Acupuncture Promising Treatment For Post Stroke Depression

A new piece of vigorous research has examined the efficacy of complementary and alternative medicine therapies for the treatment of depressive and anxiety disorders. The research examined results of previous studies and found that acupuncture showed some promise as a therapy for depression, was better than sham acupuncture for major depressive disorder and as good as short term use of antidepressants, and that acupuncture was more effective than antidepressants in the case of post stroke depression.

Chinese Medicine Improves Success Rate Of IUI

Exciting new research carried out at Tel Aviv University in Israel has found that women using Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) – a mixture of weekly acupuncture and Chinese herbs had a much greater rate of pregnancy and delivery.

Of the women in the test group, receiving TCM alongside their IUI, 65.5% conceived compared to just 39.5% of the control group who received IUI only. The further surprise is that women receiving TCM also had a better rate of live birth: 41.5% compared to 27% of the control group. This is of particular interest to the researchers as the average age of women in the TCM group was 39.5 compared to 37 in the control group and it would be expected that the live birth rate and pregnancy rate would be much less in the older age group.

Frozen Embryo Babies Healthier

Some new research presented at the British Fertility Society Conference today concludes that IVF babies born from frozen embryos tend to be heavier than those born from fresh embryos and result in a slightly longer pregnancy. Both of these factors have a bearing on living a healthy and longer life.

Read more here.

Managing Stress In Pregnancy

Pregnancy can be a stressful state for all sorts of reasons. Your body can feel stressed as you push it to do things that you don’t have the energy for. You are coping with a massive transition and any change can be stressful. For first time mums there can be feelings of anxiety and fear and and for second time mums, a feeling of being overwhelmed and fears about how they will cope and manage their other child’s needs.

A recent study looked at the effect of stress on Chilean women who were pregnant during the Tarapaca earthquake in 2005. The results are interesting. Usually 51 births out of a hundred are boys. In these Chilean women the boy birth rate dropped to 45%. One argument is that this decrease in males and increase in girls born was due to the fact that boys grow larger generally than girls and thus take more of their mother’s resources and do not respond so well to a stressful womb environment.

Stress in the second and third term of pregnancy can shorten pregnancies, increase the risk of pre term births and affect the ratio of boys to girls being born. This is possibly due to the placenta and the effects of the stress hormone, cortisol, on the placenta.

Previous studies have shown that acupuncture helps to lower cortisol and other stress hormones. Hopefully you are not dealing with anything as stressful as living through an earthquake. But if you are feeling stressed and are pregnant, consider some acupuncture to help calm and relax you during this precious time.

US Military Embracing Acupuncture

The current issue of ‘Medical Acupuncture’ has devoted its contents to looking at how the US military is using acupuncture. The US military has been using acupuncture on its armed forces increasingly since the mid 90’s, largely due to the efforts of one of it’s doctors, Colonel Richard C. Niemtzow. Various studies have been undertaken and fantastic results are being seen in using acupuncture as medical first aid, as well as addressing issues such as post traumatic stress. Battlefield Acupuncture is a technique using ear acupuncture points that the US military has developed and offers ways of treating troops quickly and easily.

It’s fascinating to watch how one particular field has taken acupuncture on and is constantly updating how it is used to fit modern needs.

« Previous Page — Next Page »