Acupuncture ‘increases IVF success’ by 65%
Times - Women who undergo IVF increase their chances of pregnancy if they are also treated with acupuncture, a new analysis suggests.
The benefits may be large — a 65% increase in the chance of becoming pregnant, and a 91% increase in the number of live births. Read more
There is such thing called ‘fertility diet’
Reuters - Women trying to get pregnant could boost their chances by adopting a “fertility diet” high in nuts and avocadoes while cutting down on coffee and alcohol, according to U.S researchers.Boston-based researchers found the majority of cases of infertility due to ovulation disorders in otherwise healthy women could be prevented through diet and lifestyle changes. Read more
Ancient ‘Sperm-gathering Pill’ energizes sperms: new study
CM NEWS - A special pill made out of fish maws and milkvetch seeds can energize sperms which otherwise don’t swim progressive enough to fertilize an egg, according to a new study.
Jujingwan (聚精丸), or the “Sperm-gathering Pill” formula was included in Chapter Four of the Ming Dynasty (1368-1644) traditional Chinese medicine classic “Gynecological Treatment Standard” (《女科證治準繩》, or《女科準繩》). Read more
Acupuncture helps mothers breast feed
CM NEWS - So now not only acupuncture can control pain, it can also help a mother to have a smooth breast feeding experience.
A group of Swedish scientiests set out to compare acupuncture treatment and care interventions for the relief of inflammatory symptoms of the breast during lactation, and to investigate the relationship between bacteria in the breast milk and clinical signs and symptoms in a randomised, non-blinded, controlled study.
The researchers are from Department of Obstetrics and Gynaecology of Helsingborg Hospital and Faculty of Social and Life Sciences, Karlstad University in Swede.
205 mothers with 210 cases of inflammatory symptoms of the breast during lactation agreed to participate. The mothers were randomly assigned to one of three treatment groups, two of which included acupuncture among the care interventions and one without acupuncture.
All groups were given essential care. Protocols, which included scales for erythema, breast tension and pain, were maintained for each day of contact with the breast feeding clinic. A Severity Index (SI) for each mother and each day was created by adding together the scores on the erythema, breast tension and pain scales. The range of the SI was 0 (least severe) to 19 (most severe).
Significant differences were found in the mean SI scores on contact days 3 and 4 between the non-acupuncture group and the two acupuncture groups. Mothers with less favourable outcomes (6 contact days, n=61) were, at first contact with the midwife, more often given advice on correction of the baby’s attachment to the breast. An obstetrician was called to examine 20% of the mothers, and antibiotic treatment was prescribed for 15% of the study population. The presence of Group B streptococci in the breast milk was related to less favourable outcomes.
“If acupuncture treatment is acceptable to the mother, this, together with care interventions such as correction of breast feeding position and babies’ attachment to the breast, might be a more expedient and less invasive choice of treatment than the use of oxytocin nasal spray,” the researchers wrote.
However, no significant difference was found in numbers of mothers in the treatment groups, with the lowest possible score for severity of symptoms on contact days 3, 4 or 5. No statistically significant differences were found between the treatment groups for number of contact days needed until the mother felt well enough to discontinue contact with the breast feeding clinic or for number of mothers prescribed antibiotics.
The researchers add that midwives, nurses or medical practitioners with specialist competence in breast feeding should be the primary care providers for mothers with inflammatory symptoms of the breast during lactation. The use of antibiotics for inflammatory symptoms of the breast should be closely monitored in order to help the global community reduce resistance development among bacterial pathogens.
[Journal: Midwifery. 2007 Jun;23(2):184-95. Epub 2006 Oct 18.]
acupuncture‘Healthy immigrant effect’ holds for pregnancy: study
CBC - Newcomers to Canada should be discouraged from adopting the unhealthy diet and couch-potato lifestyle of long-term residents, say researchers who found recent immigrants had a lower risk of complications during pregnancy.
Previous studies have found that new immigrants have lower rates of chronic disease such as hypertension, heart disease and cancer — the so-called “healthy immigrant effect.” The healthy effect fades after a decade, and immigrants tend to pack on pounds within a generation.
In the Results of the Recent Immigrant Pregnancy and Perinatal Long-term Evaluation Study, or RIPPLES, study appearing in Tuesday’s issue of the Canadian Medical Association Journal, Dr. Joel Ray of St. Michael’s Hospital in Toronto and his colleagues at the Institute for Clinical Evaluative Sciences found the healthy immigrant effect also extends to a pregnancy complication called maternal placental syndrome.
