Acupuncture in London

acupuncture awareness week

2012-02-27T08:33:00.036Z

Hey,

So its acupuncture awareness week! If you're reading this blog you'll know its always acupuncture awareness week for us, cos needles is what we do :)

Any questions you may have about acupuncture and chinese medicine i'll be glad to answer, and if you're free friday lunchtime come down to clinic for a talk ange and molly are organising.

and as a special treat you can get a free taster ear acupuncture at the end of the talk. woohoo!

Putney Christmas Lights and Market

2011-11-28T08:24:00.014Z

Come join us on Friday, December 2nd at the Putney Christmas Market for an afternoon of children's entertainment, live music, food, mulled wine and an opportunity to buy some Christmas gifts.

Well4ever will be there selling gift vouchers for massage, reflexology and rejuvenating facials and other treatments.

Aromatherapy hampers including room mists, perfume roll ons and home made lip balms by our very own Ange as well as Ella's Little Curly Collection of handmade Xmas cards, bookmarks, calenders and more will also be on sale. Look out for her gorgeous prints on canvas.

Read more...

Ancient Aromatherapy

2011-11-14T12:23:00.002Z

You may not realise it but you interact with essential oils just by walking through a forest and taking a deep breathe of fragrant pine needles; or peeling an orange and enjoying the fresh, uplifting citrus scent before popping a juicy segment in your mouth ...
read more Ancient Aromatherapy

Chinese Herbal Medicine - Chrysanthemum Flower (Ju Hua)

2011-10-31T09:52:00.097Z

Yellow Crysanthemum Flower

Today we'll talk about Chrysanthemum flower (flos chrysanthemi), or Ju Hua as it is known in China. In traditional Chinese medicine this herb's properties are bitter, sweet and slightly cold, and it goes to the Liver and Lung channels.

Yellow Chrysanthemum has a beneficial action on headache and eye complaints. It has long been used as an eye tonic and can help relieve red, painful, dryness or excessive watering of the eyes. It is also used for blurry vision, dizziness and spots / floaters in front of the eyes. Combined with Goji berry (Gou Qi Zi) and Rehmania Six to make a great formula called Qi Ju Di Huang Wan.

Chrysanthemum is also used to clear headaches and fever associated with colds and flu. It is known to aid in releasing toxins from the body. Great together with Mulberry leaf (Sang Ye) in a great common cold / cough formula called Sang Ju Yin.

Its actions are antibacterial, antifungal, antiviral and anti-inflammatory. It also may help lower blood pressure and relaxes blood vessels.

Some practitioners say, yellow chrysanthemums, the Golden Flower, are symbols of long life and will bring you good luck.

Ju hua cha - chrysanthemum flower tea is commonly consumed in China almost as much as green tea, due both to its medicinal effects and its excellent taste!

When you pop in to well4ever you can have a cup of chrysanthemum tea with us, and if you want to make some at home we have ready made bags of 50g Chrysanthemum flowers for £3.50

Chyrsanthemum Tea

Thanks to Ange for words and pics :)

Well4ever Clinic Putney: Autumn Health - Herbs at Home

2011-10-30T10:38:00.030Z

Autumn is filled with colour, mystery and awe-inspiring beauty. The little woodland creatures are hard at work preparing for the colder months, and so should you be...

Ginger has a strong antimicrobial action that can help fight colds and flu. It is beneficial for throat infection and has anti-inflammatory properties. read more...

Mushrooms in London - mushrewsbury pics

2011-10-26T10:26:00.003+01:00

All of these mushrooms from Shrewsbury taken and sent in by Frances, have a look:

Mushrooms in London - some more pictures

2011-10-25T08:33:00.006+01:00

Ok, these are just absolutely brilliant looking pics taken by our very own Ange in and around Putney and Barnes Common on her way home from clinic, you gotta admit, the girl has skills, can anyone top these?

