Acupuncture is gaining new traction – and respect – in hospitals and doctors’ offices as evidence of its curative power piles up.
Here, why it works and what conditions it’s best for.
Virginia Ginsburg, 35, of Santa Monica, CA, didn’t put much stock in acupuncture. So when she woke up one morning in September 2009 with pain in her back and leg so excruciating that she could barely walk, she begged her husband to take her to the emergency room. She was diagnosed with sciatica, given a shot of morphine and some pain pills, and sent limping home. But after a few days, when the pain hadn’t abated, she remembered how acupuncture had eased her morning sickness when she was pregnant. “I was skeptical that it could help with a more serious condition, but I didn’t know where else to turn,” she says. So she called the acupuncturist again. The results astonished her. After just one treatment, the agony began to subside. She went to two or three sessions a week and, after 10 weeks, she was completely pain free.
Stories like Ginsburg’s have become increasingly common over the past few years. Marilyn Burack, 52, of Livingston, NJ, says she was cured of vertigo in two sessions of acupuncture after six months of medications had failed her. Rhalee Hughes, 38, of New York City, found that just one treatment could stop a flare-up of the pinched nerve in her neck. And similar accounts are told by many of the more than 3 million Americans who have turned to the 2,500-year old Asian techniques to relieve osteoarthritis, back pain, migraines, nausea, hot flashes, anxiety, addiction, insomnia, and infertility.
Western doctors are taking notice, “More people in the medical community are embracing acupuncture because they see it works-often in cases where conventional medicine hasn’t been as effective,” says Geovanni Espinosa, ND, the director of the Integrative Urology Center of NYU Langone Medical Center. An estimated 1,500 US physicians are now trained in acupuncture. And some hospitals even have acupuncturists on staff, who tote their needle kits into cancer and orthopedic wards. What’s behind this wave of acceptance is more than treatment trendiness. As reports of acupuncture’s potency accumulate, researchers have discovered more evidence about how the technique functions-and the conditions for which it’s most effective.
The Burden of Proof
Licensed acupuncturist point to a 2,500 – year history as confirmation that the practice works. The concept that traditionally underlies acupuncture (or needling, as it’s sometimes called) is that the human body has 12 meridians along which energy – called qi (pronounced chee)-flows. When these channels are “blocked” or “unbalanced,” it’s thought, the result is illness and pain. To unblock and balance qi, an acupuncturist inserts needles at strategic points along the meridians and their tributaries. But for western doctors and researchers, this explanation does not rise to the level of objective proof. As a result, “there has been an explosion of study on the bio mechanisms of acupuncture over the last ten years, showing complex, verifiable responses in the brain, nervous system and connective tissue,” says Arya Nielsen, PhD, senior attending acupuncturist in the department of Integrative Medicine at Beth Israelo Medical Center in New York City. One recent review names more than 20 scientifically established benefits of acupuncture, from increasing the effects of painkilling endorphins to boosting immune function to releasing anti-inflammatories (which reduce swelling and help healing).
A list of things acupuncture has known to cure:
Pain, Digestive Issues, Chemo side effects, Hot Flashes, Stress, Anxiety, and Mild Depression. This is just a few on the list. There are much, much more. So have you had the opportunity to explore acupuncture? If so, what did you think Was it beneficial to you? We’d love to hear your comments. Drop us a few lines and share your experience.
In the meantime, here’s blogging at you. Don’t forget to check out our blogs at: http://scottlnkdesign.com
And if you’d enjoy working from home, check out: http://scottlnkdesign.com/EP-Website
See You At The Top!
Scotts Link!
Love Changes 