Festive greetings to one and all!

This can be a busy time of year with many people preparing for Christmas, buying presents, and attending more social events. Are you feeling the pressure? Stressed, tired or anxious? Wracking your brains about what presents to buy? Why not treat yourself or your loved ones to acupuncture? Acupuncture can help you to feel more relaxed, positive, invigorated, and revitalised. We have a special offer during the month of December where you can receive your first consultation for only £85, or book a package of 4 follow-up sessions for only £280. So, whether you are considering acupuncture for the first time, haven’t had treatment for a while, or are continuing with regular sessions, now is the time to contact us. We can also provide gift vouchers, which make very original presents.

Back Pain: Pain in the back

I’m often asked about how I got into acupuncture: The answer is simple... I was over stressed, physically as well as mentally and I was told to quit my [then current] job. As it happens the company went bust but my back continued to hurt.

One doesn’t need to know me well to know I love sports which are associated with pain. I am a keen long distance cyclist, swimmer and walker. I simply love mountaineering and I ski and climb regularly. Yes, I can endure a lot of pain for many painful miles and I am always bruised.

But, once upon a time... Out of the blue... I was not able to walk 100 metres (or yards?) while carrying a laptop in my backpack.

Private insurance and MRI, concluded that, at the beautiful age of 21 and a half, there was nothing wrong, except that I was getting old.

So, living life in limbo, thinking I was old and ready to die, I landed in the magic hands of an angel acupuncturist who taught me a lot and inspired me to becoming an acupuncturist myself. Regular treatment did not only help my back but my own general wellbeing.

Now I know that indeed, there was nothing pathologically wrong with my back. Acupuncturists will tell that there was something wrong with the flow of my qi. In Western terms this means that physical as well as mental stress were tensing the muscles of my back. In turn, blood was not able to move freely, so it was not able to bring nutrients and “healing aid”. Muscle tension was also trapping my nerves and acupuncture released those blockages, allowing my own body to self heal. 
by Andrea Steinlechner

Festive greetings to one and all!

This can be a busy time of year with many people preparing for Christmas, buying presents, and attending more social events. Are you feeling the pressure? Stressed, tired or anxious? Wracking your brains about what presents to buy? Why not treat yourself or your loved ones to acupuncture? Acupuncture can help you to feel more relaxed, positive, invigorated, and revitalised. We have a special offer during the month of December where you can receive your first consultation for only £85, or book a package of 4 follow-up sessions for only £280. So, whether you are considering acupuncture for the first time, haven’t had treatment for a while, or are continuing with regular sessions, now is the time to contact us. We can also provide gift vouchers, which make very original presents.
For further information call us on 07500 555 297 or 07789 087 577 or visit our website

Acupuncture in gynaecology

Most women at some stage in their lives will suffer from some sort of PMS (pre menstrual syndrome), Dysmenorrhoea (pain during – or before menstruation), Amenorrhoea (lack of period), heavy bleeding, irregular cycle, spots, eating problems, emotional rollercoaster, etc.

This affects their personal as well as work life. Some feel they cannot function for a few days, and most feel physically and mentally affected by hormonal changes.

Those who will seek acupuncture often do so because they are tired of taking painkiller, contraceptive pill, worried about their physical and mental health, fertility or are trying to conceive.

In my experience (including personal experience as a patient) most patients will start feeling positive changes after the first treatment. However, due to the complexity of hormonal changes involving the whole cycle (menstruation, development of lining of the womb, ovulation, fecundation and implantation/or not, pregnancy or menstruation), most acupuncturists will want to treat a patient weekly for 3 menstrual cycles.  It is important to review the patient’s goals, and after three months, a new treatment plan will be agreed. Some patients will then be seen every fortnight, monthly or bimonthly. However some will carry on with a weekly treatment plan.  

Acupuncturists might recommend diet and lifestyle changes to facilitate health improvements. I like to ask my patients to fill in a BBT (basal body temperature) chart. It is easy to find a chart on the internet, however I have designed my own with further questions that will bring patient awareness or might be of interest to me and to a gynaecologist, should the patient be referred for fertility and or further treatment. BBT is used by western medicine for diagnosing hormonal imbalance. If you are not yet sure that acupuncture is for you, you can still start a chart that later can be shown to your doctor or acupuncturist.

Feel free to contact Andrea or Verity and we will happily send you our chart.

Premature Ejaculation case study

It is surprising how many men at some point suffer from some sort of erectile disfunction and just live with it, in shame. In western and macho cultures this is a taboo that does not get discussed. Keyword statistics tells me this site gets more hits for erectile disfunction than IVF, yet, I only first came across impotence when in clinic in China.

Today I see patients for erectile disfunction on a fairly regular basis. That is, if men care to admit. Sometimes they will come in for stress related complaints and forget to name one of the vital signs and symptoms for which they are seeking help with. Still, they feel better, and when they are ready, they might let me know how happy their love life is. Sometimes they come in for musculoskeletal complaint, and realise, that Pandora box has been dealt with.

This case is of a 38 years old chap who came to see me for eating disorder and premature ejaculation.

In cases of erectile dysfunction it is important to ascertain if there is some possible physical or physiological factor. This was not his case. By talking to the patient, soon became evident that there was a strong link to an emotional factor: The patient confided that his premature ejaculation has been ongoing since the age of 19. That coincided with the year his father suddenly died of heart attack. .

On the emotional link, there was also a relationship of fear dying of heart attack and his pathology of eating disorder.

Within four treatments the patient has reported a satisfactory recovery to his premature ejaculation. I carried on seeing him for eating disorder and weight loss.

 by Andrea Steinlechner

*released with patient's consent

Acupuncture treatment for toothache?

I would like to share an example of how acupuncture treatment can be used for dental pain.

Case History from 03/08/11

My client had an infected tooth that had been causing her pain, and was due to have root canal treatment at the dentist. Through discussion with her dentist (Dr. Gomez) we agreed a treatment plan. I would treat the client first in the dentist’s chair and then dental work would start without any anaesthetic injections being given (acupuncture would be the only pain relief). If the client indicated that she was experiencing any pain she could opt to have the anaesthetic at any time.

I performed the acupuncture treatment and then dental work was started. The client was asked throughout the procedure if she needed any anaesthetic, but she didn’t. Dr. Gomez said that she thought the client was “very relaxed”.       

After the treatment my client was smiling and said that she felt “great”. She went out for tea and cake immediately afterwards and had no problems eating and drinking. No numb mouth or dribbling! For the next two days, although she felt bruised in the area where the root canal treatment had been done, she experienced “no pain at all”. Four days later she felt “absolutely normal”.

Thank you to Dr. Gomez for her co-operation.

By

Verity Barltrop

*published with patient's consent