Acupuncture & Massage BLOG

One of the most common addiction-related uses for acupuncture is to help people quit smoking. Although acupuncture has been an integral part of traditional Chinese medicine for thousands of years, the idea of using acupuncture to help people overcome certain addictions is relatively new, originating in the early 1970’s.

Acupuncture therapy aids in addressing your particular triggers for smoking and how to avoid them. Acupuncture therapy for smoking cessation is customized for each individual’s particular smoking habits and physical and emotional constitution. Because the acupuncture smoking cessation program is individualized, it is often successful for those who have been unable to stop smoking through other methods.

Acupuncture can reduce the cravings associated with your efforts to quit smoking. Acupuncture lessens withdrawal symptoms such as jitters, irritability and restlessness. Often, the first month of quitting is the most difficult; acupuncture for smoking cessation can ease you through this initial period. Acupuncture treatment focuses on any physical or emotional withdrawal symptoms and also aids in relaxation.

Acupoints are chosen which clear the lungs and produce a calming effect, replacing the short-term calming effect of tobacco smoke. Often, a combination of body acupuncture points and points on the ear are selected which influence the organs and energetic pathways associated with smoking. Smokers develop higher levels of nicotine-induced endorphins. Acupuncture stimulates the nervous system naturally to regulate endorphin levels and production.

After beginning an acupuncture smoking cessation program, individuals experience easier breathing, improved circulation and normalized blood pressure. Benefits of acupuncture for smoking cessation include reduced cold and flu illnesses, improved health and decreased rates of pneumonia and bronchitis. In addition to acupuncture, Chinese herbal formulas can aid in reducing withdrawal symptoms, detoxifying the body and increasing energy.

Acupuncture is a safe and natural way to stop smoking and stay nicotine free. A combination of therapies including acupuncture, pharmaceutical aids (patches, gum) and stress management counseling may yield the best results in smoking cessation.

For information about Acupuncture & Massage College’s Oriental Medicine and Massage Therapy programs call Joe Calareso at (305) 595-9500. For information about acupuncture for smoking cessation ask for Dr. Richard Browne, Acupuncture Physician.

Acupuncture benefits include the effective treatment of headache, back pain, tennis elbow, osteoarthritis, circulatory problems, sciatica, skin conditions, carpal tunnel syndrome, and asthma. Acupuncture benefits can also aid in smoking cessation, reduce postoperative nausea, decrease postoperative dental pain, and may be used as a stand-alone therapy for the treatment of many health conditions. Acupuncture benefits include effective treatment of anxiety, digestive problems, insomnia, and weight loss.
In cases of diverse pain conditions, acupuncture benefits can effectively reduce cases of acute and chronic generalized pain conditions as well as pain due to joint degenerative conditions. Acupuncture benefits can result in a general increase of energy, strength and vitality. Acupuncture benefits are considered a holistic approach to curing disorders and general discomfort in the body’s system. Acupuncture benefits can clear the natural flow of qi energy in the body when energy flow is weakened or blocked by health conditions.

Acupuncture benefits can aid in maintaining general wellness and strengthening constitution. Acupuncture benefits can aid individuals that have a general sense of malaise without actually experiencing an adverse health condition. In determining acupuncture benefits, acupuncture can be used alongside conventional medicine in the treatment of both acute and chronic disease. Acupuncture benefits can be used either as preventative medicine or to effectively treat health conditions. Acupuncture benefits include overall gradual improvement in general health as well as your illness.

How long acupuncture benefits last depends on your acupuncture physician’s evaluation of your general state of health, in order to identify the underlying pattern of disharmony and assessment of the most effective therapy program and length. When determining acupuncture benefits, each therapy session increases vitality and energy, strengthens the immune system and enhances overall well-being. In traditional acupuncture, acupuncture benefits for each individual are unique and therefore the number of treatments required depends on the individual’s constitution.

