Acupuncture News
In a recent review of five clinical studies of Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) herbal antiasthma remedies, a team of doctors from Mount Sinai School of Medicine concluded that these remedies may do a better job of balancing the immune system than standard Western medicine.
In these studies, Chinese herbs were used alone or in combination with Western medicine. The best-studied formulation consists of three herbs—gan cao (radix glycyrrhizae uralensis), ling zhi (ganoderma lucidum), and ku shen (radix sophora flavescentis)—and is called antiasthma herbal medicine intervention (ASHMI). In trials that that compared ASHMI with the corticosteroid prednisone for patients with asthma, both groups had significant improvement in lung function. The prednisone group showed slightly better improvement in lung function but gained an average of more than six pounds in four weeks of treatment. In addition, prednisone suppressed serum cortisol levels that were already below normal. The ASHMI group only gained an average of less than two pounds, and serum cortisol levels returned to normal in these patients.
A study published in the March 2010 issue of Obstetrics & Gynecology shows that a few months of acupuncture may help pregnant women who suffer from depression. The study followed 150 women with major depression and found that overall, 63% responded to “depression-specific” acupuncture. The study showed that after eight weeks of therapy, the severity of symptoms in those that responded to treatment was reduced by at least 50%, and these women no longer met the criteria for diagnosing major depression.
Susana Byers, Lic. Ac. practices at Amherst Community Acupuncture every Wednesday from 3pm - 7pm. This low cost clinic provides acupuncture on a sliding scale basis so that everyone can benefit from acupuncture without worrying about expense.
