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News & Research
Acupuncture Changes Brain's Perception and Processing of Pain
At A Glance
- Acupuncture reduces activation in several brain areas involved in the perception and processing of pain.
- According to fMRI results, acupuncture affects the incoming pain signal to the brain.
- Acupuncture also sparks a placebo-like analgesic response in the brain.
RSNA News Release
http://www.rsna.org/Media/rsna/RSNA10_newsrelease_target.cfm?id=515
CHICAGO — Using functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI), researchers have captured pictures of the brain while patients experienced a pain stimulus with and without acupuncture to determine acupuncture's effect on how the brain processes pain. Results of the study, which the researchers say suggest the effectiveness of acupuncture, were presented today at the annual meeting of the Radiological Society of North America (RSNA).
"Until now, the role of acupuncture in the perception and processing of pain has been controversial,"…
Acupuncture Improves Exercise Tolerance in Heart Patients, German Study Finds
| Web address: http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2010/07/ 100701103409.htm |
Acupuncture Improves Exercise Tolerance in Heart Patients, German Study Finds
— Acupuncture can improve exercise tolerance in patients suffering from chronic heart failure, according to new research from Germany.
The finding comes from a clinical pilot study by the team headed by Dr. Johannes Backs, physician and study director at the Department of Internal Medicine III (Cardiology, Angiology, and Pneumology -- Medical Director: Professor Dr. Hugo Katus) of Heidelberg University Hospital. The needles do not increase the heart's pump function, but they seem to have an influence on skeletal muscle strength and thus can increase the walk distance that heart patients can cover. The results of the clinical study, which was conducted with a comparison group treated with placebo acupuncture using dull…
Good Food Isn't Cheap, But Empty Calories Are
Good Food Isn't Cheap, But Empty Calories Are
by Darren Tellier D.TCM, R. Ac
The other day I bought a 'whole food' hot cereal product that is made in Taiwan. It is similar in price and serving size to the individual packets of oatmeal we can buy at any major grocery store. But that is where the similarity ends.
When I look at the nutritional breakdown of this low fat oatmeal my pancreas runs for cover, and the rest of my body is left hungry.
In a 36 g packet there are 15 grams of sugar (almost half the weight of the whole serving), 2 g of fibre, 2 g of fat, and 280 mg of sodium. Considering we are eating oatmeal there is not much fibre, and a whole lot of sugar (and salt).
Looking at the Asian whole-food product I am immediately struck by the variety of ingredients: brown rice, buckwheat, oats, sesame seeds, pumpkin seeds, wheat germ, and more, with sugar being the last in the list. The nutritional break down reveals a single…
Health Canada recalls products based on speculation
Once again Health Canada has recalled an Natural Health Product in absence of any lab pharmacology testing or adverse event reports.
Health Canada states that the multi-ingredient cleansing product "may pose" some sort of risk based on the fact it apparently has 30 active ingredient, although it is unclear as to who analyzed the active ingredients or what they are.
This sort of speculation is the lowest "Level of Evidence" (Level 5) according to the Oxford Centre for Evidence-based Medicine's classifying the evidence in medical literature. To quote the centre, it is merely "Expert opinion without explicit critical appraisal, or based on physiology, bench research or "first principles".
Arguably Health Canada can restrict sale of Health Products so long as the product doesn't have a Natural Health Product or DIN number. It is up to the manufacturer to submit evidence that proves the…
Drug firms 'drove swine flu pandemic warning to recoup billions spent on research'
Last updated at 7:49 AM on 27th January 2010
Drug companies manipulated the World Health Organisation into downgrading its definition of a pandemic so they could cash in on a swine flu outbreak, it is claimed.
An inquiry heard yesterday that the WHO allegedly softened its criteria for declaring a H1N1 flu pandemic last spring - just weeks before announcing there was a worldwide outbreak.
Critics said the decision was driven by pharmaceutical companies desperate to recoup the billions of pounds they had invested in researching and developing pandemic vaccines after the bird flu scares in 2006 and 2007.
As a result, millions of people have been vaccinated against a mild illness, and money that could have been used to prevent and treat major killers such as heart disease has been squandered.
The claims, which emerged during the first of several Council of Europe hearings into the…
Chronic pain lowering economy's productivity
survey finds employees don't get needed treatment
Acupuncture, real or fake, helps aching back: Study
Acupuncture brought more relief to people with back pain than standard treatments, whether it was done with a toothpick or a real needle, U.S. researchers say.
Photograph by: China Photos, Getty Images
http://www.edmontonjournal.com/health/Acupuncture+real+fake+helps+aching+back+Study/1588357/story.html
CHICAGO (Reuters) - Acupuncture brought more relief to people with back pain than standard treatments, whether it was done with a toothpick or a real needle, U.S. researchers said on Monday in a study that raises new questions about how acupuncture works.
For many patients, that benefit lasted for a year, the team reported in the Archives of Internal Medicine.
