Engage With Grace

Death. The big "D" word. We only die once, yet the subject is often taboo to discuss even when terminal illness or unexpected event occurs. Just as preventative healthcare is preferable to interventional disease care, having these kinds of discussions are important not just for the one who is dying, but for those who are left to grieve. Many acupuncturists provide palliative care both for the individual and their families and can play a role in facilitating these discussions. When you and your family know the answers to the following questions, the burden of decision-making and potential for conflict in the midst of grief and shock is greatly lessened. This movement is just as important for those in the bed as it is for those standing by it. Please pass it on!

Engage With Grace/The One Slide Project

Engage With Grace

Death. The big "D" word. We only die once, yet the subject is often taboo to discuss even when terminal illness or unexpected event occurs. Just as preventative healthcare is preferable to interventional disease care, having these kinds of discussions are important not just for the one who is dying, but for those who are left to grieve. Many acupuncturists provide palliative care both for the individual and their families and can play a role in facilitating these discussions. When you and your family know the answers to the following questions, the burden of decision-making and potential for conflict in the midst of grief and shock is greatly lessened. This movement is just as important for those in the bed as it is for those standing by it. Please pass it on!

Engage With Grace/The One Slide Project

Acupuncture's Method of Action: Adenosine (?)

"A patient's report of pain is to be believed." This basic assessment is taught to all aspiring healthcare providers. Their report of pain relief, however, is often accepted only if there is a scientific explanation. Acupuncture is constantly being called quack medicine with all of it's "Qi" and "meridian" hocus-pocus, while patients who support it's efficacy cajoled for being so simple or desperate that they experience nothing more than a placebo effect.  Thanks to an ever-expanding body of research, we may start referring to "Qi" as both energy and chemical transmission.

Researchers from the Center for Translational Neuromedicine in Rochester now offer another plausible scientific explanation for the analgesic effect of acupuncture. A study on peripheral nervous system pain in animals found acupuncture increases formation of adenosine, a nucleoside that produces anti-inflammatory and pain-relieving effect.  Although deeper insertion and stimulation produced a greater effect, a moderate increase in adenosine may be observed with application of pressure, heat, or vibration to this skin.  This may also explain why non-invasive "sham" acupuncture treatments can elicit a therapeutic effect, but also why these benefits do not endure over the course of follow-up. Previous studies focused on the central nervous system determined acupuncture also stimulates the release of endorphins in the brain. Bring on the science!

For the full article, visit Nature Neuroscience

Acupuncture's Method of Action: Adenosine (?)

"A patient's report of pain is to be believed." This basic assessment is taught to all aspiring healthcare providers. Their report of pain relief, however, is often accepted only if there is a scientific explanation. Acupuncture is constantly being called quack medicine with all of it's "Qi" and "meridian" hocus-pocus, while patients who support it's efficacy cajoled for being so simple or desperate that they experience nothing more than a placebo effect.  Thanks to an ever-expanding body of research, we may start referring to "Qi" as both energy and chemical transmission.

Researchers from the Center for Translational Neuromedicine in Rochester now offer another plausible scientific explanation for the analgesic effect of acupuncture. A study on peripheral nervous system pain in animals found acupuncture increases formation of adenosine, a nucleoside that produces anti-inflammatory and pain-relieving effect.  Although deeper insertion and stimulation produced a greater effect, a moderate increase in adenosine may be observed with application of pressure, heat, or vibration to this skin.  This may also explain why non-invasive "sham" acupuncture treatments can elicit a therapeutic effect, but also why these benefits do not endure over the course of follow-up. Previous studies focused on the central nervous system determined acupuncture also stimulates the release of endorphins in the brain. Bring on the science!

For the full article, visit Nature Neuroscience

Pain Relief for Veterans

For several years, the military has recognized the benefit of incorporating acupuncture therapy in a holistic treatment plan for PTSD and substance abuse issues, even if they generally do not used trained, qualified, and licensed acupuncturists to perform it. As miffed as I am that they allow the "jab-and-go" providers instead of hiring people with an actual degree in the medicine (yes, I am jealous . . . and available for collaboration), at least they recognize the contribution of the modality. Our soldiers and veterans are returning with some interesting autoimmune and auto-inflammatory diseases at a rate higher than the general population. Rheumatoid arthritis,  scleroderma, pernicious anemia, chronic recurrent multifocal osteomylitis - whether contracted by inhaling burning trash, as result of traumatic-brain injury, excessive vaccination (double vaccination in the cases where they lost a soldiers records "just in case") or physical manifestation of a psychological malady, there is no denying many of our vets are in physical and emotional pain. And so, I put aside my professional irritation and offer nothing but praise for using acupuncture as an adjunct for pain control in our wounded warriors.

Army looks toward new ways to fight the pain

Soldiers are getting alternative medicine.

By Sig Christenson
sigc@express-news.net

Published 01:55 a.m., Monday, September 26, 2011

Sgt. 1st Class Jennifer Wright used to jog, walk, lift weights and ride her Harley-Davidson Fat Boy, the motorcycle she bought after serving in Iraq.

Today, she's among a growing legion of war veterans suffering from scleroderma, a painful and potentially fatal disease. Wright, 40, feels pain in her face, joints and toes. She's lost some of her hair, and her toenails fell off.

“It's to the point I want them to deaden the nerves in my face. But (the doctor) said if you do that you take a chance of developing muscle atrophy, Bell's palsy with the real bad facial droop, no muscle control,” she said. “I said I'm willing to take my chances. Just do something about it. It's just consumed me, and I'm miserable.”