For more information about acupuncture benefits, call Dr. Richard Browne, Acupuncture Physician and Homeopath at (305) 595-9500. For Oriental Medicine and Massage Therapy program information ask for Joe Calareso..

About 26 million individuals have chronic seasonal allergies and the number of people with milder symptoms might be as high as 40 million, according to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration. Many options are available to treat seasonal allergies. Medications can aid in reducing chemical, inflammatory or immune allergic reactions. Environmental controls, such as air filters and air purifiers, can also aid in allergy symptom management.

Conventional therapies for seasonal allergies include nasal corticosteroids, antihistamines, decongestants, non-steroidal nasal sprays, and allergy shots. These medications can help prevent symptoms of allergies, but often result in side effects such as increased nasal congestion, nose and throat dryness, fatigue, insomnia, sinus headache, and drowsiness. Each person has their own seasonal allergy reactions, which may include runny nose, sneezing, burning eyes, and itchy throat, as well as their individual reaction to various medications. A treatment plan should address your specific allergy symptoms.

With the start of spring allergy season, more people are benefiting from acupuncture for allergy symptom management. As a primary therapy modality or in combination with conventional medication, acupuncture effectively addresses the root cause of perennial allergic rhinitis, or seasonal allergies, by correcting the underlying immune system imbalance. A comprehensive treatment program combining acupuncture, Chinese herbal medicine, diet modification, and supplements can decrease inflammation, congestion, constriction of bronchial passages, and reactions to allergens.

Many individuals experience reduced dependency on medication after three to four acupuncture sessions. While results vary from person to person, many report decreased congestion as well as an improvement in their allergy symptoms within a few days after treatment. Seasonal allergy sufferers should begin acupuncture treatment early in the allergy season.

For information about Acupuncture & Massage College’s Oriental Medicine and Massage Therapy programs call Joe Calareso at (305) 595-9500. For information about acupuncture for seasonal allergies ask for Dr. Richard Browne, Acupuncture Physician and Homeopath.

Acupuncture can lower blood pressure by as much as 40 percent, according to a study recently released by the Susan Samueli Center for Integrative Medicine at the University of California, Irvine. Findings indicate that acupuncture can help normalize blood pressure—lower pressure when it is elevated or raise pressure when it is too low—and complements treatments for cardiovascular patients.

Though drug therapy and healthy lifestyle changes related to diet, exercise and weight loss are typically utilized to treat high blood pressure, some patients are looking for alternative solutions. “In our real world of clinical practice, we’re encountering patients who find it difficult to make these changes or who continue to have high pressure despite making real changes. They’re looking for something else, and acupuncture is a potential solution that’s relatively painless,” said Dr. John Longhurst, director of the Susan Samueli Center and study leader.

The Samueli Center’s research also found that acupuncture has a slow onset and prolonged effect. If treatments were stopped, the pressure would stay down for another month or so, and then rise over a period of weeks. “We believe these new findings on acupuncture and hypertension will help educate both Western and alternative medical practitioners while encouraging dialog on developing integrative treatment solutions,” said Longhurst.

Elevated blood pressure is due to either increased vascular constriction, or to the heart pumping excess volume into the blood vessels. Diuretics and other antihypertensives typically help with the latter; acupuncture appears to help with the former. Other recent studies from the Susan Samueli Center indicate that acupuncture relaxes vessels mainly through the central nervous system.

Acupuncture is an effective complementary modality for essential hypertension for both prevention and treatment. Anti-hypertensive effects of acupuncture are best for treatment of mild or first stage hypertension. Acupuncture is especially suitable for hypertensive individuals with existing liver or kidney complications that have low tolerance for anti-hypertensive medication.

For more information about acupuncture for normalizing blood pressure call Dr. Richard Browne, Acupuncture Physician and Homeopath at (305) 595-9500. For Oriental Medicine and Massage Therapy program information ask for Joe Calareso.

