In Part I, we considered the proper treatment methods of Traditional Chinese Medicine and The Four Examinations,which date back over three thousand years.
In this section, we will look at the mechanisms of action of Traditional Chinese Medicine.
It was shown in a study done at Harvard that stress reduces the hypothalamic-anterior pituitary-ovarian axis function, thus being a factor to be considered in the infertility work-up. Acupuncture releases endorphins which mitigate ones response to stressful stimuli thus enhancing the possibility for conception.
"Historically, infertility, particularly "functional" infertility, was attributed to abnormal psychological functioning on the part of one or both members of the couple. Preliminary works in the 1940s and 1950s considered "psychogenic infertility" as the major cause of failure to conceive in as many as 50% of cases. As recently as the late 1960s, it was commonly believed that reproductive failure was the result of psychological and emotional factors. Psychogenic infertility was supposed to occur because of unconscious anxiety about sexual feelings, ambivalence toward motherhood, unresolved oedipal conflict, or conflicts of gender identity. Fortunately, advances in reproductive endocrinology and medical technology as well as in psychological research have de-emphasized the significance of psychopathology as the basis of infertility, and modern research shows that there is little evidence to support a role for personality factors or conflicts as a cause of infertility. This perspective unburdens the couple by relieving them of the additional guilt of thinking that it is their mental stress that may be responsible for their infertility.
Biologically, since the hypothalamus regulates both stress responses as well as the sex hormones, it's easy to see how stress could cause infertility in some women. Excessive stress may even lead to complete suppression of the menstrual cycle, and this is often seen in female marathon runners, who develop "runner's amenorrhea". In less severe cases, it could cause anovulation or irregular menstrual cycles. When activated by stress, the pituitary gland also produces increased amounts of prolactin, and elevated levels of prolactin could cause irregular ovulation. Since the female reproductive tract contains catecholamine receptors catecholamines produced in response to stress may potentially affect fertility, for example, by interfering with the transport of gametes through the Fallopian tube or by altering uterine blood flow. However, more complex mechanisms may be at play, and researchers still don't completely understand how stress interacts with the reproductive system. This is a story, which is still unfolding, and during the last 20 years, the new field of psychoneuroimmunology has emerged, which focuses on how your mind can affect your body.
Research has shown that the brain produces special molecules called neuropeptides, in response to emotions, and these peptides can interact with every cell of the body, including those of the immune system. In this view, the mind and the body are not only connected, but also inseparable, so that it is hardly surprising that stress can have a negative influence on fertility.
Stress can reduce sperm counts as well. Thus, testicular biopsies obtained from prisoners awaiting execution, who were obviously under extreme stress, revealed complete spermatogenetic arrest in all cases. Researchers have also showed significantly lower semen volume and sperm concentration in a group of chronically stressed marmoset monkey, and these changes were attributed to lower concentrations of LH and testosterone (which were reduced in the stressed group). However, how relevant these research findings are in clinical practice is still to be determined."
The stress factors that acupuncture addresses stems from both psycho-emotional factors as well as physical etiologies. For example, extremely painful pre-menstruum or mid cycle pain can be debilitating. This type of physical stress, no doubt produces emotional stress as a result of missed work, manifest pain and other life-style factors resulting from such extreme pain; all can mitigate the function of the reproductive system.
Aceto corticotropic hormone is released as a response to acupuncture needle stimuli. ACTH has an antiinflammatory mechanism which may for example, help with tubal factor based infertility as a response to pelvic inflammatory disease.
The insertion of acupuncture needles has been shown to effectively increase blood circulation. Acupuncture is very effective in treating, for example, Reynaud's Syndrome. Enhanced microcirculatory patency to the uterine lining does, undoubtedly contribute to a healthier and more growth oriented endometrium, especially when utilizing electrical stimulation on inserted acupuncture needles on points known as zigongxue which reside superior to the ovaries. The points zigongxue are located 3 inches inferior to the umbilicus and three inches bilateral to the anterior midline.
