Indigenous, integrative, and biomedical perimenopause and postmenopause healthcare for Indigenous midlife peoples residing in the United States and Canada: A scoping review.

Background: Little is known about the menopause-related healthcare of Indigenous people of the United States and Canada. This scoping review mapped the existing literature on Indigenous, integrative, and biomedical healthcare for U.S.

Menopause is a Whole-Person Developmental Transition: An Overview of Menopause Information and Acupuncture Therapy Approaches to Symptom Management.

This proceeding summarizes a symposium on multidisciplinary menopause management held on April 13, 2024, as part of the American Academy of Medical Acupuncture's 2024 conference. The workshop featured a presentation that integrated conventional medical perspectives and acupuncture therapy approaches to managing menopause symptoms. Topics included the stages of the menopausal transition, vasomotor symptoms, genitourinary syndrome of menopause, bone and cardiovascular health, and psychological well-being.

Enhancing interoceptive awareness in chronic pain and opioid misuse via mindfulness-oriented recovery enhancement.

Introduction: Individuals with substance use disorders often report altered interoceptive awareness of internal bodily signals. However, it is unclear whether these alterations also extend to patients with chronic pain who misuse opioids, and whether interventions that enhance interoceptive awareness, such as mindfulness-based therapies, may reduce opioid misuse in this population.

Methods: At baseline, participants (N = 372) with chronic pain on long-term opioid therapy completed the Multidimensional Assessment of Interoceptive Awareness (MAIA), Current Opioid Misuse Measure (COMM), and the Brief Pain Inventory.

Pressure pain threshold and perceived impact of pain differentially predict short-term and long-term pain reduction following acupuncture in fibromyalgia.

Objective: Acupuncture has demonstrated efficacy as a treatment for fibromyalgia; however, predictors of short- and long-term analgesic response in this population are not well understood.

Methods: This manuscript describes a secondary analysis of a single-center, blinded, sham-controlled, randomized longitudinal acupuncture clinical trial in fibromyalgia. Baseline characterization included pressure pain threshold and pain interference, while residualized change in pain intensity from baseline to follow-up served as the primary outcome measure.

Teaching Guatemalan Lay Midwives Acupressure: Outcomes and Lessons Learned.

Purpose: Lay midwives attend most births at home in Guatemala facing many challenges with limited resources. Current research demonstrates that acupressure can reduce preterm contractions and encourage post-term labor. Sharing acupressure techniques with lay midwives could improve birth outcomes in Guatemala.

Nurses navigating moral distress, resilience, and team dynamics: A literature review.

BackgroundThis manuscript explores the pervasive issue of moral distress among nurses and its impact on their well-being and professional satisfaction. Focusing on diverse factors contributing to moral distress, the review spans various experience levels and patient care settings.MethodUtilizing integrative reviews and sourcing from PubMed, CINAHL, SCOPUS, PsycINFO, and ProQuest, the study synthesizes findings from studies worldwide.

Volunteer Providers' Experience Referring Guatemalan Patients for Acupuncture Care in a Pilot, Integrated, Health Care Clinic.

Purpose: The aim of this qualitative study was to explore the experience of volunteer providers referring Guatemalan patients for acupuncture care during a 1-day, pilot, integrated, health care clinic.

Methods: In a partnership among the University of Utah College of Nursing and Refuge International, the integrated, health care clinic occurred at hospital in San Raymundo. Before the clinic, nursing faculty offered providers an overview of acupuncture care.

Developing a Menopausal Transition Health Promotion Intervention With Indigenous, Integrative, and Biomedical Health Education: A Community-Based Approach With Urban American Indian/Alaska Native Women.

Background: Few studies have examined the menopausal transition in American Indian and Alaska Native (AI/AN) women; these reports indicate they are the most likely group to report bothersome vasomotor symptoms (VMS). Evidence demonstrates VMS may be a biomarker for chronic diseases. Thus, evidence-based interventions to improve VMS and other symptoms and health-screening rates for urban midlife AI/AN women are needed.

Midlife Women's Menopausal Transition Symptom Experience and Access to Medical and Integrative Health Care: Informing the Development of MENOGAP.

