Chilli Peppers for Heart Health and Pain

1 Apr

Substances found in chilli peppers called capsaicin and capsaicinoids have been shown to relax blood vessels in the heart to increase blood flow, reduce cholesterol and blood pressure.

The team found, for instance, that capsaicin and a close chemical relative boost heart health in two ways. They lower cholesterol levels by reducing accumulation of cholesterol in the body and increasing its breakdown and excretion in the feces. They also block action of a gene that makes arteries contract, restricting the flow of blood to the heart and other organs. The blocking action allows more blood to flow through blood vessels.

“We concluded that capsaicinoids were beneficial in improving a range of factors related to heart and blood vessel health,” said Chen, a professor of food and nutritional science at the Chinese University of Hong Kong.

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2012/03/120327215605.htm

Also see - http://www.webmd.com/pain-management/tc/capsaicin-topic-overview

Thomas Martin LAc.

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More on Yoga Injuries

19 Feb

Pertaining to my Yoga and Transformation post on 1-22-12 http://www.wellnessclarity.com/?p=119 the following article from The New Zealand Herald gives actual statistics from the national accident insurance that all citizens there have largely free access to (ACC).

The article reports that 1000 yoga related injury claims were filed last year. Most claims were for back and neck injuries. To put this in perspective 300,000 claims were made for other sports/exercise injuries.

Also an average of $600 NZ was paid out for each occurrence, indicating that the injuries were likely relatively minor.

The article did indicate injuries are increasing and suggested inexperienced teachers, new ‘fad’ forms of yoga and poor attention to alignment in yoga poses all played a part.

http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=10786455

Thomas Martin LAc.

The Triage Theory and Supplementing For Healthy Aging

7 Feb

The importance of taking supplements along with a healthy diet, though at the very least a prudent healthy practice, continues to be controversial in mainstream medicine. Widespread deficiencies have been reported especially in the elderly, the poor, obese individuals, pregnant women and those undergoing sustained stress. The genetic need for micronutrients also likely varies greatly among individuals.

Dr. Ames who is emeritus professor of biochemistry and molecular biology at the University of California, developed the Triage Theory of optimal nutrition. The theory shows how over extended periods of time hidden deficiencies in vitamins, minerals and other micronutrients can result in age-related diseases.

When essential nutrients in the diet are limited the body shunts then into functions essential for immediate survival, such as reproduction, so on the surface an individual may appear healthy despite dietary deficiency. As we age however these hidden deficiencies begin to manifest in disease.

There are more or less 40 substances essential for every metabolic pathway in the body – approximately 15 vitamins that are co-enzymes and 15 minerals that are required in enzymes, two essential fatty acids, omega-3 and omega-6, and about eight essential amino acids.

Despite an abundance of macronutrients such as protein, fat and carbohydrates the modern diet is frequently deficient in many of the above micronutrients.

Such Triage Theory deficiencies are especially damaging to mitochondria, components in cells responsible for energy production. This age-related decay not only affects DNA/RNA but weakens cell membranes, reduces oxygen uptake, oxidises fats, increases the formation of cancer promoting metabolites. To this end Dr. Ames’ laboratory is currently working on the use of vitamins, minerals, antioxidants such as lipoic acid and the amino acid acetyl l carnitine to reduce cellular decline and degeneration.

 

From Dr. Ames’ website - http://www.bruceames.org/

Inadequate intakes of vitamins and minerals from food can lead to DNA damage, mitochondrial decay, and other pathologies (7). Intakes below the…RDA, are widespread (e.g. in the U.S.: 56% for magnesium; 12% for zinc; 16% menstruating women for iron; 16% of women for folate) (7).

(Deficiencies) are particularly widespread among the poor, African-Americans, teenagers, the obese, and the elderly (7).

Inadequate intake of folate, B12, or B6 leads to uracil incorporation into DNA and chromosome breaks —a radiation mimic (8, 9).

Inadequate zinc in human cells in culture causes release of oxidants, oxidative damage to DNA, and inactivation of p53 and other zinc enzymes involved in DNA damage repair (10, 11).

Inadequate iron intake inactivates Complex IV in mitochondria, which causes oxidant release, mitochondrial decay, and DNA damage; in the brain complex IV inactivation mimics the neurodegeneration of aging (12, 13).

