acu wellness february 2013

7/27/2019 ACU Wellness February 2013

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Chairmans Remarks

Holistic Health is nothing but understanding mind, body, spiritinteractions and balancing the entire system . Since thedisease state can be detected at the etheric level before theymanifest on the physical prana (energy), disease can be bestprevented rather than cured after it has manifested in thebody. So, the preventive therapy is more useful for childrenbelow 10 years.

Ayurvedic physicians in India and Toaist healers in China arebest known for their holistic approach to health . This truthcan never be hidden for a long time and the common peoplehave understood that their health is in their own hands . Yes,

in emergency or during child birth we need the help of modern medicine, but when a person is normal, he/sheshould adopt one of the preventive therapies to keep diseasesaway from the body by taking proper food and deepbreathing . Improper food and polluted air are the mostimportant parameters which spoil the health of the personespecially the younger ones . Purity of water is one of themain questions in India which is not upto the requiredstandards.

Inspite of all these odds, younger ones are supposed to keepthemselves healthy. Young parents are requested tounderstand the mechanism which produces cold, cough andfever in children and try their level best to avoid antibiotics .They can activate the youngsters palms with love andaffection for a few minutes every day to improve theirimmune system . If the immune system is good, the cold andcough will be less frequent and they can easily come out of the problem with very less medication.

We have started our Childrens Immunity DevelopmentCampaign in the Vidyarambham Montessori School and manyparents have been trained. All other schools in Rajajinagarhave shown interest and we will concentrate more on thisCampaign all over Bangalore to involve at least 1,000 childrenfor our records.

I take this opportunity to thank you all for your support andco-operation.

Dr. H. Bhojraj

ACUPUNCTURE TRATMENT

By Dr. H. Bhojraj . BE (Hons) MD (Acu)

Generally, the common man in India is not exposed tothe potential of Acupuncture cure and many questionslinger in their mind regarding Acupuncture treatment.This article is meant to clear the basic doubts in theirmind and also to motivate them to learn this scientificsystem which has the potential to cure the root causeof the disease which can be at the body, mind orintellectual levels.

What are the diseases acupuncture has the potentialto cure?

Acupuncture has the potential to cure the followingdiseases :

Diseases of the Circulatory System Angina, HighBlood Pressure, Palpitations, poor circulation, etc.

Diseases of the Respiratory System Asthma,Chronic breathlessness, Chronic Bronchitis, Cold,Cough, etc.

Diseases of the Digestive System Colitis,Constipation, Diarrhea, Irritable Bowel Syndrome,Indigestion, Stomach Ulcers, etc.

Diseases of the Urinary and Reproductive System Cystitis, Incontinence, Infertility, Irregular periods,Morning sickness, Pre-menstrual Syndrome, Prostatitis.

Diseases of the Skin Acne, Eczema, Psoriasis

Neurological & Muscular-Skeletal diseases Arthritis,Back pain, Bells palsy, Epilepsy, Headaches, Migra ine,Multiple Sclerosis, Neuralgia, Rheumatism, Sciatica,Stiff neck, Stroke, Tinnitus .

Acute Infections Common cold, Bronchitis, Hepatitis,Sinusitis, Ear infections.

Mental and Emotional Syndromes Anxiety,Depression, Eating disorders, Insomnia.

Since acupuncture treats the root cause of the disease,it has great potential to cure any disorder in thesystem. Many patients turn to Acupuncture only as alast resort after trying many other therapies. Instead Iwould advise people to try this in the beginning as soonas the symptoms appear.

QUOTE Success is not the key to happiness. Happiness is thekey to success. If you love what you are doing youWILLbe successful.

ACU WELLNESSThe Quarterly publication of

Academy for Acupressure and Acupuncture (R)# 2596, 11 th Main, E Block, 2 nd Stage, Rajajinagar, Bangalore 560 010

January March 2013Tel : (0 80) 2313 2103 e-Mail : [email protected] Website : www.acupressureclub.org

Vol. 2 [ For Private Circulation only ] No. 1
mailto:[email protected]:[email protected]:[email protected]://www.acupressureclub.org/http://www.acupressureclub.org/http://www.acupressureclub.org/mailto:[email protected]


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Can it go with other Systems?

