The Parkinson’s Recovery Project is a non-profit organization that was established in 1998 and is dedicated to disseminating information about the cause and treatment of Parkinson’s disease using the theories and treatment modalities of Chinese medicine.

There is comprehensive information on the site, including a free book, about the treatments that are used, how effective they are and how long it may take to see the benefits.

Whilst a lot of the information is technical, in terms of Chinese medicine, it is also presented for patients to be able to understand the issues themselves. One interesting aspect is the emotional barriers that can present and obstruct the ability to effect changes.

Please contact us if you are experiencing Parkinson’s disease, or know somebody who is, and would like to explore the options available with Chinese medicine.

Perhaps quite rightly, we are not allowed in the Western world to make any claims about the effectiveness or otherwise of using Traditional Chinese Medicine and acupunture for the treatment of cancers.

However, as this reported study has shown, traditional acupuncture can help with the relief of pain resulting from chemotherapy treatments. It has also been shown to be useful in terms of the other side effects of cancer treatments such as nausea and fatigue as illustrated in this British Acupuncture Council Fact Sheet about Cancer Care, which is also available here in pdf format: Cancer_care_September_2011.

If you would like to discuss how acupuncture could help you if you are undergoing treatment for cancer then please call us at Bridgeways Clinic.

Dampness results from the failure to burn off or transform moisture in the body. The main patterns are associated with a weakness of the Spleen, but the Kidney and the Lung can also be involved. Sometimes the Dampness can take on a more sticky manifestation and it is then called Phlegm.

All Dampness is treated by strengthening the functions of the Spleen, as well as the Kidney, Lung and overall Yang energy. Phlegm can be resolved by reducing Phlegm-forming foods and the use of Phlegm-resolving foods.

Foods to avoid to reduce the formation of Dampness are:

• Dairy products (sheep and goats products are less dampening)
• Pork and rich meat
• Roasted peanuts
• Concentrated juices, especially orange and tomato
• Wheatflour
• Bread
• Yeast
• Beer
• Bananas
• Sugar and sweeteners
• Saturated fats

Foods that can help to resolve Dampness are:

• Aduki bean
• Alfalfa
• Anchovy
• Asparagus
• Barley
• Basil
• Buckwheat
• Caraway
• Cardamom
• Celery
• Clove
• Coriander
• Corn
• Garlic
• Green Tea
• Horseradish
• Jasmine Tea
• Kidney bean
• Kohlrabi
• Lemon
• Mackerel
• Marjoram
• Button Mushrooms
• Onion
• Oregano
• Parsley
• Pumpkin
• Quail
• Radish
• Rye
• Scallion
• Turnip
• Plum

The foods that can help resolve Phlegm are:

• Almond
• Apple peel
• Black pepper
• Celery
• Clam
• Garlic
• Grapefruit
• Grapefruit peel
• Lemon peel
• Licorice
• Marjoram
• Button Mushroom
• Mustard Leaf
• Mustard Seed
• Olive
• Onion
• Orange peel
• Pear
• Pepper
• Peppermint
• Persimmon
• Plantain
• Radish
• Seaweed
• Shiitake
• Shrimp
• Tangerine peel
• Tea
• Thyme
• Walnut
• Watercress

If you believe that you are affected by Dampness or Phlegm then please give us a call at Bridgeways Clinic if you would like to discuss your diet and nutrition.

Reference:

Legget, D. (2005) Helping Ourselves – A Guide to Traditional Chinese Food Energetics.

This study has been widely reported that acupuncture is a safe form of treatment for children provided it is undertaken by a suitably qualified and trained traditional acupuncturist:

Acupucture Safe for Children, review finds

We regularly treat children at Bridgeways Clinic, having been specifically trained to perform such treatments, so please Contact Us if you would like to discuss whether acupuncture could help your child.

The research for Chinese medicine is very sound when it comes to helping couples with fertility, and I have written some earlier Blogs on this subject.

As a practitioner who has a special interest in women’s health, gynaecology and fertility, I have made sure that I also understand in considerable depth the bio-medical perspectives on fertility issues.

One aspect of bio-medicine that I find particularly useful to include within any treatment strategy and plan for a female fertility client is the daily monitoring of Basal Body Temperature (BBT). The charts produced enable me to see how the 4 phases of a woman’s monthly cycle progress, and I can tailor my Chinese medicine treatments accordingly with this information available.

I prefer the client to use a proper BBT thermometer and a good model that is not too expensive can be obtained from Amazon.co.uk.

