Tag: pain

Dog-day paste/San Fu paste-Winter diseases’ prevention in summer

San Fu paste is a Traditional Chinese Medicine prevention treatment dating from the Qing Dynasty.  This treatment uses herbs ground into a powder, mixed with fresh ginger juice into a paste, then taped to points located either on the back or lower legs.  These patches remain on the skin for 2-8 hours before the patient removes them.  The treatment is traditionally done at noon (12-1pm) on specific days in summer according to the Chinese calendar.  For 2017, the dates are July 12, July 22, and August 11 in 2017.  For optimal benefits, the treatment sessions are repeated for three years.

 

San Fu is sometimes translated as the “three hidings” since it references three 10-day periods that are predicted to be the hottest days of the year – or what we sometimes call in English “the dog days of summer”.  Dog days are the hottest and most humid days of summer and the body’s Yang energy is at the highest level on these days.  The treatment is given on the first day of each Fu period; so the patient comes in once every 10 days.

 

For these chronic conditions, San Fu paste treatment can reduce the frequency and severity of symptoms for the following year:

  • Chronic respiratory disease and allergies: allergic rhinitis, pharyngitis, asthma, cough, chronic bronchitis
  • Digestion problems: indigestion, chronic diarrhea
  • Women’s conditions: irregular periods, painful periods
  • Osteoarthritis: Tennis elbow, Rheumatic and Rheumatoid arthritis
  • Poor immune system in both adults and children

If you or your loved ones are suffering from the issues above, please mark the dates on your calendar and call Tang Acupuncture at (770) 696-4675 for details.

 

 

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Acupuncture is among the first line of therapies for both acute and chronic pain

The American College of Physicians (ACP) has published their evidence-based clinical practice guidelines for treating nonradicular low back pain in the Journal Annals of Internal Medicine. The guidelines are based on a review of randomized controlled trials and observational studies conducted on noninvasive drug and non-drug treatments for low back pain.

Nonradicular pain refers to pain that does not irradiate from, and is not caused by, damage to the spinal nerve root. The pain is typically characterized as acute (lasts under 4 weeks), subacute (lasts between 4 and 12 weeks), and chronic (lasts for more than 12 weeks). Low back pain affects millions of people in the United States, and the condition is one of the most common reasons for people missing work.

The ACP last published their clinical practice guidelines in 2007. Since then, some of the evidence has changed, and the 2017 guidelines include evaluations of mindfulness-based therapies, motor control exercise (MCE), and tai chi. New guidelines from the American College of Physicians recommend noninvasive ways of treating nonradicular low back pain.

The committee recommends that patients with chronic low back pain start by undergoing non-drug therapy and exercising. Among the suggestions in the guidelines, acupuncture treatment is the one recommended for both acute and chronic lower back pain.

Dr. Nitin S. Damle, the president of the ACP comments on the newly issued recommendations:

“For the treatment of chronic low back pain, physicians should select therapies that have the fewest harms and costs, since there were no clear comparative advantages for most treatments compared to one another. Physicians should remind their patients that any of the recommended physical therapies should be administered by providers with appropriate training.”

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