Acupuncture and Migraines

             A migraine is a type of headache, which can repetitively happen on one side or both sides of the head. Usually, it is a throbbing, stabbing pain, which can be debilitating to people.

            Mechanisms of migraines: Abnormal brain cell activities trigger release of certain chemicals,    causing changes of blood flow in the brain and surrounding tissues, according to an article in Medline Plus. CT’s or MRI’s do not show any organic changes in the brain.

What causes migraines:

1. Changed sleep-wake cycle can cause imbalance of chemicals in the brain. If cortisol, melatonin and other chemicals peak and drop at the wrong time, brain activities will change.
2. Artificial light, such as computer and TV light, can reduce melatonin secretion, which is associated with the hyper- excitability of brain cells and increases of certain chemicals linked with pain sensation. Many teenagers develop migraines after prolonged playing of computer games.
3. Missing meals can cause a decrease of blood sugar, triggering adrenaline release, thus changing activity of brain cells.
4. Strong coffee or tea can over-stimulate the sympathetic nervous system and lead to an imbalance between exciting and inhibiting chemicals in the brain.
5. Taking medication for headaches daily can profoundly change the balance of the chemicals in our bodies.
6. Hormone changes during puberty, menopause and menstruation can also influence brain blood flow.  Women tend to develop migraines during menopause.
7. Birth control pills not only dramatically change your chemical balance and brain activities but also cause swelling of the blood vessels.
8. Certain smells or perfumes.
9. Certain foods: any processed, fermented, pickled, or marinated foods, baked goods, chocolate, dairy products, foods containing monosodium glutamate (MSG), foods containing tyramine, (including red wine, aged cheese, smoked fish, chicken livers, figs, and certain beans.). Meats containing nitrates (bacon, hot dogs, salami, cured meats), nuts, onions and peanut butter.
10. Stress can cause increases of cortisol, adrenaline and prolactin, which lead to abnormal activities of brain cells.
11. Lyme disease can cause nerve damage.
12. Dehydration induces histamine release, which generally causes inflammation of the blood vessels, including brain blood vessels.
13. Some medications, such as beta-blockers, can cause swelling of the blood vessels.
14. Excessive noise can over-stimulate your sympathetic nervous system.
15. Women may have fewer migraine attacks during the last two trimesters because a high level of progesterone and a certain type of estrogen (estriol) stabilize their nervous systems.
16. Nicotine withdrawal can cause headaches. Weather changes may cause swelling of the blood vessels due to changes of humidity and air pressure.

What we can do to prevent migraines:

1. Go to sleep and wake up at regular times in order to maintain normal brain cell activity. It is harmful to go to sleep and wake up at random times. Healthy people hardly disturb their circadian cycle. Night-shift people rarely live up to 90 years old in good condition.
2. Avoid too much caffeine. If you have migraines currently, you need to gradually cut down the amount of caffeine that you take in. Technically, caffeine can constrict the blood vessels and help relieve headaches, but too much caffeine is always linked with frequent headaches, because caffeine can also over-stimulate your sympathetic nervous system, causing over-reaction to environmental changes. Moderation is the key.
3. If you want to quit smoking, do it gradually, because a sudden drop in nicotine can lead to hyper-excitability of brain cells. You might want to drink some green tea when you want to light a cigarette, because theonine in green tea can help us relax but still stay alert.
4. Do not drink wine or any other alcohol if you have frequent migraines. If you continue this habit, eventually the medication will not help you anymore.
5. Find out what causes your allergies: nuts, onions or other kinds of food. Abnormal levels of histamine due to allergies can change our brain cell activities.
6. Avoid intense exercises such as running more than 5 miles every day, which can trigger adrenaline release.
7. Avoid artificial sweeteners because they have similar structures as certain brain chemicals and thus can potentially change brain cell activities.
8. Avoid occurrences of low blood sugar by eating the right foods at the right times. Sweets make your blood sugar level go up and down like a roller coaster.
9. Apply a cool towel during a migraine attack; it helps to reduce the swelling of the blood vessels.
10. Avoid triggering food. Once you break the vicious cycle of your migraine attacks, your nervous system and its chemicals reestablish a new balance. You can eat small amounts of those triggering foods, such as chocolate, wine, and nuts, once or twice a week. Finding out the amount and frequency of each of these foods that your body can tolerate is the key to avoiding migraines and enjoying your life in the long run.
11. Drink half of your weight in fluid ounces of water at least three times a week. Meaning a person who weighs 150 pounds should drink 75 ounces of water 3 days during each week. When you are dehydrated, your blood vessels tend to constrict to maintain your blood pressure. Furthermore, dehydration can induce histamine release.