The syndrome is defined as a diagnosis of pre-eclampsia (a sudden increase in a woman’s blood pressure in late pregnancy), eclampsia (a serious form of poisoning in pregnancy), premature separation of the placenta from the uterus, or a sudden blockage of the blood supply to the placenta.
The risk of the syndrome was lowest among women who immigrated within three months of delivering, and highest for those who had lived in Ontario for five years or more before giving birth, the team found.
“A reasonable public health recommendation based on the findings from RIPPLES and other studies is that we should aim to preserve the apparent healthier state of new immigrant women through policies designed to discourage the adoption of adverse lifestyle choices,” the study’s authors concluded.
“For long-term immigrants and native-born residents, the goal should be to improve their health status.”
For all Canadians, the approach includes promoting nutritious eating before pregnancy to prevent obesity, as well as higher physical activity from childhood through early adulthood and limits on calorie intake, they said.
Factors that can harm the health of the placenta and fetus, such as high blood pressure, obesity and smoking, also increased the longer immigrants lived in the province, the researchers found.
Currently, immigrants are carefully screened to ensure they are in good health, and may be deemed inadmissible to Canada if they have end-stage organ disease, certain cancers, infectious diseases or need long-term nursing care, the study’s authors said.
The study’s findings support expanding the scope and focus of immigrant screening away from exclusion for disease and toward sustaining and improving the health of immigrants, such as addressing their reproductive health needs, Dr. Brian Gushulak of Migration Health Consultants said in a journal commentary accompanying the study.
Describing and quantifying the healthy immigrant effect also helps to reduce the wrong impression that immigrants frequently need or use excessive amounts of medical services, he added.
“Finally, and perhaps most importantly, these studies provide information that will generate better tools and interventions to maintain the health of those representing the largest component of Canada’s population growth,” Gushulak wrote.
New TCM formula fights male immune infertility
CM NEWS - A Chinese medicinal formula, Huzhangdanshenyin (虎杖丹參飲), derived by researchers in Xiamen, China has been proved more effective than corticosteroids in targetting male immune infertility - but without the side effects of steroids.
What is male immune infertility? Sperm are relatively protected from the immune system by a natural protective mechanism called the blood-testes barrier. Tight connections between the cells lining the male reproductive tract keep immune cells from gaining entry to the sperm within. If an injury breaches this barrier, then the immune system has access to sperm and antibodies are formed.
Antisperm antibodies have been reported in approximately 10% of infertile men, compared to less than 1% of fertile men. The prevalence of antibodies jumps dramatically in men who have had surgery on their reproductive tract: nearly 70% of men who have undergone a vasectomy reversal will have antibodies present on their sperm. Women have a much lower chance for developing antibodies to sperm: less than 5% of infertile women can be shown to have antisperm antibodies, and it is unclear who is at risk for their formation.
Who is at risk for antisperm antibodies?
Anything that disrupts the normal blood-testes barrier can result in the formation of antisperm antibodies. This may include any of the following conditions:
- Vasectomy reversal
- Varicocele (dilation of the veins surrounding the spermatic cord)
- Testicular torsion (twisting of the testicle)
- Congenital absence of the vas deferens
- Testicular biopsy
- Cryptorchidism (failure of testicular descent)
- Testicular cancer
- Infection (orchitis, prostatitis)
- Inguinal hernia repair prior to puberty
The study done at the Department of Andrology, Xiamen TCM Hospital Affiliated to Fujian TCM College selected 90 men with immune infertility and randomly divided them into two groups: 60 in the treatment group, treated by Huzhangdanshenyin, and the other 30 in the control, treated by prednisone, both for 3 months.
What is prednisone? Prednisone is a synthetic corticosteroid drug which is usually taken orally but can be delivered by intramuscular injection and can be used for a large number of different conditions. It has a mainly glucocorticoid effect. Prednisone is a prodrug that is converted by the liver into prednisolone, which is the active drug and also a steroid.
Prednisone is particularly effective as an immunosuppressant and affects virtually all of the immune system. It can therefore be used in autoimmune diseases, inflammatory diseases (such as severe asthma, severe poison ivy dermatitis, ulcerative colitis, Rheumatoid Arthritis and crohns/index.shtml" target="_blank">Crohn’s disease), various kidney diseases including nephrotic syndrome, and to prevent and treat rejection in organ transplantation. This medicine may also reduce the sex drive.