Biotin inadequacy from food is present in 40% of pregnant women; biotin deficiency in human cells in culture leads to oxidant release, DNA damage, accelerated mitochondrial decay, and premature senescence (14).

Magnesium deficiency in human cells in culture causes mtDNA- protein crosslinks, accelerated telemore shortening, and premature senescence (15).

I suggest evolutionary allocation of scarce micronutrients by enzyme triage is an explanation of why DNA damage is commonly found on micronutrient deficiency (7).

We are developing sensitive assays for measuring DNA damage in human blood (16) so as to determine what level of each micronutrient is optimum for keeping DNA damage to a minimum.

We are exploring the effect of high dose B vitamins in delaying the mitochondrial decay of aging (18)…An optimum intake of micronutrients and metabolites, which varies with age and genetics, should tune up metabolism and markedly increase health at little cost, particularly for the poor, obese, and elderly (7).

 

Also on Dr. Ames‘ research - Low micronutrient intake may accelerate the degenerative diseases of aging through allocation of scarce micronutrients by triage. - http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/17101959

Optimal micronutrients delay mitochondrial decay and age-associated diseases - http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/20420847  

Are vitamin and mineral deficiencies a major cancer risk? - http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/12209158

 

Harvard School of Public Health recommends a daily multivitamin supplement. http://www.hsph.harvard.edu/nutritionsource/what-should-you-eat/multivitamin/index.html

Here’s an example of a high-quality multivitamin supplement (add magnesium and calcium to complete it) - http://www.vitacost.com/Vitacost-Synergy-Basic-Multi-Vitamin

Thomas Martin LAc.

 

 

 

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Efficient Absorption Mechanism for Plant-source Iron Discovered

30 Jan

The following study outlining a new understanding of plant source iron absorption was reported in Science Daily -E. C. Theil, H. Chen, C. Miranda, H. Janser, B. Elsenhans, M. T. Nunez, F. Pizarro, K. Schumann. Absorption of Iron from Ferritin Is Independent of Heme Iron and Ferrous Salts in Women and Rat Intestinal Segments. Journal of Nutrition, 2012; DOI:10.3945/jn.111.145854 - http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2012/01/120120003510.htm

 

 ”Our study shows that this different mechanism of iron absorption from plant ferritin is more efficient and gives the intestinal cells more control. It can be a new way to help solve global iron deficiency,” says Dr. Theil…

…ferritin iron is absorbed in its protein-coated, iron mineral form by a different, independent mechanism; iron absorbed as ferritin, leaves the intestine more slowly, but may, provide greater safety to the intestines than iron supplements…

In addition to potentially being safer, causing less irritation to the intestines, absorption of iron as ferritin is easier for the intestine. The iron found in meat and non-meat iron supplements enters the intestine from food one iron atom at a time. Each entry step requires the intestinal cells to use up energy. When the intestine takes in a single molecule of ferritin, however, it gets a thousand atoms inside that one ferritin molecule, making iron absorption that much more efficient.

…the results demonstrate that ferritin-rich foods such as legumes can provide a significant source of dietary iron for those in the greatest need of increasing their iron consumption.

Legumes and other plant foods were found to be a good source of highly absorbable ferritin iron which seems to overcome the absorption inefficiency seen in those with iron deficiency. This is significant as it provides an environmentally sustainable supply of dietary iron in plant-based diets low or absent of animal foods. It also suggests that balanced, economically viable plant sources of iron in developing countries are realistically obtainable through agricultural reorganization and dietary planning.

One final point, countering the popular notion that vegetarian diets or diets absent in red meat promote iron deficiency is that the available evidence shows no difference between the incidence of  iron deficiency anemia in vegetarians compared with meat eaters. In other words both groups show a similar incidence.

http://www.adajournal.org/medline/record/ivp_00029165_76_100

http://www.adajournal.org/medline/record/ivp_00029165_70_353

 

Thomas Martin LAc.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Yoga and Transformation – A Response To The Article – “Yoga Can Wreck Your Body”

22 Jan

An article by William Broad appeared recently in The New York Times, titled How Yoga Can Wreck Your Body – http://www.nytimes.com/2012/01/08/magazine/how-yoga-can-wreck-your-body.html?pagewanted=all

Firstly I support any clear-eyed look at the practice of Hatha yoga, as any activity that proports to be good for health will tend to oversell the benefits and deny possible harms. This is unfortunately how the market works. Also there continues to be a lack of critical thinking when it comes to practices of Eastern origin. There’s an assumption of unquestionable ancient truth and submission to its supposed superior authority.