Yes. It goes well with any system but gradually themedications can be reduced .

How does an Acupuncturist diagnose the disorder ina System?

Disorders in the human body are diagnosed with pulsereading in the radial artery on the left and right hand nearthe wrist. Based on the pulse reading, the constitution of the person at that point of time will be decided.Depending on the constitution, 4 acupuncture points areselected as per Dr. Bhojrajs method and 4 needles areinserted on the surface of the skin (upto a maximum of 0.1 mm ) and the needles are left for only 5 minutes orless.

Pulse Analysis will clearly indicate Yi n and Yang imbalances inthe system.

Is Acupuncture painful?Acupuncture needles are so fine that the prick of theneedle will never be felt by the patient. The painexperienced will be certainly less than an ant bite .

When it is inserted at the right point, there will be adistinctive sensation often described as a tinglingsensation. It can sometimes be felt all along the pathwayof the meridian.

Since we use only disposable single use needles , patientsneed not worry about infection.

Will any other therapies be used in this treatment?

If the regular Acupuncture is not giving good results, anAcupuncturist may add moxibustion therapy. In thistreatment, a Moxa stick made of dried and powderedleaves of the herb, Artemesia vulgaris latiflora is lit andkept near the acupuncture point. When the patient feelsits warmth on the skin, the stick is taken off. This isrepeated a few times and patients can immediately feelthe difference.

It is generally used on patients who have a coldconstitution. It is one of the best remedies for Frozen

Shoulder.

Counseling is also a part of the curing process, wherein thetherapist discusses about the appropriate diet , reducingexcessive stress and emotions .

The patients readiness to make changes in their lifestyle isthe key to the success of the treatment.

Do we have to believe in the system to get cured?

It is not at all necessary to believe the system in order toget relief and cure the root cause of the disease. But thepatients confidence in the system and in the practitioner definitely enhances the curing process.

How long will a course of treatment last?

Treatment may be frequent if the symptoms are acute, butif the illness is chronic, it is advisable to take treatmentonce in a week . As the patient starts to showimprovement, the frequency of the treatment reduces.Generally the patients show some improvement within thefirst 3 or 4 sittings. It may take longer if the illness is severeor if it is chronic.

The ability to diagnose and treat dysfunction long beforethe symptoms manifest, makes acupuncture an

extraordinarily effective form of preventive therapy .

How will I feel immediately after a treatment?

After the treatment, the patient feels energized or relaxedin chronic cases. In acute cases, they feel a slight lightnesson the side the treatment is given and also slight relief from pain.

The pulse felt after the treatment indicates changes thathave taken place in the energy flow in the body.

Can Acupuncture be done on children below 15 years?

Normally we do not recommend Acupuncture for childrenbelow 15 but Acupressure can be done by the therapist . Itgives wonderful results for children since their self-healingmechanism is at its best till 15 years of age.

Can Acupuncture be used during pregnancy?

It is advisable not to take Acupuncture or Acupressureduring pregnancy. But an expert Acupuncturist can treatsome acute conditions like back pain depending on thediagnosis. It is better to avoid Acupuncture duringpregnancy.

Can Acupuncture help overcome addiction?

The chemical changes in the blood due to certain habitsare the main reason for cravings. On a higher level of Acupuncture treatment , it is possible to reduce cravings byreducing the desire in the acu point (H8) and increasingthe willpower (Lu 8) of the person. But the concernedperson must decide to rid oneself of the addiction .Acupuncture can definitely assist a person to overcomeaddiction .

Can Acupuncture help to lose weight?

Acupuncture is very effective in making the metabolismmore effective and many people lose weight during thecourse of treatment if they are overweight. But a dailyexercise of walking for 30 minutes is a must for sustainingthe weight loss along with food control.


