Dr Maggie Ju Acupuncture London Chelsea, North Kensington, Notting Hill, and Richmond

What is anxiety? Anxiety is a feeling of unease, such as worry or fear. This feeling can be mild or severe. Everyone has feelings of anxiety at some point in their life, you may feel worried or anxious about something that is important such as job interview, exam etc. This is quite normal. However, for some people their feelings of anxiety are constant and hard to control their worries which can affect their daily lives. Excessive or persistent anxiety can have a detrimental effect on your physical and mental health. Generalised anxiety disorder (GAD): is a condition that makes one to feel anxious about a wide range of situations and issues, rather than one specific event. People with GAD feel anxious most days and have difficulty to relax. The symptoms include feeling restless or worried, or anxious, having trouble to concentrate or sleep, dizziness, tension on the chest, or heart palpitations. The exact cause of GAD isn't clear. Research suggested that overactivity in areas of th...

Can acupuncture help patients with stroke? Stroke is a serious condition which blood supply to the brain is cut off. It is the second most common cause of death worldwide, and the leading cause of adult disability. Patients with mild strokes or rapidly improving symptoms usually have a good prognosis, while patients with major strokes have a poor prognosis. Acupuncture help reduce brain damage and brain recovery. The mechanisms are as follows: Acupuncture has anti-inflammatory effects and increases cerebral blood flow which would protect the brain from ischaemic injury; acupuncture reduces cerebral odema after cerebral ischaemia and protect neuron damage; acupuncture also regulates biochemical changes involved in post stroke condition. Acupuncture acts on brain region which reduces sensitivity to pain and stress and promotes relaxation reducing anxieties. There have been many researches published recently to support the effectiveness of acupuncture on stroke recovery. In China, stroke...

Infertility is defined as failure to achieve pregnancy after 12 months of regular and unprotected sexual intercourse. Approximately 15% of couples worldwide are affected by infertility which is caused by various factors. In vitro fertilization (IVF) is one of the therapeutic options for couples with infertility, however IVF success rate is not 100%. Acupuncture can activate nerve fibers and peripheral afferent receptors, produce sensory interactions at various levels of the central nervous system, and release various transmitters and modulators, thus producing anti-inflammatory signals as well as neuroendocrine and neuroimmune signals. Acupuncture is one of the candidates that applied during IVF procedure to increase its success rates. The mechanisms of acupuncture related to application of IVF is 1, modulating neuroendocrine factors. Acupuncture improves female infertility through modulation of the hypothalamic–pituitary– ovarian (HPO) axis, estrogen regulation, and increased ß-endorp...

The sciatic nerve is the longest nerve in the body and begins from nerve roots in the lumbar spinal cord in the low back and runs through the buttock area down to the lower limb ending at the feet. Sciatic pain is caused by irritation of the sciatic nerve. Anything that irritates this nerve can cause pain, ranging from mild to severe. It is one of the causes for low back pain. Sciatic pain or Sciatica is an extremely common pain condition and is estimated to affect around 5 percent of men and 4 percent of women in their lifetimes. The main symptom is a shooting pain anywhere along the sciatic nerve; from the lower back, through the buttock, and down the back of either leg. The pain may be stabbing, burning or shooting. It can be also accompanied with tingling like pins and needles, or numbness, and muscle weakness. The most typical symptom is unilateral leg pain radiating to the foot or toes that is greater than low back pain. It may involve increased pain on straight leg raising and n...

Acupuncture is effective for unexplained infertility What is infertility? Infertility is defined as inability to conceive after 1 year of regular unprotected intercourse. It is 6 months with women older than 35 years. If you were told that you had unexplained infertility, what does that mean? If you have difficulty to conceive for some time, you would be put on some tests to evaluate the underlying causes for the infertility. There is some standard infertility evaluation. It includes a semen analysis, assessment of ovulation, and a hysterosalpingogram (to detect uterine and fallopian tube pathology); ovarian reserve and laparoscopy are further tests that could be done to examine function of reproductive system. When these results are normal, you would be diagnosed unexplained infertility which means that there are no underlying causes for your infertility found. Are there many people suffer from this condition? Yes. 1 in 6 couples are seeking specialist help in trying for a baby. There...

