Alternative Medicine Alert articles from April 2002

Alternative Medicine Alert archives from April 2002

Acupuncture for arthritis. (Special issue: acupuncture).
April 1, 2002... ACUPUNCTURE HAS BEEN IN USE AS AN ANALGESIC FOR CENTURIES and its application to the treatment of arthritis pain remains a frequent one. In the 1970s, President Nixon's overtures to China led indirectly to the introduction of many aspects of...

Acupuncture regulations in the United States.(National Certification Commission for Acupuncture and Oriental Medicine)
April 1, 2002... AS THE ACCEPTANCE OF ACUPUNCTURE IN THE UNITED STATES grows, the need for guidelines and regulations governing these practitioners becomes imperative. Two national organizations are responsible for certifying practitioners and ensuring that...

Acupuncture for the treatment of addiction.
April 1, 2002... ACUPUNCTURE WAS POPULARIZED IN THE WESTERN world after a New York Times reporter travelling with President Nixon's entourage in China described his experience with acupuncture as anesthesia for an emergency surgical procedure. It was soon...

Acupuncture for urinary incontinence in women.
April 1, 2002... URINARY INCONTINENCE AFFLICTS 17-55% OF OLDER women and 12.42% of middle age women, (1) causing a significant deterioration of quality of life, including emotional disturbances, social isolation, (2) and increased risk of placement in long-term...

Recall of PC SPES. (In The News).(herbal supplements from BotanicLab Inc.)
April 1, 2002... Consumers should immediately stop using the dietary supplement herbal products PC SPES and SPES because they contain undeclared prescription drug ingredients that could cause serious health effects if not taken under medical supervision. PC...

Kava linked to liver toxicity. (In The News).
April 1, 2002... The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) is investigating whether the use of dietary supplements containing kava (also known as kava kava or Piper methysticum) is associated with liver toxicity. To help determine whether there is a problem in the...

Lipokinetix and liver injury. (In The News).
April 1, 2002... Lipokinetix, distributed by Syntrax Innovations Inc., has been implicated in several cases of serious liver injury. The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has received reports of at least six persons who developed acute hepatitis and/or liver...

Distinguished lecture series on CAM. (In The News).(Distinguished Lecture Series on Complementary and Alternative Medicine)
April 1, 2002... The National Center for Complementary and Alternative Medicine (NCCAM), a component of the National Institutes of Health (NIH), recently announced the launch of the Distinguished Lecture Series on Complementary and Alternative Medicine (CAM)....

CME questions.(continuing medical education questions)
April 1, 2002... 24. The mechanism of action of acupuncture in treatment of arthritis pain: a. is completely explained by the production of endogenous opioids. b. is likely to depend primarily on inhibition of inflammation. c. is likely to...

Acupuncture theory and practice.
April 1, 2002... Source: Kaptchuk TJ. Acupuncture: Theory, efficacy, and practice. Ann Intern Med 2002; 136:374-383. TRADITIONALLY, ACUPUNCTURE IS embedded in naturalistic theories that are compatible with Confucianism and Taoism. Such ideas as yin-yang,...

Acupuncture and tennis elbow.
April 1, 2002... Source: Green S, et al. Acupuncture for lateral elbow pain (Cochrane Review). Cochrane Database Syst Rev 2002;(1):CD003527. THIS REVIEW IS ONE IN A SERIES OF reviews of interventions for lateral elbow pain. Lateral elbow pain, or tennis...

Meridian system and ear acupuncture.
April 1, 2002... IN TRADITIONAL CHINESE MEDICINE, ILLNESS IS ATTRIBUTED TO AN IMBALANCE OR OBSTRUCTION of qi (pronounced "chee"), or vital energy, which travels throughout the body along meridians (see Figure 1). Twelve main and several other minor meridians...