hurt. Let me think about how I’m sleeping at night and what I’m eating and how I’m being nourished by the people in my life.’ It becomes a broader awareness of what’s going on in our lives, and I don’t think it’s a bad thing,” Harsh says.

By KATHLEEN GREEN

Special Contributor

Cup of tea, anyone?

Improving Cognitive Function in Elderly Subjects with Green Tea 

By James P. Meschino, DC, MS

Publishing their results in the journal Nutrients, in May 2014, researchers showed that drinking the equivalent of 2 to 4 cups of brewed green tea (or bottled tea) daily improved cognitive function or reduced the progression of cognitive dysfunction in elderly subjects.

To my knowledge, this is the first human intervention study suggesting a specific dose of green tea (and catechin / theanine content) can reverse the progression of cognitive dysfunction in elderly subjects.

Although this was a small pilot study, it provides insight that may be of great importance to an aging population – many of whom are or will soon be your patients.

Using the Mini-Mental State Examination (Japanese version) Ide, et al., recruited 12 elderly nursing home residents with cognitive dysfunction into the study. The subjects consumed 2 grams of green-tea powder per day for three consecutive months. In practical terms, this is equivalent to drinking 2 to 4 cups of brewed green tea (or bottled green tea) daily or ingesting green-tea supplements providing a daily dose of 227 mg of catechins and 42 mg of theanine.

After three months, Mini-Mental State Examination scores were significantly improved in subjects consuming the green-tea powder. In particular, short-term memory improved substantially. This has important implications in dementia and Alzheimer's disease, as short-term memory loss is a common finding in these conditions.¹

Green Tea, EGCG and Memory

Green tea is unique in that it contains between 30 to 40 percent water-extractable polyphenols, while black tea contains only 3-10 percent. Black tea is green tea that has been oxidized by fermentation. Oolong tea is semi-fermented green tea and has a polyphenol content somewhere between that of black tea and green tea. The four primary polyphenols found in fresh tea leaves include epigallocatechin-3 gallate (EGCG), epigallocatechin (EGC), epicatechin gallate (ECG) and epicatechin (EC).¹

Over the years, a number of epidemiological studies have correlated memory function and better cognition with frequent consumption of green tea. In recent years, researchers have begun to investigate components of green tea that may provide benefits to memory and cognitive function.

For example, an experimental study published in Molecular Nutrition & Food Research in 2012 showed that epigallocatechin-3 gallate (EGCG), a unique polyphenol found in high concentrations in green tea and decaffeinated green tea, increased neurogenesis (new nerve cell growth) within the hippocampus, which is an area of the brain impacted by Alzheimer's disease. In the Alzheimer's disease brain, the hippocampus atrophies to a significant degree, which is a common finding in this condition.

Researchers discovered that EGCG boosts the production of the rudimentary nerve cells (neural progenitor cells) that morph into specialized brain cells in hippocampus area of the brain. Neural progenitor cells are similar to stem cells, which can mature into adult cells in various tissues or divide and produce more stem cells. The researchers went on to not only show that laboratory mice given ECGC increased nerve cell production in the hippocampus of the brain; they also demonstrated an advantage in memory or spatial learning (in maze tests), compared to mice not given ECGC.²

Other researchers have shown that tea catechins and theanine (also found in tea leaves) inhibit the breakdown of the memory chemical acetylcholine by inhibiting the enzyme acetylcholinesterase. Acetylcholinesterase inhibitor drugs are used in the management of Alzheimer's disease. As detailed by Ide, at al., other studies suggest tea catechins and theanine may support brain and memory function by acting as antioxidants and anti-inflammatory agents.¹

Clinical Applications

Health practitioners should consider encouraging patients to consume 2 to 4 cups of green tea per day and/or ingesting green tea supplements that provide at least 227 mg of catechins and 42 mg of theanine. For older patients, it would be worthwhile to record each patient's experience as to the impact of this intervention on their short-term memory function, with corresponding documentation in the patient's file.

References

1. Ide K, Yamada H, Takuma N, et al. Green tea consumption affects cognitive dysfunction in the elderly: a pilot study. Nutrients, May 2014; 6(10):4032-4042.
2. Wang Y, Li M, Xu X, et al. Green tea epigallocatechin-3-gallate (EGCG) promotes neural progenitor cell proliferation and sonic hedgehog pathway activation during adult hippocampal neurogenesis.Molecular Nutr & Food Res, 2012;56(8):1292.

