Dr Maggie Ju Acupuncture London Chelsea, Kensington and Richmond

There was a randomized controlled clinical trial for acupuncture stimulation of Neiguan (PC6) for preventing postoperative nausea and vomiting. There were 60 patients who were undergoing craniotomy. They were allocated into two groups: acupuncture group and control group. 30 pateints were in each group. Then regaining consciousness from the surgical anesthesia, patients in acupuncture group received acupuncture immediately and the acupuncture points used were bilateral PC6. The needles were manipulated about 1 min and repeated 10 min after insertion. The needles were left in the place for about 20 min after second manipulation. Patients in control group received no treatment.  Result showed that in acupuncture group one patient had a vomiting from 0-2 hours after acupuncture treatment; one patienthad a vomiting from 2-6 hours after the treatment; and no patients had vomiting 6 hours after the treatment. In contrast, in control group, 11 patients had vomiting from 0-2 hours; 8 patients

Acupuncture is used to various conditions such as fertility, low back pain and other pain conditions, facial treatment etc, however how acupuncture works is still not completely clear. Recent research has suggested many theories to support the application of acupuncture. Acupuncture is suggested to increase oxygen concentration and blood flow in the brain. For example, a study has shown that small increases in oxygen saturation and a significant increase in mean blood flow velocity during acupuncture measured simultaneously at different depths within the right middle cerebral artery. Acupuncture is also suggested to increase oxygen concentration and blood flow in the muscles. For example, acupuncture at trapezius muscle increased in oxygen concentration and blood volume in the muscle. These studies provided a preliminary research data and pointed a direction for future wider studies to provide a mechanism of acupuncture application for many conditions. References Litscher G et al (1980

 

Winter brings with its darker mornings and evenings, and some may feel they hardly see the sunlight at all---going to work in the dark and coming back home in the dark. Many people find themselves feeling sad, blue and even depressed around the winter. The medical name for winter depression is seasonal affective disorder (SAD). It’s fairly common, and it’s more mild than serious. You wake up before the sun even rises, you might start feeling a persistent low mood or lack of energy. The cause of SAD is not fully understood, shorter days seem to be a main trigger for it. Reduced sunlight in winter can disrupt your body’s internal clock, or circadian rhythm. This 24-hour clock responds to cues in your surroundings, especially light and darkness. At night, the brain produces melatonin, helping you sleep. Light stops the brain producing melatonin to help keep you awake. Shortened daylight in winter may increase the production of melatonin and affect the body’s internal clock or circadian rh

Everyone has mood changes in some degree, however too much mood changes could be caused by ill health and further affects one’s health. Mood expressions include positive scales like "activity, joy, contemplation, calmness" and negative scales like "anger, irritation, depression, fatigue”. Patients with chronic disease supposed to have dominant negative mood scales. Do you know acupuncture can help you improve mood changes. A research has shown that there was an immediate, fast suppression of unusual slow high amplitude EEG waves in response to acupuncture needle rotation. Also there was a significant improvement on positive mood scales and a decline in negative mood scales after 10 acupuncture sessions. Patients with chronic pain reported a significant decrease of pain intensity after 10 sessions. Acupuncture is cost-effective compared with counselling or usual care alone in treating depression There is emerging evidence that acupuncture is effective for treating patient

Acupuncture began in China about 2500 years ago and it is a part of Traditional Chinese Medicine, which is based on theory of meridians (channels). Chinese Medicine believes that energy (called qi) flows around human body freely through meridians without being interrupted. If the channel is blocked resulting that qi cannot pass through the channel, this may cause illness. The acupuncture needles are inserted into certain points of your body along with the channels to unblock the channels. The effectiveness of acupuncture to treat disorders is still a long standing question in research field. There are many conflicting research results on treatments of different kinds of conditions. Sometimes it is difficult to draw firm conclusions, because of the way that the research was conducted. Researchers are trying hard to perform well designed research using control group and sham acupuncture. For some conditions, the effectiveness with acupuncture treatment is agreed, such as back pain by the

