Depression & Acupuncture

Although we all experience a low mood from time to time, these feelings usually last for perhaps a few days and soon after we “re-boot” and get back to our positive selves once again. For someone with depression however, the ability to re-boot and get back to oneself is often a seemingly impossible task. According to a study in 2008 by the World Health Organization (WHO), it is predicted that by the year 2020 depression will be second only to heart disease as an international health burden.

Although there are many factors that contribute to depression, depression is believed to be the result of chemical imbalances in the brain, especially low levels of the neurotransmitter serotonin. Depression is characterized by chronic or recurring symptoms of low mood, irritability, anxiety, insomnia, poor appetite, weight change, fatigue, lack of motivation, loss of libido, aches and pains, an inability to concentrate as well as black emotional episodes and suicidal thoughts.

Obviously not every person with depression will exhibit all of these symptoms. Indeed, depression is commonly divided into three subdivisions of mild, moderate and severe. Acupuncture treatment therefore will depend on the types and severity of symptoms of each person’s depression.

Many people looking to treat their depression turn to Acupuncture and I have treated many such people down through the years. Similar to the actions of anti-depressants, Acupuncture treatment helps to release serotonin in the brain and alleviate symptoms. As a stand alone therapy, Acupuncture, along with other physically therapies such as Massage, is very helpful in successfully treating mild to moderate depressive symptoms. In tandem with Acupuncture & Massage, I often advise exercise and dietary changes also as a way to eliminate and alleviate symptoms.

In cases of severe depression, people who look to Acupuncture for treatment are chronic sufferers and will be on anti-depressant drugs and/or undergoing psychotherapy. In severe depression, Acupuncture has an additive benefit and can be safely combined with conventional medical treatments, helping to reduce their side effects and enhance their therapeutic effects. Many long suffering clients have reported to me that the addition of Acupuncture to their treatment programs has significantly improved their symptoms and reduced the severity, length and frequency of any depressive episodes they have suffered in the past.

If you feel that Acupuncture is something for you in dealing with your depression please don’t hesitate to call us to find out more and to make an appointment.

Pregnancy & Acupuncture

Many conditions which routinely crop up during pregnancy are eminently treatable using Acupuncture. In my clinic, I treat woman regularly for pregnancy related symptoms such as morning sickness, back pain, pelvic pain, headaches, tiredness, heartburn, constipation, depression and anxiety as well as high or low blood-pressure. Acupuncture has also been shown to be particularly good at stopping bleeding or spotting in the early months of pregnancy.

Acupuncture is a safe treatment for both you and your baby throughout your pregnancy. Even when there are no problems associated with your pregnancy, intermittent sessions of acupuncture can do wonders for energy levels as well as keeping you and baby well and healthy as your pregnancy progresses. A healthy mother-to-be is better for baby and means uncomfortable symptoms are far less likely to occur.

Moxibustion (a form of gentle heat treatment) is an adjunct to Acupuncture and is very successful treatment for turning breech babies. Often times I have found that just 1 or 2 treatments are all that is needed.

Acupuncture has also been proven effective in clinical trials in helping induce labor after baby’s due date has passed. There are several considerations here in terms of the health of mother and baby and I only use such treatments in consultation with a client’s obstetrician. Treatment is very mild and, when successful, usually results in the beginnings of labor 24 to 48 hours after treatment.

If you are experiencing morning sickness or other difficulties at any time during your pregnancy, please don’t hesitate to call for more information and make an appointment.

Pain & Acupuncture

In my clinic, pain is perhaps the most common complaint that I treat and is one of the main reasons that people seek Acupuncture or Massage treatment. It’s rare for a client not to present without some form of pain, be it an acute pain from a recent injury, or a chronic pain that has persisted periodically over months and years.

Acupuncture is an excellent analgesic and can treat many types and severities of pain almost anywhere in the body. It has been proven effective by the WHO in the treatment of a wide range of pain related ailments including lower back pain, sciatica, rheumatoid arthritis, headache, period pains, facial pain and tennis elbow.

