Samra Helps Hurricane Victims
In the past few months, hundreds of members of the acupuncture community have offered their services to help those affected by the devastation caused by Hurricane Katrina. In addition to individual acupuncturists, many schools have pooled their resources to contribute to the recovery effort. An example of the acupuncture community's compassion occurred recently at Samra University, which held a fundraising drive for hurricane victims at the school's community clinic.
The idea for the fundraising drive was the result of a series of discussions between Teri Powers, Samra's clinic director, and five members of the university's student council - Armi Atil, Klaaudia Bae, Sam Cheng, Guesh Cuan, and Michelle Cummins. After receiving approval from Samra's president, the community clinic was opened on Sunday, Sep. 25, with interns and practitioners delivering free acupuncture, massage, reiki, and qigong sessions to the public. In exchange for the free treatments, patients were encouraged to provide donations to the American Red Cross. In addition, several local businesses donated items for a silent auction, which was held in the clinic's lobby.
According to a Samra press release, the drive was responsible for generating more than $3,500 in contributions to the Red Cross. Ms. Powers added that the fundraising drive "was a day well spent for those that participated, and one they will not soon forget."
ACAOM Partners With Baylor College of Medicine on Osteoarthritis Study
The American College of Acupuncture and Oriental Medicine and Baylor College of Medicine have begun recruiting patients to determine the effectiveness of acupuncture in managing pain caused by osteoarthritis of the knee. The study is funded by the National Institutes of Health, and will help determine the best course of treatment for a condition that affects an estimated 11 million Americans
In the study, patients will be treated with acupuncture twice per week for six weeks, and will be required to complete six-week and three-month follow-up interviews. Participants may qualify if they: are age 50 and older; have been diagnosed with osteoarthritis of the knee; have current knee pain; and have not had knee replacement surgery. For more information on the study, please call (713) 780-9777 or (713) 794-8563.
South Baylo Unsheathes Vision Statement for 2006
In an ambitious move, South Baylo University has unveiled a new, enterprising vision statement on its Web site. The statement calls for the school to expand its professional, clinical and scientific knowledge base through improvements in education and the delivery of quality patient care.
According to the vision statement, South Baylo plans to be recognized as:
The full text of South Baylo's 2006 vision statement is available online at www.southbaylo.edu.
Chronic pain afflicts over 20% of the adult population. Sadly, most MDs have essentially no education in treating pain, beyond offering a few toxic medications. Then they tend to steer people with pain away from those health practitioners who are trained. This puts the acupuncture community on the front lines for addressing this epidemic.
When the body is going through a stressful event, the sympathetic system is activated. This activation will help the body with a life-threatening situation. If this state is activated for prolonged periods of time, it starts to consume energy. These traumatic events that generate stressors in the autonomic nervous system (ANS) will eventually become internalized.
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One of the things that makes acupuncture so difficult to measure is that the medicine actually does contain some esoteric aspects. There have been numerous studies that demonstrate the neurochemical reasoning behind why acupuncture points stimulate the autonomic nervous system to enact change However, not all the benefits of TCM can easily be measured by randomized, controlled trials. But does that make them fundamentally and definitively untrue?
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