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

Sinusitis, a common medical condition, affects millions of people worldwide. Often dismissed as a minor inconvenience, sinusitis can significantly impact your quality of life if left untreated. In this article, we will explore why it's crucial to get your sinusitis treated and the potential consequences of neglecting this common ailment. Understanding Sinusitis Sinusitis, commonly known as a sinus infection, occurs when the sinuses become inflamed and swollen. The sinuses are air-filled cavities located behind your forehead, cheeks, and eyes. When they become blocked and infected, it leads to a range of uncomfortable symptoms, including: Facial pain and pressure Nasal congestion Runny or stuffy nose Headache Coughing Fatigue Fever Types of Sinusitis There are several types of sinusitis, including acute, subacute, chronic, and recurrent. Each type can vary in duration and severity, but they all share the potential for complications if not properly treated. The Importance of Treatmen...

  Dr. Helene Langevin, Director of the Osher Center for Integrative Medicine at Harvard Medical School and Brigham and Women's Hospital was talking about chronic pain and acupuncture and connective tissue. This helps you to understand how acupuncture works. 

Cluster headaches Cluster headaches are uncommon but very severe headaches. The pain always strikes one side of the head typically located in or around one eye and is very severe burning or sharp pain. The affected area may become red and swollen, the eyelid may droop, and the nasal passage on the affected side may become stuffy and runny. The attack starts abruptly and lasts for 30 to 60 minutes. This type of headaches tends to come in clusters, with one to eight headaches a day during a period of weeks, months or a couple of years. In between clusters, there may be no headache symptoms, and this headache-free period can last months to years. Acupuncture again is effective to reduce cluster headaches.

Pain starts from activation of the nervous system. There are 9 steps of the pain circle: Step 1: Local inflammation. Anything causing tissue damage such as injury, surgery, or infection can lead to local inflammation. This is the origin of the pain. Step2: Peripheral sensitization. Local inflammation irritates the nerves lowering the pain threshold causing peripheral sensitization. Step3: Central sensitization. Nerve signals are transmitted to the brain causing central sensitization. Step4: Pain sensation. The brain tells you that there is pain in the body somewhere. Step5: Pain cognitive processes. The brain where is sensing the pain connects other part of the brain where controls emotion causing emotional and behaviour changes. Step6: Depression and anxiety. The brain where controls emotions is affected by the pain signals and alters its function causing depression and anxiety Step7: Cortical reorganization. The brain reallocates its task to different parts of the body to reduce pai...

Pain is an unpleasant feeling and a signal in the nervous system that something may be wrong. Pain could be in one area of the body, such as back pain or all over the body such as fibromyalgia. It could be divided into two types of pain according to the onset and duration. There are two types of pain: acute and chronic Acute pain usually comes on suddenly, because of a disease, injury, or inflammation. It can often be diagnosed and treated. It usually goes away, though sometimes it can turn into chronic pain. Chronic pain lasts for a long time, and can cause severe problems. There are mainly three types of pain sensations Pricking pain is caused by a needle, pin prick, skin cut etc. This type of pain is precisely localized from the skin and conducted by the A fibers of the nerves. It is sharp, fast and short duration in nature. This pain is a protection mechanism to the body and warning to the brain that something goes wrong. Burning or soreness pain is caused by inflammation, burned s...

Qigong is a technique used in Chinese medicine to create Yin Yang balance and improve Qi circulation. It is an ancient Chinese healing technique that combines body movement, breathing and mental focus. It coordinates the body, breath and mind and opens the flow of energy in meridians used in acupuncture. One of the purposes that people practice qigong throughout China and worldwide is for exercise and relaxation. The Baduanjin qigong(八段锦) is one of the most popular forms of Chinese qigong used as exercise. It involves the eight individual movements to improve health. This exercise is originating from the Song Dynasty. It attributes to the Chinese folk hero General Yue Fei. He taught the exercise to his men to help keep their bodies strong and well-prepared for battle.

 

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...

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...

 

 

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...

A tension headache is the most common type of primary headache accounting for about 90% of all headaches. It tends to start from the back of the head and moves forward to the top of the head. The exact causes are not clear. It is often linked to sensitivity to pain, stress and tension. It can be triggered by stress, anxiety, fatigue; and/or holding your head at one position for a long time, such as working on computer all day. The pain is bilateral and the head is like being squeezed or stabbed and the eyes are strained; The pain could be dull and feels like a band surrounding your head. Pain may involve the back part of the head or neck. A tension headache can be episodic lasting for days or become chronic. It can be debilitating, impacting our quality of life, lifestyle, mood and daily activities. Do you know acupuncture can release tension headache effectively? Here is some research evidence for it. More recently Granato et al analysed the current data about the effectiveness of ac...

Migraine is a very painful headache. Migraines is characterized by recurrent episodes of severe headaches that are often unilateral and are often accompanied by symptoms of autonomic nervous system dysfunction, such as nausea, vomiting, photophobia, and phonophobia. It is recurrent and it affects sufferer’s quality of life. It occurs in more than 10% of the world's population, afflicting more women than men by a ratio 3:1, and inflicts significant personal and socioeconomic costs. A WHO survey showed that migraine was ranked as the seventh highest cause of disability in the world, accounting for 2.9% of all years of life lost to disability. Migraine is featured as moderate or severe pulsating pain only on one side of the head which is deliberated by physical activity. It is recurring headache with duration 4-72 hours. It could accompany other symptoms including nausea, vomiting and increased sensitivity to light or noise. The diagnosis is based on clinical history and exclusion of...

Muscles attached to the base of the skull and related to tension headaches Trapezius muscle Trapezuis muscle is one of the largest superficial muscles at the back. It is originated from the base of the skull and extends down to the neck, the upper back until mid back and it is inserted to the shoulder blades. The function of the trapezius muscle is performed by three distinct regions: upper, middle and lower parts. They move the shoulder blades and support the arms; retracts the shoulder blades; rotates and depresses the shoulder blades. The muscle can become tight and stiff causing headache which is characterised as pain at the base of the skull, on the temples, on the face, jaw pain or pain behind the eyes. Semispinalis captis Semispinalis captisis lies deep to the trapezius muscle. It is originated from the four to seven cervical vertebraes and the upper seven thoracic vertibraes and is inserted into the base of the occipital bone deep to the trapesius muscle. They extend the head a...

Trapezius muscle is a broad triangular muscle at neck and upper back, one of the largest superficial muscles at the back. It attaches to the base of the skull and extends down to the neck, the upper back until mid back; laterally it inserts to the shoulder blades. There are three functional regions to the muscle: the Upper, middle, and lower trapezius, and each region has its own function: upper region moves the shoulder blades and support the arms; the middle region retracts the shoulder blades and the lower region rotates and depresses the shoulder blades. Pain caused from the upper trapezius includes headaches on the temples, facial, temple or jaw pain, pain behind the eye, dizziness, neck pain, stiff neck, limited movement, intolerance to weight on the shoulders. Pain caused by middle trapezius includes headache at the base of the skull, mid back burning pain or aching along the spine or to the top of the shoulder. Pain caused from the lower trapezius includes headache at the base...

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. T...