Research about acupuncture and migraines:

Li Y published results in Headache 2009 about how acupuncture can relieve the acute attacks of migraines. A total of 218 patients with migraine were recruited for the study; 180 met the inclusion criteria; 175 completed the callback process and were randomized into 3 groups. One group received real acupuncture, whereas subjects in the other 2 groups were treated with sham acupuncture. Each patient received 1 session of treatment and was observed over a period of 24 hours. The main outcome measure was the differences in visual analog scale (VAS scores for the pain level before treatment and 0.5, 1, 2, and 4 hours after treatment.)

Significant decreases relative to baseline in VAS scores were observed in the fourth hour after treatment. The VAS scores in the fourth hour after treatment decreased by a median of 1.0 cm, 0.5 cm, and 0.1 cm in the real acupuncture group, sham acupuncture group 1, and sham acupuncture group 2. Similarly, there was a significant difference in the change from baseline in VAS scores in the second hour after treatment among the 3 groups (P = .006), with only patients treated with real acupuncture showing a significant mean decrease in VAS score at this time: median decrease 0.7 cm (P < .001). Many patients in the acupuncture group experienced complete pain relief (40.7%). 

Letpin, weight loss acupuncture

Leptin is derived from the Greek word ‘leptos’ meaning thin. Leptin is one of the key hormones involved in hunger, metabolism and how fats and carbohydrates get stored and utilized. Leptin tells your hypothalamus that you have eaten enough and need to start burning fat. The hypothalamus is the control center of the brain for fullness and fat storage. The rate of production of leptin directly correlates with weight loss or weight gain. Women have significantly higher circulating leptin than men.

Leptin resistance is very similar to insulin resistance. With insulin resistance, chronic elevated levels of insulin make your muscle and fat cells more resistance to the action of insulin. Chronic elevated leptin levels decrease the hypothalamus sensitivity to leptin. If your body produces too much fat chronically by drinking soda or eating too much ice cream, the long term elevated leptin will desensitize your hypothalamus. As a result your hypothalamus will not respond to leptin signaling, and you eat too much.

 

The following two scientific studies show that  acupuncture has a bi-directional adjustment of leptin levels. The first one shows that if rats gain weight within a short period of time before they develop resistance to leptin, acupuncture can help increase the leptin and its receptor levels to suppress food intake and burn more fat. The second experiment shows that if obese people have already developed leptin resistance due to chronic high levels of leptin, acupuncture can help lower leptin levels and make the hypothalamus more sensitive to leptin stimulation, which maybe associated with resensitizing the leptin receptor.
 

Scientist Bai CY, et al. observed the effects of electroacupuncture (EA) on leptin and leptin receptor mRNA expression in the hypothalamus of rats with nonalcoholic fatty livers in 2010.  Male rats were randomly divided into a control group, model group and electrical stimulation group. The model group was established by feeding the animals a  high fat diet for 8 weeks. Electrical stimulation was applied to unilateral ST 40 and ST 36, once daily for 4 weeks. After the treatments, compared with the control group, serum triglyceride and total cholesterol levels increased significantly in the model group. While serum triglyceride and total cholesterol levels in electrical acupuncture group were reduced considerably. Electrical stimulation can lower serum triglyceride and total cholesterol levels in rats with fatty liver, which is closely related to its effects in up-regulating the expression of hypothalamic leptin and leptin receptor mRNA. This may explain how the increased leptin and leptin receptor level can help rats lose unhealthy fat induced artificially.

