Tag: acupuncture

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.

Giving up Smoking – Jenny and Norris’s stories

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Nicotine is highly addictive, both physically and psychologically, and acupuncture helps with the symptoms that make it so hard to stop. In particular reducing cravings and stress. Tiny needles are placed at specific points around the ear that help reduce cravings, support the detox process, keep your stress levels down, your immune system healthy and assist you in ‘letting go’. After the treatment which takes a relaxing half hour, small seeds or magnets are placed on certain points so the treatment is continued throughout the following week.

Hear from two clients who successfully gave up…..

I’ve been trying to quit smoking on and off for a few years. I’ve tried hypnotherapy, cold turkey, patches and vapours but each time the cravings got too much especially after a drink with friends who smoke.

Acupuncture has really made a big difference. I haven’t smoked since the first treatment, and this is because I haven’t had strong cravings. Hence not smoking has never been so easy.

I highly recommend it to anyone trying to give up. I’m now going regularly to Rita as I find its helping with other health issues such as hay fever.”

Jenny Rose, Crouch End

 

“I’ve have been a smoker since I was 13 and am now in my 50s.  I have lost count of the numerous failed attempts to quit.

I was persuaded to give acupuncture a try and contacted Rita. Within 3 treatments I felt absolutely no desire to smoke, I have more energy and people have commented on the changes within me. It’s been the most amazing transformation.”

Norris Cyrus, Finsbury Park

 

 

Giving up…. with acupuncture

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Many of us enjoy the odd harmless vice: chocolate hobnobs, a cheeky fag when you have a drink, or a couple too many pints when you’re out with your mates. Life would be terribly dull without them.

But as we know, vices can develop into long term addictions and you may eventually come to a point where you start thinking about giving them up. Lose some weight, stop smoking or drinking or detox from drugs… It’s a surprisingly hard decision to make as all these addictions serve an emotional as well as physical purpose in our lives. So giving up is challenging. But acupuncture really can help.

Auricular acupuncture (ear) is the gold standard for any kind of addiction. In 1972 a Hong Kong neurosurgeon discovered that auricular acupuncture could alleviate the symptoms of withdrawal experienced by addicts. This was further was developed by an American psychiatrist in 1974 working with addicts – needles were placed in five points around the ears whicmmh became known as the NADA protocol. By 1978, it had replaced methadone as the primary treatment for heroin addiction and is now recognised and used all over the world.

You may be thinking ‘what does heroin addiction have to do with me?’… Well, addiction is addiction, whether it’s to coffee or heroin, it still follows the same neurological and physical pathway. Of course detoxing from coffee will just give you a headache so it’s simply a matter of degree. But it’s thought that tobacco is as addictive as heroin which is why people have such difficulty giving up.

Over the past 40 years, targeted protocols for weight-loss, smoking and drinking have been developed with variations on the original five points. They help with the emotional impact of letting go, with stress, cravings, detoxification and in supporting the immune system.

Auricular acupuncture takes moments to apply while you relax, seated, for half an hour. A few treatments are needed to get through the 3 weeks it takes for nicotine to leave you’re body, but the effect is immediate.

Is it a miracle cure? Well like anything, success also depends on your mental preparedness. But I’ve treated many clients who say it’s been easier than any other method they’ve tried – painless even. No cravings and no stress so no problem. The needles are tiny and you barely feel them and people love the treatment too as it’s so relaxing.

So if you’re ready to give up, acupuncture will ease the ride.

Treatment focus: Acupuncture and Back Pain

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Most of us will know someone with back pain. It may have affected you personally, or someone you know – and I can tell you that it’s certainly affected me. Depressingly, if you haven’t experienced it yet, the chances are that you will at some point.

The condition affects more than 1.1 million people in the UK, with 95% of patients suffering from problems affecting the lower back. And it costs the NHS and care providers in the over £1b a year.*

There’s no surprise why that is – we spend too long lounging about in front of the telly, work in sedentary jobs and don’t exercise enough. Having said that, my dad had a slight dowagers hump, worked in an office, never exercised and loved watching telly – never had as much as a twinge…

Acupuncture is well known anecdotally as a treatment for back pain. But there’s also a great deal of evidence to support its efficacy. *Research has shown that acupuncture is significantly better than no treatment and at least as good as (if not better than) standard medical care for back pain (Witt 2006; Haake 2007; Cherkin 2009; Sherman 2009a). It appears to be particularly useful as an adjunct to conventional care, for patients with more severe symptoms and for those wishing to avoid analgesic drugs (Sherman 2009a, 2009b; Lewis 2010).

This encouraged NICE to recommend its use within the NHS. Your doctor can refer you for 8-10 acupuncture treatments as a first line treatment for persistent, non-specific low back pain. And that’s got to be a good thing.

It works in numerous ways: *providing pain relief, reducing inflammation, improving muscle stiffness and joint mobility, reducing the need for medication, complementing rehabilitation exercises and over the long-term, and is more cost effective than other treatments.

That’s the ‘science bit’, but it only tells part of the story, because studies will only have used specific acupuncture points in order to standardize their research. Traditional Chinese Medicine doesn’t really work in this way and your acupuncturist may feel that the reason for your back pain may be related to something else – and use other acupuncture points in their treatment.

It’s personalized, and that’s why individual experience will be based on the reason you have lower back pain. Which takes me back to my dad. There are people who are more prone to back pain, in the same way that others may be pre-disposed to stomach problems. What the acupuncturist offers is a genuinely holistic look at you. Not just your back.

  • Source: NICE
  • Source: BACC
  • Sources: Pomeranz 1987; Zhao2008
  • Kim 2008, Kavoussi 2007;Zijlstra 2003
  • Thomas 2006
  • Radcliffe 2006;Witt 2006
  • Ammendolia 2008; Yuan 2008

What can acupuncture do for me?

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Ever wondered what effect your lifestyle has on your health?

A survey of American acupuncturists discovered that 95% of practitioners treated the same kind of healthcare problems among their clients.* They were defined by what are known as ‘syndromes’: a series of symptoms that indicate certain pathologies. These became known as the American Syndrome. But actually this could apply to much of the developing world. It isn’t hard to guess what lifestyle issues were common to those seeking help. Stress, overwork, poor diet, worry, lack of exercise, chronic conditions. Familiar?

Along with lifestyle, Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) equally recognises the impact of negative emotions. Anger, worry, sadness, fear and grief have a profound effect on health and this is treated with the same importance as physical symptoms.

Often people live with a combination of ‘niggles’ – complaining of feeling tired all the time, or constipated, stressed out, frustrated with people around them, demotivated or just running on empty – not anything you think you could go to your doctor for – but enough to affect your quality of life. Sometimes these issues lead to more serious health problems such as insomnia, diabetes, migraines or chronic pain.

Acupuncture aims to treat the root cause of the problem and getting your body to start working more effectively again. It may take a few sessions, usually four or five, to see real change, but acupuncture is cumulative so each session builds on the previous one. Patients report improved sleep (even when that isn’t their complaint), better mood, more energy, less pain, lower dependence on medication – and those are just the collateral benefits. Acupuncture supports your entire well being – it’s a genuinely holistic healthcare system.

Don’t be put off by ‘the needle’. It’s the width of a strand of hair and most of the time you won’t feel it anyway. Often people fall asleep on the treatment couch and leave calmer and more energised.

Try it. You’ll never look back.

Source: The American Syndrome. E. Douglas Kihn, OMD, L.Ac