Acupuncture and Anxiety

Acupuncture Point, Yin Tang, Relieves Children's Preoperative Anxiety
By: Diane Joswick, L.Ac., MSOM
A study published in the September issue of Anesthesia & Analgesia found that stimulation of the acupuncture point, Yin Tang, alleviated preoperative anxiety in children.

According to the researchers, this could be of great clinical importance due to the fact that excessive preoperative anxiety contributes to operative delays and heightens the pain response.

Fifty-two children participated in the study, where an adhesive bead was either placed on Yin Tang (located between the eyebrows) or on a sham acupuncture point (a spot above the left eyebrow that hasn't been linked to any clinical effects) before a gastrointestinal endoscopic procedure. The researchers found that stimulation of Yin Tang reduced anxiety by 9% during the preoperative waiting period whereas anxiety continued to rise 2% for children who got sham acupressure. Anxiety levels were measured by the State Trait Anxiety Inventory for Children questionnaire, considered the "gold standard" for pediatric assessment.

According to the researchers, this could be of great clinically important due to the fact that excessive preoperative anxiety contributes to operative delays and heightens the pain response.

While traditional acupuncture on Yin Tang has been shown to relieve anxiety in adults before surgery, the researchers wanted to study the efficacy of stimulating the point with an adhesive bead which would be much easier to incorporate into a preoperative treatment protocol, especially in children.

Source: Anesthesia & Analgesia September, 2008; 107: 811-6

Sullivan Acupuncture Q&A: Acupuncture Schools

After about 6 years in private practice people are still curious about how I got into Chinese Medicine. Many of my patients are also curious about where someone would go to learn acupuncture in the US. They often think that someone could only learn in China. They wonder how someone living in Memphis or Bartlett, TN would actually be able to practice Traditional Chinese Medicine effectively.
There are currently around 65 acupuncture and chinese medicine schools in the country. Most on either the west coast or east coast. A few more are located in the upper midwest states. Deep South states like Tennessee, Mississippi, and Alabama do not have any schools yet. The Council of Colleges of Acupuncture and Oriental Medicine have a complete list of the accredited schools. The programs offer extensive courses of study that hover around the 2500 hour mark.

Here is the curriculum overview from the Oregon College of Oriental Medicine :
"Our four-academic-year (three-calendar-year) program in acupuncture and Oriental medicine consists of 3,272 total hours, for which 211.68 quarter credits are granted. Of these, 960 hours are devoted to clinical studies.

Qi Cultivation Our students study two years of qi cultivation: one full year of qigong, and a second of advanced qigong or taiji. These internal development arts support personal health and creativity and provide the groundwork for direct, experiential understanding of the fundamental energetic concepts of Oriental medicine.

Oriental Therapeutic Massage Students study six weeks of shiatsu, a Japanese form of acupressure and six weeks of tuina, a Chinese form of massage before determining their focus for three more quarters of study.

Traditional Chinese Medicine Theory Throughout the master’s program, students will explore the theories that serve as the foundation for the practice of Chinese medicine.

Acupuncture Theory and Practice First-year students will study the location of more than 400 points and the channel theory on which acupuncture is based. As they progress through the program, students will master the functions of the acupuncture points, design acupuncture treatments, learn and practice basic and advanced techniques of needling, as well as adjunctive therapies such as moxibustion, cupping, and electrical stimulation of points.

Chinese Herbal Medicine After studying more than 300 individual herbs of the Chinese herbal pharmacopoeia, students learn to combine these herbs into classical formulas and to modify those formulas to meet the needs of individual patients. Working in the Chinese herbal dispensary helps students become familiar with the look, feel, smell, and taste of the herbs and the specificity of their clinical applications.

Biomedicine Coursework in basic sciences; anatomy and physiology; living anatomy; western pathology; western clinical diagnosis; western pharmacology; diet and nutrition; public and community health enable our students to partner with patients and their providers to offer optimum care to their patients.

Professional Development Students develop their ethical and legal awareness, case management capabilities, and marketing and practice building skills in a series of dedicated courses and a community outreach practicum.