"They reviewed existing evidence regarding the role of acupuncture in the treatment of infertility, and identified a number of studies indicating that acupuncture can be beneficial as an adjunct to other infertility treatments, including IVF. Only one randomized controlled study examined the independent effect of acupuncture on IVF outcomes, but this indicated a positive effect.
The reviewed authors also highlight evidence that shows the effects of acupuncture may be mediated through neuropeptides that influence gonadotropin secretion, which could in turn affect the menstrual cycle. The technique can also reduce stress, which is known to adversely affect fertility, and has been implicated in the regulation of uterine blood flow."
"Using acupuncture during assisted reproduction may improve pregnancy rates, say researchers. However, they acknowledge that the mechanism behind this effect is unclear, and the team plans to carry out further studies to confirm, and further investigate, their findings.
Noting that acupuncture has been shown to affect the autonomic nervous system, Dr. Wolfgang Paulus (Christian-Lauritzen-Institut, Ulm, Germany) and colleagues postulated that the therapy could increase endometrial receptivity via control of related muscles and glands.
The researchers randomly assigned 160 women receiving assisted reproductive therapy to undergo IVF with or without acupuncture, before and after embryo transfer. In acupuncture subjects, the needles were placed at points believed to influence reproductive factors, for example by improving blood flow to the uterus.
Paulus et al report that the acupuncture group had a higher rate of pregnancy compared with those not given acupuncture (43 percent versus 26 percent). They conclude, therefore, that acupuncture could be "a useful tool" for improving pregnancy rates during certain infertility treatments."
In Part III we will look at the combined elements of Eastern and Western medicine along with herbal medication in the treatment of infertility.
About the Author
Dr. Mike Berkley has been treating fertility disorders since 1996 with amazing results. He works exclusively in the area of reproductive medicine and enjoys working in conjunction with some of New York’s most prestigious reproductive endocrinologists. Sign up for his free newsletter at www.BerkleyCenter.com
Traditional Chinese Medicine
In essence, traditional Chinese Medicine is widely known for its acupunture techniques and herbology. Founded on the Yin and Yang principle, the five elements and Zang Fu, Traditional Chinese medicine is an evolutional treatment in modern Western civilization. Traditional Chinese medicine also uses Qi Gong and Tai Qi Chuan in its methodology. Incorporating supplemental elements in a nutritious diet such as vitamins, minerals, herbs and other supplements are fundamental treatments in traditional Chinese medicine as well.
Overall, traditional Chinese medicine can be utilized to treat allergies, arthritis pain, weight control, quitting smoking, back injury pain, musculosceletal pain, fatique, stress, TMJ and PMS. Other illnesses and conditions that can be helped with traditional Chinese medicine are digestive problems, menstrual problems, and urinary problems.
If you are interested in obtaining more information about traditional Chinese medicine and its benefits, feel free to peruse our business member directory for accredited, traditional Chinese medicine practitioners and schools today!
Traditional Chinese Medicine
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Top 10 Ways Chinese Medicine
Chinese Medicine students learn about how every aspect of our lives (from bowel movements to emotions) relate to one another. We learn to relate to every kind of person.
Patients Can Push Your Buttons
Patients sometimes push our buttons, and this give us the opportunity to interact with ourselves. This is not always easy. We don't always like what we find! But if you commit to growth through interaction, helping, and self-examination, you can deactivate your buttons, grow past your limits, and increase your usefulness to others.
More specifically:
- Some students may realize they came to medicine for a selfish reason and decide to put helping others first.
- Some students find they are people-pleasers and have to learn how to set boundaries and be more assertive (not aggressive or passive-aggressive!).
- Others are more confrontational and aggressive by nature and need to learn compassion and patience.
- Some are analytical and live in their heads - they need to learn to focus on their hearts, gaining rapport and loving their patients.