  Acupuncture for pelvic pain release is recommended by Medical Doctors in the US

What is fascia? Fascia is a band or sheet of connective tissue consisting of collagen lying under the skin that attaches, stabilizes, encloses, and separates muscles and other internal organs. Fascia is classified by layer, as superficial fascia, deep fascia, and visceral or parietal fascia, or by its function and anatomical location. A recent study by Helen Langevin a researcher at the University of Vermont has suggested that people with chronic and recurrent low back pain had 25 percent greater fascial thickness than a low back pain-free group. She concluded that increased thickness and disorganization of connective tissue layers may be an important and so-far neglected factor in human LBP pathophysiology. Another study in Skeletal Radiology, 2005,2 found that pathological Achilles tendons showed increased thickness and 89 percent were painful. Antonio Stecco, MD, recently completed an unpublished study3 using ultrasonography on chronic (longer than 3 months' duration) neck pain

The nervous system is involved in all body functions. There are three types of nerves: autonomic nerves, motor nerves and sensory nerves. Autonomic nerves are involved in internal organs activities such as heart rate, blood pressure, breathing, digestion and reproduction etc; motors nerves control the skeletal muscles and involved in the body motion; sensory nerves transmit signals to the brain and let feel pain and other sensations. These nerves can be damaged by many conditions, such as virus infections, tumors, and autoimmune disorders. The symptoms of nerve damage vary greatly depending on the location and type of the nerves affected. Nerve pain is a common symptom of sensory nerve damage. Other symptoms involved in sensory nerves are sensitivity, numbness, tingling, burning and problems with positional awareness. The location of pain depends on which sensory nerves are involved. Acupuncture can help to improve nerve pain. For example, there were many researches showing that acupun

 

Thigh pain is a very common complaint. It presents constant achy throbbing pain sometimes cramping in the thighs or it could be on and off, but the pain does not go away. It could be one thigh or both thighs. This pain could radiate down to the knees, legs and feet or up to the hips. The pain can be felt when sitting and lying down. It could cause trouble walking long distance. The pain on the outside of your hip, upper thigh, outer buttock or outside of knee is usually caused by problems with muscles, ligaments, tendons and other soft tissues that surround your hip joint. Pain killers don’t work well with this kind of pain. Acupuncture is very effective to release the pain and help to restore daily activity. Meralgia paresthetica (MP) or lateral femoral cutaneous neuropath is a condition that also causes thigh pain and numbness. It is caused by injury or entrapment to the nerve that innervates to the thigh called the lateral femoral cutaneous nerve. This causes numbness or pain in

Referred pain makes acupuncture points sensitized and tender. Referred pain is the pain felt in somewhere in the body other than in the site of origin. Pain referral has a neural basis. Specific pathways and neural connections in the brain are thought to lead to the possibility of pain referral. One group of nerve fibres conduct information about touch and another group conduct information about tissue damage or noxious stimulation via different sensory nerves. Many sensory fibres from different parts of the different area can terminate on the same set of second order neurons. The second order neurones are part of the pathway that sends sensory information to higher centres for perception. However, since there is so much convergence of sensory information from different body parts onto the same second order neurones, these second order neurones may provide ambiguous information as to the exact location of the noxious stimulus. This neural mechanism is thought to be one way whereby the

The frontal lobe is located at the front of the brain just underneath frontal bone. It controls important cognitive skills, such as emotional expression, personality, problem solving, memory, language, communication skill, judgment, and sexual behaviors. It makes up about one third of the brain and is the largest lobe of the brain. It also controls muscles movement and speech. The frontal lobe enables us to respond to any changes accordingly. Acute stress can impair the function of the frontal lobe that required complex and flexible thinking by increasing both dopamine and noradrenaline release. Chronic stress induces the structural changes. chronic stress weakens the structures that provide negative feedback on the stress response and strengthens the structures that promote the stress response. Stress and anxiety are related to this part of the brain that is not functioning well. The stress and anxiety of frontal lobe is reflexed at the forehead tension. Acupuncture releases the str

Acne is a common cause of spots that occurs on the face. Acne is not life threatening condition, but it does have many impacts on the people psychologically and physiologically. There are 10 reasons that you should try acupuncture to get rid of acne. No1, Acne is chronic condition that can last for years without responding to any treatments. No2, Acne spoilt your look especially those more inflamed spots such as cysts, nodules. No3, Acne damage your confidence in social life. No4, Acne spots do not occur on the surface of the skin. The blockage in the pore is in the hair follicles which are deep beneath the skin surface. They are not dirt which cannot be washed away. No5, Inflamed acne spots can irritate the skin and cause pain on the face. Acupuncture reduce pain and skin irritation. No6 Inflammation plays a key role in acne lesion formation. Acne lesions develop in the oil gland follicles. Increased oil production and accumulation combined abnormal inner lining cells growth cause the

