Acupuncture [by greywolf]

Sun, 02 May 2010 18:57:32 -0000

Acupuncture:: Acupuncture

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“There must be a better way.”

Greywolf

Everything on the earth has a purpose, every disease an herb to cure it, and every person a mission. This is the Indian theory of existence.

Mourning Dove

Salish

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Acupuncture

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Physical pain is a common occurrence for many people, a national survey found that more than one-quarter of U.S. adults had recently experienced some sort of pain lasting more than a day.
World-wide there is suffering from pain night and day. At Cosmic Acres both Firewalker and Greywolf believe that there are alternatives to modern medicine that should be addressed and thoroughly examined for their potential benefits.

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In addition to conventional treatments people may try acupuncture as an option for pain relief. According to traditional Chinese medicine, acupuncture points are situated on meridians along which qi (a "life energy") flows. Modern acupuncture texts present them as ideas that are useful in clinical practice and continue to inform the practice of acupuncture, but there is no evidence to support their existence and they have not been reconciled with contemporary knowledge about biology, physics or chemistry.

In China, the practice of acupuncture can perhaps be traced as far back as the Stone Age, with the Bian shi, or sharpened stones. In 1963 a bian stone was found in Duolon County, Mongolia, suggestting that the origin of acupuncture dates as far back as the Neolithic age.
People have used acupuncture for a variety of pain. Back pain is the most commonly reported use, followed by joint pain, neck pain, and headache. Although Traditional Chinese Medicine based on the treatment of patterns of disharmony instead of a biomedical diagnoses there are practitioners familiar with both systems have who have commented on relationships between the two. A given pattern of disharmony may be reflected in a certain range of biomedical diagnoses: thus, the pattern called Deficiency of Spleen Qi could manifest as chronic fatigue, diarrhea or uterine prolapse.

Approximately ninety works on the subject were written in China between the Han Dynasty and the Song Dynasty, and the Emperor Renzong of Song, in 1023, ordered the production of a bronze statuette depicting the meridians and acupuncture points then in use. The use of Acupuncture spread from China to Korea, Japan and Vietnam and elsewhere in East Asia. In the 1970s, acupuncture became better known in the United States after an article appeared in The New York Times by James Reston, who underwent an emergency appendectomy while visiting China.

Classical texts describe most of the primary acupuncture points as existing on twelve main and two of eight extra meridians for a total of fourteen "channels" through which qi and Blood flow. Other points not on the fourteen channels are also treated. Local pain is treated by needling the tender "ashi" points where qi or Blood is believed to have stagnated. The zang-fu of the twelve main channels are Lung, Large Intestine, Stomach, Spleen, Heart, Small Intestine, Bladder, Kidney, Pericardium, Gall Bladder, Liver and the intangible San Jiao.

Acupuncture, among the oldest healing practices in the world, is part of traditional Chinese medicine. Acupuncture practitioners stimulate specific points on the body—most often by inserting thin needles through the skin. In traditional Chinese medicine theory, this regulates the flow of qi (vital energy) along pathways known as meridians.

Acupuncture is generally considered safe when performed by an experienced practitioner using sterile needles. Relatively few complications from acupuncture have been reported. Serious adverse events related to acupuncture are rare, but include infections and punctured organs. Additionally, there are fewer adverse effects associated with acupuncture than with many standard drug treatments (such as anti-inflammatory medication and steroid injections) used to manage painful musculoskeletal conditions like fibromyalgia, myofascial pain, osteoarthritis, and tennis elbow.

Acupuncture is being studied for its efficacy in alleviating many kinds of pain. There are promising findings in some conditions, such as chronic low-back pain and osteoarthritis of the knee; but, for most other conditions, additional research is needed. In traditional Chinese medicine theory, acupuncture regulates the flow of qi (vital energy) through the body. Research to test scientific theories about how acupuncture might work to relieve pain is under way.

In the 2007 National Health Interview Survey (NHIS), 1.4 percent of respondents (representing 3.1 million Americans) said they had used acupuncture in the past year. A special analysis of acupuncture data from an earlier NHIS found that pain or musculoskeletal complaints accounted for 7 of the top 10 conditions for which people use acupuncture. Back pain was the most common, followed by joint pain, neck pain, severe headache/migraine, and recurring pain.

