HANS e-News - February 1, 2006

HANS e-News - February 1, 2006

CONTENTS

1) Editorial

2) Radio Update: Croft Woodruff on CFRO-FM

3) Feature: Chinese Medicine for Infertility

4) Issue Updates
--Help Quebec Win Historic Pesticide Ban!
--Environmental Defence Supports Ban on Non-Stick Chemicals
--To Help Stop Climate Change, Click Here
--Canadian Environmental Sustainability Indicators, 2005

5) Media Watch
--BC Tops in Health, Manitoba at Bottom, Report
--Conservative Leader Says Canada Might Miss Kyoto
--Warm Weather Isolates Northern Canadian Natives
--2005 Was Warmest Year on Record, NASA
--Provinces Providing More Childhood Vaccines
--Government Should Warn About Mercury in Fish, Says CSPI
--Opening Pandora's Box: Governance for Genetically Modified Forests
--A Decade Later: Is GM Winning Hearts and Minds?
--Monsanto Moves to Force-Feed Europe Genetically Engineered Corn
--Soy Diet Could Worsen Heart Disease, Study
--Combining Food Additives May Be Harmful, Say Researchers
--Diabetics Often Use Alternative and Normal Therapy
--Stevia: Mum's the Word
--Ginseng Extract Wards Off Common Cold
--Acai Juice for Cancer?
--Eggs for Breakfast Could Help in Weight Control, Study
--Tea Here Now: Fair Trade
--Do You Have a Sleep Disorder?
--Gruf-f-f Love
--Belly Laughs Make Happy Hearts
--EPA to Accept Pesticide Testing on Humans
--Laptop Dance: Umbra on Choosing a Computer
--Cell Phones Don't Cause Brain Tumors
--Panel: Teflon Chemical a Likely Carcinogen
--New Car Smell: It's Not So Sweet

6) Calendar of Events
--The Infertility Cure, Feb 19, Vancouver

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3) Chinese Medicine for Infertility
by Michelle Hancock

"Fertility isn't about seeds and eggs. About what's coming out of the ovaries. It's about life," says Randine Lewis, MSOM, L.Ac., PhD, and author of The Infertility Cure, the Ancient Chinese Wellness Program for Getting Pregnant and Having Healthy Babies.

To the one in six couples who suffer from infertility, creating a baby--perhaps humanity's most natural, rewarding function--is also about stress. The stress of wanting and fruitlessly trying. The stress to intimacy. To finances. To deciding on treatments.

All that worry, points out Dr. Lewis, worsens the problem.

"Stress has an enormous impact on fertility," she explains. "All mammals will not conceive under stress. The body can stop ovaries from producing eggs. Stop menstruation. Change the makeup of hormones. Shift blood flow away from reproductive organs. There are a multitude of shut-off mechanisms. In Chinese medicine, we want to get the body back into balance. We don't force a pregnancy into a body that says no. We get the body into a condition where it says yes."

A "no" body might receive a Western diagnosis such as amenorrhea, unexplained infertility, endometriosis, polycystic ovaries, tubal obstruction, uterine fibroids, recurrent miscarriage, immunological and male factor infertility. Infertility is defined as the inability to conceive after one year of unprotected sex. In one-third of cases, it originates with the female; in 20 to 40 per cent, the male. The remaining percentage is unidentified or problems in both partners.

But traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) takes a 3,000 year old approach to rebalancing the body, and it works. Medical director Dr. Stephen Hudson, FRCS(C) at the Victoria Fertility Clinic is so convinced of TCM's conjunctive benefits to orthodox treatment that he recommends all patients consult their on-staff practitioner.

"Originally, I knew nothing about TCM and had reservations about how effective it was, basically from ignorance," says Dr. Hudson. Then he did some research and even took a 10-month TCM course for physicians.

The result: he was impressed.

Numerous studies showing TCM's benefits to fertility exist. In 2002, for instance, German researchers reported that of 160 women, those who used acupuncture with IVF had a 50 per cent greater chance of getting pregnant. Women receiving electro-acupuncture in a 2003 study claimed reduced pain, nausea and other side-effects after IVF. Of 114 women in a 2004 study, 51 per cent who had both acupuncture and IVF treatments got pregnant compared to 36 per cent with IVF alone. Further, only eight per cent in the acupuncture group miscarried, compared to 20 per cent of IVF-only women.

"Many patients are surprised because it's not common for a Western doctor to recommend it," Dr. Hudson says. "Mostly, people are very receptive. Even if they don't become pregnant, their philosophy toward overall health is improved and they have spin-off health benefits."

Dr. Lewis will be speaking of traditional Chinese medical treatment of infertility in Vancouver on February 19th. See Calendar of Events below for details.

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6) Calendar of Events

The Infertility Cure
Who: Randine Lewis, MSOM, L.Ac, PhD, author of The Infertility Cure: The Ancient Chinese Wellness Program of Getting Pregnant and Having Healthy Babies
When: Feb 19, 7 - 8:30 pm
Where: Holiday Inn, 711 West Broadway, Vancouver
Cost: $20 per person, $30 per couple
To pre-register, contact: Melissa, Melissa [at] acubalance [dot] ca, phone 604-678-8600

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Copyright 2006 Health Action Network Society