Persistent coughs caused by mild chest infections were not benefit from antibiotic treatment. There was a study led by Prof Paul Little from the University of Southampton about antibiotic treatment for patients with persistent cough lasting more than 28 days. This study including about 2000 patients across European countries showed that the severity and duration of symptoms in these patients treated with antibiotics were no different to those given a sugar placebo. Unless pneumonia is suspected, using antibiotic to treat some respiratory infections is not helpful and could cause harm such as developing resistance and other side effects including diarrhoea, rash and vomiting. Most of mild chest infections are mainly caused by viruses which are not responding to antibiotic treatment. These infections will settle by themselves. This is because body defence system will fight against virus infection and eventually get rid of those viruses. Do you know acupuncture can help chronic cough cond

 

Pain and burning in the affected area, decreased strength and flexibility, and pain caused by everyday activities are very common. This is often caused by tendinopathy-tendon injury. Tendon is a tough band of fibrous connective tissue that usually connects muscle to bone. It is responsible to transmit muscle force to the bone. A healthy tendon is up to twice as strong as the muscle, making the body of the tendon unlikely to tear before the muscle unless the tendon has already been weakened by degenerative changes. The effects of ageing, wear and tear, genetic pre-disposition and inflammation are known factors contributing to tendon injuries. Injured tendon can cause pain, loss of limb function and prevent exercise and activities of daily living. Injured tendons heal by fibrotic repair and are highly prone to re-injury. Tendons consist of collagens, proteoglycans, glycoproteins, water and cells. It takes over 100 days to make new collagen. The healing time for injured tendon varies.

We all know that sun exposure can damage the skin. Do you know wind and chill can damage the skin too? The body gives off a layer of heat that protects the skin from cold temperatures. A strong wind can blow this layer away from the skin, taking away this natural defence to the cold. As the wind increases, the body is cooled at a faster rate causing the skin temperature to drop. Exposure to wind and chill can cause windburn and frostbite. Being exposed to below zero wind chills can induce frostbite within five minutes. While wind chills below minus 20 degrees can result in frostbite within a minute of exposure. The affected skin and tissue go numb. It’s most likely to strike the fingers or toes, ears, cheeks, chin, or nose. The exposure can lead to severe damage. Other conditions related to wind and chill. Chilblains is a condition in which the small blood vessels in the skin is inflamed after being exposed to cold. These clusters of small blood vessels get red, itchy, and swell or

Having shin pain? Acupuncture can help Shin pain or shin splints is pain on the front of the lower leg between the knee and the ankle. It can hurt directly over the shinbone all the way or over the muscles that are on the inner or outer side of the tibia. It can be a dull aching, or sharp and severe pain. It could be one or both shin with large area across whole length of the shin bone. This pain is usually caused by overuse from irritation of the muscles or other tissues in the lower leg. They are common in runners, tennis and basketball players. The cause is not clear, but it is suggested that running and repetitive weight baring on the legs leads to inflammation of the tissue around the shin bone. Acupuncture can help release shin pain by reducing inflammation of the area. The ankle is a large joint made up with three bones: two are from the leg tibia known as shin bone and fibula –the bone next to the shin bone; one foot bone talus sitting above the heel bone. Ankle joint moves th

Chronic pain is often defined as any pain lasting more than 12 weeks. Chronic pain persists—often for months or even longer. Pain is a very personal and subjective experience. There is no test that can measure and locate pain with precision. Chronic pain can occur anywhere in the body from the head to the toes, such as headaches, neck pain, back pain, thigh pain, leg pain and foot pain, facial pain, chest pain, abdominal pain, pelvic pain and genital pain etc. Chronic pain may occur in a variety of locations in the body and for many different reasons. With chronic pain, the goal of treatment is to reduce pain and improve function. No1 chronic pain compromise the quality of life so much. No2 It makes you tense. Chronic pain indicates there is chronic inflammation and it irritates the nerve and creates muscle tension. No3 It can make you have fatigue. All the inflammation from the chronic pain makes you feel tired all the time. No4 It can disturb your sleep. Chronic pain always irritates