There are many ways to record the temperatures, and other signs and symptoms for fertility, during the course of the month, and there are a good number of websites and mobile phone apps to support the process. One of my clients recently introduced me to FertilityFriend.com. I like the tools and advice available from this site, and it enables the charts to be maintained using the iPhone and Blackberry devices. So this would be a useful start for any couple wanting to track their BBT and other symptoms as part of their fertility strategy.

If you have any questions about fertility issues, then please do not hesitate to contact us at Bridgeways Clinic.

It is very well known that acupuncture is effective for supporting couples undergoing IVF treatment. The typical approach that we advocate for the use of acupuncture to support IVF is a 5 Stage process. This blog describes the key points for each stage and how acupuncture is used.

Stage 1 – Preparing for IVF

This stage typically starts up to 2 months before the formal IVF process commences. It is the opportunity to resolve some of the imbalances that may exist and could have been contributing to the conception difficulties. The patterns we often find:

• Energy deficiency associated with the Kidney channel
• Blockages caused by stagnation of Qi and Blood, or Phlegm-Damp
• Infections caused by Damp-Heat.

It is also the period when we like to monitor the Basal Body Temperature (BBT) using daily recordings on a chart to examine the nature of the woman’s monthly cycle.

Stage 2 – Treatments During Down Regulation

This is typically a 10-14 day period where drugs are used to suppress the woman’s natural hormones. Whilst we continue to resolve any underlying imbalances found in Stage 1, we also can help resolve the side effects of these drugs, which can be warming and cause pain with stagnation.

Stage 3 – Treatments During the Ovulation Induction

This stage splits into 2 phases.

The first phase is the Stimulation Phase where we aim to Move Blood and Nourish Kidney Yin and Blood. We would aim for 3 or 4 treatments during this phase.

The second phase is the hCG Phase and we aim to treat the woman before and after egg collection.

Stage 4 – Treatments for Embryo Transfer

The 2 treatments during this stage are timed to be as close as possible before and after the transfer of the embryo to the woman.

Stage 5 – Treatments to Maintain Pregnancy

Having gone through the previous Stages to successfully place the embryo in the woman, it is important to consider additional treatments to help maintain the pregnancy.

Initially, weekly treatments would be given up to the time of the hCG test. Thereafter, if there was a positive hCG test then ongoing treatments would be advised to help maintain the pregnancy and reduce the risk of a miscarriage.

With IVF treatment costs now so high, with some quotes reaching £10,000, it is advisable for couples to consider how best they can help themselves through the process. A course of acupuncture treatments is a comparatively low cost, beneficial method for enhancing the success rate for IVF.

Please give us a call at Bridgeways Clinic if you are considering IVF so that we can discuss how best we can help you.

In Chinese medicine we work with 7 possible External Causes of Disease. We often refer to these as pathogens and they are:

• Wind
• Cold
• Damp
• Summer Heat
• Dryness
• Fire
• Damp-Heat

Some times one may be present, but there could be situations when more than one is affecting you.

Wind

The main characteristics of Wind are:

• It is a Yang Pathogenic Factor
• It is the spearhead of diseases, so it may be accompanied by another pathogen
• It arises quickly and changes rapidly; it moves location swiftly and blows intermittently
• It is characterised by upward and outward dispersion
• It makes things shake and sway.

Some of the signs and symptoms that we find when a Wind pathogen is present are:

• Rapidly changing symptoms, symptoms that move around, affecting the top part of the body.
• External Wind affects the Lung first causing signs and symptoms of infection.
• Internal Wind affects the Liver primarily and can cause symptoms such as tics, tremors, convulsions and numbness.
• External Wind easily combines with other External Pathogenic Factors to form e.g. Wind-Cold, Wind-Heat etc.

A key point from this is that Wind can be caused by an external invasion , but it can also result from an internal situation in the body.

Cold

The main characteristics of Cold are:

• It is a Yin Pathogenic Factor and consumes  Yang Qi.
• It impairs moving and warming functions.
• It contracts tissues and obstructs circulation of Qi and Blood causing pain.

Some of the key signs and symptoms are:

• Aversion to Cold
• Cold limbs
• Contraction of tendons
• Thin watery clear fluid discharges
• Severe pain relieved by warmth and aggravated by Cold
• Pale tongue body with a thin white coat.

Damp

The main characteristics of Damp are:

• It is a Yin Pathogenic Factor, which impairs Yang and easily obstructs Qi circulation.
• It is characterised by heaviness and dirtiness.
• It is sticky and lingering.

