From pediatrics to geriatrics, traditional Chinese medicine treats it all. Interestingly, though, the youngest people to benefit may be those who have yet to be born.

With one in six Canadian couples unable to conceive within a year, it's
not surprising that interest in acupuncture and the other tenets of traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) to support fertility is growing.

"Nourishing the soil before you plant the seed" is the basic concept behind the programs offered at Acubalance Wellness Centre, where founder Lorne Brown and six other TCM practitioners seek to enhance not just a couple's fertility, but also their overall health, vitality, quality of life and, for women, a regular PMS-free cycle.

"We focus on diet and lifestyle, herbs and acupuncture," explains Brown. Food as medicine is particularly important and is the subject of Brown's new book, The Fertility Diet, available through www.acubalance.ca.

Good quality sleep, moderate exercise and deep relaxation as a form of self-nurturing are also part of this equation. The intention is to prepare healthier bodies of the parents, and by extension, healthier sperm and eggs. "Western medicine calls this epigenetics," says Brown. "In TCM, we call it prevention."

Whatever you call it, it's catching on, as it did with Sabrina Johnson of Vancouver, BC. The mid-thirties career woman's first pregnancy ended in a miscarriage and she and her husband had difficulty getting pregnant a second time. So, when someone at the fertility clinic she attended suggested that they use TCM, she thought, why not?

Last summer, the couple embarked on a cleansing program and an organic
diet, and received acupuncture about once a week for two months. Already a healthy eater and yoga enthusiast, Sabrina recalls kicking that aspect of her life up a notch. She chose a protocol that included acupuncture at specific points along her invitro fertilization (IVF), including prior to and after the transfer of the embryo, which happened mid-August.

A 2002 study in the journal Fertility and Sterility first revealed acupuncture as a useful tool for improving pregnancy rates with assisted reproductive therapies like IVF. A 2006 study published in the same journal looked at IVF and intracytoplasmic sperm injection. Researchers again found that acupuncture on the day of embryo transfer had a positive effect on reproductive outcome.

For Sabrina, the result was success. During the first trimester of her pregnancy, she continued TCM care to support the body during this most fragile time, and continues to see Brown, one of her practitioners, for check-ins.

Part of her enjoyment of this experience, she relates, is the chance to just lie back and relax during the acupuncture treatment. "When you go through something stressful," she says, "you have to reconnect with yourself. Yoga and meditation also do this."

Sabrina's baby is due in May and, now that the first trimester hurdle has passed, she and her husband are "cautiously excited, taking it a week at a time. Obviously, we wanted this. We're happy."

Like Sabrina, other women are able to take advantage of a new pilot project between Acubalance Wellness and the Genesis Fertility Centre. Although Acubalance works with all fertility clinics, practitioners are on-site at Genesis to provide TCM support until June 2009 and perhaps longer, if the feedback stays positive.

Prior to this experience, Sabrina had not tried acupuncture or TCM, but she says she would do it again and wouldn't hesitate to recommend it. Nor would The Care Centre's Wenrong Chen, a registered TCM practitioner who works with infertility, prenatal care and pediatrics. "Infertility from a TCM point of view is taken as an imbalance in the body. In order to treat infertility first you must get the body back to a state of homeostasis," he says, echoing Brown's support for a holistic approach. Chen began focusing on childhood wellness in Chinese hospitals before he came to Canada five years ago, and also at the request of new mothers who'd experienced the benefits of TCM during pregnancy and wanted to extend that to their newborns.

Common health troubles for kids such as digestive issues, diarrhea, lack of appetite, autism, immune deficiencies, respiratory issues, ADHD and epilepsy can benefit from TCM, in Chen's experience. With recent recalls and warnings about children's cough and cold medications and chest rubs, he's passionate about educating parents and other practitioners about using TCM as a safer alternative. He offers courses in the Lower Mainland on pediatric Chinese massage, or tui na.

"It influences a child's energetic flow in the same way as acupuncture, but uses a gentle touch instead of needles to activate the various body points," he explains. Not only does massage allow for wonderful bonding time, but its practical techniques are designed to energize and balance the internal organs, strengthen the immune system and promote development.

"Health problems in adults are often rooted in childhood," he says. "From the vision of prevention, you should start at an early age."1 For more information, visit www.thecare.ca.

[Vancouver writer Michelle Hancock can be reached through enews@hans.org.]

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