ACU-Track: The Acupuncture Research Podcast ACU-Track

We were delighted to welcome Matthew Bauer on the podcast to discuss the evidence base of acupuncture for peripheral neuropathy. Also don't miss Matthew's summary of the most important research ever done on acupuncture!

Matthew Bauer became interested in Chinese Medicine after becoming a student of a 74th generation Taoist Master and traditional Chinese Doctor in 1978. He became licensed as an Acupuncturist in 1986 and opened his Chinese Medicine practice in California that same year. 


Matthew developed a passion for educating people about the benefits of acupuncture and became active in acupuncture/Chinese medicine organizations thinking those organizations would have public outreach as a primary goal. When that proved not to be the case, Matthew authored a book for the public exploring the roots and practice of acupuncture titled “The Healing Power of Acupressure and Acupuncture”. He later authored another book for acupuncturists on practice building titled “Making Acupuncture Pay”. 


In 2014, while still in full time practice seeing around 20 patients a day, Matthew formed the Acupuncture Now Foundation (the ANF) – a for the public benefit charitable organization with the goal of educating the public, healthcare providers, and health policymakers about the practice of acupuncture. Matthew feels the ANF vision statement sums up his goals best – “Creating a world where the benefits of acupuncture are known and available to all.”

As part of that vision, Matthew became interested in acupuncture research especially the potential for false negatives due to studies using sub-optimal treatment dosages. Matthew has a particular interest in acupuncture dosage and recently co-authored a journal article on the subject “Is Acupuncture Dose Dependent - Ramifications of acupuncture treatment dose within clinical practice and trials”.

Get in Touch

Learn Matthew's Peripheral Neuropathy Protocol

Longhurst research on acupuncture for blood pressure

Richard Clark and the ACU-Track team talk through the challenges with treating plantar heel pain and the state of the current evidence base.

Richard's website is a community resource for those who are suffering from or attempting to treat plantar heel pain.  The website has a variety of invaluable information from Richard's methodology, point protocols and research and reference materials: https://podac.info/

Richard refers to various diagrams, articles and his book!  Links are below including some interesting further reading ...

Richard's article discussing medical acupuncture short courses
James, R, 1998, There is more to acupuncture than the weekend course. Complementary Therapies in Medicine 6 (4),203-207.
http://www.integrativehealthcare.co.uk/timtatwc%200709.pdf

Systematic Review
Clark, RJ & Tighe, M, 2012, “The effectiveness of acupuncture for plantar heel pain: a systematic review” Acupunct Med 30: 298-306 published online doi: 10.1136/acupmed-2012-010183.
https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1136/acupmed-2012-010183

Critical Interpretive Synthesis
Clark MT, Clark RJ, Toohey S, et al.(2016) “Rationales and treatment approaches underpinning the use of acupuncture and related techniques for plantar heel pain - a critical interpretive synthesis”. Acupuncture in Medicine. Published Online First:9/7/16. doi:10.1136/acupmed-2015-011042.
https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1136/acupmed-2015-011042

Richard's book
Advances in acupuncture for heel pain: towards integrative practice and research
https://www.amazon.co.uk/Advances-acupuncture-heel-pain-integrative/dp/B08PJK8WXN
Richard's Blog page that refers to multiple uses of KI3
https://podac.info/the-many-facets-of-taixi-ki3

Images
DO points https://podac.info/the-do-points
Patchwork model https://podac.info/elementor-768
Space-Time image (scroll down) https://podac.info/elementor-768

Further reading
Maura Flannery’s article giving the feminist perspective Flannery, M. C. (2001). Quilting: A Feminist Metaphor for Scientific Inquiry. Qualitative Inquiry, 7(5), 628–645. https://doi.org/10.1177/107780040100700507

Richard's article elaborating on Refractive Practice
Clark, RJ. Reflective and Refractive Practice: Lessons from Reviewing Acupuncture for Plantar Heel Pain.  Journal of Chinese Medicine 2022 130 17-28.
https://www.jcm.co.uk/reflective-and-refractive-practice-lessons-from-reviewing-acupuncture-for-plantar-heel-pain.html

Full text versions of the SR and CIS, plus a list of Richard's other publications are available on his ResearchGate page
https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Richard-Clark-5

In this episode we are delighted to be joined by Dr Lisa J. Taylor-Swanson to discuss our new ACUAWARE Study which asks; does acupuncture improve interoceptive awareness in people with chronic pain? We discuss what interoceptive awareness is and why its relevant to acupuncture.

Interested in taking part in the ACUAWARE Study?
If you are a US-based licensed acupuncturist, you may be eligible for taking part in this study! Please visit the Study Page for more information.