Some of the key signs and symptoms for Damp are:

• Aversion to Damp
• Heavy limbs
• Heavy head
• No appetite
• Stuffy feeling in chest or epigastrium
• Recurrent dirty discharges/secretions
• Sticky tongue coat,  and a slippery pulse.

Summer Heat

The main characteristics of Summer Heat are:

• It is a Yang Pathogenic Factor.
• It is characterised by upward direction, dispersion and consumption of Body Fluids.

Some of the main signs and symptoms are:

• Aversion to Heat
• Sweating
• Dark scanty urine
• Headache
• Dry lips
• Thirst
• Rapid pulse and red tongue body.
• If severe, it can cause clouding of the mind – delirium, slurred speech, unconsciousness.

Dryness

The main characteristics of Dryness are:

• It is a Yang Pathogenic Factor.
• It tends to injure Blood and Yin.

Some of the main signs and symptoms are:

• Dry throat
• Dry mouth
• Dry nose
• Dry lips
• Dry skin
• Dry stools
• Scanty urination.

Fire

The main characteristics of Fire are:

• It is a Yang Pathogenic Factor.
• It is characterised by an upward direction.
• It injures the Blood and Yin.
• It depletes Qi and affects the Shen.

Some of the main signs and symptoms are:

• Easily feels hot
• Likes cool
• Parts of body red or flushed
• Intense thirst
• Bitter taste
• Dark scanty urine
• Sore throat
• Eyes red and inflamed
• Mania
• ‘Reckless’ haemorrhage
• Red tongue body with yellow tongue coat.

Damp-Heat

This is formed from Damp and Heat combining.  Body parts affected tend to be both Damp and Hot, e.g. genitals, Intestines.  It may  arise in tropical climates.

Some of the main signs and symptoms from the combination of Damp and Heat are:

• Dirty, foul-smelling thick discharges
• Swelling and pain if affecting joints
• Purulent inflammations
• Sticky and greasy tongue coat
• Full and slippery pulse.

Reference

CICM Handout – External Causes of Disease

Chinese medicine identifies 4 possible causes of disease:

• External causes
• Internal causes
• Miscellaneous causes
• Secondary causes

The External Causes of disease are:

• Wind
• Cold
• Damp
• Summer Heat
• Dryness
• Fire
• Damp-Heat

The Internal Causes of disease are:

• Anger
• Joy
• Worry
• Over-thinking
• Grief
• Fear
• Shock

The Miscellaneous Causes of disease are:

• Constitution
• Overwork and fatigue
• Exercise
• Diet
• Sex
• Trauma
• Parasites and poisons
• Wrong treatment

The Secondary Causes of disease are:

• Blood Stagnation
• Phlegm

Through the course of a number of blogs we will go on to explain these causes of disease.

Reference:

CICM Handout – Summary of Causes of Disease

 

Our Yin energy is both the lubricant and fuel of our body. When our Yin is strong all our body processes are nourished and we have a good reserve of fine quality nutrients to build new tissue and repair and maintain our bodies.

When our Yin is depleted we have probably been running on empty for quite a while, perhaps overdoing it in some way.

Typical signs and symptoms of Yin Deficiency include: afternoon fever, red cheeks, weak, restless, insomnia, 5-palm heat and dry mouth.

When our Yin is deficient we need to avoid foods which stimulate us to use up energy we don’t really have and to avoid foods that will aggravate our tendency to over heat. We should avoid food like alcohol, coffee and sugar.

The following foods especially Tonify Yin:

• Apple
• Asparagus
• Avocado
• Banana
• Cheese
• Clam
• Crab
• Cuttlefish
• Duck
• Egg
• Honey
• Kidney bean
• Lemon
• Malt
• Mango
• Milk
• Mulberry
• Nettle
• Pea
• Pear
• Pineapple
• Pomegranate
• Pork
• Rabbit
• Royal Jelly
• Seaweed
• Sesame
• Spelt
• Spinach
• String bean
• Sweet Potato
• Tofu
• Tomato
• Watermelon
• Wheat
• Yam

If you believe that you are affected by Yin Deficiency then please give us a call at Bridgeways Clinic if you would like to discuss your diet and nutrition.

Reference:

Legget, D. (2005) Helping Ourselves – A Guide to Traditional Chinese Food Energetics.

Peter Deadman has written a very thought-provoking resume of the conference last weekend in London that reviewed the lack of progress being made with reductionism in the face of complexity with modern diseases and medicine. Peter illustrates how Chinese medicine is well suited to handling this complexity.

The Drum Tower Archive article can be read on the Journal of Chinese Medicine website here.

The speakers and topics for the conference can be reviewed at the University of Westminster website here.