June 2010
Many of my patients are women coming for treatment during pregnancy for the various issues that can arise over the course of those nine months. But often people are unaware of how Chinese medicine, in particular acupuncture, can help.
Acupuncture can be helpful at this time when many conventional medicines cannot be used given the restrictions limiting what medicines you can take and what foods you can eat during pregnancy. Some Chinese herbal medicines can still be taken during pregnancy - in Chinese medicine there is a very long tradition documenting which herbs can be used during pregnancy and which should be avoided - but care should be taken and in general acupuncture is often preferred.
Below I've listed a few of the main conditions for which acupuncture is commonly used.
| First Trimester | Morning sickness | |
| Fatigue | ||
| Recurrent infections |
| Second Trimester | Heartburn | |
| Constipation | ||
| Digestive problems | ||
| Insomnia and fatigue |
| Third Trimester | Back pain | |
| Pelvic pain | ||
| Haemorrhoids | ||
| Oedema |
| Final Stages | Preparation for birth | |
| Breech presentation | ||
| Inducing labour | ||
| Anxiety |
If you have any questions about this or would like more information about treatment for a particular condition please give me a call on 07891 602 916 or email enquiries@leodening.com.
May 2010
Research reported in the mainstream media at the start of this month, introduced us to the idea of 'green exercise' and how beneficial this can be to our mood and self esteem. 'Green exercise' simply means exercising in green spaces outdoors.
In qigong teachings, the benefits of exercising in the natural world have long been stressed. Both this research and many qigong teachings also indicate that benefits are enhanced if you exercise near water, be it streams, lakes, rivers or the mighty ocean.
April 2010
With the election looming, the thing that strikes me again and again is what is not being discussed - how the enormous budget deficit is going to be tackled.
Looking at this from a traditional Chinese perspective, I think we must realise that like any other system, the economic system does not exist in a vacuum - we cannot single out part of it independent of the whole. By this I mean, it would be foolish to focus solely on the actions of the financial industry without examining the part we, the consumers, play. Several authors more knowledgeable than I have looked at this. In particular in the field of behavioural economics academics have explained that we don't always act as rational beings when making economic choices, but instead follow emotional and other seemingly irrational drivers.
As with Chinese medicine, not only do we need to tackle the current financial situation, but we also need to understand and address the causes and conditions that brought it about, and perhaps that might involve us the general public taking more responsibilities for our decisions.
March 2010
People may be getting used to the idea that our mental and emotional states can affect our physiology, as there is plenty of evidence for this. But some interesting studies documented in this week's New Scientist look at the mind-body question from a different perspective.
In one of these studies which I found particularly interesting students were simply asked to move marbles from a box on a higher shelf to one on a lower shelf, or vice-versa, while talking about events that had positive or negative emotional significance - such as a time when they were proud or ashamed of themselves. The study found that the students were significantly faster at retrieving and retelling stories that were aligned metaphorically with either the 'positive' action of raising marbles up or the 'negative' action of taking marbles down. Furthermore when asked neutral questions, such as to recall incidents from the previous day, students moving marbles upwards were more likely to report positive experiences and students moving marbles down more likely to report negative experiences.
Studies like this appear to show the way the mind operates seems to be inseparable from the body.
While this kind of research may sound contrived, one thing that about them that particularly appeals to me is that they focus on the unity of body and mind rather than the influence the mind might have on the body.
Perhaps as these kind of studies become more plentiful and their results widely known, they could potentially help us move from an idea of the mind and body as two separate entities, past the idea of the mind and body as interdependent but separate, until we eventually arrive a worldview in which cognitive, emotional or physical phenomena are regarded as being simply different viewpoints of the whole human organism.
February 2010
For me, this month marks the beginning of my London practice. I am now practising Chinese medicine including acupuncture in Chelsea. I am working from the Chelsea Natural Health Clinic on the Fulham Road. It's a bit of return to my roots as I grew up in South West London and I'm very exited to be developing my practice in London. I will still be practising in Bath, my adopted home, as well.
January 2010
A bit of a rant this month I'm afraid. Listening to 'Any Questions?' on radio four last month there was a question about NHS funding for alternative therapies. And I was a little disappointed, but not entirely surprised, by some of the panellists' responses. I was particularly concerned that some of them:
- treated all possible alternative medicines as if they were all equally effective or ineffective;
- contended that there is no evidence base at all for any alternative medicines;
- but yet contended that all western medical drugs and procedures have a reliable evidence base.
However, fortunately a GP called in to raise just these points on 'Any Answers?' (the programme for public response to the original programme).
In particular one of the panellists, Ben Goldacre, who holds himself out as a scientist determined to shed light on 'bad science' seems to have fallen for the old trick that statisticians would refer to as 'mistaking absence of evidence for evidence of absence'. Essentially, a lack of scientific evidence for something does not mean that it does not exist; it may merely mean that the research has not been carried out.
Putting this into context: in the west at least, I think it is fair to say that funding for most medical research comes from the large pharmaceutical companies. Since there is no real benefit for them in funding research into treatments like acupuncture and herbal medicine, where the interventions cannot easily be replicated and mass-produced, they understandably have no real motivation for doing so. And as most people practising alternative medicine are sole practitioners with small businesses, there is little scope for them to carry out the necessary research themselves.