It’s the morning of your big presentation and you have an ugly cold sore on your upper lip. Why do cold sores always seem to appear when you have something important to do? Is it just bad luck?

What causes the cold sore is a virus called herpes simplex type 1 or type 2. Almost everyone in the whole world carries this virus. Stress is the main trigger for causing the virus to become active and appear as cold sores to break out.

Read the full Acupuncture for Cold Sores article at http://www.acupuncturistmiami.com/ailments/Acupuncture-for-Cold-Sores.htm

If you want to practice Eastern medicine, you must be a qualified Western medical practitioner, according to Russian authorities.

Acupuncture is taken twice as seriously there, because students wanting to become acupuncture physicians typically have to have some sort of related degree, such as a neuro-pathology degree.

Russian medics in both disciplines acknowledge that with acupuncture there are no negative effects, and also that it is a proven fact that acupuncture treatment releases endorphins, which are the body’s natural painkillers. (Acupuncture is still used in China in some areas as a general anaesthetic).

And the popularity of the use of acupuncture also seems to be growing according to Moscow news reports, which state there is an acupuncture physician in almost every medical clinic, with a more holistic approach.

In fact in some severe cases, Russians send patients to China for proper acupuncture treatment, as in the case of the Russia’s Beslan hostage crisis.

The Beslan school hostage crisis (also referred to as the Beslan Massacre) began when armed Muslim terrorists took more than 1200 school children and adults hostage in September 2004, in Beslan in North Ossetia.

Children who survived said that in addition to witnessing children being shot in the back and/or otherwise brutally murdered, they were denied food and water and had to take off their clothes because of the heat, said CNN.

Ten Russian children who suffered psychological trauma Beslan school hostage crisis got a month’s acupuncture treatment at the Hospital of Traditional Chinese Medicine in in Sanya, China’s southernmost city in Hainan Province. The recuperative treatment involved traditional Chinese therapies such as martial arts, qigong, massage therapy and acupuncture.

For more information on Acupuncture relief from Post Traumatic Stress Disorder, please call the Acupuncture & Massage College in Miami, at 305.595.9500.

In a revealing report on new techniques to reduce the adverse side effects from taking post-operative morphine after surgery, researchers found that using acupuncture before and during an operation cuts a patient’s need for the painkillers.

The report on Revolution Health, said that doctors could reduce the amount of morphine given to a patient, significantly, and improve the quality of analgesia.

About eight out of 10 patients typically experience side effects such as itchiness, dizziness and nausea from postoperative morphine. The analysis also found that acupuncture treatment reduced post-op itchiness by 30 percent, nausea by 50 percent and dizziness by 60 percent.

Another important benefit of acupuncture treatment is that acupuncture can significantly reduce urinary retention, which is uncomfortable for the patient. Using a catheter to relieve it only increases the possible risk of infection. By using acupuncture to treat post-operative urinary retention, doctors can minimize that risk.

For more information on acupuncture treatment for post-operative pain call Dr. Richard Browne at 305.595.9500 or visit www.acupuncturistmiami.com.

Good news for couples trying to get pregnant through in vitro fertilization! A recent Fox News
report said that in vitro fertilization, or IVF, is maximized by complementing it with acupuncture treatment.

A scientific review funded by the National Institutes of Health’s National Center for Complementary and Alternative Medicine (NCCAM) suggests that acupuncture might improve the odds of conceiving if done right before or after embryos are placed in the womb.

In acupuncture therapy for fertility, the body experiences an increase blood flow to the uterus, a relaxing the cervix and actually helps the body inhibit the production of “fight or flight” stress hormones that make it tougher for an embryo to implant. The study reported that the odds of conceiving went up about 65 percent for women given acupuncture.

IVF treatments typically run about costs around $12,000 per attempt, with patients making a minimum of three, so a treatment that improves its effectiveness will save couples thousands of dollars.

Fertility specialists are excited that this relatively inexpensive and simple treatment ca be integrated easily with modern methods.

