Acupunct Med. 2010 Dec 18.
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The definition of Recurrent Pregnancy Loss is three or more miscarriages prior to 20 weeks gestation. However even one miscarriage takes it emotional toll. Even though the statistical chances of carrying a baby to term are much more favorable than having another miscarriage it is probably better to take the necessary preventative health steps before trying to conceive again. In Chinese Medicine and Functional Medicine recurrent miscarriage shows that there is an underlying imbalance, either with the mother or father. This imbalance is a reason the pregnancy is not taking hold and should be corrected. Yes if your only goal is to have a baby then you can use IVF. But for the sake of the baby’s health and your health during pregnancy and postpartum it is wise to correct the underlying imbalance before getting pregnant.

The cause of miscarriage are multifaceted. Read the rest of this entry

A recent study showed that uterine lining health may be more important than egg quality in creating a healthy birth weight baby and carrying to term. (Click here for the Time article about this published research). This was a large study out of Baylor that reviewed over 300,000 IVF cycles with specific interest in birth weight and gestation. What they found was that IVF cycles that stimulated the uterus (which is the majority) had lower birth weight and less chance of carrying to term than ones that were unstimulated such as donor egg, surrogate or frozen transfer.

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Below is the abstract of a recent research article that stimulating a certain acupuncture point GB-34 known as “Yang Ling Quan” (translated loosely to Yang Mound Spring) helped improve gait in the elderly. It was a randomized control trial which is what makes it a bit more interesting. Stimulating one point on each person is not acupuncture as acupuncture is individualized based on a person’s pattern. However it does show that needles inserted into the subcutaneous tissue can have therapeutic physiological effects that have yet to be clearly understood (although there are many theories as to why acupuncture works so effectively for a wide variety of conditions).

Arch Phys Med Rehabil. 2011 Jan;92(1):7-14.

Stimulation of Acupoint ST-34 Acutely Improves Gait Performance in Geriatric Patients During Rehabilitation: A Randomized Controlled Trial.

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