Acupuncture in Bristol

Acupuncture for people with headaches

Posted on July 19, 2016 by charlottepaterson2013

Maybe you suffer from migraines – vicious sick headaches that send you to bed for the day; or severe tension headaches – a gripping pounding pain round your head that can last all day; or dull daily headaches- spoilers that wear you down and make life grey and tiresome. The scientific evidence for the benefits of acupuncture for migraine and tension headache is so strong that the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) has taken the unusual step of recommending acupuncture for prevention.

Each of these types of headache, and all the other types that you may experience, have a different Chinese medicine explanation. Once I have identified the underlying cause I use acupuncture not only to treat the headache but also to help you understand the cause and what part you can play in preventing future headaches. Most people are keen to cut down the painkillers as soon as they are able to, and this in itself may bring health benefits. Tablets that are prescribed to take at the start of a migraine attack can be very effective, and you can still take these if required, but I would expect acupuncture treatment to greatly reduce your need for them.

In Chinese medicine, migraine headache, often accompanied by vomiting and eye symptoms, is usually due to a sudden rush of Yang energy up to the head. This is called ‘Liver Yang Rising’ and it is due to the Yin and Yang aspects of Qi getting out of balance. An underlying lack of Yin makes the Yang unstable and then stress, usually a strong or repressed emotion, agitates the Qi further and sets off a sudden rise of Yang. In women, Yang rises particularly easily just before a period. Another pattern is that a heavy week of work depletes the Yin further and Yang rises once the body relaxes – those weekend migraines for example. Migraine is more likely in certain constitutions than others- in Five Element terms a Wood constitution links to the liver, which is the seat of this particular Yin-Yang imbalance. Do note that this doesn’t mean there is anything wrong with your liver in everyday or Western medicine terms. The Chinese medicine liver is different – it is closely associated with the eyes (hence the eye symptoms) and the liver channel runs up through the stomach and throat to the head (hence the vomiting). It can also get out of balance in other ways that cause a variety of other type of headaches. I use acupuncture to strengthen your Qi, especially the liver Yin, keep the Qi flowing freely and calm the emotions to help you deal with any stress. If you are interested in playing your own part in the treatment I can advise you about diet and we can try and find ways for you to make small adjustments to your life to bring it into a better balance.

Not all severe or persistent headaches are due to problems in the liver meridian. Another common complaint is a think, heavy, muzzy headache that makes it difficult to concentrate, especially in the morning. This may be due to the body accumulating what Chinese medicine calls ‘Damp’, which means that your Qi is not bright clear energy circulating up to the head, but is Qi that is thicker and moves more slowly and downwards. There are many different causes of Damp – I have written about it in some other of my blogs- and it is usually accompanied by general tiredness. Acupuncture can help to clear the Damp and treat the underlying weakness or imbalance, but the headaches may be slower to clear than migraines.

Maybe your headache is more of a dull empty kind of pain that is on the top or front of your head and gets worse as the day goes on, especially if you are very busy. This type of pain is due to an underlying weakness of blood or Qi. In women who have periods, the regular loss of blood makes blood deficiency quite common and the headache is often worse after a period. Pregnancy and childbirth, and/or sustained periods of overwork, make this worse and overwork may also weaken your kidney Qi…. said to give a feeling like an ‘empty head’. Acupuncture, a good diet and finding some time to rest will not only relieve your headache but also give you back some zest and enthusiasm for life.

People with headaches are rewarding to treat. I start with wanting to know everything about you (!), then I examine your pulses and look at your tongue, and then solve the puzzle of why you are having a headache. That usually leads to very effective acupuncture treatment and greatly improved well-being.

Posted in Damp, emotion, Headache, stress, Yin and Yang | Tagged blood deficiency, cause of disease, migraine, overwork, tension headache, Wood element | Comments Off

Acupuncture Summer Offer!

Posted on July 13, 2016 by charlottepaterson2013

Summer is the season of expansive energy, joy and preparation for a fruitful harvest. It is in this spirit that I am making a special offer to encourage new patients to experience the benefits of acupuncture.

