Study suggests exercise prevents lower back pain

           Study suggests exercise prevents lower back pain
The NPR (1/12, Bichell) “Shots” blog reports that a study published in JAMA Internal Medicine analyzed 21 studies of treatment methods for lower back pain, “involving over 30,000 people in total.” The findings show that “back belts and show insoles didn’t seem to offer a benefit,” and that any kind of exercise “reduced the risk of repeated lower-back pain in the year following an episode between 25 and 40 percent.”

Chinese Medicine in Singapore

Can this man make traditional Chinese medicine sexy?

SINGAPORE, Jan 13 — We’re not sure how far we would trust Desmond Tan with our lives, but we’ll say one thing about him: The guy can make it look like he knows what he’s doing. Even if he doesn’t.

That skill comes in handy for his role as a traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) practitioner in the upcoming long-form half-hour series Peace and Prosperity on Mediacorp TV Channel 8.

Production for the show will commence this month, and it also stars Xiang Yun as the matriarch of a family that runs a Chinese medicine practice. Her six daughters give her almost as much grief as her lack of sons does.

Tan, who plays the young, hotshot doctor employed at the practice, had received a crash course in all things TCM at a medical hall in Toa Payoh, alongside co-stars Belinda Lee and Dawn Yeoh. It included shaving an antelope’s horns, and packing and weighing herbs with a traditional hand-held scale. He was also instructed on how to perform cupping and acupuncture procedures.

“The hardest part is to look like a pro doing it,” he quipped. “I’m very afraid of needles, so I was trying very hard to look cool.”

Yes, Tan knows that in matters of utmost importance, style is the vital thing. That’s why he asked the production team to let him wear a pouch on his side, from which he can take his lighter out easily, “do a swirl, and put it back, like a cowboy”.

He’s making sure his character has all the right moves. “Even packing and talking about medicine can be very cool. And if you can make it impressive, more guys will want to practice TCM to woo the girls,” he declared. “It can be a good pick-up line, right? I’ll just look at you and say, ‘Judging by your skin tone, I know you’re not sleeping enough. I believe that taking medicine A, B and T will help you a lot. If you want to find out more, come to my place and I can tell you more about it’.”

So, can Tan make TCM cool? “I always hope I can make things cool,” he said. “When I was playing a barista (in 96C Cafe), I hoped to raise the profile of coffee culture in Singapore. For this — I hope I can make it sexy as well, because the thing about TCM is that youngsters don’t know much about it.

- See more at: http://www.themalaymailonline.com/showbiz/article/can-this-man-make-traditional-chinese-medicine-sexy#sthash.rX6h9VKR.dpuf

Acupuncture for Tinnitus

Acupuncture for Tinnitus

Investigate the effect of acupuncture on brain perfusion using ethyl cysteinate dimer single-photon emission computed tomography (^99mTc-ECD SPECT) in patients with tinnitus. This randomized, single-blind, sham-control study examined patients (18-60 years old) with normal hearing and chronic, idiopathic, continuous tinnitus. Fifty-seven subjects were randomly assigned to true (n = 30) or sham (n = 27) acupuncture (ACP); ^99mTc-ECD SPECT examinations were performed before and after 12 twice-weekly ACP sessions. Secondary outcomes included changes in the Tinnitus Handicap Inventory (THI), Visual Analog Scale (VAS), Hamilton Anxiety Scale (HAS) and Beck Depression Inventory (BDI). Imaging data were analysed using Statistical Parametric Mapping (SPM8) software. Regression models were used to examine secondary outcomes via two paradigms: intention-to-treat (ITT; where multiple imputations were conducted because of study attrition) and complete cases. No between-group brain perfusion differences were observed. However, a significant improvement in THI scores was observed at the end of true ACP treatment for all domains (all p values < 0.01) except the catastrophic scale. ACP might reduce the effects of tinnitus on daily life; however, additional studies should be conducted to verify the effects of ACP on the neural architecture and brain function of tinnitus patients.• Efficacy of acupuncture on brain perfusion and symptoms of tinnitus patients. • Acupuncture improved the Tinnitus Handicap Inventory scores in tinnitus patients. • No significant changes in brain perfusion were observed after 12 twice-weekly sessions. • Perfusion changes would reflect changes in neuronal function.

