What's New: Hot Topics - Medical Acupuncture and Complementary Medicine

Acupuncture may effectively prevent headaches, research suggests.

BBC News (1/21/09) reported, "Traditional acupuncture is effective at preventing headaches, a scientific review finds -- but so is a sham form," according to reviews published online in the Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews.

Klaus Linde, M.D., Ph.D., the Technical University of Munich, "and colleagues examined data from 22 trials of acupuncture for migraine prophylaxis and 11 trials of tension-type headache," MedPage Today (1/21, Bankhead) added. "The migraine studies involved a total of 4,419 participants." Six of the "trials compared acupuncture with no treatment or routine care. In 14 trials, 'true' acupuncture was compared with sham procedures, and four trials used proven migraine prophylaxis as the comparator." Dr. Linde and the team of researchers found that "trials that compared acupuncture to no acupuncture had a cumulative risk ratio of 2.3 for response in favor of acupuncture and a risk ratio of -0.43 for headache frequency." Furthermore, "comparison of acupuncture and sham procedures yielded a nonsignificant 13 percent improvement in response for acupuncture (RR 1.13, 95 percent CI 0.95 to 1.35), and a nonsignificant 18 percent improvement in headache frequency (-0.18, 95 percent CI -0.44 to 0.07).

More mainstream physicians using CAM.

The Chicago Tribune (1/14/09, Deardoff) reports that more physicians are "using Western treatments along with a variety of alternative approaches, a combination known as complementary and alternative medicine, or CAM."  Although many physicians "still believe medical treatments should be backed by rigorous scientific data, they will not rule out adding into the treatment mix mind-body therapies that have been used for centuries in other cultures."  The Tribune notes that "an increasing number of prestigious medical schools are teaching integrative practices.  Since 1999, the Consortium of Academic Health Centers for Integrative Medicine, a group that includes Duke University, Harvard, and Northwestern, has grown from eight to 43 members."  Also, "it's getting easier for practicing physicians to find CAM training."  Last month, "the University of Chicago and the Mayo Clinic co-sponsored the ninth annual two-day CAM conference for medical professionals.  And the 2009 Integrate Chicago Conference on Jan. 17 at Loyola is being organized by, and for, medical students interested in integrative medicine.

Study suggests Tai Chi, Qigong may help improve metabolic markers of pre-diabetes.

MedPage Today (4/1/08, Bankhead) reported that in "patients at risk of metabolic syndrome and type 2 diabetes, the Chinese exercises Tai Chi and Qigong may improve clinical parameters associated with the conditions," according to a study published online in the British Journal of Sports Medicine. For the study, Xin Liu, Ph.D., of Australia's University of Queensland, and colleagues, "recruited 11 patients who had baseline blood glucose levels of 5.8 mmol/L to 8.7 mmol/L." Seven of the patients "met diagnostic criteria for metabolic syndrome, and eight had a family history of diabetes." The patients "attended three 90-minute Tai Chi/Qigong training sessions weekly for 12 weeks, and were encouraged to practice the exercises at home." The researchers found that at the end of the 12 weeks, the participants "had significant improvement in body mass index, waist circumference, and blood pressure." Furthermore, "glycosylated hemoglobin, fasting insulin, and insulin resistance all decreased."

 Saw palmetto berry extract may help increase urine flow, research indicates.

MedWire (2/8, Thornhill) reports, "Chinese men with benign prostatic hyperplasia (BPH) obtain significant short-term symptom relief with the phytotherapy saw palmetto berry extract," according to a study conducted by Jianyu Rao and colleagues at the University of California in Los Angeles and published in the Journal of Urology. Researchers examined "92 Chinese men aged between 49 and 75 years [who] were randomly assigned to receive two saw palmetto soft gel capsules or placebo daily for 12 weeks." Investigators found that "maximum urinary flow rate was significantly higher in the men who took the Prostataplex capsules than those given placebo (14 vs. 12 ml per second), and relative urinary resistance was significantly lower (2.4 vs 3.0)." However, "mean prostate volume was comparable in the two groups."