I’m posting some of my essays from my recent course in Chinese Herbal Medicine.  They illustrate the thinking process of how we diagnose and treat fever and other conditions with Chinese Medicine.  This one is from my final exam.  It was a rather short question which made answering difficult but I got a great grade. Case 2, Final Exam. Please analysis the clinical case below and give your herbal formula: Female, 32 years old, first visited on 24th March 2020. She had 4 days fever, her body temperature was not higher than 38°C, and currently is 37.8°C. Fatigue, dry cough, s ..read more

Low FODMAP Diet. FODMAP refers to fermentable oligosaccharides, disaccharides, monosaccharides, and polyols. They are all short chain carbohydrates (sugars), found naturally in foods, which can be fermented by the gut bacteria to produce all the symptoms of irritable bowel syndrome (IBS) – bloating, constipation, diarrhoea, loose stools, cramps and pain. It can also contribute to reflux and indigestion. A low FODMAP diet excludes these foods for a period of 4 to 6 weeks. If in this time your symptoms subside then it confirms that FODMAPS are causing you problems. After the exclusion phase, slo ..read more

I’m excited to be starting a course in Chinese Herbal Medicine.  I’m not going to have time to study and publish blog posts so have decided to post my homework essays as posts.  This first essay had a limit of 1000 to 200o words, so I couldn’t give all the detail I wanted to.  I might revisit this post at a later date to give the details I wanted to originally.  Describe your views of Chinese herbal medicine and how it works. Using the information taught in the first module, please explain the basic theories and how to apply the theories of Chinese herbal medicine in clinic ..read more

Can Acupuncture Help Long Covid?     Let’s talk about… Long Covid and acupuncture: an introduction We have all been severely affected by the Covid-19 pandemic. The UK government and its scientific advisers have taken measures intended to slow the rate of transmission, reduce the number of fatalities and keep the NHS afloat. Whatever might be thought about the success or failure of these measures it is generally agreed that they do no more than buy some time.   The hope is that vaccines and/or effective treatments will at some point provide us with a more sustainab ..read more

Game changing research into acupuncture supported IVF & ICSI – a review of the evidence base by Lianne Aquilina and Mark Bovey, British Acupuncture Council, 2019 (with minor editing by myself) If you don’t want to read the full article here is my take home message: The latest research finds more evidence for acupuncture improving birth rates.  It confirms what I have always said that more emphasis needs to be placed on acupuncture during ovarian stimulation.  Acupuncture may well be needed prior to cycles for best effect and response is dose related (i.e. you need to have the op ..read more

Acupuncture may provide help for cancer sufferers. American researchers carried out an open clinical trial showing that acupuncture appears to be effective for reducing pain and other symptoms in cancer patients. 57 cancer patients received acupuncture to target pain, anxiety, depression, fatigue and nausea. A total of 25 of these patients were considered to have completed treatment after receiving 9 or more sessions of acupuncture. For patients completing the course of acupuncture pain severity was found to decrease by 32% from baseline to the last session. The incidence of pain interfering w ..read more

I recently had a new patient in who said the only time she had seen acupuncture was in the Kung Fu Panda movie.  I’m surprised it didn’t put her off from coming!  I’ve uploaded a few funny acupuncture videos to the website so I thought it would be fun to include this one too: If you are new to acupuncture I would like to explain that this isn’t exactly how we do it!  We generally use less needles and are nice to our patients!  If you want to read a bit more about acupuncture in general then please follow this link to my acupuncture page. I think that like many others my in ..read more

Acupuncture treatment modulates the resting-state functional connectivity of brain regions in migraine patients without aura. New research in China shows that acupuncture treatment can increase functional connectivity in brain regions that show decreased connectivity in migraine without aura (MWoA) patients. Migraine patients often experience warning signs, known as aura, such as flashing lights. However, some patients will develop symptoms such as a severe headache, felt as a throbbing pain at the front or side of the head, without any warning.. These patients are described as having migraine ..read more

Some great new research by Spanish researchers shows that acupuncture could be saving the NHS money if it were to be routinely offered to mother’s with babies in breech presentation.  A baby should ideally present in a head down position for a healthy labor.  If the baby is in a different position, especially with feet down, then a costly caesarian section operation may be necessary.  Now that we know vaginal delivery is essential in seeding the infant’s resident bacteria (microbiome) it is even more imperative to try and avoid c-sections. As well as needling acupuncture points ..read more

As lockdown is slowly relaxed during this difficult Covid-19 epidemic I am pleased to announce that I and my colleagues might finally be allowed to get back to work. As we return to work our foremost concern is to keep our patients as safe as we possibly can whilst continuing to provide the service you The post Covid-19 – Keeping you safe when we go back to work. appeared first on Jamie Gisby ..read more