In cases of acute pain (sports or occupational injury, knee pain, whiplash etc.), or a particular strong episode in a chronic condition (migraine, period pains, arthritis, fibromyalgia etc.), I treat clients regularly (sometimes daily) in order to bring relief and the pain under control. In chronic pain problems, a less intense treatment strategy is devised which can last over several weeks or months.

Acupuncture is safe to use while taking over the counter medicines such Tylenol or Ibuprofen, or prescription pain killers such as Narcotics and Corticosteroids.

Pain can be both physically and emotionally debilitating. Restrictive or loss of movement due to pain can have serious consequences on your ability to earn, enjoy family time and lead an active, fulfilling life. Living with chronic pain can lead to drug dependency, anxiety and depression. Although treatment is not required for every little ache and pain we may feel, persistent or periodical bouts of pain should never be ignored. Starting Acupuncture treatment or massage earlier is ideal, but at no matter what stage you may find yourself when dealing with a pain issue, it’s never too late to get started.

If you suffer pain from an injury or as part of a medical condition and you’d like to find out more about the effectiveness of Acupuncture in dealing with a whole range of painful disorders, please don’t hesitate to call and make an appointment.

Lower Back Pain & Acupuncture

Lower back pain (lumbago) is such a common complaint that not a day goes by in my clinic where I don’t treat it. It’s estimated that as many as 80%- 85% of us will have some sort of back pain at one time or another in our lifetime.

There are many types and causes to lower back pain. The vast majority of the types of back pain I treat are muscle pain and stiffness through injury, over exercise or trauma, trapped nerves, sciatica, pain due to herniated discs, post-surgical pain and pain that comes from age, being over weight, menstrual problems and women in late pregnancy.

Relief from back pain can be very quick. In acute, intense cases such as from sciatic pain or herniated discs, Acupuncture treatment is necessarily frequent, usually involving a course over several days. Chronic back pain is also incredibly common and in these cases a more medium to long term course of treatment is more appropriate to help eliminate pain and bring about in many cases, a long lasting recovery.

Here at Wisdom for Health we endeavor to provide you with the best treatment possible for your complaint. In some cases of back pain, Acupuncture is most effective. At other times, Massage, and at other times a combination of both provides the best results. We will always advise you as to what is the best course of treatment to take.

If you suffer from lumbago, lower back pain, or sciatic pain, please don’t hesitate to call us for more information and to make an appointment.

Headaches & Acupuncture

Headaches are sometimes a self-inflicted nuisance, the result of a boozy night out celebrating. By and large these odd (they should be rare!) excesses should have no lasting effects on our general health & well being. That said however, strong, persistent or regular headaches should never be ignored.

I have had many years treating many types of headache with Acupuncture either as a primary complaint or as a symptom of another underlying illness. The main types of headache I have treated successfully over the years are:

Tension headaches (also called chronic daily headaches)
Migraine headache (One-sided headaches with nausea and light sensitivity)
Sinus headaches (Pain in area of cheeks and brow with other sinus symptoms such as nasal discharge)
Combination headaches (Symptoms of several types of headaches with varying characteristics such as intense, sharp, dull and throbbing)
Cluster headaches (frequent intense, hot painful headaches, usually situated behind the eye)Headaches can be a sign of very serious ailments such as a tumor so if you have been suffering frequent headaches like any of the ones described please don’t hesitate to call and make an appointment.

Fertility & Acupuncture

Figures suggest that as many as 1 in 6 couples have difficulty in conceiving. The good news is that Acupuncture is proven to assist and increases your chances of conceiving either naturally, or in combination with other forms of fertility treatment such as IUI or IVF. I have treated many couples successfully down through the years helping them to conceive naturally or in tandem with ART (Artificial Reproductive Therapy).

Acupuncture helps increase your chances of conceiving and bringing your pregnancy to full term in several ways:

• Acupuncture is highly effective in regulating your menstrual cycle and resolving menstrual issues.
• It helps to stimulate ovulation.
• It treats many underlying conditions that may contribute to infertility such as polycystic ovaries, endometriosis, amenorrhea (scant or absent periods) and weight gain.
• It reduces the effects of stress which create hormonal disturbances and imbalances which interfere with a man or a woman’s natural rhythms.