THREE ACUPUNCTURE SESSIONS FOR £70

Acupuncture is helpful to people with a wide range of health problems and can be used alongside Western medicine or used when Western medicine is ineffective or unacceptable.

The first appointment must be before August 27^th. Please telephone or email me for further details or to ask questions. More details on my website at https://charlotteacupuncture.co.uk.

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged special offer | Comments Off

Exercise your body and mind to keep your Qi flowing.

Posted on July 13, 2016 by charlottepaterson2013

How much exercise should I do? Do you want to keep healthy but feel confused by all the different advice that doctors give you? Chinese medical advice is based on three principles: ‘moderation in all things’, ‘we are all different’ and ‘listen to your body’. The right amount and type of exercise will help to keep your Qi (vital energy) flowing so that your body and mind function well and your spirit is strong and peaceful. The Chinese medical classics, written around 2000 years ago, stress the importance of ‘self-cultivation’ and encourage exercising the mind as well as the body. It is only our recent concern with preventing dementia that has brought us back to that understanding.

‘Moderation in all things’ means that I am concerned about people taking too much exercise as well as them taking too little. Regular gentle exercise is good for everyone. It helps to keep our Qi and blood flowing round our body, bringing nutrients and energy to all our tissues and clearing away unwanted substances. Stuck or stagnant Qi makes us susceptible to bodily pain (in muscles, joints, bowels etc), to unclear thinking, and to feeling stuck emotionally (in sadness, resentment, anxiety etc). However, excessive exercise or physical work, weakens our Qi and blood and can exacerbate fatigue, anxiety, insomnia, fertility problems and also lowers our resistance to infections. Similarly with mental exertion – keeping our minds stimulated and active is important but intensive mental work without regular breaks weakens our Qi and our energy reserves.

‘We are all different’ – each of us will benefit from different levels and types of exercise and this will vary at different times in our lives. Some people have constitutions that need vigorous exercise like running, gym workouts or dancing to keep their Qi flowing, whereas others feel better with gentler sustained exercise such as walking, gardening or yoga. Chinese medicine encourages us to live in balance with the seasons, so that we should be more active in the Spring and more restful in the Winter. We should also adjust our activity according to our age and to our general state of health. Mind-body practices, such as Qi Gong and Tai Chi are an integral part of Chinese Medicine and have the advantage of being suitable for everyone and cultivating both the body and the mind.

As an acupuncturist I am able to give patients individualised advice that is based on my assessment of their constitution, the state of their Qi and blood, and the balance of Yin and Yang. In addition, I advise everyone to ‘listen to your body’. Once we learn to do this we ourselves can work out how best to exercise our body and mind and adjust that appropriately. For example, I have patients who know the best way to get rid of stress and anxiety is to go for a brisk walk and others who recognise that a headache is a sign that they need to stop work and relax. Often it is easier to act on this knowledge if we share it with others – arranging to go for a swim with a friend, or enlisting a partner to help you sit down and stop working. As for keeping our minds active, learning a new craft or area of knowledge is effective and enjoyable. I certainly found that was the case when I studied Chinese medicine and acupuncture – it made my brain ache initially but it continues to fascinate and impress me!

Posted in Chinese medical classics, exercise, mind body spirit, Qi Gong and Tai Chi | Tagged cause of disease, keep Qi flowing, keeping healthy, overwork | Comments Off

Healthy eating: scientific evidence supports Chinese medicine recommendations

Posted on April 26, 2016 by charlottepaterson2013

Chinese medicine advice on healthy eating, handed down over thousands of years, is now being supported by the latest scientific research. Take the research into the ‘microbiome’, for example. The term microbiome is used to describe the 100 trillion microbes (one cell organisms such as bacteria) that live within us. These bacteria are necessary for us to properly digest our food and stay healthy. The type of diet that damages them – too much fat and not enough fibre – is known in Chinese medicine to cause what they term Damp. Damp comes from weakened digestion and is a common cause of low energy, arthritis and recurrent infections. Eating plenty of food that is fresh rather than processed, eating local and seasonal vegetables and fruit for fibre, and whenever possible avoiding antibiotics, will all support your microbiome and reduce your Damp. Onions are great for feeding your microbiome!

