A study out of Japan looked at the effects of acupuncture for patients with dyspnea (shortness of breath) for at least 5 years. There were 2 groups of 30 hospitalized patients, 15 in the acupuncture group and 15 in the control group. The acupuncture group received acupuncture treatments once a week for 10 weeks plus standard care medications. The control group received standard medications. The acupuncture group received the same acupuncture protocol – i.e. everyone received the same exact treatment each week. (In my opinion this is one of the problems with many acupuncture studies. One disease can offer many different acupuncture treatments that are customized to each individual. I feel customized acupuncture treatments offer more effective clinical outcomes.)
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Although this study was not a gold standard with a control (i.e. ‘placebo’) arm of the study it is still significant in how well acupuncture did over conventional drug therapy. In this study there were 47 women who were receiving the standard anti-cancer therapy tamoxifen or anastrozole were split into two groups to determine how best to deal with side effects such as hot flashes and night sweats. One group received the conventional antidepressent Effexor while the other group received acupuncture one or two times weekly. The study lasted 12 weeks. Read the rest of this entry

Irritable Bowel Syndrome (IBS) seems to be an all too common complaint of so many people. The three typical ways IBS presents itself is: constipation dominant (IBS-C), diarrhea dominant (IBS-D) or alternating diarrhea and constipation (IBS). I’m going to generalize here, but Read the rest of this entry

A just published acupuncture research article concluded that acupuncture improves osteoarthritic knee pain symptoms above ’sham’ acupuncture.    Granted the research group was small, only 34 active acupuncture subjects and there is no such thing as true ’sham’ acupuncture, but the methodologies of this pilot study were sound as they used pain as the endpoint measurement which showed significant difference. Read the rest of this entry

Another recent acupuncture research article demonstrated that acupuncture can be effective for people whose salivary glands are damaged by radiation or chemotherapy.  In this study the acupuncture point Large Intestine 2 (LI 2 on the index finger just distal to the knuckle) was stimulated (the only point that was used!) to determine if it increased saliva production over ’sham’ acupuncture. The ’sham’ acupuncture was a point on the pinky side of the anterior forearm a couple of inches up from the wrist crease using a non-insertive needle.  Read the rest of this entry

Here is a research article from several years ago showing that acupuncture and Chinese Herbal Medicine is effective for seasonal rhinitis. (Of course it came out of Germany as they lead the world in non-invasive medical care). I certainly have many patients that call right before the springtime allergy season for their tuneups. It really helps either eliminate or cut down on their medications. Read the rest of this entry

Here is an interesting review paper that looked at whether auricular acupuncture is effective for reducing post-operative pain.   Auricular acupuncture is acupuncture on only the ear.   The ear contains a hologram of the entire body where certain ear acupuncture points correspond to body point.   Ear acupuncture is most well known for the treatment of drug detoxification and smoking cessation.  However it can also be used to manage pain. Read the rest of this entry

A recent review study showed that acupuncture in conjuction with in-vitro fertilization improved the chances of a rates of pregnancy and live births.   (This really shouldn’t come as a surprise since there have been many studies showing that acupuncture helps couples conceive.)   This study was a review of 7 trials and over 1300 women undergoing IVF, so it wasn’t just a small pilot study, it did have some significance. The It was a 1.65 odds ratio which suggests that acupuncture increased the odds of clinical pregnancy by 65% compared with the control groups. However the authors correctly state that this is an overestimation and what it actually means is that for every 10 women that get treated there will be one more live birth.  Consider the exorbernant cost of IVF acupuncture is very cost effective.   Still this is significant, especially if you are one of those 10.

I’m always amazed at how incredible acupuncture is for regulating female hormones.   So it isn’t a surprise that acupuncture helps with pregnancy. The authors concluded: “Current preliminary evidence suggests that acupuncture given with embryo transfer improves rates of pregnancy and live birth among women undergoing in vitro fertilisation.”

In Health,
George Mandler
Licensed Acupuncturist
Licensed Dietitian / Nutritionist

Maynard, MA & Cambridge, MA