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Dr. James Meschino, a graduate of Canadian Memorial Chiropractic College, is director of nutritional therapies at the Canadian Integrative Cancer Immunotherapies Clinic in Toronto. He can be contacted via his website, www.meschinohealth.com.

Natural Fertility Help- Acupuncture

If you are receiving fertility treatments or concerned about your ability to get pregnant, consider including a natural, complementary practice thousands of years old: acupuncture.

From an Eastern perspective, acupuncture helps your body get back to a balanced state to prepare for conception. From a Western perspective, we don’t know why it works, but we see that it does.

In a study of 225 women by researchers at the University of Witten/Herdecke in Dortmund, Germany, acupuncture was combined with conventional fertility treatments. This addition of acupuncture led to a pregnancy rate of 28.4 percent – compared to a pregnancy rate of 13.8 percent among the women who used conventional treatments alone.

How acupuncture works

Acupuncture is the insertion of fine needles into certain locations on the body. In traditional Chinese medicine, the energy force of “chi” or “qi” is believed to flow through certain pathways in the body, called “meridians.” Acupuncture is thought to help balance the chi. There are a few scientific theories explaining chi energy and meridians , but none have been scientifically proven. Nonetheless, acupuncture has been established as a beneficial practice for many people.

Researchers have determined some of the underlying mechanism of how acupuncture works. It stimulates the release of endorphins, which reduce pain and produce a sense of well-being. Acupuncture also increases blood flow to the area, which can promote healing and improve organ function. Acupuncture also helps to reduce inflammation.

How it fits in with different fertility treatments

Women trying different fertility methods may include acupuncture. I treat some women whose approach is to try to get pregnant without taking hormones or undergoing invasive medical procedures. Other women come for acupuncture as they are undergoing a lengthy process of in vitro fertilization (IVF).

While most fertility specialists won’t treat patients unless they’ve tried unsuccessfully to conceive for six months to a year, a woman can start seeing an acupuncturist long before she hopes to get pregnant — especially if she has any fertility concerns.

Seeing an acupuncturist sooner rather than later allows for your health to be assessed over a couple of menstrual cycles. Women can start acupuncture treatment a few months before IUI (intrauterine insemination) or IVF. In general, I encourage patients to come in at least a few months before they hope to conceive.

About the needles

If you’re afraid of needles, don’t let that stop you from looking into acupuncture. The needles are quite small and thin and needling is only one small part of treatment. We also talk about the emotional roller coaster of infertility and possible influencing factors, including stress, nutrition, exercise and what’s going on in a patient’s life.

Having patience is important. Acupuncture treatment has a cumulative effect, and you have to be willing to go through the process and give your body time to respond. That’s why starting sooner helps; it gives your acupuncturist time to make treatment adjustments that allow it to work best.

By Jamie Starkey, LAc | 1/16/15 7:00 a.m.

Addiction, Pain Management, & Non-Opioid Therapies

Pain Management in Recovery

On the one hand, we repeatedly hear of people in recovery relapsing on prescribed pain medication. On the other hand, people in recovery get cancer, have surgeries, experience trauma, and break bones. In other words, they experience very real, very severe, and very legitimate pain.

This month’s column will explore the human costs of failing to manage a person’s pain, some of the barriers to pain management, and ways to approach pain management for those in recovery.

Human Costs of Unmanaged Pain Cross Multiple Dimensions

Spiritually, a person in intense pain can feel separated from their God or Higher Power. It’s easy for them to feel as though God has abandoned them, or worse yet, is testing or punishing them. Substance abuse is a disease of isolation and loneliness, and the last thing we want is for the person in recovery to feel alone and separated from a primary source of support, comfort, strength, and sustenance.

Emotionally, untreated pain can increase anxiety, fear, distress, despair, depression, hopelessness, and suicidal ideation. It can also interfere with focus, concentration and memory, and lead to a decreased sense of control and/or quality of life.

Socially, pain can limit people’s ability to get to 12-Step meetings, to maintain their Fellowship, and to be of service. It can also increase the burden on their caregivers, and cause their own universe to get smaller and smaller.

Physically, pain can lead to disturbances in appetite and sleep, self-care deficits, disruption in ability to perform sexually, and an inability to participate in rehabilitative procedures. Pain can also lead to fatigue and falls, and other problems.

