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Acupuncture May Relieve Heartburn In Pregnancy
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Page: << Prev | 1 | 2 In addition, 15 women in the acupuncture group said that their eating habits improved by 50 percent, compared with fewer than one in three in the other group. Fourteen women receiving acupuncture said their sleep had improved by 50 percent, compared with just one in four women treated conventionally.
"Dyspepsia in pregnancy is a very common problem," Guerreiro da Silva said. "Medication is always a concern. Acupuncture can be effective. It is safe and simple to apply and every pregnant woman can be treated."
Not all experts agreed, however.
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Dr. Richard Frieder, an obstetrician-gynecologist at Santa Monica-UCLA Medical Center and clinical instructor of obstetrics and gynecology at the David Geffen School of Medicine, University of California, Los Angeles, doesn't think that acupuncture works any better than conventional treatment.
"This is an interesting idea but far from proves any benefit, as the control group did not have any type of placebo treatment, such as fake acupuncture to make the control and test group comparable," Frieder said.
Indigestion and heartburn are common in pregnancy and usually successfully treated with diet, sleep positioning and medication with no known harmful effects, Frieder noted.
"Acupuncture might be a nice alternative for women who are inclined to this option, but it is doubtfully more effective than standard treatment if the study had been done in an apples-to-apples comparison," he said.
Another expert thinks that acupuncture does relieve indigestion, but he won't perform it on pregnant women because of litigation concerns.
"It is a well-done study and it is expected that there would be positive results," said Dr. Marshall H. Sager, past president of the American Society of Medical Acupuncture and an acupuncturist in Bala Cynwyd, Pa.
However, he worries that he would be sued if something went wrong with the pregnancy. "I wouldn't touch a pregnant lady with acupuncture because of the malpractice situation. Not that it's not effective, but that's my problem with the medical/legal aspects of it," he said.
More information
For more information on acupuncture, visit the U.S. National Center for Complementary and Alternative Medicine.
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Copyright © 2009 ScoutNews, LLC. All rights reserved.
Last updated 6/9/2009
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SOURCES: Joao Bosco Guerreiro da Silva, M.D., Ph.D., Department of Internal Medicine, Rio Preto Medical College, Sao Jose do Rio Preto, Brazil; Richard Frieder, M.D., obstetrician-gynecologist, Santa Monica-UCLA Medical Center, and clinical instructor, obstetrics and gynecology, David Geffen School of Medicine, University of California, Los Angeles; Marshall H. Sager, D.O., past president, American Society of Medical Acupuncture, acupuncturist, Bala Cynwyd, Pa.; June 2009, Acupuncture in Medicine
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