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

Acute abdominal pain Everyone at some point of their life will experience abdominal pain. Abdominal pain is one of the most complicated symptoms which can be caused by many factors. Most of the causes are not severe and the pain can be diagnosed and treated with good prognosis. However abdominal pain can be a sign of very severe illness. If the abdominal pain is severe or recurrent and there are some other symptoms associated with such as fever, inability to keep food down, signs of dehydration, bloody stools, inability to pass stool and there is persistent nausea and vomiting, painful or unusually frequent urination, severe tenderness when you touch the abdomen, swelling of the abdomen, skin appears yellow, weight loss, pain is caused by injury to the abdomen etc, it is important to recognise the symptoms that are severe and see doctors to get it diagnosed. Be careful if you want to take over the counter pain killer. Pain killers sometimes can mask the severity of the illness. Acupu...

Facial appearance changes with age are inevitable. Aging change not only happens on the surface of the skin, but also underneath the skin surface such as fat muscle and bone etc. With age, features that were previously round may sink ; skin gets loose and sags. Loss fat volume and muscle mass on the face makes the face loss its fullness. Fat pulls downwards and the skin becomes loose and sagging due to gravity and muscle force. Bone also losses its mass and muscles are shortened and straightened. Corners of the eyes and mouth drop, tip of the nose drops as well and ears become longer. Facial muscles Muscles on the face contracting pulling the face downwards The temporal muscle is the muscle at the temples on both sides of the head. This muscle lifts the jaw and retracts the jaw. The orbicularis oculi muscle is the muscle surrounding the eye. It causes the eye to close or blink. It draws the skin of the forehead, temple, and cheek toward the medial angle of the orbit, and the e...

What is ectopic pregnancy? Ectopic pregnancy is that the fertilized egg implanted outside of the uterus. The commonest site is in the fallopian tube. The egg will not develop a baby, but it is threatening condition for the pregnant women. Ectopic pregnancy occurs in 1% pregnancy. The risk factors include pervious pelvic inflammatory disease, infertility, tubal surgery, intrauterine contraceptive device and previous ectopic. Patient has positive urinary pregnancy test. Patient presents lower abdominal pain and slight vaginal bleeding. Ultrasound shows empty uterus and may identify ectopic embryo. If the egg dies before it can grow larger, the pregnancy terminates and the tissue is absorbed in the woman’s body. In this case, the pregnancy test becomes negative. If the pregnancy is left to grow, there is a risk that the fertilized egg grows larger and causes the tube to rupture which can cause life threatening internal bleeding. The signs of tube rupture are sudden severe sharp abdominal ...

Age affects fertility in women Women are born with all the eggs they ever have. Women are most fertile between the ages of 18 and 31. When women are getting older, their egg quantity and quality are declining. They become less fertile. There is clear evidence of an age-related decline in female fertility. By the time women reach 35 years of age, their fertility is declining markedly. This presents that the number and quality of eggs decrease; also genetic abnormalities and spontaneous abortion increase noticeably with female age. A study involved in 1000 women in pregnancy showed that 71% of women aged 30 conceived within 3 months whereas only 41% of women aged 36 conceived within 3 months. A negative effect of increasing male age particularly in the late 30s was also found. A study involved 2112 women in pregnancy showed that increasing age for both men and women take longer time to conceive. There were some other studies presented similar results. There is a significant decline i...

The role of fallopian tube is in reproduction The fallopian tube is a part of the women’s reproductive system. It plays an essential role in gamete transport, fertilization and the early development of the embryo. The tube contains inner lining and smooth muscle wall. In the inner lining there are two major cell types are the ciliated and secretory cells. The fallopian tube goes through cyclical changes responding to estrogen and progesterone levels. The ciliated cells are low in height during the menstrual periods of the cycle, increasing during the follicular phase to reach their maximal height in the periovulatory period. Around the time of ovulation, the secretory cells reach peak activity. In the luteal phase, both cell types reduce in height. Fallopian tubes are very important for normal fertility. They play a key role in picking up eggs and transporting eggs, sperm and embryo. When an egg is release, it takes about 8 hours to reach the site within fallopian tube. The fallopi...

How much acupuncture treatment is adequate? This is the most frequently asked question from patients. This is a good question, but it is difficult to get accurate answers. The effect depends on the points chosen by the acupuncturists 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 is no agreement on the optimal acupuncture treatment for any particular condition. 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...

Skin blood flow significantly decreased with increase in age. Skin blood flow is 40% less at age 65 than at age 25. This is because skin blood flow decreases with decreased pumping blood from heart; skin blood flow significantly decreased with increase in total cholesterol and systolic blood pressure; less blood is redirected to the skin from other part of the body; blood vessel movement is impaired with aging and blood vessels are not relaxed to increase the blood flow. Acupuncture increases blood perfusion and reduces skin aging Acupuncture is used to treat many conditions in China. Its mechanism is based on meridian theory which is not accepted by Western medicine theory. Recent years researchers are trying to find how acupuncture works from a scientific aspect. Many research data suggested that acupuncture improves blood perfusion. For example, there was a study of acupuncture on 140 healthy volunteers. In this study, acupuncture was applied in LI4’ skin blood flow was measured...