Barriers to Pain Management

On the prescriber [physician] side, there are:

• Regulatory fears (“If I prescribe too many opioids, the DEA will take away my license.”)
• Fears of being lied to by substance abusers (“The dog ate my morphine; can I get some more?”)
• Fears of creating addiction or causing a relapse
• Lack of training on pain assessment and pain management in general, and specifically in the recovering substance abuser

On the consumer [patient] side, there are:

• Fears that taking any opioid will mean I’ve lost my sobriety
• Failure to take pain medication as prescribed (either “If one is good, three will be great” or “I know it says every four hours, but I’m gonna see if I can make it to six or seven hours“)
• Fears of getting addicted
• Lack of knowledge about how to report one’s pain in a way that is useful

Of course there are cultural and language barriers that may also serve to impede effective pain management.

Pain Management Basics

Some of the most basic principles of pain management include:

• Pain is whatever the patient says it is.
• Recovering substance abusers typically need higher, rather than lower, starting doses to get on top of the pain.
• When pain is inadequately treated, patients will often start self-medicating – taking more of a medication, taking it more often than prescribed, and/or seeing multiple prescribers.
• There are multiple non-opioid approaches to pain that work wonderfully – alone or in concert with one another – for many types of pain, and these should always be the first line approach for recovering substance abusers.
• In cases where opioids are to be prescribed, it is much safer to use extended-release opioids, than to use immediate-release opioids. This is because the extended-release opioids leak a very small amount of medication into the bloodstream every hour for multiple hours, and the patient rarely feels high or altered. With the immediate-release opioid, all of the medication is released at once, and the patient feels high, and the “beast” may well be awakened.
• When opioids are part of the pain management plan, the parents, spouse, and/or sponsor should always be informed of the plan, and may need to hold and dole out the medication.
• When the pain resolves, all pain medication should be immediately disposed of, and not kept of hand “just in case.”
• Anticipate side effects and incorporate a prophylactic approach to their treatment. All opioids cause constipation, and stool softeners and/or laxatives should probably be commenced at the same time as the opioid.
• Stay focused on the primary purpose of pain management – patient comfort and function.

Non-Opioid Pain Treatment Therapies

Recovering substance abusers don’t have to languish in pain. In fact, most can successfully utilize a number of non-opioid pain treatment therapies.

Some of the most commonly utilized alternative pain therapies include: prayer, hypnosis, guided meditation, bio-feedback, acupressure, acupuncture, reiki, visualization, massage, physical therapy, hydrotherapy, ice, heat, topical treatments (lidocaine or capsaicin creams), and non-opioid analgesic and anti-inflammatory medications (oral or injections).

Conclusion

…[recovering patients] should be able to cautiously navigate a bout with pain in which opioids are required – and do so without losing their sober time or their recovery.-JAY WESTBROOKWhenever possible, opioids should be avoided in the recovering substance abuser, and should certainly be used only after considering non-opioid interventions (see #5, above) to treat the pain. That being said, there are illnesses and situations accompanied by pain so profound that the only way to address it is with opioids.

Employing solid pain management principles can make tremendous differences in patients’ lives. Pain management not only leads to comfort and alleviates suffering, but can restore a degree of function which allows a person to engage in those activities, including recovery-based activities, which give their lives joy and a sense of value, worth, meaning, and purpose.

As long as recovering patients remember and live their primary purpose – to stay sober and carry the message – they should be able to cautiously navigate a bout with pain in which opioids are required – and do so without losing their sober time or their recovery.

by Jay Westbrook on May 19, 2015 in Health and Wellness, Living in Recovery, Living with Addiction

Get your Body Bikini-Ready with Acupuncture!!

I am a 45-year-old female who needs to lose about 35-40 pounds. I have tried every diet under the sun but none have worked for me. I lose some weight, but I gain it all back. I want to try acupuncture as my last resort. How does it work and what other things do I have to do to keep the weight off? I also am borderline diabetic and have blood pressure problems that I want to try to manage without taking medication.

It is a staggering fact that 65-70 percent of Americans are overweight. Studies have shown that 50 percent of our children are overweight and many of them classified as obese. As a nation, for more than 15 years, our government monitored obesity index has risen consistently at an alarming rate.

