Why you need to tell your fertility specialist about acupuncture

Tell your IVF specialist about acupuncture

Complementary medicines and therapies including fertility acupuncture are widely used by patients who are trying to conceive. This is a conclusion of a study published in the current issue of the Australian and New Zealand Journal of Obstetrics and Gynaecology.

The researchers insist that health care practitioners and fertility specialists need to be proactive in acquiring and documenting the use of these practices.  Additionally, they need to provide further information to patients on the use of complementary medicines and therapies.

Why does your IVF specialist need to know about acupuncture?

Just as you’d inform your doctor that you’re taking folic acid, sharing information about acupuncture is essential because it plays a part in your overall treatment plan.

And it’s not only about acupuncture. It is equally important when your naturopath prescribes tinctures you know what it is in them. Ensure you’re well-informed about the contents of any supplements you take, so you can communicate clearly with your specialist. This knowledge will also come in handy if you experience any adverse reactions.

There is currently no evidence that acupuncture can harm your IVF cycle. In fact, we’ve seen incredible results in some cases and we also prefer that they are documented by your specialist.

For instance, one of our patients had high follicular stimulating hormone (FSH) levels, preventing her from doing IVF. FSH levels dropped from over 40 to 10 after a couple of months of acupuncture. And you should share this with your specialist. Such successes should not be kept secret from your doctors.

And don’t just take my word for it: research has demonstrated the numerous benefits of acupuncture on fertility. It has a potential to improve egg quality, uterine lining,  increase receptivity, reduce fertility stress, the risk of miscarriage. Furthermore, in combination with IVF it has been shown to improve live birth rates.

If the male partner takes herbs or has acupuncture to improve his sperm quality, your specialist needs to know this.

You can see fertility acupuncture as a lifestyle factor and as IVF add on. It has to be researched and studied like all IVF components, but first it has to be the part of the treatment plan.

Drug misuse kills 200,000 Chinese a year

In the bustling corridors of Auckland City Hospital, staff rush from one patient to another, attending to their needs and juggling complex medication schedules. It’s an environment ripe for the occasional slip-up.

It is much worse than you would think. Up to 70 per cent of the medication histories of elderly patients admitted to Auckland City Hospital have omissions or errors. Though most mistakes were minor, a third of the discrepancies had the potential to cause discomfort or harm.

But this is nothing in comparison with 200,000 Chinese who die each year due to the drug misuse. Many Chinese know a lot about their bodies and often self-prescribe. While this practice seems to be very safe when they use herbal remedies, it appears to be very fatal when they play around with pharmaceutical drugs.

In an ever-evolving healthcare landscape, the possibility of human error remains a daunting challenge. As we strive to create a safer, more reliable system for managing medication, safe and effective natural therapies like acupuncture offer an avenue for wellness that minimises risk and promotes overall well-being. It offers a holistic, non-invasive approach to healthcare that bypasses many of the risks associated with traditional pharmacological treatments. It’s an age-old practice backed by an increasing body of evidence, demonstrating its effectiveness in treating conditions such as reproductive health disorders, mental/emotional balance, chronic pain, some digestive issues to name a few.

 

Schizophrenia? Use Chinese herbs

Researchers from Cochrane Collaboration reviewed 7 studies on the use of Chinese herbs for schizophrenia:

  • The overall response favoured combining herbal medicine plus antipsychotic drugs vs using antipsychotic drugs alone.
  • Significantly fewer people getting combined treatment left the study early compared with those given antipsychotics alone.
  • The combined treatment group had reduced side effects (like constipation) of the anipsychotic drugs.

Conclusions. Results suggest that combining Chinese herbal medicine with antipsychotics is beneficial.