Acupuncture gains momentum in military health care

According to an Army News Service article published June 25, a report released by the Army's surgeon general June 23 recommended more than 100 changes in the Army's health care system. "The Pain Management Task Force's final report, which was initiated by Lt. Gen. Eric B. Schoomaker in August of 2009, addresses the lack of a comprehensive pain management strategy across the Army, and suggests alternative treatments to medication such as acupuncture, meditation, biofeedback and yoga.

Also noted in the report is the fact that pain management has changed very little since the discovery of morphine in 1805. Warner Barracks is one of a few Army health clinics to respond to the pain management strategy with the use of auricular acupuncture for mild Traumatic Brain Injury patients. Auricular acupuncture refers to points located on the ears. "This and further concerns about combining medications in drug therapy have led to an increase in alternative medicine throughout Army health care communities. I believe that the 'spread' going on reflects the fact that more and more physicians are pursuing training in acupuncture," said Lt.Col. Larry R. Patterson, Bamberg Health Clinic commander. "Treatments become more available because of a larger pool of trained physicians."

Dr. Natalia Whitman, a neurologist and medical director of the clinic has seen in past years that this method of treatment would greatly benefit patients suffering from a variety of ailments. Whitman is encouraged by findings published in "The American Family Physician." Volume 80, No. 5, Sept. 1, 2009 reads, "Acupuncture was found to improve headaches and health-related quality of life when added to medical management in patients with chronic daily headache." Multiple doctors at the Landstuhl Regional Medical center are qualified to perform acupuncture and are doing so through the Anesthesia Interventional Pain Management department and have begun utilizing acupuncture or hope to do so in the near future.

Study Links Weight Loss and Acupuncture

Could a few pinpricks make someone thinner? Evidence weighs heavily in favor of that proposition, according to the results of a new study to be presented at the Pacific Symposium in San Diego this week. The groundbreaking study, "The Effects of Acupuncture on Weight-Loss in Over-Weight and Obese Adults Over 24 Years Old," reports that 95 percent of its subjects lost weight in a six-week period after receiving regular acupuncture treatments. Of those subjects, another 50 percent continued to lose weight after treatments stopped. Dr. Edward Lamadrid, a doctor of acupuncture and oriental medicine, conducted the study and authored its findings. Lamadrid has treated thousands of patients with a variety of problems and health conditions, and he has long suspected that acupuncture assists in weight loss. However, it wasn't until this controlled, scientific study that the Chicago-based expert could positively confirm a more formal hypothesis and the positive conclusions.

"What's particularly interesting and somewhat shocking about the study's findings is that weight loss occurred across the board without much exercise or dieting, something everyone believes is essential to trimming down," Lamadrid says. "I certainly don't want to discount the importance of healthy habits such as good fitness and eating nutritionally, but this study confirms that acupuncture is a viable tool for successful weight loss." Key conclusions found that 81 percent of participants in Group A, which received three weeks of acupuncture treatments, lost weight, averaging 2 lbs. per week for men and 1 lb. per week for women. After the treatments ceased, 54 percent continued to lose weight. Meanwhile, 79 percent of those in Group B, the control group, which didn't receive acupuncture, gained weight over the three-week period.

At the end of those three weeks, this control group then received regular acupuncture treatments, and 77 percent then lost weight at a rate similar to Group A. Feedback from the subjects noted significant improvements both physically and emotionally. "Patients understand the importance of preventative medicine and a holistic approach to treatment," Lamadrid says. "This body of evidence on the acupuncture-weight loss link is groundbreaking for the worldwide healthcare and fitness community, considering obesity is now a global epidemic."

Chinese medicine approaches weight gain and obesity as imbalances or irregular functioning of one or more internal organs. All of the body’s organ systems are designed to interact with each other in a dynamic supportive manner. However, there are a variety of pathological conditions that contribute to the breakdown of each organ to operate at its optimal energy state. The key to successful treatment is to identify the key players and treat them at their source. In this way the body is able to resume maintaining its health on its own. 

Meridian Harmonics