USA Today Article on Fertility and Acupuncture

USA Today published a very positive article on acupuncture's use for fertility, something that we work with on a daily basis at the Northside Holistic Center. The majority of the article is reprinted below. Other links on infertility and Chinese medicine can be found here, here and here.

Infertile women sing acupuncture's praises

by Claudia Pinto

Brooke Akin underwent three rounds of artificial insemination at $3,000 a pop. She took fertility drugs that made her feel moody. Yet, after three and a half years of trying, she still wasn't pregnant.

A stainless steel acupuncture needle is so fine it does not stimulate pain reflexes on the nerve endings where it's applied.

Akin, 29, of Hermitage, Tenn., says her doctor recommended that she undergo in vitro fertilization (IVF), which costs roughly $15,000. But after some initial skepticism, Akin decided to put modern medicine aside and try the ancient practice of acupuncture.

"I was pregnant by the third month. It was awesome," says Akin, who gave birth to her son, Hudson, in October. "He's my little acupuncture baby."

It's estimated that 10 percent of all women are unable to become pregnant after trying for a year. It's a problem of special interest to the growing number of women who have waited until their late 30s and early 40s to have children.

Spurred, in part, by reports of celebrities such as Mariah Carey, Celine Dion and Khloe Kardashian trying it, more and more of these women are turning to acupuncture -- the practice of inserting thin needles into the skin to relieve pain or promote healing -- to address fertility issues.

Some women turn to acupuncture after not being able to conceive naturally. Others do it in conjunction with IVF or other medical treatments. Or as a last-ditch effort after trying everything modern medicine has to offer.

Science is untested

While these anecdotal stories sound promising, Dr. Esther Eisenberg, professor of obstetrics and gynecology at Vanderbilt University Medical Center, says there hasn't been a large comprehensive study looking at whether acupuncture really helps women become pregnant.

"We don't know the answer," she says.

Eisenberg says she's more likely to recommend that women do things that have been proven to increase the likelihood of pregnancy, such as exercising regularly, maintaining a healthy body weight, and staying away from cigarettes.

She did note that women who want to try acupuncture should rest assured that it isn't going to hurt them in any way.

Akin says the relatively low cost of acupuncture compared to IVF is actually one of the reasons she decided to try it. Costs typically range from $60 to $120 per treatment. Akin underwent weekly treatments for three months before getting pregnant.

"IVF is so invasive and so costly," Akin says. "I just wasn't ready for it."

An ancient practice

Akin was surprised that she looked forward to getting pricked every week.

Initially, she worried it would hurt, but she says the needles are so thin that she could barely feel it when 15 or so were inserted in her head, stomach, arms and legs. With the soft music and dim lighting, Akin says she found the experience to be pretty relaxing.

"It's kind of like being in a spa," Akin says, adding that afterward she felt a lot healthier than she did taking fertility drugs.

Polycystic ovarian syndrome is the leading cause of infertility. And according to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, most cases of female infertility are caused by problems with ovulation, which is typically marked by irregular or absent periods.

Acupuncturist Mark Shprintz, owner of Nashville Healing Arts, explains that acupuncture is thought to improve the blood supply to the ovaries, which may improve their quality and function. Shprintz says acupuncture has been used to treat such fertility problems for more than 2,000 years. It's nothing new, he says.

"When people hear about the Khloes and the Mariahs, it sparks an interest," he says.

Hot Flashes: Two New Studies Show Benefit of Acupuncture

{This is on top of scores of other studies which reveal the same thing}. Here is the reprint:

Two New Studies Show Acupuncture Relieves Hot Flashes

Women suffering from hot flashes associated with menopause may have another alternative to hormone replacement therapy, according to two new studies showing that treatment with acupuncture significantly reduces the severity and frequency of hot flashes and other symptoms of menopause.

I knew I didn't want to take hormone therapy, but hot flashes and night sweats were waking me up almost every night, and I was finding it really hard to function during the day.

Women suffering from hot flashes associated with menopause may have another alternative to hormone replacement therapy, according to two new studies showing that treatment with acupuncture significantly reduces the severity and frequency of hot flashes and other symptoms of menopause.

