Sitting in the Defense Department’s only acupuncture clinic with needles sticking in his ears and wires wrapped around his feet, Staff Sgt. Samuel Darwin admitted the acupuncture was his big idea.

Acupuncture is as effective and longer-lasting in managing the common debilitating side effects of hot flashes, night sweats, and excessive sweating (vasomotor symptoms) associated with breast cancer treatment and has no treatment side effects compared to conventional drug therapy, according to a first-of-its-kind study presented September 24, 2008, at the American Society for Therapeutic Radiology and Oncology's 50th Annual Meeting in Boston.

Join Dr. Paul Magarelli, medical director of CIRMF, for an enlightening talk on the subject of acupuncture as a method of enhancing the outcome of infertility treatment.

There is an interesting study out that says acupuncture treatment appears to be more effective than conventional therapy in treating lower back pain. And it may be more effective than conventional treatment even if the acupuncture is done incorrectly. That is the puzzling part.

Six months of acupuncture treatment appears to be more effective than conventional therapy in treating low back pain, according to a study in the Sept. 24 issue of Archives of Internal Medicine, one of the JAMA/Archives journals, although the study suggests that both sham acupuncture and traditional Chinese verum acupuncture appear to be effective in treating low back pain.