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Gabrielle Mathieu L Ac
Disclaimer here-I’ve never treated a case of autism. However, I thought it was interesting that shortly after I posted on the New York Times report about mitochondrial disorders and autism, I saw an article about the treatment of autism using acupuncture.
As reported in the March 2008 issue of The Journal of Alternative and Complementary Medicine, 20 children, with autism and language delays, were divided into two groups. Only one group received acupuncture, but both groups were enrolled in language therapy. The acupuncture points used were a mix of traditional points and Yamamoto Japanese scalp acupuncture points. (I also do some Yamamoto points for other disorders. They seem quite effective).
The children were treated over a period of nine months, receiving two months of acupuncture, followed by a two week rest, and then a resumption of the cycle.
At the end of the nine month period, although both groups showed improvement in cognitive and expressive language skills, the group that received acupuncture as well showed significant improvement. Six different areas were tested, including overall attention, skill in organizing related words, and the ability to utter speech sounds.
Often, when people say they say they have “stomach problems”, they really mean they have IBS, irritable bowel syndrome. When I was a kid they didn’t have names like that. People were constipated or had the runs. My Swiss Granny kept a close check on me, and gave me an apple every day as a preventative against problems in that area. The Swiss are very preoccupied with those matters, and you would be too, if you ate cheese, white bread, and chocolate all day long.Or perhaps it’s on your mind anyway, since you are reading this.
But as if often the case, when people continue to visit their doctors, special names evolve for conditions we all heard described in simple language when we were growing up. At least the criteria for IBS seem to be stable, and it isn’t usually a harbinger of something worse. Medscape says “In six studies with relevant information, 2-5% of irritable bowel syndrome patients were diagnosed with an alternative organic GI disorder after 6 months to 6 years of follow-up. Long-term follow-up indicated that 2-18% of patients developed worse irritable bowel syndrome symptoms, approximately 30-50% of patients had unchanged symptoms, and the rest either improved or had symptoms disappear.”
The symptoms were unchanged, because the doctors usually prescribe Metamucil or some other fiber compound to help with the constipation and the cramping, and leave it at that. I have seen a new drugs marketed for IBS to relive the spasmodic component; one such drug, Zelnorm, was voluntarily withdrawn after the FDA found an increased risk of strokes, heart attack, and chest pain. (Is that all?).
I had a woman who sought my help this spring. She had not been given the disease name “IBS”, but her symptoms certainly suggested that. Specifically, she had episodes of cramping and explosive diarrhea. After evacuation, the cramping would alleviate. This began after she had a child and then had gallbladder surgery soon afterwards.
In Traditional Chinese Medicine, we look at things in terms of deficiency and excess when prescribing herbs. Herbs either unblock and draw away things (what we in the West might think of a detoxifying) or build up things. This patient, like many, presented as a mixed case. She had low energy, craved sweets,and felt fuzzy-headed in the morning, indicating digestive weakness. However, the stool had a foul odor and she would feel hot during those episodes, indicating heat that needed to be cleared.
We did five acupuncture treatments, at first biweekly and then monthly, and she took her herbs diligently as prescribed. The herbs included herbs such as White Peony to help cramping, herbs such as Tangerine Peel to regulate the energy of the abdomen, and a type of Anemone that can also be used for dysentery. This last month she tapered off the herbs and had no episodes at all.
The New York Times Health Section reported that drug-resistant high blood pressure was on the rise. High blood pressure is the most commonly diagnosed medical condition in the United States, and is consider a significant risk factor for stroke. Drug-resistant high blood pressure is defined is defined as blood pressure which remains above the clinical goal, even after three or more different classes of medications have been tried. Populations prone to obesity, diabetes, and kidney disease, such as populations found in the Southeastern United States, seem to be more likely to have drug-resistant high blood pressure. These people, many of them elderly, are likely to be on many medications already, for various diseases.
A panel of experts convened by the American Heart Association reviewed various studies, and concluded that “20 to 30 percent could not control their blood pressure with three or more drugs, even when taking them exactly as prescribed.” The Times comments that the 20 to 30% appears to be increasing.
Commentary
Blood pressure can be regulated by acupuncture and Chinese herbal prescriptions. This is not a health-related concern that people often seek acupuncture for, but it can be very effective. As discussed in the precis of the NYT article, many of those that develop drug-resistant high blood pressure are already on medications to control other conditions. Avoidance of further medication is advisable, both from the perspective of Western pharmacology and Traditional Chinese Medicine.