Leslie, a busy business woman, found her hot flashes and sleep deprivation debilitating until she finally tried acupuncture with Emilie Salomons (Dr. TCM, FABORM) at Acubalance Wellness Centre in Vancouver. She explains, "I knew I didn't want to take hormone therapy, but hot flashes and night sweats were waking me up almost every night, and I was finding it really hard to function during the day."

"After my treatment with acupuncture I started feeling better, and after a few weeks of acupuncture treatments and Chinese herbal therapy, I noticed major relief. The number of hot flashes decreased dramatically, and I was actually sleeping through the night!"

One study, conducted by the Ankara Training and Research Hospital in Ankara, Turkey, confirms Leslie's positive experience with acupuncture. It included 53 postmenopausal women. Twenty-seven of the women received traditional Chinese acupuncture for 20 minutes, twice a week for 10 weeks. The rest thought they were given acupuncture treatment, but the needles didn't actually penetrate their skin. The women who received real acupuncture showed significant drops in the severity of their hot flashes.

The result of another study, presented by the National Research Center in Alternative and Complementary Medicine, University of Tromsø, Norway, at the March 2011 Acupuncture Research Resource Centre Symposium in London, "... showed significant reduction in the severity and frequency of hot flushes in postmenopausal women undergoing a 12 week course of acupuncture."

Researchers are still trying to understand how this 2000-year-old treatment affects menopausal symptoms. According to Acubalance clinical director Lorne Brown (Dr. TCM, FABORM), "Studies have shown that acupuncture appears to bring hormones into balance and reduce anxiety through a process called homeostatic regulation: buffering hormonal disturbance and stimulating feel-good endorphins."

Dr. Jerilynn Prior, UBC professor of endocrinology, author and world expert on women's hormones, states: "This research supports a large body of anecdotal evidence that acupuncture can safely relieve hot flushes and night sweats--it may 'work' by decreasing the stress responses that we know make hot flushes worse."

For Leslie, acupuncture has allowed her to resume her life. "Not only am I getting relief from hot flashes and the overwhelming fatigue and exhaustion, but I'm so glad to have the option of a safe, effective treatment for my menopause symptoms that actually improves my overall health!"

Salomons explains that "At Acubalance we usually combine acupuncture with Chinese herbal therapy and lifestyle changes like diet and exercise for the best outcome."

Terje Alraek of the University of Tromsø says in a press statement: "After menopause, 10% - 20% of all women have nearly intolerable hot flushes. The promising results of the Acuflash study suggest that acupuncture can help."

Relieving menopausal symptoms is the latest use of the 2,000-year-old Chinese tradition--it's already being used to reduce symptoms related to infertility, arthritis, back, neck, knee and shoulder pain, and anxiety.

Wall Street Journal *Again* Publishes a Pro-Acupuncture Article

The famously conservative and mainstream newspaper website, The Wall Street Journal, has published another fairly extensive article on acupuncture. This time it tries to cover the complicated science of how acupuncture may work for various health issues. While the article is careful to cover it's bases and not outright endorse Chinese medicine it does present acupuncture in a very positive light.

From WSJ article

In the past, the Wall Street Journal has written articles on acupuncture and pregnancy related depression, available here; and an article on stress and acupuncture – which I wrote about here.

Acupuncture Effective for Traumatic Brain Injury

As reported in the Journal of Neurotrauma (and reported here), researchers at the University of Colorado have found acupuncture to be very useful for treating brain trauma. 

Image reposted from http://www.medindia.net/
“We found that the study subjects with mild traumatic brain injury who were treated with acupressure showed improved cognitive function, scoring significantly better on tests of working memory when compared to the TBI subjects in the placebo control group”, lead researcher Professor Theresa Hernandez said.

Florida Acupuncturist Works with Cancer Pain

From a Florida newspaper comes this story which highlights an acupuncturist who treats cancer patients for the pain and symptoms associated with their disease. This is something that we, as acupuncturists, help our clients cope with on a daily basis. Quite frequently, this is true for those patients who are either currently experiencing the prodigious use of drugs and radiation, or who have completed courses of treatment but who are still feeling pain, fatigue and other symptoms from their therapy. (the video from this story was no longer active as of this writing).