Acupuncture increases IVF success with 65%

Women who undergo IVF increase their chances of pregnancy if they are also treated with acupuncture a new analysis suggests.
The benifits may be large — a 65% increase in the chance of becoming pregnant, and a 91% increase in the number of live births.
The results have emerged from a meta-analysis, a technique in which the results of many previous trials are pooled. A team led by Dr Eric Manheimer of the University of Maryland school of Medicine scanned medical literature for trials that attempted to measure the effect of acupuncture on IVF success.
They found 108 trials, but rejected all but seven because of defects of methodology — such as that acupuncture was not administered within a day of IVF or was used as a form of pain relief.
The seven they retained, all published since 2002 and carried out in four Western countries, involved 1,366 women. In all the trials the women were given acupuncture immediately before or after the test-tube embryo was transferred to their wombs. All the acupuncture sessions lasted 25 to 30 minutes.
In British Medical Journal online, the team reports that almost all these trials reported positive findings. Taken together they showed a 65% increase in establishment of pregnancy, an 87% increase in continuing pregnancy, and a 91% increase in live births.
All these results were statistically significant, measured by the criterion of odds of less than one in 20 of having come about by chance. But the team says that these figures overestimate the benefits, since success rates even without acupuncture are relatively high.
It is more realistic, the report says, to measure the results on a “number needed to treat” basis. This is the method that assesses how many women need to be treated to achieve a single extra pregnancy — and the answer is ten.
Even on this basis it is a striking result, especially as nobody has any idea why acupuncture should be having this effect.
Professor Edzard Ernst of PeninsulaMedical School in Plymouth said: “On the face of it these results sound fantastic. I would, however, be very cautious as much of the observed effect could be due to a placebo response. IVF may not seem to be ‘placebo-prone’ but it probably is: if women expect it to be helpful they are more relaxed which, in turn, would affect pregnancy rates.”
Success rates in IVF vary greatly from clinic to clinic, and the analysis found that where success rates were high the benefit of acupuncture was smaller and not statistically significant. That may mean that acupuncture was simply a “marker” for clinics where a lot of care is taken to see that women are calm and relaxed.
The team suggests that acupuncture may influence the menstrual cycle, stimulate blood flow to the womb, or produce mood chemicals that reduce the stress response to IVF.

TREATING PERIPHERAL NEUROPATHIES WITH ACUPUNCTURE

Peripheral Neuropathies, also called Polyneuropathies include all disorders in which nerve structures outside the spinal cord are affected. With more than 100 types of Peripheral neuropathies in existence, each with its own characteristic set of  symptoms, pattern of development, and prognosis, the symptoms can vary as much as the cause.

In most cases, Peripheral neuropathy is secondary to other conditions such as, diabetes, lupus, rheumatoid arthritis, alcoholism, nutritional deficiencies, AIDS, chemotherapy, and various drugs.

Other causes include compression or entrapment (carpal tunnel syndrome), direct physical injury to a nerve (trauma), fractures or dislocated bones, tumors, radiation and even exposure to cold.

For some people it is experienced as the uncomfortable sensation of “ pins and needles” or burning pain (especially at night) of their hands and/or feet, a loss of feeling, others may suffer more extreme symptoms such as muscle wasting, paralyses, or organ dysfunction.

Sensory symptoms:

Sensory symptoms arte the most common presentation of peripheral neuropathy and can be considered as positive ( tingling, burning and pain) or negative (loss of touch and temperature) in general feet and legs are involved before hands and arms.

 Motor symptoms:

Motor symptoms such as weakness are less common than sensory symptoms. Most motor symptoms begin as gait and balance difficulties. When weakness becomes significant, people tend to develop loss of dorsiflexion (dropfoot).

As many as 60-90% of diabetics suffer from peripheral neuropathy, however, western medicine does not have a truly effective treatment for this condition.

One of the most common treatments for  peripheral neuropathy is the administration of amitriptyline (An antidepressant). Some of its side effects are headaches, dizziness, skin rashes, hepatitis, fluctuations in blood sugar levels, palpitations and even Peripheral neuritis! Clearly not the best treatment option.

Other treatments tend to concentrate on pain management and include analgesics such as Aspirin, paracetemol and NSAIDS.

Chinese medicine approach:

As I have written many times before, in Chinese medicine, no matter what the disease, a patient will be treated according to his or her specific pattern of disharmony. We treat a person with a disorder, not the disorder the person has.

Common patterns of disharmony in Peripheral neuropathy are obstruction of Qi and blood and dampness in the limbs. This can be due to irregular eating, wrong diet, too much alcohol, excessive tiredness or chronic diseases.

Acupuncture helps peripheral Neuropathy by improving the circulation and moving Qi and blood to the extremities. The nerve tissue can be nourished and nerve function improved. Chinese herbs quite often form part of the standard treatment.

In a study involving 46 diabetic patients with Peripheral neuropathy, 34 of them reported significant improvement in their symptoms after a series of acupuncture treatments.

A larger study of 250 patients with HIV related Peripheral neuropathy (PN) found similar results.

If you suffer from PN, maybe you should give  Chinese medicine a go. It may help you or it may not. At least there are no significant side effects!