Acupuncture ‘cuts blood pressure’
Acupuncture ‘cuts blood pressure
Acupuncture combined with electronic stimulation can lower high blood pressure, US researchers say.
In tests on rats, the treatment lowered raised blood pressure by as much as 50%, the University of California team at Irvine found.
They are now testing to see whether the technique will have the same effect in people with high blood pressure, also known as hypertension.
Their early findings in animals appear in the Journal of Applied Physiology.
Acupuncture is an ancient Chinese practice that involves inserting needles at specific points on the body to help treat diseases and symptoms such as pain.
Dr John Longhurst and his team applied the acupuncture to specific points on the forelimbs of rats with artificially elevated blood pressure.
The equivalent sites on humans are on the inside of the forearm, slightly above the wrist.
When the acupuncture was applied on its own, it had no effect on blood pressure.
However, when small, low frequency electrical currents were passed through the needles, the blood pressure went down by between 40 and 50%.
A 30-minute session reduced blood pressure in the test rats by 25mmHg, with the effect lasting for almost two hours.
Fruit and vegetables
Dr Longhurst said: “This suggests that acupuncture can be an excellent complement to other medical treatments, especially for those treating the cardiac system.”
But he added: “This type of electro acupuncture is only effective on elevated blood pressure levels, such as those present in hypertension, and the treatment has no impact on standing blood pressure rates.”
He said that acupuncture triggered the release of chemicals in the brain that in turn dampened the response of the cardiovascular system.
This decreased the heart’s activity and its need for oxygen, which in turn could lower blood pressure, and promoted healing for a number of heart conditions including heart attacks and hypertension.
Belinda Linden, of the British Heart Foundation, said the research would need to be supported by controlled clinical trials before being applied as an accepted form of blood pressure control for humans.
“So our message remains the same – high blood pressure is best controlled by keeping your weight down, eating plenty of fruit and vegetables, cutting your salt intake, increasing physical activity and if needed, taking appropriate medications.”
Dr Mike Cummings, medical director of the British Medical Acupuncture Society, said the study was interesting, but he would not recommend patients sought acupuncture treatment for high blood pressure “at this stage”.
Acupuncture Treatment for High Blood Pressure
Acupuncture Treatment for High Blood Pressure
High blood pressure can be treated with various treatment options such as medications, natural remedies and alternative treatments. Acupuncture is one of the commonly used alternative treatment options for high blood pressure. Here is some useful information about acupuncture treatment for high blood pressure.
The latest researches in medical science have suggested a number of treatment options to lower high blood pressure. Today, high blood pressure or hypertension is a very commonly found health problem, which is mainly caused by a stressful lifestyle. This health condition is also associated with obesity, aging, alcoholism, smoking and certain diseases such as diabetes or kidney diseases. People with high blood pressure experience symptoms such as shortness of breath, headache, nausea, restlessness, fatigue and blurred vision. Uncontrolled high blood pressure can cause certain complications such as heart attack, stroke, renal failure, metabolic syndrome and vision loss.
High blood pressure can be treated with different treatment options. Hypertension medications used to treat high blood pressure can give rise to certain side effects in the long run. Therefore, one may opt for some alternative medicines for high blood pressure. There are some natural remedies and various therapies such as aromatherapy and relaxation techniques, which can help to lower blood pressure naturally. Acupuncture is also one of the effective alternative methods for treating high blood pressure. Read on to understand the details about acupuncture treatment for high blood pressure.
Acupuncture for High Blood Pressure
Before you go into details of acupuncture treatment for high blood pressure, you need to know more about acupuncture and its benefits. Originated from China thousands years back, acupuncture is one of the oldest treatment methods used worldwide. There are about 2,000 acupuncture points in the human body, which are associated with various healing attributes. In acupuncture technique, hair-thin needles are inserted through skin to various depths at certain strategic points. Acupuncture is an effective alternative treatment option in the Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM), which can be used to treat a wide range of disorders such as insomnia, headaches, stress, joint pain, osteoarthritis, diabetes, migraine, asthma and hypertension.
Acupuncture is one of the most effective alternative treatments for lowering high blood pressure. According to the reports of latest studies, acupuncture lowers high blood pressure by blocking beta-acceptor of sympathetic nerve and by stimulating adrenaline-angiotensin system. Acupuncture, along with electric stimulation, can also be applied to treat high blood pressure. Acupuncture treatment combined with electric stimulation, known as electro-acupuncture, can effectively lower high blood pressure. During this treatment, sharp, fine needles are inserted into the trigger points or key points, including legs, forearms and wrists. In electro-acupuncture method, low-frequency currents are passed through normal acupuncture needles. The needles are connected to a device that continuously generates small electric pulses. The electrical impulses are maintained at low frequency levels. In electro-acupuncture, two needles are applied at once, so that the electric impulses are passed from one needle to another. Several pairs of needles are applied, which will cause stimulation of certain chemicals in the brain, which can help in reducing excitatory responses of the cardiovascular system. This helps in reducing the heart activity and requirement for oxygen, which can significantly lower high blood pressure. The acupuncture needles should be applied maximum up to 30 minutes at a time. Acupuncture should be done only by the experienced professional. Pressing the skin between index finger and thumb on the back of your hand is a natural acupuncture treatment for hypertension.
