Hot flushes helped by acupuncture
From The Irish News online
A new study suggests that traditional Chinese acupuncture curbs the severity of hot flushes and other menopausal symptoms, writes Roisin Armstrong.
A meta-analysis of randomised controlled trials which is being published this month in Menopause, the journal of The North American Menopause Society (NAMS), indicates that acupuncture can affect the severity and frequency of hot flashes (US terminology) for women in natural menopause.
In this case an extensive search of previous studies evaluating the effectiveness of acupuncture uncovered 104 relevant students, of which 12 studies with 869 participants met the specified inclusion criteria to be included in this current study.
While the studies provided inconsistent findings on the effects of acupuncture on other menopause-related symptoms such as sleep problems, mood disturbances and sexual problems, they did conclude that acupuncture positively impacted both the frequency and severity of hot flashes.
A separate recent review indicated that approximately half of women experiencing menopause-associated symptoms use complementary and alternative medicine therapy, instead of pharmacologic therapies, for managing their menopausal symptoms.
See entire story at: http://www.irishnews.com/features/-1368797
