Acupuncture curbs back pain in pregnancy

Ear #acupuncture curbs back pain in pregnant women. A special acupuncture technique can help ease lower back and pelvic pain in pregnant women, new research shows. In a study, women who had pressure needles at three acupuncture points in their ears were more likely to experience significant reductions in lower back and pelvic pain than those women in control groups. Ear acupuncture might offer a drug-free way to help ease pain in these women (source: Reuters).

Acupuncture eases anxiety

Doctors sometimes joke that when children have surgery, their parents may need sedatives, too.

"Usually, high-anxiety parents have high-anxiety kids," said Dr Shuming Wang, an anesthesiologist at the Yale School of Medicine.

But in a study, Dr Wang and her colleagues report on another approach, acupuncture. Simple devices resembling thumbtacks attached to the ear significantly reduce parents' anxiety, they reported (from New York Times).