The Results were published Friday in the British medical journal, BMJ.

Individuals who receive acupuncture for joint pain syndromes experience a significant reduction in the number of tender joints and measurable decrease in joint pain, stiffness and swelling. Acupuncture for joint pain syndromes, when used in conjunction with disease modifying agents, can provide beneficial pain relief for those with otherwise intractable joint pain.
Study findings indicate that acupuncture for joint pain syndromes can be an effective adjunct therapy. Acupuncture for joint pain syndromes can be an important element of a multidisciplinary approach to treating joint pain syndromes. Individuals who are treated with acupuncture for joint pain syndromes in addition to routine care often show significant improvements in symptoms and quality of life compared with individuals who receive routine care alone.
Within a three month initial acupuncture for joint pain syndromes treatment plan, individuals receiving acupuncture experience less pain and joint stiffness. A balanced, varied diet can also help ease the pain of joint pain syndromes by providing vitamins and minerals that keep joints healthy. Treating joint pain syndromes with acupuncture for joint pain syndromes should be seen as a long-term process, especially if the condition is chronic. Acupuncture for joint pain syndromes offers a safe non-drug alternative for individuals who cannot tolerate the currently available non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs prescribed to relieve inflammation in joints.
Traditional Chinese Medicine therapies, including acupuncture for joint pain syndromes and Chinese herbal medicine, are most important when conventional therapies are far from ideal. Most people over 50 show some signs of joint pain syndromes. Joints naturally deteriorate over time, resulting in loss of normal movement. Acupuncture for joint pain syndromes treats the specific symptoms that are unique to each individual. Acupuncture for joint pain syndromes has been found to be effective at alleviating the pain and inflammation associated with all types of joint pain syndromes. Acupuncture for joint pain syndromes often results in reducing dependence on pharmacotherapy and improves functional ability.
For more information about acupuncture for joint pain syndromes call Dr. Richard Browne, Acupuncture Physician and Homeopath, at (305) 595-9500. For Oriental Medicine and Massage Therapy program information ask for Joe Calareso.

When headaches occur more than a few times a month, acupuncture for headaches and migraines treatment is recommended. Chinese herbal formulas prescribed in conjunction with acupuncture for headaches and migraines are effective in maintaining health and preventing headache reoccurrence. Acupuncture improves cerebral circulation, allowing the afflicted area to obtain sufficient blood flow, oxygen and nutrition.

Acupuncture for headaches and migraines can reduce the intensity and frequency of headaches and migraines as well as analgesic consumption, and is frequently effective in cases where individuals receive little pain relief from medication. Acupuncture activates the parasympathetic nervous system to decrease stress and treat the causes and symptoms that are unique to each individual. Headaches and migraines may be accompanied by stress and may be complicated by other health conditions causing pain such as degenerative arthritis, structural or chemical abnormalities in or around the brain, spine disease, and musculoskeletal dysfunction.

Acupuncture for headaches and migraines releases endorphins (natural painkillers) and stabilizes levels of serotonin, a chemical messenger in the brain. After as few as 12 acupuncture for headaches and migraines treatment sessions, individuals experience fewer headaches and migraines. Acupuncture is also effective in the treatment of mixed headache disorders, in which tension, sinus and migraine headaches arise at different times and under different circumstances.
Although headaches and migraines are frequent health conditions leading to medical visits, allopathic treatment may be ineffective in pain management.

Acupuncture for headaches and migraines reduces occurrence of headaches by regulating the body’s flow of energy and reestablishing equilibrium. Holistic treatment programs for headaches and migraines often integrate acupuncture for headaches and migraines, Chinese herbal medicine and massage.
For more information about acupuncture for headaches and migraines call Dr. Richard Browne, Acupuncture Physician and Homeopath, at (305) 595-9500. For Oriental Medicine and Massage Therapy program information ask for Joe Calareso.