26 OCTOBER 2011

New research concludes that acupuncture reduces prostatitis related pain. The study measured the effects of acupuncture on chronic pelvic pain syndrome (CPPS), also known as chronic prostatitis. CPPS involves prostatitis related pain of the pelvis and/or the perineum (between the anus and the scrotum in men). CPPS is not the type of prostatitis due to a bacterial infection. CPPS tends to wax and wane and the pain intensity level ranges from mild to severe. Post-ejaculatory pain is a textbook symptom of this disorder. There may be associated painful urination, back pain, abdominal pain, muscles aches, rectal pain and/or pain in the penis.

Biochemical Pain Reduction
The study showed that acupuncture reduces CPPS related pain and measured the biochemical mechanisms by which acupuncture achieves this clinical outcome. The researchers noted that, “the levels of Interleukin-8 (IL-8), Interleukin-10 (IL-10) and Tumor necrosis factor-alpha (TNF-alpha) in prostate fluid were detected and the correlation between those changes and [the] pain score was analyzed.” The study measured an effective rate of 89.4 percent for pain reduction by means of acupuncture. The study also measured that as acupuncture lowered the pain levels, the levels of the cytokines (IL-8, IL-10 and TNF-alpha) lowered. The study concludes that acupuncture reduces CPPS by reducing these cytokine levels.

The Points
The researchers used the following acupuncture points as primary points to reduce CPPS pain: Zhongji (CV 3), Guilai (ST 29), Yinlingquan (SP 9), Sanyinjiao (SP 6), Guanyuan (CV 4), Shuidao(ST 28), Xuehai (SP 10) and Taichong (LR 3). Electroacupuncture stimulation was added to enhance the efficacy of the treatment.

Reference:
Zhongguo Zhen Jiu. 2011 Jan;31(1):11-4. Acupuncture for chronic pelvic pain syndromes (CPPS) and its effect on cytokines in prostatic fluid. Yuan SY, Qin Z, Liu DS, Yin WQ, Zhang ZL, Li SG. Male Department of Zhuhai Branch of Guangdong Provincial TCM Hospital, Zhuhai, China.

Here is the picture of the needles which were originally being used in China.

I hope you can tell the size of them and different length. In the old days even small

surgery was being performed. But not to worry, we don’t use any of those at YOMClinic.

What we use are much thinner, shorter and disposal one-time-use needles only!!

Takashi

Hello Everyone,

We have set the date for Acupuncture promotion date. It will be on ;

Feb 18th on Sat

9:00 am — 6pm

It is more than a month ahead and this is for the general public who do not know

anything about Chinese medicine and Acupuncture in general. One session will

be at $25/hour( and you can come morning and afternoon for the better result).

(Appointment)

Space is limited. So please call in advance to secure your spot. Only when there is a room, we will be accepting walk-ins on the day.

We have created a direct hot line to schedule only for this event. Please   call below number and leave your name and phone number and preferred time slot. We will give you a call back to confirm your appointment.

    Event hotline:    503-877-3532

Thank you,

Yamamoto Takashi, L.Ac.

Happy New Year!!   ”2012″ year of dragon

Hi everyone,

We have been doing Yearly Acupuncture promotion day over the past years. Due to our schedule, we were not able to host this event last year. So now we are planing to host it during January or early February. So please stay tuned for the update.

What is “Yearly acupuncture promotion day” ?

We offer a treatment session of acupuncture at $25 on this day only. It is to promote Acupuncture and Chinese medicine in order to introduce this ancient medical science to people who have not experienced or have no idea what’s so ever.  Anybody can come and will be treated with Acupuncture and Chinese medicine (except Tuina therapy). We have limited space available. So people with appointment will be treated first.

This will be an event to introduce acupuncture. For that reason, we recommend you to come for “pain” issue.  Which is simply for you to feel, see and experience how beautifully acupuncture treat pain issues. Of course, certain kind of very severe pain issue may not be that easy to see any result right away. But in many cases, we see result right away. So for those with something that is very severe or certain kind of internal issues may not be treated as dramatic  as pain issues. Still, this event can be a good start for those as well.

You can also experience Chinese herbal medicine upon your request along with Acupuncture. It will cost you $30 for 100g bottle which is about 10 day supply. But each bottle is custom made for each conditions. We recommend herbal therapy for internal disorders which typically take much longer time to treat due to its nature. Of course, there are conditions that we want to see result soon. It is same as that we don’t want to take a few to several month to treat common cold-type of condition, as an example.

The date will be announced this week and we hope to see you at the event!!