Letting Go of Bad Habits
Your bad habits are called into question. At one point in my training, I went back to smoking cigarettes. It was a guilt-laden 6 weeks! It seemed hypocritical to want to be a healer while destroying my health. And I felt like I had to hide it. I quit to be a better example to my patients, and not to have to hide anything.
I also had to quit coffee. I knew from chinese medicine that it wasn't helping me with my impatience and irritability. It was worsening my liver qi stagnation! I had to give it up and take herbs instead. I had to practice what I preach.
When you know something is bad, it seems like fun to do it anyway (it gives you the illusion of power and control). But eventually you give in to the wisdom, do what is right, and get to feel even better. Then you can help others with the same struggle.
Your Victory can lead to their Victory
Occasionally, your own personal growth and commitment to self-examination helps your patients directly. At one point, I saw a woman with fears of abandonment. I had just discovered and confronted my own similar fears 6 months before. She was able to feel understood and heard and I was able to offer her solutions, strength, and hope.
In this way, we are trailblazers- pioneers in growth. If we remain shallow, so will our healing interactions. If we grow deeper, we can lead people to greater healing.
#7 It Benefits YOU Too!
As was just explained, by helping others you get to grow too.
Save on Health Care Costs
By giving yourself the know-how and resources to keep yourself, your friends, and your family well, you can save money. One acupuncturist said on an email list that it saved her family tens of thousands of dollars in medical costs. It can be practiced inexpensively - for many years it treated millions of poor peasants in China who had no access to western medicine. Chinese Medicine may be a large part of the solution to our healthcare crisis.
Professional Courtesy
Some acupuncturists trade treatments with one another to stay in good health. I've received hundreds of treatments from fellow students, practitioners, and my wife! It's helped me with anger, irritability, migraines, light sensitivity, fear, over-thinking, colds and flus, and cold sores, among other things.
#8 It's Traditional and Ancient
It's natural for us to look for reassurance, especially in dealing with our health. Biomedicine reassures by requiring studies of treatments for safety. Chinese medicine has been tested for safety and efficacy (especially acupuncture), and it has thousands of years of experience behind it to show what happens to the people it treats. It is inarguably a positive influence in our world. Biomedicine, on the other hand, is only 50 years old, and the full scope of the side effect phenomenon (short and long-term) has yet to be grasped.
Not every chinese remedy has been through the full rigors of the Randomized Controlled Trial (biomedicine's gold-standard), but neither have all of the standard biomedical treatments. The millions of hours and patient visits through hundreds of years establish traditional chinese treatments as safe and effective. More and more studies are being done to confirm them and understand how they work in biomedical terms. I have written extensively on acupuncture safety and how it works here.
#9 Its Theories have Broad Implications
Since it integrates many different disciplines and realms, CM concepts could be used to reorganize and give insight to psychology and psychiatry, pharmaceutical medicine, and sociology. These insights could guide and suggest future research in all fields.
The 16 types of the Meyers Briggs personality typing system have been somewhat integrated with the 5 constitutions and 6 temperaments of Chinese Medicine (read about that). This yields a mind-body medicine that integrates personality and physical disease.
From the patient's symptoms, we can understand their personality and what might help or hinder their healing from an emotional and behavioral perspective.
And vice versa, we can look at people's emotions and behavior and guess what kind of physical problems they might have. This makes for a quicker, more comprehensive medicine, and helps patients feel understood and confident in the care they receive.
#10 It can be a Lucrative AND Altruistic Career
As former AMA president and Medscape CEO George Lundberg, MD says, medicine walks a thin line because:
* It is supposed to be altruistic (selflessly concerned for others), but
* It is also a business (and thus vulnerable to selfish greed).
We could think of this as the yin and yang of the medical business.
Insurance Coverage for Acupuncture and Herbs
Some alternative medicine practitioners are happy to stay outside of the managed care system. It's valuable enough to patients to pay out of their own pockets. Increasingly, acupuncture is covered by insurance, HMO's and worker's compensation boards... sometimes the full cost of the treatment is covered and sometimes it isn't. Herbal medicine usually isn't covered... but patients are used to buying herbs and vitamins without reimbursement.
