The lack of acupuncture coverage by insurance companies in Massachusetts at best disappointing. Very few companies actually cover acupuncture treatments. I know I save insurance companies tens of thousands each year. I have little doubt that my acupuncture colleagues in Massachusetts in total save insurance companies many millions. We would save insurance companies more money if we weren’t a last resort.

How could I be so sure we are saving so much? One metric is simply based on people telling me they need surgery. Back, knee, intestinal, hip etc. Many times after a series of acupuncture treatments people feel remarkably better. If they underwent surgery those procedure are often at minimum $15,000 per procedure. ( typically much more). If people came to us before getting an expensive MRI the cost effectiveness would be even further realized.

Many people are not interested in taking medications with side effects. It seems more and more people are waking up to the fact that mediation for chronic conditions only treats symptoms and does little to help the underlying issue. Acupuncture is one of many great modalities that can help correct chronic conditions that Western medicine where western medicine has little answers except medication or surgery. Those answers can be very costly.

The review just released below demonstrates the cost effectiveness of acupuncture to back up my claim.

Acupunct Med. 2012 Dec;30(4):273-85.
A systematic review of cost-effectiveness analyses alongside randomised controlled trials of acupuncture.
Kim SY, Lee H, Chae Y, Park HJ, Lee H.
Abstract
OBJECTIVE: To summarise the evidence on the cost-effectiveness of acupuncture.

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Pregnancy is a critical time for smart dietary choices and proper nutritional support to improve the health of a baby. But pregnancy and childbirth in the opinion of many has become has become a pathology and medical procedure with excessive interventions that can negatively influence a mother and babies’ health.

Of course a small percentage of pregnancies require modern medical intervention in the forms of medications and potential surgeries. Modern medicine has saved countless pregnant women and newborn lives. But I don’t agree with the unnecessary overuse of strong medicines or procedures that have little clinical evidence of safety and potential deleterious side effects when safer options are available. Read the rest of this entry

Sleep is not overrated! Sleep is how our body restores itself. Lack of sleep leads to inflammation and there is good data tying lack of sleep to many undesirable health consequences.

There can be many reasons why someone is not sleeping well. The typical patterns I see when someone complains of a not sleeping well or ‘insomnia’ is either:

• A person cannot fall asleep. Either their head is spinning with thoughts (“monkey mind” 心猿) or they just feel wired and jittery.
• A person wakes up after a few hours of sleep. Often around 2 am for about 1-2 hours.
• A person wakes up early in the morning feeling they haven’t had enough sleep, but cannot fall back asleep. (even though it is 4:00am).

Some sleep issues can stem from endocrine system and blood sugar dysregulation. Some can be caused by anemia. Some may stem from circumstantial life situations one is currently experiencing and causing a ‘Heart’ disturbance. Certainly the sleep disorder is not from an Ambien deficiency.

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A recent Archives of Internal Medicine systematic review article of acupuncture randomized control trials (RCTs) found that acupuncture was more effective than what customary care for chronic pain. The meta analysis examined 29 studies involving almost 18,000 adults. The researchers concluded that acupuncture was more effective than customary medical treatments and slightly better than ‘sham’ acupuncture.

So we now have a meta analysis that looked at raw data from over 2 dozen studies and it showed that acupuncture is an effective treatment for back pain. However the anti-alternative medicine folks are quick to pounce on the fact that real acupuncture over sham acupuncture only had about a 10% improvement in chronic pain scores. In other words it wasn’t statistically significant. The 5 senses only folks then claim acupuncture is just a placebo effect, which is a ridiculous argument in of itself for a few reasons:

1. The sham group in this case is not ‘sham’, as in receiving no treatment. “Sham” absolutely can trigger a physiological response. As any acupuncturists will tell you the mere puncturing of the skin in needles at random points can bring about positive change in some. Yes you don’t need to hit exact points in some people as they may respond to almost anything.
2. Of course there is a ‘placebo’ effect in acupuncture treatments. How can there not be? The patient/practitioner relationship plays a significant role as shown by Ted Kaptchuk. But what is the ‘placebo effect’? It is the mind bringing about a healing response. If the goal is to make people feel better than that is a treatment! Who cares how one gets there as long as they feel better.
3. If it is just a placebo effect then how does one explain the numerous reports of improvement of health for animals?

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A review study was recently published that evaluated 13 trials which included 1,986 women and found that acupuncture during labor was associated with:

1. Less intense pain reported
2. More satisfaction with pain relief compared to no treatment
3. A reduced use of pharmacological analgesia
4. Fewer instrumental deliveries

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Acupuncture studies using the standard “Evidence Based Medicine” are difficult to conduct as there are limitation to how an effective placebo can be carried out. Even studies that use so called “sham” acupuncture may not necessary be a placebo as the sham can have physiological effects beyond just the mind. I know from a clinical perspective that acupuncture works, but showing it within the confines of the current research model is difficult. Anyone that says acupuncture is only a placebo effect I suggest they talk to someone that brought their animal (dog, cat, horse) to someone that does animal acupuncture. The results are often outstanding so if it is a placebo effect these creatures are experiencing then they are a lot smarter than we think.

