Heaven & Earth Acupuncture and Wellness » pain relief

How acupuncture is used for stress management

Kyle Smith — Fri, 30 Jul 2010 14:53:52 +0000

The levels of stress in our lives these days is quite high. The body’s response to stress is different for each person. The effects of stress on our bodies has started to be seen by medical professionals, and is the leading cause for high blood pressure. Acupuncture and herbal treatments help regulate the effects of stress on the body, while creating an internal healthy balance. This healthier balance allows us to interact with our environment in happier, healthier manner. IT allows us to engage and work with the situations in our lives that create stress, instead of either running away from them or meeting them head on with opposition.

According to c2clive.com, acupuncture is valuable treatment method to reducing stress and living healthier and happier lives.

As our lives have become more stressful and hectic, medical professionals have begun to see the effects of stress on our health. Stress is a leading cause of high blood pressure, which in turn is a leading cause of heart attack or stroke. But stress can be responsible for other disorders as well.

Most people have a “weak” point in their body that will react first when the person is under stress. For example, it may be that a person gets headaches when they are highly stressed, or perhaps they will experience digestive trouble in stressful situations.Learning to manage stress can be an important tool to improving a person’s overall health and well being. Not only can stress reduction create a positive impact on physical health. It can also help you sleep, communicate better in relationships and even perform better in school or at your job.

Traditional stress management techniques have included things such as visualization, relaxation and meditation exercises. But increasingly, people in Western society are beginning to recognize the value of the Chinese therapy of acupuncture. Acupuncture’s ancient approach to health care offers powerful protection against the damaging affects of stress. Acupuncture is based on the concept of maintaining balance and harmony within the body by facilitating the flow of life energy in it.

Read more @ c2clive.com

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

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Iraqi doctors run out of drugs, start using acupuncture

Kyle Smith — Thu, 29 Jul 2010 15:18:06 +0000

Acupuncture and Chinese medicine have always been an effective, low cost, and non-invasive form of treatment for thousands of years. Sometimes when modern medical treatments aren’t as effective or available, doctors will turn to an alternative such as acupuncture.

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.

Set Up a Free Initial Consultation and Free First Treatment

Heaven & Earth Acupuncture and Wellness

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

(262)391-7824

Migraine Relief through Acupuncture

Kyle Smith — Wed, 28 Jul 2010 20:13:35 +0000

Migraines headaches are very debilitation problem that many people deal with on a regular basis. Migraine sufferers generally can feel them coming and quickly try to get a medication to hopefully head off the pain early. We look at this ailment in Chinese medicine as an internally imbalance that creates this larger pain response n the body. Many patients walk through my door seeking relief from this pain. Acupuncture and herbal therapies are design to get to the source of the ailment and work at removing it creating balance. The migraines usually start to change in two main ways. First, the intensity or pain level starts to subside and secondly the frequency starts to spread out having less episodes than before.

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

Back Pain? Acupuncture therapy helps

Kyle Smith — Mon, 26 Jul 2010 16:41:23 +0000

Back pain afflicts more than 26 million Americans fro the ages of 20-64, according to the American Pain Foundation. It is also one of the biggest reasons that a person goes to visit their doctor. Back pain is usually isn’t just a temporary situation either, it bothers individuals from months if not years. The main traditional recourse is back surgery to relieve the pain.

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.”

Yankees starting pitcher A.J. Burnett credits acupuncture for his health

Kyle Smith — Tue, 15 Jun 2010 15:48:51 +0000

Acupuncturist and individuals that have had acupuncture have said for a long time that this procedure can regenerate and maintain the health of the body. Pro athletes have started using acupuncture as an additional therapy to keep them health. They make their living on their body and what it can do, acupuncture gives an additional edge to keep the body health.

According to nj.com, Burnett has used acupuncture to maintain his health.

In the past year-and-a-half, he has begun a transformation from one of baseball’s most injury-plagued players into one of its most reliable, a drastic change he attributes to his use of acupuncture.

No one area of Burnett’s body is routinely targeted, he said. The number of needles used and where they are placed varies every time he receives treatment.

“I believe in it,” said Burnett, who starts for the Yankees today against the Twins. “There’s no doubt in my mind that I think it’s helped.”

Read more at nj.com

Looking for Acupuncture in Brookfield?

Kyle Smith — Thu, 10 Jun 2010 21:01:24 +0000

Heaven & Earth Acupuncture and Wellness is located at 675 N. Brookfield Road Suite #201 Brookfield, WI. We offer free initial consultation and free first treatment to allow for someone to try acupuncture, meet the practitioner, and see the facility. Give us a call @ 262-391-7824.

Relieving Interstitial Cystitis By Traditional Chinese Medicine

Kyle Smith — Thu, 10 Jun 2010 18:56:55 +0000

Interstitial cystitis can be a very debilitating ailment that force the individual to urinated frequently and cause a great deal of pain. It is usually separated into two main types – Ulcerative and Non-ulcerative depending on the presence of blood in the urine. The is no definitive test in Western medicine, and is usually diagnosed through exclusion of other ailments like STD, UTI, and prostatitis.

According to EmpowHer, Acupuncture and herbal therapies treat and relieve interstitial cystitis.

