Premature Ejaculation Responds to Acupuncture and Chinese Medicine

According to a recent study reported on in Renal and Urology News, acupuncture can be very useful in treating premature ejactulation in men. The study compared the drug paroxetine with acupuncture treatment and found that both were effective. 

Of course, from the perspective of our patients, the acupuncture intervention would likely be preferable as it doesn't have side effects and is not used indefinitely, in the manner of paroxetine.

Another study, published in European Urology and readable here, finds:

Results from a high-quality Turkish study suggest that acupuncture is an effective non-pharmacological method for treating premature ejaculation (PE). Ninety patients with PE were randomly assigned to either acupuncture or sham acupuncture (twice per week) or standard medication (paroxetine 20mg/d), for four weeks. For verum acupuncture, needles were inserted bilaterally at four acupuncture points, Zusanli ST-36, Hegu L.I.-4, Taixi KID-3 and Taichong LIV-3, and at Yintang M-HN-3 and Zhongji REN-3, and were left for 20 minutes after deqi was obtained.  Intravaginal ejaculation latency times (IELTs) were increased after treatment by 82.7, 65.7 and 33.1 seconds for paroxetine, acupuncture and sham acupuncture respectively. Premature Ejaculation Diagnostic Tool scores of paroxetine, acupuncture and sham acupuncture groups were 17.0, 16.0 and 15.5 before treatment and 10.5, 11.0 and 16.0 after treatment. 

Acupuncture Useful for Restoring Sense of Smell

The prestigious journal, Journal of Otolaryngology – Head and Neck Surgery, published a study which deemed acupuncture to be very helpful in restoring a sense of smell which had been lost to viral infections. This certainly meshes with our experience. Acupuncturists see patients who have, not only lost a sense of smell from viral infections, but also trauma, stroke and other types of infections. It is, indeed a very helpful modality for such problems.

Using Acupuncture and Chinese Medicine to Facilitate Weight Loss

Adipose cell as seen through a microscope

Acupuncturists throughout the world, though particularly in the West, are frequently asked whether we can be useful in helping our patients lose excess weight. Herein lies my attempt to answer this question in a fairly definitive way using my own experience in the clinic, as well as research which has been done in this area.

The individualized methods of diagnosis and treatment in Chinese medicine can be very helpful in encouraging the body to lose weight, particularly when combined with the client's own lifestyle changes of increased exercise and decreased caloric intake. In this sense we can act as a catalyst for the body's internal mechanism for restoring metabolic balance. While no substitute for exercise and a proper diet, Chinese medicine can dramatically assist those methods to help a patient realize their goals.

Research and Links

• A systematic review of more than 2,500 scientific studies on Chinese medicine (acupuncture and Chinese herbal formula) and weight loss came up with this consensus:

CHM [Chinese Herbal Medicine] and acupuncture were more effective than placebo or lifestyle modification in reducing body weight. They had a similar efficacy as the Western anti-obesity drugs but with fewer reported adverse effects.

• Acupuncture Today has a useful synopsis of the way in which acupuncturists conceptualize, diagnose and manage weight issues. It concludes,

There continues to be many different studies that have shown the efficacy of acupuncture and Chinese medicine for the use of weight loss. Although there are many studies, there still is a need for more research on obesity in the United States using acupuncture and Chinese medicine. Acupuncture and Chinese medicine provide an alternative treatment to help control weight problems. Besides acupuncture and herbal medicine, individuals must also exercise and practice correct dietary guidelines. Acupuncture and herbal medicine combined with exercise and food therapy can greatly enhance the treatment of obesity and help individuals mange their weight. Acupuncture and Chinese medicine is an effective treatment for overweight and obesity.

• Authors Yi Xiong et al., in the journal Si Chuan Zhong Yi (Sichuan CM), published a multi-year literature review on the acupuncture treatment of simple obesity. The article cites 16 Chinese articles published from 2004-2008 in which the consensus was that acupuncture can be very effective for weight loss.

