Acupuncture...anyone had successful treatments?

[Rm61012180]

I am 78 with afib and torrential tricuspid...feeling tired a lot...waiting for surgery decision????Any tips to cope with shortness of breath would be wonderful...

Ty in advance

[10gingercats]

I also have torrential tricuspid problem. had it for a few years....since mid 70sNow in my mid 80s. I have been told that clips will not work(due to to wide a gap to close the flaps )and anyway the system is not yet good enough to work safely on the elderly.I do not have any symptoms from it although it has caused an enlarged heart . I also have Afib.So proceed with caution woulkd be my advice and get a second opinion if surgery is sugested for closure. Find out how many procedures your surgeon has done would be one of my questions .They may suggest doing a Tavi but bear in mind that if it fails while they are working on you they will go into open heart surgery.This is what i have been told at The JRadcliffe hospital in Oxford.

[10gingercats]

I take a small diuretic to deal with a smal amount of fluid around my heart and this seems to prevent breathlessness.See my main post below.

[Rm61012180 in reply to 10gingercats]

Send me link to your post...

[Rm61012180]

Can't find rest of your post?

[Buzby62 in reply to Rm61012180]

I believe   10gingercats was referring to the longer reply above the shorter one on this post 👆

Best wishes

[Rm61012180 in reply to Buzby62]

Still confused

[Buzby62 in reply to Rm61012180]

If you look at this post from top to bottom, you will see 6 replies, now 7 including this one and there are 2 from 10gingercats, the second one refers back to the first one as main post. It’s actually above not below.

Hope this helps.

[Rm61012180]

Oh well..not that important...

[Blearyeyed]

Personally I would say , until you know what your treatment is going to be and you have your aFib managed it isn't suitable to try Acupuncture, especially if you've not had experience of this treatment before and know it has not been a trigger of symptoms or side effects in the past.Acupuncture is a treatment that can cause very individual responses in people with all sorts of chronic illness , pain and cardiac issues.

What can be a miracle to one is murder to another.

Many people find Acupuncture us a trigger for aFib, especially if their physical symptoms are made worse by pain or have autonomic nervous system involvement.

It may not be very effective for breathlessness.

You could try something less invasive initially if you want to try and complementary therapy.

Breathing exercises and Meditation are easy to begin daily at home and are often the best start. If you can do it in fresh air , even near an open window in morning light it can help boost your oxygen level , energy levels and help relaxed breathing flow.

You could also test whether you don't have pressure pain points as a trigger by trying a shortened session of Acupressure ( 15 minutes initially) or light Indian Head Massage at first , familiarising yourself with the feeling and sensation and testing to see if it affects your blood pressure or heart rate before trying longer or more intensive treatments or acupuncture needles.

See if you can find a credited local therapist whom is recommended by a local heart support group, by Cardiology or your local hospital as experienced in using therapy for medical purposes and make sure you explain your medical history and symptoms fully to see if it is appropriate for you to begin.

[LaceyLady in reply to Blearyeyed]

I totally agree. From therapists perspective, any therapist should have caution with you. You have to have an experienced therapist who has experience in this area. A physiotherapist I know and practices acupuncture to a lesser degree than a fully qualified acupuncturist used some on me some years ago. I am very sensitive to it and it made me ‘spaced out’ and I had to sit in waiting room for about half an hour!

I have practiced sim acupressure on myself with good results.

As Blearlyeyed says there are other methods of trying to improve lung function, maybe steam, breathing exercise equipment etc.

[LaceyLady]

PS Make sure you are drinking plenty of water as dehydration will affect the lungs. They need to be moist.

[Redactrice]

I have had acupuncture for 30 years (with a few breaks in treatment, but pretty consistently) and I highly recommend it as a general "tune-up," not as a substitute for cardiology. I would expect it to be helpful for coping with symptoms while you wait for cardiology treatment.

