Rocky Point Acupuncture

Supplement could be key to pregnancy for older women

eraneven — Thu, 22 Sep 2011 23:26:36 +0000

Co-enzyme Q10 results in healthier eggs, delays onset of menopause during experiments on mice

Canadian scientists are working on a way to make older human eggs young again – and maybe even slow menopause – experiments that could make it easier for women in their 40s and perhaps beyond to have babies.

The answer may lie in a single vitamin.

Toronto fertility doctors say their experiments in mice show that co-enzyme Q10 makes older mice produce more and healthier eggs. The doctors are now preparing to test the supplement on women aged 35 and older undergoing fertility treatments.

The work comes as women are pushing back motherhood ever later in life.

Across Canada, pregnancies in women over 35 are increasing, and fertility clinics are seeing more women over 40.

“Our mean age for patients first coming to see us is now 37,” said Dr. Robert Casper, medical director of the Toronto Centre for Advanced Reproductive Technology.

Five years ago, it was 33.

Not only do older women find it more difficult to get pregnant, they run an elevated risk of miscarrying or of conceiving embryos with chromosomal abnormalities that cause conditions such as Down syndrome.

A woman is born with all the eggs she will ever have, and by the time she reaches her late 30s, the quality of those eggs begins an irreversible slide. They have less chance of leading to a normal live birth.

Eggs have 46 chromosomes to begin with, but they undergo a change when a woman ovulates. Each egg discards 23 of its own chromosomes and, if it’s fertilized, takes in 23 from the sperm cell to replace them. But this takes a lot of energy.

The energy in eggs, and essentially in all human cells, is produced by mitochondria, little power packs inside all our cells. But these weaken with age so that they don’t produce as much energy, resulting in a steady decline in tissue and organ function.

“Somebody who is 20 will have eggs with 20-year-old mitochondria in them, and somebody who’s 40 will have 40-year-old mitochondria that will produce less energy,” said Casper, professor in the division of reproductive sciences at the University of Toronto and a senior scientist at the Samuel Lunenfeld Research Institute at Toronto’s Mount Sinai Hospital.

If there isn’t enough energy to separate the chromosomes properly, some get left behind.

“They don’t get pulled out,” Casper explains.

Extra chromosomes can lead to aneuploidy, an abnormal number of chromosomes, the stringlike structures that carry our genetic material.

“That’s why Down syndrome increases with age – it’s all an energy issue,” Casper said.

“It’s not that there is anything wrong with the eggs, it’s just that the batteries have run down.”

Casper’s team has been studying mitochondria for years, trying to understand whether it’s possible to boost energy production in human eggs.

Together with Dr. Andrea Jurisicova, an associate professor in the department of obstetrics and gynecology at the University of Toronto, the researchers originally tried injecting young mitochondria into old mouse eggs, using a preparation made from cordblood stem cells, which are fetal cells, so that the old eggs would have young, healthy mitochondria.

The technique worked – it improved the quality of the eggs and the embryos. The problem was, the embryos had two different mitochondrial DNA – essentially, two different mothers. When Canada’s Assisted Human Reproduction Act outlawed mitochondrial gene replacement in 2004, Casper’s team abandoned that avenue of research.

Now they’re taking a different tack, using co-enzyme Q10.

Mitochondria need co-enzyme Q10 to make energy.

The vitamin is also a powerful anti-oxidant that may prevent mitochondrial DNA damage, Casper said. Co-enzyme Q10′s production by the body also decreases as we get older, starting around age 25.

“One of the theories about why we get old and die in the first place is that our cells just run out of energy – the mitochondria stop working properly and there’s just not enough energy for cellular function so organs start to fail,” Casper said. “A simple explanation could be that there’s not enough fuel from the co-Q10 around.”

In a pilot study using 52-week-old mice – mid-life for a mouse, and the equivalent of 40 to 50 for a human – Casper’s team gave half the group co-enzyme Q10, and the other half a placebo. Next they compared eggs retrieved from both groups of mice with eggs from 10-week-old mice.

