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The British Acupuncture Council (BAcC) is aware of the research presented to the European Society for Human Reproduction and Embryology in Barcelona today (8^th July) and is dismayed that the practice of acupuncture is being questioned in this way.

There has been significant research* which has found that acupuncture treatment can have a positive affect on those trying for a baby and can actually aid the conception process.

Fertility focused acupuncture treatment has been found to help increase blood flow to the reproductive organs, balance hormone levels, regulate the menstrual cycle and help improve the lining of the uterus and quality of eggs released. Additionally, conditions such as polycystic ovaries and endometriosis have also been shown to improve with acupuncture.

BAcC practitioners recognise that there are many factors which may cause infertility such as stress, irregular hormone levels and disrupted menstrual cycles. As a holistic therapy, acupuncture helps to identify underlying health issues which may cause disruption to the body’s natural balance, resulting in symptoms such as infertility.

Many BAcC registered practitioners have experienced positive results with their fertility patients when conventional methods alone have not been successful: Zita West, practicing midwife and acupuncturist, BAcC member and founder of the Zita West fertility clinic in London offers acupuncture treatments to her patients as one of the treatments which may improve the chances of conception.

“Many women we see at the clinic who have experienced IVF both with and without acupuncture frequently report that they are convinced that acupuncture made a difference.”

For further information about the British Acupuncture Council, visit www.acupuncture.org.uk

*Research

Previous studies have proved the effectiveness of acupuncture for infertility.

1. A 2008 study published in the British Medical Journal found that acupuncture given with embryo transfer can improve rates of pregnancy by 65% in women undergoing in vitro fertilisation (IVF).

2. A 2005 study conducted by Shanghai University in China found that acupuncture also helped treat male infertility. Of the men who participated, those who had acupuncture had an increased percentage of sperm in their semen; their sperm structure and morphology was also healthier than their counterparts who did not undergo acupuncture infertility treatment.

3. A 2004 study conducted by the Reproductive Medicine and Fertility Center in Colorado found that 51% of women who underwent both IVF and acupuncture treatment at the same time became pregnant, while only 36% of those who only underwent IVF did. The latter group also had higher rates of miscarriage and stillbirth (20%) compared to those women who had received acupuncture (8%).

4. A report published in the journal Fertility and Sterility (2002) found the pregnancy rate in the group receiving acupuncture group was 42.5%, compared to the group which did not receive the therapy, where the rate was 26.3%.

Paul Joseph

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Red wine may help prevent breast cancer new research shows. A team of researchers from the University of Nebraska has found that in the test tube studies in relation to breast cancer and estrogen, resveratrol which is an antioxidant found in red wine, blueberries, cranberries, red and purple grape juice, peanuts, and which is also available as a supplement, keeps estrogen from causing breast cancer in their test-tube research.

One of the major risks to breast cancer is continued and prolonged exposure to estrogen because interactions take place between estrogen and estrogen receptors in breast cancer cells.

In a woman’s body when the body’s system for keeping estrogen in balance becomes erratic, toxic compounds called estrogen metabolites begin to appear. DNA in breast cells in the act with these estrogen metabolites causing the growth of tumours.

Now the team of researchers at the University of Nebraska headed by Eleanor G. Rogan, PhD, have found that the antioxidant Resveratrol frustrates the formation of the toxic compounds and tends to block interactions between the cellular DNA and between the toxic compounds themselves.

Perhaps equally as important it has also been found that the resveratrol helps to increase the production of an enzyme which destroys the estrogen metabolites. In other words a resveratrol helps stop the first steps in the process leading to breast cancer.

Additionally the results were achieved with low levels of resveratrol.

While this research shows promising results from test-tube experiments and breast cells actually grown in a laboratory, further research is still needed. However these are promising results indeed towards the progress to eradicate breast cancer.

Tags: resveratrol, red wine, antioxidants, breast cancer



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photo credit: Steve & Jemma Cople

New insight has emerged this month in relation to a key factor which may play a role in cot deaths.

Research by the European molecular biology laboratory in Italy agrees with similar findings in 2006 in the United States that a chemical imbalance in the brain of a baby or a young child may make them susceptible to sudden infant death syndrome (SIDS).

A neurotransmitter, serotonin, (which is associated with mood) passes messages between brain cells. Research has shown that in mice with low levels of serotonin, over half the number of mice died very early in life at a similar age range at which human infants succumb to sudden infant death syndrome, roughly 1 month to one-year-old.

These mice had been genetically engineered to produce low levels of serotonin, and it was found that the effect of this was that the low levels of the neurotransmitter triggers sudden changes in heart rate and body temperature, which led to the sudden death of the mice.

Public awareness of sudden infant death syndrome has increased since the early 1990s especially in the United Kingdom where a public campaign was launched. Because of this awareness, the number of deaths in the UK have fallen by about 75%, however sadly on average around 300 babies still die suddenly each year.

The study revealed that the mice underwent a series of crises during early life in which there were sudden unpredictable drops in body temperature and heart rate, and many of the mice died during one of these crises. The researchers suspected that crises were triggered as the mice began to enter the transition stage from sleep to wakefulness.

Cornelius Gross, PhD of the laboratory in Rome commented that, “The similarity to SIDS is there is sudden death during a restricted period of early life — and it is caused by a change in the serotonin system.”

There are it should be borne in mind that this research was based on genetically engineered mice, and children who have succumbed to sudden infant death syndrome do not have this overactive gene, however, the study suggests that serotonin levels may be a key factor in their susceptibility.

More research is needed as to what contributes to low serotonin levels in human infants before any definite conclusions can be reached, how ever it is clear that low serotonin levels are now suspect. Previously low serotonin levels were not believed to be life-threatening.

If you have a young baby or child under one year old, then I think it would be very wise to have some sort of monitoring alarm system in place during their first year, and to pay attention where possible to them at times when they would regularly begin to awaken from periods of sleep.

Tags: sudden infant death syndrome, sids, cot death, cot deaths, serotonin



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