Chinese medicine also stresses that we should chew our food well – ‘the stomach has no teeth’. Modern research has highlighted the importance of saliva as the first stage of digestion. Our body produces a litre of saliva a day and by chewing our food slowly we mix it with the saliva and start digesting it. Without chewing and saliva, we miss an important part of the digestive process. This is important for all of us, but especially if you have indigestion or other stomach problems.

Another Chinese medicine recommendation is to eat regular meals and avoid snacking, so that the stomach has time to rest in between meals. We now know that it is while it is resting that the gut produces important chemicals such as serotonin. Insufficient serotonin causes certain types of depression and this knowledge is the basis for many anti-depressant drugs. Production of enough serotonin is also linked to avoiding too much added sugar in our diet. Sugar, in the form of fructose, binds to a chemical called tryptophan which is a precursor (i.e. is part of the chain of production) for serotonin. So too much fructose binds to the tryptophan and stops it going on to form serotonin. Problems such as depression have many different causes, but it appears that following the recommendations of Chinese medicine may play an important part in preventing it.

I am not surprised that these recommendations, formulated thousands of years ago, are being supported by recent biomedical research. They were developed through careful observation and analysis of many many patients and refined over many years. And I have seen myself how health can improve in many different ways if they are followed. I am grateful to Danny Blyth for some of this information and recommend the brilliant easy to read book Chinese Dietary Wisdom by him and Greg Lampert.

Posted in Chinese medical classics, Damp, diet, Digestive and bowel problems | Tagged eating habits, microbiome | Comments Off

Loss of smell and taste- a Chinese medicine perspective

Posted on April 7, 2016 by charlottepaterson2013

Losing the sense of smell and/or taste is much worse than it sounds. The two senses are connected and usually, but not always, both are affected together. Acupuncture can be helpful for both. Some people lose their sense of smell after an accident or a surgical operation, or after a serious problem with their nose, and some people just lose it more gradually. Recent newspaper articles have described the different ways that people experience and deal with the problem and there is a charity called Fifth Sense which offers support and advice. As effective treatment seems hard to come by, I thought I would tell you about the positive effects of acupuncture and Chinese Medicine.

In Chinese medicine theory, which is quite different to Western Medicine, the sense of taste is related to the digestive system and the Earth element (in terms of the Five Elements). The sense of smell is related to the lung and the Metal Element, and is also affected by any imbalance that leads to an excess of phlegm (and the Chinese concept of Damp). Both the patients that have experienced a return of taste and smell with acupuncture treatment, had a weakness in their Earth Element. Neither of them came for treatment because of their loss of smell and taste, but both were really surprised and delighted when it returned. One woman came for problems with energy, sleep and emotional upset and I used acupuncture to reduce Damp and strengthen her Earth element. Her sense of smell had become faint and she described her taste as ‘metallic’. Although neither were top priority for her, she reveled in their gradual return to normal. The second woman also had a variety of physical problems and I found a weakness in both her Earth and Metal elements. I strengthened her Earth using acupuncture and also treated her lung-related meridians with acupuncture and moxa. In between treatments she used the moxa stick herself at home and she found a new delight in life as her senses returned. They are still somewhat variable, and disappear when she has a cold, but her continuing self-help with moxa keeps them coming back. Both of these patients took about eight weeks of treatment before seeing improvement in their smell and taste.

I am sure that acupuncture will not be so effective for everyone, but it has great potential if the loss is not congenital or a result of major trauma. Also, as I will need to treat the whole person, you are likely to feel other benefits along the way.

Posted in Damp, Five element acupuncture, self-help | Tagged anosmia, sense of smell, sense of taste | Comments Off