Happy Chinese New Year to everyone!

Chinese New Year (the spring festival) marks the end of the winter season. It is a time to celebrate the start of new life, to let go of any resentments, start afresh, and wish peace and happiness to all.

2012 is the Year of the Dragon which begins on Monday 23^rd January, and is traditionally celebrated for 15 days. There are 12 animals in the Chinese zodiac:

Animal	Born in Year
Rat	1912, 1924, 1936, 1948, 1960, 1972, 1984, 1996
Ox	1913, 1925, 1937, 1949, 1961,1973, 1985,1997
Tiger	1914, 1926, 1938, 1950, 1962,1974, 1986,1998
Rabbit	1915, 1927, 1939, 1951, 1963,1975, 1987,1999
Dragon	1916, 1928, 1940, 1952, 1964, 1976, 1988, 2000
Snake	1917, 1929, 1941, 1953, 1965, 1977, 1989, 2001
Horse	1918, 1930, 1942, 1954, 1966, 1978, 1990, 2002
Goat (Ram/Sheep)	1919, 1931, 1943, 1955, 1967, 1979, 1991, 2003
Monkey	1920, 1932, 1944, 1956, 1968, 1980, 1992, 2004
Rooster	1921, 1933, 1945, 1957, 1969, 1981, 1993, 2005
Dog	1922, 1934, 1946, 1958, 1970, 1982, 1994, 2006
Pig	1923, 1935, 1947, 1959, 1971, 1983, 1995, 2007

The Dragon is the sign of the emperor in China. It symbolises male and yang, wealth, good fortune, and power. People born in Dragon years are to be respected. They are brave, confident, and successful, but can tend towards working too hard. They can get stressed and suffer from tension headaches, and will rarely ask for help. Does this sound like you?

Why not celebrate the New Year by starting a new course of acupuncture at our clinic? Treat yourself and take a break!

Xin Nian Kuai Le  新年快乐, Gong Hei Fard Choy  恭喜发财, Xing Ni Ju Yi  新年如意
Happy New Year!

Help! I am losing my hair

A proud moment yesterday: Showing off my latest article: Acupuncture for hair loss, published at the Febrtuary 2012 edition of the Natural Health Magazine

Festive greetings to one and all!

This can be a busy time of year with many people preparing for Christmas, buying presents, and attending more social events. Are you feeling the pressure? Stressed, tired or anxious? Wracking your brains about what presents to buy? Why not treat yourself or your loved ones to acupuncture? Acupuncture can help you to feel more relaxed, positive, invigorated, and revitalised. We have a special offer during the month of December where you can receive your first consultation for only £85, or book a package of 4 follow-up sessions for only £280. So, whether you are considering acupuncture for the first time, haven’t had treatment for a while, or are continuing with regular sessions, now is the time to contact us. We can also provide gift vouchers, which make very original presents.

Back Pain: Pain in the back

I’m often asked about how I got into acupuncture: The answer is simple... I was over stressed, physically as well as mentally and I was told to quit my [then current] job. As it happens the company went bust but my back continued to hurt.

One doesn’t need to know me well to know I love sports which are associated with pain. I am a keen long distance cyclist, swimmer and walker. I simply love mountaineering and I ski and climb regularly. Yes, I can endure a lot of pain for many painful miles and I am always bruised.

But, once upon a time... Out of the blue... I was not able to walk 100 metres (or yards?) while carrying a laptop in my backpack.

Private insurance and MRI, concluded that, at the beautiful age of 21 and a half, there was nothing wrong, except that I was getting old.

So, living life in limbo, thinking I was old and ready to die, I landed in the magic hands of an angel acupuncturist who taught me a lot and inspired me to becoming an acupuncturist myself. Regular treatment did not only help my back but my own general wellbeing.

