Acupuncture Provides True Pain Relief in Study

From the New York Times 

Acupuncture Provides True Pain Relief in Study
By ANAHAD O'CONNOR

A new study of acupuncture — the most rigorous and detailed analysis of the treatment to date — found that it can ease migraines and arthritis and other forms of chronic pain.

The findings provide strong scientific support for an age-old therapy used by an estimated three million Americans each year. Though acupuncture has been studied for decades, the body of medical research on it has been mixed and mired to some extent by small and poor-quality studies. Financed by the National Institutes of Health and carried out over about half a decade, the new research was a detailed analysis of earlier research that involved data on nearly 18,000 patients.

The researchers, who published their results in Archives of Internal Medicine, found that acupuncture outperformed sham treatments and standard care when used by people suffering from osteoarthritis, migraines and chronic back, neck and shoulder pain.

“This has been a controversial subject for a long time,” said Dr. Andrew J. Vickers, attending research methodologist at Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center in New York and the lead author of the study. “But when you try to answer the question the right way, as we did, you get very clear answers.

“We think there’s firm evidence supporting acupuncture for the treatment of chronic pain.”

The Healing Crisis

Treatment with herbs or other natural medicines is sometimes accompanied by a deterioration in the condition before improvement takes place. Usually known as a healing crisis, this can happen also as a result of taking nutritional supplements or undergoing therapeutic programmes such as are involved in nature cure, massage and magnetic therapy.

Often these reactions represent a resurgence of old symptoms, anything form headache and nausea to skin eruptions, chest colds or unusual fatigue, which were experienced during the disease process. They recur as the body’s elimination of unwanted materials accelerates, making the system temporarily more toxic: no longer stuck in the tissues, these substances can circulate freely, e.g. in the blood and lymph, and become much more disruptive. Until they are fully excreted, physiological imbalances remain and the body cannot establish harmony.

It is important, therefore, to support this cleansing with healthy lifestyle – diet, rest and exercise and clean water to flush out completely.

Your practioner will offer therapeutic support if neccesary, when the effects of toxics are on their way out of the system until health and well being are restored.

Fats and Health

It is a myth that eating fats causes weight gain, unless we consume trans fats hydrogenated into unnatural fats solid at room temperature.

The processing of unsaturated vegetable seed oils into hydrogenated margarine etc. creates toxicity – they cannot be properly metabolised and lead to disease.  However, saturated fats, e.g.: from butter and other animal foods, lower Lp(a) associated with heart disease, enhance immune function and contain many essential nutrients to combat cancer and promote fertility. Some types boost metabolism and reduce weight, whereas trans fats raise it.

So let’s avoid processed vegetable oils and rely more on healthy fats from coconuts, olives, fish and land animals not tortured by industrial farming, e.g.: pastured, grass fed cattle. Good seed oils such as flax and hemp are best kept refrigerated (easily go rancid), available from Sunny Foods and the Eastbourne Clinic of Natural Medicine: raw milk and butter delivered by Hook & Son near Hailsham, also organic yoghurt from Court Lodge Farm in Wartling.

  

Hypnotherapy for Deep Relaxing and Centering

Hypnotherapy for Deep Relaxing and Centering with JOHN HIRST  MA CHP(NC) 

Special offer: 30 minute sessions for £20.00

At this time many people are facing difficulties in their day-to-day lives.  The pressure can seem inescapable. Hypnotherapy can help you to release the stress through deep relaxation and find resources and inspiration within yourself to move forward.

An individual session of deep relaxation and suggestions, or a series of sessions, can support you through disruptions and changes. Call the Clinic on 01323 734664  or email johnmartinhirst@google.com to book.

Gynaecology

Paul Chedgey has recently completed a post-graduate diploma course in gynaecology taught by Dr Trevor Wing, who studied in one of the main hospitals in China under one of that country’s leading specialists.  Herbal medicine and acupuncture are the first choice of treatment in China for conditions such as infertility, menstrual pain and irregularity and menopausal symptoms: these are regarded as the most effective therapies.

Having gained distinction in the final examination, Paul is able to incorporate new skills and information to help a range of gynaecological problems, with great success.  A member of the British Acupuncture Council, the National Institute of Medical Herbalists and the Register of Chinese Herbal Medicine, Paul is now a registered associate of Dr Wing, regularly attending seminars and conferences, and reading the latest research papers to keep up to date with the many wonderful developments in this field.

Cranio-sacral therapy too can help with gynaecological difficulties and as a member of the Register of Cranio-Sacral Therapists, Paul incorporates this also into a treatment programme for such problems, such that improvement can be very rapid.