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Dr. H. BHOJRAJ, Chairman, AAA , A Profile

Dr. H. Bhojraj joined ISRO Satellite Centre (ISAC) in itsformative year 1972 and participated in the launch campaignof Indias f irst Satellite launch from then USSR in 1975. Hereceived the distinguished award for the launch of 1 st Satellitefrom Prof. Satish Dhavan. He contributed to satellitetechnology in Thermal Control System for satellites for many

years and was elevated as Group Director for ProgrammePlanning & Evaluation Group under the Director, ISAC. He hascontributed towards the indigenization of many thermalcontrol elements particularly Optical Solar Reflector (OSR)and Flexible Heaters for which his team was given theNational Research Development Council (NRDC) award in1990 and again in 1999.

APPLE spacecraft thermal balance testing in Toulouse, France in 1978with Prof. Satish Dhavan & Prof. U.R. Rao ( 5 th & 6 th from left )

(Dr. Bhojraj is 4 th from the left )

He took up Yoga Therapy in the year 1983 and served as Yoga Therapist for 8 years with the Vivekananda Yoga Kendra.After organizing a seminar by Dr. Jiten Bhatt in the year 1990,Dr. Bhojraj took up Acupressure Therapy seriously and got hisdegree from the Srilankan Open University (MedicinaAlternativa) in the year 2000. He was also awarded a goldMedal in the year 2003 for popularizing simple healingsystems among public.

He wrote his first book Acupressure and Fitness in the year1994 and the Second edition in 1996 which has gone in formany reprints. The next book Acupressure The DruglessPath to Good Health was released in the year 2001 and theInternational edition Acupuncture The Drugless Path toGood Health with Dr. Bhojrajs method of acupuncture wasreleased in the year 2006.

He has also written a boo k titled Walking for good health Simply walk Maadi and a technical book on fundamentals of satellite technology titled Basics of Spacecraft Systems forHigher Secondary school students. He founded the Academyfor Acupressure & Acupuncture in the year 2012 forspreading the simple healing techniques to common peopleand also to get data for Acupuncture research.

Dr. Jiten Bhatt s Acupressure workshop was organized byDr. H. Bhojraj on 25th Dec 1990 which was inaugurated

by Minister for Health Late Dr. Nagarathnamma

Dr. Sir. Anton Jayasuriya awarded theDoctorate in Acupuncture M.D. (Acu) degree to

Dr. H. Bhojraj in the year 2000

The First Scientific Book :Acupressure - The Drugless Path to Good Health

by Dr. H. Bhojraj was released on 8th July 2001 bySwami Swaswoopananda and Dr.S. Pal

Dr. Sir. Anton Jayasuriya awarded theGold Medal to Dr. H. Bhojraj

Dr. Nagendra & Dr. H. Bhojraj in theWorld Congress on Holistic Medicine conducted in 2003


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Release of 1 st Newsletter ACU WELLNESS by Dr. S. Pal

The first ACU WELLNESS the quarterly News Letter (Vol ,No.1) was released by Dr. S. Pal , former Associate Director,ISAC and a Distinguished Scientist, on 21 st Nov 2012 . TheNews Letter Copies were received by Outstanding Scientists,Shri. N.K. Malik, Shri. S. Das Gupta, Shri. R.N. Tyagi and Shri.

Baskarnarayana . Our Chairman, Dr. Bhojraj and Vice Chairman Dr. K. Kanaka Rao were present on the occasion of the monthly luncheon meeting .

Dr. S. Pal released the 1st News Letter. Dr. Bhojraj, Dr. S. Pal,Dr. Das Gupta, Mr. N.K. Malik, and Dr. Kanaka Rao were present

Dr. S. Pal appreciated the efforts of the Academy which couldbring out such a good edition within 2/3 months of itsexistence in the hired premises. Dr. Kanaka Rao thanked allthose present for their total support to the acupuncture

system.

Monthly Acupuncture Practitioners Meeting

The Monthly Acupuncture Practitioners Meeting was held on25 th November 2012 (4 th Sunday) from 2 to 4 PM. It wasattended by about 15 practitioners who shared their ownexperience of getting cured with Acupuncture. Beginners getto learn a lot from the experiences shared by their seniors.

Mr. Ramesh N.S, Dr. Narendra Borwanker, Mrs. Vandana Prasadwith other Acupuncture Practitioners.