Now I know that indeed, there was nothing pathologically wrong with my back. Acupuncturists will tell that there was something wrong with the flow of my qi. In Western terms this means that physical as well as mental stress were tensing the muscles of my back. In turn, blood was not able to move freely, so it was not able to bring nutrients and “healing aid”. Muscle tension was also trapping my nerves and acupuncture released those blockages, allowing my own body to self heal. 
by Andrea Steinlechner

Festive greetings to one and all!

This can be a busy time of year with many people preparing for Christmas, buying presents, and attending more social events. Are you feeling the pressure? Stressed, tired or anxious? Wracking your brains about what presents to buy? Why not treat yourself or your loved ones to acupuncture? Acupuncture can help you to feel more relaxed, positive, invigorated, and revitalised. We have a special offer during the month of December where you can receive your first consultation for only £85, or book a package of 4 follow-up sessions for only £280. So, whether you are considering acupuncture for the first time, haven’t had treatment for a while, or are continuing with regular sessions, now is the time to contact us. We can also provide gift vouchers, which make very original presents.
For further information call us on 07500 555 297 or 07789 087 577 or visit our website

Acupuncture in gynaecology

Most women at some stage in their lives will suffer from some sort of PMS (pre menstrual syndrome), Dysmenorrhoea (pain during – or before menstruation), Amenorrhoea (lack of period), heavy bleeding, irregular cycle, spots, eating problems, emotional rollercoaster, etc.

This affects their personal as well as work life. Some feel they cannot function for a few days, and most feel physically and mentally affected by hormonal changes.

Those who will seek acupuncture often do so because they are tired of taking painkiller, contraceptive pill, worried about their physical and mental health, fertility or are trying to conceive.

In my experience (including personal experience as a patient) most patients will start feeling positive changes after the first treatment. However, due to the complexity of hormonal changes involving the whole cycle (menstruation, development of lining of the womb, ovulation, fecundation and implantation/or not, pregnancy or menstruation), most acupuncturists will want to treat a patient weekly for 3 menstrual cycles.  It is important to review the patient’s goals, and after three months, a new treatment plan will be agreed. Some patients will then be seen every fortnight, monthly or bimonthly. However some will carry on with a weekly treatment plan.  

Acupuncturists might recommend diet and lifestyle changes to facilitate health improvements. I like to ask my patients to fill in a BBT (basal body temperature) chart. It is easy to find a chart on the internet, however I have designed my own with further questions that will bring patient awareness or might be of interest to me and to a gynaecologist, should the patient be referred for fertility and or further treatment. BBT is used by western medicine for diagnosing hormonal imbalance. If you are not yet sure that acupuncture is for you, you can still start a chart that later can be shown to your doctor or acupuncturist.

Feel free to contact Andrea or Verity and we will happily send you our chart.

Premature Ejaculation case study

It is surprising how many men at some point suffer from some sort of erectile disfunction and just live with it, in shame. In western and macho cultures this is a taboo that does not get discussed. Keyword statistics tells me this site gets more hits for erectile disfunction than IVF, yet, I only first came across impotence when in clinic in China.

Today I see patients for erectile disfunction on a fairly regular basis. That is, if men care to admit. Sometimes they will come in for stress related complaints and forget to name one of the vital signs and symptoms for which they are seeking help with. Still, they feel better, and when they are ready, they might let me know how happy their love life is. Sometimes they come in for musculoskeletal complaint, and realise, that Pandora box has been dealt with.

This case is of a 38 years old chap who came to see me for eating disorder and premature ejaculation.

In cases of erectile dysfunction it is important to ascertain if there is some possible physical or physiological factor. This was not his case. By talking to the patient, soon became evident that there was a strong link to an emotional factor: The patient confided that his premature ejaculation has been ongoing since the age of 19. That coincided with the year his father suddenly died of heart attack. .

On the emotional link, there was also a relationship of fear dying of heart attack and his pathology of eating disorder.

Within four treatments the patient has reported a satisfactory recovery to his premature ejaculation. I carried on seeing him for eating disorder and weight loss.

 by Andrea Steinlechner

*released with patient's consent