The teacher-pupil relationship, at times, can be corrupted by a downward dynamic of “the one who knows” to “the many who don’t”. This limits learning to acquisition which in turn corrals awareness which has a natural open-ended, self-reliant, learning-dynamic inbuilt. It also binds the student to the teacher and to a particular style, further retarding true learning.

That said the article is surprisingly poorly written, especially as the writer is supposed to be a highly awarded journalist. There are several extreme anecdotal examples of supposed harm being done by yoga and very little solid data. Ironically the main Yoga teacher cited in the article teaches very aggressively while at the same time stating that “most people shouldn’t do yoga”. Also there is little attempt to separate minor injury from serious injury. Setting up his poorly differentiated claim that yoga leads to serious injuries the author states-

More troubling reports followed. In 1972 a prominent Oxford neurophysiologist, W. Ritchie Russell, published an article in The British Medical Journal arguing that, while rare, some yoga postures threatened to cause strokes even in relatively young, healthy people.

 

I checked this “article” to discover a two paragraph letter to the editor of the British Medical Journal. The stroke syndrome quoted by William Broad is also, in that small note by Dr Russell, attributed to the following activities — being in a dentists chair, at a hairdresser, picking fruit, painting a ceiling, presiding over a meeting. Clearly in some rare instances any type of daily neck extension may be dangerous to health. http://www.bmj.com/highwire/filestream/223144/field_highwire_article_pdf/0/685.2.full.pdf

 

Any arduous exercise regime or activity has the potential to result in injury, is yoga any different? If so where are the comparative data? How many are injured in comparative exercise classes for example.

I do agree with the need for the scientific evaluation of harm in current yoga teaching/practice. The problem here however is that the term yoga covers many and varied styles, with each style interpreted differently by different teachers. There are also fairly aggressive styles that push practitioners away from quiet, slow feedback awareness.

My own experience with yoga — practicing most days in the week since the early ’70s — has shown me that if practiced with clear cognizance to some basic ground rules for beginning, holding and releasing a stretch, yoga is a safe practice. The potential for injury however is ever-present, requiring a “this present moment” watchfulness, independent of length of practice, fitness , etc. Based on this attitude a teacher should be listened to and not listened to — immediate sensitivity is the arbiter of when to listen and when not to heed direction to hold longer or deepen a stretch. Even so, minor muscle strains and soreness do occur from time to time, these can be skillfully folded into the process, stimulating renewed awareness and adaptation.

Slowness, watchfulness, constant feedback reflexivity has long been central to good yoga teaching and practice. Paying attention to the present state of the body despite yesterday’s flexibility, watching for aggressiveness, impatience, tiredness or withdrawal; pausing and sensing are all active protocols for moving into, holding and releasing from postures.

Any sustained physical culturing has similar need for intelligent action and skillful means. Potential for injury increases with the current tendency for large classes, lack of home practice away from class and the sheer popularity of yoga. Short attention span and impatience with the body, frequent patterns of our times, play their part. Seeing a yoga pose in a book and true to our current mentality wanting to do it now or at least in a couple of weeks.

Yoga is an excellent activity in which to gain insight into conditioning and imbalances on all levels, physical, emotional and cognitive, as it deeply encourages symmetry and open-ended feedback awareness. There is no end to depth of exploration, to subtlety of discovery.

The art of learning not to go against, not to try to conquer, but to see the presence of things as a deeply integrated whole, even if painful, unpleasant etc  and to work skillfully with them, is the timeless wisdom of yoga.

This timeless wisdom is superbly elucidated in the following link to an article written by Joel Kramer an adept of yoga as a practice for the transformation of conditioning on all levels, titled Yoga As Self-transformation.

 

Yoga involves far more than either having or developing flexibility. Being able to do complicated postures doesn’t necessarily mean you know how to do yoga. The essence of yoga is not attainments, but how awarely you work with your limits — wherever and whatever they may be. The important thing is not how far you get in any given pose, but how you approach the yogic process, which in turn is directly related to how your mind views yoga.

