The Oriental Medicine Practice

How Make New Year’s Resolutions Successful

admin — Fri, 22 Jan 2010 12:24:21 +0000

We are now 22 days into the new year, and the new decade. How are you getting on with your resolutions? I was reading an interesting article the other day that said that 90% of New Year’s resolutions do not last longer than 5 days! The most common resolutions seem to gravitate around health, you know the usual stuff: lose weight, get fitter, stop smoking, not eat as much chocolate and increase the amount of fruit and vegetables. It all seems like such a good idea after 10 days of Christmas and New Year’s excesses (well, the whole of December for some people!), to clean up our acts and get healthier. However, as 9 out of 10 of us discover it’s a lot harder to keep it going than to make the original resolution.

So, what can you do to make the process more sustainable? I’ve found the only way for me to keep a resolution is to set a goal with a deadline and then make it public. For example I’ve signed up for the Bristol 10K run in May – I don’t think I’ve ever run 10K in my life, not even in the enforced cross-country runs at school, and that was a good few years ago! If I am going to do this, I’m going to have to watch my diet, exercise most days of the week, take my supplements, and in this way the health, fitness and weight resolutions will all look after themselves. What can you commit to that will take you in the direction you want to go?

I hope this finds you in good health, and don’t forget, if you want to see some real changes in your health set some inspiring goals.

Keith

Can Acupuncture and Natural Approaches Help Defeat Swine Flu?

admin — Fri, 01 May 2009 18:16:14 +0000

You can’t help but notice, if you have turned on the television or the radio or opened the newspaper over the last couple of days, that we are being wound up into a panic about swine flu. I was listening to the Today programme on BBC Radio 4 this morning, and the latest forecast was that swine flu would not reach its full potency in Britain until next winter. Over the coming days and weeks, we are going to receive more information on how to ward off the flu. The government is going to send everybody a leaflet telling us how to wash our hands and not go to public places if we are feeling unwell and suspect that we have caught something.

The reality is however, for all big headlines, and the scare stories, not everyone is going to catch the flu, and the vast majority of those of us who do will only experience mild symptoms and recover from the condition in a few days. So what can you do to increase your chances of being one of those people who do not catch the flu in the first place, or if you do, be in the best possible state of health for the symptoms to be as mild as possible?

To optimise your own state of health and to improve your immune function you should avoid sugar and processed foods. Sugar has a very powerful effect on decreasing the function of your immune system. If you take the time to read the packaging of processed foods. You will find that sugar is present in many products, not just the obvious cakes and chocolate. Also, make sure that you are getting your minimum of 5 portions of fruit and vegetables a day.

Make sure that you get enough rest, if you body is constantly fatigued you all have less resources to fight any infections that may be . Try to make sure that you get to bed at the same time every night, and aim for 7 to 8 hours .

Take control of stress, if you’re feeling constantly stressed you will be less able to cope with the effects of flu or any other illnesses. Try to do some kind of deep breathing or meditation exercise every day. We have a deep relaxation program that you can download from our website that will help to get your body into a state of relaxation and turn off the stress hormones and chemicals that are so depleting to the immune function.

It’s important to try and exercise on a daily basis, as you exercise you increase circulation throughout the body and you increase the amount of oxygen in the blood stream. This helps to boost the effects of the immune function increases your chances of remaining healthy throughout the flu season.

Increase levels of vitamins D. There’s been a lot of research, recently that shows how people are more prone to infection, colds and flus if their levels of vitamins D are less than optimum. The best source of Vitamin D is from sunlight, but the low cloud layers over the UK as well as our indoor lifestyle, and overuse of sunscreans makes it difficult to maintain optimum levels from sunlight alone. For this reason, I take a daily vitamin D supplement, and I’ve managed to avoid the flu for the last 10 to 12 years, the best quality product I’ve found, and the one I recommend for clients is Metagenics Iso D3.

Lastly, certainly not least, acupuncture has been well tested tried and tested and numerous clinical studies has demonstrated its positive effects on strengthening the immune function and its ability to reduce the incidence of upper a respiratory tract infections. Acupuncture treatment has also been demonstrated to shorten the length of time of dis-ease, if you are unfortunate enough to get ill.

Finally, remember that it wasn’t that long ago we were reading panic headlines about bird flu, and before that, SARS, and we all know the outcome of those scare stories!

Stay Healthy

Keith

Getting the Fundamentals Right for Health and Conception

admin — Wed, 03 Dec 2008 18:13:41 +0000

Continuing from my last post about fertility, I noticed is some of the newspapers last week stories about is Jennifer Aniston, at the age of 39, is having acupuncture treatment to help her conceive. It is good to see that the positive effects of acupuncture on fertility is getting more positive publicity and letting the population as a whole know about this safe and effective treatment.

