Another Reason to Try Natural Labor Induction

For those of you planning to give birth sometime in the future, you may want to rethink what to expect when you're expecting. Although it may come as a surprise, the United States is actually one of the lowest ranking industrialized nations for safe childbirth.

Here's the scenario at your average American hospital. You go into labor. The doctor suggests Pitocin, a drug that acts like the hormone oxytocin to bring on contractions. Once you take Pitocin, the contractions come on quickly and more painfully and your brain actually stops producing its own oxytocin. You need an epidural to stop the pain. The epidural slows down the labor and actually goes into your child's bloodstream.

At his point, your chances of a normal vaginal delivery are greatly reduced. But that's probably to your doctors advantage since most OBs are more comfortable with a surgical delivery anyway.

So you get a c-section. It's not only more dangerous for you and your baby, but it also will almost guarantee that you will heal more slowly after labor and be the beginning of other health issues down the line.

Monetarily, if you don't have insurance you are paying about $15,000 more than you were before. Even with insurance coverage, you're not saving yourself any money; the birth will most likely still cost more in out of pocket expenses.

When all is said and done it would have been more responsible of you to consider other options like natural labor induction. At St John Acupuncture you may be spending $90 on labor induction, but you're saving you and your baby in multiple ways.

Check out this recent article from Time Magazine to see what I mean.

http://www.time.com/time/health/article/0,8599,2007754,00.html

US Military begins plans to officially use Battlefield Acupuncture

As mentioned in the article below about Battlefield Acupuncture, Dr. Richard Niemtzow has been honing and testing his technique for years at Andrews Airforce base. However, next year the US Military will officially begin using Battlefield acupuncture on a larger scale.

As a practitioner who has learned this technique, I have to tell you that it is pretty darn amazing. For some of my patients it can make all the difference in the results they're getting in my clinic.

To read more check out this link:

http://www.digitaljournal.com/article/266173

Ishizaka Traditional Japanese Acupuncture

The traditional Japanese style of acupuncture originated from hands on methods of healing like Qi gong, Shiatsu and other styles of Japanese massage. Practitioners began using a quick in and out form of needling in the areas of the body that they had felt the most energetic impact while using their hands.

In the late 1700's Ishizaka Sotetsu created created his own system of needling based on this knowledge but also including western medicine from the Dutch. Incredibly, this was the first (but not last) time in history that Western medicine would be combined with a complementary form of healing.

The idea was to work the needle in Japanese style up and down the spinal cord along to correlate with the Western view that the nerves traveled from the brain and down the spine.

I like to think of this style of needling as being the closest thing my patients will get to an acupuncture massage.

Using my left hand to palpitate and massage the body, I go digging for what I like to call "rice crispies".

Rice crispies are those crunchy little knots and bumps that I know you all can feel in your neck and shoulders.

After rubbing the affected area, I do a quick and light in and out Japanese needling style to work out those rice crispies and detoxify the body.


How does it feel?

Well, I'd have to say it feels pretty good.

I had it done to me the other weekend and my back felt more open. In my neck where I was having a little bit of soreness from carrying around my 17 month old, I really felt it most intensely. And it made a difference.

So come on in and try it out. I think you're really going to enjoy it.

We are now armed to the teeth with our Battlefield Acupuncture Skills

Battlefield Acupuncture, or Niemtzow Acupuncture was developed by the military for the purpose of instantly relieving pain in the heat of a battle. According to the protocol, an acupuncturist should be able to alleviate pain within minutes so that a patient can have broader range of motion and be able to function painlessly.

Sounds too good to be true, right?

That's exactly what I thought.

Until I went to the HealthSouth Petersburg Rehabilitation Hospital in Petersburg, Va to learn the protocol.

What I found was amazing results.

Patients, accompanied by their physical therapists, nurses and family members all lined up to give Battlefield Acupuncture a try. There was a post stroke patient, a man sustaining a sever spinal cord injury with painful neuropathy and a nurse with plantar fasciitis waiting - to name a few - waiting to be healed.

Amazingly enough, all of the patients found major relief or increased range of motion. The therapists were amazed and so was the rest of the class.

After returning home from the clinic, I used the technique on 5 of my 11 patients today. All of them found relief and none of them could believe the immediate results.

The question of the day was: "Where did the pain go?"

Well folks, there's actually a good explanation for this. But what I recommend is coming in and trying it for yourself. You won't regret it for a minute. And I would love to treat you.

To read more about Battlefield Acupuncture, go to the link below.

http://www.battlefieldacupuncture.com/

Good News, Ladies

The medical community of Oncology and Radiology has been only one of the most recent groups to embrace the benefits of acupuncture. Last year the Journal of Radiology published a very positive study about the benefits of acupuncture in treating the side effects of radiation treatment.

This great article from Science Daily explains the benefits of acupuncture for reducing hot flashes and increasing sex drive for breast cancer patients.

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2009/12/091229105908.htm

7 Misconceptions of Acupuncture

Here's a great video about the 7 myths of acupuncture. Enjoy!

7 Myths About Acupuncture from Urban Remedy Community Acupunctu on Vimeo.

Scientific Breakthrough on How Acupuncture Works

And so it had gone for years that when I discuss the benefits of acupuncture with western medical doctors the inevitable question is raised: "How exactly does acupuncture work? Is there any quantifiable evidence that proves it's efficacy?"

Of course thousands of research studies have been conducted supporting acupuncture as a viable form of therapy, but the question of how it works never seems to get answered.

The idea that acupuncture needles work along the nervous system pathways is great, but too good to be true. There are really only a couple of acupuncture points that are on or near nerve endings.

However, what acupuncturists and Traditional Chinese Medicine practitioners recognize as "qi" or the general life force that flows through the body along pathways called meridians may actually be quantifiable in scientific terms.

Click on the link below to read more about this scientific breakthrough:

http://www.examiner.com/x-11705-NY-Holistic-Science--Spirit-Examiner~y2009m10d12-New-scientific-breakthrough-proves-why-acupuncture-works