Tag: acupuncture

Natural Arthritis Medication to the Rescue!

Natural Arthritis Medication to the Rescue!
Wendy Owen

No matter which type of arthritis you suffer from, be it osteoarthritis, gout, fibromyalgia, rheumatoid arthritis or any one of the myriad forms of this disease, you need a safe and effective treatment. Attention is turning towards natural arthritis pain relief that is safe and viable for long term use.
There has been quite a scare recently due to the recall of Vioxx a Cox-2 inhibitor from the NSAIDS family of drugs. Vioxx was a major drug for arthritis pain relief. Sufferers are worried and wondering which drugs are safe and which one may be next to be withdrawn from the market.
All drugs have side effects, theres no disputing that. The question is how dangerous are these side effects and are they worse than the disease they are supposed to help? In the case of Vioxx, the side effects were increased risk of heart attack or stroke. Deadly stuff!
Unfortunately some side effects will only show up in time. No matter how well a drug is researched and tested. The question How many other time bombs are lurking out there? is valid and is currently being investigated.
So where does this leave the unfortunate person seeking arthritis pain relief? Well the best thing is not to get caught up in the hype in the press. Keep in touch with your arthritis doctor of rheumatologist to get the up to date news on whats available and whats safe to take at the moment.
Natural arthritis medication is a viable and safe option that can be taken with confidence while waiting for the dust to settle on the NSAIDS debate. Some people have experienced dramatic relief from taking these natural remedies and have decided that a natural remedy for arthritis is the answer to relieving arthritis pain while being free of the worry over dangerous side effects.
Acupuncture for Arthritis
Acupuncture is another natural remedy for arthritis. Acupuncture involves the use of needles to stimulate energy centres in the body for effective pain relief. Massage can benefit most types of arthritis, especially fibromyalgia, as it relaxes the muscles. Likewise the application of heat can have a relaxing and pain relieving effect.
Arthritis and Exercise
Exercise is great for arthritis as well. Gentle exercises such as yoga, pilates, swimming and walking are suitable. Stretch well before exercising and in the case of an attack of gout, wait until the pain and inflammation has subsided before starting.
So there is natural arthritis relief out there for those wanting to get away from drugs and their side effects or for those wanting more information on arthritis to expand their treatment options. Those natural arthritis treatments are safe, effective and put you in control of the disease. Always remember though to always seek professional medical advice at all times.
Copyright 2005 Wendy Owen

About The Author

Wendy Owen is a natural health writer and researcher. visit her site at http://www.natural-arthritis-medication.com for arthritis information and a natural arthritis remedy.

How Many Acupuncture Treatments Will it Take?

Acupuncture is a well-established and increasingly accepted treatment procedure for pain, for emotional troubles, and for an ever increasing number of physical ailments. More and more traditional physicians are referring patients to acupuncture clinics for a certain set of problems that may be treated more effectively, and without the side effects of medication. Also, individuals may decide to use an acupuncture clinic as the first choice to heal a disease.

The length of a treatment varies widely from person to person, depending on the particular symptoms, the age of the patient, how long the condition has existed, and the environment of the patient. There also seem to be patients that are naturally responsive to acupuncture, when all the other factors are similar. A patient that is responsive to acupuncture may only require one or two visits, as is the case with a number of children. Adult patients that are responsive generally require one to six visits for a particular symptom or set of symptoms. In other cases, up to twenty visits may be required, depending on the severity and length of time the symptoms have persisted. But even some remarkable cases such as recovery from paralysis may come about after a very long series of treatments.

For some conditions, such as for chronic pain, daily treatments are recommended until the pain subsides. The same is true for clients using acupuncture as a means to help stop drug addiction, which require daily treatments in order to keep the cravings at a minimal level. In a few patients, the initial treatment may aggravate the symptoms. A similar possibility is that there is a marked improvement after the first treatment, which may be followed by an aggravation of symptoms at the next few treatments. These should be reported in detail to the acupuncture practitioner, who may revise the locations of needles for the treatment, depending on the particular patient.

It is always a good idea to consider an acupuncture practitioner for whatever health problem you might have. Some problems respond exceptionally well with acupuncture. Acupuncture has a very good success rate for such symptoms as headaches, head congestion, cramps (menstrual, muscular, or intestinal), pain, depression, fatigue, hemorrhoids, and children’s nervous disorders. Acupuncture treatments have frequent success in the following areas, though not quite the same success rate as in the areas above. These include diarrhea, painful menstruation, eczema, gastric problems, kidney and gall bladder malfunction, nervous disorders, palpitations, rheumatism, shingles, autonomic nervous problems, especially following surgery.

There are a number of other conditions that acupuncture can be effective for, and for these a practitioner should be consulted, as new results are coming out frequently. Currently, it is thought that acupuncture is more helpful for symptoms rather than curing such diseases as tuberculosis, infantile paralysis, and Parkinson’s disease. Acupuncture treatments are sometimes surprisingly effective after traditional medicine has been tried without success. Lets look at two simple cases. In the first, a lady suffered with pain in her ankle for three years, and no standard medical treatment helped. Careful observation of her symptoms by an experienced acupuncture practitioner cured her in three treatments. The second case was of a farmer who had a low grade fever (about 100 degrees) nearly every night for a number of months. Regular physicians could not determine a cause, nor a solution. Regular acupuncture treatment was not effective. The acupuncture practitioner then applied the treatments at the optimal time (very early AM, not during the normal clinic hours), and the fever disappeared permanently. I hope this introduction to some uses of acupuncture may help you or someone you know to better health.

