School: aaaom.edu

Saturday, October 31, 2015

Rand Report on Complementary Medicine



Complementary and Alternative Medicine: Professions or Modalities?
Policy Implications for Coverage, Licensure, Scope of Practice, Institutional Privileges, and Research
Abstract
This report examines a problem that confronts the complementary and alternative medicine (CAM) professions whereby a profession is defined politically not by its full professional scope but by its treatment modalities. Even when CAM disciplines are defined by legal statutes as broad-based professions, this designation is not honored by such codes as the policies of insurance coverage. This project consisted of three parts: development of a background paper on the policy issues associated with the scope of practice and utilization of CAM practitioners in the health care system, input from a panel of CAM experts, and input from a panel of health care policy decisionmakers. With the increasing utilization of CAM by the public and the increasing consideration of CAM in all aspects of health policy, this report serves as a valuable reference document to aid in policymaking in terms of the challenges associated with coverage, licensure, scope of practice, institutional privileges, and research.

The link is here.

Friday, October 30, 2015

Acupuncture improves gait function in Parkinson's disease



Acupuncture improves gait function in Parkinson's disease
For patients with Parkinson's disease (PD), acupuncture is associated with improvement in gait function, according to a study published in the October issue of the Journal of the American Geriatrics Society.
Shimpei Fukuda, Ph.D., from the Meiji University of Integrative Medicine in Kyoto, Japan, and colleagues examined the immediate effects of acupuncture on gait function in 27 outpatients with PD. The acupuncture points used were bilateral legs, bilateral arms, posterior region of neck, and back. Acupuncture needles were inserted perpendicular to the skin surface to a depth of 10 mm. A portable gait rhythmogram was used to measure gait function.
The researchers observed significant increases in gait speed, step length, floor reaction force (all P < 0.001), and cadence (P = 0.007) after acupuncture. No adverse effects related to the therapy were reported.
"Acupuncture can be a safe way to decrease gait disturbances," the authors write. "Further studies on a set period of acupuncture treatment, as well as controlled comparative studies to exclude the placebo effect, are needed."

Wednesday, October 28, 2015

Is It Time to Take Chinese Medicine More Seriously?



Is It Time to Take Chinese Medicine More Seriously?
The award raises the question of how we judge the legitimacy of medicine, rewarding narrow aspects that satisfy a Western definition. Chinese medicine for some is about acupuncture or herbal medicine. The tradition encompasses a holistic philosophy with a mind-body connection at its core.
Some people use Chinese medicine to alleviate chronic conditions that have not responded to mainstream medical treatment, such as pain. But it's not easy to prove effectiveness of these treatments, so many insurance policies won't cover it. Does the lack of research-based proof mean these treatments don't work?

To continue to read. click here.

Tuesday, October 27, 2015

Chinese Medicine in Hong Kong



Expired: Hong Kong government's ideas about Chinese medicine are clearly past their sell-by date
For ages, traditional Chinese medicine has lived in the shadows as alternative medicine. But overnight, with a Chinese medicine researcher anointed as this year's Nobel co-laureate for medicine, it has acquired a halo of legitimacy.
In Hong Kong, however, Chinese medicine seems about to enter the dark ages. Designated as a new pillar industry, it never got anything except governmental lip service. After six years of inaction under Donald Tsang Yam-kuen, the government is now set to impose tough regulations on proprietary Chinese medical products. More than 8,000 Chinese remedies face being taken off the shelves unless they are standard-compliant, threatening to squeeze the life out of the industry.
Insiders blame the government for three strategic blunders. First, it asks thousands of Chinese herbal remedies to meet tough European standards as Western drugs, not health products, forgetting that ours is too small a market for manufacturers to bear the cost of compliance.
Our medical bureaucracy is top-heavy with Western-trained doctors who do not know that multi-herb formulations are too complex for their active ingredients to be isolated by Western procedures.
As the Chinese Medicine Ordinance prohibits sales outside licensed premises, traders are also shut out of e-commerce in this age of the internet. Clearly, Hong Kong doesn't know the first thing about nurturing industries
To apply US Food and Drug Administration-style requirements on herbal medicine is to cause its death by regulatory strangulation. Why not emulate Canada and treat Chinese herbal medicines as "natural health products"?
Second, the idea of integrating the Chinese medicine market within Greater China has never occurred to our leaders, though our tiny market size can't sustain its healthy development. China has its own regulatory body for Chinese medicinal products. It makes no sense for Hong Kong to go its own way.
Third, oversight and resource allocation are in the hands of the Food and Health Bureau, while the Commerce and Economic Development Bureau is reduced to being a bystander. This has led to bureaucratic insanities.
China has its own regulatory body for Chinese medicinal products. Photo: ReutersFor years, the Trade Development Council has co-organised the annual Chinese medical products exhibition. But the Food and Health Bureau forbids any display of unregistered proprietary Chinese medicines. Unable to take samples home, foreign traders leave empty-handed and deal-starved. As the Chinese Medicine Ordinance prohibits sales outside licensed premises, traders are also shut out of e-commerce in this age of the internet. Clearly, Hong Kong doesn't know the first thing about nurturing industries.
In Macau, by contrast, common sense prevails. The University of Macau's Institute of Chinese Medical Sciences has state-of-the-art research facilities, while Hong Kong officials fought Baptist University tooth and nail over a parcel of land targeted for a Chinese medicine hospital.
Last week, the University of Macau signed an agreement with the Guangdong-Macau Traditional Chinese Medicine Technology Industrial Park Development Company to jointly develop pharmaceutical products and promote Chinese medicine, with four proposed centres.
Hundreds of Hong Kong's manufacturers and traders of traditional Chinese medicine are threatening to relocate to the Hengqin industrial park, where the promise of integration with the mainland market beckons.
Will Hong Kong learn from Macau and not consign the industry to the critical list?
Philip Yeung is consultant to the vice-rector for academic affairs at the University of Macau. Dr Albert Wong, from the University of Wisconsin, and founding president of the Modernised Chinese Medicine International Association, also contributed to this article

Monday, October 26, 2015

Warm Needling for Shoulder Pain



Warm Needling for Shoulder Pain
This study was performed to evaluate the effectiveness and safety of warm needling acupuncture at meridian-sinew sites based on the meridian-sinew theory in the treatment of hemiplegic shoulder pain (HSP) after stroke. In total, 124 subjects were randomized into a treatment group and control group. In the treatment group, warm needling therapy and acupuncture at meridian-sinew sites based on the meridian-sinew theory were performed. In the control group, usual care therapy was applied. The visual analog scale (VAS) score, range of motion (ROM), and Barthel index (BI) were used to evaluate treatment effectiveness. At 2 weeks of treatment, the VAS score, ROM, and BI had obviously changed from baseline in the two groups (P < 0.01). The changes in the VAS score and ROM in the treatment group were significantly greater than those in the control group (P < 0.01). At the 3-month follow-up after treatment, the changes in the treatment group were significantly greater than those in the control group (P < 0.01). This study indicates that warm needling therapy with acupuncture at meridian-sinew sites based on the meridian-sinew theory is effective for HSP.
Source: Zhao H, Nie W, Sun Y, Li S, Yang S, Meng F, Zhang L, Wang F, Huang S. Warm Needling Therapy and Acupuncture at Meridian-Sinew Sites Based on the Meridian-Sinew Theory: Hemiplegic Shoulder Pain. Evid Based Complement Alternat Med. 2015;2015:694973.