In this post I want to look at some of the issues that are affecting people’s ability to conceive other than the organic medical issues. I will save discussing conditions such as endometriosis and polycystic ovary syndrome for a later post.

The classic texts of Traditional Chinese Medicine (some of them over 3000 years old) talk about the importance of preparing for conception, and to allow a good 6 months to get as healthy as possible before trying to conceive. If you were going to plant a prize winning garden you would spend some time preparing the soil and buying the best quality seeds you could find. It takes approximately 150 days for the ovum to mature, so what you do and eat during this time will have a profound effect on the quality of the egg and the sperm. As the old computer saying goes: “garbage in, garbage out!”

Regardless of what condition you have, whether it relates to fertility issues or not, it is important to get the fundamentals right. The 4 cornerstones to good health are: diet, exercise, rest and relaxation. If you get these 4 areas right, you will notice a significant improvement in your health, and if you are trying to conceive it is even more important to get these 4 areas under control.

There has been so much written on diet, much of the advice conflicting. At our clinic we find keeping that simple works best; eat only fresh foods that look the way that nature intended them to look! In other words, start each meal from fresh; vegetables, fruits, whole grains, fish, poultry, a little red meat now and again, if you like, a little dairy, and plenty of fresh water. If you avoid foods that come out of a packet, you will not go far wrong. Obviously we can tailor the diet to be a little more specific, but just following this advice will get you a long way towards being healthier.

Exercise does not have to be that complicated, you don’t need to join a gym, or spend hundreds of pounds on equipment. If you are not doing very much physical activity at the moment, get yourself a decent pedometer (there’s a wide range at amazon.co.uk, and your local sports shop is almost certain to stock them), and make sure that you do a minimum of 10,000 steps every day. (Just wearing one all day can be very revealing, I had a client who was convinced that she did plenty of exercise, and when she first put on her pedometer she discovered that she managed a massive 350 steps a day!!)

Traditional Chinese medicine texts consider regular and sufficient rest one of the key items for a long and healthy life. They also emphasise the importance of regularity, that is, going to bed at the same time every night. There has been so much research on the importance of sleep for good health, and all of the papers that I have seen have shown that the average person needs between 7½ and 8½ hours of sleep a night. That’s every night, you can’t catch up on the weekend!.

Last, but certainly not least is deep relaxation. Relaxation is not the same as sleeping, have you ever gone to bed stressed, slept 7 or 8 hours, and woken feeling stressed? Deep relaxation involves relaxation of both the physical body and the mind. One of simplest, and most effective, techniques is to lie on the floor, and start by focusing on the breath. Then starting with the head, with each out -breath imagine the tension releasing from the muscles in the head, then the neck, shoulders, and so on, all the way down to the feet. The process should take about 15 to 20 minutes to complete. Do this every day and within a week or two you will be astonished how different you feel.

At our clinic we also get our clients to use specially recorded binaural cds, which have an almost miraculous effect on stress. I’ll give more details about this next time – you’ll have to keep reading my blog!

In my next post I’ll write about the supplements you should be thinking of taking, whether trying to conceive, or just trying to improve your health. I’ll also write a little about the Traditional Chinese medicine approach to diet.

Until the next time

Stay Healthy

Keith Ferris

Press Release: Zita West Affiliated Acupuncturist in Bristol

admin — Tue, 02 Dec 2008 18:11:50 +0000

We’ve just released a press release to anounce the new acupuncture fertility network in the UK:

Keith Ferris MBAcC at The Oriental Medicine Practice in Bristol is delighted to announce that he has become a founding member of the recently launched Zita West Network for Reproductive Health, as an Affiliated Acupuncturist.

Built on the innovative work of midwife, author and fertility and pregnancy expert Zita West and her renowned London clinic, the new network aims to share the unique skills and experience of Zita and her team of doctors, midwives and complementary therapists, with experienced independent acupuncturists across the UK. The Zita West Clinic is the largest integrated (medical and complementary) practice in the UK specialising in all aspects of male and female reproductive health

All acupuncturist members of the network receive training and ongoing support in Zita West’s comprehensive, holistic approach to achieving optimum reproductive health. This covers a wide range of treatments and approaches to help boost fertility, enhance IVF, improve pregnancy, enhance birth outcomes and support post-natal recovery.

The Benefits of Choosing a Zita West Affiliated Acupuncturist

• Wide-ranging Medical and Complementary Health Experience

By choosing a Zita West affiliated acupuncturist client’s not only get the benefit of their practitioner’s individual expertise but, through them, the training and support of Zita and her colleagues too. The Zita West Clinic works with thousands of women and men each year, helping them to boost their chances of conceiving successfully (both naturally and through IVF) and helping those who are already pregnant to have the best pregnancy possible. This provides an unrivalled breadth and depth of knowledge to be shared with members of the network and their clients.

