American Academy of Acupuncture and Oriental Medicine

Saturday, August 13, 2016

Tuesday, August 9, 2016

Cupping Has an Olympic Moment

What Are the Purple Dots on Michael Phelps? Cupping Has an Olympic Moment

Doug Mills / The New York Times

By GRETCHEN REYNOLDS and KAREN CROUSE

August 8, 2016

RIO DE JANEIRO — Olympics trivia: What has 19 gold medals and a bunch of purple circles?

If you watched a certain swimmer’s Rio Games debut on Sunday night, when he propelled the United States 4×100-meter relay team to a gold medal, you know the answer: Michael Phelps.

While it may look like Phelps and several other Olympians with those skin marks have been in a bar fight, the telltale dots actually are signs of “cupping,” an ancient Chinese healing practice that is experiencing an Olympic moment.

“Because this particular recovery modality shows blemishes on his skin, he walks around and looks like a Dalmatian or a really bad tattoo sleeve,” said Keenan Robinson, Phelps’s personal trainer. “It’s just another recovery modality. There’s nothing really particularly special about it.”

Practitioners of the healing technique — or sometimes the athletes themselves — place specialized cups on the skin. Then they use either heat or an air pump to create suction between the cup and the skin, pulling the skin slightly up and away from the underlying muscles.

The suction typically lasts for only a few minutes, but it’s enough time to cause the capillaries just beneath the surface to rupture, creating the circular, eye-catching bruises that have been so visible on Phelps as well as members of the United States men’s gymnastics team. If the bruising effect looks oddly familiar, it’s because it’s the same thing that happens when someone sucks on your neck and leaves a hickey.

“I’ve done it before meets, pretty much every meet I go to,” Phelps said on Monday. “So I asked for a little cupping yesterday because I was sore and the trainer hit me pretty hard and left a couple of bruises.”

Physiologically, cupping is thought to draw blood to the affected area, reducing soreness and speeding healing of overworked muscles. Athletes who use it swear by it, saying it keeps them injury free and speeds recovery. Phelps, whose shoulders were dotted with the purple marks as he powered the relay team, featured a cupping treatment in a recent video for a sponsor. He also posted an Instagram photo showing himself stretched on a table as his Olympic swimming teammate Allison Schmitt placed several pressurized cups along the back of his thighs. “Thanks for my cupping today!” he wrote.

To read more, click here.

Why is cupping so popular?

Why is it so popular?

Liz Szabo, USA TODAY 11:33 a.m. EDT August 9, 2016

Olympic gold medalist Michael Phelps practices cupping, an ancient Chinese therapy that uses suction to help circulate blood and relieve muscle tension. KPNX

Don't be surprised if your friends and neighbors are soon covered in purple spots.

"Cupping" is poised to become the latest fad.

Swimming champion Michael Phelps' use of cupping, a type of alternative medicine intended to ease muscle pain, has attracted nearly as much attention as his latest gold medal.

Cupping, which has been used in traditional Chinese medicine, involves using cups to create suction on the skin. Fans claim that pulling the skin away from the body improves their blood flow. What's not in dispute: The procedure leaves people covered in dark purple marks.

Phelps, who won his 19th Olympic medal Sunday, said he relies on cupping to heal sore muscles. And he's not the only one. Track and field competitors in Rio are using it. So are male gymnasts at the Olympics. Celebrities Gwyneth Paltrow and Jennifer Aniston are big fans of the big dots.

But does it actually work?

Argentina setter Yael Castiglione (18) and wing spiker Josefina Fernandez (14) celebrate a point during a volleyball match. Kirby Lee, USA TODAY Sports

There's little to no medical evidence that cupping has any benefit, said Robert Glatter, an emergency physician at Lenox Hill Hospital in New York and a former sideline physician for the New York Jets.

“There are studies on this, but they aren’t well done,” Glatter said.

In 2012, a review of 135 studies on cupping found it had some benefit for shingles, facial paralysis, acne and age-related wear and tear of the spinal disks of the neck. But authors of the review noted that the studies weren’t carefully done, so their results weren’t very valuable.

The review found cupping had no benefit for sore muscles.

That doesn't mean cupping is useless, Glatter said.

Cupping could work as a placebo, giving elite athletes a psychological boost, Glatter said. In other words, cupping works because people think it works. “When people feel better, they may perform better,” Glatter said. “But in terms of performance and power, (Phelps) already got that in the bag.”

While using a suction cup on sore muscles seems harmless, Glatter notes that people who heat the cups could potentially burn themselves. People could also develop infections.

“You’re causing tissue injury, and there could be bacteria on the skin,” Glatter said.

Thursday, July 28, 2016

Efficacy and Safety of Chinese Herbal Medicine

Efficacy and Safety of Chinese Herbal Medicine

Chinese herbal medicine has been a novel basis of drug development in China. Up to 2007, China had collected 3,563 extracts, 64,715 compositions, and 5,000 single compounds from 3,000 Chinese herbs, together with about 130 kinds of chemical drugs obtained from either Chinese herbal medicine ingredients or their derivatives. More than a million tons of herbs are used each year in China.