How Does an Acupuncture Practitioner Diagnose?

Most Americans know that acupuncture has something to do with healing diseases by using needles. These needles are used to redirect and restore optimal circulation of the life force, known as “Qi”, within the body. A person with a mental, physical, or emotional problem has the flow of Qi hindered at one or more points, and effective use of needles will change and restore that flow.One of the more suprising things at an acupuncture clinic is the way a problem can be diagnosed. In most cases, the practitioner holds the wrist of the client and takes his pulse. The pulse is observed at several different points on wrist, and the nature of the pulse is evaluated. After that comes a thorough evaluation and a plan of where to place the needles to best address the problem. There are several different qualities the acupuncture practitioner is observing in the pulse.

The patient can have up to 12 different pulse points taken. Three surface pulse points are taken on each of the wrists, and three deep pulse points are also taken on each wrist. Even an untrained person can notice the difference in pulses depending on the location and depth of the pulse point. There are many possible pulse descriptions in acupuncture, but six of the commonly encountered ones are: floating, sunken, slow, rapid, slippery, and choppy. Taking even a few people’s pulses, it is easy to see how some could be described as choppy, and others as slippery.

Another very useful technique for diagnosis in acupuncture is by observing the tongue of the client. Western physicians (and mothers!) can often tell someone has a throat problem by looking at the coating on the tongue. But an acupuncture practitioner is looking at a number of aspects of the tongue: the color of the tongue (both top and sides), any cracks that might be in the tongue, swellings, the condition of the dots on the tongue, and the level of moisture. All of these things provide an illuminating picture of the state of someone’s health, and indicates what the acupuncture plan should address.

One thing to remember is that, in acupuncture, a particular western medical diagnosis may not be of much help. That
is because a particular diagnosis may be caused by one of several different kinds of interruptions in the flow of Qi, and hence is not a major influence in what should be done in the acupuncture clinic. However, the acupuncture practitioner definitely wants to know how you actually feel, for this is very significant. Every symptom should be described, as well as the times they are most noticeable, and any associations that can be thought of. For example, the acupuncture practitioner should be told if pains are milder after a good night’s sleep, or if headaches are worse under fluorescent lights, and other such associations.

So expect the diagnosis at an acupuncture clinic to be rather different than a diagnosis at a physician’s office. The acupuncture practitioner is not looking just at the particular problem, but how your organs and systems presently interact, one result of which is the current problem. This introduction should make you more comfortable with such a diagnosis, give you more understanding as to why your tongue is being so carefully looked at, and hopefully make you interested enough to find out more about it.

Different Types of Acupuncture Treatment

When you normally think of acupuncture, you think of a person sitting with several needles inserted into their skin, into parts of the body like the ear, the arm, or the wrist. This is a good picture of a patient that is having an acupuncture treatment. These treatments last anywhere from a very short time up to thirty minutes or more, depending on the symptoms that are being treated. These needles are more frequently inserted just far enough into the skin to firmly keep them there, though an acupuncture practitioner may insert different needles somewhat further in depending on the treatment plan. Sometimes the needles are twirled in place, sometimes they are warmed before insertion, or have heat applied to them during insertion. Generally there is no discomfort when a needle is inserted, manipulated, or removed. Occasionally a slight twinge may be felt, but not more than that. Often during treatment a patient may feel more relaxed than when they came in, slightly warmer, or possibly feel a rush of energy during the treatment. Some patients feel no change during the acupuncture treatment, but their symptoms gradually change over a longer period of time, such as several weeks.

There are variations of acupuncture that do not rely on the use of needles. The ideas behind these are identical with standard acupuncture technique. The knowledge of acupuncture points, the organization of the body, and the importance of proper energy flow for a healthy body are all exactly identical to standard acupuncture therapy. The main difference is that the needle is replaced by a different technique to manipulate the acupuncture point.

In sonopuncture, a device that produces sound waves is applied to the point at which a needle would normally be inserted. In addition to the device that produces the sound waves, other devices that vibrate may also be used, such as tuning forks. There is a good deal of activity in this area, but results using these devices is not as well established as the results with traditional needle based acupuncture.

Another technique that has been in use since the middle of this century is to apply a low voltage electric current to the acupuncture point. Sometimes this is done together with insertion of a needle, sometimes it is done just by touching a small wire to the surface of the skin and connect a very low electric current. The feeling of the current is a very light tingling, and not any very noticeable or painful reaction. This technique using electricity was pursued independently in America and Europe in the 1930s and 1940s, but interest in the technique as a part of western medicine waned after that time.

Another variation of acupuncture that many more people have heard of is the use of acupressure. In this technique no instrument is used, just the technique of pressing a finger on the acupuncture point. This technique can be incorporated into such manipulations as shiatsu massage. This technique is also easy for a layman to do, and many have seen little cards with diagrams of pressure points on the hands and feet. Though these may be useful, the best use is made when the person understands more of the entire system of acupuncture rather than just where the acupuncture points are.

Acupuncture therapy has been extended beyond needles, and interest is continuing in using other instruments. Other techniques include the use of heat (a very traditional choice), friction, magnets, suction, and to the ultra-modern use of laser beams. Acupuncture is a very adaptable therapy, which yields very good results.