Acupuncture and Remedial Massage Therapy in Melbourne CBD

Month: March 2017

Iva Baloun AcupunctureBlog2017March
By iva_baloun 0 Comments Acupuncture, Chinese herbal Medicine, Melbourne city CBD , , , ,

Are antidepressants working for our children and teens?

A significant review of antidepressant use has found that they are mostly ineffective and could even harm children and teens.
Study published in The Lancet, the review led by researchers at Oxford University, assessed the evidence for 14 different antidepressants commonly prescribed for young people. The 34 trials reviewed encompassed over 5000 participants aged 9 to 18.
Incredibly, only one antidepressant- Prozac (fluoxetine) was seen to be more effective than placebo treatment. On the other end of scale, the antidepressant venlafaxine was shown to increase suicidal thoughts.
Clearly the findings are disturbing – particularly for parents of teens or children with depression.
The report recommended “children and adolescents taking antidepressants be carefully monitored closely, regardless of the antidepressants chosen, particularly at the beginning of the treatment.”
Other research highlights that avoiding treatment for depression can also be dangerous. So what can parents do? Arm themselves with information, speak to variety of health and allied health professionals and work out best possible strategy for their specific need.
One of the alternatives is Acupuncture and counselling.
Some Chinese herbs can also be used.
Extract from Natural Therapy pages news letter, March 2017

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By iva_baloun 0 Comments Acupuncture, Ear Acupuncture, Melbourne city CBD , , , , ,

Carpal tunnel syndrome can be treated with Acupuncture

According to latest research, published in the journal “Brain”, a team of investigators based at the Athinoula A. Martinos Center for Biomedical Imaging at the Massachusetts General Hospital sheds light on how …..
To get to the root of the question, Napadow and colleagues performed a sham-controlled acupuncture neuroimaging study of carpal tunnel syndrome (CTS), a neuropathic pain disorder. Few chronic pain disorders have established biomarkers or measurable treatment outcomes. However, in CTS measurements taken at the wrist of the speed at which signals are transmitted along the median nerve are a well known and accepted biomarker. In addition the studies by Napadow and others have shown that the brain – particularly the primary sensory cortex, which receives signals related to the sense of touch – is remapped in CTS. Specifically, brain cells that usually respond to touch signals from specific fingers start to respond to signals from multiple fingers, which provides another measurable outcome.
Using MRI (magnetic resonance imaging) before and after several months of therapy in three different groups of CTS patients – one receiving electroacupuncture at the affected hand, one receiving electroacupuncture at the ankle opposite the affected hand and the other receiving sham electroacupuncture with placebo needles near the affected hand – the researchers have found that both real and sham acupuncture improved patient – reported CTS symptoms. However, there were notable differences in physiologic measures.
Real acupuncture at the affected hand lead to measurable improvements in outcomes both at the affected wrist and in the brain….. while Acupuncture at the opposite ankle produced improvement at the wrist only.
Brain remapping immediately after real acupuncture was linked to long term improvement in CTS symptoms. No physiologic improvements resulted from Sham acupuncture.
“Extract from an article published by scienmag.com, March 2, 2017

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