Everyone is looking for the secret to weight loss, without falling victim to the latest gimmicks. Fortunately, there is a technique for weight loss that has been tested for centuries: acupuncture.

First of all, acupuncture helps balance your hormones and increase the body's ability to increase endorphins, which is a "feel good" hormone that reduces cravings and generally just makes you feel better with more energy. The more energy you burn the more calories you burn. It is really quiet simple.

Studies have shown that acupuncture helps reduce leptin and blood sugar levels. Leptin regulates fat storage and metabolism and stimulates and tricks your body into feeling full, a term called satiety. Insulin regulates carbohydrate and fat metabolism and the absorption of glucose from the blood. This finding suggests that acupuncture may actually reduce the hormones that lead to overeating.

If leptin stimulates the feeling of being full, why is it important to have reduced levels? Like insulin-resistance, cells can become immune to the effects of leptin when the levels are too high. Many obese people have high levels of leptin. When your leptin levels are high you do not know when to stop eating. Restoring balance to leptin levels helps reduce overeating.

The third way acupuncture helps the body lose weight is by reducing cortisol production, the stress hormone. Cortisol can affect weight in several ways. It disrupts digestion and contributes to depression and escalates your "fight or flight response," which can make you feel overwhelmed, which can make you overeat.

My suggestion to you is to get you a weight loss coach. Start an aggressive cardiovascular exercise program. Simple brisk walking for 30 minutes a day is a start. Start a one week detoxification program like Nu-lean and do a fasting three day lemon-aid only diet for three days. Then start eating a lot of fruits and vegetables staying away from sweets and simple carbohydrates like breads and tortillas.

Acupuncture treatments are performed two times a week for four to six weeks. Most treatments run around $50 and some insurances will pay for treatments. If you have any questions you can contact me through my website atDrTowery.com or just call my office to schedule a free phone consultation. I will be starting some free weight loss seminars in the near future so watch for details in the Victoria Advocate.

Source: World Health Organization -American obesity statistics/children/Director General

Cancer Patients Finds Relief with Acupuncture

When a doctor first recommended it, Beth Dowhen of Wisconsin had her doubts. Could acupuncture really help with her cancer symptoms?

You can often find Dowhen in her garden. Her daffodils are always the first to bloom.“I had one bloom on Easter Sunday. All the rest came two weeks later. It was like one just couldn’t wait!” Dowhen said.

Dowhen understands impatience. She was cooped up inside by more than a long winter.

Beth Dowhen

“Last year I didn’t do anything in the yard. I feel so blessed to be normal again,” Dowhen said.

“They decided to do chemo and radiation,” Dowhen said. Dowhen has been cancer free for more than six months. She’s back to feeling like she did three years ago — before doctors found cancer at the base of her tongue.

To reign in the symptoms caused by her treatment, she found herself laying on a table for something she’d never considered.

“I thought, you know, acupuncture? Is it going to be some old hippie somewhere doing it?” Dowhen said.

The Pavlic Center on the Wheaton Franciscan Elmbrook Memorial campus feels more like a spa than a clinic. During procedures, Acupuncturist Christine Warrix carefully navigated needles the size of a hair onto Dowhen’s arms, legs and feet.

Pavlic Center Wheaton Franciscan Elmbrook Memorial campus

The one on Dowhen’s chin was meant to help with the dry mouth caused by radiation.

“About five minutes after that first treatment, I felt saliva come into my mouth and that just amazed me,” Dowhen said.

Beth Dowhen

Other needles in other spots were meant to help with stress and relaxation.

“If they’re nauseous or have a lack of appetite, acupuncture can help with that,” Warrix said.

Dowhen credits the needles with stopping a sore throat she’d had for months on end.

Pavlic Center supervisor Kara Wilde says some cancer patients need a little convincing in order to undergo the acupuncture treatments.

“Baby steps is sometimes where you have to begin with some people. It is something that is able to alleviate some pain. It can sometimes alleviate some of the discomforts they have. Just in well-being, as far as not being able to sleep at night, or being achy first thing in the morning,” Wilde said.

Dowhen has gone from hesitant to an acupuncture advocate.

“I really do credit acupuncture with helping me feel better,” Dowhen said.

And now that spring is finally here, Dowhen is back to doing the things she loves — like working with her neglected garden that turned out to be just a resilient as she is.