Acupuncture on Oprah

Oprah has done more to promote acupuncture than probably anyone has done.

Electroacupuncture to treat functional dyspepsia

The following comes from the C.A.M Report a web log that advertises itself as Complementary and Alternative Medicine: Fair, Balanced, and to the Point.

It’s only February, but I was wondering today what might be the most significant story in CAM for 2007. Perhaps it will be an increase in credible studies published in well-respected peer reviewed mainstream medicine journals.

Here’s one on effects of electroacupuncture in patients with functional dyspepsia. It was published in Digestive Diseases and Sciences. Follow the link here

Evaluating CAM to treat nausea and vomiting in cancer patients

The Oncology Nursing Society has posted a table that summarizes CAM studies on the treatment of nausea and vomiting in cancer patients. The studies were published between 1988 and 2005.

Here’s a summary of their findings.

* Acupuncture and Acupressure: Likely to be effective
* Guided Imagery, Progressive Muscle Relaxation, Music Therapy: Likely to be effective
* Psychoeducational (support and education): Likely to be effective
* Virtual Reality: Benefits balanced with harms
* Exercise: Effectiveness not established
* Hypnosis: Effectiveness not established
* Massage/Aromatherapy: Effectiveness not established
* Acustimulation (electroacupuncture): Effectiveness not established
* Ginger: Effectiveness not established

Acupuncture The Evidence: Documentary film

This documentary is a good and entertaining examination of acupuncture from a scientific from a skeptics point of view who examines the evidence and walks away impressed.

the programme demonstrated an experiment being conducted by Hugh MacPherson, Senior Research Fellow at the University of York. This mapped the effect of acupuncture on brain structures with both MRI and MEG scanners at the newly opened York Neuroimaging Centre. kathysykes.jpg (2129 bytes) Kathy Sykes the presenter The team found that superficial needling resulted in activation of the motor areas of the cortex, a normal reaction to the sensation of touch. But with deep needling, the brain’s limbic system, which is part of the pain matrix, was deactivated, a result that could not have been predicted from what we know about neural pathways. This line of research suggests that the deactivation of the pain matrix may explain in part the mechanism by which acupuncture has an effect when used to treat chronic pain.

Highlights:

• Open heart surgery with acupuncture and a local anasthetic. The patient is conscious for the whole operation.
  

• Good explanation of an fMRI study of the effect of acupuncture on the brain about 50 minutes into the show.

Cancer Death Rate Drama

From Ralph Moss

In the next few years, as these Baby Boomers enter their senior years, cancer incidence will also tend to increase. In about ten to fifteen years, the Baby Boomers will start to die of the diseases of old age, including, of course, cancer. The impact of such demographics will then be solidly felt on national mortality figures for cancer, as well as other diseases. Thus, unless something changes radically in the sphere of cancer treatment or prevention, we can expect that there will be a steady upturn in the overall cancer death statistics, coinciding with the aging of the Boomer generation, and that this will continue for a decade or longer.

The reality of rising cancer mortality figures in an aging population will hit us hard, and it is something for which our leaders appear unprepared, both intellectually and practically. It is likely to make all the current talk about the decline in cancer mortality, and the conquest of cancer, sound increasingly hollow.

Lewis Black- Red White & Screwed clips

Lewis Black is a great political comedian. Give it a try. You won't be disapointed

Digging into the DNA of Cancer Cells

Talk of the Nation, January 26, 2007 · Research suggests that tweaking a certain gene found in cancer tumors might stop the cancer's growth. Ronald A. DePinho, director of the Center for Applied Cancer Science at the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, talks about that and other new cancer treatments.

Audio is about 20 minutes.

The story here is that over 200 billion has been spent since Nixon proclaimed a war on Cancer. Now, it is starting to pay off.

Stored Calories May Raise Cancer Risk

This post comes from Web MD:

Jan. 2, 2007 -- It's not the calories you eat -- it's the calories you don't burn off that increase cancercancer risk, studies of mice suggest.

HOW EMOTIONS MAY CONTRIBUTE TO CANCER

Chinese Medicine includes what is now called Psychoneuroimmunology - the scientific study of the interaction among emotions the brain, and the immune system. Of course, this is not new news to Chinese Medicine. This is part of the foundation of the medicine. The author of this article Subhuti Dharmananda is a prolific and intelligent writer on Chinese Medicine.

If the contention that emotions contribute to cancer formation is to gain acceptance outside the field of traditional Chinese medical practitioners, finding a biological mechanism of action that could be measured in the short-term would be an important contribution. For example, if during a period of emotional stress there occurs a biochemical or physiological change that is understood to contribute to oncogenesis (cancer formation), then one could reasonably contend that emotions may be causing or working with other factors to cause some cases of cancer...

Cancer Treatment from the Chinese Medicine Perspective

This article comes from a new (and free) online journal Chinese Medicine Times. It is an overview of how the author sees Chinese Medicine as offering help cancer to cancer patients

What can we offer as practitioners of Chinese medicine? This is dependent upon our expertise as practitioners but also on the person who seeks help. For example, some people merely request alleviation of symptoms caused by conventional medical treatment. Other people involve themselves much more in their Chinese medical treatment, look at their diets and take up internal exercises such as tai chi or qi gong. Some completely eschew conventional treatment and seek only support and treatment from holistic medicine, either Chinese medicine or a combination of different therapies. I have observed, over the past 20 years or so in practice, that increasing numbers of people are actively questioning their treatment options and are moving towards holistic methods, either in conjunction with conventional treatment or alone.