 

Luo HL and Li RH did human research to show how electrical acupuncture can optimize the level of leptin and help humans to lose weight. Sixty obesity patients with elevated leptin levels were randomly divided into a control, manual acupuncture and electrical acupuncture groups with 20 cases in each group. Liangqiu (ST 34), Xuehai (SP 10), Gongsun (SP 4), Neiting (ST 44), Tianshu (ST 25) and Fujie (SP 14) were punctured respectively once every other day for 27 times altogether. After the treatment, 5.0%, 85.0% and 95.0% of the control, manual and electrical acupuncture groups respectively lost weight. The therapeutic effects of both manual and electrical acupuncture groups were significantly higher than that of control group. Furthermore, serum Lepin levels in both manual and electrical groups decreased significantly and the effects on the electrical acupuncture groups were markedly better than those of manual acupuncture and control groups. No significant changes were found in Lepin level in control group. Both electrical acupuncture and manual acupuncture can effectively lower blood Lepin level in obesity patients, by resensitizing the hypothalamus, contributing to reduced food intake and increased metabolism. The effect of electrical acupuncture is significantly superior to that of manual acupuncture in the treatment of simple obesity.

Phytonutrients, Cancer and Acupuncture

Cruciferous vegetables include cabbage, broccoli, cauliflower, radishes, parsnips, kale, and bean sprouts. Dr. Nieske Zabriskie cited scientific evidence to explain why increased intake of cruciferous vegetables has been shown to decrease overall cancer risk. One of the constituents found in these vegetables, indole-3-carbinol (I3C), has been widely studied as a potential chemo-preventative and chemotherapeutic agent, indole-
3-carbinol (I3C) has the following beneficial effects for our health, according to Dr.
Niewske Zabriski:

1. It increases estrogen metabolism via the beneficial 2-hydroxylation pathway in humans from 29 percent to over 45 percent. Increasing the 2-hydroxylation pathway decreases the activity of the other, more harmful pathways.

2. The good estrogen, metabolites, 2-hydroxylation end products, decreases cell proliferation and increases programmed cell death, which are important in the prevention of cancer.

3. I3C also increases the expression of the well-known breast cancer suppression gene
BRCA1. Additionally, I3C inhibits the activation of estrogen receptors by estradiol, which prevents estrogen-enhanced cancers.

4. I3C also protects against cervical cancer. Estrogen promotes development of cervical cancer in cells infected with high-risk human papillomaviruses (HPV). I3C and 2-
hydroxyestrone inhibiting the estrogen-increased expression of the HPV cancer- promoting genes.

5. Evidence also demonstrates that I3C is a potent scavenger of free-radicals, highly reactive chemicals that cause damage in the body and lead to aging, degenerative diseases, and cancer.

6. I3C is acid-catalyzed in the stomach into diindolylmethane (DIM). DIM is believed to be the active beneficial constituent in I3C and cruciferous vegetables. Animal models show that supplementation with I3C prior to exposure of a known carcinogen, decreased the development of breast tumors by 70-90 percent. Studies on human breast cancer cell lines show that DIM inhibits the growth of both estrogen-dependent and estrogen-independent cancer cells by approximately 60 percent. The same study also showed that
DIM binds to the estrogen receptors in these cells, inhibiting the binding of estradiol.

7. Other evidence shows that I3C decreases both the growth of blood supply to cancer cells and the spread of the cancerous cells locally and that it protects the liver from carcinogens.

8. DIM also exhibits anti-androgenic activity. Research shows that DIM inhibits
dihydyrotestosterone (DHT) from binding to androgen receptors in androgen-dependent human prostate cancer cells, decreasing the induction of DNA synthesis. DIM also decreased levels of prostate specific antigen (PSA).

If cruciferous vegetables have so many protective effects, then why are they so unpopular? First of all, these vegetables require enzymes to digest, so if you've never eaten them, your body might not be able to digest them, due to the complexity of the compounds involved. You will have bloating, gas and indigestion. So when you finally do decide to eat these vegetables, you might start with a small steamed serving. You have to find the right amount in order to avoid indigestion. Also acupuncture and Chinese herbs can help you to digest them more efficiently by bringing more blood flow to the stomach area.