Acupuncture has been studied for a wide range of pain conditions, such as postoperative dental pain, carpal tunnel syndrome, fibromyalgia, headache, low-back pain, menstrual cramps, myofascial pain, osteoarthritis, and tennis elbow.
Pain is a feeling triggered in the nervous system. It may be sharp or dull, off-and-on or steady, localized (such as back pain) or all over (such as muscle aches from the flu). Sometimes, pain alerts us to injuries and illnesses that need attention. Although pain usually goes away once the underlying problem is addressed, it can last for weeks, months, or even years. Chronic pain may be due to an ongoing condition (such as arthritis) or to abnormal activity in pain-sensing regions of the brain, or the cause may not be known.
Overall, it can be very difficult to compare acupuncture research results from study to study and to draw conclusions from the cumulative body of evidence. This is because studies may use different acupuncture techniques (e.g., electrical vs. manual), controls (comparison groups), and outcome measures.

An emerging theme in acupuncture research is the role of the placebo. For example, a 2009 systematic review of research on the pain-relieving effects of acupuncture compared with placebo (simulated) or no acupuncture was inconclusive. The reviewers found a small difference between acupuncture and placebo and a moderate difference between placebo and no acupuncture; the effect of placebo acupuncture varied considerably, and the effect of acupuncture appeared unrelated to the specific kind of placebo procedure used. All of the study participants received standard care, typically consisting of analgesic drugs and physical therapy.

One particularly complex factor in acupuncture research is choosing the controls for a clinical trial. The choice depends in part on whether the researchers want to study a particular aspect of acupuncture or to determine whether acupuncture is useful compared with other forms of care. Examples of control groups include study participants who receive no acupuncture, simulated or other treatments.

Scientific evidence on CAM therapies includes results from laboratory research as well as clinical trials. It encompasses both "positive" findings and "negative" findings). Scientific journals publish study results, as well as review articles that evaluate the evidence as it accumulates.

Fibromyalgia
Evidence on acupuncture for fibromyalgia is mixed. Some reviews of the scientific literature have found the evidence promising. However, another review that focused on the few rigorous randomized controlled trials on acupuncture as an adjunct therapy for fibromyalgia did not find a benefit. Additionally, a 2003 assessment by the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality concluded that the evidence was insufficient and the beneficial effects of acupuncture for fibromyalgia could not be determined.

Headache/migraine

Study results on acupuncture for headache are conflicting. Some literature reviews found evidence to support the use of acupuncture for headache, but others noted that most of the studies were of poor quality. A 2008 review of randomized trials on acupuncture highlighted a few well-designed trials whose findings indicate that acupuncture reduces migraine symptoms and is as effective as headache medications. In addition, a 2009 review found that acupuncture may help relieve tension headaches. However, two large trials that looked at acupuncture for migraines found no difference between actual and simulated acupuncture, both of which were equal to conventional care or superior to no treatment.

Low-back pain

According to clinical practice guidelines issued by the American Pain Society and the American College of Physicians in 2007, acupuncture is one of several CAM therapies physicians should consider when patients with chronic low-back pain do not respond to conventional treatment. In early, small studies, combining actual acupuncture with conventional treatment was more effective than conventional treatment alone for relieving chronic low-back pain; but actual acupuncture was not more effective than simulated acupuncture or conventional treatment. However, a large, rigorously designed clinical trial reported in May 2009 found that actual acupuncture and simulated acupuncture were equally effective—and both were more effective than conventional treatment—for relieving chronic low-back pain. There is insufficient evidence to draw definite conclusions about the effectiveness of acupuncture for acute low-back pain.

Menstrual cramps
Two literature reviews have suggested that acupuncture may help with pain from menstrual cramps, but the research is limited.

Myofascial

The evidence for acupuncture and myofascial pain (in which pain occurs in sensitive areas, known as trigger points, in the muscles) is mixed. Some literature reviews have found the evidence promising, but another review indicated that "needling therapies" for myofascial trigger point pain were not more effective than placebo.

Neck pain

Studies of acupuncture for chronic neck pain have found that acupuncture provided better pain relief than some simulated treatments. However, the studies varied in terms of design and most had small sample sizes.

Osteoarthritis/knee pain

Acupuncture appears to be effective for osteoarthritis, particularly in the area of knee pain. Recent literature reviews have found that acupuncture provides pain relief and improves function for people with osteoarthritis of the knee. However, authors of a 2007 systematic literature review suggested that although some large, high-quality trials have shown that acupuncture may be effective for osteoarthritis of the knee, differences in the design, size, and protocol of the studies make it hard to draw any definite conclusions from the body of research. These authors concluded that it is too soon to recommend acupuncture as a routine part of care for patients with osteoarthritis.

