As followers of my blog will know, the Greenwich Natural Health Centre has been sponsoring the training of a guide dog called Cally. I received an update over the weekend that she has now moved onto advanced training and that she has been matched with her new owner. The next step is for them to … Read more

“We have two ears and one mouth so that we can listen twice as much as we speak.” Epictetus (first century Stoicist philosopher)

I was sad to learn of the death of Kevin Baker, who co-authored with Peter Deadman the seminal textbook of acupuncture in the west, ‘A Manual of Acupuncture’. Born in 1953, Kevin qualified in medicine from Cambridge University and St George’s Hospital Medical School in 1979 and went on to specialise in accident and emergency … Read more

An American study published in 2015 has found that electroacupuncture has a significant and long-lasting effect in chronic hypertensive patients. Sixty-five patients with mild to moderate high blood pressure and who were not receiving medication were assigned randomly into two groups. They were then treated once a week for eight weeks with electroacupuncture. One group … Read more

A Chinese study in 2015 found that both acupuncture and moxibustion had a positive impact in patients diagnosed with irritable bowek syndrome.Benefits were measured in both subjective symptom scores and objective measurement scales. 82 patients were randomly divided into acupuncture and moxibustion groups for treatment and received treatment for four weeks. Both the acupuncture and … Read more

A BBC programme shown last year called ‘Trust Me I’m a Doctor’ involved an A&E doctor at St Thomas’ Hospital in south London, Dr Salehya Ahsan, undergoing a MRI while having an acupuncture treatment. She received acupuncture on just one point on her hand called Large Intestine 4, or He Gu. The experience nvolved specific … Read more

A few words about a charity concert taking place in south London on Saturday 14th November… Did you know that giving to charity not only makes us happier, but can help lower our blood pressure, too? Well, here is a way to end your week by improving your health: I am organising a fundraiser to … Read more

There is ever-increasing clinical evidence of how effective acupuncture can be in the treatment of allergic rhintis. A 2015 Australian study involved 175 patients who received actual acupuncture treatment or sham acupuncture. The sham acupuncture involved superficial needling of non-acupuncture points without stimulation. All patients had been previously diagnosed with allergic rhinitis and had been … Read more

This is a common, itchy skin disease with erythema & vesicles, which may lead to weeping & crusting. It is endogenous/constitutional – as opposed to dermatitis, although the terms are often interchanged in some contexts. Atopic eczema affects up to twenty per cent of the population & is linked in occurrence with asthma & hay … Read more

One more important aspect of the traditional Chinese approach to mental-emotional disorders has been the association between mental illness, as well as developmental disorders, with inheritance and defective congenital connections. It was believed that they were indicators of bad spirits along the ancestral line and were therefore a source of great shame. It was something … Read more