Interstitial cystitis (IC) is chronic inflammation of the bladder wall. Because it is not caused by bacteria and cannot be treated with antibiotics, traditional Chinese medicine may be a good place to look for relief.Acupuncture strengthens weakened organs. It corrects imbalances, and improves digestion.

Acupuncture with Chinese herbal treatments can encourage increased energy, better bladder control, and can relieve pain in the lower abdomen as well as pain in the pelvic region. Sexual intercourse can cease to be a painful experience.

One diagnosis of interstitial cystitis might be deficiency of stomach and spleen, kidneys, as well as qi and blood. Treating the root cause would be the first choice but when pain is quite severe as in interstitial cystitis, pain relief becomes primary.

Read more at EmpowHer.

Who Says That Acupuncture Doesn’t Work?

Kyle Smith — Fri, 04 Jun 2010 14:05:19 +0000

While your traditional medical doctor may continue to pooh-pooh the capability of acupuncture to relieve your pain, a new study may have finally figured out why many patients feel it really does provide them with pain relief.

Acupuncture is a complementary therapy that requires tiny-pointed needles be stuck into one’s body. It has been used for thousands of years, is considered “eastern medicine” and is often shunned by western, mainstream medicine – the approach most of our American and Canadian doctors use. Bottom line – most medical schools teach their students that (in general) eastern medicine doesn’t “work.” Often, the lack of evidence is given as the reason.

Have you tried acupuncture? Did it relieve your pain?
Yes, I have tried acupuncture and it relieved my pain. Yes, I have tried acupuncture, but I wasn’t sure if it helped me or not.Yes, I have tried acupuncture, but it didn’t relieve my pain.No, I have never tried acupuncture, but I would try it if I needed pain relief.No, I have never tried acupuncture, and I would never try it.
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Short of getting into the argument about why there is no evidence, we’ll instead focus this post on new evidence that now DOES exist — and that is — that patients often do feel relief, and there may be a biochemical (as opposed to a placebo effect) reason why.

That reason, according to University of Rochester researchers, is that the needles trigger the release of a natural painkiller called adenosine in the bodies of mice who were treated with acupuncture. With that painkiller circulating in their bodies, the mice felt less pain. These conclusions would explain why acupuncture may “work” after all. It’s not necessarily about the needles themselves, or even their location.

A reminder that this research was done on MICE – and not humans. We can’t reach conclusions yet about humans. [Like you, I have to wonder how they could tell the mice were in less pain, although I'm sure there's a way researchers believe they can do that.]

But it does remind us that sometimes definitive research results — that evidence that doctors and insurance companies want to rely on to determine what kinds of treatment will be right for us — aren’t really so definitive after all.

The real bottom line for us patients is that we don’t really care what doctors or researchers or insurers call at treatment – western, eastern, mainstream, CAM — what we care about is that it WORKS.

By Trisha Torrey, About.com Guide to Patient Empowerment

Irritable Bowel Syndrome, Abdmonial Pain, Gas, Bloating, Diarrhea, Constipation – Acupuncture & Chinese Medicine Help

Kyle Smith — Mon, 14 Sep 2009 16:36:54 +0000

In a preliminary, randomized, sham/placebo-controlled trial involving 29 men and women with irritable bowel syndrome (IBS), treatment with acupuncture and moxibustion, twice a week for a period of 4 weeks, was found to significantly improve symptoms of abdominal pain/discomfort, intestinal gas, bloating, and stool consistency. Subjects who received real acupuncture and moxibustion therapy were assessed by an acupuncturist according to the principles of Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM), and treated with an individualized acupuncture point prescription. The results of this study are promising, suggesting that acupuncture and moxibustion therapy may be an effective treatment for managing symptoms in patients with IBS.

Acupuncture Can Help Relieve Polycystic Ovary Syndrome

Kyle Smith — Tue, 08 Sep 2009 18:40:51 +0000

FRIDAY, Sept. 4 (HealthDay News) — Acupuncture and exercise may help women better handle the symptoms and risks that come with hormone imbalances caused by certain ovarian cysts, Swedish researchers report.

About one in 10 women of reproductive age have polycystic ovarian syndrome, a condition that can start in the teen years and cause irregular menstrual cycles and infertility. Small immature cysts on the ovaries disrupt hormone production, causing excessive secretion of testosterone, the male sex hormone. In addition to infertility, it can increase a woman’s odds of becoming obese and developing type 2 diabetes or cardiovascular disease, the study authors explained.

While the syndrome’s cause remains mysterious, researchers believe it is linked to a highly active sympathetic nervous system, part of the body’s internal controls that regulate several functions one cannot willingly manage, such as how wide one’s pupils dilate.

In the study, women with polycystic ovarian syndrome were separated into three groups: one group received regular electro-acupuncture, in which weak electric current is sent through the needles; another group was given heart-rate monitors and told to exercise three or more times per week; the last group was given no additional treatment or instructions. After a four-month period, women in the acupuncture and exercise groups ended up with lower sympathetic nervous system activity, though the acupuncture group received additional benefits, the researchers found.

“Those who received acupuncture found that their menstruation became more normal. We could also see that their levels of testosterone became significantly lower, and this is an important observation, since elevated testosterone levels are closely connected with the increased activity in the sympathetic nervous system of women,” study author Elisabet Stener-Victorin, an associate professor who has led the research at the Sahlgrenska Academy at the University of Gothenburg in Sweden, said in a news release issued by the institution.