pregnancies, according to the CDC. Of note, the CDC also stated:

Women who obtained legal abortions in 1994, as in previ- ous years, were predominantly 24 years of age or older, white, and unmarried. Only 20 percent were 19 years old or younger. The majority of abortions (53 percent) were done during the

first eight weeks, and 88 percent occurred in the first 12 weeks. Approximately 1.3 percent of abortions were performed at or after 21 weeks. In 1991, the year for which data are most recently available, 1 1 women died of legally induced abortions. To read the full CDC report,

surf to the World Wide Web site (http://www.cdc.gov/epo/mmwr/ mmwr-ss. html).

NIH Panel Comes to Consensus on Accupuncture

consensus panel convened by A the National Institutes of Health (NIH) has recently con- cluded that there is clear evidence that needle acupuncture can be effective for postoperative and chemotherapy nausea and vomit- ing, nausea in pregnancy, postop- erative dental pain, as well as an adjunct therapy.

Other conditions that can be helped by acupuncture include addiction, stroke rehabilitation, headache, menstrual cramps, tennis elbow, fibromyalgia (general muscle pain), low back pain, carpal tunnel syndrome, and asthma, although less medical evidence exists about acupuncture’s effectiveness with these conditions, according to the NIH panel.

“We need more high quality research to validate what appears to be useful for the millions of Americans that have used acupunc- ture in this country. The challenge in studying acupuncture is to inte- grate the theory of Chinese medi- cine into the conventional Western biomedical research model and into the conventional health care arena,” said panel chairman David J. Ramsay, D.M., D. Phil., presi- dent of the University of Maryland, Baltimore.

Acupuncture is a family of pro- cedures, the most well known of which involves penetration of spe- cific anatomic locations on the skin, called acupuncture points, by thin, solid, generally metallic nee- dles. In the U.S., acupuncture is big business: according to the World

Health Organization, there are approximately 10,000 acupuncture specialists in the U.S. and an esti- mated 3,000 practicing acupunc- turists are physicians. In 1993, the Food and Drug Administration reported that Americans were spending $500 million per year and making approximately 9 to 12 million patient visits for acupunc- ture treatments.

TO enhance acupuncture accep- tance, the NIH panel called for more uniform licensing, certifica- tion, and accreditation of acupunc- turists. Thirty-four states license or otherwise regulate the practice of acupuncture by nonphysicians, and have established training standards for certification to practice acupuncture.

The panel also encouraged insurance companies, Federal and. state health insurance programs, including Medicare and Medicaid, and other third party payers to expand their coverage to include appropriate acupuncture treat- ments. Doing so, the panel stated, would help remove the financial barriers to access to these services. The full NIH Consensus Statement on Acupuncture is available by calling 1-888-NIH-CONSENSUS (1-888-644-2667) or by visiting the NIH Consensus Development Program Web site (http://consen- sus.nih.gov).

Compiled and edited by Carolyn Davis Cockey

Two Hospitals Offer Acupuncture wo Los Angeles-based T hospitals are now

offering the alternative therapies acupuncture and herbal medicine in a move that the health care com- munity says shows the growing trend toward embracing alternative therapies.

Cedars-Sinai Medical Center and the Daniel Freeman Marina Hospital have both begun offering alternative services, although both hospitals are quick to note that these new services are not designed to replace tradi- tional therapies. A 1993 New England Journal of Medicine study showed that one of three Americans have tried, or are using, alternative medi- cine therapies.

20 L i f e l i n e s December 1997