Category: Blog

Yin and Yang. Balance – in acupuncture and in life

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Most people will recognise the iconic yin yang circular symbol with an inverted ‘S’ separating each half. Black on one side (yin) with a small white circle (yang) and the reverse on the opposite side. It’s used a lot but it’s meaning is often misunderstood.

It could be defined as two halves of a whole. Nothing is completely Yin or completely Yang. Yin and Yang are interdependent so they never stand alone. They are opposing yet complementary. There is always some yang in yin (the white dot in the black) and vice versa. The nature of yin and yang constantly changes over time, and is influenced by many external factors. In relation to a person’s health, the acupuncturists job is to bring it back into balance.

But what is yin? And what is yang?

The word Yin is translated as the “shady side” and Yang “sunny side”. In TCM the yin element is cool, calm, slow, dark and feminine, the yang is warm, dynamic, moving and bright. As an example this concept is especially important for Chinese healing practices. So while it’s great to be warm, dynamic and moving, an excess of Yang can results in a fever and a deficiency would leave you shivering. And it’s wonderful if you’re feeling calm, cool and zen-like but an excess of Yin could mean suffering from water retention or a deficiency with night sweats. It’s all about balance.

When it comes to life, we can tend to think in absolutes: I’m always like this or never like that… But the balance of Yin and Yang can be skewed in relation to outside influences, so if the sun shines or you have a less stressful day at work, life can feel quite different. We are in constant flux and so is our health.

So while Yin and Yang aren’t the only factors in reaching a diagnosis, your acupuncturist is looking to achieve a level of homeostasis in relation to you as an individual. Neither too much nor too little yin or yang. So for example, maintain enough yang to keep you moving forward but not so much that you’re manic. And strengthen your yin so you’re calm but not so that you’re comatose!

Life offers many challenges and it can be hard to keep it all together. Acupuncture can help to keep you in balance. After a few treatments, clients often report feeling lighter and more grounded.

And we could all do with a bit of that.

All in your head… Coming down to earth with acupuncture

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I see a lot of clients who just can’t switch off their brains. It’s a modern malaise. Our lives are so full of ‘stuff’: work, relationships, children, friends, world peace… It’s hard to recognise that our feet haven’t touched the ground in a while.

It’s telling that mindfulness is becoming increasingly popular among city dwellers. We all need to stop and experience the moment. And you can’t do that if your mind is not connected to the rest of you.

For some, being in their heads all the time is an escape, others over-think everything or worry obsessively, or find they’re still stressing about work long after they’ve left the office. A busy mind can be pretty exhausting and it may also cause a series of other seemingly unrelated health issues, both physical and psychological. And it’s often these symptoms that bring them to see an acupuncturist.

Another reason to be in your head is when your body is in pain. It’s understandable that people living with chronic conditions shut down from the pain signals their body is experiencing. Clients have described their bodies as feeling numb, or not feeling connected to their bodies at all. When they are in extreme pain, their mind takes over and their bodies simply shut down. They feel stuck. This dissociation can be very damaging, bleeding through into other areas of their lives and into their personal relationships.

So how can Chinese medicine (TCM) help?
Clients can benefit from a range of therapeutic support. Acupuncture is renowned for its ability to reduce chronic pain, but it’s is also wonderful for clearing the head and relaxing the mind. Pain, according to TCM is the result of ‘stagnation’ in the body, and acupuncture is able to get things moving again. TuiNa massage works therapeutically to reduce tension in the muscles and joints and further support healing. A series of treatments allows the client space and time to heal, and a way to reconnect with themselves. Feet firmly on the ground.

 

Read Dan’s story here

Sciatica – a right pain in a**e!

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Sciatica can be a right (or left) pain in the a**e. For those of you who’ve lived with sciatica (as I have), you’ll appreciate just how much.

Sciatica is a common type of pain caused by compression or irritation of the sciatic nerve. Sufferers will usually experience sciatica on one side of the body, in the buttocks and often extending down the back or side of the leg, down to the feet. At it’s worst its a particularly disabling and chronic condition which can vary in intensity from manageable to excruciating.

*Common symptoms of sciatica include:

– Pain in the buttock or leg that is worse when sitting
– Burning or tingling down the leg
– Weakness, numbness, or difficulty moving the leg or foot
– A constant pain on one side of the buttock
– A shooting pain that makes it difficult to stand up

Chronic lower back pain or disc herniation is the most common cause but unfortunately patients will often just be offered pain medication by their doctors, which isn’t a sustainable option.