Traditional Chinese Medicine views blood pressure balances as most commonly related to the Chinese Liver and Kidney, although other diagnoses occur as well. Dr Stephen Gascoigne, a medically trained doctor who now only treats with Traditional Chinese Medicine and homeopathy, believes that some of the commonly used drags can aggravate existing energetic imbalances.
In A Clinical Medicine Guide: A Holistic Perspective, he writes “The main group of drugs are diuretics and hypotensive agents. Diuretics are cold in nature and make the Kidney let go of Yin (urine). Long term they damage the Kidney qi and lead to Yin deficiency.” Hypotesive agents are similar to beta-blockers; betablockers are also sometimes used to control blood pressure. Dr Gascoigne points out that drugs like beta-blockers do not change the amount of adrenalin produced, they merely block the awareness of adrenalin. He believes that long term use damages the heart, and leads to fatigue and weakness. I can attest that beta-blockers may change a manifestation like the pulse of the patient, which will be slower, but overall, the person will still give the impression of being anxious and tense.
Ideally, a patient would seek TCM before trying any blood pressure medication, (unless of course the blood pressure was dangerously high when discovered), or perhaps, while on one medication. I had one client who decided to come in for treatments and herbal medicine for high blood pressure after he also had a panic attack and migraine from the stress he was undergoing.
His blood pressure was 160/90 when EMS checked it, during the panic attack episode. At the beginning of his first treatment it was 140/77. After his first treatment, his migraine went away and his blood pressure stayed in the 120s for the top (systolic reading). The client was a professional in his early forties. Although he did not taper off his medication, as he was experiencing a stressful period in his life, acupuncture and herbs helped him complete his transition without any more episodes of panic or dangerously elevated blood pressure, and he did not get any more migraines.
Three organs that can be responsible for fatigue that can be are the adrenals, the pancreas, and the thyroid glands.
If you’ve ever seen a scary movie (I’m not talking about scarily bad, but scary, as in there are dark corners which conceal lurking monsters), you’ve experienced a bit of adrenal fatigue. The first time the psychopath jumps out of the closet where he’s been watching the nubile young babysitter, your heart lurches, your breath catches, and your shoulders tighten. (I’m assuming you’re not an adolescent male, who might find such a scene not stimulating enough). By the end of the movie where the fourth scantily clad young woman is dispatched in an ingenious and bloody fashion, your body has had enough, and the startle reflexes have quieted. You may feel too exhausted to summon up much of a reaction anymore; this is why the film maker needed to raise the ante with each scene, making each denouement more horrific than the last.
The body can adjust to a certain level of stress, and the stressor will cease causing a startle reaction. However, abnormally high levels of cortisol, adrenalin, and noradrenalin continue to be secreted. The physical sensations these hormones create are not noticeable because the body becomes accustomed to those levels. Eventually however, the adrenal glands stop responding to stimulus normally, and become exhausted.
There are three stages of reaction to stress that culminate in adrenal exhaustion, according to Dr Selye: the alarm reaction, the stage of resistance, and the stage of exhaustion. In the alarm reaction, the sympathetic nervous system is active, and the adrenal glands secrete adrenalin and noradrenalin. (Also called epinephrine and norepinephrine). Cortisol is also elevated. These hormones affect other systems which such as immune function, including allergic responses, where the body is too reactive to a harmless trigger. Blood pressure, and blood sugar regulation are affected by adrenal hormones. Cortisol levels that do not drop in the evening and early phases of sleep also cause sleep disturbance patterns; normally cortisol has a diurnal variation.
In the adaptation stage, the adrenals return to the normal secretion of adrenalin, noradrenalin, and corticosteroids.
Adrenal exhaustion develops only under conditions of long-term or extreme stress, when the body is unable to adapt to the stressor. This is like having your foot on the gas pedal until the gas pedal gets stuck , and eventually, all the fuel is exhausted (if you don’t drive into an obstacle first).
I used to be more skeptical of treating fatigue by addressing adrenal exhaustion. Like Candida, it seemed that everyone who went to a certain type of natural practitioner was going to be diagnosed with this. In one way, it did make sense. We take so many things to excite our sympathetic nervous system and adrenal glands-energy drinks, caffeine, OTC decongestants with ephedrine like compounds-even the early punk band, “Gang of Four” music that I listen to during my work out to get through it-that the adrenal glands should get worn down. On the other hand I was wary of what I call “the shopping bag mentality.” This occurs, I think, when you are a practitioner of holistic medicine without a specific hands-on service you provide. Practitioners of Traditional Chinese Medicine do acupuncture on their patients; therefore there is an incentive for long-term visits, as people cannot do acupuncture on themselves. (although I can). However, some other type of healer may only see the patient once or twice, long enough to diagnose their ailments and prescribe herbs, homeopathy, or other supplements. In this case, it is naturally understandable for the practitioner to wish to maximize the cost of those one or two visits. This sometimes results in patients leaving with a shopping bag full of supplements. Certainly this is not meant as a blanket condemnation of other natural health care practitioners; this is just something I’ve observed in a few cases.