While treating high blood pressure, a combination of acupuncture and certain herbs is usually recommended. The use of herbs such as Shan Zha, Tian Ma (Gastrodia Rhizome) and Xia Ku Cao (Prunellla) along with acupuncture treatment are found to be effective in treating high blood pressure. Tian Ma is useful in relieving hypertension symptoms such as headaches, dizziness and numbness of extremities. Another herb Ye Ju Hua or chrysanthemum flower can help in reducing high blood pressure through peripheral vessel dilation. These herbs can be taken in the form of powders, herbal teas or supplements.
Acupuncture helps in regulating the overall functioning of the body, which results in lowering of blood pressure to a healthy level. Acupuncture is also helpful in reducing stress and offers a calming, relaxing effect that in turn is helpful for lowering high blood pressure. Thus, acupuncture treatment is a safe and effective method to reduce serious symptoms of hypertension and prevent its life-threatening complications.
Acupuncture for high blood pressure – A new treatment that works
Acupuncture for high blood pressure – A new treatment that works
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Since times immemorial, Acupuncture is a unique treatment for reducing high blood pressure in human beings. High blood pressure refers to a situation where blood starts exerting pressure against the walls of arteries, veins and also the chambers of the heart. Over a specified time period, this heavy rush of blood starts damaging the lining of the blood vessels. It can also lead to arteriosclerosis, meaning hardening of the arteries.
Symptoms of high blood pressure
High blood pressure symptoms are often acute in human beings. They include sudden dizziness, flushed faces, nervousness, severe headaches, restlessness, difficult breathing, nose bleeding, insomnia, intestinal complaints, depression, short temper and emotional instability. The diagnosis of high blood pressure is done when the normal pressure tends to repeatedly rise. The other physical symptoms of high blood pressure includes constant tendency to urinate, decrease in eye vision and muscle weakness.
Electro-acupuncture treatments
Acupuncture combined with electric stimulation or electro-acupuncture can lower elevations of blood pressure in human beings. When the research was conducted for the first time, acupuncture needles were inserted on the inside of the forearm just above the wrist, but to no avail. Researchers then started adding electric stimulation to the needles, which means that electric, would start flowing from the needles to the body. While high frequency of stimulation had no effect, low frequencies of electro stimulation reduced blood pressure effectively.
A thorough research on acupuncture shows that the inserted needles excite brain cells, causing them to release neurotransmitters that always heighten the heart’s activities. To cure high blood pressure, acupuncture inserts needles on certain points on the wrist, forearm or leg, to excite the opioid chemicals in the brain and reduce excitatory responses of the cardiovascular systems. This eventual decrease in heart activity and need for oxygen can lower blood pressure to a great extent. It also promotes in the healing of other heart-related conditions like myocardial ischemia and hypertensions.
Other acupuncture treatments to reduce high blood pressure
While you are undergoing acupuncture treatments for curing high blood pressure, you can also use herbs like Tian Ma [Gastrodia Rhizome], Xia Ku Cao [Prunella] and Shan Zha to reduce high blood pressure. You should inject the juices of these herbs into your blood to achieve better results.
A unique and natural acupuncture treatment for high blood pressure also include pressing of the skin on the back of your hand in between the thumb and index finger.
Find all about acupuncture and high blood pressure only on acupuncture for high blood pressure and much more. All about acupuncture on LeanderNet – http://www.leandernet.com
Acupuncture
Acupuncture is the procedure of inserting and manipulating fine filiform needles into specific points on the body to relieve pain or for therapeutic purposes. The word acupuncture comes from the Latin acus, “needle”, and pungere, “to prick”. In Standard Mandarin, 針砭 (zhēn biān) (a related word, 針灸 (zhēn jiǔ), refers to acupuncture together with moxibustion). The earliest written record of acupuncture is the Chinese text Huangdi Neijing (黃帝內經, English: Yellow Emperor’s Inner Canon). Different types of acupuncture (Classical Chinese, Japanese, Tibetan, Vietnamese and Korean acupuncture) are practiced and taught throughout the world.
According to traditional Chinese medicine, acupuncture points are situated on meridians along which qi (a “life energy”), flows. Modern acupuncture texts present them as ideas that are useful in clinical practice. According to the National Institutes of Health consensus statement on acupuncture, these traditional Chinese concepts “are difficult to reconcile with contemporary biomedical information but continue to play an important role in the evaluation of patients and the formulation of treatment.” There are no conventional anatomical or histological features that explain or identify either acupuncture points or energy meridians.
