Predicting Diabetes Early

A January 2024 study by Ruhr- University Bochum said,

• “Thirty percent of all people who suffer from diabetes haven’t yet been diagnosed and, consequently, don’t receive any treatment,”

• “Diabetes sets in gradually, and our diagnostic options are not sensitive enough to detect it; moreover, they aren’t specific enough, meaning that false positive results can also occur,”

• “We enter these values (insulin value and glucose value) into an equation that describes the body’s control loop for sugar metabolism and break it down according to a certain variable,”

• “We found that the [calculated static disposition index] SPINA-DI correlated with relevant indicators of metabolic function, such as the response to an oral glucose tolerance test,”

• “The new method is not only cost-effective, but also precise and reliable,”

• “It could complement and, in many cases, even replace more complex established methods.”

Potatoes and a healthy diet

An August 2022 study by Pennington Biomedical Research Center said, 

• “We demonstrated that contrary to common belief, potatoes do not negatively impact blood glucose levels. In fact, the individuals who participated in our study lost weight.”

• “People tend to eat the same weight of food regardless of calorie content in order to feel full,” 

• “By eating foods with a heavier weight that are low in calories, you can easily reduce the number of calories you consume. The key aspect of our study is that we did not reduce the portion size of meals but lowered their caloric content by including potatoes. Each participant’s meal was tailored to their personalized caloric needs, yet by replacing some meat content with potato, participants found themselves fuller, quicker, and often did not even finish their meal. In effect, you can lose weight with little effort.”

• “We prepared the potatoes in a way that would maximize their fiber content. When we compared a diet with potatoes to a diet with beans and peas, we found them to be equal in terms of health benefits,” 

• “People typically do not stick with a diet they don’t like or isn’t varied enough. The meal plans provided a variety of dishes, and we showed that a healthy eating plan can have varied options for individuals striving to eat healthy. In addition, potatoes are a fairly inexpensive vegetable to incorporate into a diet.”

• “Obesity is an incredibly complex disease that Pennington Biomedical is tackling on three different fronts: research that looks at how and why our bodies react the way they do, research that looks at individual responses to diet and physical activity, and policy-level discussions and community programs that bring our research into strategies our local and global communities can use to live healthier lives. These new data on the impact of potatoes on our metabolism is an exciting addition to the arsenal of evidence we have to do just that.”

Acupuncture, lower back pain inpregnancy

An August 2022 pooled data analysis of the available evidence, published in the open access journal BMJ Open said, 

“Acupuncture significantly improved pain, functional status, and quality of life in women with [lower back/pelvic pain] during the pregnancy. Additionally, acupuncture had no observable severe adverse influences on the newborns,”

The Liver, high blood sugar and muscle loss

A March 2021 study by Monash University said, 

"The ageing-related diseases of skeletal muscle loss and type 2 diabetes are very prevalent and are a huge societal and economic burden. We have known for some time that the ageing-related diseases of skeletal muscle loss and type 2 diabetes were linked but we didn't know how.”

"Our studies demonstrate that the liver is a critical control point for muscle protein metabolism; a discovery that is quite surprising. We believe that our new findings highlight the need to examine the role of skeletal muscle atrophy in type 2 diabetes more closely in human clinical populations."

Acupuncture for migraine headaches

A March 2020 study found that after acupuncture there was, "… a significantly higher reduction in the frequency of migraine days and migraine attacks," and that acupuncture "can be recommended as a prophylactic treatment" and that patients should be “.provided with information about acupuncture as an option when discussing prophylactic treatment strategies."

Heather Angus-Leppan, a consultant neurologist at the Royal Free London NHS Foundation Trust in an editorial said, “We now have good evidence that acupuncture is an effective treatment for episodic migraine," and that "acupuncture provides a useful additional tool in our therapeutic armoury."  Angus-Leppan said that the report, “helps to move acupuncture from having an unproven status in complementary medicine to an acceptable evidence-based treatment,"

Microneedling and Acne

A July 2019 study by Boston University School of Medicine found that, “that microneedling works and helps reduce the appearance of acne scars for patients.” And, “"While there have been multiple smaller research studies and case reports which have shown the efficacy of microneedling with acne scarring, there has never been any consistent data and no one decided to take a step back, synthesize and look at what the evidence was telling us as a whole,"

Acupuncture for Angina

A July 2019 randomized clinical trial conducted by Chengdu University of Traditional Chinese Medicine studied the efficacy and safety of acupuncture adjunctive therapy to antianginal therapies in reducing the frequency of angina attacks. The study found that for chronic stable angina, “acupuncture on the acupoints in the disease-affected meridian significantly reduced the frequency of angina attacks compared with acupuncture on the acupoints on the non-affected meridian, sham acupuncture, and no acupuncture.”