Lundberg suggests that:
* Proven preventive care should be financed by the government,
* Proven catastrophic care covered by insurance, and
* Everything else paid for out-of-pocket.
Grossing Gross Amounts of Money - Acupuncture Salaries
Regardless of who pays, acupuncturists can expect an annual gross salary of between $40,000 and$1,000,000. I just heard about a hospital position for an acupuncturist in Iowa that was paying $159 per hour (their medical doctor rate).
My wife made $100,000 her first year out of school. One acupuncturist here in San Diego grosses near $1,000,000 annually with worker's compensation cases only.
Right now in California, work-comp reimburses $120 per acupuncture treatment. Some acupuncturists see 4 patients per hour...
Let's do some quick math on an example. If you averaged $80 per treatment (which is achievable), saw 2 patients per hour, and worked 8 hours per day, 4 days per week (leaving a day or two to do paperwork), 48 weeks per year you could gross $245,760. If you spend 40% of your gross on overhead, you earn $147,456 before taxes.
What Makes for Making Money
How much you earn depends, as in all businesses, upon your resourcefulness, initiative, marketing savvy, and - most importantly - the quality of your service. As in all service businesses, you must be good at what you do.
The Freedom to Give
Making all that money frees us to be altruistic. A lot of volunteer care is given by acupuncturists. During "9/11,", New York students from the Pacific Institute of Chinese Medicine treated the firefighters. Likewise, students in San Diego from the Pacific College of Chinese Medicine treat Viet Nam veterans every year at a special gathering. Of dozens of services, the acupuncture is among the top 3 requested. You can take on a number of low or no-fee cases in your own practice. It's up to you.
#11 - There are so many options
It's a varied profession.
In California, acupuncturists are physicians and can be a patient's primary care practitioner - they are professionals on par with MD's, chiropractors, and psychologists. As an acupuncturist...
- You could work with an MD, DO, DC, psychologist, psychiatrist, or massage therapist.
- You can work in a high-class office wearing a suit. You could practice at home wearing your slippers.
- You could do all acupuncture, or all herbs, or both.
- You could treat just sports injuries, or workers compensation, or acupuncture face-lifts, or gynecology, or psychiatry, or do it all!
- There is room for new schools all over the U.S. - there are still states without any Chinese Medicine schools.
- You could practice in California (where 1/3 of us practice), or you could have an 'insta-practice' in many places all over the U.S. that don't have access to Chinese Medicine.
- You could teach or be a clinic supervisor at an established school.
- You could see loads of patients, or spend 2 hours with each one. One herbalist in China sees 80 patients per day. You have to be good to get herbs right- to get them right and see that many patients per day, you have to be stellar!
- You could create a business selling products to the 20,000 or so acupuncturists in the U.S. (even more internationally).
- You can write books and teach continuing education seminars.
There are so many options!
About the Author
Acupuncturist, herbalist, and medical professor Brian B. Carter founded the alternative health megasite The Pulse of Oriental Medicine (http://www.PulseMed.org/). He is the author of the book "Powerful Body, Peaceful Mind: How to Heal Yourself with Foods, Herbs, and Acupressure" (November, 2004). Brian speaks on radio across the country, and has been quoted and interviewed by Real Simple, Glamour, and ESPN magazines.
The Power of Ganoderma in Oriental Medicine
by: R.G. Srinivasan
It is said that in the ancient times anyone who found the rare Linghzi never revealed the place and kept it a secret of health, longevity and wealth. The Japanese revered the herb as ‘God’s Herb’ where it is known as Reishi.
