Scientists did a study recently, the largest of its kind yet (at least 100,000 people), to determine if ginkgo biloba actually helps improve your memory. World-shattering news: in over six years of faithfully taking the supplement at the recommended dosage, NO CHANGE. None.
I could have told you that. That needs to go up on the year’s most obvious study results. For future reference, these also don’t work. At all. Ever.
Acupuncture
Cupping
Aromatherapy
Crystal Healing
Rolfing
Chromotherapy
Iridology
Live Blood Analysis
Colon Irrigation
Or any number of other non-scientific, bogus methods for separating the gullible and desperate from their money.
Of course occasionally the bogus treatment coincides with the very real remission or recovery of a patient. The fact is, this has nothing to do with the treatment, and everything to do with the patient.
This is part of the reason why the recovery rate for most diseases is almost the same inside the waiting room as it is after you see the doctor. When you factor in the hypochondriacs, the people who were just reaching the end of a curable sickness before seeing the doctor, and those who are sick with, say, a virus, it’s obvious that some things are going to get better basically at random. The treatment of those things isn’t going to affect much chronologically, and if the treatment happens at just the right time, it’s gonna look like the treatment (whatever it is) is responsible. It isn’t.
But when it IS something curable, the cure rates go drastically up depending on whether the person who is infected has seen a (western style, science based, medical) doctor. By drastically I mean almost a 100% improvement. I guess random chance isn’t exactly good medicine, now is it?
Now there’s one argument left about naturopathy, homeopathy, et. al. – and that is the placebo effect. Many people have felt the placebo effect at one point in their lives. Hell, if the placebo effect were guaranteed in even 70% of the cases, I might say that these treatments were somewhat valid.
But since we can’t rely on the placebo effect to treat even 70% of the people, and we can’t expect the effects to last after being informed of the placebo’s nature, I’m thinking that it’s pretty much a wash.
Besides, if I’m gonna take a placebo, it’s gonna be a plain old sugar-pill, thank you very much, not some freaky new-age metaphysical bullshit that puts hundreds or thousands of my dollars in the hands of con men.
I saw my acupuncturist this morning and she asked me again if I took a pregnancy test. She asked me two weeks ago right before I was expecting my period. She was taking my pulse and mentioned that it was very rapid. I remember when she said it — I immediately thought about the book I’m reading “The Infertility Cure” by Randine Lewis, PhD. It’s a great and inspiring read about infertility, acupuncture and herbs. I’ve learned so much about my body and I definitely recommend it for anyone going through infertility. She recommends taking supplements for different infertility symptoms. Since I found out that my FSH is high (and possibly have PCOS) — I’ve been taking wheat grass, royal jelly, spirulina, coenzyme Q-10, l’arginine, prenatal vitamins — along with the chinese herbs from my acupuncturist. I have to admit that I’ve felt a huge difference after taking them, lots of energy and just an overall good feeling.
In the book, she ends each chapter with a success story and I noticed that in most of them she’d say, “and I knew that she was pregnant right away because her pulse was more rapid than usual.” So when heard my acupuncturist say that my pulse was faster than usual, of course I immediately thought, could this really be true? She recommended that I take a pregnancy test. That night I started to spot and I knew my chances of pregnancy were null and that my period would soon follow so I didn’t test. And, my period came, I think. It wasn’t a full period, mostly spotting. I just figured that it was irregular because of the herbs and acupuncture regulating my system.
Flash forward two weeks later and as she’s asking her usual questions, I mentioned that I’ve been experiencing some nausea the past few mornings and especially today. She also pointed out that my temperature on my BBT chart was holding steady. So, she asked me again, “did you ever take a pregnancy test?” I told her that I didn’t because I got my period. To which she replied, “but you did say that it was lighter than usual, right?”
Ugh! I’m so frustrated! I don’t want to get my hopes up again that I might be pregnant. It’s been over a year since we’ve been trying and I went that route of testing every month and getting so disappointed when it was negative. I hate that feeling. It’s like a slap in the face. But now I can’t stop thinking about it. I even googled, “can you get your period when you’re pregnant?” — and of course a ton of stories came up where women thought they had their periods and still turned out to be pregnant. Oh joy, more false hope.
As I write this, I’m thinking, “just go buy a damn test and take it — what’s the big deal?” I don’t know why I’m being so stubborn. I should just do it, right? I already know it’s going to be negative so I what’s the harm? At least it will put my mind to rest.
Do you have knee pain? In a recently published study electro-acupuncture was compared to “sham acupuncture” in the treatment of knee pain. Sham acupuncture are needles placed in “fake acupuncture points” to eliminate the placebo effect. Electro acupuncture is a modification of Traditional Chinese Acupuncture – the needles are hooked up to an electrical stimulation device and electrical input is placed to enhance the effects of acupuncture.
