Children and Allergies
Jennifer Cochrane, Article for True North Magazine, 2008

The incidence of allergies in children has increased significantly in the past two decades and allergic disorders rank first among children’s chronic diseases. Over 50 million children are affected by environmental allergies and 5 million battle with food allergies. Any child may become allergic, but children from families with a history of allergies are more likely to be allergic, and they can show up in a number of different ways, the most common of which are skin rashes, asthma, allergic rhinitis (hay fever) and digestive disorders. The traditional treatment for allergies include antihistamines and decongestants which can leave a child feeling drowsy, unable to concentrate, and the long term use of these medications may actually reduce a child’s natural allergic response  to important intruders such as bacteria and viruses.

A Natural Alternative
Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) was developed over 4,000 years ago and is based on the principle that the body has the ability to heal itself. In TCM the body is viewed as a delicate balance between two opposing and inseparable forces; yin and yang. Health is achieved by maintaining the body in a "balanced state" as disease is due to an internal imbalance of yin and yang. This imbalance leads to blockage in the flow of Qi, our vital energy or life force, but can be unblocked by using acupuncture or acupressure at certain points on the body. TCM treats the individual and believes that allergy symptoms are a way of expressing a deeper imbalance in a person’s system.  Acupuncture has been proven to alter the secretion of neurotransmitters and neurohormones, regulate the blood flow and stimulate the immune system, all of which are necessary components in the treatment of allergies.

NAET
Nambudripad’s Allergy Elimination Techniques, also known as NAET, is a non-invasive, drug free, natural solution to eliminate allergies of all types and intensities. Developed over twenty-five years ago, NAET blends acupuncture/acupressure, allopathic (western medicine), kinesiology and nutritional disciplines of medicine.

An allergy attack is an immune response. The body’s immune system becomes sensitive and reacts to substances called allergens such as pollen, dust, molds and food. When someone who is allergic to a substance that they come in contact with, that allergen stimulates your immune system into a hyperactive mode and your body’s natural defense sets in resulting in sneezing, sinus congestion, skin outbreaks, etc. Through the stimulation of certain acupuncture points, an NAET practitioner can help to “re-program” your immune response so that it no longer reacts to an allergen, thusly relieving you of your symptoms.

 NAET Treatments for Children
NAET treatments are extremely safe and comfortable.  During a treatment the child is asked to grasp a glass vile containing the allergic substance, thusly sending a signal to the brain that in return triggers the immune response of the body. The immune response is then desensitized by massaging specific acupuncture points along the spine, and this protocol is repeated until the immune response has disappeared. Once this has been achieved, ten specific acupuncture points located on the child’s arms and lower legs are massaged for 1-2 minutes each. They are then asked to be calm for twenty minutes in order for the treatment to take effect. This is typically the most “painful” part of the treatment, but can be spent coloring, reading, or playing with a favorite toy from home.  Once the twenty minutes are complete the child MUST stay away from the allergic substance for twenty four hours. This means not touching, eating or inhaling the substance.

After the twenty four hours have been successfully completed the child can now be around the allergic substance, and in most cases will no longer have an allergic response. Depending on how severe the allergy is that’s being treated, typically one treatment clears one allergy. For instance, if a child is allergic to pet dander, mold, juniper and milk, it will take at least four treatments to clear all of the allergies. However, once the immune system becomes desensitized to specific allergens through the NAET process, allergies can be eliminated for many years, or even for a lifetime.

Resources on NAET
www.naet.com
Say Goodbye to Your Allergies by Dr. Nambudripad

Living With Hepatitis
Chicago Tribune, June 9, 2002

... Though the incidence of new infections declined to 40,000 in 1998 from 240,000 annually in the 1980's with the advent of screening for donated blood, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the frequency of diagnosis is increasing, said Dr. Helen Te, a hepatologist and instructor of clinical medicine at the University of Chicago.

    "It's a very indolent infection; it could take 15 or 20 years before [symptoms] are manifested," she said. "Now that there's so much public information out there, people are coming forward to be tested, or they're seeing their doctor for other issues, or donating blood, and being screened."

    Of all types of hepatitis, HCV (Hepatitis C Virus) is of the greatest concern to the medical community and public health officials. Unlike hepatitis B, where only 5 to 6 percent of victims develop chronic infection, HCV causes chronic infection in 70 to 85 percent of patients. There is no vaccine against HCV, unlike A or B, and the disease can be "silent" for decades.

    ... there are patients for whom treatment is inappropriate - nearly 30 percent, according to study findings published in the February 2002 Annals of Internal medicine. (That group would include the very elderly who don't yet show significant liver damage, people who are depressed and also people who are abusing drugs and alcohol.

    ... Treatment side effects can vary from mild to what can only be described as "horrendous," including depression, fatigue, anemia, hair loss, thyroid problems and severe head and backaches.