Huzhangdanshenyin was derived these researchers. The formula includes:
Hu zhang (虎杖) 15g
Pu gong ying (蒲公英; Herba Taraxaci Mongolici cum Radice, dandelion) 15g
Zi cao (紫草, radix arnebia, stoneweed) 15g
Huang qi (黃芪, Radix astragali) 15g
Dan shen (丹參, Salvia miltiorrhiza, or Chinese sage) 15g
Chi shao (赤芍, root of common peony) 15g
Dang gui (當歸, Radix Angelicae sinensis, roots of Chinese angelica) 15g
Hong hua (紅花, Flos Carthami Tinctorii) 10g
Shou wu (首烏, Radix Polygoni Multiflori, Chinese knotweed) 15g
Nu zhen zi (女貞子, Fructus Ligustri Lucidi, privet fruit) 15g
Sheng di (生地, Rehmannia Radix) 15g
Xian ling pi (仙靈脾, Herba Epimedii, epimedium) 15g
The researchers then observed the subjects’ improvement of clinical symptoms, immunologic indexes (antisperm antibodies in serum and seminal plasma) and sperm indexes (semen liquefied duration, motility, viability, density and abnormal morphology rate).
How do antisperm antibodies cause infertility?
Antibodies that attach to the sperm may impair motility and make it harder for them to penetrate the cervical mucus and gain entrance to the egg; they may also cause the sperm to clump together, which is occasionally noted on a routine semen analysis. Antibodies may also interfere with the ability of the sperm to fertilize the egg.
What treatments are available for antisperm antibodies?
Suppressing the immune system with corticosteroids may decrease the production of antibodies but can result in serious side effects, including severe damage to the hipbone. Intrauterine insemination, with or without the use of fertility medications, has been used for the treatment of antisperm antibodies. It is believed to work by delivering the sperm directly into the uterus and fallopian tubes, thus bypassing the cervical mucus.
The total antisperm antibody reversing ratio of the treatment group was higher than that of the control (P < 0.01), especially the serum antisperm antibody reversing ratio. There were significant differences in the clinical cure rate and total validity rate between the treatment group and the control (P < 0.01).
After the treatment, the markers of the clinical symptoms were lower (P < 0.01), and the improvement of the clinical symptoms was better in the treatment group than in the control (P < 0.01), especially the symptoms of pain in the back and knees, distending and bearing-down sensation of the perineum and testis, hypersexuality and topoalgia.
Compared with pre-treatment, sperm motility and viability of the treatment group significantly improved (P < 0.01), and so did sperm density (P < 0.05). However, there were no significant differences in sperm density, semen liquefied duration, abnormal morphology rate and pH (P > 0.05) before and after the treatment.
In conclusion, the study says Huzhangdanshenyin works more effectively than prednisone in the treatment of male immune infertility. It could improve the antisperm antibody reversing ratio, clinical symptoms and signs and ameliorate sperm indexes with no obvious advierse effects.
[Zhonghua Nan Ke Xue. 2006 Aug;12(8):750-5; Chinese text here.]
chinese medicineAcupuncture relieves pelvic girdle pain in pregnant women
AHN - Acupuncture is effective at relieving back and pelvic muscle pain during pregnancy, a common complaint among pregnant women as they enter into the final trimesters. A study has found that one in three pregnant women suffer severe back and pelvic pain as the pregnancy progresses.
This is because the center of gravity of a pregnant woman is off and she has to arch her back to balance her bulging tummy, leading to an extra strain on back and pelvic muscles.
Experts believe that stretching exercises, coupled with special pillows and acupuncture could help relieve back and pelvic pain that often occur during pregnancy.
The study tracked almost 1,500 pregnant women from Sweden, Iran, Brazil, Thailand and Australia and found that those who participated in the suggested exercises involving acupuncture reported a reduction in pain levels.
The review appears in the current issue of The Cochrane Library, a publication of The Cochrane Collaboration, an international organization that evaluates research in all aspects of health care.
Authors also found that expectant mothers benefited by the use of an Ozzlo pillow - a curved pillow designed to support the pregnant abdomen when lying down and that 60 percent of women trying acupuncture reported a substantial pain relief.
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