Acupuncture for Pregnancy-related Pelvic Girdle Pain (PPGP)

September 8, 2015
29 year-old Julie has been pregnant for 24 weeks. For over a week she has been having a bad pain in her left groin and it radiates to her left thigh. The pain makes her limp and the most painful time is when she goes downstairs. Her doctor calls this "pregnancy-related pelvic girdle pain "(PPGP). 
PPGP is a collection of uncomfortable symptoms caused by a misalignment or stiffness of the pelvic joints at either the back or front of the pelvis. The symptoms can include pain over the pubic bone at the front in the centre, pain across one or both sides of your lower back, or pain in the area between the vagina and anus (perineum). 
It’s estimated that PPGP affects up to one in five pregnant women to some degree. It’s not known exactly why pelvic pain affects some women, but it’s thought to be linked to a number of issues, including previous damage to the pelvis, pelvic joints moving unevenly, and the weight or position of the baby.
For Julie's pain, I used four acupuncture points - one in her left hip, three in her left leg. She felt a relief right after the first session. The second and third sessions weren't as good as the first one so I added moxabustion on the point in her hip, then she felt an improvement again. After five sessions of acupuncture, Julie could hardly feel the pain. To make sure she was pain-free, we had one more session. Julie said she would come back for acupuncture if the pain started again.        
                                                               
 

Efficacy comparison between Chinese medicine's labor inducement methods and conventional methods customary in hospitals

August 24, 2015
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/25796676
Harefuah 2015; 154 (1): 47-51, 67, 66
By Amir N
Abstract

INTRODUCTION: According to Chinese medicine, a correct balance of Qi (energy) and quantity of blood are vital in order to commence labor and continue the childbirth process. Correspondingly, there are two main reasons for a delayed or difficult childbirth: lack of Qi and blood or stagnation of Qi and blood.

AIM: Efficacy comparison of Chinese medicine's inducement methods to conventional methods...

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Acupuncture on GB34 activates the precentral gyrus and prefrontal cortex in Parkinson's disease

June 30, 2015
http://www.biomedcentral.com/1472-6882/14/336/abstract BMC Complement Altern Med. 2014 Sep 15;14(1):336. By Sujung Yeo

BACKGROUND: Acupuncture is increasingly used as an additional treatment for patients with Parkinson's disease (PD).

METHODS: In this functional magnetic resonance imaging study, brain activation in response to acupuncture in a group of 12 patients with PD was compared with a group of 12 healthy participants. Acupuncture was conducted on a specific acupoint, the right GB 34 (Y...

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Moxibustion And Acupuncture For The Treatment Of Crohn's Disease

May 26, 2015
Randomized controlled trial: Moxibustion and acupuncture for the treatment of Crohn's disease. http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4138481/ World J Gastroenterol. 2014 Aug 21;20 (31):11000-11.
By Bao CH

AIM: To evaluate the clinical efficacy and safety of acupuncture and moxibustion for the treatment of active Crohn's disease (CD).
METHODS: Ninety-two patients were equally and randomly divided into the treatment group and received herb-partitioned moxibustion combined with acupuncture...
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Acupuncture for Barrett's Oesophagus

April 2, 2015
Jeanne, a 71-year-old housewife, started having reflux, swallowing difficulty and cough two years ago. As nothing could control the symptoms, she was sent for an endoscopy examination six months ago then was diagnosed with Barrett's oesophagus. This condition refers to an abnormal change in the cells of the lower portion of the oesophagus. It is characterized by the replacement of the normal stratified squamous epithelium lining of the oesophagus by simple columnar epithelium with goblet cell...

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Acupuncture for Hemorrhoid

February 27, 2015
Sarah has had hemorrhoid for 10 years. Her symptoms were not too bad until her pregnancy 17 months ago. Since then she has been suffering from non-stop bleeding, pain and itchiness, especially at night. She has been to see the doctor and tried different ointments but couldn't get relief. She also had 6 sessions of acupuncture treatment from someone and that didn't help either. One day she came to ask me if Chinese herbal medicine could help. I explained to her that although Chinese herbs coul...
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