Acupuncture has been the subject of active scientific research since the late 20th century but it remains controversial among conventional medical researchers and clinicians. Due to the invasive nature of acupuncture treatments, it is difficult to create studies that use proper scientific controls. Some scholarly reviews have concluded that the effectiveness of acupuncture as a treatment can be explained largely through the placebo effect, while other studies have suggested some efficacy in the treatment of specific conditions. The World Health Organization published a review of controlled trials using acupuncture and concluded it was effective for the treatment of 28 conditions and there was evidence to suggest it may be effective for several dozen more， though this review has been criticized by several scientists for bias and a focus on studies with a poor methodology. Reports from the National Center for Complementary and Alternative Medicine (NCCAM), the American Medical Association (AMA) and various government reports have studied and commented on the efficacy (or lack thereof) of acupuncture. There is general agreement that acupuncture is safe when administered by well-trained practitioners using sterile needles, and that further research is appropriate.
History
Antiquity
Acupuncture’s origins in China are uncertain. One explanation is that some soldiers wounded in battle by arrows were cured of chronic afflictions that were otherwise untreated, and there are variations on this idea.[ In China, the practice of acupuncture can perhaps be traced as far back as the Stone Age, with the Bian shi, or sharpened stones. In 1963 a bian stone was found in Duolon County, Mongolia, pushing the origins of acupuncture into the Neolithic age.[ Heiroglyphs and pictographshave been found dating from the Shang Dynasty (1600-1100 BCE) which suggest that acupuncture was practiced along with moxibustion. Despite improvements in metallurgy over centuries, it was not until the 2nd century BCE during the Han Dynasty that stone and bone needles were replaced with metal.[ The earliest Chinese medical text that first describes acupuncture is the Huangdi Neijing, the legendary Yellow Emperor’s Classic of Internal Medicine (History of Acupuncture)which was compiled around 305–204 B.C. However, the Mawangdui texts from the second century BC, which antedate the Huangdi Neijing, mention the use of pointed stones to open abscesses and moxibustion but not acupuncture.
In Europe, examinations of the 5,000-year-old mummified body of Ötzi the Iceman have identified 15 groups of tattoos on his body, some of which are located on what are now seen as contemporary acupuncture points. This has been cited as evidence that practices similar to acupuncture may have been practiced elsewhere in Eurasia during the early Bronze Age.
Middle history
Acupuncture spread from China to Korea, Japan and Vietnam and elsewhere in East Asia. Portuguese missionaries in the 16th century were among the first to bring reports of acupuncture to the West.
Modern era
In the 1970s, acupuncture became better known in the United States after an article appeared in The New York Times by James Reston, who underwent an emergency appendectomy while visiting China. While standard anesthesia was used for the actual surgery, Mr. Reston was treated with acupuncture for post-operative discomfort. The National Acupuncture Association (NAA), the first national association of acupuncture in the US, introduced acupuncture to the West through seminars and research presentations. The NAA created and staffed the UCLA Acupuncture Pain clinic in 1972. This was the first legal clinic in a medical school setting in the US. The first acupuncture clinic in the United States is claimed to have been opened by Dr. Yao Wu Lee in Washington, D.C. on July 9, 1972.The Internal Revenue Service allowed acupuncture to be deducted as a medical expense beginning in 1973.
All aboard China’s new bullet train
All aboard China’s new bullet train
When China’s $300 billion high-speed train system is completed, it will be the world’s largest, fastest, and most technologically sophisticated.
The high-speed rail line that will eventually connect Beijing with Shanghai is expected to cut travel time from 10 hours to four when the line opens in a couple of years. The top speed on trains that will run from Beijing to Shanghai will approach 220 miles an hour.
Holders of fake visas risk fines, deportation
EXPATRIATES who hold fake visas will be deported, Shanghai Exit-Entry Administration Bureau officials warned yesterday.
Shanghai police officers have caught more than 300 foreigners holding counterfeit visas between January and September this year, 150 percent more than in the same period last year.
“The increase has been partly caused by the financial crisis,” said an exit-entry bureau official. Many foreigners who had lost their jobs in China bought counterfeit visas from illegal agents, he said.
The bureau highlighted the case of one woman who came to China three years ago for a job with a multinational.
Her company closed in the financial crisis and she found her visa would soon expire. Not willing to leave China, she found an illegal agent through a flyer and bought a fake long-term visa for about 1,000 yuan (US$146), the official said.
However, she was caught by police in an investigation and was ordered to serve 15 days’ detention.
EXPATRIATES who hold fake visas will be deported, Shanghai Exit-Entry Administration Bureau officials warned yesterday.
Shanghai police officers have caught more than 300 foreigners holding counterfeit visas between January and September this year, 150 percent more than in the same period last year.