Mushrooms in London - more of your pics

2011-10-24T08:33:00.025+01:00

Some really nice ones here, check them out

found on the west coast of Zealand seaside in Denmark

spotted by Julianne in Richmond park

If you have some cool pics of mushrooms you've seen around the way, feel free to share them with us :)

Mushrooms in London - your pics

2011-10-23T17:14:00.020+01:00

Ok, so as promised i'm publishing pics you've been sending me, not all actually taken in London, but why not open it up to all fungi worldwide right? see if you can identify them and vote for your favorites:

spotted in a cemetery in the Faroe Islands

Stonegrove park in Edgware, north London

Well4ever Clinic Putney: A Very BIG Thank You

2011-10-09T12:43:00.003+01:00

Well4ever Clinic Putney: A Very BIG Thank You: Hello everybody, We wanted to say a HUGE thanks to everyone who came down to Well4ever on Friday the 30th of September to join us in the 'World's Biggest Coffee Morning' for Macmillan Cancer Support.

Beautiful sunshine 28C , happy smiles and delicious cakes made for a fun event for everyone! read more...

Coffee Morning at Well4ever - Raffle Prizes!

2011-09-28T20:00:00.002+01:00

Well4ever Clinic Putney: Coffee Morning at Well4ever - Raffle Prizes!: Hi ppl, Just 2 days to go to the World's biggest coffee morning, or at least putney's biggest ;) I want to quickly announce the prizes ...

Well4ever Clinic Putney: World's Biggest Coffee Morning at Well4ever

2011-09-27T17:07:00.002+01:00

Well4ever Clinic Putney: World's Biggest Coffee Morning at Well4ever: You're all invited to join us at Well4ever on Friday the 30th September 2011 between 10am - 1pm. This is the first year we are hosting this ...

9000 Needles Documentary Film - A Family's Acupuncture Journey To Stroke Recovery

2011-06-19T18:54:00.006+01:00

You don't get to see acupuncture, herbs and Chinese medicine feature in too many movies unless like me you're partial to Kung fu films, Hong Kong cinema and Chinese historical epics. So I feel I must share with you this acupuncture documentary that I seen recently, its called 9000 Needles, and I'll let you know why later though I think you can guess.

This isn't a Jet Li joint, a Jackie Chan day in a life or anything like that, but a real story of a real guy called Devin Dearth, a 40 year old father of 3, who has a brain stem bleed and is told he'll probably never walk again.

The American health care system being broken, his insurance company wont pay for his rehab and the only option left for his family is to take him to China and try a rehab program in a Teaching Hospital in Tianjin, China.

This is an emotional story of a family going through some really tough times, and shows the sheer determination and strength of the human spirit to cope and fight thru. You'll cry with his family and cheer him on as he makes progress, and you get a chance to see him go thru the treatment which includes lots of acupuncture, Chinese herbs, cupping, bleeding, herbal soaks, tui na, physical therapy and more.

His Chinese doctors are absolutely brilliant, they kinda remind me of some of my teachers, and they poke him with 9157 needles in his 3 months stay, there or thereabouts, hence the name.

You can see 9000 Needles on the big screen at the Colchester Arts Centre, for one night only! Friday July 8th 2011 at 19:30 for £10 Check it out!

Here is a 5 minute cut from the film and thanks to Devin and the entire Dearth family for the inspiration.

Mushrooms in London

2011-05-29T18:32:00.004+01:00

Got some really cool fungi pics of some polypores from Eva she took last week on a walk with Robin in North London that I want to share with you.

I think they are polyporus squamosus, also known as Dryad's Saddle, though they could probably pass for polyporus craterellus, have a look at these images and see what you think, your comments appreciated.

Also, maybe we can start a new thread here, after the storm last week, and with this being a Bank Holiday weekend, you may find yourself taking a walk in the park or camping out in nature, why not take a pic of the mushrooms you spot and email me or post'em in comments, and we can all try (all 12 of us ;) to identify them and vote for the best ones.

The winner will get Paul Stamets book, Mycelium Running, which I mentioned in the last post.

ps. RIP Gil Scott-Heron, a true legend.

