Q: My husband has recently been diagnosed with IGA Nephropathy (kidney disease). He is eventually going to need to have a kidney transplant. His creatinine, bun, hematocrit, etc. are all high or low. Does anyone have have information on herbs/vitamins that could help? A1: One of the best, and safest, kidney tonics is nettle leaf. I either [...]
Headache and migraine These are lumped together because, at least from the acupuncture point of view, there is little need to separate them. Acupuncture works pretty well for headaches – over 70 per cent response rate. It works best as a preventive, although it can sometimes abort a headache if done early enough. (It can [...]
Indication: – pain in knee, especially in young patients. Posterior thigh area (hamstrings) Radiation: – forwards, to lower part of quadriceps Indication: – pain at or just above knee.
We sometimes hear claims that it can do this. However, there is certainly no hard evidence that it can, and I think it is safer to regard it as merely a symptomatic treatment. This may seem a rather negative and unexciting conclusion, but we should remember that the same is true of much conventional treatment, [...]
Various types are available, but the main distinction is between those with metal handles (wound with wire) and those with plastic handles. For most purposes Japanese Seirin needles, with plastic handles, are the best of those currently available, but metal handles are required if you wish to use electrical stimulation. The ‘business part’ of the [...]
‘Memory’ in this context does not refer to the conscious recollection of painful events, but to the persistence of functional and possibly structural changes in the central nervous system as a result of injury to distant parts of the body. To most patients, and many doctors, to suggest that pain can persist without a ’cause’ [...]
The classical texts list hundreds of acupuncture points, but in practice far fewer were used. The modern acupuncturist can conveniently cut the list down still further, to include only those which are used frequently and whose locations should therefore be known by heart. One possible list is as follows: CV 17: In the middle of [...]
A fair amount of research in acupuncture has appeared, much of it of rather dubious quality. There are certain intrinsic difficulties confronting anyone who wants to do clinical research of this kind, much of it centred on the choice of a suitable control procedure. To the mildly interested onlooker with no particular interest in acupuncture [...]
TENS can be used to relax spastic limbs in multiple sclerosis. The electrodes are placed over the femoral or sciatic nerves. For some unexplained reason it does not seem to work in spasticity from other causes. Prof. Kaada, a Finnish neurologist, has described the use of TENS to increase the peripheral circulation to treat ulcers [...]
Some acupuncturists have become enthusiastic about using low-power lasers to stimulate acupuncture points. The origins of this idea are unclear but the appeal is evident, since the treatment is pain-free therefore suitable for children or people who are afraid of acupuncture and also because there is no risk of infection. However the relevance of this [...]