Thank you,

Yamamoto Takashi, L.Ac.

Hi everyone!

This is not that surprising to somebody like me who see the effects of Acupuncture and Chinese medicine in a daily bases. But you may find this interesting. This is NIH research;

New MRI Acupuncture Research Shows Mind-Body Connection

09 OCTOBER 2011

New research concludes that “acupuncture may function as a somatosensory-guided mind-body therapy.” The research compared MRI readings of real acupuncture with sham acupuncture (needle stimulation at non-acupuncture point locations) at acupuncture point P-6 (Neiguan, Inner Pass). The MRI imaging showed that true acupuncture yielded greater activity over sham acupuncture in the dorsomedial prefontal cortex of the brain. Real acupuncture produced significantly “greater activity in both cognitive/evaluative (posterior dmPFC) and emotional/interoceptive (anterior dmPFC) cortical regions” and the MRI results showed that true acupuncture “increased cognitive load.”¹

Recent criticisms concerning the effectiveness of acupuncture have focused on the ability of sham acupuncture to produce clinical results. However, MRI studies show that true acupuncture produces clinical results by different cortical mechanisms than sham acupuncture.

NIH researchers question the validity of sham acupuncture control groups. Dr. R. E. Harris’s (NIH researcher, Ann Arbor, Michigan) research was able to prove that although sham acupuncture and true acupuncture reduce pain in fibromyalgia patients, they “do it by different mechanisms.” Dr. Harris’s research showed that differing mechanisms by which the pain relief was achieved was measured at the molecular level. This suggests that sham acupuncture may superficially cause pain reduction but that it is not scientifically achieved by the same mechanisms as true acupuncture. Dr. Richard L. Nahin of the NIH’s National Center for Complementary and Alternative Medicine states, “If you look at some of the data, what you find is that sham acupuncture and true acupuncture both produce some pain relief in whatever condition they’re looking at. But while both treatments turn on areas of the brain, they turn on different areas of the brain.”²

References:
1a. Brain encoding of acupuncture sensation – coupling on-line rating with fMRI. V. Napadow, R.P. Dhond, J. Kim, L. LaCount, M. Vangel, R.E. Harris, N. Kettner, K. Park, F. Pfab. Neuroimage (2009) 47: 1055–65.

1b. Florian Pfab, MD, PhD, Visiting Associate Professor, Dept. of Radiology, Massachusetts General Hospital, Harvard Medical School, Charlestown, Massachusetts.

1c. Deutsche Zeitschrift für Akupunktur. Volume 54, Issue 3, 2011, Pages 32-33.

2. Contie, Defibaugh, Ewsichek, Latham and Wein. Understanding Acupuncture Time To Try It? NIH News in Health. February 2011.

Hi everybody!

I finally learned the way to do blog page.  I will do my best to update this blog page when I have a chance.

Here is one of the latest update from YOMClinic for both follow-up patients, also new patients. We upgraded our scheduling system. So now, scheduling software, phone & voice mail and internet are all integrated. That means;

1. You can call us 24/7 to make an appointment by phone or through your web-browser at any time from any where.

2. You can manage your future schedule online.

3. You can chose your reminder notice from us out of 3 choices or combination; phone, e-mail and Text messaging.

We are hoping that this new installment helps you to handle your own schedule easier and save your time. Some people may struggle to work with this type of system. In that case, please leave your name, phone number and your message in the voice mail. And we will give you  a call as soon as we can.

So here is how;

New patients

Click here!    and new window will open with a small pop-up message. Then click “OK” to open an appointment request page. Your request will be  processed promptly and you will receive an e-mail from us. With this e-mail confirmation, you can start makingappointments by clicking  scheduling page link in the e-mail.

Follow-up patients

Click here!  and new window will open. You need to log in with your registered e-mail address. For you to use this service. You need to   provide us your e-mail address first. So nobody else, but you can see your  schedule. If you have not registered, please go  to “Contact Us” page and   provide your full name and e-mail address. We will send confirmation e- mail as soon as we can. Once you are registered, you can use this service  any time.

Once again, we are hoping that this feature will help both our times and make things smoother and easier for you. If you have any questions or concerns regarding this service, please feel free to contact us at any time.

Best wishes,

Yamamoto Oriental Medicine Clinic                                                                           Yamamoto Takashi, L.Ac.

Welcome to the blog for Yamamoto Oriental Medicine Clinic. Here you can read information about acupuncture, Chinese herbs, and Tui-na, as well as news and research. Feel free to leave a comment or ask a question. If you would like to contact us, please click here.

Thank you for visiting the blog!