Postoperative dental pain

Although recent data on acupuncture for postoperative dental pain are scant, literature reviews based on earlier evidence have identified acupuncture as a promising treatment for dental pain—especially pain following tooth extraction. For example, a 1999 study of 39 dental surgery patients found that acupuncture was superior to placebo (simulated acupuncture) in preventing postoperative pain. However, a 2005 study of 200 dental surgery patients found no significant analgesic effect for acupuncture compared to simulated acupuncture, although patients who believed they received acupuncture reported significantly less pain than those who believed they received a placebo.

Tennis elbow

Study results on the use of acupuncture for tennis elbow (lateral epicondyle) pain are mixed. An early review of clinical trials reported that data on acupuncture for lateral epicondyle pain were insufficient and of poor quality; however, recent reviews have found the evidence promising, noting strong evidence that acupuncture provides short-term pain relief for lateral epicondyle pain.

Carpal tunnel

Although a 1997 NIH consensus statement on acupuncture concluded that acupuncture was promising for carpal tunnel syndrome, additional research confirming acupuncture's efficacy for this condition is scant.
Acupuncture has also been studied for a variety of other pain conditions, including arm and shoulder pain, pregnancy-related pelvic and back pain, and temporomandibular joint (jaw) dysfunction. Although some studies have produced some positive results, more evidence is needed to determine the efficacy of acupuncture for any of these conditions.

There is evidence that people's attitudes about acupuncture can affect the out come. In a 2007 study, researchers analyzed data from four clinical trials of acupuncture for various types of chronic pain. Participants had been asked whether they expected acupuncture to help their pain. In all four trials, those with positive expectations reported significantly greater pain relief.

In addition to studying acupuncture's efficacy, researchers are looking at potential biomechanisms—that is, how acupuncture might work to relieve pain. There are several theories about these biomechanisms (e.g., acupuncture activates opioid systems in the brain that respond to pain); additional research is still needed to test the theories. Researchers are using neuroimaging techniques such as functional magnetic resonance imaging to look at the effects of acupuncture on various regions of the brain.

HOPI PROPHECY

"When the earth is dying there shall arise a new tribe of all colors and all creeds.
This tribe shall be called
The Warriors of the Rainbow
and it will put its faith in actions not words."

- Prophecy of the Native American Hopi people

A Hopi Elder Speaks

You have been telling the People that this is the Eleventh Hour.
Now you must go back and tell the people that THIS is The Hour.

There are things to be considered….
Where are you living?
What are you doing?
What are your relationships?
Are you in the right relation?
Where is your water?

Know your Garden.
It is time to speak the truth.
Create your community.
Be good to each other.

And do not look outside of yourself for the leader.

Then he clasped his hands together, smiled and said,

This could be a good time.
There is a river flowing now very fast.
It is so great and swift that there will be those who are afraid.
They will try to hold on to the shore.
They will feel that they are being torn apart and will suffer greatly.

Know the river has its destination. The Elders say, “We must let go of the shore. Push off into the middle of the river, keep our eyes open and our heads above the water.’
And we say, “See who is there with you and celebrate.”

At this time in history must take nothing personally.
Least of all ourselves.
For the moment that we do, our spiritual growth and journey come to a halt.
The time of the lone wolf is over.
Gather yourselves.
Banish the word “struggle” from your attitude and vocabulary.
All that we do now must be done in sacred manner and in celebration.

We are the ones we have been waiting for.

contributed
by
DragonLady

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Minerals and Gems

Our Toxic Environment

Many of the chronic mental and physical health conditions we see in society today are the result of our toxic environment.

Studies of the significant causes and processes involved in the development of mental and psychical illness have found that there are not only physical, social, and psychological causes for these conditions, but now it is becoming known that various pollutants and toxins have a environmental impact as well.

For nearly two-thirds of a century, up to 99% of the ingredients in any given pesticide product has legally been hidden from public view, even though many are known to be toxic.

Our soil is now contaminated with pesticides, herbicides, lead, industrial pollutants, fertilizers and heavy metals. Our water is also contaminated with pesticides, herbicides, lead, leaching of wastes from landfills, direct discharge of industrial pollutants, fertilizers, pharmaceutical drugs, These toxic substances make it into our food supply and then into our bodies through consumption. Food that is less nutritious and poisoned leads to many chronic mental and physical disorders, conditions and disease.

Naphtha for example is sometimes used in hand-soap and detergents. It is claimed that it is a central nervous system depressant and a neuro-toxin, which can cause headaches, lack of concentration, confusion, and symptoms of mental illness.

Only three percent of the carcinogens known to cause cancer are known and registered. Cancer is only the tip of the iceberg when it comes to health effects of chronic low-level exposure to neuro-toxin poisons.

Air pollution leads to numerous health conditions such as asthma and other respiratory problems, cancer, cardiovascular disease and many more.

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Acupuncture [by greywolf]