Secondly, these vegetables have no spontaneous stimulating effect on your brain and cannot induce dopamine, endorphines or serotonin instantly as sweets and alcohol do. It takes time for your body to produce the beneficial effect. When you change eating habits like this, the stress can cause other problems. Therefore acupuncture can help your body to cope in order to develop a new healthier habit by facilitating its ability to produce more dopamine, serotonin and GABA. Thirdly, If you are taking anti-acid medication, you might have more difficulty digesting. You could use acupuncture and herbs to reduce any acid reflux instead of taking the anti-acid to stop it, because acid is very critical to digesting fibers, vitamins and minerals. Acupuncture can improve your digestion and strengthen the esophagus and stomach muscle tone and prevent acid from coming up in your throat. Acupuncture can also facilitate regular stomach and intestine movement to reduce stomach pressure.

Estrogen, Testosterone Acupuncture, and Prostate Cancer

             Dr. John Lee said estrogen can be the angel of the life and the angel of the death. When estrogen is metabolized abnormally, it can modify the gene expression and alter important intracellular signaling sequences, that promote abnormal cell growth and endothelial damage by creating the vasoconstriction and high cholesterol. Thus too much estrogen can be a weak DNA damaging (genotoxic) carcinogen and stimulate tumor-cell activators. For women, abnormally metabolized estrogen can lead to uterus, breast and ovarian cancer, for men, prostate cancer. A new article published in Molecular Cell Endocrinology in 2012 explained that testosterone can be metabolized to estradiol by aromatase in the fat cells, breast cells, endothelial cells and prostate cells.  Dr. Bosland MC of U. of Illinois at Chicago did experiment in which  estradiol is applied to the rats, prostate cancer incidence is markedly increased and even a short course of estrogen treatment results in a high incidence of prostate cancer.

            In the old time, prostate cancer usually was more common in older people. By age of eighty years old, more than 50% percent of men may have enlarged prostate. But most older men do not die of prostate cancer, because they do not have imbalanced estrogen and testosterone. Why some men develop prostate cancer, while others do not. This depends how the testosterone is metabolized. The testosterone can be metabolized to 5alpha-dihydrotestosterone which cannot be aromatized to estrogen and hardly induces prostate cancer. On the other hand, if too much testosterone is converted by an enzyme called aromatase, into estrogen, it may lead to prostate cancer. Therefore it is not testosterone itself but how it is metabolized that leads to prostate cancer. Estrogen receptors are expressed in the prostate and may mediate which direction the testosterone can be metabolized. In the rat prostate, DNA damage can result from estrogen treatment; This phenomenon can occur prior to cancer development and at exactly the same location. Masayoshi Hiramatsu et al. suggested in a book called Prostate, that overexpression of aromatase, possibly attributable to abnormal gene regulation, may result in abnormal estrogen production in situ and play a role in the induction or development of human prostatic disorders.

             Why are more and more younger men diagnosed with benign prostate enlargement and prostate cancer even in their forties or fifties? Because as a society, we eat more and more processed food or simple sugar every day,  which can be converted into fat due to our sedentary life style. Simple sugars can lead to an insulin surge, which causes inflammation. More fat means more testosterone can be converted into estrogen by aromatase. An abnormal level of estrogen, stress, lack of exercises and inflammation together can turn on bad gene expression.  Drinking alcohol regularly may not only cause impotence due to lowered level of testosterone, but also increase activity of aromatase abnormally, which lead to more intracellular estrogen production from testosterone.

         How does acupuncture help prevent or treat prostate cancer? First acupuncture can balance your immune function to reduce general inflammation, which is closely related with cancer development. Secondly, acupuncture can change the way you metabolize by improving your digestive and thyroid function.  So when you eat certain foods, instead of storing all the calories as fat, you produce more energy and heat to let your body work more efficiently. Less fat, less estrogen and less gene mutation. Thirdly, acupuncture can reduce stress improving your sleep, reducing,  anxiety and enhancing  natural killer cell activity, which is critical during chemo- and radiation therapy treatment. Fourthly, acupuncture help your body produce more feel good hormones, such as GABA, Serotonin and Dopamine, so you do not have to drink alcohol to feel good and relax.

