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

Low back pain is a common ailment that affects millions of people worldwide. It can be debilitating, impacting an individual's ability to perform everyday tasks and significantly decreasing their quality of life. Common causes of Low Back Pain Muscle Strain: One of the most common causes of low back pain is muscle strain or overuse. This can result from activities such as heavy lifting, sudden movements, or poor posture over an extended period. Herniated Disc: When the soft tissue inside the spinal disc bulges or ruptures, it can compress nearby nerves, leading to severe low back pain. Herniated discs often occur due to age-related wear and tear or injury. Sciatica: Sciatica is a specific type of low back pain caused by irritation or compression of the sciatic nerve. This condition typically radiates pain down one or both legs and is often accompanied by numbness or tingling. Arthritis: Osteoarthritis and rheumatoid arthritis can affect the spine's joints and lead to chronic lo...

Tailbone pain, also known as coccydynia, can be a distressing and debilitating condition that affects individuals of all ages. The tailbone, or coccyx, is a small triangular bone at the base of the spine, and when injured or inflamed, it can lead to persistent discomfort and hinder daily activities. Tailbone pain can arise from various causes, including injury, prolonged sitting, or even childbirth. Conventional treatments may provide relief, but some individuals seek alternative therapies like acupuncture to address their discomfort more effectively and without the side effects associated with medications. How Acupuncture Works for Tailbone Pain Pain Relief: Acupuncture stimulates the release of endorphins, the body's natural painkillers. By activating these neurotransmitters, acupuncture can help reduce the perception of pain and enhance the overall sense of well-being. Reducing Inflammation: Acupuncture has been found to possess anti-inflammatory properties, which can aid in red...

Sciatica is a common type of neuropathic pain that is characterized by a shooting pain radiating from the lower back down to the leg, sometimes accompanied by numbness and muscle weakness. This condition is often caused by the compression of the spinal nerve root by a disc herniation, which accounts for 85% of all cases. Unfortunately, a significant number of patients with sciatica suffer from persistent pain lasting a year or more due to the lack of effective treatments. This may eventually lead to neurological deficits and functional disability, significantly impacting their quality of life. Acupuncture has been recommended as an effective method for pain relief in patients with sciatica. A recent review aimed to assess the published clinical evidence on the efficacy and safety of acupuncture therapy for treating sciatica. The review analyzed a total of 30 randomized controlled trials (RCTs), involving 2,662 participants. The results showed that the clinical efficacy of acupuncture w...

The American College of Physicians (ACP) has developed a clinical practice guideline for the noninvasive treatment of low back pain. The guideline provides evidence-based recommendations for the treatment of acute, subacute, and chronic low back pain. Acupuncture is recommended as one of the noninvasive treatments for low back pain. For patients with acute or subacute low back pain, acupuncture treatment is recommended in conjunction with superficial heat, massage, or spinal manipulation. This is based on moderate-quality evidence. For patients with chronic low back pain, acupuncture is recommended in conjunction with exercise, multidisciplinary rehabilitation, mindfulness-based stress reduction, tai chi, yoga, motor control exercise, progressive relaxation, electromyography biofeedback, low-level laser therapy, operant therapy, cognitive behavioral therapy, or spinal manipulation. This recommendation is also based on moderate-quality evidence. Recent research has analyzed the data for...

The Gluteal muscles The gluteal muscles are a group of three muscles making up the buttocks: the glutes maximus, gluteus medius and the gluteus minimus. They originate from the back of the pelvic bone ilium and sacrum and end on the thigh (femur). The largest and the most superficial of the three gluteal muscles is the gluteus maximus. It makes up a large portion of the shape and appearance of the hips. The functions of the muscles are extension, abduction, external and internal rotation of the hip joint. Gluteus maximus starts from the posterior gluteal line of the inner upper ilium crest, the posterior surface of the lower part of the sacrum and the side of the coccyx, aponeurosis of the erector spinae, sacrotuberous ligament and the fascia covering the gluteus medius. The gluteal maximus go downward and lateralward and insert into iliotibial band and glutealtuberosity. It extends and laterally rotates the hip and extends the trunk. Gluteus maximus injury is a common source of the l...