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Gua Sha Therapy
Chicago Tribune - August 18, 2002
(selected excerpts)

Gua sha (pronounced gwaw saw) stone massage is practiced most often in rural Chinese homes and in numerous clinics in China. In the United States, many Chinese families do gua sha at home. 

Gua means "to rub or scrape." Sha is the red, pebbly rash that surfaces afterward, signifying that cellular debris, or "stagnant blood," as the Chinese call it, is being expelled through the skin.

Some might call the 2,000-year-old technique a touch barbaric, because it may cause mild to moderate discomfort in some patients. Others feel no pain or even are tickled by the technique.

Like acupuncture, gua sha is based of the Asian concept of promoting qi (pronounced chee) - the body's vital energy or life force. Practitioners of Eastern medicine believe that qi runs along meridians of energy that start or end in the fingers, feet and face. Points on the meridians govern particular organs. For example, when a patient's wrist turns red during gua sha, it means qi is blocked in the lungs, large intestine, small intestine, heart and pericardium (the sac around the heart). Redness in the face can signal a blockage in the gallbladder, stomach, bladder or large intestine. Most practitioners do gua sha on arms, back and chest, where many of the meridians lie.

Many doctors who practice conventional, Western medicine dismiss the concept of qi and feel more comfortable believing that gua sha, acupuncture and other Eastern techniques "bring circulation to the afflicted area and thereby loosen up the muscle." 

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Morning Sickness
www.vegetariantimes.com - July 2002
 

There's new and natural hope for the 70 to 85 percent of women who experience morning sickness during pregnancy. The effect of acupuncture on 593 women who were less than 14 weeks pregnant has been evaluated at Australia's Adelaide University, with this result: Acupuncture was found to be "an effective non-pharmacological treatment option" for those who experience nausea and other pregnancy-related discomfort, says obstetrics researcher Caroline Smith. Reported in the March 2002 issue of the journal Birth, the study found that acupuncture administered five times during the four-week study made the women feel better - without adverse side effects.

 

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Acupuncture Update
NBC News - September 24, 2001
 

Today, NBC news aired a segment concerning the treatment of Asthma with Oriental Medicine and Acupuncture. Since Asthma is a very serious problem that affects millions of Americans, the Health Industry has committed a significant amount of resources to finding new ways to combat Asthma with a minimum of side effects and maximum effectiveness.                                                       

The most significant advance in the search for new cures that has been recently made is the discovery of how effective Chinese Medicine is against Asthma. Now there is sufficient scientific proof of the effectiveness of Acupuncture and Chinese Medicine in treatment of Asthma.

To ensure positive results it is of utmost importance to choose an Acupuncturist with solid medical background and practical experience in treating Asthma.

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Estrogen Therapy May Not Be Worth It
Chicago Sun Times - June 2001
By Rita Rubin
 

Hormone replacement therapy has been promoted for everything from protecting against heart attacks to staving off Alzheimer's. But evidence is accumulating that women should not count on it for more than relief of menopause symptoms such as hot flashes.

Even osteoporosis prevention - the main reason women over 60, who are no longer having menopausal symptoms, are prescribed hormone replacement therapy - is being questioned in a research analysis published in today's Journal of American Medical Association.
 

At the same time that hormone therapy's benefits are becoming murkier, the potential risks of long-term therapy - mainly an increased risk of breast and ovarian cancer and blood clots - are becoming more worrisome.
 

"Why take it?" asks Steven Cummings, co-author of an editorial accompanying the JAMA paper. "If it's for hot flashes, it's clear it works. If it's for prevention of anything [else], it's not clear yet."
 

From heart disease to Alzheimer's to osteoporosis, hormone replacement therapy has long been promoted as a key to preventing illnesses in women over 60.

But the treatment's effectiveness and safety are starting to come under scrutiny.

Apparently, the latest research about the therapy's effects has not trickled down to many doctors who care for postmenopausal women, nor, as a result, to the women themselves.

"The problem, from our perspective, is it's still being offered to too many women with misinformation about how they can hope to benefit from taking it," said Synthia Pearson with the National Women's Health Network, a nonprofit group in Washington, DC.

Premarin, the leading brand of estrogen, sold alone or combined with another hormone in Prempro and Premphase, remains one of the most widely prescribed drugs in the world. In the North American Menopause Society's most recent survey of women ages 45 to 65, conduced in 1998, 34 percent of respondents said they were on the therapy.

Many of these women hope the therapy will prevent thinning of their bones. But in today's Journal of the American Medical Association, an analysis of 22 therapy trials by British researchers found a reduction in bone fracture risk only in women who started treatment before age 60.
 

In their accompanying editorial, Steven Cummings and Deborah Grady, both from the University of California - San Francisco, question whether the therapy even prevents fractures in women who start taking it before 60, because the studies in the analysis weren't designed to look at osteoporosis. The study "highlights the fact that evidence about the efficacy of postmenopausal estrogen for prevention of osteoporotic fractures is weak," they write.
 