Breast Cancer and Soy Product

When I treat breast cancer patients, they often ask the question: should I avoid soy products? In the past, oncologists would warn that breast cancer patients should not consume soy products, especially women with apositive estrogen receptors. I have read many articles about how Asian women are less prone to develop breast cancer than Caucasian women, especially Japanese women who eat a lot of Tofu and Tempei. Soy products do contain phytoestrogen, but it is very weak and belongs to the good estrogen category called estriol, which prevents breast cancer according to a study done by Dr. Henry Lemon. When your body has a very low level of estrogen, the phytoestrogen can combine with the estrogen receptor and serve as estriol. When your body has a lot of bad estrogen, such as estradiol or estrone, which can stimulate breast tissue growth, phytoestrogen can occupy part of the receptors to block the stimulating effect. The following research shows evidences that phytoestrogen can help cancer patients instead of harming them.



In Am J Clin Nutr. 2012, Nechuta SJ, et al, included 9514 breast cancer survivors with a diagnosis of invasive breast cancer between 1991 and 2006 from 2 US and 1 Chinese cohort. Soy isoflavone intake (mg/d) was measured with validated food-frequency questionnaires. The research found that consumption of more than 10 mg isoflavones per day was associated with a nonsignificant reduced risk of breast cancer-specific mortality and a statistically significant reduced risk of recurrence of breast cancer. Zaineddin AK of Germen Cancer Research Center conducted a population-based case-control study in German postmenopausal women to evaluate the association of phytoestrogen-rich foods and dietary lignans with breast cancer risk. Dietary data were collected from 2,884 cases of breast cancer and 5,509 controls using a validated food-frequency questionnaire. This research indicated that high and low consumption of soybeans as well as of sunflower and pumpkin seeds were associated with significantly reduced breast cancer risk compared to no consumption. The observed associations were not differential by estrogen receptor status. No statistically significant associations were found for dietary intake of plant lignans and fibers. These results provide strong evidence for a reduced postmenopausal breast cancer risk associated with increased consumption of sunflower, pumpkin seeds and soybeans.


Li Zheng is a licensed acupuncturist and herbalist, a graduate of the Beijing University of Chinese Medicine with 24 years of clinical and research experiences, including 6 years of residency, a Ph.D. degree holder in medical sciences from the US, a Harvard Medical School trained researcher and a professor at the New England School of Acupuncture. Her website is www.acumagic.org and her clinic is located at 475 hillside avenue, Needham, MA02494.

Longevity

I have been observing many healthy and happy people who live up to 90 years old and still are able to enjoy their life. I found that they all have the following common characteristics: 1. They are very disciplined and have a routine every day. 2. They go to bed earlier and get up earlier. 3. They have a very positive attitude and hardly complain. 4. They are very social and tend to accept other people's ideas if they think it will benefit them. 5. Most of them are in a religion. 6. They do not always have good genes to protect them. 7. When they are young, they took care of their sick parents and learn that if they do not take care of themselves, nobody else can take care of them. 8. They eat homemade food most of the time and never overeat.