Gil Scott - Heron

How mushrooms can save the world

2011-05-02T15:24:00.008+01:00

Reishi Mushroom (Ling Zhi)

As you know, as an herbalist i use and recommend mushrooms to my patients at clinic very regularly, sometimes as a food like some of the tastier ones Shiitake and Chanterelles, other times as tinctures or powders or capsules of the mushroom mycelium like the Reishi, Cordyceps & Kombucha for their powerful beneficial effects on our immune system and as natural antibiotics and antivirals. I will discuss all of the above in detail in future posts.

I think it makes sense that this first herbal post will give props to the first species to move from the oceans to land, as the gateway species about 1.3 billion years ago. As Paul Stamets says fungi have always survived the extinction cycles on earth because they can survive in the dark, they are the grand molecular disassemblers in nature: they break down plants, minerals and animals into soil, they sequester CO2 and have an amazing healing effect not only on the human body but on the environment they inhabit on a global scale.

Old Growth Forest Agarikon mushroom

There is nobody better to explain this than Paul himself, who is a true visionary and greenovator, also known as the mushroom guy for his incredible work with mushroom mycelium and fungi. His work, patents, and research has huge implications in vast fields from medicine: in treatment of smallpox, pandemic avian flus, H5N1, on the one hand, all the way to cleaning up environmental brown fields and disasters such as the oil gulf spill of last year or the Japanese nuclear plant radioactive cleanup efforts right now! Note especially his work with rare Old Growth Forest's mushroom Agarikon (Fomitopsis officinalis) - the one in the picture is about 50 years old from a forest in the pacific northwest of United States.

For more info go to Paul's website www.fungi.com
or read his book Mycelium Running: How Mushrooms Can Help Save The World
'This book is a manual for the mycological rescue of the planet...the mycorestoration revolution'.

As for video you can find his talks on youtube, but i really like his talk on Ted:
Paul Stamets on 6 ways mushrooms can save the world | Video on TED.com

Water H2O

2011-03-27T17:51:00.005+01:00

Just realized that it was world water day this week on march 22nd so though i usually stick to acupuncture herbs and chinese medicine i think this deserves a mention.

If you've ever been to clinic you'll know we always offer you water when you come in, and encourage you to drink more water when you emerge from your acu-bubble back to your busy life :)

As much as i love acupuncture and herbs, we can actually survive without them, but a week without water and we're pretty much gone. Water is the one thing that we can't do without, all 7 billion of us. So let me give you a few interesting water facts:

A quarter of the worlds population is without safe drinking water.
Less than 1% of the water treated by public water systems is used for drinking and cooking.
In the time it took you to read these first three facts another child has just died in the developing world from unsafe drinking water.
Water makes up 75% of the human brain. 75% of trees are also made from water!
You could live for a month without food, but you would be dead after a week without water!
Once it evaporates, a water molecule spends around ten days in the air.
97% of the worlds water is salty or otherwise undrinkable, 2% is stored in glaciers and the ice caps, the remaining 1% is left for humanity's needs.

check out water-treatment.org.uk for more info...

If you want to know/do more have a look at WaterAid's site, their London office is around the way near oval and their vision is of a world where everyone has access to safe water and sanitation.

I believe everyone should have access to safe clean water too, and i'll leave you with a couple of documentary films about water:

Flow: For Love of Water

Blue Gold: World Water Wars

In Praise of the Lowly Clinician

2011-03-19T23:12:00.005Z

been meaning to write for a while now but clinic has just been choka so been busy being an acupuncturist & herbalist, running a clinic and all the rest of it or as Jake Paul Fratkin puts it a 'lowly clinician'...
so if you'd like to know what its like and why i've been too busy to write have a read of his article in Acupuncture Today: In Praise of the Lowly Clinician

Acupuncture in London-Acupuncture Research Resources Vol.III

2010-11-28T20:29:00.006Z

Acupuncture for back pain - the evidence: from NICE to NEJM

You may have heard that NICE recommends acupuncture as the treatment choice for persistent low back pain.

So what is NICE and why are they being so nice?

NICE is The National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence (NICE), an independent body which job it is to provide guidelines to the NHS (the National Health Service in the UK) on the use of treatments and care of patients. The reason they are backing acupuncture for the first time is firstly and most importantly because it works, and secondly because its cost effective. Simples...