There are different basic frameworks of mind — what I call “headsets” that people bring to yoga. One involves viewing a posture as an end to be achieved, a goal: how far you get in the posture is what counts. Another one views the posture as a tool to explore and open the body. Instead of using the body to “get” the posture, you use the posture to open the body. Whichever framework you’re in greatly influences how you do each posture.

Approaching postures as goals makes you less sensitive to the messages the body is sending. If your mind is primarily on the goal, the gap between where you are and where you want to be can bring tension and hinder movement. You push too hard and fast instead of allowing your body to open at its own pace. Paradoxically, if you’re oriented toward the process instead of the end results, progress and opening come naturally. Postures can be achieved through struggle, but the struggle itself limits both your immediate opening and how far you ultimately move in yoga.

Valuing “progress” is a deep part of our conditioning. It’s natural to enjoy progress, but problems come when your yoga is attached at its core to results, instead of to the daily process of opening and generating energy. This attachment imposes one of the real limits to your yoga.

 

 

 

Here’s the link to the entire article, it’s well worth reading and will change the way you do yoga or inspire you to start. http://www.joeldiana.com/downloads/writings/YogaAsSelfTransformation.pdf

 

Low Serotonin and Depression Link Questioned

16 Jan

An article in New Scientist magazine, July 24th, 2010 by Linda Geddes, reported on the research of Christopher Lowry of the University of Boulder, Colorado.

http://www.newscientist.com/article/mg20727703.300-serotonin-cell-discoveries-mean-rethink-of-depression.html

Though the theory has never been proven, it has generally been thought that depression results from low levels in the brain of the neurotransmitter, serotonin.

The article outlines the central discovery of Lowry’s work that high levels of serotonin in people with depression as well as multiple type of serotonin releasing neurons in the brain is prompting a reassessment of the treatment of depression by simply increasing the amino acid using SSRI antidepressants.

 

Though not mentioned this rethink likely calls into question the use of Tryptophan in complimentary/alternative medicine to boost serotonin in order to treat depression and other disorders presumed to involve low serotonin.

The true picture appears more complex (which seems to be the way it goes in the evolution of medical theory – especially in popular approaches of natural medicine) where multiple types of serotonin neurons are likely to be regulated in independent ways.

Jerry Kennard of Health Central reports Lowry as thinking it

 far more likely that there are subgroups of serotonin neurons that are overactive during depression, rather than under-active as many people have assumed. The piecing together of evidence started over three years ago when researchers at the Baker Heart Institute in Australia discovered up to four times the normal level of serotonin in the brains of people panic disorder. In depressed people not receiving treatment it was two times higher. Another interesting finding was that long-term use of SSRIs in people with depression and panic disorder actually seems to decrease serotonin levels – although it isn’t clear why.

http://www.healthcentral.com/depression/c/4182/116886/depression       

 

In a PLOS Medicine essay,  Serotonin and Depression: A Disconnect between the Advertisements and the Scientific Literature, Jeffrey Lacasse and Jonathan Leo, cover the demise of the serotonin theory and the failure of the latest anti-depressant drugs to live up the media hype.

In subsequent years, there were numerous attempts to identify reproducible neurochemical alterations in the nervous systems of patients diagnosed with depression. For instance, researchers compared levels of serotonin metabolites in the cerebrospinal fluid of clinically depressed suicidal patients to controls, but the primary literature is mixed and plagued with methodological difficulties such as very small sample sizes and uncontrolled confounding variables…  Attempts were also made to induce depression by depleting serotonin levels, but these experiments reaped no consistent results [9]. Likewise, researchers found that huge increases in brain serotonin, arrived at by administering high-dose L-tryptophan, were ineffective at relieving depression [10].

Contemporary neuroscience research has failed to confirm any serotonergic lesion in any mental disorder, and has in fact provided significant counterevidence to the explanation of a simple neurotransmitter deficiency. Modern neuroscience has instead shown that the brain is vastly complex and poorly understood [11]. While neuroscience is a rapidly advancing field, to propose that researchers can objectively identify a “chemical imbalance” at the molecular level is not compatible with the extant science. In fact, there is no scientifically established ideal “chemical balance” of serotonin, let alone an identifiable pathological imbalance. To equate the impressive recent achievements of neuroscience with support for the serotonin hypothesis is a mistake.