What is interesting is that not only did the Electro – Acupuncture patients report Better pain control than Sham Acupuncture patients in the treatment of knee pain, but also documented via blood tests that patients who received electro-acupuncture had higher Beta-endorphin levels than those receiving sham acupuncture. Endorphins are the body’s natural “pain control hormones”.
This study confirms the positive results I receive in my own patients receiving electro-acupuncture.
International Integrative Medicine (IM) Day inspires worldwide dialog, education, collaboration, research initiatives and programming about medicine that is patient-centered, holistic, economically and environmentally sustainable, and conscious of integrating different global medical systems. IIM Day promotes the principles and practice of models of integration and care that preserve the patient-healer relationship and the healing of the patient.
As an acupuncturist in my first year of practice, I welcome these words and the sentiments behind them. During my three years of study, Chinese Medicine became my life. It seemed completely normal to be layed, half-clothed on a couch while a cohort measured 3 cun below my patella, one fingerwidth from the anterior crest of my tibia to mark the point precisely with a felt tipped pen. Should illness occur, acupuncture would be my first choice of treatment. It is as normal to me as to others, is taking an aspirin.
However, I’m aware that to many it is still seen as quackery or a result of placebo. It can be frustrating to have to defend your profession. While I’m aware acupuncture has it’s limitations, it also has such potential to improve the lives of so many. I’m currently engaged in research reviewing the evidence for acupuncture in the treatment of trigeminal neuralgia. Although my review will be systematic, and fulfill the requirements of a masters degree, good quality large-scale acupuncture trials are limited as is access and translation of foreign databases, partly due to the difficulties in getting funding .
I hope one day, we will see a better sharing of our knowledge on a truly global scale and an integrative approach to healthcare that has the patient and not politics and profit at it’s heart.
Get relief from pain at Speer Chiropractic & Acupuncture
By Ashley Puderbaugh
Published January 2010 Women’s Edition magazine
The American Chiropractic Association estimates that 70 to 85% of adults will experience significant low back pain for two weeks or longer at some stage in their lives. From sitting too long at a desk, to straining in the garden, hoisting your little ones up and down, suffering a sports injury, or just being stressed out, low back pain is a very common ailment. The majority of low back pain cases improve over a few weeks, though some cases remain chronic and debilitating.
One of the ways you can relieve low back pain and other types of pain without medicine is with the help of Speer Chiropractic & Acupuncture in Lenexa, Kansas. The clinic provides chiropractic care and acupuncture to treat everything from sports injuries to sciatica. The clinic’s specialties are the diversified adjusting technique and the Specific Prone technique, which provide gentle adjustment and correction of the spine. When necessary, the clinic will use both acupuncture and chiropractic to treat your conditions.
Speer Chiropractic & Acupuncture opened this past July. Dr. Gerrad Speer is a native Kansan, growing up in Scott City. He then moved to Baldwin City to play fullback on Baker University’s football team. After graduation, he moved to the Kansas City area and received his Doctor of Chiropractic degree from Cleveland Chiropractic in Overland Park.
Dr. Speer says he was taking biology and chemistry classes and was thinking about going into pre-med. “But about junior year is when I decided I didn’t really want to do that, and I was in limbo for a while,” he says. “I was considering laboratory work, but when I needed a job between junior and senior year, the chiropractic job just fell in my lap.” He interned for his cousin, Dr. Jeremy Rodrock, in Baldwin City for five months following graduation. While there, he gained experience from working on clients and Dr. Rodrock himself. “Dr. Speer helped my mid-back out tremendously,” explains Dr. Rodrock. “I’d been having a lot of mid-back problems, and he definitely helped relieve that. Gerrad’s a great chiropractor and very passionate about what he does. And he’s a quick learner. Being a new doctor, experience helps, and my patients said he has very good hands and made good adjustments.” When the internship was over, Dr. Rodrock encouraged Dr. Speer to open his own office and helped him to procure a state-of-the-art digital x-ray machine.
Chiropractic works for a number of neuromuscular conditions, according to Dr. Speer. For instance, sometimes pain develops in a certain area of the spine, resulting in numbness or tingling anywhere in the body. Sciatica, or inflammation of the sciatic nerve, can result in low back pain. Headaches, for example, can be a sign of a sinus condition. By using chiropractic techniques to relieve pressure on the nerves, Dr. Speer says he can help boost your immune system so that it is better able to fight pain in other parts of the body. He analyzes the body for misalignment of the vertebrae in the spine, which causes nerve stress. Using his hands and analytical tools, he is able to isolate the problem and use a spinal adjustment to correct the stress, he explains.