Background: Individuals with a uterus experience menopause, the cessation of menses, on average at age 51 years in the United States. While menopause is a natural occurrence for most, over 85% of women experience multiple interfering symptoms. Menopausal women face health disparities, including a lack of access to high-quality healthcare and greater disparities are experienced by women who are black, indigenous, and people of color.

The Effect of Combining Spinal Manipulation and Dry Needling in Individuals With Nonspecific Low Back Pain.

Low back pain (LBP) is one of the most common and costly musculoskeletal conditions impacting health care in the United States. The development of multimodal strategies of treatment is imperative in order to curb the growing incidence and prevalence of LBP. Spinal manipulative therapy (SMT), dry needling (DN), and exercise are common nonpharmacological treatments for LBP.

Delivering Acupuncture Therapy in an Interdisciplinary Global Health Setting in Guatemala: Pilot Study and Lessons Learned.

Objective: Pain, stress, and diabetes mellitus (DM) are common complaints for Guatemalans seeking health care. Because acupuncture therapy (AT) is a low-cost, effective treatment for these concerns, it was offered to Guatemalans during a health care mission as an adjunct to primary care. The purpose of this study was to gather feedback about providing AT in this context and to describe the lessons that were learned.

"The History of Chinese Medicine Really Is Very Detailed Regarding Pandemics": A Qualitative Analysis of Evidence-Based Practice and the Use of Chinese Herbal Medicine by Licensed Acupuncturists During the COVID-19 Pandemic in the United States.

The objective of this qualitative study was to understand how licensed acupuncturists determined treatment strategies for patients with symptoms likely related to COVID-19 using Chinese herbal medicine (CHM) and the impact of the pandemic upon their clinical practice. A qualitative instrument was developed with questions aligned with when participants started treating patients with symptoms likely related to COVID-19 and the availability of information related to the use of CHM for COVID-19. Interviews took place between March 8 and May 28, 2021, and were transcribed verbatim by a professional transcription service.

Cross-Sectional Survey of Acupuncturists in the United States Who Prescribed Chinese Herbal Medicine for Patients with Symptoms Likely Related to COVID-19.

The objective of this study was to examine the prescribing of Chinese herbal medicine (CHM) by licensed acupuncturists in the United States during the COVID-19 pandemic. A 28-question survey with nine branching questions was disseminated through collegial networks, paid advertisements, and a study website in April-July 2021. Participants indicated that they were licensed acupuncturists who treated more than five patients for symptoms likely related to COVID-19 to gain entry to the full survey.

Women in Acupuncture Research: Interviews with Leaders of the Field.

When Tu Youyou was awarded the Nobel Prize for her discovery of artemisinin (qīnghāosù) extract to treat malaria, she became the first female scientist from the Peoples Republic of China to win the Nobel Prize, and her prize was the first awarded for a Traditional Chinese Medicine preparation. Inspired by Tu's accomplishment, this special issue in aims to highlight the great contributions of women in the development of acupuncture and Chinese herbal medicine evidence base. We sought to interview some of the key women in acupuncture research whose contributions have moved the science forward.

Acupuncture Therapy as an Evidence-Based Nonpharmacologic Strategy for Comprehensive Acute Pain Care: The Academic Consortium Pain Task Force White Paper Update.

Background: A crisis in pain management persists, as does the epidemic of opioid overdose deaths, addiction, and diversion. Pain medicine is meeting these challenges by returning to its origins: the Bonica model of multidisciplinary pain care. The 2018 Academic Consortium White Paper detailed the historical context and magnitude of the pain crisis and the evidence base for nonpharmacologic strategies.

SEAttle-based Research of Chinese Herbs for COVID-19 Study: A Whole Health Perspective on Chinese Herbal Medicine for Symptoms that may be Related to COVID-19.

Introduction: East Asian Medicine (EAM) is a Whole System medicine that includes Chinese herbal medicine (CHM). Chinese herbal medicine has been utilized to reduce symptom burden in infectious disease, with notable theoretical reformulations during pandemics of the 3rd, 13th, and 17th centuries. Today, Licensed Acupuncturists trained in CHM have utilized it to treat symptoms and sequelae of COVID-19.