In this issue:
1. Season’s Greetings from Pacific Wellness
2. Insurance Benefits
3. Holiday Alert
4. Holiday Gift Certificates
5. Clinic News
6. Breaking Free and Improving our Bodies
7. Comments
8. Seasonal Recipe
Todo Yoshimasu is credited for his work in developing Kampo abdominal diagnosis in eighteenth century. The abdominal diagnosis, a practice known as Fukushin is unique to the Kampo School. Although various abdominal diagnoses were originally described in Chinese medical classics such as Shang Han Lun (‘Treatise on Cold Damage’) and Nan Jing (‘Canon of Eighty-One Difficult Issues’), this specific diagnostic method had long been abandoned in China. Thus, this practice is not included in modern iterations of Traditional Chinese Medicine.
Fukushin was further advanced by Bunrei Inaba and Yoshitora (Shukuko) Wakuda by the beginning of the nineteenth century. They have written Fukusho Kiran and Fukusho KiranYoku. The texts are considered as the two most important classics describing Shang Han Lun style abdominal diagnosis.
Learm more about Shang Han Lun style abdominal diagnosis
Shiatsu (“finger pressure”) is a hands-on therapy that originated in Japan. Similar to acupressure, there are no needles involved in shiatsu. Shiatsu therapists use finger and palm pressure to stimulate pressure points with therapeutic intention to restore harmony and balance to the recipient. What are the benefits of shiatsu?
With the exception of very few recent trials that contain a large number of patients, e.g., 17-21 most of the previous acupuncture trials suffer from the drawback of a small sample size. Thus, there are a substantial number of previous studies that are considered under-powered and the results may be contaminated by a Type II error (false negative)… Continue reading >>>
Selected Systematic Reviews, updated January 19, 2011
Temporomandibular (TMJ) disorders
Acupuncture in the treatment of pain in temporomandibular disorders: a systematic review and meta-analysis of randomized controlled trials. Clin J Pain. 2010 Jul-Aug;26(6):541-50.
Depression
The effectiveness and safety of acupuncture therapy in depressive disorders: systematic review and meta-analysis. J Affect Disord. 2010 Jul;124(1-2):9-21. Epub 2009 Jul 26.
Postoperative nausea and vomiting
Stimulation of the wrist acupuncture point P6 for preventing postoperative nausea and vomiting. Cochrane Database Syst Rev. 2009 Apr 15;(2):CD003281.
Neck pain
Randomized controlled trials of acupuncture for neck pain: systematic review and meta-analysis. J Altern Complement Med. 2009 Feb;15(2):133-45.
The vast majority of research papers in acupuncture until recent years are clinical case reports, which are considered low level of evidence based on the EBM concept.4 That is because case reports are uncontrolled studies, involving descriptions of the patient’s history, administered treatments and outcome. Even if the study was based on successful results on hundreds or thousands of patients; we really cannot tell how much, if any, administered therapeutic intervention contributed to improvements of the patient’s condition, without observation of a comparative patient population (otherwise known as a control group). For this reason, case reports are usually not accepted by reputable peer-reviewed journals for publication (unless the subject is involved in very rare cases).
A study by Haruto Kinosita of Japan in 19715 is probably the first randomized control clinical trial of acupuncture ever conducted… Continue reading>>>
Selected Controlled Trials of Acupuncture and Dysmenorrhea (severe uterine pain during menstruation)
Immediate Analgesia Effect of Single Point Acupuncture in Primary Dysmenorrhea: A Randomized Controlled Trial. Pain Med. 2010 Dec 17. doi: 10.1111/j.1526-4637.2010.01017.x. [Epub ahead of print]
Immediate effect of acupuncture at Sanyinjiao (SP6) and Xuanzhong (GB39) on uterine arterial blood flow in primary dysmenorrhea. J Altern Complement Med. 2010 Oct;16(10):1073-8. Epub 2010 Oct 9.
Electroacupuncture reduces uterine artery blood flow impedance in infertile women. Taiwan J Obstet Gynecol. 2009 Jun;48(2):148-51.
The term “evidence-based medicine” (EBM) first appeared in a paper in 1992. 1 In the late 1990s, EBM had emerged as the premier method of teaching and practicing medicine. EBM promotes the use of up-to-date “best” scientific evidence from healthcare research as the basis for making medical decisions. As acupuncture has been getting widely practiced not only in private clinics but also in many University hospitals, there has been a strong demand for scientific evidence to defend its safety and efficacy. Those calling for this testing point to the fact that stringent testing is required for the determining safety and efficacy of acupuncture. Under the EBM concept, high quality evidence means evidence derived from randomized controlled trials and systematic reviews.2
Over the past two thousand years, acupuncture has been used to treat a wide variety of illnesses…. Continue reading>>>