When chiropractic work isn’t getting the results he would like, Dr. Speer says he integrates acupuncture into the treatment. There are three ways he can use acupuncture. The first: “Needles, the old-fashioned way,” he says with a laugh. “It doesn’t hurt much, but if someone doesn’t like needles we can do electro-acupuncture (the second way), which has a metal tip and puts a little electrode in you. It’s not very stout, so it doesn’t hurt.” The third way is just by using his fingers. The latter method is what he uses most often because he can easily combine chiropractic and acupuncture together, he says.
A natural treatment for a variety of conditions is therapeutic acupuncture, which uses needles and/or a small electrical impulse to alter the flow of energy (or Chi) in your body, which is believed to treat disease. According to the belief, when Chi is interrupted, you experience pain that could be caused by organ malfunction or disease. By stimulating acupuncture points in the body, it helps relieve pain and restore energy flow so that your immune system can do its job.
Acupuncture is a 5,000-year-old Chinese system of natural healing that is known to help hundreds of diseases and ailments. There is some research that suggests acupuncture increases electrical activity in the body as part of its healing process. Dr. Speer says he uses acupuncture to treat all types of injuries and to promote wellness. He also uses it to handle pediatric problems and to boost the body’s immune system pre- and post-operation. Acupuncture is also used to keep the body’s organs and systems working as optimally as possible.
Pregnant women can especially benefit from acupuncture and chiropractic, Dr. Speer says. For example, when a baby is in the breech position, by stimulating acupuncture points, the baby will turn to the proper position, he states. Sometimes a mother’s posture results in aches and pains from the weight of her unborn child. Acupuncture and chiropractic can relieve the pain without medication, he reports. Dr. Speer admits that he was a bit skeptical when he first learned about acupuncture, however. “I thought I’d go for at least 25 hours of the 100-hour course to see what it was like. I took a gamble.”
During class one day, the teacher asked for a volunteer who had a specific problem to treat. A couple months prior, Dr. Speer had hurt his knee playing flag football. He could walk, but he couldn’t run on it. He’d had chiropractic work done and it wasn’t helping, so he volunteered and the teacher treated his knee in front of the class that day. A month later, Dr. Speer was running again. “Needless to say, I finished the course,” he says. And now Dr. Speer is certified in acupuncture.
If you’re interested in having chiropractic work or acupuncture done but are worried about the cost, Dr. Speer says he takes ACC and Signa insurance, in addition to Medicare. “We can also reduce the price a little bit for people and put them on a cash-based treatment plan,” he notes. “They can pay monthly or upfront or at each visit—whichever’s easiest for them. So far people have really liked it.”
To find out more about Speer Chiropractic & Acupuncture, visit www.speerchiropractic.com or call 888-880-0619. The office is located at 13624 W. 95th St., and is open from 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. Monday through Thursday, and from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. Friday.
According to new data a specific ear acupuncture might help to relieves lower back pain in pregnant women.
In essence, the majority of women who had acupuncture needles put and taped down at three unique acupuncture points in their ears for at least one week really noticed a large reduction in lower back pain and pelvic discomfort; versus women patients in a control group and placebo acupuncture group who didn’t get needles at all or were receiving needles in the inappropriate acupuncture points.
According to statistics pregnant women often suffer from lower back pain and pelvis discomfort which may lead to chronic lower back pain in the end.
Fundamentally, ear acupuncture may offer women patients an all-natural significant improvements in ability according to the information for those women.
However, the pain relief wasn’t long-lasting for some women. Unfortunately, a week after the conclusion of acupuncture research study, sixty-eight (68) percent of those who received the real acupuncture were feeling a thirty % or greater relief in pain versus to the beginning of acupuncture treatment, whereas thirty-two percent in the placebo acupuncture group and eighteen (18) % of the control group preserved this degree of reduction in their back pain.
For this reason and many others, it was noted in the study that there was no significant amount of difference in the groups in the percentage remaining free of back pain 2 weeks into the study.
There was only one side-effect and it was temporary tenderness in the ear area, reported by less than 3-5 percent of the women who received acupuncture whether it was in the real acupuncture group or the placebo acupuncture group total.
Bear in mind that the acupuncture procedure described is actually inexpensive at an expense of $15 to $25 for a pack of 100 needles. It takes about three minutes for the needles to be put in place if someone that is experience is doing it.
This is a somewhat new discovery and more studies will be needed to establish if outcomes may be experienced more permanently with continuous acupuncture greater than the 2 week period and if there are any effects on pregnancy outcomes.
