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Acupuncture in Pregnancy

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acupuncture and pregnancyAcupuncture is very useful in pregnancy, from alleviating exhaustion and morning sickness in the early weeks to bringing relief from back pain, haemorrhoids and indigestion later in pregnancy. It can even help a breech baby turn head down!

As you approach your due date (from about 35 weeks), we recommend a weekly program of “pre-birth” acupuncture to prepare for labour. Women who have this sort of acupuncture program are less likely to need interventions during labour than those who don’t.

Here are some of the pregnancy-related issues our Acupuncturists use Acupuncture to help with:

  • Morning sickness
  • Tiredness/exhaustion
  • Anxiety
  • Insomnia
  • Swollen ankles and fingers
  • Carpal tunnel syndrome
  • Indigestion, acid reflux
  • Pelvic pain
  • Sciatica and low back pain
  • Breech baby and other malpositions
  • High blood pressure
  • Induction of labour (in some circumstances)

Plus the benefits of Acupuncture extend to helping with recovery from labour, promoting the flow of breast milk and treating mastitis.

Chinese herbal medicine is also helpful during pregnancy, with several thousands of years of safe use in pregnant women

Our Acupuncturists are experienced in working with women at all stages of pregnancy and in the post-birth period. Health-fund rebates are available for Acupuncture treatments.

 

Acupuncture for Fertility

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acupuncture fertilityIf you’re having fertility issues, we recommend you seriously look into having Acupuncture and Chinese Herbal Medicine. Many conditions reducing fertility can be helped with this combination of treatments. These include:

  • Endometriosis
  • Polycystic ovarian syndrome (PCOS)
  • Unexplained infertility
  • Male fertility issues

If you are thinking about starting a family (or adding to it!), our Acupuncturists recommend a 3 month pre-conception programme of Acupuncture (with Chinese Herbal Medicine if required). This allows us to find the root cause of any issues and get you in the healthiest possible state to conceive.

For those with known fertility problems, or those needing assisted reproduction techniques like IVF, Acupuncture really comes into its own. It is very useful in maximising your response to treatment and coping with the stress associated with these procedures. For IVF, there are key times in the cycle that it’s important to have acupuncture treatment for the best results.

Our Acupuncturists are experienced in helping couples boost their fertility naturally, and in working in with an IVF regime. Health-fund rebates are available for Acupuncture treatments.

 

Acupuncture for Neck and Shoulder pain

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acupuncture neck shoulderNeck and shoulder tension is one of the banes of modern life – when severe, the pain often extends down the arms and also can lead to headaches and jaw stiffness. It can really limit your life. But you don’t have to be stuck with it!

Acupuncture is great for melting those knots. Within 4-6 treatments we usually see substantial relief, with the hard areas becoming much looser. The time taken for this to happen depends on how long the tension has been there for, and how severe it is.

The treatments are very gentle – Acupuncture use extremely fine needles that you barely notice, plus moxibustion, a form of herbal heat treatment. The combination works really well in relaxing muscles, especially in the shoulders and neck

During a treatment, our Acupunctuirists uses a combination of Acupuncture points specifically targeted at any imbalance underlying the muscle stiffness, as well as local points to bring fast relief. We also look at lifestyle measures to help prevent the problem recurring.

Tara is a Registered Acupuncturist with many years’ experience in treating neck and shoulder issues. Health-fund rebates are available for Acupuncture treatments.

 

Acupuncture for Low Back Pain

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acupuncture low back painAcupuncture can be very effective in resolving low back pain. We are now seeing several research studies that confirm this, including some that show Acupuncture to be more effective than the conventional approach described above. Interestingly, studies tend to show that very light needling or needling that does not penetrate the skin (approaches often used in Japanese-style Acupuncture) can be as effective as deeper Chinese-style needling.

Our Acupuncturists are very experienced in treating low back pain and finds this is one of the conditions that responds best to Acupuncture.

 

What happens in a treatment?

The Acupuncturists approach to low back pain is to use the gentlest needling possible to reduce the pain and get you back to your normal life as quickly as possible. Often the needles are warmed with moxibustion (a warming herb) to really “unknot” the underlying muscle and ligaments. Most people find the treatments extremely relaxing – the feeling is a bit like having a good massage. The points chosen and method of Acupuncture depend on your constitution (the pattern you fall into based on your symptoms and on information gained from carefully palpating the body and on examination of your pulse and tongue). It’s important to work on the underlying cause of the problem as well as the symptoms.

So what works for one person with low back pain may be quite different from what works for another.

 

How long will it take to work?

Back pain that has recently come on responds more quickly than pain that has been present months or years. There is usually a response within 4-6 treatments, with further treatments consolidating this. Generally, the treatments would be weekly (or sometimes twice-weekly for severe, acute back strain) for the first few, and then we reduce the frequency as the condition improves. Health-fund rebates are available for Acupuncture treatments.

Acupuncture for Sports and Other Injuries

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acupuncture sports injuriesSports injuries (and other injuries like over-use injuries, repetitive strain injury and tendinitis) are really annoying because they stop you doing the sport or leisure activity you love, or they might interfere with work or study.

Common sports and over-use injuries include:

  • Tennis elbow (often caused by something other than tennis!)
  • Golfer’s elbow (often caused by something other than golf!)
  • Knee ligament injuries
  • Iliotibial tract (band) syndrome (runner’s knee)
  • Shin splints
  • Ankle sprains
  • Achilles tendonitis, calf strain
  • Hamstring strain, groin strain
  • Frozen shoulder (often not related to sports or over-use, but it can respond very well to acupuncture), rotator cuff tear

Whether you have occasional niggles or acute, severe pain, you probably want to get to the bottom of what’s happening and find a long-lasting solution. This is where acupuncture comes in. Most of the injuries above respond well to Acupuncture. For recent injuries, we usually see a response in around 4 treatments, but longstanding injuries can take longer.

Treatments involve needles placed at specific acupuncture points in the region of the injury, as well as ones inserted at points further along the acupuncture meridian (one of a network of lines that circulate the energy or “Qi”). Other points are also used to promote healing. For these types of injury, moxibustion (a form of herbal heat treatment) is also very useful. Massage is also used when indicated.

Our Acupuncturists are a registered Acupuncturist with experience in treating a wide variety of sports injuries, including in elite athletes. Health-fund rebates are available for Acupuncture treatments.