I thought of adrenal supplements as just one of those things that would be in that shopping bag, but as I began to study Kiiko Matsumoto’s acupuncture style and use it on patients, I found that the adrenals often do need to be treated. In Kiiko’s style of acupuncture, the belly is checked, along with other areas, and points are choosen based on their ability to release pressure pain in that area. The area around the umbilicus is associated with the adrenals in that style, and often, when I checked that area on people who were tired, there was significant discomfort. Once points on the Kidney and Lungs meridians were treated, the client would feel better and the pressure pain around the umbilicus would be relieved. Some of the complaints, aside from fatigue, that seemed to be associated with that area were allergies, caffeine dependency, and recent, unusually stressful events. After speaking to a colleague in California who also does Kiiko style acupuncture, I began to add certain herbs to the herb formula if I suspected adrenal weakness (exhaustion seems like such a dramatic term). I’ve incorporated Cordyceps, or White or American Ginseng to the basic formula with good results, making sure to keep the formula balanced with other needs of the system.
The adrenal points that our style acupuncture uses strengthen the gland, and can increase natural secretion of cortisol, if needed. In Western medicine, cortisone compounds are used to treat allergies, asthma, and both systemic and local inflammation, as well as a variety of other conditions. For example, a painful joint may be treated with a cortisone shot. However, using cortisone from an exogenous source (outside your own body) brings many serious health risks, especially when the cortisone compound is used over a period of time. Using an acupuncture treatment for the adrenal glands lets the body stay in balance.
I mentioned endocrine disruption; it’s just a fancy word for molecules that trick your body by acting in a similar fashion to a hormone. Many plastics may be endocrine disruptors. But endocrine disruption can be used in a much broader sense. In a way, an anti-depressant is an endocrine disruptor, because it stops your body from reabsorbing serotonin and leaves it dangling in your synapses, as far as I can tell. Birth control pills are endocrine disruptors. But even without external stimulus, internal events happen that cause disruption of the endocrine system.
The endocrine system is a massive tangle of feedback loops. Blood sugar regulation, absorption of water and electrolytes, the generator of metabolism we refer to as the thyroid, and menstrual cycle phases are all controlled by endocrine systems, and these cycles influence each other. For example, a hypothyroid condition can cause menstrual cycle abnormalities. Insulin resistance, when the cells do not respond to the presence of insulin in type 2 diabetes, causes a cascade of other abnormalities, as the body needs to excrete extra water to carry out the sugar.
The neuroendocrine component of the endocrine system, which refers to hormones made in the hypothalamus-pituitary axis, includes many hormones that alter during stress, and that control mood. Dopamine, for example, is a hormone that excites our nervous system. Drugs like cocaine alter our dopamine levels, but even PCB chemical exposure can alter the levels.
My purpose here is not to enumerate every event that can disrupt the interaction of hormones, but merely to show how wide-spread such stimulus can be, and how difficult to pinpoint. If we think of the skeletal. muscular, and organ systems as the machine and the physiological processes of our body, such as hormone systems, as the ghost within the machine, that gives us an idea of the difficulty of identifying a disruption. The disruption becomes more discernable when an abnormal product is made or an abnormal parameter is measurable; for example, with a neuroendocrine tumor there may be very high blood pressure due to increased catecholamines. But for most disruption of endocrine function, there may not be any evident fact that can be pinpointed. However, fatigue will be there.
Fatigue will be present because systems are not interlocking smoothly. Fatigue is like the anolog of pain;the machine has pain, and the ghost in the machine is tired. When the skeletal or muscular system does not interlock smoothly there is pain. When the invisible processes are disrupted, there is fatigue.
Fatigue, as a non-specific finding, tends to be minimized in Western medicine, in the absence of other signs and symptoms, precisely because it is so nebulous. However, Traditional Chinese Medicine is very good at balancing out systemic errors. The cause of the error may not be evident, even the specific nature may not be evident, but Chinese Medicine, but with acupuncture and with herbs, in most cases, readjusts and harmonizes the system, regardless of the fault.
Next post will deal with three specific endocrine abnormalities: thyroid irregularities, blood sugar imbalances, and the oft-touted adrenal fatigue.
