The British Osteopathic Association warns parents and teachers to think about the effect of heavy school bags on children’s health

For Back Care Awareness week this year (17-23 October), a local British Osteopathic Association member is calling for parents and teachers to consider the health implications of small bodies carrying heavy school bags. The BOA wants images of children bowed down under the weight of their enormous school bags crammed full of books to become a thing of the past.

Doctors Say Acupuncture Treats Endometriosis

A recent article published in the New England Journal of Medicine cites acupuncture as effective for the treatment of pain related to endometriosis. The publication notes that a randomised, sham-controlled trial of women suffering from endometriosis pain demonstrated that acupuncture was an effective treatment modality. As a result, the author calls for larger studies to confirm the findings.

Army on brink of new ways to fight pain

The Army is reinventing the way it treats pain. Based on 109 recommendations from an Army-led Pain Management Task Force, the Army is seeking to move away from merely dispensing pain medication to embracing a holistic, multidisciplinary approach to caring for soldiers.

Dem bones, dem bones…

Is your back giving you trouble? There are numerous causes, not least of which is age. Daniela Soave learns how to minimise the aches and pains

Acupuncture May Take Edge Off Menopause Symptoms

Acupuncture may help reduce the severity of hot flashes and other symptoms of menopause, according to a small study.

Why GPs should be prescribing acupuncture to patients branded hypochondriacs.

Millions of patients with ‘unexplained symptoms’ could benefit from acupuncture on the NHS, it is claimed.

Acupuncture could help colic.

Alternative therapies to treat infant colic don’t all work, but acupuncture may help. Babies who received acupuncture treatments, twice a week for a period of six weeks, cried for a shorter period of time and with less intensity than the group of babies who did not receive acupuncture treatments.

Acupuncture on the Frontlines

Alternative medicine is catching on in perhaps the unlikeliest of places: the American military

How a tin of baked beans, tennis ball and broomstick provides relief to back pain

Derek came to see me more than a year ago complaining of recurrent pain and stiffness between his shoulder blades and at the base of his spine. He appeared stiff in his middle and upper back, the muscles were very tight and tender to touch. Having taken a history and examined him I was satisfied that Derek’s symptoms were most likely being triggered by driving long hours as part of his job as a test engineer. Treatment has consisted of Osteopathy and homework with a self-help kit consisting of a tin of baked beans, a tennis ball and a broomstick!

Osteopathic Mobilisation

Glucosamine and Chondroitin

Acupuncture reduces Raynaud’s Syndrome

Raynaud's syndrome is recurrent spasm of the arteries supplying the fingers and toes (and sometimes the earlobes, nose and lips), which often causes pain varying from mild to severe in intensity. In a groundbreaking piece of research German Doctors in Hanover proved that Acupuncture can be used to induce long-lasting reduction of Raynaud's attacks.

Acupuncture Reduces Arthritic Knee Pain and Improves Knee Function

Several major studies of the effect of acupuncture on osteoarthritis of the knee have found it can both relieve pain and improve movement.

Acupuncture 'improves mood and kills pain'

Acupuncture has been used in East-Asian medicine for thousands of years to treat a variety of ailments. Now two new studies have suggested that the complementary therapy is actually effective in improving mood and can help to kill pain.

Research carried out by experts from the universities of York and Hull found that acupuncture works by making the brain, rather than the body, no longer experience pain.

Osteopathy Helps Prostate Problems

Around 60 percent of men over the age of 45 have an enlarged prostate. The symptoms of this problem are multifaceted and symptom relief is sometimes difficult to achieve with conventional forms of therapy.

Osteopathy is widely recognised for its success in treating patients with low back pain, but may also be effective for patients with a variety of other symptoms/conditions including prostatitis. The condition may benefit from osteopathic manipulative therapy as prostate disorders relate to dysfunction of other parts of the body. The technique may help improve the lymph and blood drainage of the area, and increase the circulation to the prostate.

Turning Breech Babies with Acupuncture

Acupuncture is a popular and effective technique for (turning) breech babies. Small, thin needles are placed in specific areas on the mother’s feet and lower limbs. Acupuncture appears to stimulate a neuro-hormonal response, which results in the baby moving within the uterus.

Needles Change Brain

Acupuncture- using tiny needles in the skin to relieve pain -really does change the way the brain manages pain, according to University of Michigan researchers. The practice has been used in Chinese medicine for thousands of years to treat pain. Now, researchers have found that acupuncture alters the way the brain regulates pain. The study suggests that the practice increases the brain’s ability to bind pain-killing drugs.