"Our study shows that you don't need to stick needles into people to get the same effect," said Dr. Daniel Cherkin of Group Health Center for Health Studies in Seattle, who led the study.
…
Acupuncture May Cut Hot Flashes, Boost Sex Drive in Breast Cancer Patients
But the study was small and one expert believes more research is needed
URL of this page: http://www.nlm.nih.gov/medlineplus/news/fullstory_93562.html (*this news item will not be available after 03/30/2010)
Wednesday, December 30, 2009
WEDNESDAY, Dec. 30 (HealthDay News) -- Acupuncture is just as good as standard medication to ease hot flashes and other uncomfortable symptoms in women undergoing breast cancer treatment.
And as an added bonus, the needle treatment may boost the patient's sex drive and contribute to clearer thinking.
"I think the data shows you that acupuncture is a good option for these patients [and] it has no side effects," added Dr. Eleanor Walker, division director of breast services in the department of radiation oncology at Henry Ford Hospital in Detroit, and lead author of a study appearing online Dec. 28 in the Journal of Clinical Oncology.
But another…
Acupuncture beats aspirin for chronic headache
Acupuncture works better than drugs like aspirin to reduce the severity and frequency of chronic headaches, U.S. researchers reported on Monday.
http://www.edmontonjournal.com/health/Acupuncture+beats+aspirin+chronic+headache/1021220/story.html
A review of studies involving nearly 4,000 patients with migraine, tension headache and other forms of chronic headache showed that that 62 percent of the acupuncture patients reported headache relief compared to 45 percent of people taking medications, the team at Duke University found."Acupuncture is becoming a favorable option for a variety of purposes, ranging from enhancing fertility to decreasing post-operative pain, because people experience significantly fewer side effects and it can be less expensive than other options," Dr. Tong Joo Gan, who led the study, said in a statement."This analysis reinforces that acupuncture also is a…
Natural products win more shelf time
Wednesday, December 2, 2009
Health Canada delays crackdown on licensing guidelines
Health Canada won't crack down on unlicensed natural health products for sale in Canada for at least another year, despite recent assurances that a new compliance plan would kick in soon.
The news, delivered privately to industry insiders at Health Canada workshops over the past two weeks, comes after Health Minister Leona Aglukkaq assured parliamentarians this fall Ottawa was on track to clear a product licensing backlog by March 2010 and implement "a compliance strategy for 2010."
Health Canada said yesterday the department is on target to meet the March deadline.
But in workshops, ministry officials told industry representatives not to worry about that date.
Health Canada's current policy allows companies to sell unlicensed natural health products, provided they've…
Scientists claim junk food is as addictive as heroin
http://www.grist.org/article/scientists-claim-junk-food-is-as-addictive-as-heroin
With the rumors swirling that Michelle Obama is a big fan of former FDA Commissioner David Kessler’s new book The End of Overeating, it seems reasonable to check in on the science behind an “addiction model” for salty, sweet, and fatty processed food (an assertion at the core of the book). As it happens, a group of researchers from the independent, not-for-profit Scripps Research Institute has just released a new peer-reviewed study on the subject. The conclusion: the brain responds to junk food the same way it does to heroin:
Junk food elicits addictive behavior in rats similar to the behaviors of rats addicted to heroin, a new study finds. Pleasure centers in the brains of rats addicted to high-fat, high-calorie diets became less responsive as the binging wore on, making the rats consume more and more…
H1N1 no deadlier than regular flu: top doctor
Monday, November 16, 2009
Sharon Kirkey , Canwest News Service
Don Healy / Leader-Post
OTTAWA -- Despite the recent surge in H1N1 deaths, the nation's chief public health officer says the pandemic virus appears no deadlier than regular seasonal influenza and that there could actually be substantially fewer flu deaths than normal this season.
Although H1N1 is disproportionately infecting more children and otherwise healthy young adults, "the mortality rate from this (H1N1) is no worse than seasonal flu," Dr. David Butler-Jones said in an interview with Canwest News Service.
"The individual risk of severe disease or dying if you happen to get the flu is very similar today as it was back in June. It's just that we're starting to see a lot more people affected," he said.
"The fact that we haven't had more deaths and more people in (intensive-care units) I think is a testimony to people…
Why the swine flu isn’t a major threat
Posted by medconsumers on September 24, 2009
http://medicalconsumers.org/category/alternative-medicine/
For the last 15 years, physician and epidemiologist Tom Jefferson, MD, has made it his mission to conduct extensive reviews of all studies of seasonal influenza vaccines. With colleagues at the Cochrane Collaboration, Dr. Jefferson has co-authored over 10 Cochrane reviews to answer a wide range of questions such as: do these vaccines reduce the chance of getting influenza or reduce the risk of complications, hospitalizations and deaths in elderly people, children, healthy adults and asthmatics? Based in Rome, Italy, Dr. Jefferson has published extensively and is, arguably, the world’s leading authority on the quality of the evidence supporting seasonal influenza vaccines. As we head into winter, the U.S. media is reporting a new, more ominous viral threat that may well become a…