About Lisa
Lisa J. Taylor-Swanson, PhD, MAcOM, LAc is A Nursing Scientist and Licensed Acupuncturist at the University of Utah, a native of Salt Lake City, she completed her Honors BS in Psychology with a minor in Women’s Studies at University of Utah. She relocated to the Pacific Northwest and completed a Master’s degree in Acupuncture & Oriental Medicine (Seattle Institute of East Asian Medicine - SIEAM) and a PhD in Nursing Science (University of Washington).
Dr. Taylor-Swanson has provided acupuncture and Chinese herbal medicine in private practice for over 21 years with an emphasis on women’s health. Most recently, Dr. Taylor-Swanson transitioned from full-time private practice to a full-time, tenure-line academic position at Utah. Dr. Taylor-Swanson previously taught at University of Washington and served as Academic Dean at SIEAM. Dr. Taylor-Swanson leads national and international collaborations on the topic of interoceptive awareness, menopause, and pain with colleagues in the United Kingdom and Australia, and serves on the Board of Directors of Society of Acupuncture Research.

Ian Appleyard PhD is the Research & Policy Manager for the British Acupuncture Council. His PhD, Acupuncture and moxibustion for osteoarthritis of the knee: a component analysis approach, was completed in 2018. He has a particular interest in the methodological challenges of researching acupuncture and placebo.

Ian originally studied acupuncture at Westminster University. Further clinical training included studying with a private practitioner in Japan; clinical training in Shu Guan Hospital and the Meridian Research Institute in Shanghai; a year at the Jiangsu Provincial Hospital of TCM, Nanjing, the Meridian Research Institute in Shanghai; and a year at the Jiang-su Provincial Hospital of TCM, in Nanjing.  
He has worked as a private practitioner in Hove and Kendal. He was course director for Acupuncture at London South Bank University from 2008-2018.


Our Sponsor: Raised Spirit CBD

Discount Code:  ACU10


Key reference papers:
Acupuncture for chronic pain: update of an individual patient data meta-analysis

Other Links:
British Acupuncture Council
The ACU-Track Clinical Registry

For this episode we’ve turned the cameras on so we can look at the images from Vivien's research on the acupuncture channels. You can watch this episode on our Youtube Channel: https://youtu.be/gltCHzY4oRM


Our Sponsor
This episode is sponsored by AcuPrime. Listeners can use the discount code ACUTRACKN22 to get a discount on selected AcuPrime products: https://acuprime.com/

This podcast is supported by the British Acupuncture Council (BAcC)


About Vivien
Vivien is an acupuncturist and anatomist who lives and works in Anglesey. For 10 years, She has been researching the idea that the original acupuncture texts describe the physical human body rather than something more esoteric based on energy. 
The anatomist’s job is to look at the body, and then share that knowledge more widely. Vivien has used her unique combination of skills in both acupuncture and anatomy to first find out, and then show what the original acupuncture texts are describing. 
Her work demonstrates the strong scientific basis for acupuncture that was developed through dissection and anatomical examination by early Han dynasty anatomists over 2,000 years ago. Vivien is a member of the British Acupuncture Council (BAcC).
Vivien's Research Publications: https://research.bangor.ac.uk/portal/en/theses/the-anatomy-of-acupuncture(3f945934-2eba-41f7-9f09-e560580fa90c).html

We are delighted to be joined by Mel Hopper Koppelman from Evidence Based Acupuncture where we discuss the BIG question: how does acupuncture work!?

Strap in for this one folks as we take a deep dive into the role of purinergic signalling, ATP and mitochondria in acupuncture. We also put acupuncture's clinical research into the context; comparative effectiveness with other treatments and its safety profile compared to common drug side effects.

About Mel

Mel is passionate about improving people's access to safe and effective health care by communicating acupuncture's scientific evidence. She is the Executive Director of Evidence Based Acupuncture, an international non-profit organisation dedicated to improving public health through better information about acupuncture’s considerable evidence base. Mel completed her MSc in Acupuncture from the Northern College of Acupuncture in York, UK in 2012 and a second MSc in Nutrition and Functional Medicine from the University of Western States in Portland, Oregon, USA in 2015. She has published numerous articles about acupuncture research. Mel is a guest lecturer at a number of universities, including the Northern College of Acupuncture Masters programme in York, UK. She practices at her clinic, Harbor Integrative Health in Bristol, Rhode Island, USA, and is in the process of launching Synthesis Health Lab, an online group for acupuncturists who want to learn how to incorporate biochemical testing their practices. She lives with her wife, daughter, boisterous chocolate lab and cantankerous Bengal cat.

References from the show

Purinergic signalling
https://www.nature.com/articles/s41392-021-00553-z
https://bpspubs.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1038/sj.bjp.0706429
 
When you block purinergic signalling, you block acupuncture:
https://www.nature.com/articles/nn.2562
 
Acupuncture in clinical guidelines
https://www.liebertpub.com/doi/abs/10.1089/acm.2018.0092

 Increasing volume of acupuncture research
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7023857/
 
Dangers of Tylenol/paracetamol in pregnancy
https://www.nature.com/articles/%20s41574-021-00553-7
 
Increased risk of heart attacks associated with NSAIDs/Ibuprofen
https://www.bmj.com/content/357/bmj.j1909.long
 
Drug induced mitochondrial toxicity
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6628177/
https://academic.oup.com/toxsci/article/162/1/15/4798828
https://bmcbioinformatics.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/s12859-021-04285-3