Clinical Studies Clinical training affords students the opportunity to integrate their knowledge and skills and apply them to the treatment of patients in a carefully structured and supervised learning environment. For more information about clinical education at Oregon College of Oriental Medicine, click here.

To learn more about the master’s degree curriculum, including course descriptions and a year-by-year narrative, we encourage you to download our catalog."

As a side note there is an Acupuncture training course at UCLA Med school that is about 300 hours. Another company out of San Francisco is offering a TCM based acupuncture and herbal program to physicians that also hovers around the 300 hour mark. Some chiropractic colleges offer a few courses on acupuncture here and there.

Layman's Guide to Acupuncture

I found the Layman's guide to acupuncture while surfing around today. It has solid information on all aspects of Traditional Chinese Medicine.
If you have time go check it out at www.acupuncture.edu.

My Location

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Acupuncture within easy driving distance for East Memphis, Bartlett, Germantown, Collierville, TN

Acupuncture Points: P6 curtesy of Acuxo

More info Available at Acuxo.com

PC6 • Nei Guan • Pericardium 6 Inner Pass. Luo Connecting Point on the Pericardium Channel to TE4. Special Command Point for the Thorax.

Location: On the anterior forearm, 2 cun superior to the transverse wrist crease, between the tendons of palmaris longus and flexor carpi radialis muscles.

Unbinds The Chest Regulates The Heart Harmonizes The Stomach Clears Heat Opens The Yin Linking Vessel Regulates Qi Calms The Spirit Alleviates Nausea And Vomiting

Abdominal Fullness • Abdominal Pain • Arm Contraction • Arm Pain • Asthma • Cardiac Arrhythmia • Cardiac Conditions • Cardiac Pain • Chest Discomfort • Chest Pain • Elbow Problems • Fever • Headache Migraine • Hiccough • Hypochondriac Region Pain • Hysteria • Insomnia • Jaundice • Malaria • Memory Impaired • Menses Irregular • Mental Disorders • Metabolic Disturbances • Nausea • Palpitations • Rectal Prolapse • Seizures • Stomach Pain • Surgical Pain Or Post Surgical Shock • Vomiting • Windstroke •

Sullivan Acupuncture FAQ: What is Qi?

Qi is a difficult concept to talk about. Essentially, one can say that if you are eating properly, getting enough sleep, moderating the lifestyle and relatively healthy then it is possible to say that you have "good qi". Many authors have written that qi equates to life force energy. While this is true, it has much deeper meanings associated with the climate, atmosphere, seasons, structure of the body, etc. For more info go to this Wiki page.

Patient Testimonials From Acupuncture.com

Acupuncture.com has a huge amount of information available for patients. One of my favorite components of that site is the Patient Testimonial section. While Mrs Shepard is not a patient of mine she wrote this testimonial regarding neck and back pain:

By Janet Shepard

Hello, My name is Janet Shepard and I live in Alaska. I want to say that my first three acupuncture treatments have significantly healed constant neck and back pain that I have had for years. Although movement therapy and chiropractics helped me previously, nothing has reduced the pain more than acupuncture. I have recommended it to several friends that have constant neck and back pain. One of my friends that went to my acupuncturist has been very please with the reduction of her neck/back pain.

Chuck Sullivan, L.Ac. is available at Acupuncture and Healing Arts Medical Group for the treatment of neck and back pain. He uses a variety of techniques to achieve results. These techniques include acupuncture, acupressure, gua sha, cupping, and herbs.

Memphis Tai Chi Curriculum

Your acupuncture treatment is greatly enhanced by the practice of Tai Chi Chuan. It develops coordination, leg strength, balance, etc. You also develop enhanced sensitivity and awareness of your body and mind. Please read this post to find out more info regarding our Wudang Tai Chi Lineage.

The Sullivan Acupuncture/Memphis Internal Arts curriculum includes a 12 posture form in the style of Wudang Tai Chi Chuan. I have been working on this form with Ping for about 2 years now. The body mechanics are very intricate. I posted a previous clip of him performing some movements. Please view those for more in depth review. Here is a short article I found on the web tonight that talks about the Sun style connection to Wudang Tai Chi Chuan. The link (editors note: I can't find the authors link) to the original article can be found here.