Acupuncture has a good track record in treating back pain, and along with Tuina medical massage can help to reduce pain and inflammation, and significantly lessen the need for medical intervention or pain killers. Patients will usually experience some immediate relief even after the first treatment with follow up treatments necessary to successfully manage the condition. However the more chronic the problem, the longer it takes to repair.

Many people live with chronic pain and only seek treatment when they’re in crisis. Don’t wait til you can’t get out of bed. Get help and start to feel better fast.

*source: webMD

 

Read Jacki’s story:

https://peachyacupuncture.com/2016/07/25/prolapsed-discs-sciatica-jackis-story/

Stress free – six weeks to calm

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I hold my hands up. I don’t manage stress very well at all. I changed career from being a pretty high level corporate film producer, a well paid job I had done and loved for over 20 years to being an acupuncturist in an area where there’s as many therapists as there are cafes.

Although I enjoyed my work, it would often mean working in a relentlessly pressurised environment. My sleep, appetite and anxiety levels were all affected and I would often wake up in the night thinking I’d forgotten a prop or not printed out enough scripts for the following day’s shoot. Hardly earth shattering events – but that’s what stress is all about – not coping with even minor problems.

So, we all live with stress, but not all of us manage it well. There’s a reason for this. When we are stressed it triggers a ‘fight or flight’ response. Fine if an elephant is charging towards us, but not if we’re worrying about whether our boss thinks we took 5 minutes longer at lunch. Stress releases physiological and hormonal responses that are often inappropriate for the actual event we are stressed about, leading to increased anxiety, disturbed sleep, fatigue and depression and other distressing symptoms.

No-one needs to live with that kind of stress, and yet many of us do, for extended periods of time.

Of course, there are many things that help with stress levels such as meditation, exercise, cbt, and yoga. But if you are gripped in a cycle of stress and anxiety, it can be really hard to motivate yourself so reaching for a couple of glasses of wine after work is often the way people self-medicate.

In my clinic, I treat people for stress virtually every day. I also run six, weekly auricular acupuncture groups of no more than six people specifically for stress relief, which is particularly useful in helping clients to manage their lives in a calmer way. The process takes around 40 minutes in all, with just five very fine needles placed in each ear while you sit and relax. No need to lie down or disrobe. It really couldn’t be easier and clients have been known to snore for the 30 mins the needles are left in! I measure how they have been feeling the previous week and throughout the six weeks in order to evaluate the results.

In my most recent group, there was over a 50% reduction in stress, anxiety and sleep issues, with significant changes in weeks 3 and 4 and these positive results maintained over the full 6 weeks. Clients felt they were coping better, responded less negatively to events that would normally stress them, and were generally happier. Plus they enjoyed coming once a week as it offered them some ‘me’ time where they could properly relax.

The protocol* I use is well documented, incredibly powerful and used all over the world in health clinics, at natural disaster sites and by the American military. It works for conditions such as addiction, stress and post traumatic stress disorder. So if you’re considering giving up smoking, drinking or drugs, this protocol will support you.

If you’re interested in signing up for six, weekly group sessions, then drop me a line. Cost is £90 for the full course of six sessions.

Begin the new year with a new perspective.

Ask when a new course is starting.

*NADA protocol

Read about Linda’s experience here:

What I’ve been treating this month….

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It’s been a busy month at my clinic in Crouch End with a run on frozen shoulders, a particularly chronic case of migraine and irritable bowel syndrome (IBS) among the conditions my clients have required treatment for.

But as is often the case, people rarely have one thing they are suffering from but perhaps a range of seemingly unrelated health issues, one of which is bothering them the most. Acupuncturists are trained to diagnose the whole person, and will often find that someone’s symptoms are a reflection of a more systemic problem (in terms of Chinese medicine). So the symptom is not directly treated but the patient still recovers.

It’s also the case that acupuncturists treating say a neck problem, may needle an acu point on the ankle and on the hand rather than the area where the pain is most acute. The patient still recovers.

Chinese medicine regards emotions with equal importance to physical symptoms and certain emotions are often found alongside specific conditions. For example, IBS is a problem of the spleen, and anxiety is the emotion connected with the spleen. I’ve yet to see a case of IBS without anxiety being present in some form. When you treat the spleen and it’s partner organ, the stomach, both symptoms, anxiety and IBS, improve.

So while most of my clients will leave my clinic feeling their main complaint has been addressed; they can move their shoulder at last or they haven’t had a migraine for two weeks, they’ll also find that they’re sleeping better, that niggly cough has gone, and they have more energy. Those are the positive side effects of treating the person, not just the symptoms.