According to NaturalNews, Iraqi doctors had small supplies of oxytocin to help women during c-section deliveries during birth which lead them to look for alternatives.

Rattled by years of war and conflict, the capital city of Iraq is seeing a shift in medical protocol, according to a recent study. Because there has been a shortage of certain pharmaceutical drugs in Baghdad throughout the past decade, many doctors there have begun to successfully use acupuncture treatments instead.

The study, published in the British medical journal Acupuncture in Medicine, evaluated 200 different pregnancy cases at the Red Crescent Hospital for Gynecology and Obstetrics in Baghdad between 2004 and 2006 when there was a shortage of oxytocin, a drug used to help women who have just given birth via a c-section. The drug is typically administered to help cause the womb to retract and to help prevent excessive bleeding.

However because of the shortage, doctors began to look for alternative treatments that would help spare the drug. Remarkably, doctors found that acupuncture treatments worked beautifully on patients and greatly reduced, or even eliminated, the need to use oxytocin.

“Oxytocin…proved largely unnecessary in my series (of patients), apparently through the action of acupuncture,” explained Lazgeen Zcherky, anesthetist and author of the study, in a report.

The Baghdad study revealed that 45 percent of the women who received acupuncture after their c-sections had no need for any oxytocin. Thirty percent needed some, but did not need a full dose. None of the women required a full dose.

Acupuncture is a traditional form of Chinese medicine that involves inserting small needles into pressure points on the body in order to reroute body energy. As strange as it sounds, it actually works very well for many people and is now being utilized all over the world.

The beauty of acupuncture is that is does not carry with it harmful side effects like pharmaceutical drugs do. And whatever provides benefit without causing harm is preferable to conventional treatments that carry with them significant risks.

Read more @ NaturalNews.

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Recently, an article was posted at theFrisky about a persons firsthand experiences with using acupuncture and herbal therapy to treat migraine headaches.

Though admittedly a bit freaked about needles voluntarily being jammed into my body, I was also pretty desperate. I also had no idea just how healing acupuncture would be. Working with an attentive, sensitive acupuncturist and herbalist, I began a course of treatment, combining herbal remedies and twice-weekly acupuncture that took only several months to have a profound effect. As my healer Jaimie often told me, “There is life after migraines.” No one had ever said something so obvious yet so empowering to me before. Within six months, I no longer needed to visit her regularly. Within a year, I had a needle treatment once a month, right before my period, to keep most of my symptoms at bay; I was otherwise mostly migraine-free.

Read more @ theFrisky.

Free Initial Consultation and Free First Treatment

Heaven & Earth Acupuncture and Wellness

675  N. Brookfield Road Suite #201, Brookfield Wisconsin 53045

(262)391-7824

According to CNN,

In reality about 85 percent of people don’t need — and won’t benefit from — back surgery, says Dr. Anders Cohen, M.D., chief of neurosurgery at the Brooklyn Hospital Center, in New York City.

One of the first and most effective resources for people with chronic back pain is acupuncture. “We’ve had great success with acupuncture. It’s great for someone who gets pain that’s situated in the back or neck and is not radiating down the arms and legs so much,” says Cohen, who is a retired tennis pro. “I’ve had it myself, gotten up, and felt 75 percent better.”

Read more @ CNN

Back pain is the UK’s leading cause of disability and one of the main reasons for work-related sickness absence. The NICE guidelines mean that patients with persistent low back pain can now receive free acupuncture treatments on the NHS.

Most people will suffer from low back pain at some time in their lives. It can be caused by minor injuries such as muscle strains and sprains, pregnancy, infection, stress and poor sleep. NHS funded research shows that acupuncture is one of the safest and most cost-effective treatments for chronic low back pain. By inserting fine needles into different parts of the body, acupuncture may provide long term pain relief, reduce inflammation and improve muscle stiffness.

Sean Barkes acupuncturist and British Acupuncture Council member said: “Back pain is one of the most common complaints I see patients about. With traditional acupuncture we look at the root of the condition as well as the symptoms in order to try and promote longer term health and wellbeing. So it’s important to recognise that each patient is different and cases of back pain should be viewed in the context of the overall health of the individual”.