• Exclusive Discounts on Zita West Clinic Services

Choosing a Zita West affiliated practitioner also provides clients with unique access to a range of Zita West clinical services – some of which are available by ‘phone as well as in person – all at special discounted prices.

• Special Discounts on the Zita West Range of Nutritional Products.

Clients of member practitioners are entitled to further discounts on Zita’s best-selling range of premium nutritional supplements for fertility, pregnancy and breast-feeding too (20% off RRP ex p&p). Similar discounts are available on her range of books, CDs, cosmetic products and gift-sets as well.

• FREE Fact Sheets to help your fertility and support your pregnancy.

Keith Ferris

Dip Ac, Adv Clin Ac Cert ( China ) MBAcC MBRCP MRNT
Visiting Professor to the Zhejiang Medical University, Hangzhou, China.

Keith Ferris has been practicing Oriental Medicine since 1982 and teaching since 1986. In September 2004 he was appointed visiting professor to the Zhejiang College of Traditional Chinese Medicine, China (now the Zhejiang Medical University). He is a member of the British Acupuncture Council, the British Register of Complementary Practitioners and the Register of Nutritional Therapists.

For further information contact Keith Ferris at The Oriental Medicine Practice on 0117 907 8890. Or email keith@orientalmedicine.co.uk or visit http://www.orientalmedicine.co.uk or www.zitawest.com

Acupuncture Can Help Fertility

admin — Sat, 22 Nov 2008 18:07:59 +0000

I’ve just got back from a three-day seminar with Zita West on treating fertility issues with acupuncture. For those of you don’t know, or heard of Zita West, she is probably the best-known acupuncture practitioner specialising in using acupuncture and nutrition to enhance fertility in the UK. She has a large clinic in London, has written numerous books and is regularly featured in the media; television, radio and print.

We’ve been treating fertility problems here, in our clinic in Bristol, for the last 20 years, but it is always possible to learn something new, and it’s good to stay fresh with the lasted research and techniques. The seminar was the first step to the formation of a new network of acupuncturists in the UK specialising in fertility, under the banner of the Zita West Clinics. You should be seeing lots of publicity in the New Year as the network is formally launched.

Today, I thought I’d share with you some interesting statistics on the effects on acupuncture on fertility. But firstly, a quick look at the physiological mechanisms that acupuncture appears to work on. There is a significant body of research evidence to show that acupuncture reduces stress and improves the circulation of blood flow to the ovaries and the uterus, it calms the contractibility of the uterus thus making it more receptive to an embryo, it helps to improve semen parameters and improves IVF pregnancy rates. Acupuncture has a direct effect on the hypothalamic-pituitary ovarian axis (HPOA) and the pelvic organs and indirect on fertility by reducing anxiety and stress, it also causes a significant increase in the release of (beta-endorphin levels that last for up to 24 hours. ((beta-endorphins affect gonadotrophin releasing hormone (GnRH) secretion from the hypothalamus – the hypothalamus has an overall control of the menstrual cycle). We also know that acupuncture helps improve blood flow to the uterus and hence the endometrial thickness.

We mustn’t forget men in the process of conception! The research on acupuncture and sperm health shows there when compared to men who did not receive acupuncture treatment, those men who had received acupuncture showed increased motility and increased percentage of viable sperm.

The area where there is a lot of publicity and research is that of acupuncture and IVF. Research in 2006 showed in a control group where embryo transfer took place 26% of women conceived whereas the group that had acupuncture 39% of women conceived. In a systematic review and meta-analysis of seven trials of 1366 women undergoing IVF, published in the British Medical Journal in February 2008, showed that women who have had acupuncture with their IVF were 65% more likely to conceive than those who did not receive acupuncture treatment.

So, the good news is, that acupuncture does appear to have a positive effect on the outcome of trying to conceive, either in the old fashioned way, or by IVF, and the results of the research is mirrored by the results that we commonly get at the clinic.

On of the most common questions that we get is “what is our success rate?” Well, we can point you to results of the studies, but it is impossible to say what our success rate is because you are not comparing like with like. The success rate for a healthy 30-year-old woman is usually very different than the success rate of treating a 43-year-old woman who is obese, smokes 40 cigarettes a day, and has an awful diet. What we can do is after meeting you, and going through a full case history, we can give you a more thoughtful indication of how successful we think any treatment may be, rather than giving a blanket “we get a 70%, 80% or whatever figure.

I’ll apologise now that I’ve not had the time to find you the references for the research, but if that is something that you would find helpful please let me know in the comment below.

Over the coming days and weeks I’ll be writing about the various protocols and approaches that we use in our acupuncture treatments to help with fertility issues.

If you’ve got any comments or questions please will free to add them in the comment box below.

Until the next post – stay healthy!