With direct proof of serotonin deficiency in any mental disorder lacking, the claimed efficacy of SSRIs is often cited as indirect support for the serotonin hypothesis. Yet, this ex juvantibus line of reasoning (i.e., reasoning “backwards” to make assumptions about disease causation based on the response of the disease to a treatment) is logically problematic—the fact that aspirin cures headaches does not prove that headaches are due to low levels of aspirin in the brain. Serotonin researchers from the US National Institute of Mental Health Laboratory of Clinical Science clearly state, “[T]he demonstrated efficacy of selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors…cannot be used as primary evidence for serotonergic dysfunction in the pathophysiology of these disorders” [12].

Reasoning backwards, from SSRI efficacy to presumed serotonin deficiency, is thus highly contested. The validity of this reasoning becomes even more unlikely when one considers recent studies that even call into question the very efficacy of the SSRIs. Irving Kirsch and colleagues, using the Freedom of Information Act, gained access to all clinical trials of antidepressants submitted to the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) by the pharmaceutical companies for medication approval. When the published and unpublished trials were pooled, the placebo duplicated about 80% of the antidepressant response [13]; 57% of these pharmaceutical company–funded trials failed to show a statistically significant difference between antidepressant and inert placebo [14]. A recent Cochrane review suggests that these results are inflated as compared to trials that use an active placebo [15]. This modest efficacy and extremely high rate of placebo response are not seen in the treatment of well-studied imbalances such as insulin deficiency, and casts doubt on the serotonin hypothesis.

Also problematic for the serotonin hypothesis is the growing body of research comparing SSRIs to interventions that do not target serotonin specifically. For instance, a Cochrane systematic review found no major difference in efficacy between SSRIs and tricyclic antidepressants [16]. In addition, in randomized controlled trials, buproprion [17] and reboxetine [18] were just as effective as the SSRIs in the treatment of depression, yet neither affects serotonin to any significant degree. St. John’s Wort [19] and placebo [20] have outperformed SSRIs in recent randomized controlled trials. Exercise was found to be as effective as the SSRI sertraline in a randomized controlled trial [21].

 http://www.plosmedicine.org/article/info:doi/10.1371/journal.pmed.0020392

Thomas Martin LAc.

 

Effectiveness of Depression Drugs Questioned

15 Jan

The discussion and links in this post are not meant to discourage anyone from listening to their healthcare provider or from taking medical drugs where deemed necessary. It does however serve to show how complex the mind/body is, how being informed and how conscientiousness and self-reliance are important no matter what treatment approach is followed

As to the much lauded effect of the best-selling antidepressant drugs turning out to be very little more than the depression alleviating effect of an inert placebo pill see Sharon Begley’s excellent expose from Newsweek

 …let me show you the studies on PubMed. It seems I am not alone in having moral qualms about blowing the whistle on antidepressants. That first analysis, in 1998, examined 38 manufacturer-sponsored studies involving just over 3,000 depressed patients. The authors, psychology researchers Irving Kirsch and Guy Sapirstein of the University of Connecticut, saw—as everyone else had—that patients did improve, often substantially, on SSRIs, tricyclics, and even MAO inhibitors, a class of antidepressants that dates from the 1950s. This improvement, demonstrated in scores of clinical trials, is the basis for the ubiquitous claim that antidepressants work. But when Kirsch compared the improvement in patients taking the drugs with the improvement in those taking dummy pills—clinical trials typically compare an experimental drug with a placebo—he saw that the difference was minuscule. Patients on a placebo improved about 75 percent as much as those on drugs. Put another way, three quarters of the benefit from antidepressants seems to be a placebo effect. “We wondered, what’s going on?” recalls Kirsch, who is now at the University of Hull in England. “These are supposed to be wonder drugs and have huge effects.”

The study’s impact? The number of Americans taking antidepressants doubled in a decade, from 13.3 million in 1996 to 27 million in 2005.

http://www.thedailybeast.com/newsweek/2010/01/28/the-depressing-news-about-antidepressants.html

For more on this subject see my post here - http://www.wellnessclarity.com/?p=89

 

See also Harriet Fraad’s article in The Guardian

So-called miracle drugs like Prozac are taken by 11% of the population – and Prozac is only one of the 30 available antidepressants on the market. …

Anti-psychotics drugs alone net the pharmaceutical industry at least $14.6bn dollars a year. Psycho-pharmaceuticals are the most profitable sector of the industry, which makes it one of the most profitable business sectors in the world. Americans are less than 5% of the world’s population, yet they consume 66% of the world’s psychological medications.

