In 1971, James Reston, a veteran journalist for the New York Times, was invited to China for an operation for acute appendicitis and was in pain in his abdomen. In the same year, Reston published a documentary report that started the acupuncture craze in the United States.
A Canadian woman in her 30s, suffering from the same fibromyalgia as the goddess Kaka, had excruciating pain all over her body.
Opiates are often used to relieve moderate to severe pain, but the side effects are addiction and the risk of respiratory depression. The number of opioid overdose deaths in the United States is serious each year and has been rising sharply each year, with over 42,000 deaths in 2016, for example, a 28% increase from the previous year. The Trump administration in the US is looking to acupuncture as an effective alternative to serious opioid pain medication abuse.
Previously, acupuncture was thought to have a placebo effect for pain relief, but more and more studies are proving that acupuncture has a unique pain relief effect. (Recommended reading: About the effects of acupuncture)
Studies have found that acupuncture stimulates the central and peripheral nerve systems of the brain to release a variety of endogenous endorphins that provide pain relief without addiction or stomach irritation.
A multinational study funded by the US National Institutes of Health (NIH) and published in Archives of Internal Medicine found that acupuncture was more effective than placebo treatment and standard treatment for patients with osteoarthritis, migraine, and chronic back, shoulder and neck pain, and a study by the University of Berlin found that patients with osteoarthritis showed significant improvements in pain and joint function after eight weeks of acupuncture treatment.
Orthopaedic surgeons prescribe acupuncture as the first choice for chronic pain relief
Studies have shown that acupuncture can relieve chronic pain such as headache, lower back pain, carpal tunnel syndrome, and joint pain, which is why the American College of Physicians (ACP) strongly recommends acupuncture as a complementary treatment for lower back pain.
In Chinese medicine, pain is a result of stagnant Qi and blood stasis, and acupuncture can help to activate the blood and remove stasis.
Li Yuchen, Head of the Acupuncture Department at the Chinese Medicine University Hospital, said that acupuncture is currently the most popular treatment for low back pain (20%) and neck pain (9%), accounting for nearly one-third of patients.
In Latin America, acupuncture is most commonly used to treat pain in Brazil. Former President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva used acupuncture to treat frozen shoulder, and it is also used in medical clinics as an alternative to pain medication.
He says that orthopaedic surgeons are increasingly prescribing this type of acupuncture," says Dr Chua Man Man, an attending orthopaedic surgeon and acupuncturist at the São Paulo Medical School Hospital, who has been practising in Brazil for 25 years, and says that chronic pain problems such as frozen shoulder, low back pain, shoulder pain and joint degeneration are common in orthopaedic clinics.
He believes that acupuncture is effective in relieving pain, relieving insomnia and improving quality of life. Tsai explains that as long as the patient sleeps well and is emotionally stable, the pain can often be improved significantly.
In addition to pain relief, improving the side effects of cancer treatment is currently the most important area of acupuncture treatment.
According to the American Cancer Society's (ACS) 2018 Global Cancer Statistics, which evaluated 185 countries, an estimated 18.1 million new cases of cancer are diagnosed worldwide each year. While many cancers have become chronic or have been shown to be effective in prolonging survival, the side effects of drug treatment can be unbearable, such as nausea, vomiting, hair loss and pain, and may even cause patients to discontinue treatment. (Recommended reading: Hard to kick a drug addiction? Pain-free acupuncture can help)
This is where acupuncture can come in handy.
Aromatase inhibitors, for example, are often used in breast cancer treatment to reduce estrogen levels in the body.
But Dawn Hershman, a cancer researcher at Columbia University, recruited 226 women with different types of cancer from 11 cancer centres across the United States and found that acupuncture significantly reduced pain in women with hormonal treatment for breast cancer, which in turn helped patients maintain their treatment and improve their survival rates.
American rock singer Sheryl Crow American rock singer Sheryl Crow, who has successfully beaten breast cancer, also mentioned that she supplemented her treatment with acupuncture and herbal supplements.