This forum is meant for sharing their own experience andsome interesting cases which they have come across.

All practitioners are requested to register their names with the Academy for further communications. All of us must jointly approach theGovernment for recognition with treatment data

for various ailments .

Monthly Meetings are held on 4 th Sunday of every month. Allinterested Practitioners are requested to attend with datacards on the cases treated by them on February 24 th (Sunday)2 to 4 PM and also on 4 th Sunday of every month .

Advance Class in November 2012Advance Acupuncture Course was conducted from 5 th to 9 th November 2012 and also from 19 th to 28 th November 2012.The 1 st Course was attended by Mrs. Shanaz from South Africaapart from Mr. Sivaraman. A branch of our Academy may beopened in South Africa within next few months. The 2 nd Course was attended by Mrs. Vandana Prasad and Mr.Badruzzama Nadeem. After completing their theory classes,they will start attending the practical sessions regularly fornext one year. Their feedback on the theory part of the Course

was obtained and all of them have understood the theory verywell.

Mrs. Shanaz from Pretoria (South Africa) received theCourse Completion Certificate from Dr. H. Bhojraj

Feed Back from Participants Vandana Prasad: It was a great experience. I was able to geta lot of information. Dr. Bhojraj is a great teacher. He explainseverything very patiently. I am very thankful to him forhelping me solve my own back problem which has beentroubling me since 18 years.

Usha . R: AAA is an Academy with very realistic, practical anddivine approach to holistic healing. I attended the one dayBasic class. It opened up a channel to alternative treatment

for a developing country like India. I am very happy with thecourse. Dr. Bhojraj has made this so accessible to everyonewho has an open mind and a holistic approach to preventionrather than cure. I wish AAA will be recognized by the Govt. of India. Governments should support people like Dr. Bhojraj tomake holistic and alternative treatment available to everyone. I wish AAA all the success .

Advanced Acupuncture CourseAnyone with basic knowledge of anatomy can join thiscourse. Courses are conducted every month for 10 days.Kindly confirm with the Academy, 080-2313 2103 (9.30 to5 PM) for the dates. The follow up courses will continuefor one year. Also, for the sake of working people ,Advance Acupuncture Course is being conducted everySaturday for one year . It is a cyclic Course and anyoneinterested may join any Saturday and complete thecourse within one ear.


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One Day Acupressure Course on 24 th November 2012 at theInstitution of Engineers (India) Lecture Hall

The One Day Basic Acupressure Classes were conducted bythe Academy on 24 th Nov 2012 from 9.30 AM to 4.30 PM. TheCourse was attended by 12 people including 3 Advance Coursestudents. The Practical sessions were well appreciated by theparticipants and they could literally feel their pain vanishingby the end of the day . All of them gave a very positivefeedback about the course which was handled by Mr. P.Suresh.

The Course material and sessions were standardized for thefirst time. Those interested in teaching one day course canregister with Academy for Trainers Training . For details,kindly contact Mr. P. Suresh (93412 61251).

Feedback from participants

Ruchie Bhandari : The Course was very useful for me and myfamily. I really appreciate the efforts put in by the Academy tospread awareness and the Immunity Development forChildren. The book is also very informative and helpful. It wasa great learning experience for me. All thanks to Dr. Bhojraj &Mr. Suresh.

Radhika Unnikrishnan : The entire session was extremelyinformative and enlightening and I really enjoyed it. The mainpressure points will be extremely useful to provide relief fromcommon aches & ailments. The rotational exercises will beextremely helpful.

ONE DAY BASIC ACUPRESSURE COURSE Every 4 th Saturday of the month at the Institution of Engineers Lecture Hall. Also, 2 to 4 PM in the Academyfrom Monday to Friday . The next Course dates :23 rd February and 23 rd March 2013. Contact Academyfor details (Tel: 2313 2103)

ACADEMY NEWSACUPRESSURE BENEFITS TO COMMON PEOPLE

Dr. H. Bhojraj , Chairman, AAA was interviewed by Dr. MulukuntePrakash on 11 th Jan 2013 for Doordarshan s CHANDANA Channel at 8.30 AM. The half an hour interview in Kannada covered singlepoint solutions for headache, back pain, acidity, menstrualproblems, immunity development etc. The Programme was wellappreciated by the viewers not only from Karnataka but also fromother parts of India [you can watch this video on YouTube].