“Traditional acupuncture has been used for over 2,000 years and British Acupuncture Council members have for many years been successfully treating patients for back pain either in private practice or working within the NHS. The NICE guidelines are a rubber stamp of the positive work already being undertaken as well as an endorsement of the wealth of research evidence now available in this area”.

Doctor Mekala Mahalingam from the Branston and Heighington Family Practice regularly sees patients with recurring back pain. She said: “Historically as acupuncture has not readily been available on the NHS, we have referred patients to private clinics for acupuncture. It is very useful to have an alternative therapy to refer patients to when they do not respond to other treatments and those sufferers who have received acupuncture, have often improved. The NICE guidance will only improve treatment for patients and therefore the more schemes that are introduced in practices, the better for sufferers”.

It is essential for patients to choose an acupuncturist who is registered with a professional body. British Acupuncture Council members have extensive training in acupuncture and bio medical sciences appropriate to the practice of acupuncture in the UK. They are bound by strict codes of ethics and safe practice.

Posted Wednesday, November 18th, 2009 by Sue Bartucca

Alternative medicine includes treatments such as massage therapy, chiropractic visits, acupuncture and is gaining in popularity.

In many cases for example, people with backpain swear by a trip to the acupuncturist over taking standard drugs to ease their pain, not to mention the health benefits that come along with the treatment.

According to the government performed study, Americans are spending more money on alternative therapies than ever before.

In 2007, Americans spent a whopping 34 billion dollars on alternative therapy, and with more believing in the treatments everyday, this number will only increase.

“We are talking about a very wide range of health practices that range from promising and sensible to potentially harmful,” said Dr. Josephine Briggs, director of the National Center for Complementary and Alternative Medicine.

This trial, led by Daniel Gherkin, Ph.D., of Group Health Center for Health Studies in Seattle, was funded by the National Center for Complementary and Alternative Medicine (NCCAM), a component of the National Institutes of Health.

“Because of the lack of highly effective medical treatments for chronic low back pain, we were pleased to find that acupuncture-like treatments were helpful for persons suffering from chronic back pain,” said Dr. Gherkin.

This trial enrolled 638 adults with chronic low back pain who had never had acupuncture and who had rated the “bothersomeness” of their pain as at least a 3 on a 0-to-10 scale.

The participants were randomly assigned to one of four groups: individualized acupuncture, involving a customized prescription for acupuncture points from a diagnostician; standardized acupuncture, using a single prescription for acupuncture points that experts consider generally effective for chronic low back pain; simulated acupuncture, which mimics needle acupuncture but does not involve actual penetration of the skin; or usual care, which is standard medical care.

The patients assigned to any of the three acupuncture groups (individualized, standardized, or simulated) were treated twice weekly for three weeks, and then weekly for four weeks. At 8, 26, and 52 weeks, researchers measured back-related dysfunction and how much symptoms bothered participants.

The researchers found that at eight weeks the individualized, standardized, and simulated acupuncture groups all improved their dysfunction scores significantly more than the group receiving usual care. These benefits persisted for one year, though diminished over time. However, there was no significant difference between the groups receiving the needle and simulated forms of acupuncture.

Thus, while acupuncture was found effective in treating low back pain, neither tailoring acupuncture needle sites to an individual patient nor penetrating the skin appears to be important for receiving therapeutic benefit.

“The findings of this research show that acupuncture-like treatments, including simulated growing body of evidence that there is something meaningful taking place during acupuncture treatments outside of actual needling. Future research is needed to delve deeper into what is evoking these responses.”

The researchers believe that further research is needed to determine the roles of patient expectancy, practitioner reassurance and the physiological effects of non-insertive stimulation and other effects that may contribute to acupuncture-like benefits.
 

Reference

Gherkin DC, Sherman KJ, Avins AL, et al. A Randomized Trial Comparing Acupuncture, Simulated Acupuncture, and Usual Care for Chronic Low Back Pain. Archives of Internal Medicine. 2009;169[9]:858–866.