Acupuncture for Chronic Knee Pain

In a recent, ongoing systematic review it was noted that, “The most recent systematic review and meta-analysis of acupuncture for chronic knee pain found that acupuncture can significantly reduce pain intensity and improve functional mobility and the quality of life.”

 In this systematic review, they found “… acupuncture administered to adults with osteoarthritis to be associated with a statistically significant reduction in pain intensity, improved functional mobility and improved health-related quality of life. Reductions in pain were greater in trials with longer intervention periods. Though under-reported and inconsistently described, major adverse events with acupuncture were not reported. Subgroup analyses suggest that acupuncture is most effective for reducing osteoarthritic pain when administered for more than four weeks.”

Acupuncture for Excess Phlegm and Other Imbalances

These are some of the acupuncture points for excess phlegm (and other imbalances). The treatment takes four sessions, at weekly intervals. Core points, including the Four Gates, the Kidney Formula and Ying Tang, form the basis of the treatment with specific additional points in each weekly session:

Week One

Governing Vessel 26: inappropriate laughing or crying, irritability, fatigue, epilepsy.

Lung 11: epilepsy, sore throat, heat.

Spleen 1: disorientation, epilepsy.

Week Two

Pericardium 7: inflexible attitude, irritability, material desires, inordinate crying or laughing, lack of direction in life.

Bladder 62: headaches, epilepsy.

Governing Vessel 16: rigid tongue, lock jaw, loss of voice, headache.

Week Three

Stomach 7: lock jaw, neurological conditions.

Conception Vessel 24: weak, thin, body, deteriorating, nosebleeds.

Pericardium 8: paranoia, fever, sweats.

Week Four

Governing Vessel 23: phlegm, nasal congestion, poor vision, dizziness, Alzheimer’s.

Conception Vessel 1:  urinary and bowel leakages or obstructions, menstrual issues, prolapses. Because of it’s invasive nature, normally this point is replaced with Kidney 1.

Large Intestine 11: fever and vomiting.

Acupuncture for Wellness and Prevention

An April 2019 study suggests that apart from the well-known therapeutic effects of acupuncture, it’s positive impact on wellness and as a preventative tool is becoming more recognised.

“…The researchers studied the effects of acupuncture on the victims of a 6.0 earthquake that caused nearly 300 deaths and left 30,000 people homeless in Amatrice, Central Italy … After the third treatment, both the pain and psychological symptom scores had significantly improved, with no serious adverse effects attributed to the treatment.”

Songxuan Zhou Niemtzow, MD (China), a Traditional Chinese Medicine physician in Alexandria, VA, states, "If acupuncture had an alternative name, it would be called 'prevention,'"

Nadia Volf, MD, PhD, Paris XI University (Paris, France) writes "although acupuncture can be a wonderful tool for treating a number of diseases, this therapy can be an even more wonderful tool for preventing them."

Plantar Fasciitis

Although the causes of plantar fasciitis are not completely understood, the issue may be a muscle knot, or “myofascial pain” and is likely to be referred pain. This can be treated by acupuncture, gua sha or acupressure of its *trigger point* (often located away from the point of pain). In this case, the trigger point may be located at a precise point on the back of the calf muscle.  In acupuncture, this point will be at or close to a point known as “Bladder 57” on the bladder meridian (in this case, nothing to do with the bladder … or perhaps it is) 

Bladder 57 is also the feature point (the specialist point) for haemorrhoids and constipation. We have at least one case where a lady had all three (seemingly unrelated) conditions.

Perhaps there has been an injury to the back of your calf muscle (you might have knocked it on something, when getting in or out of the car or because of an insect bite).  

It’s worth noting that ice therapy is contra-indicated after the first day of the pain because it blocks the blood flow and the healing processes that normally kick-in.

Is the plantar pain accompanied by calf pain, occipital headaches or upper back pain? The bladder meridian also runs through the lung 1.5 Chinese inches (Bladder 13) and at 3 Chinese inches (Bladder 43) on the back, measuring right and left from spinal point T3. It may be worth palpating those points to see if there is any tenderness, along with Bladder 10 (on the neck). 

Chain of transmission

Yusef was taught acupuncture and herbal medicine in the Traditional Chinese Medicine system by Paul Brecher BA FAcS TCM, Principal of The College of Chinese Medicine in London.  Paul Brecher was taught by Paul Robin FAcS MPCHM MCAA, Head of the College of Chinese Medicine and TCM faculty Chairman of the Acupuncture Society. Paul Robin was trained by Dr Bernard Kai Lam Lee. Dr Lee was trained by his grandfather, Fook Sang.

Abdominal Acupuncture: The Replenishing Formula

The Replenishing Formula in the Abdominal Acupuncture micro-system is used to replenish energy, essence and blood.  The intention is to support the body’s innate immune system to regenerate muscles, tendons and bones.

The heart, liver, kidneys, lungs and spleen are all targeted.  It is especially useful for those with deficiency conditions.