Linda Yamamoto is a 88-year old American lady, who has had acupuncture with me for the past 6 years. She does have good genes from her mother, who lived up to 98 years old without any health insurance. But this good gene does not protect her from being sick. She developed a hypothyroid condition when she turned to 40 years old after she delivered her third child. She started taking the synthroid since then. She stayed at home until her youngest child went to high school, then she started working for the government as an accountant. After few years of thyroid medication, she developed atrial fibrilization. She then started taking β-blocker and other two medications for her heart condition. Her heartbeats slowed down with medications, but never become regular. She has been a very social and happy lady. She donated her money to a foundation to help the poor Asian students to study in the college. She does not travel a lot, but does join all kinds of social activities in Boston area. Her husband drives her around. She gets upset when her husband forgot to pick her up, but never complain non-stop. The HRT treatment brought dreams for many post menopause women, thinking they can regain their youth by this magic pill. Linda tried at the age of 68 years old. After one year of taking this magic pill, she started having period at the age of 69 years old. She logically thought this is not natural and quit the hormone pill right away. But her mother's good gene did not protect her in the modern society, she developed breast cancer after taking hormone supplement for a year at the age of 70. She had surgery, radiation therapy, but no Tamaxofen to block all her estrogen receptors, thus she did not lose her muscle and strength. At the age of 80 years old, she decided to quit working for the government because she realized that the stress was too much for her. She spent more time to take care of her health and the social event. Linda has a very unique personality; she always sleeps 8 hours no matter when she goes to bed. But I found out if she goes to bed after 12pm, her irregular heart beat get worse and her digestion was not good. For a period of time, she joined many social events very late and had dinner after 7pm. Every Saturday when I feels her pulse, her heart beats became more irregular even she was taking 3 medications for her condition. I recommend her stop her one cup of coffee every day, have dinner before 7pm and go to bed before 12pm. She gradually changed her habit. The heart condition and digestion have been improving for the past couple of years. Then she went to her cardiologist for routine checkup and stopped all her heart medications at the age of 87, the next week she came for acupuncture facial rejuvenation, her heart beats were slow and regular without any heart medication. As her heart condition is improved, she started personal training in gym to tone her muscle at the age of 86. Initially, she lifted weight 3 times a week, she developed knee and hip pain. Because she eats healthy, she does not have any systematic inflammation, her muscle pain was healed with only one to two acupuncture treatment. Combing acupuncture and her exercises, her joint pain and Raynaud's syndrome do not bother her anymore. Her face looks like 50 years old, she still has sharp memory and never forget to pay her bill on time. She is till cooking and cleaning in her own house. On the other hand, her two brothers, who had much more freedom and played golf for hours every day, suddenly developed liver and blood cancer at the age of 84 and 85 years old last year, they refused to accept any treatment and died peacefully 3 months later. I guess their routine exercises made them strong and happy, but playing golf for hours every day might make them dehydrated chronically. Gradually the dehydration led to some kind of inflammation and mutated their genes even though their mother gave them some of her good genes. In conclusion, moderation is the key for the happy and healthy life. Even if you do not have so much money or travel all over the world, you still can be healthy and happy.

Acupuncture and Cancer

Cancer is becoming more and more common in the modern society, one out of five American women develop breast cancer between their forties and fifties. Many factors contribute to this detrimental disease, such as high stress levels, environmental contamination and junk food. Chemo and radiation therapy can effectively kill the cancer cells, but can also damage normal tissues at the same time. I have always wondered why some patients survive longer over time with a better quality of life than others even when they have the same degree of the same diseases. As I think about the patients I have treated over my 20 years of clinical experience, three factors seem to contribute to the extended survival rate of some: 1. how relaxed and happy they are generally, 2. how well they digest and absorb food and 3. how well they sleep. All the three factors contribute to the function of their immune system and the ability of their body to repair the damaged tissue caused by chemo therapy and normal wear and tear.


NK cells are essential effector cells of the innate immune system that spontaneously kill transformed and infected cells, and therefore represent the first line of the host immune defense against cancer and pathogens. Michael Francis Johnson of California reviewed the study done by Arranz and colleagues in Spain. This study indicated that high levels of anxiety can lower the natural killer cell activity 3-fold, compared with healthy controls. This explains why many people, who cannot relax periodically and always rush from one project to another project, tend to develop cancer. In the same study, when a group of points such as ST36, SI3, HT3, HT5, LI11, PC6, LI4, TW5, CV3, CV4, CV6, CV15, GB34, GB43, SP6, LV2, UB60, KD6, GV20 were stimulated twice a week for 10 treatments, anxious women showed a complete restoration of their natural killer cell activity. In animal studies, experiments show that acupuncture on ST36 can increase NK cell tumoricidal activity and the secretion of interleukin-2 and interferon- . Furthermore, acupuncture can increase the expression of the NK cell receptor CD94 and protein tyrosine phosphatase.


During chemotherapy, patients are often given a steroid drug to suppress their immune function. By combing acupuncture treatment with this, patients can have less infection and relax more. More importantly, acupuncture on ST36 can strengthen the digestive function. Also after the tumor is destroyed by drugs, the body can quickly repair normal cell function by absorbing nutrients more efficiently. Research also shows that acupuncture can help people produce more growth hormones by sleeping better and supplying energy to pituitary and hypothalamus gland. Acupuncture not only enhances immune function, but also balances it during a time when it is abnormally hyperactive.