Abstract
Aama 2017 Symposium Recordings Available
Recordings from the American Academy of Medical Acupuncture (AAMA) 29th Annual Acupuncture Symposium, held in Pittsburgh, PA, April 6–9, 2017, are available at the AAMA website. Synched PowerPoint, audio MP3, and video MP4 recordings are available for purchase. Sessions cover a wide range of topics, from neuropathic pain to healing with light. www.continuingeducationmedia.com/product-page/2017-aama-entire-program
Nice Knee Arthritis Guidelines Questioned
Stephen Birch, PhD, at Kristiania University College in Oslo, Norway, and colleagues, challenge—in an article in The Journal of Alternative and Complementary Medicine—guidelines for the treatment of knee osteoarthritis (OA) by the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE), in the United Kingdom. These guidelines recommend against acupuncture for treating knee OA, saying that the effect size in comparison to sham acupuncture was too small. The international team wrote in the journal about potential biases in NICE's evaluation of the modality. The researchers stated that NICE is holding acupuncture to a higher standard than other treatments. http://online.liebertpub.com/doi/full/10.1089/acm.2016.0385
Randomized Clinical Trial Finds Acupuncture Helps Women Who Have Stress Incontinence
Treatment of women who have stress incontinence with electroacupuncture (EA) in the lumbosacral region reduced urine leakage after 6 weeks, according to a study in the Journal of the American Medical Association. Zhishun Liu, MD, PhD, at Guang'anmen Hospital and the China Academy of Chinese Medical Sciences in Beijing, and colleagues conducted a multicenter randomized clinical trial that enrolled 504 women with stress incontinence and randomized them to verum EA or sham EA. After 6 weeks, the verum EA group experienced a decrease in average urine leakage, compared to the sham acupuncture group. http://jamanetwork.com/journals/jama/fullarticle/2633916?resultClick=1
Swiss Make Complementary Medicine Mandatory Health Services
The Swiss Federal Government now requires specific medical services using complementary medicine, including acupuncture, to be covered by mandatory health insurance. The Swiss Federal Council acknowledges that complementary care meets regulations pertaining to effectiveness and guarantees high quality and safety. Health insurance in Switzerland also will provide everyone with access to complementary medicine. www.echamp.eu/news-and-events/news/complementary-medicine-in-switzerland-now-a-mandatory-health-insurance-service
Acupuncture Relieves Pain in Hospitalized Patients
A randomized, assessor-blinded Australian study led by Marc M. Cohen, MBBS, PhD, at RMIT University in Melbourne, found acupuncture effective for relieving acute pain of patients who present to emergency departments with low-back pain and ankle sprains. The pain relief was comparable to pharmacologic treatment. Cohen and colleagues enrolled 1964 patients at four hospitals and randomized the patients to three groups: (1) acupuncture alone; (2) acupuncture and medications; or (3) medications alone. While reporting in The Medical Journal of Australia that neither acupuncture nor pain medications provided adequate immediate relief, Cohen et al. stated: “Our study has shown acupuncture is a viable alternative, and would be especially beneficial for patients who are unable to take standard pain-relieving drugs because of other medical conditions.” www.mja.com.au/journal/2017/206/11/acupuncture-analgesia-emergency-department-multicentre-randomised-equivalence
Bill Pending to Ensure Veterans' Access to Acupuncture
Rep. Judy Chu (D-CA) has introduced in Congress the Acupuncture for Our Heroes Act (H.R. 2838) and the Acupuncture for Heroes and Seniors Act of 2017 (H.R. 2839). The Heroes Act would require acupuncture services at all Veterans' Affairs facilities. Chu said it is an option for treating pain without the risk associated with opioids. The Heroes and Seniors Act would require access to acupuncture services for military members, their dependents, and veterans receiving care in the Department of Veterans Affairs healthcare system. www.congress.gov/bill/115th-congress/house-bill/2838
Acupuncture Tolerated By Children With Autism
A pilot study involving 10 children with autism spectrum disorder found acupuncture and acupressure were feasible and that parents were able to keep appointments, according to a study led by Lana R. Warren, EdD, OT/L, and reported in The Journal of Alternative and Complementary Medicine. The treatments might have improved the parent–child relationships. The researchers suggested that more research is needed regarding the use of these modalities in this population. http://online.liebertpub.com/doi/pdfplus/10.1089/acm.2016.0257
Dry Needling By New Jersey Physical Therapists Ends
Physical therapists (PTs) in New Jersey must end their use of dry needing by the end of August, after the State Attorney General's office ruled that it was not part of a PT's legal scope of practice. The decision came after a long disagreement between the State Board of Physical Therapy Examiners and the New Jersey Acupuncture Examining Board. As a result of the decision, PTs can no longer accept new dry needing patients and must transition current patients to other care. Jason Sargis, president of the New Jersey Association of Acupuncture & Oriental Medicine praised the decision as being “decisive and unambiguous.” www.njaaom.net/resources/Documents/Dry%20Needling%20opinion%20-%20NJ%20AG%202.9.17.pdf