In the same statement NICE also: "advises against injections into the back or taking an X-ray of the lumbar spine for non-specific low back pain." So please think twice before you opt for cortisone injections into your back and consult with your GP and your Specialist to make sure it is the appropriate treatment for your condition.

Here's a link to the NICE summary page of the Low Back Pain clinical guidance statement and documents.

And if you're really interested and want to read the entire guidance document follow this one, you'll need some time for this one.

What this means for you is, if you live in the UK and suffer from low back pain, and you haven't given acupuncture a try for your back pain yet, now is the time!

You could even try and ask your GP, on that basis, if they would consider referring you and/or paying (your GP holds the CAM budget for the surgery's patients) for your course of acupuncture treatment. They might not but it doesn't hurt to ask, and remember to mention NICE guidelines :)

This guideline will be up for review in 2012 so its up to us (patients and acupuncturists) to prove that NICE made the right decision last year and continues to back acupuncture as a treatment choice for back pain, and maybe that will open their eyes to back acupuncture treatment for other conditions as well.

Acupuncture in London-Acupuncture Research Resources Vol.II

2010-11-22T02:37:00.008Z

Acupuncture for pain - the evidence. And yes, you can see it!

I recently read this article in NCCAM site on acupuncture for treatment of pain with some fascinating research into the effects of acupuncture on the brain which I'd like to share with you.

Remember the notion, pain occurs in the brain. Not where you think it hurts...

By using the most sophisticated brain imaging tech top neuroscientists and radiologists can get their hands on (fMRI, PET, MEG) they are able to see changes that occur in the hypothalamus and the amygdala, these are areas in the brain which maintain pain.

Even if these devices are not quite sophisticated enough to 'see the qi' yet, they are able to detect its effects in the brain.

The scientists involved are top researchers at the finest american institutions. What they are doing is very cool because it is these baby steps of true integrative medicine east and west that are paving the way torwards the 21st century medicine of the future.

Check out the following quote from the article:

" Qi, meridians, yin, yang. How can researchers study acupuncture, a 2,000-year-old form of traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) based on foreign concepts that seem impossible to measure, let alone define?

To Richard Nahin, Ph.D., M.P.H., NCCAM's Senior Advisor for Scientific Coordination and Outreach, the answer is obvious: "We don't necessarily have to understand the concepts of qi or meridians to study the safety or efficacy of acupuncture."

Harvard Medical School neuroscientist (and practicing acupuncturist) Vitaly Napadow, Ph.D., L.Ac., agrees. "I firmly believe that everything can be studied with the scientific method. Unfortunately, we don't currently have a 'qi meter.' So, in my research, we don't focus on meridians or qi. We take a neuroscientific approach to study how acupuncture functions through the nervous system."

" Powerful imaging techniques—fMRI (functional magnetic resonance imaging), PET (positron emission tomography), and MEG (magnetoencephalography)—are now available to reveal areas of the brain affected during pain and to map the impact of acupuncture in patients experiencing pain. "

Bruce Rosen, M.D., Ph.D., principal investigator of an NCCAM Center of Excellence on Acupuncture and Brain Activity at Harvard Medical School. "

NATIONAL INSTITUTES OF HEALTH • NATIONAL CENTER FOR COMPLEMENTARY AND ALTERNATIVE MEDICINE

Click here to read the full article in the NCCAM newsletter

Acupuncture in London-Acupuncture Research Resources Vol.I

2010-11-08T23:26:00.004Z

So can you show me some proof?
Does acupuncture do what its says on tin?

In a word, the answer to both questions is a resounding YES!

Acupuncture has been consistently and continually practiced in China and beyond for at least the last 2500 years for which we have very good evidence (and probably even much longer, but we'll leave that for a future post).

During most of that time the Chinese Doctors of the last 2 millennia collected many hundred of thousands of case studies as well as experiential and empirical knowledge of what worked and what didn't.

They had not though been as obsessed as we are in the West in RCTs (Randomised Controlled Trials) as the be all and end all of 'evidence' that the medicine is based on. So although there is indeed a huge mountain of evidence that acupuncture works its only in the last few decades that the Western methodology of testing what works in medicine has become prevalent.