Lingzhi in medicine was considered so auspicious that its medical efficacy has been attested to in the oldest Chinese medical text (over 2,000 years old). The book, which is known in Japan as "Shinnoh Honsohkyo", is now accepted as being the original textbook of Oriental medical science. In it, 365 kinds of medicines are classified and explained. Ganoderma is classified as “Superior Herb” or "God's Herbs" and they are for perpetual youth and longevity. The book states that for "superior" medicines, any amount can be taken as desired on a continuous basis with no unfavorable effects. Of the superior medicines listed in the text, Lingzhi was rated number one. You can see how important and powerful Lingzhi was considered in ancient times. It achieved its ranking in the Chinese text not because of its symbolic importance as a good omen but because of its medicinal properties. Centuries ago, Lingzhi was said to be a medicine that would grant you eternal youth and longevity.
But after 2,000 years, Lingzhi has jumped into the spotlight as a specific medicine for cancer. This must be a bitter irony for those in the modern medical profession who discounted the herbal remedies and oriental medicine as being “old wives' tales". The families of many cancer patients who have received a diagnostic "death sentence" now seek reishi as the only way left for them.
The Linghzi Mushrooms grows only on old tree barks with specific conditions difficult to replicate.
Till 1971 the herb was so rare that it was hardly sited except in mountainous areas. Many researchers had attempted to plant Ganoderma artificially but failed. Till in 1971 directed by Naoi Department of Agriculture and Professor Zenzaburo Kasai, Kyoto University made a breakthrough in its cultivation.
Presently the herb is grown only by 10 countries. The demand far outstrips supply due to the increasing evidence through various researches on its efficacy in treating many disease including Cancer, HIV, Hepatitis, Diabetes, Liver disorders and mainly as a preventive due its rich anti oxidant and detoxifying qualities. You can check further resources at http://globalhealthnetwork.tripod.com
Some of the research in Japan indicates that those that have taken Ganoderma for over a year the visit to doctors dropped into half. There are thousands of research paper available including on the internet on the subject of the healing breakthroughs achieved by Ganoderma in various treatments and too lengthy to discuss here. However we can highlight the research in short.
Summarized from these reports, it is found that Lingzhi have the following properties:
- Improves cholesterosis, coronary insufficiency.
- Improves hyper and hypotensions.
- Improves nervous tension, neurosis.
- Improves chronic bronchitis, hepatitis.
- Improves leukocytopenia and reticuloendothelial system.
- Effective in numerous other ailments.
The three major killers these days are: cancer, cerebrosis and coronary diseases. The latter two have their etiology closely linked to the blood circulatory system. Related problems like stroke, heart block, arteriosclerosis, obesity etc. are all tied to problems in the blood circulation. One out of three persons dies from one of the above ailments everyday.
Lingzhi can correct this imbalance and strengthen the system to prevent further deterioration.
What are noteworthy are its preventive capabilities. For the 21st century man, stressed out, poisoned by the polluted atmosphere, wrong food habits and drug induced illnesses of the modern medicine. While modern medicine has been very effective in treating certain conditions effectively and immediately, they do not address the holistic approach of the ancient medicine as a preventive and for regeneration of wasted tissues and damaged cells.
In conclusion, Ganoderma has been proven to exert significant effect on diminishing pain, fortifying the body's immune system and prolonging life. Even though its role in cancer control has not been determined 100 percent yet.
Ganoderma has a history of 3,000 years, during which time it is widely used by many people with no reported unfavorable side effects. It is therefore highly recommend for prevention. I hope that people from all walks of life will take a concerned interest and share in development of Herbal treatments. Hopefully, with so much research and emerging evidence, Ganoderma can bring a brighter outlook to the human race in the conquest of longevity.
About the Author
R.G. Srinivasan is founder of Born to Win Forum. He is a certified trainer and consultant in training design & methodologies. He is also the author of e-books, publishes 2 ezines on success and motivation and Home Business. His articles are widely published across the world. He is featured as an Expert Author in leading content syndication portals. Check out his home business ezine at http://home-businessleaders.tripod.com
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