The main thing is to choose your practitioner very carefully. I echo the posters above: avoid anyone whose main focus is physiotherapy or sports medicine, because these people may not be fully qualified and it could be dangerous to let them near your heart or lungs. Look for a member of the British Acupuncture Council with a degree in acupuncture. Ask questions: how long have they been qualified and what sort do they practise? If they are newly qualified or they don't understand the question "what sort do you practise" -- avoid! (Correct answers: TCM, meaning 'traditional Chinese medicine', or Five Elements. These are the two main schools of acupuncture. I have had both, and I don't think one is better than the other; it depends on the individual practitioner.)

Also, if there are several to choose from in your area, after you have identified their qualifications/experience, go with the one with whom you have the best rapport. I have seen a lot more of acupuncturists than I did of any other medical practitioner (and still do, with 6+ month waits for cardiology), and they have all got to know me much better.

Finally, it shouldn't actually hurt. If the practitioner is at all rough, or the needles feel like being stabbed, find someone else with gentler hands. My current one uses extra-fine Japanese needles and I sometimes don't feel them at all. Some points (where the needle goes in) are much more powerful than others, but overall it should not be painful.

My current acupuncturist is unusual. If there is a type I associate with holistic/alternative medicine, he's not it. He was a company director in some robust industry or other until he developed bowel cancer in his early 40s (he seems to have been a 'work hard, play hard' sort of chap). He told me that he was 'hung upside down like a hog' and had a section of bowel removed; his recovery took two years. Someone recommended acupuncture to assist his healing, and he went, and was so impressed with it that when he was able to return to work, he trained in acupuncture (degree level). That was 25 years ago. He is an outstanding practitioner.

Best of luck.

[Sweetmelody]

Yes, I’ve had successful acupuncture treatments. I’ve had amazing success with acupuncture before for pain and digestive issues. Now, after my 2nd ablation followed by a cardioversion, I have turned to a five-element acupuncturist for help. I’m seeing her once or twice a week during the blanking period. I’ve been in consistent sinus rhythm—and want to stay there. My hope is that acupuncture will help me with this as much as it’s helped me with other health issues before

There are studies indicating acupuncture has a beneficial effect on heart rhythm and blood flow in general, affecting many conditions. You can find studies online. One comes out the the University of Minnesota. Another is on the very reputable Wiley site, where you can read the abstract for free. There are also studies on PubMed.

Research into the effects of acupuncture on the heart is in its infancy in the Western world. Studies I've read usually end by saying something to the effect that “Acupuncture in our small study got good results but more study is needed in larger controlled trials.” I think it’s still hard for Western science to go out on a limb and endorse acupuncture as a valid and successful healing method.

The Neiguan Point in particular has been shown to be helpful in regulating the heart (which is known as The Queen in Chinese medicine because she serves all other body parts).

If you’re interested in exploring acupuncture, I’d encourage you to do so.

[Sweetmelody]

onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi...

“Efficacy of Acupuncture in Preventing Atrial Fibrillation”

[Sweetmelody]

This is from a PubMed research article.

“We observed that the antiarrhythmic efficacy of acupuncture was similar to that of amiodarone in patients with persistent AF and additive to traditional antiarrhythmic drugs in patients with symptomatic paroxysmal AF. Of interest were the findings that, in the former group, acupuncture matched the efficacy of the most active available antiarrhythmic drug[37] and that sham-acupuncture patients had an AF recurrence rate similar to that of patients with no antiarrhythmic therapy. We interpreted this result as indirect evidence of the fact that only specific spot puncturing rather than simple needling was the mechanism responsible for acupuncture efficacy, thus making it unlikely a placebo effect as frequently suspected in Western medicine.”

[Redactrice in reply to Sweetmelody]

Wow. I hadn't looked closely into evidence but this is really useful information. Thank you.

[Sweetmelody]

Informative article from The World of Catdiologt Journal published online by the NIH

Acupuncture for paroxysmal and persistent atrial fibrillation: An effective non-pharmacological tool?

Federico Lombardi, Sebastiano Belletti, Pier Maria Battezzati, and Alberto Lomuscio