Needles & Nerves by Catherine Dold Articlepublished in September 1998 issue of Discover Magazine

Single Point has the potential to cure any problem Scientific experiment.

Five years ago, while visiting his native Korea , Physicist Zang-Hee Cho took a tumble down a hiking trail. "We were in themountains for a picnic, and my shoes were not quite correct,"recalls the 62-year-old professor from the University of California at Irvine. "I was thinking, as usual, and I fell down. Itwas like a flight, like a big jump down the mountain. The nextday I returned to California and tried to stand up after 12hours on the plane. I couldn't stand up. I said, 'Uh-oh, bigtrouble.'"Eventually, Cho hobbled off the plane and made his wayhome, and later he began to look for some relief from thepain in his back. Relatives suggested him to try acupuncture.Though he initially scoffed at the idea-as an educatedperson, he says, he didn't believe in acupuncture-he tried it.And much to his surprise, it worked. "After about tenminutes I felt the pain melting away."

Cho's unexpected relief prodded his professional curiosity. Asa physicist working in radiology, Cho develops ways to imagethe complex inner workings of the body; one of his inventionswas a prototype PET scanner around 1975. How, hewondered, could inserting needles into seemingly randompoints on the body possibly affect human health? So hedecided to take a closer look, and what he found astoundedhim. While sticking needles into a few student volunteers, hetook pictures of their brains and discovered that bystimulating an acupuncture point said to be associated withvision-but that is nowhere near anything known to beconnected to the eyes-he could indeed trigger activity in thevery part of the brain that controls vision. There just mightbe something to this acupuncture thing, he figured.Acupuncture and other forms of traditional Chinese medicine have been around for more than 4,000 years. Yet theexplanation for how acupuncture-and Chinese medicine as awhole works has long been a mystery, if not an object of mockery, for most Western doctors. The basic theory isoutlined in a text from 200 B.C., attributed to the YellowEmperor (a mythical ruler). In brief, it recognizes in peopleand in nature a vital energy or life force known as QI (pronounced chee ). Qi is the source of movements rangingfrom voluntary muscle action to blood flow; it protects thebody from external influences, and it generates warmth . Qi flows through the body and to the organs by way of anextensive system of channels known as meridians. If the flowof the force is disturbed, the theory goes; the resultingdeficiency, excess, or stagnation of Qi causes bodilymalfunction and thus illness. Acupuncture, in which needlesare inserted into specific points along the meridians andmanipulated, is said to restore the proper flow of qi andthereby return the body to health.

Practitioners recognize some 1,500 acupoints, most of whichhave no obvious relationship to their intended targets. For

example, a point on the second toe is used to treat headachesand toothaches, while a point near the elbow enhances theimmune system. Unlike Western medicine, in which manycomplex functions are understood to be controlled byinteractions in the brain, traditional Chinese medicine holdsthat there is little connection between the brain and various


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organs and that stimulating an acupoint sends a messagedirectly to the targeted organ. Another integral concept is the tension between two ever-present, complementary forces of nature , yin and yang. Whentheir balance is disturbed, the theory goes, people get sick .Yin conditions reflect a lack of qi: pale face, cold extremities,slow pulse, and depression. Yang conditions result from anexcess of qi: red face, fever, fast pulse, agitation.