I am by now bored with having sore neck muscles. Everything helped some, but as my acupuncturist pointed out, I would never heal unless I stopped jogging, ripping weeds out of my dense clay Texas soil, and swimming. Which leaves what to do when I want to move around?
Aerdyne bicycles in the gym. Remember those little hapless hamster going around and around their wheels in their cages. That’s the new me, perched on the bike. Either that seat is little or parts of me are bigger than I want to think about. I can last about fifteen minutes if I have some good music playing. The men and women there look like I never will, like Action figures off the shelf, but they’re nice and seem like real people. (I’m going to a local gym, not a mega-chain). I confused the abdominal crunching machine with a machine for leg weights, but the tall, courtly gentleman who helped me didn’t even laugh at me.
Can’t wait until I’m healed in a couple of months and can hit the jogging trail around Town Lake again.
This is an engraving of the four horseman of the apocalypse. I’ll have to make the factors of fatigue four now, rather than five or six or three, to conform to the picture What a cool picture. Too bad I don’t know how to shrink it. (Postscript-Thanks Lori-the new image you sent me fits better) It’s by Durer. I know I’m not violating copyright here, because Durer lived in medieval Germany. As a small child I once unintentionally stole a statue made by Durer, as my mother walked past an art museum exhibit and I grabbed it and tucked it under my coat. I was too young to walk, but I vaguely remember.
So Durer is with me now again, to explain how the stressors of your life are bearing down on you like a bunch of hell-crazed wild horses and grinning, savage riders with drawn swords. There they are. Up in heaven there’s a grim looking angel-maybe your acupuncturist, or your grandmother who worries about you and thinks you work too hard. And you-dear reader-you would love to do something about this emergency, if you weren’t so darn tired. As matters stand, you think you’ll just lie down and hope a hoof doesn’t hit you in the head.
First factor: Female*
Women are more tired than men. This is excepting Hillary Clinton, who reminds me of the Terminator. Each time I see her on TV she looks fresh and dewy as a rose. But the rest of us females; we’re just tired. Starts somewhere around age 20 and never stops. Mind you, I don’t think this is fair and I don’t think it’s politically correct. However, even taking into account that women, including me, whine more then men, other means of obtaining information bear this out. For example, it is much more common to note a weak, barely perceptible pulse when I do an exam of women, while a man’s pulse is usually fairly strong unless he is medicated to the gills. My best guess as to why this would be has to do with hormones. The physiological job of the Y chromosome is to make sperm. Fairly simple, although with all those Viagra commercials, you would think it’s like climbing Mount Everest to get that sperm made and delivered. However, the hormones driving women’s cycles are very complex. There’s the follicular cycle, ovulation, the luteal cycle, and menstruation. Whether or not women take drugs (birth control pills in all their variety) to manage these events, these events are programmed into our biology. As a biologically more complex creature, perhaps we women are more liable to disruptions.
There is no easy solution to this type of fatigue. One decision might be to minimize endocrine disruptors, such as birth control, exposure to certain plastics and pesticides etc. However, the problem of finding alternate birth control will put many women off, as will the memory of uncomfortable cycles (that’s a whole other post there, sister. You don’t have to suffer).
Another helpful thing for women can be to get confirmation of their fatigue, so they stop pushing themselves too much. They’ve seen the doctor; the doctor says their lab work is normal. Their husband is sympathetic but a bit puzzled; “Go take a nap, then,” he says, but they don’t because the laundry needs to be done and the kid needs to be put to bed. But when I, the acupuncturist, say “Your pulses are extremely weak, and your tongue is very pale, indicating marked deficiency,” they have permission to experience that fatigue and to react to it. I can and will prescribe herbs and acupuncture, but if the client persists in only sleeping seven hours a night because she invalidates her own feeling of tiredness, the remedy lies in self-acceptance.
* the second and third factors are not fat and forty
My favorite I-tunes station is on the blink, and my happy thoughts of Saturday are turbulent today. But since my brain was shaken up like a cocktail in a shaker last week, maybe turbulence is to be expected.
I can look up and down with my eyes now, and open my mouth really wide to get a loaded forkful of something yummy, but my neck is still stiff and sore, and when I drive I feel as hazardous as one of those little grannies peering desperately over the steering wheel. I can’t see to my left or right so just have to hope that one of those ubiquitous SUV’s doesn’t plow right into me.