In most cases I treat women for fertility issues. There is very little that Acupuncture can achieve in terms of a man’s sperm count or sperm mobility but it does help significantly in cases where male partners are highly stressed and need treatment for these stress related issues. The health of the father to be is always an issue in fertility issues. A consultation with the father to be therefore is something I offer and where appropriate, Acupuncture or Massage treatment, dietary and/or lifestyle changes are advised.

For women who are trying to conceive, a course of treatment that involves Acupuncture and/or massage, lifestyle & dietary advice over several cycles is usual. If treatment is successful, further treatment for the first few months of pregnancy is also the norm. This helps to reduce the risk of miscarriage and increase the chances that you will have a healthy pregnancy that will go to full term.

If you are having difficulty conceiving and would like to find out more please don’t hesitate to call us and make an appointment.

Chronic Fatigue & Acupuncture

The ability to enjoy and live life to the full starts and ends with having the energy to do it. It’s not pleasant to feel exhausted as soon as you wake from a poor night’s sleep, or find you’re running out of steam at work by lunchtime. Life need not be about dragging yourself along from one picker-upper to the next, suffering headaches, stress and low mood before finally crashing in front of the TV after another long and exhausting day.

Without sufficient energy, be it physical, mental or emotional, we lack the basic requirement to produce better, more successful and healthier lives for ourselves. We need energy to bring about the changes we’d like to happen in our health, our work situations and our home life.

A consistent feeling of fatigue can make daily life depressing, worrisome and even terrifying. And with each passing day, these feelings make it seem that your ambitions, hopes & dreams seem further and further away and less and less possible. I often treat people who suffer from daily fatigue, and find that both Acupuncture & Massage help tremendously in resolving the problem. With the new found energy that treatment brings, people’s lives change literally over night, and they begin to make healthier choices for themselves. They no longer spend the better part of their day focused on the negative. Instead of procrastinating or worrying, they concentrate their efforts and emotions into producing positive changes in their lives. The best changes they start with are exercising more and watching how they eat. They become more physically active and treat themselves to food that is well prepared, fresh and a good source of energy. These two changes alone help them not only beat their feelings of fatigue but ultimately keep them always full of energy and leading healthy, happy and successful lives.

If you feel that low energy, poor immunity and daily fatigue is something you need help with please don’t hesitate to call us to find out more and take those first steps to a better and healthier life.

Allergies & Acupuncture

I use Acupuncture regularly in treating the symptoms associated with allergies and allergic reactions such as:

• Runny nose and sneezing
• Itchy eyes
• Inflammation and irritation of the lining of the nose (Rhinitis)
• Hay fever – a layman’s term used to describe rhinitis when the nasal inflammation is caused by pollen. About 15% of people in Western countries suffer from varying degrees of hay fever.
• Hives – a skin rash which can be caused by allergies. Chronic hives (Urticaria) is usually not the result of allergic reactions.

Although Acupuncture is successful in treating the symptoms of an allergy, the way to get right to the heart of allergy treatment is two fold. First, you have to confirm whether your symptoms are the result of an allergy or not. Many of the allergic reaction symptoms I’ve listed above can have other causes and be indicative of other types of illness. Secondly, if an allergy is confirmed, where ever possible you should try to eliminate or avoid that which is causing your allergic reaction. There are many holistic and alternative health allergy tests. These tests however are not scientifically proven so here at Wisdom for Health, we don’t do any holistic allergy testing. Instead, if I have a suspicion that an allergy may be the cause of a client’s symptoms, I have them undergo a skin or blood test via their G.P. or by some other qualified health care provider. The reason for this is that although many allergies are more nuisance and irritations than anything else, allergies can be life-threatening and testing therefore needs to be done by proven means with nothing left to chance. If you’ve been diagnosed with an allergy, or you’re suffering allergic type symptoms but as yet are unsure, don’t hesitate to call and make an appointment.