An interesting study was just released that looked at acupuncture’s efficacy for preventing migraines. Read the rest of this entry

Polycystic ovary syndrome (PCOS) is a metabolic imbalance of a woman’s hormones. This imbalance can cause changes in the menstrual cycle (amenorrhea, irregular periods, dysmenorrhea), skin changes, small cysts in the ovaries, infertility, hair growth and other problems. In a woman’s normal menstrual cycle one (or more) eggs are released from the follicles in the ovaries. In PCOS the eggs do not mature and instead form small cysts in the ovaries. This can lead to infertility. Read the rest of this entry

PCOS (Polycystic Ovarian Syndrome) is a female endocrine disorder where too much androgen hormone (testosterone) is being made in relations to estrogen.  It affects up to 10% of all women.   It is thought that improper insulin  regulation is a common cause and shows up in girls as young as 9 years old through post menopausal women. PCOS is one of the main causes of infertility, but PCOS is a symptom of an underlying endocrine imbalance not the reason for the infertility.

Common symptoms of PCOS include:

• Irregular or no menstrual periods (for women of reproductive age)
• Irregular ovulation, with or without monthly bleeding
• Acne
• Excess hair growth on the face and body
• Thinning scalp hair
• Accumulation of un-ruptured follicles on the periphery of the ovaries (mislabeled as “cysts”, often called polycystic ovaries)

It is not necessary to have all of these symptoms to have PCOS. In fact it is not necessary to have “polycystic ovaries” to have PCOS.  PCOS manifests itself differently in each woman.

I believe that Chinese Medicine is the best medicine on the planet to deal with PCOS and any hormonal imbalances.  Using acupuncture, herbs and nutrition we can regulate the hormonal levels sometimes within a few cycles.

There have been a couple of recent studies which show what has been known clinically for 2000 years.  Below are some of the articles written about the studies:

• Acupuncture and Exercise Relieve PCOS In this 16 week study from 2009 the once a week acupuncture group had fewer menstrual irregularities and a significant drop in testosterone.     Here is another article regarding this study.
• Acupuncture relieves PCOS better than exercise alone - In this similar study to the one above the acupuncture group had more menstrual regulation and a higher drop in testosterone than the exercise group.

In addition these studies only used acupuncture and exercise.   There was no dietary intervention or herbal medicine used as treatment.  Once we add in these modalities the success rate increases dramatically!

So if you have been diagnosed with PCOS absolutely consider using Chinese Medicine as a treatment modality.

Yours In Health,

George Mandler CNS LDN LicAc

I always tell my patients that Chinese Medicine has a lot more to offer than allopathic medicine for the treatment of many gynecological issues. I feel that most cases of menstrual irregularities can be succesfully treated with Chinese Medicine and there is 2000 years of clinical data to back it up.
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Chinese Medicine which includes acupuncture, herbal medicine and nutrition can often treat conditions concerning poor egg quality.   Often when a woman is labeled with poor egg quality they have other signs of poor circulation such as cold extremities, low energy and maybe skin conditions.   Most often the cause does not lie with the eggs, but the overall health of the body and poor circulation to the uterus and ovaries.

The quality of the eggs depend on the DNA and the environment in which they are developing.  The lifecycle of an egg is upwards of 150 days, but the 3 months prior to ovulation is the most critical time of cell division. During this critical time we want to increase blood flow to the ovaries and work on getting supportive nutrition to the body.  This may include herbal medicine and nutraceuticals such as minerals and vitamins if necessary.   We also want to make sure we aren’t causing additional inflammation in the body (and thus preventing reproductive blood flow) by eating foods which are causing immune reactions.

Acupuncture can increase blood flow to the reproductive organs which can thereby provide more blood flow to the ovaries and improve egg quality over time.  With any fertility treatment strategy besides using Chinese Medicine (acupuncture, herbs, shiatsu) we always want to make sure nutrition is sound.  Nutraceuticals such as powerful antioxidants like ubiquinol and alpha lipoic acid can help reduce an inflammation response.   Blood tests can uncover and food sensitivity issues.

In addition to the services we offer your home treatments of castor oil packs on the abdomen are used to increase blood flow to the uterus and ovaries.  Self massage and visualization are also important tools and we will provide information and resources on these techniques.

Each patient will follow a different treatment protocol based on their Chinese Medical Diagnosis. Some women conceive naturally after a couple of months of treatments for poor egg quality.  But many go on to have a successful IVF or IUI as the chances of conceiving improve greatly after a treatment protocol.

Yours In Health,

George Mandler CNS LDN LicAc