Yeh Da-Mi, (1888-1973), also called Bai-Ling, was born in the city of Wen Cheng, ZheJiang province. His family had been famous for many generations for their knowledge and practice of medicine and martial arts. Master Yeh was intelligent and diligent. He excelled in Tui-Na (Traditional Chinese medical massage), Dao-Yin (Induction and channeling of life force), Qi-Gong, and Taiji Quan, but he was most drawn to Taiji Quan.
In 1917, he began to study Yang style Taiji in Hung-Zhou city with Tian, Zhao-Lin (田兆麟), becoming one of his “open door” students. Tian had studied with the Yang style masters Yang Jian-Hou (楊健侯) and Yang Shao-Hou (楊少侯) and had learned and mastered the essence of the Yang style Middle-Frame Taiji. The following year, Yeh met Sun, Cun-Zhou (孫存周) (Son of Grand Master Sun, Lu-Tang (孫祿堂)) who was the leading proponent of Sun style Taiji. They shared the same passion for Taiji and considered themselves blood brothers. They practiced together, shared and learned from each other’s arts. Master Yeh had gained insight into the method of applying internal energy from both Sun, Cun-Zhou and Grand Master Sun, Lu-Tang.
In 1926, Master Yeh founded the Wutang Taiji Quan School in ShangHai and began teaching Yang style Taiji. The following year, the Wutang Sword master Li, Jing-Lin came to Shanghai. Master Yeh and two of his friends, Chen, Wei-Ming and Chen, Zhi-Jing studied the Wutang Sword form with master Li in order to promote and popularize it.
In 1928, Grand Master Yang, Shao-Hou and Yang, Cheng-Fu settled in NanKing. Master Yeh followed them and learned the Large-Frame Taiji forms and the techniques of cultivating and applying internal energy. An open-minded Scholar, Yeh was able to incorporate the new techniques and greatly advanced his skills. In his later years, Yeh pointed out the three major sources of his own style of Taiji to his student Jin, Ren-Lin(金仁霖): Yang style Taiji Quan, Sun style internal energy system, and Wutang sword form. As Jin, Ren-Lin explained, “The art of Master Yeh’s Taiji Quan represent a harmonious blend of elements of Sun style energy system, Yang style Taiji, and Wutang Sword form. It is a style of its own.” Jin Ren-Lin also said, “Master Yeh considered Sun style’s internal energy system is the most powerful of all of the Chinese martial arts. The invisible energy penetrates your body without you being aware of it. Even though you feel nothing, you are injured by the tremendous power. Yang style incorporates a vast amount of martial application in their solo form; they also established the most systematic training methods in their push hand practices. Master Li’s Wutang sword techniques is a very practical sword form, the inner work of this soft sword style can be a great inspiration to the advancement of one’s Taiji skill.
Master Yeh not only taught traditional Taiji Quan and Wutang Sword technique, but also focused on inspiring the next generation...

Sullivan Acupuncture Q&A: What does acupuncture treat?

For complete article go here:

In an official report, Acupuncture: Review and Analysis of Reports on Controlled Clinical Trials, the WHO (WHO) has listed the following symptoms, diseases and conditions that have been shown through controlled trials to be treated effectively by acupuncture:

* low back pain
* neck pain
* sciatica
* tennis elbow
* knee pain
* periarthritis of the shoulder
* sprains
* facial pain (including craniomandibular disorders)
* headache
* dental pain
* tempromandibular (TMJ) dysfunction
* rheumatoid arthritis
* induction of labor
* correction of malposition of fetus (breech presentation)
* morning sickness
* nausea and vomiting
* postoperative pain
* stroke
* essential hypertension
* primary hypotension
* renal colic
* leucopenia
* adverse reactions to radiation or chemotherapy
* allergic rhinitis, including hay fever
* biliary colic
* depression (including depressive neurosis and depression following stroke)
* acute bacillary dysentery
* primary dysmenorrhea
* acute epigastralgia
* peptic ulcer
* acute and chronic gastritis

Acupuncture in the Armed Forces

As a former Airman, this article proved to be extremely interesting. It recently appeared in the commercial appeal and I would share it with you all.