“What we found was that just treating the mice with co-Q10 we got more eggs than when we gave them fertility drugs,” Casper said. The nuclear spindles that pull the chromosomes apart were more like those in young eggs. The litter size was bigger, and the eggs from the vitamin-treated mice had improved mitochondrial function.

Even more surprising, when the researchers examined the mouse ovaries, there were significantly more egg follicles in the old mice treated with the co-Q10 – suggesting, Casper said, “that we actually were able to delay the onset of the equivalent of menopause in the mice.”

The glitch is that the mice were pre-treated for 18 weeks – the equivalent of 10 years or so relative to a human lifespan.

“We might be able to delay menopause, but it might take a decade of pre-treatment,” Casper said. The more immediate application might be in improving an older woman’s fertility by improving her egg quality. When word got out about his early research on the Internet, women undergoing fertility treatments began taking co-enzyme Q10.

Casper is now trying to recruit women over 35 for a study testing whether taking 600 mg daily of the supplement can lead to a higher number of chromosomally normal eggs.

The rub is that, as soon as the researchers explain the mouse results, none of the women want to be randomized to the placebo group, “especially if they’re 40.”

The Toronto researchers need 50 women for their study; they’re up to 25 so far, after a year-and-a-half of trying.

If the mice experiments hold up in the clinical trials, the implications would be significant, Casper said. “Women could get pregnant easier when they’re older.”

It also could buoy calls for more single-embryo transfers. For years, fertility clinics have been putting three, four or more embryos back into women over 40 in the hope that at least one would implant and a baby would result.

“If we could improve the percentage of normal eggs, you wouldn’t have to put back so many embryos.”

The other hope is that, “if we can increase the energy for chromosome separation, then we could eliminate Down syndrome and other chromosomal abnormalities,” said Casper.

Organic teas are now available at the clinic

eraneven — Thu, 09 Jun 2011 20:08:42 +0000

Are you drinking tea daily? If not, you may be missing out on many health benefits.

The ancient Chinese have been drinking various green teas for millennia and were well aware of the health benefits far before the advents of modern science were able identify the compounds in tea that make it such an incredibly nutrient rich beverage.

The benefits of green tea include many healing and preventive processes that cater to diseases like cancer, heart disease, rheumatoid arthritis, infections, impaired immune functions, and cardiovascular diseases. The benefits of green tea also reduce high cholesterol rates in the body. By drinking recommended amounts of green tea, the human body is cleansed from toxins that are responsible for many health problems, which improves your health and your lifestyle as well. You will feel relaxed, full of energy, and even develop a good outlook in life once you drink a good cup of green tea.

Green tea is able to provide people with these benefits because it contains certain vitamins. It is particularly rich in EGCG or epigallocatechil gallate. EGCG is a powerful anti-oxidant that inhibits cancer cell growth and kills present cancer cells without harming the rest of the healthy tissues in the body. EGCG also helps to lower and balance cholesterol levels, and prevents the abnormal formation of blood clots in wounds. Blood clotting, also known as thrombosis, often leads to severe heart attacks and stroke. EGCG has become so reliable and popular in the medical community that it even produces better results than red wine, which contains a polyphenol called resveratrol that prevents heart diseases as well.

Over the last few decades, green tea has been subjected to many scientific and medical studies to determine the extent of its long-purported health benefits, with some evidence suggesting that regular green tea drinkers have lower chances of heart disease and developing certain types of cancer. Although green tea does not raise the metabolic rate enough to produce immediate weight loss, a green tea extract containing polyphenols and caffeine has been shown to induce thermogenesis and stimulate fat oxidation, boosting the metabolic rate 4% without increasing the heart rate.

Most teas that are imported from Asia are purchased from large factories favouring quantity over quality, and usually contain harmful pesticides and fungicides. At Rocky Point Acupuncture, we will only be carrying fair trade, organic teas purchased directly from the farmers, and will therefore be supporting the local economy and ecology. Our organic teas will be sold in bulk, allowing people to buy as much or as little as they would like. Beautifully packaged, high quality tea also makes a great gift.

If you or someone you may know would be interested in purchasing our organic and fair trade tea, please give Eran a call at the clinic, 778-355-9777.

Current selection:

Se Chung Oolong tea (certified organic, Fujian, China) $4.00/per 50g

Dark, fermented green tea with a spicy-chocolate fragrance.

