Working on my handout for the upcoming AAMA conference in Denver and again wanted to read Andrew Ahn’s paper on complexity and alternative medicine. The image is of a coastline. A classic fractal. Heart Rate Variability is a way
Detailed review of HRV and acupuncture. (I still can’t get over seeing these kinds of studies since I was one of the first in the field. ) Abstract Aim. To summarize all relevant trials and critically evaluate the effect of
I just had a patient become pregnant after years of trying; always gratifying. One of my patients had mentioned that there was recent news showing that stress affected conception. If anyone has heard about this study, please let me know!
It occurs to me that perhaps my audience doesn’t exactly follow why I am so interested (as a western trained physician) in Heart Rate Variability (HRV), or even acupuncture for that matter. This is how I see it. Acupuncture
This is a report on a recent lab study on mice where sepsis (life threatening, whole body infection) was induced. But it adds to the weight of evidence and does mention the role of the vagus, the focus of my research. This
Whole article is here. If I ever get around to learning all the brain areas, I might be able to comment better on this study. Fascinating that the local and distal both worked better than the sham acupuncture on the affected
Low frequency acupuncture better than high frequency for pain in animal study. Interesting since there has been a lot of research on the different opiate receptors involved in 2Hz versys 100 hz. Maybe bogus? Maybe not? J Neurosci Res.
Of course, I would have loved to see acupuncture come in with a resounding recommendation, but given the panel, I will take what I can get. They didn’t dismiss acupuncture and it came in tied with Synvist injections. In the
This study seems a bit of a muddle, but from what I can gather, HF component of HRV increases with auricular acupressure in patients with primary dysmenorrhea. Full article here Evid Based Complement Alternat Med. 2013;2013 Auricular acupressure to improve
This study compiled many studies already performed and showed that sham acupuncture and sham surgery had a higher placebo effect than a sham pill for migraine treatment. The commentary challenges the researchers take away lesson, however, and feel that clinicians