Air Force to train combat docs to use acupuncture

By KAMALA LANE – 11 hours ago

WASHINGTON (AP) — Chief Warrant Officer James Brad Smith broke five ribs, punctured a lung and shattered bones in his hand and thigh after falling more than 20 feet from a Black Hawk helicopter in Baghdad last month.

While he was recovering at Walter Reed Army Medical Center in Washington, his doctor suggested he add acupuncture to his treatment to help with the pain.

On a recent morning, Col. Richard Niemtzow, an Air Force physician, carefully pushed a short needle into part of Smith's outer ear. The soldier flinched, saying it felt like he "got clipped by something." By the time three more of the tiny, gold alloy needles were arranged around the ear, though, the pain from his injuries began to ease.

"My ribs feel numb now and I feel it a little less in my hand," Smith said, raising his injured arm. "The pain isn't as sharp. It's maybe 50 percent better."

Acupuncture involves placing very thin needles at specific points on the body to try to control pain and reduce stress. There are only theories about how, why and even whether it might work.

Regardless, the ancient Chinese practice has been gradually catching on as a pain treatment for troops who come home wounded.

Now the Air Force, which runs the military's only acupuncture clinic, is training doctors to take acupuncture to the war zones of Iraq and Afghanistan. A pilot program starting in March will prepare 44 Air Force, Navy and Army doctors to use acupuncture as part of emergency care in combat and in frontline hospitals, not just on bases back home.

They will learn "battlefield acupuncture," a method Niemtzow developed in 2001 that's derived from traditional ear acupuncture but uses the short needles to better fit under combat helmets so soldiers can continue their missions with the needles inserted to relieve pain. The needles are applied to five points on the outer ear. Niemtzow says most of his patients say their pain decreases within minutes.

The Navy has begun a similar pilot program to train its doctors at Camp Pendleton in California.

Niemtzow is chief of the acupuncture clinic at Andrews Air Force Base. He's leading the new program after training many of about 50 active duty military physicians who practice acupuncture.

The U.S. military encountered acupuncture during the Vietnam War, when an Army surgeon wrote in a 1967 edition of Military Medicine magazine about local physicians who were allowed to practice at a U.S. Army surgical hospital and administered acupuncture to Vietnamese patients.

Niemtzow started offering acupuncture in 1995 at McGuire Air Force Base in New Jersey. Several years later, he became the first full-time military medical acupuncturist for the Navy, which also provides health care for the Marines.

Later, he established the acupuncture clinic at the Malcolm Grow Medical Center at Andrews, and he continued to expand acupuncture by treating patients at Walter Reed and other Air Force bases in the country and in Germany. Niemtzow and his colleague Col. Stephen Burns administer about a dozen forms of acupuncture — including one type that uses lasers — to soldiers and their families every week.

Col. Arnyce Pock, medical director for the Air Force Medical Corps, said acupuncture comes without the side effects that are common after taking traditional painkillers. Acupuncture also quickly treats pain.

"It allows troops to reduce the number of narcotics they take for pain, and have a better assessment of any underlying brain injury they may have," Pock said. "When they're on narcotics, you can't do that because they're feeling the effects of the drugs."

Niemtzow cautions that while acupuncture can be effective, it's not a cure-all.

"In some instances it doesn't work," he said. "But it can be another tool in one's toolbox to be used in addition to painkillers to reduce the level of pain even further."

Smith says the throbbing pain in his leg didn't change with acupuncture treatment but that the pain levels in his arm and ribs were the lowest they've been since he was injured. He also said that he didn't feel groggy afterward, a side-effect he usually experiences from the low-level morphine he takes.

Ultimately, Niemtzow would like troops to learn acupuncture so they can treat each other while out on missions. For now, the Air Force program is limited to training physicians.

He says it's "remarkable" for the military, a "conservative institution," to incorporate acupuncture.

"The history of military medicine is rich in development," he said, "and a lot of people say that if the military is using it, then it must be good for the civilian world."

Chinese Medicine Documentary

Part with Medical Research Information