Intuitively, it makes sense that the therapy would work wonders. Osteoporosis, heart attacks and Alzheimer's disease become more common as women age. And, with ovaries intact, younger women's bodies produce far more estrogen than older women's.

Early research supported the notion that women benefited from taking supplemental estrogen. In those so-called "observational studies," women who chose to go on the therapy were indeed less likely to suffer heart attacks than their peers.

All along, though, skeptics have wondered whether the therapy's apparent advantage was a self-fulfilling prophecy. Women who opt to go on therapy tend to be better educated and more health conscious, which could reduce their heart disease risk. The only way to know for sure would be to conduct trials in which half of the participants received the therapy, the other half a placebo.
 

To the surprise of many, four studies have found that he therapy increased women's risk of heart attacks and strokes during the first year of two, said Jacques Rossouw, acting director of the Women's Health Institute, the largest of the studies.

Gannett News Service

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Cost Effectiveness of Acupuncture
National Acupuncture and Oriental Medicine Alliance
 

Acupuncture treatment Results in Avoidance of Surgery

29 patients with severe osteoarthritis of the Knee, each awaiting arthoplasty surgery, were randomized to receive a course of acupuncture treatment or be placed on a waiting list to receive similar acupuncture treatment starting 9 weeks later. Of the 29 patients, 7 were able to cancel their scheduled surgeries.  

Cost savings; $9000 per patient.

Christensen BV et al (1992) "Acupuncture treatment of severe knee osteoarthrosis: a long-term study", Acta Anesthesol Scand 36:519-525

Acupuncture Treatment Results in Decreased Days In Hospital or Nursing Home

Half of 78 stroke patients receiving standard rehabilitative care were randomly chosen to receive adjunctive acupuncture treatment. Patients given acupuncture recovered faster and to a greater extent, spending 88 days/patient in hospital and nursing homes compared to 161 days/patient for standard care alone. 

Cost savings: $26,000 per patient.

Johansson K et al (1994), "Can sensory stimulation improve the functional outcome in stroke patients?", Neurology 43:2189-2192

Acupuncture Treatment Allows Low-Back Pain Patients To Return To Physical Labor

56 patients at a workers’ compensation clinic were randomized to receive either physical therapy/occupational therapy/exercise or the standard care plus acupuncture. Of the 29 treated with acupuncture, 18 returned to their original or equivalent jobs and 10 returned to lighter employment. Of the 27 who received only standard therapy, 4 returned to original or equivalent jobs and 14 to lighter employment.

Gunn CC et al (1980), "Dry needling or muscle motor points for chronic low-back pain", Spine 5:279-291

Acupuncture Treatment Results In Avoidance of Surgery, Fewer Hospital Visits And Greater Return to Employment

69 patients with severe angina pectoris received 12 acupuncture treatments in 4 weeks. Patients were also instructed to perform shiatsu 2x/day and received counseling in stress reduction, exercise and diet. Of the 49 patients who were candidates for coronary bypass or balloon angioplasty surgery, 30 had surgery postponed by the 2-year follow-up due to clinical improvement. 

Cost savings: 79% first year post-treatment, 95% 2^nd year post-treatment. Reduction in number of outpatient visits: 60% and 87% respectively. Estimated additional cost savings from increase in percent of patients able to work: 11% prior to treatment; 60% at 2 years post-treatment. Estimated savings in annual sick pay: $18,000/patient.

Ballegaard S et al (1996) "Cost-Benefit of Combined use of acupuncture, shiatsu and lifestyle adjustment for treatment of patients with severe angina pectoris", Acupunct Electro-Ther Res 21:187-197

Summarized by Richard Hammerschlag, Ph. D., President, Yo San University.
 

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Curr Opin Allergy Clin Immunol. 2003 Oct;3(5):395-9.
Review of complementary and alternative medicine in treatment of ocular allergies.
Bielory L, Heimall J.
Department of Medicine, UMDNJ-New Jersey Medical School, Newark, New Jersey 07103, USA.

PURPOSE OF REVIEW: Ocular allergy is a common complaint of allergy sufferers, many of whom may choose to use complementary and alternative medicine in the treatment of these symptoms. In this review major complementary and alternative medicine modalities including herbal therapies, acupuncture, homeopathy, alternative immunotherapy and behavior modification are assessed for evidence of their effectiveness in the treatment of ocular allergy symptoms. RECENT FINDINGS...Acupuncture used regularly has demonstrated some positive trends in ocular allergy sufferers. Homeopathy has shown conflicting results in the treatment of ocular allergy, while alternative forms of immunotherapy have been shown to develop immunologic tolerogenic effects in the control of the condition...”

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