Rooibos tea (certified organic, South Africa) $2.25/per 50g

African bush tea. Caffeine free and very high in anti-oxidants.

Midnight Jasmine (certified organic, China) $3.00/per 50g

Green tea with jasmine flowers.

This is just the beginning, and we will be stocking more options of tea in the future. If there is something specific you would like us to carry, please let us know and we will search our sources to find the highest quality available.

Art Therapy now available at the clinic

eraneven — Tue, 31 May 2011 00:10:31 +0000

Art Therapy is now available at Rocky Point Acupuncture. Meet with Stephanie Harper for a free consultation to discuss how Art Therapy can help you work through depression, anxiety, grief, pre- and post-partum issues, body image concerns, medical diagnoses, relationship problems and personal blocks. For more information click here.

Signs of Spring: Allergies

eraneven — Wed, 23 Mar 2011 21:33:58 +0000

The signs of Spring are here; longer daylight hours, new buds bursting from the earth, the smell of the BBQ. Along with these wonderful signs of the new season, come other signs for many; the familiar twitch of an itchy nose, red and itchy eyes, as well as sneezing and nasal congestion. Allergy season is here.

As Traditional Chinese medical health practitioners, we follow the classical principles of treating the person and not the disease. Allergies are not a separate entity within the body. Everything is connected. When you have a strong immune system, your body can fight off foreign invaders, such as viruses, bacteria, mold, dust, animal dander and pollen.
The Chinese equivalent of the immune system is the concept of Wei Qi. Wei Qi functions to protect and defend the body against foreign substances, which if not caught early, can lead to allergies. When Wei Qi is strong and abundant, we remain healthy. When the supply becomes inadequate, health is compromised and we become vulnerable to foreign invaders (bacteria, viruses, mold, dust, pollen, etc).
Acupuncture & Chinese herbal medicine are used to support and strengthen the systems of the body that are involved in the production of Wei Qi. By building up this supply and facilitating the smooth and free flow of it through the body, symptoms and signs related to allergies can be greatly reduced or even eliminated entirely. The goals of the treatment plan will be to eliminate visible symptoms and signs, and at the same time addressing the root causes and underlying imbalances affecting the quality and quantity of Wei Qi.

These treatments may involve Acupuncture, Herbal medicine, dietary changes, massage or specific exercises to accelerate the healing process in order to balance, build and support the body’s Wei Qi.

Acupuncture & Chinese medicine are a Drug-Free, Safe, Natural and Effective way to eliminate hay fever, allergies or the common cold.

Give us a call to set up your appointment, to nip your allergies in the bud.

What is Pre-Birth Acupuncture?

eraneven — Fri, 18 Mar 2011 22:06:50 +0000

by Rocky Point Acupuncture on Monday, March 14, 2011 at 8:41pm

Pre-birth acupuncture is recommended for woman from week 36 onwards and weekly thereafter. Weekly acupuncture promotes a healthy and natural birth, by boosting energy, softening the ligaments and tendons prior to labour and aiding in cervical dilation. It also promotes relaxation and nourishes the blood in the body (which helps you to sleep better, have more energy, and a greater sense of wellbeing). Midwives who have attended births where their patient had pre-birth acupuncture, noted that the length of labour was reduced, the need for medical interventions were reduced (less medical induction, epidural and caesarean births), and saw an increase in normal vaginal deliveries, which is optimal for the health of the baby and mother.

Research shows that pregnant women who receive pre-birth treatment are more likely to go into labour around their due dates, or if induction is required, they respond well to acupuncture induction and move efficiently into a natural labour. To see if pre-birth acupuncture is right for you, contact Rocky Point Acupuncture and book an appointment. 778-355-9777

Community Acupuncture starting soon

eraneven — Wed, 16 Mar 2011 06:14:11 +0000

Beginning in April, Rocky Point Acupuncture will be offering community Acupuncture sessions on Mondays from 11:00-3:00. Patients will be treated in rooms with either one or two others (community setting), and pay a sliding scale fee ($25-40) according to his/her current financial situation. For more info, give Eran a call at 778-355-9777