That said there is a growing amount of good quality research done all over the world which I can point you towards. I'd like to start locally with our very own NHS, with whats become an annual update on acupuncture produced and collated by NHS Evidence which is a great little resource, follow the link below to check it out:

The 2010 Annual Evidence Update on Acupuncture aims to identify, organise and present all relevant systematic reviews and large-scale randomised controlled trials (RCTs) published between February 2009 and February 2010.

Yin and Yang simplified - its all about balance.

2010-10-31T11:11:00.006Z

What are Yin & Yang and how do they relate to the body?

Taijitu

As one of the fundamental theories of Chinese medicine Yin yang theory was developed circa 5th century B.C. It is based on the idea of the two opposite qualities in nature that complement each other. Like day and night, male and female, heaven (sky) and earth, hot and cold, they are interdependent in so far as they give each other meaning and one cannot exist without the other.

In nature yin and yang can be seen as the shady and sunny side respectively of a slope. Beyond that we can look to the properties yin yang have in the body like coolness and warmth, movement and stillness, inside and out, up and down. They are like the opposite sides of the same coin.

The human body is made of substance and energy, form and function, yin and yang, so every part of the body can be defined in relation to any other part.

Yin and yang in balance and working together in harmony within the human body result in optimal health. Its all about balance.

yin and yang balanced with acupuncture

What is this Qi you speak of? in under 150 words...

2010-10-17T17:14:00.012+01:00

"What is this? cheese!"

Its difficult to translate the concept of Qi or Chi into english mainly because like with most things in chinese medicine it was developed in china, thousands of years ago, from a chinese medical point of view which is full of associations and ideas that we in the west are not familiar with.

Qi is pronounced ‘chee’ (just like in the word cheese) and you can interpret it as the vital life force (or breaths) that runs through every living body, which is responsible for that constant movement from yin to yang and from yang to yin.

Qi is the basis of all phenomena in the universe, in the human body it manifests in physical and spiritual capacities as both function and energy. It is responsible for all the activities that occur in the human body, from digesting food and immune functions to blood circulation and mental activities.

What are the acupuncture channels? what are the acupuncture points?

2010-10-11T15:19:00.002+01:00

acupuncture channels and acupuncture points simplified.

Meridian theory (or jingluo), describes in detail the channel pathways and connections. It maps out the flow of Qi energy throughout the human body (check out charts). Each organ system has its meridian, along which the acupuncture points are strategically located.

Every point has its functions and indications, so by placing acupuncture needles in certain points we can access the specific pathway to the Qi that will rectify the imbalance in the system and solve the problem. In the body there are twelve 12 primary meridians and 361 acupuncture points through which the Qi flows.

Try to picture acupuncture meridians like a system of motorways that enables perfect communication and facilitates free flow of Qi, blood and information thru the body. An illness then would be an interruption or blockage of this flow. The acupoints are like junctions or exits on these motorways which, when needled, enable us to influence the flow of Qi in the body.

For example, keeping the motorways in mind, we could see a traffic jam in the Foot Tai Yang Urinary Bladder meridian manifesting as back pain. In this case, performing acupuncture on points along the UB channel unblocks the congestion and restores the smooth flow of Qi throughout the body relieving the pain in your back!

What is Acupuncture?

2010-10-10T15:46:00.023+01:00

So what is acupuncture in under 150 words...

Acupuncture is an ancient system of medicine which was developed in China over 3000 years ago. It is based on the concept of Qi (or chi) which is the vital life force that flows in our bodies through an energetic network of channels that are called meridians.

When the Qi or energy flows freely through the channels we experience health and well being. However, when the flow of energy gets blocked that is when discomfort, pain or ill health present themselves.

There is an old Chinese saying that illustrates this point well which translates: 'Pain, no free flow. Free flow, no pain'. So what we try to do with acupuncture is to restore the free flow of the Qi throughout the body. By doing that we can eliminate the symptomatic manifestations of the obstruction of energy flow, i.e. pain, discomfort etc , achieve balance and regain health.