Doctors and licensed practitioners administer between 9 and12 million acupuncture treatments each year in this country,most commonly for pain control and addictions to nicotine,heroin, and cocaine. As acupuncture has gained favor amongWesterners, researchers have sought to unveil its mysteries.They want to understand just how this ancient medicalpractice could possibly work, especially when no Westernresearchers have ever been able to dissect a meridian ordetect the flow of qi.What those researchers have been able to measure is a flowof acupuncture-induced endorphins . According toneuroscientist Bruce Pomeranz, of the University of Toronto,

numerous studies over the past 20 years have shown thatinserting needles into acupoints stimulates nerves in theunderlying muscles . That stimulation, researchers believe,sends impulses up the spinal cord to a relatively primitive partof the brain known as the limbic system, as well as to themidbrain and the pituitary gland. Somehow that signalingleads to the release of endorphins and monoamines,chemicals that block pain signals in the spinal cord and thebrain. The result: A well-documented generalized"acupuncture analgesia.""The endorphin story is really nailed down," says Pomeranz."It looks like its nerves to the brain. The acupoints that have

been mapped over thousands of years are likely the spotswhere nerves are concentrated." But the endorphin story"doesn't explain many of the other claims of acupuncture," hecontinues. "There have been a number of clinical trialsshowing that acupuncture is extremely useful for the nauseaand vomiting caused by chemotherapy and early pregnancy. That's not the endorphin system. Nobody knows how thatworks."

Nor does the endorphin story explain what Cho found whenexploring acupoints that are traditionally used to treat visionproblems. Designated by Cho as VA1, VA2, VA3, and VA8, they

are not found near the eyes but on the outside of the foot,running from the little toe to the ankle. The "VA" in Cho'sdesignation is for "vision-related acupoint." Acupuncturistssay that these points are on the urinary bladder meridianand refer to them as BL67, BL66, BL65, and BL60,respectively. And they hold that stimulation of these pointswith needles will affect the eyes via the system of meridiansrather than through the central nervous system .To test that premise, Cho strapped student volunteers into anfMRI (functional magnetic resonance imaging) machine. Whilestandard MRI provides static cross-sectional pictures of structures in the body, functional MRI goes further to revealhow those structures are working. It measures minutechanges in the amount of oxygen carried in the blood, which ispresumably a rough measure of glucose uptake by varioustissues and thus a good indicator of which tissues are active;the results can be viewed as colorful fmri brain activationmaps.

Cho first stimulated the eyes of the volunteers throughtraditional means: he flashed a light in front of them . Theresulting images, as expected, showed a concentration of color-an increase in activity-in the visual cortex , the portionof the brain that is known to be involved in eye function. ThenCho had an acupuncturist stimulate the acupoint VA1. In oneperson after another, the very same region of the brain-thevisual cortex-lit up on the fMRI image.

As odd as it seemed, sticking a needle into someone's foot hadthe very same effect as shining a light in someone's eyes. Andthis was not the generalized analgesic effect, produced by theprimitive limbic system that was seen in the pain studies; thiswas a function-specific response occurring in the brain'scortex, the area responsible for such sophisticated functionsas speech and hearing, memory and intellect. Moreover, themagnitude of brain activity seen on acupuncture stimulationwas nearly as strong as that elicited by the flash of light.

"It was very exciting," recalls Cho. "I never thought anythingwould happen, but it's very clear that stimulating the

acupuncture point triggers activity in the visual cortex." Toeliminate the possibility of a placebo effect, Cho alsostimulated a nonacupoint, in the big toe. There was noresponse in the visual cortex.

Next, Cho tried each form of stimulation over time, twistingthe needle for a moment or flashing the light, resting, thenrepeating. As before, the fMRI images were remarkablysimilar for acupuncture and for light stimulation . The time-course study was also done using the three other visionacupoints on the foot. The results were again consistent:except in the case of VA2, each acupoint lit up the visualcortex exactly as the light stimulation had done. This time,

however, Cho noticed something else. When the activationdata were graphed to show the intensity of the response overtime, he saw that there were two distinct reactions among thedozen volunteers. During the acupuncture phase, someshowed an increase in activity, while others showed adecrease. In other words, in some people, oxygenconsumption in that brain region increased, while in others,it decreased.

"I figured we must have made a mistake," says Cho. Repeatingthe experiment, however, he saw the same results every time."Finally one of the acupuncturists mentioned, 'Oh, yes, it's yinand yang.'" Cho asked him which subjects were yin andwhich were yang, and without seeing the data, thepractitioner correctly pointed out who had shown anincrease in activity (yang) and who had had a decrease (yin)in 11 of 12 cases. "I don't know how to explain it," Cho says.