Source: Laureano MR, et al.  The effectiveness of acupuncture as a treatment for tinnitus: a randomized controlled trial using 99mTc-ECD SPECT. Eur Radiol. 2016 Jan 8.

Acupuncture benefits pregnant women

Reader View: Acupuncture can benefit pregnant women

By Pamela Gregg Flax

When Jane from the new hit TV comedy Jane the Virgin was told her baby was in a breech position (head up, bottom down), her OB-GYN warned that she could be at risk for a cesarean section.

Jane got the baby to turn with an Oriental medicine technique called moxibustion, in which dried mugwort herb is burned indirectly over acupuncture points. As the show’s narrator said, “Google it! It’s a real thing.” Moxabustion was a great dramatic tool for the TV show. That night, the baby turned but Jane fell asleep while using the moxibustion and her ottoman caught fire. Before trying this at home, I would say seek a professional!

For most Americans, acupuncture and Oriental medicine for pregnancy and birth is the next big discovery waiting to happen — a treasure trove of help for the common challenges of pregnancy. Licensed practitioners of acupuncture and herbal medicine can help decrease stress and anxiety, calm nausea, treat sciatic pain, and improve sleep and energy. Some practitioners are trained to prevent the transfer of parental toxins to the fetus, which are reputed to decrease the risk of childhood epidemics and environmental toxins. For these treatments, visits at the end of each trimester are essential.

Preventing miscarriage is another strength of acupuncture and Oriental medicine. Western medicine has limited treatments for threatened miscarriage. Common treatments include blood thinners such as heparin or aspirin and the hormone progesterone.

Since the medical options are so limited, most doctors try what they can, while they are resigned to wait to see what happens. Oriental medicine, on the other hand, has a different framework that allows us to diagnose specific patterns of an underlying cause and treat them, ideally even before the risk fully manifests as bleeding, blood clots or dilated cervix.

Even less known is its excellent ability to forecast and decrease risk of complicating factors such as preeclampsia, low amniotic fluids or delayed labor — all of which may endanger the fetus and require medical interventions. Even if a pregnancy has been uneventful, visiting an acupuncture and Oriental medicine practitioner at the beginning of the third trimester, at minimum, is wise. We will diagnose constitutional tendencies and potential risks. We will treat to encourage vitality and a smooth, harmonious pregnancy, birth and postpartum experience.

Acupuncture lowers perceived levels of stress, according to a 2010 study.

Imagine how much acupuncture would have helped Jane download all the stressful events in her pregnancy — two breakups, her grandmother’s near death, two new jobs, a crime syndicate and a murder, meeting her father for the first time and unexpected motherhood, and single motherhood at that.

To read more, click here.

Holistic Chinese Medicine

Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) takes the healthy body as a balanced and well-coordinated whole, not only among its own parts but also with the living environment.

By Wen Zongduo

The Western world should learn to appreciate the value of the treasures of traditional Chinese medicine.

Although Tu Youyou, a winner of the 2015 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine, was applauded in Stockholm when the Chinese pharmacologist declared that "the discovery of artemisinin is a gift to mankind from Traditional Chinese Medicine"; not all agreed with her view.

Even some at home pointed out Tu and her team used bio-chemical means to extract the active artemisinin from sweet wormwood half a century ago.

Yet Tu's inspiration is deeply rooted in thousands of years of TCM practice. The book that inspired her work, Handbook of Prescriptions for Emergencies (Zhouhou Beiji Fang), can be dated back to at least the Han Dynasty (206 BC-AD 220).

Although the traditional way of using these treatments has benefited Chinese for long, the processing highlighted by the Nobel prize carries its own advantages in prescription, actual taking of the medicine and logistic services. Further exploration offers abundant opportunities.

The earliest book of Chinese herbs, The Divine Farmer's Classic on Roots and Herbs (Shennong Bencao Jing) cites 365 kinds of herbs including sweet wormwood.

These are a gold mine for Chinese and multinational drug developers, which can be exploited to benefit millions of people.

Read more, click here.