• An interesting study, reprinted in Acupuncture Today shows a substantial difference between women treated with acupuncture and those who used standard weight loss methods in pounds lost.]
• Recently a Turkish study compared women receiving twice weekly acupuncture treatments for weight loss with a control group treated with sham (fake) acupuncture points (Readable here). The researchers found that,

Acupuncture was shown to decrease insulin and leptin levels and induce weight loss, as well as decreasing BMI. Between-group analyses also demonstrated increases in plasma ghrelin and cholecystokinin (CCK) levels in subjects who received acupuncture treatment compared with sham acupuncture.

Treating Insomnia with Chinese Medicine

I often begin blog entries by defining a disease or condition. With
insomnia, however this is almost not necessary as almost every one has
experienced sleeplessness at one time or another. What make insomnia an issue that people will seek an acupuncturist for is chronicity. The fact that it happens frequently, or even every night.

For some clients, insomnia is their sole concern and what drives them to seek us out. Others experience problems sleeping due to other problems, such as menopausal hot flashes (article to come), pain, digestive issues or anxiety (article to be written). In essence, then insomnia is perceived to arise as a result of some sort of physical discomfort, mental stress or anxiety or - far too frequently -without any sort of trigger - the person simply can’t sleep or finds themselves awakening with no clear trigger.

Chinese medicine is extremely effective in managing insomnia from most causes and can restore normal sleep in the vast majority of cases.

Chinese Medical Approach to Insomnia

As with most health issues, an acupuncturist will approach insomnia by evaluating the whole individual. Questions, which may not appear to have immediate bearings on sleep, will help us to determine which pattern of insomnia the individual is living with. By pattern, Chinese medicine is describing a complex of energetic and functional relationships between body systems which, when taken together, create the symptom or disease the individual possesses. Looking up insomnia in a textbook of Chinese medicine one would see described many patterns, each with a different method for treatment. Proper pattern differentiation will lead to effective results. A well trained and experienced acupuncturist will be able to deduce the appropriate protocol based on how the patient presents to us.

If a pattern is treated successfully the patient will gradually find themselves sleeping longer, deeper and more restfully. An added advantage of such a strategy is that once the problem has been successfully resolved and the course of treatment completed, it is rare for an individual to need further treatment for that particular issue.

Research on Insomnia:

• The Chinese Medical Journal studied one particular technique which might be used by an acupuncturist, electro-acupuncture, and its effect upon sleep quality. The study found that this technique was very effective in the majority of patients and also cited an increase in daytime functioning among this cohort. While most acupuncturists would not use this technique as a first resort - simply because other methods are so useful - it would be considered with unusual or recalcitrant cases.

• The Journal of Alternative and Complementary Medicine published a meta-analysis of 43 studies of acupuncture in the treatment of insomnia. A meta-analysis is a statistical means of analyzing multiple research reports and looking a what the cumulative thrust of them is. This meta analysis showed a dramatic trend toward alleviating insomnia in the large majority of studies.
• A Chinese medical journal, Zhongguo Zhen Jiu citing a university teaching hospital's research, looked at the effect of treating one particular pattern of insomnia. It looked at both outcomes (sleeping through the night) as well as changes in blood flow to the brain. The study found that not only did people suffering from this particular type of insomnia improve with acupuncture, but that there was a corresponding increase in blood flow to the parts of the brain which regulate sleep.

• The medical journal, Sleep Medicine Review performed an meta-analysis of 30 studies on acupuncture and insomnia and cautiously concluded that while there was a substantial positive response to acupuncture treatment of sleep disorders (93% of the participants in these studies manifested positive results) more study would be beneficial.

• The psychiatric monthly, The Journal of Neuropsychiatry and Clinical Neurosciences performed a study on anxiety and insomnia. It concluded that not only was sleeplessness dramatically improved by acupuncture treatment, but that several neurochemical markers which are correlated to a good nights sleep were positively altered by this therapy.