Acupuncture Effective for Weight Loss
A comparison of sham or verum acupuncture in 72 participants led to a greater reduction in weight for people who received the verum acupuncture. Participants lost 2.47 kg in the verum acupuncture group and 0.54 kg in the sham acupuncture group, according to a study by researchers at the School of Chinese Medicine at Hong Kong Baptist University. Bian Zhaoxing, director of the university's Hong Kong Chinese Medicine Study Center, served as the study's principal investigator. All participants received 16 sessions of acupuncture during an 8-week period. The participants also received auricular acupressure. The researchers said that acupuncture has a stimulating effect and could have stimulated serotonin and beta endorphins to suppress appetite and increase lipolysis activity. http://hkbuenews.hkbu.edu.hk/?t=enews_details/1929
Acupuncture Does Not Reduce Depression After Stroke
A study led by Chung-Yen Lu, MD, PhD, at Da-Yeh University, Changhua, Taiwan, involving more than 16,000 patients hospitalized for stroke found a minimal difference in the incidence of depression at a 4-year follow up in patients who received acupuncture within 3 months of discharge and those who did not. Lu suggested in a MedicalResearch.com interview that additional research is needed to identify whether the needling site, technique, and/or duration of sessions might be factors. http://stroke.ahajournals.org/content/48/6/1682
Clinical Trial to Study Acupuncture for Balance in Patients Who Have Pd
Chao Hsien Hung, MD, at the Chang Bing Show Chang Memorial Hospital in Taiwan, is the principal investigator for a clinical trial to evaluate the effectiveness of scalp acupuncture. This is modern acupuncture technique specialized for neurologic disorders. The study will focus on whether or not scalp acupuncture is helpful for managing motor function and body balance for patients who have Parkinson's disease (PD). This will be a randomized, controlled, single-blinded clinical trial. The researchers plan to enroll 26 patients, ages 50–75, with PD, and complete the study in August 2018. https://clinicaltrials.gov/ct2/show/NCT03178175?cond=acupuncture&draw=1&rank=9
Acupuncture Reduces Chd Risk in Patients Who Have Fibromyalgia
Treatments with acupuncture decreased the risk of coronary heart disease (CHD) in patients in Taiwan who had fibromyalgia. Mei-Yao Wu, at China Medical University Hospital, and colleagues, analyzed data from the Taiwanese National Health Insurance Research Database to assess the relationship between acupuncture and CHD in patients who had fibromyalgia. The researchers matched 58,899 people who received acupuncture with an equal number of patients who were not treated with acupuncture. The researchers reported in Arthritis Research & Therapy that, during the follow-up period, 4389 people in the acupuncture cohort and 8133 people in the control group developed CHD. https://arthritis-research.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/s13075-017-1239-7
Electroacupuncture Induces Neuroprotective Effects
Treatments with electroacupuncture (EA) can produce neuroprotective effects after ischemic stroke, according to a study in Rejuvenation Research. Heng Zhou, at the Military Medical University in Xi'an, China, and colleagues, investigated what role microRNAs play in neuroprotection with EA treatment by analyzing 20 differently expressed rat microRNAs. The scientists concluded that the results suggested “miR‐191a‐5p and NCS‐1 are key regulators in neural cell protection” and that a microRNA-based approach could become an alternative strategy when researching stroke treatment. http://online.liebertpub.com/doi/pdfplus/10.1089/rej.2017.1920
Researchers Explain Why Acupuncture Works
LA BioMed researchers in Los Angeles reported in Evidence-Based Complementary and Alternative Medicine that acupuncture can lead to elevated levels of nitric oxide (NO) in the skin at the acupoints and increase NO, which increases blood flow and releases analgesic substances. Lead author Sheng-Xing Ma, MD, PhD, and colleagues, used a low-force and rate/reinforcement method of acupuncture on 25 men and women. In addition to manipulating the needles with gentle amplitude and moderate speed, the researchers also applied electrical heat for 20 minutes. www.hindawi.com/journals/ecam/2017/4694238/
Texas Sheriff's Office Provides Acupuncture to Employees
The Travis County Sheriff's Office in Austin, TX, will offer acupuncture treatments to its employees in an effort to promote whole-body health. Deputies often experience pain and spend a lot of time sitting in patrol cars. Additionally, law-enforcement officers may deal with internal struggles. The department is partnering with the Texas Health & Science University, also in Austin, for the acupuncture program. Supervised students will provide the free acupuncture treatments once weekly for a year. http://www.fox7austin.com/news/local-news/257867011-story