Raw Milk and Pasteurisation

Most milk today derives from the modern, rather than the traditional Holstein cow, bred to produce huge quantities (three times a much as the old-fashioned cow) and to survive on cereals rather than grass. Average life span is 42 months compared to about 12 years for the grass-fed cow, she must be milked three times a day and is very susceptible to mastitis. Her milk contains high levels of growth hormone from the pituitary gland even when spared the indignity of genetically engineered Bovine Growth Hormone to push her to the limits. 

The proper feed for cows is green grass in spring, summer and autumn, with only small amounts of grain; then stored dry hay, silage and root vegetables in winter. It is not soy meal, cottonseed meal or other commercial feeds, nor is it bakery waste, chicken manure, swill from ethanol production or citrus peel cake laced with pesticides. Soy meal has the wrong protein profile for the dairy cow, resulting in a short burst of high milk production followed by premature death. Vital nutrients like vitamins A, D, E and K are greatest in milk from cows eating green grass, especially rapidly growing green grass in the spring and autumn. Vitamins A and D are greatly diminished and Vitamin K disappears when milk cows are fed commercial feeds. 

Pasteurisation destroys enzymes, denatures anti-microbial and immune-stimulating components, diminishes nutrient availability, denatures fragile milk proteins, destroys vitamins C, B6 and B12, kills beneficial bacteria, promotes pathogens and is associated with allergies, increased tooth decay, infant colic, growth and behavioural problems in children, osteoporosis, arthritis and heart disease. Calves fed pasteurised milk do poorly and often die before maturity. Raw milk sours naturally whereas pasteurised milk turns putrid. 

Pasteurisation was instituted in the 1920s to combat TB, infant diarrhoea, undulant fever and other diseases caused by poor animal nutrition, dirty production methods and infected water supplies. But times have changed and effective water treatment, stainless steel tanks, milking machines, refrigerated transport and improved testing methods make pasteurisation unnecessary for public protection. Pasteurisation does not always kill pathogens: the bacteria for Johne’s disease, which infects a large proportion of confined cattle, survive pasteurisation; Johne’s has been linked to Crohn’s disease in humans. 

Much commercial milk is now ultra-pasteurised to eliminate heat-resistant pathogens and lengthen shelf life. Ultra-pasteurisation is a violent process that takes milk from a cool temperature to above boiling point in just a few seconds. Most milk is then also homogenised, which breaks down butterfat globules so they don’t rise to the top. Homogenised milk has been linked to heart disease. Average butterfat content used to be 4% but today it is more like 3%. 

Consumers have been duped into believing that low fat and skimmed milk products are good for them, and only by marketing low-fat and skimmed milk as healthy can the modern dairy industry get rid of its excess poor quality, reduced-fat milk from modern high-production herds. Butterfat contains vitamins A and D needed for assimilation of calcium and protein in the water fraction of milk; without them protein and calcium are more difficult to utilise and possibly toxic. Butterfat is rich in short and medium-chain fatty acids, which protect against disease and stimulate the immune system. It contains glycospingolipids, which prevent intestinal distress, and conjugated linoleic acid, which has strong anticancer properties. 

Powdered skimmed milk is a source of dangerous oxidised cholesterol and neurotoxic amino acids. Low-fat yogurts and sour creams contain mucopolysaccharide slime to give them body. Pale butter from hay-fed cows contains colourings to imitate vitamin-rich butter from grass-fed cows. In the 1920s people could procure fresh raw whole milk, curdled milk products and buttermilk as well as natural raw butter, cheese and cream. Today’s milk is accused of causing everything from allergies to cancer, but prior to pasteurisation and the industrialisation of dairy farming these diseases were rare. In fact fewer and fewer people can safely consume today’s pasteurised, ultra heat treated, homogenised, standardised, fat-reduced and manipulated dairy foods. 

Raw milk contains numerous ingredients that kill pathogenic bacteria in milk, strengthen the immune system, protect the intestinal tract, prevent the absorption of toxins and ensure full assimilation of all nutrients. These components are largely destroyed by pasteurisation.

Community Acupuncture Clinic

We are very pleased to announce the launch of the first Community Acupuncture Clinic in Eastbourne.

Kirsten Germann will be offering this service on Tuesday afternoons from 4th February 2014. This will enable patients to receive treatment for just £20 per session in a clinic room with two other patients.

A separate room is available for those who want to discuss medical issues privately before treatment. The first treatment will be £35 which includes a private consultation.

Kirsten will continue seeing patients on a one to one basis as before. Please note the fee increase for this clinic will be from £35 to £40 per treatment.

For further details please contact us.