When used in tandem with standard Western treatments, alternative therapies such as acupuncture, acupressure and dietary changes may spell significant relief for patients battling chronic sinusitis, a new pilot study suggests.

The authors say that their study is the first to explore the potential of combining Western medicine with Eastern therapies among these patients, who experience swollen and inflamed sinuses, facial pain, headaches and impaired breathing.

“Our study was small, looking at a handful of patients who were not benefiting that well from standard treatment,” acknowledged study author Dr. Jeffrey Suh, an assistant professor of rhinology and skull base surgery in the department of head and neck surgery at the University of California, Los Angeles.

“And my take on alternative treatments is that Western medicine is effective for the majority of patients,” he added. “But for those who don’t get complete relief, adding in a more holistic Eastern approach that includes exercise, improved sleep, a better diet, and acupuncture and self-administered acupressure seems to provide an alternative that can have great benefit.”

Suh and his colleagues report their findings in the March issue of the Archives of Otolaryngology.

Source: http://gma.yahoo.com/alternative-medicine-may-help-ease-chronic-sinusitis-130404907.html

We aim to investigate the efficacy of acupuncture for acute migraine attacks comparing with sham acupuncture. Design. The study was designed as a multicenter, single-blinded, randomized controlled clinical trial. Setting and Patients. From March 2007 to February 2009, 150 patients were randomly allocated to verum or sham acupuncture group in a ratio of 1:1. Interventions. Every patient received a verum or sham acupuncture treatment when having a migraine attack and, medications were allowed if the pain failed to be relieved two hours after the acupuncture.

Outcome Measures.

The primary outcome was visual analog scale (VAS) scores for pain, ranging from 0 (no pain) to 10 (worst pain ever). Results. The mean VAS scores 24 hours after treatment decreased from 5.7 ± 1.4 to 3.3 ± 2.5 in the verum acupuncture group, and from 5.4 ± 1.3 to 4.7 ± 2.4 in the sham acupuncture group. Significant differences existed between the two groups (P = 0.001).

Conclusions.

This trial suggested that verum acupuncture group was superior to sham acupuncture group on relieving pain and reducing the usage of acute medication.

Source: www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/22536889

Moritz S, Liu MF, Rickhi B, Xu TJ, et al. Journal of Alternative and Complementary Medicine. 2011;17(11):1015-1019).

At a time when reducing costs is a priority for all healthcare systems – an issue which is at the forefront of controversial National Health Service reforms in the UK – it is essential to consider different approaches to the treatment of difficult and expensive conditions.

A recent Canadian study, for example, has found that patients with chronic lower back pain who receive acupuncture are significantly less likely to need to visit their doctor afterwards.Low back pain patients in the study received either acupuncture or standard medical care. The number of physician visits and costs of care were compared in the two groups one year before and one year after the acupuncture treatment period. Physician visits decreased by 49% and costs by 37% in the acupuncture group during the year after the acupuncture.

J Ethnopharmacol. 2011 Sep 6.

http://www.jcm.co.uk/research-archive/article/chinese-medicine-as-good-as-drugs-for-ulcerative-colitis-1907/

A Chinese herbal medicine containing Ku Shen (Radix Sophorae flavescentis) has been shown to be as effective as the anti-inflammatory drug mesalamine for treating ulcerative colitis (UC).

Chinese researchers enrolled 320 patients with active UC, who had a TCM diagnosis of damp-heat accumulation, in a double-blind, double-dummy, multi-centre RCT. Patients were assigned to two groups; one group received standard drug treatment with mesalamine plus a placebo herbal capsule, while the other received a placebo drug plus a capsule containing Ku Shen (Fufangkushen colon-coated capsule – FCC). The active compounds and their corresponding placebos were administrated at their recommended dosages for eight weeks.

At week 8, 72.50% of patients in the FCC group and 65.00% of patients in the mesalamine group had achieved a positive clinical response, with no statistically significance between the two groups. The proportion of patients who experienced clinical remission at week 8 was similar in both groups, as were mucosal healing rates.

BJOG. 2011 Jul;118(8):899-915).

Acupuncture is a promising treatment for premenstrual symptoms, according to a systematic review by Korean authors. Ten RCTs were included in their review. The pooled results demonstrated acupuncture to be superior to all controls. Acupuncture significantly improved symptoms when compared with sham acupuncture.

K Ried, K Stuart
Complementary Therapies in Medicine  Vol 19 issue 6 Dec. 2011

In an Australian Government-funded study, Ried and Stuart of Adelaide University reviewed 8 RCT’s and 22 smaller studies involving a total of 1851 women with poor fertility. Meta-analysis of studies involving over 1000 women found roughly double the likelihood of achieving pregnancy with Chinese herbal medicine (CHM) than with western drug therapy. Over a 4 month period pregnancy rates were 60% for CHM verses 32% for drug treatment 9n=1005, odds ratio = 3.5, 95% confidence interval 2.3-5-2, p < 0.0001).

Other studies, involving over 600 women, compared CHM with IVF and revealed a mean pregnancy rate for CHM of 50% compared with 30% for IVF. The Adelaide study also provided evidence indicating that herbal treatment tailored to the specific traditional diagnosis of what was wrong with each individual’s reproductive health was a key factor in successful treatment.

The authors write: “Our meta-analyses suggest Traditional Chinese Herbal Medicine to be more effective in the treatment of female infertility achieving on average a 60% pregnancy rate over 4 months compared with 30% achieved with standard western drug treatment, or IVF over 12 months.”

http://www.jcm.co.uk/drum-tower-archive/article/researchers-find-chinese-herbal-medicine-more-effective-than-modern-medicine-for-female-infertility-1875/

Effect of electroacupuncture on oocyte quality and pregnancy for patients with PCOS undergoing in vitro fertilisation and embryo transfer vitro fertilisation and embryo transfer.

Zhongguo Zhen Jiu. 2011 Aug;31(8):687-91.

J Orofac Pain. 2010 Winter;24(1):106-12).

Needling active myofascial trigger points (TrPs) in the jaw muscles of patients with temporomandibular disorders (TMDs) increases pain tolerance and improves jaw-opening ability, according to research carried out in Spain.

Twelve female TMD patients attended two treatment sessions on separate days and at each visit were randomly assigned to receive either deep or sham needling at the most painful point on the masseter muscle. Pressure pain threshold (PPT) over the masseter muscle TrP and the mandibular condyle and pain-free active jaw opening were assessed pre- and five minutes post-intervention. Subjects showed greater improvements in all measured outcomes when receiving deep needling compared with sham.