Acupuncture Girl

Here’s an article on Tai Chi.  I often recommend that my clients improve their health with practices that include acupuncture, and the following:

• Tai Chi or Qi Gong
• Yoga
• Walking
• Meditation/ Mindful practices
• Mindful breathing
• Mindful eating
• Eating local, organic, whole, sustainable foods
• If they eat meat and dairy, selecting pastured options that have not been treated with hormones, anti-biotics, or other ‘factory farm’ processes.  Raw milk from an organic source is preferred.   
• Regular sleep habits that include up to 8 hours of sleep
• Minimize stress and electronic exposure
• Cooking that excludes chemicals such as teflon and avoids use of microwaves.

TAI CHI HEALTH BENEFITS

Whether taken alone or grouped with qigong, tai chi now has a significant body of scientific literature supporting its beneficial health claims.

In fact, investigations have suggested that TC is related to improvements in mental health, psychosocial well-being, stress reduction, and sleep duration. Significantly, such benefits have been reported across a range of populations, including normal children, healthy young and elderly adults, and individuals suffering from Parkinson’s, cardiovascular disease, and AIDS. Despite the number of studies, some researchers find the evidence lacking; flaws, they say, include inadequate study design, lack of control groups, small sample sizes, unsophisticated statistical techniques, or publication without rigorous peer review. There is every reason to assume, some researchers claim, the body’s physiological response to tai chi is the same as its response to other forms of moderately intense exercise. If this is true, the criticism still upholds tai chi as offering health benefits.

Nevertheless, more pointed and more scientific studies also find positive health benefits in the practice of TC. For instance, one study conducted by the Oregon Research Institute sought to evaluate the efficacy of a six-month tai chi intervention for decreasing the number as well as the risk of falls in older persons.

A sample of 256 physically inactive, community-dwelling adults aged 70 to 92 were recruited through a patient database in Portland, Ore. for a randomized controlled trial. Participants participated in either a three-times-per-week tai chi group or a stretching control group for six months. The primary outcome measure was the number of falls; the secondary outcome measures included functional balance, physical performance, and fear of falling, assessed at baseline, three months, six months (intervention termination), and at a six-month follow-up.

At the end of the six-month intervention, fewer falls (38 as opposed to 73), lower proportions of fallers (28 percent compared with 46 percent), and fewer injurious falls (seven percent versus 18 percent) were observed in the tai chi group compared to the stretching control group. The risk for multiple falls in the tai chi group was 55 percent lower than that of the stretching control group. Compared, then, with the stretching control participants, the elderly individuals who practiced tai chi showed significant improvement in all measures of functional balance, physical performance, and reduced fear of falling.

Significantly, all of these gains were maintained at the follow-up point six months later. Another study that uses similar techniques focused on sufferers of tension headaches.

Tension!

In June, Migraines and Headache Awareness Month is observed. More than 45 million Americans suffer from chronic headaches, according to the National Headache Foundation, with losses of billions of dollars each year in the form of absenteeism as well as billions more spent on over-the-counter medications. Tension-type headaches (TTH) represent just over three-quarters of all headaches; they occur either chronically or in single episodes and are most often reported to be the result of stress, anxiety, fatigue, or anger. Symptoms include soreness and pain, a tightening band-like sensation around the head, pressure sensations, and contracted head and neck muscles. Generally, treatment includes massage, relaxation routines, biofeedback, medications (including over-the-counter pain killers and muscle relaxants), and stress reduction. A group of California researchers wondered — what about tai chi as a treatment for tension headaches?

A study conducted with the help of UCLA Center for East West Medicine examined the effect of tai chi on the impact of headaches in adults who suffer from tension-type headaches. Forty-seven participants were randomly assigned to either a 15-week program of tai chi instruction or a waitlist control group. Assessments of their headaches as well as their health-related quality of life (HRQOL) were obtained when the study began as well as at five, 10, and 15 weeks.

Statistically significant improvements in both the number and pain of headaches as well as HRQOL (energy/fatigue, social functioning, emotional well-being, and mental health) were scored by those participants selected to perform tai chi. Although this small study is not conclusive in and of itself, it does amount to another brick in the wall of evidence that tai chi confers many health benefits on practitioners.

Sources: Jahnke R, Larkey L, Rogers C, Etnier J, Lin F. A Comprehensive Review of Health Benefits of Qigong and Tai Chi. American Journal of Health Promotion. 2010.

Li F, Harmer P, Fisher KJ, et al.Tai Chi and fall reductions in older adults: a randomized controlled trial. The Journal of Gerontology. 2005.

Abbott RB, Hui K. Hays RD, Li M-D, Pan T. A Randomized Controlled Trial of Tai Chi for Tension Headaches. Evidence Based Complementary Alternative Medicine. 2007.

ACUPUNCTURE PHOTO VIA SHUTTERSTOCK

A new study by researchers at Spaulding Rehabilitation Hospital and Harvard Medical School, published in the journal Medical Acupuncture, found “high-level evidence to support the use ofacupuncture for treating major depressive disorder in pregnancy.”

The study says that anxiety and depression are very common in the female population. In fact, there are almost twice as many cases of anxiety and depression among women than men. Anxiety and depression are notoriously difficult to treat, have high rates of relapse, and commonly come with medication side-effects, so researchers studied acupuncture’s effectiveness at treating the elusive disorders. After randomized controlled trials, acupuncture was found to be an effective treatment for both anxiety and depression in pregnant women.

This is hardly news to Meredith St. John, vice president and academic dean at the New England School of Acupuncture (NESA) in Newton, the oldest acupuncture school in the country. St. John says that acupuncture is effective in treating many “women’s health disorders” and that fertility in general is a hot area for acupuncture research. “There is some evidence that if you combine acupuncture with IVF treatments, there is a higher likelihood of achieving pregnancy,” she says.

Pain is the number one reason why people seek acupuncture treatment, St. John says. “Pain associated with osteoarthritis, low back pain, and headache pain from tension headache or migraine,” she says. “Those are some of the conditions for which acupuncture has been very well studied.”

I am not a nutritionist and, as an acupuncturist, I do believe that diet is a key contributor to health. But what to eat? I agree with Michael Pollan - plants are great, except if the food was made IN a plant. “Avoid processed foods” is my first piece of advice. This includes “health foods” such as protein bars and Vitamin water.

Second, eat whole, local, and organic non-GMO foods.

For more strategies and advice, I refer you to Dr. Mark Hyman’s books and website. In particular, I like his books “UltraPrevention” and “The Blood Sugar Solution” (for me personally). YMMV. Read the article I am linking to for a little more and some delicious recipes!!

In addition to all the wonderful ways this article lists of building immunity, consider acupuncture. This is another way to boost and support immunity. Also yoga, tai chi, and chi gong.