Like many preliminary scientific reports, Cho's small studyraises more questions than it answers. Still, he hasdemonstrated new functional effects of acupuncture ."Classically, acupuncture was the ultimate in experimentation;people collected data for thousands of years," says Joie Jones,professor of radiological sciences at the University of California at Irvine and coauthor of the study. " They noticed

that when you applied a needle in one position, it wouldhave an effect in another part of the body. But theconnection through the brain was never made. With thesestudies, we've demonstrated that for at least someacupuncture points it goes through the brain."


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Yet even if it does go through the brain, how does stimulatinga specific point on the foot trigger activity in the part of thebrain that controls vision? There is no explanation for thateither, says Cho, although he suspects that the path is alongthe nervous system. If that proves to be true, it's probably notthe same pathway by which acupuncture causes the release of endorphins, says Pomeranz. "That endorphins are released bystimulating certain types of nerves in fibers anywhere in thebody, that's understood. But that there is a specificconnection between your toe and your visual system is reallybizarre. That's really mind-boggling."

Despite the absence of clear-cut explanations, acupuncture'sclinical results are attracting interest from mainstreammedicine. A panel of independent experts convened last yearby the National Institutes of Health concluded thatacupuncture is indeed effective in treating nausea due toanesthesia and chemotherapy drugs. It is also helpful intreating post-surgical and other forms of pain . Moreover, thepanel noted, despite the pervasive belief in the superiorclinical effects of Western medicine, plenty of conventional

treatments for chronic pain show the same success rate asacupuncture-and often with harmful side effects .One of the more provocative acupuncture studies used SPECT(single photon emission computed tomography) to recordimages of the brains of patients with chronic pain. That study,by AbassAlavi, chief of nuclear medicine at the University of

Pennsylvania Hospital, measured blood flow to the brainstructures that are suspected of releasing endorphins inresponse to acupuncture stimulus-the thalamus,hypothalamus, and brain stem . Comparing baseline images of people who were in pain with images taken after theyreceived acupuncture treatment, Alavi found clear evidenceof increased blood flow in the thalamus and the brain stem.He also found that treated patients felt less pain.

Like Cho, Alavi was not a believer in acupuncture or otherforms of Chinese medicine before doing this study. "Ithought acupuncture was more or less psychological, not anobjective effect," he says. "I did this study just for fun. Ifigured nothing would show up."

Of course, there are still many skeptics . "Cho's paper provesnothing," says Wallace Sampson, former chief of medicaloncology at Santa Clara Valley Medical Center and a memberof the board of directors of the National Council AgainstHealth Fraud, a private organization. "It's a simple case of pseudoscience." Sampson contends that the study was toosmall and poorly controlled to detect real effects. He has also

criticized the NIH panel's statement, saying that there were nonaysayers among the presenters at the conference.

Others prefer to learn what they can from acupuncture, evenif they don't understand it all just yet. And they don't discountthat completely unknown mechanisms might be at work."People have looked for meridians but haven't foundanything," says Pomeranz. "They've tried to measure qiwithout success. But the failure to find something doesn'tmean it doesn't exist. The endorphin story was a big surprise;now it's ho-hum."

Cho hopes to push the scientific frontier a little further by

using fMRI and other imaging systems to explore connectionsbetween acupoints and the brain. He also plans to study howacupuncture might be used to increase blood flow to thevisual cortex in people who have suffered vision impairmentafter a stroke . A handful of studies by other researchershave, in fact, already found that acupuncture treatments canhelp stroke patients improve their range of movement.Acupuncture imaging studies, says Cho, are "opening a newdoor for neuroscience."

POPULAR LECTURE ON ACUPRESSURE

18 th January 2013

Members of Broadcast Engineering Society (BES) in rapt attention

Dr. Bhojrajs presentation on Acupressure Do it yourself Therapy at the Coffee Board Hall was well appreciated.Shri Anil Kumar, Deputy Director General, Prasarabharathi,introduced the Dr. Bhojraj to the audience.


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acu wellness february 2013

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