Do these psycho pharmaceuticals work to restore mental health? Actually, the evidence is overwhelming that they fail. Antidepressants, the most popular psycho-pharmaceuticals, work no better than placebos. They work 25% of the time and stop working when the user stops taking them. In addition, they may actually harm patients in the long run. They disrupt brain neurotransmitters and may usurp the brain’s organic soothing functions.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/cifamerica/2011/mar/15/psychology-healthcare

Until quite recently there used to be a fairly clear demarcation between reactive sadness and major depression that is sustained and apparently without cause – a distinction going back as far as the ancient Greeks. In past years however this distinction has been confused and normal sadness that most people experience from time to time has been increasingly medicalized into a treatable disorder and actively marketed as such.

Here Gordon Parker in the British Medical Journal, discusses this increasing medicalization of sadness.

http://www.bmj.com/content/335/7615/328.full

Also on the over-diagnosis of depression from the Guardian

http://www.guardian.co.uk/lifeandstyle/2007/aug/17/world.health

 

Andrew Weil’s Integrative approach to improving Mood

See Andrew Weil’s (who has experienced bouts of depression life-long) book Spontaneous Happiness on the wholistic approach to emotional wellbeing. Weil also recommends acupuncture, exercise and meditation for this mood condition.

http://www.amazon.com/Spontaneous-Happiness-Andrew-Weil/dp/0316129445/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1326240423&sr=1-1

Exercise Improves Depression

The following study demonstrated exercise to be  equal to Zoloft in improving depression in older adults at 4 months of intervention.

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/sites/entrez?db=pubmed&cmd=Search&doptcmdl=Citation&defaultField=Title%20Word&term=Blumenthal%5Bauthor%5D%20AND%20Effects%20of%20exercise%20training%20on%20older%20patients%20with%20major%20depression.

 

Thomas Martin LAc

 

Acupuncture Reduces Post Traumatic Stress Disorder Symptoms

5 Jan

A pilot study using acupuncture to treat PTSD – Post Traumatic Stress Disorder was published in the Journal of Nervous and Mental Disease, 2007 jun;195(6):504-13. http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/17568299

Acupuncture was compared with a no-treatment wait list and with treatment using cognitive-behavioral group therapy. Acupuncture resulted in significant symptom improvement comparable to the group therapy outcome. Results were measured by comparing self-reported symptom improvement before and after treatment and at a three month post treatment followup.

One of the most frequent effects of acupuncture experienced by clients and seen in the clinic is relaxation and improved sense of wellbeing. This is  often accompanied by an altered response to symptoms whereby they seem less to intrude on wellbeing. Realtime MRI studies often confirm such subjective changes objectively. Reduction of  sympathetic nervous system hypersensitivity (flight or fight reactivity) is also a proven acupuncture effect.

Though this small study  does suggest the usefulness of acupuncture for a difficult to treat condition, it is unlikely that PSTD could be cured by acupuncture treatment. It does support the adjunctive use of acupuncture which may well enable reduction of medication and so of side-effects and enhancement of other therapies. As with any chronic medical condition treatment would need to be intensive at the beginning, tapering off to every 2 or 3 weeks then perhaps with occasional booster treatments at larger intervals.

Thomas Martin LAc.


Acupuncture for treatment of hot flashes in cancer therapy related hormone suppression

8 Dec

A unique study was presented September 24, 2008, at the American Society for Therapeutic Radiology and Oncology’s 50th Annual Meeting in Boston titled Acupuncture for the Treatment of Vasomotor Symptoms in Breast Cancer Patients Receiving Hormone Suppression Treatment

It involved 47 breast cancer patients undergoing estrogen suppression treatment with Tamoxifen and Arimidex, drugs that frequently result in the debilitating side effects of hot flashes, night sweats, and excessive sweating (vasomotor symptoms)

Patients were divided into two groups, one group used the antidepressant, venlafaxine (Effexor), a selective serotonin reuptake inhibitor,which is one of the most common drugs used to treat these hot flashes. The other group was given acupuncture only.

The acupuncture group showed similar reduction of hot flashes, night sweats, and excessive sweating but without the antidepressants side effects and with improvement in the sense of wellbeing and of energy. These results remained stable with followup.