• A study of 55 patients with ADHD and insomnia by Wanzhu Hou, Guangpi Xu, James C. Butler and Hanjie Wang, demonstrated 'exceptional' results with these patients.

• A  page with a survey of current Chinese medical research on insomnia can be found here. Though couched in the jargon of Chinese medicine, it can give one a sense of what type of research is being done in Asia in an attempt to merge Chinese medicine with modern research techniques.

• A Japanese study on acupuncture on an animal model, readable here, concluded that,

acupuncture benefits sleep. A controlled trial conducted on pigs measured sleep outcomes when the subjects received acupuncture at acupoints GV20 and Dafengmen (an acupoint anatomically similar to human GV20, Baihui). Results were measured using an actigraph (Octagonal Basic Motionlogger) and by measuring catecholamine counts in the urine after the application of acupuncture. Pigs receiving acupuncture at Dafengmen for 20 minutes at a depth of 10-20mm showed significant values on the actigraph and urine analysis showed significant changes in the catecholamine count. 

Asthma and Chinese Medicine

At the Northside Holistic Center we see many respiratory problems, ranging from acute diseases like colds, flus and bronchitises to more chronic issues like asthma. Bronchial asthma effects more than 17 million people in the USA and, by some estimates, 7.7% of the population. Over the last half a century, rates of asthma have been dramatically escalating with the Center for Disease control reporting that the rates had increased by 75% between 1980 and 1994.Consequently we are seeing many more cases in the clinic.

Satisfyingly, Chinese medicine can be quite effective in mitigating asthma for our patients and most clients find themselves to very satisfied with this holistic and long lasting approach. Asthma, like most conditions in the Chinese medical view of the body must be differentiated into what we term patterns. Patterns are constellations of symptoms and physical propensities which, when considered as a whole, give a trained practitioner insight into how to treat both the condition and the root of the problem simultaneously. It is what gives Chinese medicine it's considerable power in treating chronic issues, such as asthma.

Research Links on Chinese Medicine, Acupuncture and Asthma:

• A German study on in-patient pediatric patients found significant benefit to adding acupuncture to western interventions. (an article about the study can be read here):

The addition of acupuncture to an inpatient asthma rehabilitation programme results in improvement in bronchial hyper-reactivity and reduced anxiety for paediatric patients.

In the post-treatment acupuncture group, peak expiratory flow variability (a measure of bronchial hyper-reactivity) was found to show significant improvement compared with that of control patients. In addition, the acupuncture group was found to show significantly reduced levels of perceived anxiety on discharge from hospital.

• This article comes from a Chinese journal on pulmonary research and is titled, Effects of Acupuncture on Clinical Symptoms and  Pulmonary Function in Patients with Bronchial Asthma.  The study looks at 104 people suffering from asthma and being treated by acupuncture using a specific protocol with constitutional modifications. It concludes that acupuncture can be very useful in treating asthma, with a good immediate outcome. However the researchers also followed the study cohort for six months afterwards and was able to determine that even after treatment had ended the patients were dramatically less likely to suffer asthma attacks and used far less medication then those who had not been treated by an acupuncturist.

• A research study from a hospital in China, following 100 patient admissions showed a dramatic effect using acupuncture to treat an acute asthma attack. While we in the USA rarely treat this situation because patients' usually already have inhalers and access to the emergency room, it is exciting to see research supporting the contention that acupuncture can be useful to treat all stages of bronchial asthma.

• A 2006 study from the China Academy of Chinese Medical Sciences in Beijing is very interesting, despite being rife with the specific terminology of Chinese medicine. In essence it demonstrates a strong response to acupuncture revealed by an dramatic increase in pulmonary function and significant decrease in heart rate variability during an acute asthma attack.

• A small pilot study in the Journal of the Chinese Medical Association showed immediate bronchiodilating effect and improvement in pulmonary function in those suffering from asthma.

• This article is more of a biomedical discussion of how some of the acupuncture points that we might choose to treat asthma may work, from a western perspective. Still very interesting.