In the U.S., a Doctor of Oriental Medicine, (O.M.D.) employs more than 250 standard formulas, each of which can be modified to fit a patient’s individual pattern of disharmony. These formulations are used for a wide variety of ailments according to one’s individualized diagnosis, thus treating the root of the disease and not just the symptoms....."

http://www.nevadaappeal.com/news/local/23017246-113/natural-living-efficacy-and-safety-of-chinese-herbal

Monday, July 25, 2016

New Independent Occupational Code for Acupuncturists

New Independent Occupational Code

for Acupuncturists: 29-1291
The Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) has just published its proposed 2018 BLS Standard Occupational Classification (SOC) changes. BLS announcement of the publication of the July 22, 2016 federal register showed Acupuncturists now have an independent SOC! It is Code #29-1291.
The report explained “Multiple dockets requested a new detailed occupation for Acupuncturists, which are classified in 29-1199 Health Diagnosing and Treating Practitioners in the 2010 SOC. The SOCPC accepted this recommendation because the work performed by Acupuncturists is sufficiently distinct to reliably collect data, as required by Classification Principle 9. The SOCPC recommends establishing a new code for this occupation, 29-1291 Acupuncturists.” （http://www.bls.gov/soc/2018/soc_responses.htm）
“This is a monumental step forward for the profession.” Said by Kory Ward-Cook, Ph.D., CAE, the Chief Executive Officer of NCCAOM, who has contributed for this special over years.

Wednesday, July 13, 2016

Acupuncture 'doubles the chances of getting pregnant through IVF'

Acupuncture 'doubles the chances of getting pregnant through IVF'

Over 46 per cent of women undergoing acupuncture treatment conceived
While only 21.7 per cent of the women became pregnant in the other group
Treatment may be offered as a possible method of improving IVF outcome
Expert says it may only work due to patient spending time with practitioner

By Colin Fernandez, Science Correspondent For The Daily Mail

Acupuncture may double the chances of a woman conceiving with IVF, a study has found.

Among couples undergoing the fertility treatment, the likelihood of pregnancy was greatly improved if the woman also had acupuncture.

Scientists at Homerton University Hospital studied 127 women aged between 23 and 43, on their first or second cycle of IVF.

They were split into two groups – one having four sessions of acupuncture while undergoing IVF, and the other having none.

Among the treatment group, 46.2 per cent conceived – more than twice as many as in the other group, where only 21.7 per cent of the women became pregnant.

The needle technique was used before any eggs were retrieved from the woman’s body – and then again before and after the fertilised embryo was implanted.

Among the acupuncture group assessed at London's Homerton Hospital, 46 per cent conceived after four sessions – more than twice as many as those who had no treatment

The researchers, led by Karin Gillerman, said previous clinical trials have ‘precluded any firm conclusion’ about the treatment.

But they added: ‘The results of this study imply acupuncture may be offered as a possible method of improving IVF outcome.’

However, they warned that simply the act of paying more attention to the group who had acupuncture may have acted as a placebo effect.

In research presented at the European Society for Human Reproduction and Embryology, the authors wrote of the study’s limitations: ‘The additional attention paid to the acupuncture group as opposed to controls may have had a positive psychological influence.’

The NHS advises on its Choices website that acupuncture is safe when practised with good hygiene by a qualified practitioner.

The main risk to pregnant women having the treatment is from blood-borne diseases caused by unclean needles – similar to the risks from getting a tattoo or a body piercing – and the chance that these could infect the baby.

Local authorities have bylaws that govern the cleanliness of acupuncture premises, their instruments and equipment.

Mild side effects include pain, bleeding or bruising where the needles puncture the skin, drowsiness, and feeling sick or dizzy.

Gynaecology consultant Stuart Lavery, who was not involved in the research, said there was strong patient demand and interest in acupuncture among many couples attending IVF clinics.

‘It is an area sadly lacking in the area of rigorous assessment,’ he said. ‘The study is interesting as it does seem to show a significant difference.’

Acupuncture could be offered as a possible method of improving IVF outcomes, according to the researchers

But he added: ‘The most important thing is it doesn’t control for the placebo effect. One would like to see in the clinical trial a test of “sham acupuncture”.’

This attempt to eradicate any placebo effect would involve making the patient think they are undergoing acupuncture, when really the needles retract without piercing the skin.

Alternatively, needles are placed randomly, rather than at the pressure points usually specified for the treatment.

Mr Lavery said: ‘The placebo effect is very real and we see it in every branch of medicine.

‘The power of the human mind to produce improvement is very real and everybody who works in medicine understands that.’

He added that acupuncture may only be effective because it involves a practitioner spending time with the patient, and listening to them, something that is difficult in much of the NHS.

‘Patients are looking for someone who can give them that time and listen to what’s going on in their lives, and that may have some therapeutic benefits,’ Mr Lavery said.