Benefits of Acupuncture
According to The World Health Organization
acupuncture can treat 104
different conditions, including migraines, sinusitis, the common
cold, tonsillitis, asthma, inflammation
of the eyes, addictions, myopia, duodenal
ulcer (damaged mucous membrane in a portion of the
small intestine) and other gastrointestinal disorders, trigeminal
neuralgia (a severe facial pain), Meniere's disease (ringing in the
ears coupled with dizziness), tennis elbow, paralysis from stroke,
speech aphasia (loss of language abilities due to brain damage),
sciatica, and osteoarthritis.
Acupuncture is also effective in the treatment of
a variety of rheumatoid conditions, and brings relief in 80 percent
of those who suffer from arthrosis. Acupuncture is also valuable in
the treatment of environmentally-induced illnesses due to radiation,
pesticide poisoning,
environmentally toxic compounds, and air pollution.
Maoshing Ni, D.O.M., Ph.D., L.Ac.,
Vice-President of Yo San University of Traditional Chinese Medicine
in Santa Monica, California, treats many conditions with acupuncture,
and reports, that even in acute
abdominal problems, acupuncture can be used before surgery to hold
up the condition before it progresses further. Dr. Ni also treats
hormonal imbalances that lead to menstrual- and menopause-related
problems, and he helps many people with depression, anxiety, and
schizophrenia without having to resort to psychiatric drugs.
Sir Jay Holder, M.D., D.C., Ph.D., Director of
the Holder Research Institute in Miami, Florida, states that there
are thousands of conditions that acupuncture is
appropriate to treat. He recalls children in the emergency room on
the verge of asthmatic asphyxiation being relieved in less than
thirty seconds only with the use of acupuncture. Dr. Holder
believes that acupuncture should be considered an essential life
support measure for emergency room medicine.
Pain
As acupuncture appears to stimulate the release of
endorphins
and enkephalins, the body's natural pain-killing chemicals, it has proven to be a very successful
treatment for pain relief.
David Eisenberg, M.D., Clinical Research Fellow at Harvard Medical
School states that acupuncture
influences the production and distribution of a great many neurotransmitters
(substances that transmit nerve impulses to the brain) and
neuromodulators (substances produced by neurons which affect
neurotransmitters), and that this in turn changes the perception of
pain.
In 1983, the medical journal Pain reviewed a number of
studies that provide further evidence of acupuncture's importance as
an alternative to conventional analgesic
(pain-relieving) medication.
In one study of over 20,000 patients at the University of California
at Los Angeles, acupuncture lessened both the frequency and severity
of muscle tension headaches and migraines.
Another study, involving 204 patients suffering from chronic
painful conditions, resulted in 74 percent experiencing significant
pain relief for over three months after acupuncture treatment. Other studies show that younger patients are particularly helped by
acupuncture for the treatment of various types of pain.
Addiction
In 1989, the British medical journal The Lancet documented a
study noting that when acupuncture was added to the treatment
program of chronic
alcoholics, it significantly increased the percentage of those who
completed the program. Moreover, it reduced their need for
alcohol, with fewer relapses and readmissions to a detoxification
center.
In another study conducted at the Lincoln
Substance Abuse/ Acupuncture Clinic in New York City, sixty-eight
pregnant women addicted to crack or cocaine took part in a
program in which they received acupuncture treatments in conjunction
with a detoxification regimen, counseling, and daily urinalysis
tests. Those who attended the program for ten visits or more showed
meaningfuly higher child birth weights than those who attended
less than ten times.
Other studies have documented the effectiveness
of acupuncture in the treatment of opium and heroin addictions, with
a 100 percent success rate in lessening the symptoms of withdrawal. Dr. Ni
says, that acupuncture also claims good success rates with cigarette
addiction, where a newly discovered acupoint called Tien Mi
is used in conjunction with other traditional acupoints,
particularly those located on the ear.
Dr. Holder, the founder and director
of Exodus, a residential treatment hospital for addicts in Miami,
Florida, has had success in the research and treatment of addictions
relating to work, sex, gambling, food disorders, as well as
substance abuse (chemical dependency), and has developed a form of
auriculotherapy (ear acupuncture) for addiction treatment.
According to Dr. Holder, every addiction
corresponds to a different set of ear acupoints. Every drug of
choice has a receptor site mechanism that is very specific. What we
do is meet the needs of that receptor site by supplying and
directing the endorphins
or enkephalins through acupuncture. Using auriculotherapy, Dr.
Holder reports success rates of over 80 percent for nicotine,
alcohol, cocaine, heroin, and other mood-altering substances among
addicts. Dr. Holder was awarded the
Albert Schweitzer prize in medicine for his work.