Acupuncture is an effective treatment for relief from low back pain, even when compared with other interventions (sham acupuncture, usual care, or no treatment), with stronger effects observed immediately after treatment. Clinically significant reduction in pain is more reliably observed in chronic rather than acute low back pain (strength of recommendation: A, based on systematic review and meta-analysis of randomized controlled trials [RCTs]). The American College of Physicians issued a clinical practice guideline recommending acupuncture as a first-line therapy for acute and chronic nonradicular low back pain along with other nondrug therapy including stretching, heat application, massage, and manual spinal manipulation. 5  The National Institutes of Health’s National Center for Complementary and Integrative Health considers acupuncture to be a safe treatment when done by trained acupuncturists using sterile needles. Research evidence from systematic reviews Systematic rev...

 There are discs sitting between the bones of the spine (the vertebrae). The inner portion of the disk can protrude through the outer ring due to injury or weakness. This is known as slipped disk, herniated, or prolapsed disk. Lumber disks are the common site to slip. This causes pain and discomfort at the low back. If the slipped disk compresses the nerves, pain and numbness may occur along the route of the nerve. The pain can happen on the back or neck depending on which disks are slipped. The pain is often beginning in the lower back and over time it spreads to other parts of the body. Sometime there is no symptom. This is because the slipped part of the disc is small which will not affect nerves or spinal cord. If sciatic nerve is affected the pain could travel from the low back, through the buttocks and down the legs to the feet. It could be also accompanied with numbness, tingling sensation in legs. Acupuncture does not send slipped the disk back, but acupuncture treatme...

If you go to see different acupuncturists, you would probably notice that different acupuncturists do acupuncture differently. Many different styles of acupuncture practice exist. Acupuncture is so individualized and there are no standard protocols on the optimal acupuncture treatment for any particular condition. If you saw different acupuncturists for the same conditions, you would end up with different treatments and some require more treatments than others. Birkeflet O et al did a research about the agreement of acupuncture diagnosis and treatment in 30 infertile and 24 previously pregnant women. These women were examined for traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) patterns by two acupuncturists who would independently decide on the TCM patterns and the prescription of acupuncture points. They found that 39 different TCM patterns and 36 different acupuncture points were used. Poor to no agreement was found for the choice of acupuncture points. On one hand this makes acupuncture unique; ...

Piriformis syndrome is an uncommon neuromuscular disorder. In this condition the sciatic nerve is compressed by piriformis muscle which is a flat, band-like muscle located in the buttocks near the top of the hip joint. This muscle is important in lower body movement and it is used in almost every motion of the hips and legs. Through the piriformis muscle sciatic nerve passes and goes down the back of the thigh and leg. The spasm of the piriformis muscle can compress the nerve to cause some symptoms which include pain, tingling, or numbness in the buttocks. The pain can be sever and spread down to the leg and foot. The pain can be triggered by sitting for long periods of time, climbing stairs and running. Management of piriformis syndrome include avoiding positions that trigger pain. Rest, ice and heat may help reduce symptoms. Exercises and stretches may help reduce sciatic nerve compression reducing symptoms. Pain killers, muscle relaxants or local injection with corticosteroid or ane...

Thigh is the area between the hip and the knee. There is only single bone in the thigh called fumar, but there are a few groups of muscles in the thigh. Anterior group include pectineus, satorius and quadriceps (rectus femoris, vastus medialis, vastus intermedius and vastus lateralis. Posterior group includes hamstring muscles (semimembranosus, semitendinosus and beceps femoris. Medial group include adductor magnus, adductor longus and adductor brevis and gracilis. The lateral is tensor fasciae which continues with iliotibial tract. The iliotibial tract, also known as the iliotibial band, is a thick strip of connective tissue connecting several muscles in the lateral thigh. It arises at its proximal end from the tendons of the tensor fasciae latae and gluteus maximus muscles and then travels along the lateral side of the thigh and across the knee joint, inserting on the lateral epicondyle of the tibia Thigh pain Thigh pain is a very common complaint. It presents constant aching, or th...

Acupuncture is a popular treatment for low back pain, do you still not know this, still not tried acupuncture for your low back pain? Effectiveness and acceptance of acupuncture for low back pain There was a study involved 18000 patients with chronic pain including low back pain. This study showed that the effect of acupuncture was more than placebo. There was a further evidence provided by research from Germany showing that acupuncture is effective for chronic low back pain and acupuncture was highly accepted and had positive effects in patients with chronic low back pain. This was a randomized controlled trial. There were 143 participants with chronic low back pain. 74 patients were offered acupuncture twice a week, while other 69 patients were not given acupuncture as a control. Acceptance of acupuncture, health-related quality of life and pain/symptoms were assessed. The result of the study showed that acceptance of acupuncture was excellent. 89% of the patients would like to have ...

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...