“Our study shows that physicians and patients have an additional therapy for something that affects the majority of breast cancer survivors and actually has benefits, as opposed to more side effects. The effect is more durable than a drug commonly used to treat these vasomotor symptoms and, ultimately, is more cost-effective for insurance companies,” Eleanor Walker, M.D., lead author of the study and a radiation oncologist at the Henry Ford Hospital Department of Radiation Oncology in Detroit, said.

 

 

Similar results have been shown with men experiencing hot flashes, sweats and other symptoms resulting from hormonal suppression for prostate cancer. These were reported in International Journal of Radiation Oncology * Biology * Physics Volume 79, Issue 5 , Pages 1358-1363, 1 April 2011 and titled Acupuncture for the Alleviation of Hot Flashes in Men Treated With Androgen Ablation Therapy

 

It was noted that “Acupuncture provides excellent control of hot flashes in men with a history of AAT (androgen ablation therapy) . The absence of side effects and the durable response at 8 months are likely to be appealing to patients.”

 

The breast cancer study confirms efficacy of acupuncture frequently seen in complementary cancer care with women undergoing breast cancer treatment. Fewer men undergoing hormonal suppression appear to use acupuncture but reduction in vasomotor symptoms seen in the prostate cancer study may involve a similar mechanism.

Thomas Martin LAC

 

 

Meditation reduces pain

1 Dec

 

A study was reported in the Journal of Neuroscience, 6 April 2011, 31(14): 5540-5548; titled – Brain Mechanisms Supporting the Modulation of Pain by Mindfulness Meditation by. Fadel Zeidan, Katherine T. Martucci, Robert A. Kraft, Nakia S. Gordon, John G. McHaffie, and Robert C. Coghill.

It showed that with little more than an hour total of mindfulness meditation training, participants were able to significantly reduce pain ratings compared to a control group involving only rest. In the study pain was induced using a heating device placed on participants right leg.

The unpleasantness of pain was reduced by 57% and the pain intensity ratings reduced by 40%. As one researcher pointed out even morphine and other pain killers reduce pain ratings by about 25% only.

A special type of real-time MRI brain scan called an arterial spin labeling MRI which images longer duration brain processes was used. This showed activity in brain areas of study participants associated with reduction of pain intensity, the anterior cingulate cortex and anterior insula. Another area associated with reduction of pain unpleasantness, the orbitofrontal cortex was also stimulated by meditation. Also thalamus deactivation occurred  which seems to be involved in assisting in conscious regulation of an area involved in emotional experience, the limbic system.

Meditation was seen in this study to assist in mental regulation of pain processing and in reframing the mental evaluation of painful sensory input to the brain.

“Together, these data indicate that meditation engages multiple brain mechanisms that alter the construction of the subjectively available pain experience..” researchers stated.

This provides a valuable glimpse of the potential for learning conscious desensitization of both physical and emotional pain which involves similar brain pattern activation. The study however didn’t involve sustained acute pain and chronic pain  of months or more in duration. Chronic pain probably features deep conditioning both neural, emotional and environmental as well. A long-term intensive intervention would be needed to study meditations effect on chronic pain.

 

A study of participants with chronic pain in a 10 week mindfulness meditation course called The clinical use of mindfulness meditation for the self-regulation of chronic pain by Kabat-Zinn, Lipworth and Burney was reported in the JOURNAL OF BEHAVIORAL MEDICINE Volume 8, Number 2, 163-190.

Interestingly the study showed reductions in several symptoms associated with chronic pain and illness. The meditation practice taught, reduced anxiety, depression, mood disturbance, negative body image as well as present moment pain. Also normal activities were less likely to be reduced by pain and need for pain medication dropped.

At 15 month followup after the 10 week course finished all improvements continued except for present moment pain. Most participants voluntarily continued with their meditation practice.

An interesting point is that although chronic pain continued it was less debilitating, less likely to affect over-all wellbeing. The meditators were able to reduce the “suffering” quality of pain and the tendency for pain to infiltrate the rest of their lives.

As with self-reliant forms of health intervention meditation does require conscientiousness and perhaps a change of meaning on behalf of the patient. The good news is there seems to be a sea change in attitudes toward such inward arts, with science increasingly adding evidence in support of positive mind-body effects.

 

Thomas Martin LAC

 

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