Friday I had Asian Body work. It helped.( Everything I’ve tired so far has helped some). My former teacher did a lot of work on my feet and legs before gently touching my head, and suggesting I visualize a waterfall beginning at the inner corner of my eyebrows and going down my back. The inner corner of the eyebrows represents the beginnings of the Leg Tai Yang acupuncture channel, which descends bilaterally from the head down the sides of the spine, and then descends down the back of the legs to the little toe. After I left her house the pain was definitely less, but I still had the rushing sounds in my head, and a feeling of fullness which impeded concentration.
Saturday I went to a woman who does intuitive healing. This was a very interesting time for me. I went into a very relaxed state where images and sensations easily came to the surface, with some prompting from the therapist. The entire process, like the working of the subconscious itself, was non-linear, subjective, and laden with symbols. My feelings fluctuated quickly as I would receive an image, or speak on behalf of someone or something I visualized, under the direction of the therapist. Even though I consider myself a well-balanced, confident individual, during this time I was aware of feelings of worthlessness associated with “not doing.”
What was conveyed to me was that unless I was active, I doubted my ability to actualize my goals. Although I have self-confidence, I lacked the trust that the universe would provide or take care of me, and that sometimes goals would materialize in their own time.
The clue train was making the delivery: relax, let things happen in their own time, you don’t have to try so hard, but I couldn’t see it until it hit me over the head.
This sounds a little silly to me, writing it. One thing that’s always bothered me about the New Age movement is a nonchalance towards the laws of cause and effect. Wishful thinking don’t make it so.
Actions cause repercussions or open up possibilities. I’m a firm believer in plotting a course. I don’t think there’s anything wrong with that, but I was looking so much at the outcome that I wasn’t seeing the beauty along the way.
Does that have anything to do with the pain of a whiplash? Surprisingly, yes.
I know I’m not imagining my pain, nor am I a hypochondriac. In fact, my stiff neck annoys me, and a part of me would just as soon forget about it. But after Saturday’s session, which included insight, emotional release, and gratitude at the assurance that I felt that gifts were at hand, if I would just stay still enough to experience them, my pain was significantly better. The roaring in my head has not returned.
I made a pledge to myself that I would sit in the garden for a while every day, without feeling compelled to prune, weed, clean, water, or otherwise make myself useful.
As soon as I run one more errand…I promise.
Sarcoma Treatment
July 28, 2008 in News and commentary, integrative medicine | Tags: acupuncture, Austin, cancer treatment, chemotherapy, sarcoma | 2 comments
I went to school at the University of Texas Health Science Center for my undergraduate, and continue to receive their magazine. A recent article discusses the experimental use of the reovirus in the treatment of sarcoma, a challenging type of cancer.
In brief, reovirus is the active ingredient in REOLYSIN, developed by Oncolytics Biotech. REOLYSIN (sorry for shouting, it is capitalized though) is not a chemotherapy drug in the traditional sense. Traditional chemotherapy drugs work by eliminating fast-growing cells, which means that in additional to the cancer cell, other cells such as the lining of the gastric mucosa, and blood cells are also affected. As the cells that compose hair divide rapidly, they too are affected, causing the baldness commonly associated with treatment. The reovirus is a mild, naturally occurring virus. Monica Mita, MD, the principal investigator, states that “Cancer cells have several molecular and genetic abnormalities. In normal, healthy cells, the reovirus is unable to reproduce because of an enzyme named PKR. The enzyme is suppressed in cancer cells, and therefore the reovirus can replicate in the cancer cell and kill it.
Commentary:
Remember that movie with Will Smith, “I am Legend?” It’s just Will, his dog, and a bunch of slavering, hairless mutants that leap like hopped-up baboons. Having seen the movie I would definitely say they are zombies, based on their feeding habits. So what happened to all the people? Well, there was this cancer cure, based on a virus, that seemed to have no side-effects…
Seriously though, even though this is a novel therapy with potential serious drawbacks, I think as a sarcoma treatment it seems promising, if only because other sarcoma treatments are so singularly unpromising. Sarcoma is a cancer of the soft tissue. The most common types of sarcoma are malignant fibrous histiocytoma, liposarcoma, and leiomyosarcoma. I remember having to read survival statistics to callers when I worked at the national call center of the American Cancer Society. “Ok, the survival rate for your stage of sarcoma…are you sure you want me to read this?” I would ask. The overall 5-year relative survival of people with sarcomas is around now 66% according to current statistics from the National Cancer Institute (NCI). The American Cancer Society states that now amputation is rarely used as a treatment, although I do remember discussing it with a caller years ago. Even so, the viral therapy is currently only being tried on those who no longer respond to conventional treatment, which means that a few will live who otherwise might have died.
As strange as the therapy may sound, this seems like a good thing to me.