Whether you are a student trying to maximize your cognitive function while learning at university or a middle-aged person noticing how your memory isn’t as good as it used to be, this research on acupuncture and dementia may apply to you too! Dementia is not a necessary consequence of aging alone. A report released this month by the Alzheimer Society of Canada highlights that one of the greatest health…
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Acupuncture works to relieve symptoms of menopause Two recent research trials highlighted below have shown that acupuncture works for menopause. It can produce fast and clinically relevant and sustained reduction of hotflashes and night sweats. A series of treatments over a few months can result in effects lasting several more months. Menopause symptoms Hot flashes and night sweats are the most common and troublesome symptoms associated with menopause. A hot flash…
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Acupuncture works for headaches and migraines Acupuncture for headaches and migraines has gained significant credibility in modern times. Many Edmontonians come to us seeking relief for headache or migraine because their medications are no longer working well or are giving them unacceptable side effects. A previous blog I wrote talks about a very rigorous scientific examination of clinical research. In a 2016 Cochrane Review the authors summarized twenty-two clinical acupuncture trials…
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by Gord Grant PhD, RAc In traditional practices, acupuncture has been used to effectively treat anxiety problems, with or without depression. Now, modern research has shown that acupuncture can be as clinically significant as psychological counselling in the treatment of depression. Recent studies have linked psychological depression with activation of the amygdalae, an important little pair of almond-shaped structures located behind the eyes and about as far back as the…
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“Health span” is a relatively new idea. Related to the concept of “life span”, health span is not as easy to define, not so concrete and final; less measurable. Health span can be simply defined as the length of a life that is “healthy” or that one is in “good health”. But what is that? Well it does NOT just mean the absence of disease or chronic dysfunction in your life!…
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Acupuncture is commonly used to treat insomnia and other stress-related conditions By Gord Grant, PhD, RAc Acupuncture is commonly used to treat insomnia and many other stress-related conditions. I have helped many clients break the vicious cycle of insomnia through a few acupuncture sessions. Mechanistically, it make sense that acupuncture could help with insomnia, since it works in part by quietening down (deactivating) the “stress-reaction” part of the brain (the amygdala)….
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World leading acupuncture scientists recently published in the official journal of the American Pain Society, a landmark update on research that evaluates and summarizes all legitimate, randomized clinical trials for acupuncture treating chronic pain…
It has been shown again and again that diets don’t work. Mostly because after losing weight people go back to their old eating patterns. Fasting is all the craze now a days, not only for losing weight, but also research shows it is great for regulating type II diabetes, and now new evidence with mouse studies shows it prolongs actual lifespan! What is more important though, is that it looks…
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CBC tapestry Sunday radio show this last week featured a story about Bruce Sweet, a retired United Church minister, who inadvertently became a certified “forest therapist”. He later realized this was a formalized practice from Japan called “shinrin-yoku”, translated as “to take in the forest atmosphere”. It was developed in the 1980s and has been linked to benefits such as reduced stress, improved mood, increased ability to focus, increased energy levels and…
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The Point of Acupuncture – one point at a time. This blog series will address our understanding of handful of the most special acupuncture points, one by one, both in a historical context of oriental philosophy, and also the evidence shown by science to date on why and how each point may be working therapeutically. We have discussed acupuncture mechanism before in general ways (see the facia connection), but this…
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