Pain pills are part of the treatment, but in her case they don't last long, so an orthopedic physician's assistant last week performed an acupuncture treatment, injecting small gold needles into selected parts of her ear.

Her care is part of the Army's fledgling complementary alternative medicine program, which is testing new therapies, some of them unproven and one literally out of this world.

It's another option for GIs who have returned from combat with pain from a variety of wounds and illnesses, for whom the Army has spent billions on drugs that have resulted in complications, dependency, abuse and even accidental deaths and suicides.

Read more 

Pain Relief for Veterans

For several years, the military has recognized the benefit of incorporating acupuncture therapy in a holistic treatment plan for PTSD and substance abuse issues, even if they generally do not used trained, qualified, and licensed acupuncturists to perform it. As miffed as I am that they allow the "jab-and-go" providers instead of hiring people with an actual degree in the medicine (yes, I am jealous . . . and available for collaboration), at least they recognize the contribution of the modality. Our soldiers and veterans are returning with some interesting autoimmune and auto-inflammatory diseases at a rate higher than the general population. Rheumatoid arthritis,  scleroderma, pernicious anemia, chronic recurrent multifocal osteomylitis - whether contracted by inhaling burning trash, as result of traumatic-brain injury, excessive vaccination (double vaccination in the cases where they lost a soldiers records "just in case") or physical manifestation of a psychological malady, there is no denying many of our vets are in physical and emotional pain. And so, I put aside my professional irritation and offer nothing but praise for using acupuncture as an adjunct for pain control in our wounded warriors.

Army looks toward new ways to fight the pain

Soldiers are getting alternative medicine.

By Sig Christenson
sigc@express-news.net

Published 01:55 a.m., Monday, September 26, 2011

Sgt. 1st Class Jennifer Wright used to jog, walk, lift weights and ride her Harley-Davidson Fat Boy, the motorcycle she bought after serving in Iraq.

Today, she's among a growing legion of war veterans suffering from scleroderma, a painful and potentially fatal disease. Wright, 40, feels pain in her face, joints and toes. She's lost some of her hair, and her toenails fell off.

“It's to the point I want them to deaden the nerves in my face. But (the doctor) said if you do that you take a chance of developing muscle atrophy, Bell's palsy with the real bad facial droop, no muscle control,” she said. “I said I'm willing to take my chances. Just do something about it. It's just consumed me, and I'm miserable.”

Pain pills are part of the treatment, but in her case they don't last long, so an orthopedic physician's assistant last week performed an acupuncture treatment, injecting small gold needles into selected parts of her ear.

Her care is part of the Army's fledgling complementary alternative medicine program, which is testing new therapies, some of them unproven and one literally out of this world.

It's another option for GIs who have returned from combat with pain from a variety of wounds and illnesses, for whom the Army has spent billions on drugs that have resulted in complications, dependency, abuse and even accidental deaths and suicides.

Read more 

Providers Treating Providers

The past several days I noticed many people posting about a study reporting the increasing popularity of acupuncture and other CAM among healthcare providers over the general population. Shock? Nope. I see my fair share of MDs, RNs, NPs, DPTs, PharmDs, LMTs and folks who work in the healthcare administrative arenas. They, more than anyone else, see the end effects of poorly managed chronic illness and reactive rather than proactive self-care. Contrary to popular opinion, they often make the best patients . . . and even joke about how bummed out they are that this stuff actually works!

My only gripe with the CAM classifications in the study is they include self-administered therapies like nutrition (which is an alternative to what, exactly, starving?) and exercises like pilates and yoga. I do not think anything that is diet, exercise, or rest related is complementary or alternative - you either do those things or you drop dead of something. Overall it was well done and I am glad to see an increase in acceptance that a patient's report of relief is a reliable resource, with or without an impressive postscript after their name!

Discussion Excerpt:


This study provides the first population-based description of CAM use by U.S. health care workers. Our analyses reveal that, overall, health care workers are significantly more likely to use CAM therapies, particularly mind-body therapies, than the employed U.S. population. This is not surprising as health care workers, particularly those in ambulatory care settings, are more exposed to these methods, and exposure is probably correlated with higher use. Our results are also consistent with findings of previous studies documenting a high prevalence of CAM use in narrowly defined health care worker populations. For example, one study found that 63 percent of nurse practitioners in Connecticut reported personal use of CAM (Hayes and Alexander 2000), whereas another reported 96 percent of critical care nurses across the United States had personal experience with CAM (Lindquist, Tracy, and Savik 2003). Studies of physicians reveal a lower prevalence of personal CAM use. One study reported that 24 percent of physicians in Denver had personally used CAM (Corbin Winslow and Shapiro 2002), whereas another found that 49 percent of primary care clinicians in Kentucky reported personal use of CAM in the past year (Flannery et al. 2006). A high percentage of health professions faculty report CAM use, with 83 percent of primary care faculty at one medical school having ever used CAM (Levine, Weber-Levine, and Mayberry 2003) and 100 percent of nursing faculty in another university having personally used a CAM therapy (Halcon et al. 2003).


Read More
Johnson, P. J., Ward, A., Knutson, L. and Sendelbach, S. (2011), Personal Use of Complementary and Alternative Medicine (CAM) by U.S. Health Care Workers. Health Services Research. doi: 10.1111/j.1475-6773.2011.01304.x