Swedes show acupuncture can help with a leading cause of infertility

Women suffering from polycystic ovarian syndrome (PCOS) will be pleased with new research that acupuncture treatments can reduce their symptoms.

PCOS affects 10% of women of reproductive age. The condition is linked to irregular periods. It is one of the leading causes of infertility in women.

Swedish researchers have found that acupuncture treatments in PCOS sufferers led to more regular periods, reduced testosterone levels and smaller waist size.

NHS to promote acupuncture for back pain

Acupuncturist and Osteopath, Paul Clusker, who has nearly 30 years of clinical experience, has finally got support for what he’s believed in for many years- millions of people who suffer from back pain should be given the right to demand free acupuncture on the NHS.

GPs will be told to offer their patients the traditional Chinese practice, as well as other treatments such as osteopathy, as an alternative to conventional remedies like exercise. It is the first time the National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence (NICE) has explicitly backed the use of complementary therapies.

72 year old runner gets running again with help from osteopath.

Joyce Brown took up running as a senior citizen and could be seen training and assisting with the training of young runners at the elite club Birchfield Harriers.

In 2007 Joyce had an injury which despite help from her GP and physiotherapist didn’t get better. However, after just two sessions of acupuncture with local acupuncturist Paul Clusker, she felt an immediate improvement.

Get Pregnant with Acupuncture!

Acupuncture and fertility have been very much in the news for the past couple of years. It seems to have grown in popularity as a method pf preparing the body for conception, increasing the success of IVF and helping to cope with morning sickness and even initiating labour!

New female osteopath joins practice

Two recent studies suggest a short course of acupuncture would benefit patients and healthcare providers in the treatment of back pain.

ACUPRESSURE WINS FOR BACK PAIN

The acupressure group experienced an 89% greater relief of disability compared to the physical therapy group, and the benefit lasted at follow-up six months later.

ACUPUNCTURE SIGNIFICANTLY IMPROVES IVF SUCCESS

Acupuncture on the day of embryo transfer significantly improves the reproductive outcome in infertile women

Acupuncture Can Ease Hot Flashes Linked To Prostate Cancer Treatment

Acupuncture may help decrease hot flashes that often happen when prostate cancer patients undergo hormone therapy, according to a small study.

Don't stay in bed!

Evidence now shows that rest doesn't help recovery

"Phew, what a scorcher!" say mums-to-be

A local expert in Chinese medicine, Paul Clusker, has been achieving success with a traditional technique that can reduce a pregnant woman's chances of needing a Caesarean section.

It’s official, spinal manipulative therapy is the most effective and cost-effective treatment for acute low back pain

The Agency for Health Care Policy and Research (AHCPR) recently made history when it concluded that spinal manipulative therapy is the most effective and cost-effective treatment for acute low back pain.

GP STUDY REVEALS BENEFITS OF OSTEOPATHY

A 76 % reduction in the seventy of patient’s pain was found in a project that looked at the role of osteopathy in the management of musculoskeletal disorders

A US study has shown that acupuncture achieves comparable results to current Western bio-medicine in

Patients get the needle

A study carried out in a three partner medical centre in the UK was funded at a rate of £15 per 15 minute treatment by the Regional Health Authority. Patients were given six once-weekly treatments (discontinued after four treatments if no benefit was experienced). Of the 326 patients who filled in score cards, 65% showed improvements.

Acupuncture can help relieve the symptoms of bronchial asthma while cutting the hospital's drugs bill

Anaesthetists from the University of Heidelberg have found that acupuncture can help relieve the symptoms of bronchial asthma while cutting the hospital's drugs bill.

ACUPUNCTURE HELPS RAYNAUD'S SYDROME

A study in Hanover, Germany, compared the treatment of 17 patients suffering from Raynaud's syndrome with a control group of 16.

Acupuncture shown to work on brain in pain relief says BBC2 programme.

"We have found something quite unexpected - that acupuncture is having a measurable effect on the human brain."

Acupuncture improves IVF results

Over a period of three years in a private practice 22 patients entering assisted reproduction therapy were given acupuncture. Treatment was given, usually weekly, during the IVF cycle and immediately before and after embryo transfer. 

The success rate was 57.7% compared to 45.3% for patients in the IVF unit not treated with acupuncture. 

(Johnson D. Acupuncture prior to and at embryo transfer in an assisted conception unit – a case series. Acupuncture in Medicine (2006) 24; 1: 23-28).