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

Neck pain is a common condition. Neck pain has a wide differential diagnosis, but most cases seen are musculoskeletal in nature. Neck muscles can be strained from poor posture. It is strongly linked to office and computer work. Most of the cases are muscular. Osteoarthritis also is a common cause of neck pain. The symptoms of neck pain include pain at the neck that is worse when you hold the head in one position for long periods of time. It is accompanied with muscle tightness and spasms, and reduced mobility of the head and neck. If the pain spread out up to the head and down to the arm, it can be associated with headaches and arm and forearm pain.  Neck pain can be classified into acute or chronic pain. Acute neck pain is pain that last for weeks to months, but the pain goes after this short period of time. Chronic neck pain is pain that last longer than 3 - 6 months.  About 50% - 85% of patients with acute neck pain will go on to develop chronic neck pain. ...

What is miscarriage? A miscarriage is the spontaneous loss of a pregnancy before the 20th week. About 10 to 20 percent of known pregnancies end in miscarriage. An early miscarriage is the loss of pregnancy at ≤13 weeks’ pregnancy. About one in four pregnancies, where a woman has missed a menstrual period and has a positive pregnancy test, ends in early miscarriage. 3 or more miscarriages in a row are known as recurrent miscarriages. The impact of a miscarriage on women Miscarriage can be a physical and emotional challenge. It can have a potentially devastating psychological impact on the woman in addition to the physical effects such as bleeding and pain after all the excitement and expectation by discovering the pregnancy. It is very common to feel sad and tearful after being shocked by the tragic event. Feeling angry, jealous or guilty is also common. There are feelings of emptiness and loneliness that others cannot understand; feeling not able to cope with daily life. There is fear ...

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...

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 usi...

Enlarged prostate, can acupuncture help? Prostate enlargement, also known as benign prostatic hyperplasia (BPH), is a common condition in men. It is usually not a serious threat to health, but it does affect quality of life. If the prostate becomes enlarged, it can place pressure on the bladder and urethra. It may cause difficulty starting urination, a frequent need to urinate, and difficulty fully emptying the bladder. Current treatment options for BPH include watchful waiting, lifestyle modifications, alpha blockers, 5 alpha-reductase inhibitors, phytochemicals, and BPH-related surgery. Although most of the aforementioned therapies have various degrees of documented effectiveness in the management of BPH, the use of these interventions are limited to specific patient populations or have certain side effects that interfere with patient's quality of life Acupuncture is also used to treat BPH to improve the symptoms in china. Recent research provided evidence for the effectiveness o...

Acupuncture helps implantation When an egg is fertilised by a sperm, an embryo is formed and developing. At the same time, there are also changes in the uterus to prepare the arrival of the embryo. When an embryo arrives at the uterus, it will implant into uterine wall. A successful implantation depends on the synchronous development of both the endometrium and embryo. Uterine inner lining gets thicker, uterine smooth muscles are relaxed after ovulation. There is also communication between the uterine cells and the embryo to get the best time of implantation. Delayed implantation time will lead to implantation failure or miscarriage. During the development of uterine inner lining uterine blood circulation is the key factor to get ready for implantation. After embryo implanted, the embryo initially takes nutrients and oxygen from maternal blood circulation system and removes the waste via maternal blood circulation system. Good uterine blood circulation is essential for early stage of...

Acupuncture improves collagen production and resumes younger looking skin. How the skin looking, young or old depends on the nature and organization of dermal collagen and the elastic fibers network. The collagens give the mechanical strength of the skin, whereas the elastic fibers are responsible for elasticity to the skin. They give skin elasticity and provide firm skin so that skin can bounce back when stretched. The patterns of collagen organisation depend on the collagen types and other characteristics such as fiber length, fiber volume fraction and collagen molecular stretching, as well as the tilt angle of collagens determining its orientation. These change with age, becoming denser and begin to disorganise and contribute to the appearance of wrinkles and sagging skin. Both elastin and collagen production decline as people age. These two proteins can also become deteriorated by external factors over time, such as: UV exposure, smoking, pollutants in the environment, excess alcoh...