Welcome to my second blog in the ’Acupuncture Myth Busters’ series. Today I’d like to respond to one of the most common questions that prospective patients ask: ‘Can Acupuncture cure (your particular health condition)’? As ever, my answer would be a cautious ‘that depends’. But before we look at that in more detail, let me examine the key word here: ‘cure’. To me, and to most dictionaries, ‘cure’ means to engage with a health issue causing it to go away entirely and with no expectation it will ever return. Can Acupuncture deliver that? Well frankly, the answer is ‘sometimes’. It all depends ..read more

This is the first in what I’m hoping will be a series of short ‘Myth Buster’ articles about Acupuncture. I’d like to take a closer look at what Acupuncture can and can’t do, and what a patient might realistically expect from the therapy. Today I’m going to give my take on the vital importance of ‘tailored’ as in, personalised, treatments, a cornerstone of Traditional Chinese Acupuncture. Prospective patients often ask me: ‘Is Acupuncture good for…. X?’ I always reply, ‘that depends on who you are’. Whilst that might not seem very helpful at face value, there is method to the madness, and a ..read more

I cannot begin to describe how grateful I am for the large fan that blasts cool air around my treatment room at The Haven Clinic. Without it, I just don’t know how I’d work in this heat. I know most of my patients feel the same way. Traditional Chinese Healthcare practices have a lot to say about coping with the climate, and we’d do well to take notice of some of these simple, practical measures. A great deal of the advice coming from ancient Chinese sources is instantly recognisable to us today. This is hardly surprising, as it’s all based on observation and sound common sense ..read more

Fibromyalgia: It’s good to see some quality research coming out on the treatment of this unpleasant and life-sapping condition. It should come as no surprise to anybody with a long-term involvement in Traditional Chinese Acupuncture that the therapy performs very well indeed as compared with pharmaceuticals such as Amitryptaline. What I would add though, is that a patient’s expectations should be geared towards a course of treatment, rather than any ‘quick fix’. There just aren’t any quick fixes for this! I am also a keen advocate of mixing Acupuncture with deep tissue massage for Fibromyal ..read more

The war in Ukraine has sent many ripples across the world. One such ripple, admittedly a small one, is that it has made me look at what I as an Acupuncturist might do to help.   The obvious answer is: ‘volunteer to treat refugees’, followed by an equally obvious question: ‘how, exactly’?   This has become increasingly clear. Working alongside other Devon-based colleagues, I’m in the process of helping to set up a new organisation: E.A.R. This stands for ‘Ear Acupuncture for Refugees’. Although this is still a fledgling project, we are already making great strides in being able t ..read more

This October is Menopause Awareness Month; a time to focus on issues surrounding this life-changing transition. Hopefully there will be plenty of news on the latest medical and scientific breakthroughs.   As an Acupuncturist in the Chinese Medicine tradition, I’ve decided to write today about East Asian approaches to menopause. So rather than having something brand new to say, instead I’m looking here at methods that have been working well for women for many centuries. But how does this approach differ from a more ‘conventional’ route, for example, HRT? The first thing to poi ..read more

July 19th is the much advertised ‘Freedom Day’ in England. Understandably, a few of my patients have expressed concern about how this might affect Covid-19 protocols in the treatment room. As yet I have had no formal guidance from the Government on what measures therapists will be required to take regarding PPE, sanitising etc. Just this morning I received an email from my governing body, the BAcC (British Acupuncture Council), just to let me know that they too have heard nothing. So, as things stand I am clearly going to have to set my own policy as we move forward – and here it ..read more

I recently posted a link to an excellent article printed by the British Medical Journal, (BMJ). In it, the authors discussed various scientific appraisals of the use of Acupuncture in the treatment of migraine. Not surprisingly (to me at least, as I am after all an Acupuncturist), the findings were very positive indeed. Wow, this stuff really does work, etc etc. Fantastic! I felt the findings were at the very least worth sharing on Facebook. However, terrible ingrate that I am, I was still left with a familiar niggle; something which didn’t quite sit well with me despite all the positivity. I ..read more

As an Acupuncturist, I regard myself as part of the ‘Complementary Medicine’ or even the ‘Traditional Medicine’ community. In all the years I have practiced I have never really seen myself as engaged in something called ‘Alternative’ Medicine. Complementary versus Alternative… what’s in a word? I would just like to take a minute or two to argue that there might actually be a world of difference. Even people within the profession often use the two terms interchangeably, but to me, at the heart of this is a debate about two opposing mindsets. If only for the sake of better clarity, I think this ..read more

I’ve been working as an Acupuncturist for almost twenty-five years. One of the buzz-words in pretty much all Complementary Medicine is ‘grounding’, and that is something I have been discussing with clients for a very long time. Now, in the midst of a highly challenging Covid-19 pandemic, the need to manage our anxieties and stay focused seems greater than ever. Over the years I have lost count of the number of people who have come to me saying they want my Acupuncture to help them ‘feel more grounded’. I’d like to think that it really does, but this blog is not about Acupuncture as such. So ..read more