Going back to the 'Any Questions?' programme and media coverage of Chinese medicine in general, unfortunately, as the saying goes, the empty vessel makes the most noise; it is often those with least understanding and knowledge of a subject who put forward their opinions most loudly. It is so rare to hear someone say those wisest of words - 'I don't know'.
December 2009
The Tao Te Jing (the book at the heart of Taoism which has had a major influence on Chinese culture and in particular on Chinese medicine) is directed mainly at individuals but also concerns itself to a degree with principles of governance. Taking a simple example, it states 'If a country is governed wisely its inhabitants will be content...' And it was of this that I was reminded when some recently published research into homicide rates caught my eye a few days ago.
The research, carried out by a professor at Ohio State University, appeared to show a correlation over time between murder rates and peoples' views about the legitimacy of their government and how much they identify with their fellow citizens. Very simplistically, the more content people are with their government, the lower murder rate tends to be. The professor found this after analysing data from the past 400 years in the United States and Western Europe.
Previous theories concerning which factors may have the greatest influence on murder rates - from social causes such as poverty and unemployment to the effect of punitive, supposedly deterrent measures such as capital punishment - have all seemed to fall down when looked at over the long term.
To give a bit more detail, according to the author of the research the predisposition to murder is rooted in feelings and beliefs people have toward government and their fellow citizens. In the West, the individual is generally regarded as the core unit of society and we tend to try to find the causes for the ills of society at an individual level, by considering what makes individuals act in certain ways. But this research highlights that sometimes it can be useful to look at these things from a broader perspective.
Just to be clear, I'm in no way suggesting that countries like China which have developed from this different cultural base are currently better governed than Britain or the States. As it says elsewhere in the Tao Te Jing 'If a country is governed with tolerance the people are comfortable and honest. If a country is governed with repression, the people are depressed and crafty'.
October/November 2009
My attention over the past couple of months has been taken up in part with responding to a Department of Health consultation into whether practitioners of acupuncture, herbal medicine and traditional Chinese medicine should be subject to statutory regulation.
In this age where people complain of over-regulation, you may be surprised to learn that my own view - shared by many of those who practice herbal medicine in this country - is that statutory regulation is the best way forward. This is mainly because from April 2011, as a result of some changes to European law, unregulated practitioners will no longer be able to prescribe herbal medicines in the form of powders, granules, capsules and pills etc. which have been pre-prepared by third parties. So, unless practitioners have the facilities to prepare these kinds of medicines themselves - which as you can imagine is prohibitively expensive for most sole practitioners - they will only be able to give patients loose herbs to boil up and then only if they keep a fully stocked herbal pharmacy.
Until recently it seemed to be a question of 'when' not 'if' the profession would be regulated. But, whether because of financial concerns or otherwise, it now seems to gave slipped lower down the government's agenda and the Department of Health appears to be looking for reasons to justify not introducing regulation. The Chinese herbal medicine profession is currently lobbying hard to secure statutory regulation but it remains to be seen whether, in the current political climate with the focus on improving the economy and with an impending general election, we will succeed or this will be left by the wayside.
September 2009
Regular visitors to this website may have noticed two new additions this month. The first is my 'testimonials' page - an opportunity for me to share some comments and feedback from previous patients.
The second and more fundamental addition is the page giving details about my new low cost 'acupuncture only' service. This is a new service aimed specifically at conditions that can be treated in a straightforward way with acupuncture - for example back pain, joint pain and headaches - which usually require a more standard treatment meaning that the whole consultation process can be shorter, more streamlined and therefore less expensive.
So if you'd like to give feedback or want any further information about my new low cost service, get in touch.
August 2009
We've been hearing a lot recently about how the Met Office got their summer predictions wrong. Everyone's expectations were raised back in April that this would be a hot and dry summer, but we have so far been mainly disappointed.
When the Met Office recently revised their prediction, I was reminded of something I heard on the radio when the initial predictions were released. A natural forecaster who uses traditional methods for predicting the weather was being interviewed and, when asked what his predictions for the summer were, suggested it would actually be, at least in part, along the same lines as the previous few years. His standpoint was that it would be very unusual for it to be suddenly hot and dry for the whole summer after two years of extraordinarily wet weather. So while us optimists live in hope that we are still set for a scorcher later in August, so far the traditional methods have proved more accurate.
And while this disappoints me on the one hand, it also interests me; sometimes traditional knowledge can trump the latest cutting edge science.
Enjoy the summer!
July 2009
Continuing on the theme of research into Chinese medicine, this month saw the publication of several interesting studies relating to Chinese medicine, and in particular my attention was drawn to a couple which concerned women's health issues.
The first found that that certain forms of acupuncture can help in polycystic ovarian syndrome (PCOS) by decreasing activity of the sympathetic nervous system (a branch of the autonomic nervous system). This decrease is important because the raised sympathetic nerve activity that occurs in PCOS is a causative factor in insulin resistance, raised blood insulin, obesity and cardiovascular disease. In the study acupuncture also helped regulate the menstrual cycles of the participants, as well as reducing their testosterone levels and waist circumference - high testosterone and a large waist circumference both being risk factors in cardiovascular diseases.
The other study was a systematic review of research into the use of Chinese herbal medicine for endometriosis. The authors found evidence to suggest that Chinese herbal medicine could reduce the symptoms of endometriosis at a level comparable to standard Western treatment. However significantly they also found that Chinese herbal medicine typically resulted in fewer side effects than conventional drug treatment.
So that's more welcome and encouraging news.
Click here for previous journal entries.