Acupuncture is part of the formal medical program offered at most US cancer centres
In the US, according to the CDC, one in three cancer patients use complementary therapies, including yoga, acupuncture, herbal medicine and nutritional supplements. Thus, as early as 1997, the National Institutes of Health (NIH) stated that acupuncture could relieve nausea, vomiting, pain and other side effects of radiation and chemotherapy for cancer, and that it was safe enough to be included in formal medical care. To date, almost all cancer centres in the US have set up complementary therapy centres and offer acupuncture services.
According to Li Yuchen, acupuncture during radiotherapy will not interfere with the treatment, and it can help improve the soreness and numbness of the fingers and toes after radiotherapy.
According to Forbes magazine, financial professionals are prone to emotional instability, fatigue, insomnia, migraine headaches and muscle tension due to the high stress environment they are exposed to.
Research published in the Journal of Integrative Medicine in 2016 found that acupuncture can improve insomnia, help balance the body's hormones and reduce stress, both of which are factors that interfere with sleep.
Hugh MacPherson, a professor of health sciences at the University of York, tested the effectiveness of acupuncture, psychological counselling and antidepressant medication on 755 patients with depression. The results showed that both acupuncture and counselling were effective in reducing the level of depression, and that the effects of treatment lasted for up to 12 months. (Recommended reading: Acupuncture as a complementary treatment to help break out of the valley of depression)
Improves severe emotional distress and is broadly applicable to trauma syndrome
He found that American university students have serious problems with anxiety, depression and inattention. "Don't look at them all day long, but these kids are also under pressure from schoolwork and peers. There are also students who don't want to take medication, so they come to try acupuncture," he said, adding that some university students are receptive to acupuncture.
Because the Chinese medicine clinic is located on campus, it is common to see young blonde students walking around with ear needles attached to their ears.
Acupuncture can even help with more serious emotional disturbances such as trauma syndrome.
In 2016, a magnitude 6 earthquake in Italy killed 300 people and left 30,000 homeless. A study published in the Journal of Medical Acupuncture found that after four 20-minute acupuncture sessions per week for five weeks, earthquake survivors experienced significant improvements in physical and psychological symptoms such as anxiety, restlessness, depression, insomnia, and pain.
There is still not enough empirical research on whether acupuncture can treat infertility, but it is more common for acupuncture to be used in conjunction with infertility treatment. For example, Celine Dion, the pop diva, is a popular singer-songwriter. Celine Dion, for example, used acupuncture to assist with artificial insemination and gave birth to her now 9-year-old twin boys.
According to the American Pregnancy Association, acupuncture and herbs can improve ovarian and follicular function, and acupuncture can also increase blood flow to the endometrium, making it thicker and more conducive to fertilisation and increasing the chances of conception.
Acupuncture is a common treatment for infertility in Canada, with acupuncturists already on site at many major fertility centres and covered by insurance. Acupuncture can increase the rate of conception, which is an incentive for expensive infertility treatments, according to Canadian practitioner Dr. Chung.
Acupuncture can also help to stabilise emotions during pregnancy.
According to the Daily Mail, Princess Meghan has used acupuncture to relieve migraine headaches and to maintain her health and combat anxiety during pregnancy. Natalie Portman also uses acupuncture for pregnancy maintenance, to support her daily exercise routine and to combat pregnancy stress.
In France, midwives and doctors use acupuncture to calm the foetus, help with labour and pain, and facilitate a smooth birth. It was an eye-opening experience," observed Yan Hongrong, Associate Dean of the Faculty of Chinese Medicine at the Chinese University of Medical Sciences, who is a frequent lecturer in Europe. (Recommended reading: Laser acupuncture: a new technology for pain-free acupuncture to relieve chronic pain)
In France, acupuncture has a long history of use, with the first school of acupuncture established in 1950 and, according to European media reports, acupuncture was used in 1988 for pain relief in childbirth and, since 2008, in the obstetrics and gynaecology departments of Paris public hospitals to relieve back pain in pregnant women.
In addition to pregnancy, acupuncture can also be used to relieve menopausal problems such as insomnia and hot flushes, which can sometimes last for three to four years.
In a study published in the British Medical Journal (BMJ open), 70 women experiencing menopausal distress were tested and half of them used acupuncture for 15 minutes a week. Emotional distress, skin and hair problems. Although the sample size is small and the results of the study have yet to be validated, it does provide an alternative for those who are unable to use female hormones to alleviate menopausal conditions.
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