“The increase has been partly caused by the financial crisis,” said an exit-entry bureau official. Many foreigners who had lost their jobs in China bought counterfeit visas from illegal agents, he said.
The bureau highlighted the case of one woman who came to China three years ago for a job with a multinational.
Her company closed in the financial crisis and she found her visa would soon expire. Not willing to leave China, she found an illegal agent through a flyer and bought a fake long-term visa for about 1,000 yuan (US$146), the official said.
However, she was caught by police in an investigation and was ordered to serve 15 days’ detention.
She was deported after serving her sentence and blacklisted from China.
Officials warned foreigners that they also face a 5,000 yuan fine, detention and deportation if their visa was fake.
“Companies have to notify us of any changes to the status of their foreign employees,” the official said.
She was deported after serving her sentence and blacklisted from China.
Officials warned foreigners that they also face a 5,000 yuan fine, detention and deportation if their visa was fake.
“Companies have to notify us of any changes to the status of their foreign employees,” the official said.
Lonely Hearts Club: China’s Gender Imbalance Could Leave 30 Million Men without Wives
SHANGHAI — every weekend in Shanghai’s ‘People’s Park Number Five,’ they come — mothers, fathers, grandparents — all holding pictures and posters of young Chinese men and women who are looking for love.
Parental matchmaking isn’t easy, according to one man who tells FOX News that he’s been shopping for a wife for his 33-year-old son for six months.
His pitch to other parents is short and simple. “Got a home. Good looking. Good salary,” reads his poster.
Because of China’s one child policy to control its ever expanding population — now numbering 1.3 billion people — there has been a lopsided explosion of young boys. It’s a cavernous gender gap that is unprecedented worldwide.
The ratio is up to 130 boys to every one hundred girls in some areas of China.
Traditional preferences for a son mean that many women abort their baby if an early term sonogram shows it’s a girl.
In the next 20 years, it’s estimated that 30 million Chinese men won’t be able to find wives. For mothers and fathers who visit the “People’s Park” every weekend there’s a lot more to it than just finding love for their kids. There’s a tradition in China of the young looking after the old. The government hasn’t paid pensions and provided health care for most Chinese. So many parents’ social security is on the line.
In China’s big cities, finding Mr. or Miss Right is easier. Many women migrate from small town China to Beijing or Shanghai to find work and marriage.
And because more and more women are working, attitudes among parents who once only wanted boys are changing.
“More than 50 percent of the population will be in the cities. So that means this will be very strong change of traditions, behavior of couples, or women, including this kind of son preference,” Bernard Coquelin, from the U.N. Population Fund told FOX News
The pressure is on for moms and dads in people’s park number 5, and across the country. The Chinese lonely hearts club is the biggest world wide.
Shanghai Simply Thai
Description:
Now Simply Thai also found a place in Xintiandi, the place for tourists and nightowls.
Simpy good food and a nice atmosphere just like all their other venues.
The decoration is not over done. Simply Thai is more focusing on the food!
Simply a great place for having a romantic dinner with your
girlfriend.
For the real fans of simply thai, they also offer a catering service and not to forget a “simply club membership”.
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Maserati test drive thru the streets of Shanghai
2009 Maserati Quattroporte Sport GT S
By Shanghai D.D’s Club
Spring 2009
Expected Pricing: 2.6 million RMB
Maserati describes the Sport GT S, as “the ultimate expression of Maserati’s sportiness in the Quattroporte range.” In short, it’s a big, sensuous four-door that goes fast and handles sharply. Up close, this Quattroporte has the sheer presence of even more expensive cars. . It’s the most visually striking car available in this price range. Despite weighing about 4,400 pounds, the Maserati Quattroporte manages to feel like a car half its size with well-weighted steering, limited body roll and a captivating eagerness to change direction. Even though the QP is nearly 200 inches long, it drives like a vehicle half its size. Contributing to this is Maserati’s “Skyhook” adjustable suspension, controlled by a button on the dash. Skyhook can be set to the more comfortable “Normal” mode or the noticeably firmer “Sport” setting
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Shanghai M1nt nightclub review May 2009
O.k., its Saturday night and I get a call to go clubbing at M1nt. I just got back from New York and have not seen the club in almost 3 months in Shanghai. I take a cab towards the bund and then find the club is actually off of the bund by 4 blocks. I walk to front door and see lots of people outside. That usually is a good sign for a club in New York. In Shanghai, it usually means the there is a door charge or some reason they want money to get in.
First a little back ground on the Club M1nt. It’s a member’s only club. Yes, members only. That usually works in H.K. and Singapore but does not work in Shanghai. Hey maybe I’m wrong. It did work for me ah ha-ha! For those interested in the web site it’s http://www.m1nt.com.cn/ for those who are to lazy to go to the site!
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