Bladder is located in the lower abdomen and it is for storing urine. As the urine goes into the bladder, bladder muscles relax so that it can expand. As the bladder empties during urination, the muscles contract to squeeze the urine out through the urethra. Some condition can cause bladder pain. It is very painful as urinate. The most common condition causing urination pain is interstitial cystitis. Interstitial cystitis (IC) is a chronic condition in which the bladder becomes inflamed and irritated. The inflammation stiffens the bladder wall, and makes it difficult for the bladder to fully expand when filling with urine. Patients with IC have painful urination and have to urinate more frequently and have a feeling of urgency to urinate, though there is no much urine each time. The main symptom of IC is pain which is generally located in the lower back, abdomen or groin region. Bladder pain is often recurring. Acupuncture is effective for interstitial cystitis/bladder pain syndrome In...

Acupuncture is a valuable treatment for chronic knee pain Thanks to the knee joint, we can move around freely and go wherever we want without any difficulties. Knee is the largest joint in the body which can bend and straighten bringing us about. It bears most of the body weight and pressure loads. It supports 1.5 times the body weight when one walks and 3-4 times the body weight when one climbs stairs. Knee is vulnerable which can be injured and can suffer from some diseases causing pain, swelling, stiffness, redness, locking, weakness or instability etc. The symptoms may vary depending on the type of injury. Pain may occur when you bend or straighten the knee. There could be swelling; difficulty bearing weight on the knee and trouble with knee motion. Some of the most common reasons for knee pain are sprained ligaments, meniscus (cartilage) tears, tendonitis. Other conditions that cause knee pain include as follows: Knee injury: a knee injury can affect any of the ligaments, tendons,...

Effectiveness of acupuncture for Chronic prostatitis/chronic pelvic pain syndrome (CP/CPPS) The prostate is a small gland in men located at between the penis and bladder. The prostate can be inflamed called prostatitis which can be very painful and distressing. Prostatitis can develop in men of all ages. However, it commonly affects men aged between 30 and 50. It can be acute or chronic and it also can be caused by infection and non-infection. Chronic nonbacterial prostatitis is most common. About 90% men with chronic prostatitis have chronic prostatitis/chronic pelvic pain syndrome (CPPS). Chronic prostatitis/chronic pelvic pain syndrome (CP/CPPS) affects approximately 90% to 95% of men worldwide. The most prominent symptom is chronic pain in the region of the pelvis. Pain can be in the perineum, testicles, tip of penis, pubic or bladder area and may spread out to the back and rectum; and it is often associated to accompanied with bladder pain, urination pain, frequent urination and u...

Emotion and the brain The limbic system is a complex set of brain structures just beneath the medial temporal lobe of the cerebrum. It includes the hypothalamus, the hippocampus, the amygdala, and several other nearby areas. This part of the brain supports emotion, behaviour, motivation and memory. Amygdalal is the key emotion center. There are 6 basic emotinos including happiness, anger, sadness, fear, surprise, and disgust. Positron Emission Tomography (PET) scanning and functional MRI studies have shown that some emotions are more likely to be associated with different regions of limbic system activity than other emotions. Happiness is related to the right frontal cortex, the precuneus, the left amygdala, and the left insula. Fear is linked to the bilateral amygdala, the hypothalamus and areas of the left frontal cortex. Sadness is associated with increased activity of the right occipital lobe, the left insula, the left thalamus the amygdala and the hippocampus which is strongly lin...

Neck pain is very common. About 2 in 3 people had neck pain at some point in their life. A survey in the UK has shown that 1 in 4 women and 1 in 5 men between ages 45 and 75 had current neck pain. The cervical spine and the muscles and ligaments are at the back of the neck. The cervical spine is made up of seven vertebraes between which is a disc. Spinal cord is within the spine and protected by the spine. Nerves come out from the cervical spine and innervated the neck and arms. Non specific neck is the most common type of neck pain. The exact cause is unknown. It may caused by minor strains to the muscles and ligaments in the neck. Poor posture is often related to the neck pain. The nuchal ligament and neck pain The nuchal ligament is a ligament at the midline of the neck which extends from the bottom of the skull to the spinous process of the seventh cervical vertibrae which is the lowest cervical vertebrae on the neck. It forms a septum between the muscles on the either side...