Today, there are approximately three hundred
acupuncture-based substance abuse programs in the United States. In
Portland, Oregon, four new acupuncture programs will address chronic
mental illness, patients diagnosed with more than one chronic
disease, and AIDS. The Rossano Clinic in Flint, Michigan, has
recently begun a program at the Wayne County jail in Detroit,
Michigan. Because of the success of these programs, many state
judiciary systems and legislators have encouraged their development.
According to the National Acupuncture Detoxification
Association:
The United States House of Representatives and the Senate
Appropriations Committee reported that the use of acupuncture for
substance abuse recovery is profitable and should be more
widely used.
Several methadone programs in New York City noted that using
acupuncture as a part of their treatment program resulted in major
reductions in client tension and increased compliance with the
program.
In treatment programs begun in the state of Washington,
acupuncture participation correlated with reduced drug use (as
much as 50 percent compared with patients who did not use
acupuncture).
Women incarcerated in the Santa Barbara, California, county jail
who received thirty-two or more acupuncture treatments while in
custody had an overall reincarceration rate 26 percent lower than
the control group that received no acupuncture. Those who received
less than thirty-two treatments had a 17 percent lower rate of
incarceration during the first four months after release from
jail.
Acupuncture detoxification programs have been established
in many countries, including Canada, Mexico, Great
Britain, Sweden, Germany, Hungary, Romania, Spain, Saudi Arabia,
and Trinidad.
Mental Disorders
Tom Atwood,
M.S.W., Director of Mental Health Care Management at Heart of
Texas Region Mental Health Mental Retardation Center in Waco (
Texas) conducted a six-month study, and found out that sixteen patients in a residential care home received
auriculotherapy for a variety of conditions including paranoid
schizophrenia and borderline personality disorders.
Hospitalization stays dropped from twenty-seven to eight days
following the initiation of acupuncture, compared to records of
the previous year. Hypertensive patients experienced reduced blood
pressure, and patients generally reported sleeping better. In
addition, they became more efficient.
According to Atwood, other responses were:
-Less agitation and calmer behavior
-Improved clarity of thought
-Reduced aggression
-Improved social interaction
-Improvement in facial complexion
Atwood notes that, patients who
were normally the most resistant, and the most likely to be
readmitted for hospitalization, were also more willing to have
acupuncture as opposed to other treatments offered at our center.
Professor Pierre Huard of the Medical Faculty
of Paris states that acupuncture is equivalent to the effect
of tranquilizers in cases of depression, worry, insomnia, and
nervous disorders, and its action is quick and lasting.
AIDS
Of course, acupuncture does not cure AIDS, it is
often used with Chinese herbs to improve a patient's immune
function and to reduce uncomfortable or dangerous symptoms,
including night sweats, fatigue, and digestive disturbances.
At an international conference held by the
European associations for acupuncture detoxification, Dr. Wu Bo
Ping of China reported on his work in Tanzania where he treated
160 AIDS patients with Chinese herbology. As a result, seven of the patients
converted from HIV (human immunodeficiency virus) positive to HIV
negative.
Along with his colleague, Harvey Grossbard,
O.M.D., D.Hom., Dr. Holder has used acupuncture to meaningly extend the life span and improve the quality of life in AIDS
patients. Dr. Grossbard foretells that the final result of research
in this area will be statistically significant and will establish
acupuncture as beneficial in the treatment of HIV and AIDS
patients. Drs. Holder and Grossbard describe the case of a man
with AIDS, who was suffering from Kaposi's sarcoma, whose T-cell
count returned to normal within three months of treatment with
acupuncture and Chinese herbs. Additionally, the patient's lesions
disappeared.
Dr. Ni also recalls a research being conducted
with HIV patients at the Kuan Yin Clinic in San Francisco,
California, where preliminary studies show acupuncture to be
beneficial in increasing immune function, white blood cell
production, and T-cell production, as well as lessening many of
the symptoms relating to HIV infection and AIDS.
Dr. Cargile has worked with AIDS patients for
many years, and has increased T-cell counts from 210 to 270 with
just three acupuncture treatments. He remembered, that one of that
patients had a T-cell count of 30 to 40. Thay eventually brought it up to 270, and although that is half the
level a person needs, he's been doing great for the last six
months. He adds that the key to understanding acupuncture's
influence on blood values and cell counts lies in its ability to
minimize stress and strengthen the body's adaptive mechanisms. Dr.
Cargile thinks that if they had more acupuncture and less AZT [an
AIDS medication], they would see a qualitative improvement in the patients' health.
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