Acupuncture

Facial Rejuvenation with Cosmetic Acupuncture

There are countless articles and research papers on the benefits of acupuncture, but did you know that it can also be used to combat the signs of aging? A natural alternative to surgery or Botox, facial acupuncture is merely an extension of traditional acupuncture and Chinese medicine philosophy.

Unlike an injection of Botox or some other filler, facial acupuncture addresses not just the signs of aging like fine lines and wrinkles but it also helps to restore your skin’s overall health. Now, you might be worried about acupuncture needles placed in your face, but acupuncture is safe and effective and is recognized by the World Health Organization and there are established guidelines for practice just like any other health profession. Practitioners are also licensed by their state’s department of health so you can be confident that you are in good hands. continue reading »

Can Acupuncture Help with Depression?

As mental health issues have come to the forefront in recent years, many have sought more natural treatment options that don’t involve pharmaceuticals and their potentially harmful effects. Acupuncture has become a popular option for treating mental health issues, including depression. But does it work? Before we answer that question, let’s give a proper definition to both acupuncture and depression. continue reading »

Becoming Resilient to Stress

I once had to write an essay on the book, “Why Zebras Don’t Get Ulcers” by Robert Sapolsky and I can summarize it to this day… The sympathetic nervous system elicits the “fight or flight” response. A third response is to freeze in place.

Modern humans often freeze in place, stall. Usually, we do not fight others or run (flight) like zebras run away from lions, but we just sit or stand in place, doing the same exact thing physically we were doing prior to the stress trigger. The cortisol elevates with the stressor, the adrenaline surges… and we sit (or stand) in place instead of using that fuel to launch into a sprint away from a predator (lion, tiger or bear, oh my!)

Zebras have no choice. They run or they die, or they run and die. Either way, they really must run. In turn, their bodies burn off the adrenaline surge and other stress hormones. This is why they do not get ulcers.

However, humans do get ulcers, because their ancient wiring “fight or flight” response designed to keep them alive during times of war with neighboring tribes, or being hunted by predators, simply goes off at very inopportune times… like when we’re stuck in traffic, or getting flack from our boss, or a friend phones with bad news … goes off, constantly, daily, sometimes multiple times per hour. This creates a cascade effect with the nervous system, the neuro-endocrine hormones and creates inflammation, extra body fat, cardiovascular disease, digestive disorders, anxiety, panic attacks, headaches, autoimmune disease, insomnia, and more. Everyone responds to stress differently.

Most people respond very well to acupuncture because it brings the nervous system and endocrine system into balance. Over time, with regular acupuncture treatment, patients become less triggered by stress as the “fight or flight” response becomes much more self-regulated.

What’s Our Medical Director Been Up To?

Have you heard? Our Medical Director, Laura Parks, M.Ac., L.Ac. went back to school and will be graduating at the end of April 2023 with her Doctorate in Acupuncture. 13 years after graduating with her Masters degree in Acupuncture, we’ll be calling “Dr. Laura” to the clinic with all her new wisdom on how to help patients.

Here’s what she had to say about her doctorate experience so far: “It’s been so great studying advanced, complex conditions like Lyme’s disease, advanced fertility and gynecological issues, pediatrics, and autoimmune conditions, weighing in with some of the most brilliant minds in the country. Last semester I got to celebrate getting straight A’s in all my classes while juggling family life and running a very busy clinic, all while completing medical internships, studying modern acupuncture research, and learning from live case studies. I’m so grateful for this opportunity to take my training to the next level and serve thousands of patients in the future with this centuries old medicine.”

We can’t wait to see what the future holds upon completing her doctorate this April!

If you’re interested in working with our Medical Director, Laura Parks, this spring, give us a call at 410-847-4766.

Acupuncture Research: Neuropathy Solutions are Here!

One exciting piece of compiled research breaks down many times of neuropathy and how acupuncture was used to improve the various types of acupuncture called, “Acupuncture for the Treatment of Peripheral Neuropathy: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis.”

Results of 13 clinical trials showed, “most long-term follow-ups favored acupuncture at 4 weeks,^56,60 5 weeks,⁶¹ 7 months, and 13 months,⁵⁵ ” and “all four RCTs^56,60,61,62 used validated CTS-specific scales (Table 2) and reported significant improvement with manual acupuncture^56,60,62 and electroacupuncture⁶¹ compared with baseline in the Global Symptom Score,^56,60 Boston Carpal Tunnel Score,⁶¹ Carpal Tunnel Self-assessment Questionnaire,⁶² and Visual Analogue Scale⁶¹ (Table 3). Three of the four RCTs included showed significantly greater effectiveness of acupuncture compared with night splinting,⁶¹ sham acupuncture,⁶⁰ oral vitamin B1 and B6,⁶⁰ and oral prednisolone.⁵⁶ ”

Acupuncture-induced changes in nerve conduction parameters

“NCS were performed in included trials on DPN and CTS (Table 4). With respect to motor nerve function, acupuncture produced significant effects on median nerve compound muscle action potential (CMAP) amplitude, median nerve distal motor latency (DML), and motor nerve conduction velocity (NCV) of the median, ulnar, and peroneal nerves. Compared with medication control, acupuncture caused significantly greater improvement in DML and in median, ulnar, and motor NCV.”

Sensory NCS revealed that acupuncture caused an increase in sensory nerve action potential (SNAP) amplitude in the median nerve, lowered median nerve distal sensory latency (DSL), and increased median and peroneal nerve NCV.”

This piece of research can be found in full text at: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5359694/ Dimitrova, A., Murchison, C., & Oken, B. (2017). Acupuncture for the Treatment of Peripheral Neuropathy: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis. Journal of alternative and complementary medicine (New York, N.Y.), 23(3), 164–179. https://doi.org/10.1089/acm.2016.0155

The Acupuncture profession has been extremely busy the last 10 years with clinical trials, experiments on how effective specific acupuncture protocols are for different conditions. Up until about 10 years ago, many clinical trials on acupuncture were skewed because the “control” in the experiments was “sham acupuncture.”

Sham acupuncture and regular acupuncture had to be “double blinded” in the original clinical trials, and therefore were done with something placed on the skin and a plastic “guide tube” used to tap the acupuncture needle into the skin. Participants in the clinical trials were not sure if they were receiving the sham acupuncture or the regular acupuncture, because the tapping sensation was the same for both. Another way sham acupuncture was performed was to needle places on the body that were not the exact anatomical acupuncture point locations, however the needle placements were often still located on the acupuncture pathway or close enough to an acupuncture point to still stimulate an acupuncture point and create clinical improvements in the participants.

The more impressive clinical trial results are those that compare acupuncture to another health modality, such as pain medication or physical therapy. Acupuncture often is shown in these clinical trials to be significantly more effective in improving patient outcomes and getting better clinical results in treating most conditions.

You can see more acupuncture research (and ALL types of medical research!) for yourself, by exploring research on the government regulated public medical database, www.PubMed.gov

If you look at research, I do suggest reading how the experiment was conducted, what the ‘control’ of the experiment was, and how big the sample size was, and for how long.

At Cloud 9 Acupuncture, we specialize in treating many types of neuropathy, including peripheral neuropathy, bell’s palsy, and diabetic neuropathy, as well as chemotherapy induced peripheral neuropathy. We are one of a handful of clinics in the country that provide this proprietary neuropathy treatments with over a 85% success rate. Call 410-847-4766 to begin with a consultation.