If you are very stressed and cannot get rid of it, there are 10 reasons why you should try acupuncture to relieve your stress. No1 Stress impairs the brain. The prefrontal cortex (PFC) regulates our thoughts, actions and emotions through extensive connections with other brain regions. Research has shown that Acute stress impairs PFC function, while chronic stress leads to more extensive functional and structural alteration of PFC. No2, Stress makes you anxious. Stress is the body's reaction to any change that requires an adjustment or response. The body reacts to these changes with physical, mental, and emotional responses. Anxiety is a feeling of fear, worry, or unease. It can be a reaction to stress. Stress can make existing anxiety worse that makes you more anxious, irritable, agitated and unable to relax. Stress also makes you unable to concentrate and forget things. No3, Stress spoils your look. Stress creates tension on the face to make the expression muscles contract, as a r

About 1 in 6 couples have difficulty conceiving and seek specialist fertility treatment. There are various treatments available depending on the causes of the infertility. In vitro fertilisation (IVF) is one of the most successful treatments for couples with infertility, however it is still not 100% success. Some treatments that can increase the success rate of IVF would be preferable to support IVF. Acupuncture is one of the candidates. Here is a list of 10 reasons why you should have acupuncture as an adjunct treatment of your IVF. No1 There are no side effects of acupuncture treatment. It does not cause any harm and does not interact with any medications for whatever protocols you have for IVF. No2 IVF is a very stressful procedure. It makes women anxious about it. Stress and anxiety could affect IVF success. Acupuncture that is proved by research can reduce stress and anxiety score during IVF treatment. No3 Acupuncture reduce inflammation. If there is inflammation around the abdomi

 

No1 Chronic anxiety can interfere with quality of life. Everyone has anxiety from time to time, but this goes away quickly. If you are anxious all the time, this isn’t right, and you need to do something to get rid of the anxiety. No2 Anxiety put you at risk to get physical illness. Evidence suggests that people with anxiety disorders are at greater risk for developing other chronic medical conditions. They may also have more severe symptoms and a greater risk of death when they become ill. No3 Anxiety damages the brain. Anxiety triggers the amygdala and the hippocampus responding to any threats and the event is stored in the hippocampus. New research has shown that prolonged anxiety causes structural degeneration and impaired functioning of the brain such as the amygdala, the hippocampus and the prefrontal cortex. No4 Anxiety causes headaches, dizziness. By responding to the anxiety, the brain releases hormones and chemicals. Long-term anxiety and panic attacks can cause the brain to

 

No1, reduce stress. Stress impacts fertility more than you imagined. If you are stressed, it can make your hormone imbalanced. Many women have experience that when they are stressed, their period arrives earlier than it should; or they have spots break out. Acupuncture can effectively reduce the stress. No2, improves blood circulation. Good blood circulation is essential for the body to preform including ovaries and uterus. Many researches have shown that acupuncture can improve blood circulation to the body and ovaries and uterus. No3, reduce inflammation. Metabolism products from inflammation can have toxic effects to the organs include reproductive system. Acupuncture can effectively reduce inflammation and has detoxing effect. No4, release tension and muscle spasms. Tension and muscle spasm in the body can compromise micro blood circulation in the body including ovaries and uterus. Acupuncture can release all the tensions. No5, rebalance hormones. Follicle development depends on ho

Fatigue is a common complaint in the clinic. Nonspecific fatigue is fatigue with no underlying medical cause. Some survey has shown that 20% of people feel unusually tired at any given time. It’s unusual to find anything physically wrong. However excessive fatigue affects one’s quality of life. Tired of being tired? How to get rid of fatigue? Acupuncture is one of the methods that you should try. Why No1 Many things in daily life can cause stress and stress makes you tired. Acupuncture can help reduce stress as a result it can help reduce fatigue. No2 Brain is the largest energy consumer and all the energy come from blood supply to the brain. Acupuncture can help improve brain blood circulation and energy supply to reduce fatigue. No3 Inflammation anywhere in the body can make you feel tired. Acupuncture reduces inflammation to reduce fatigue. No4 The tension of the body blocks blood circulation and makes you feel tired. Acupuncture reduces tension and improves blood circulation to red