Arthritis Treatment – acupuncture

At my clinic in Guildford Surrey I have been helping Osteo & Rheumatoid arthritis for 30 years.

Types of Arthritis

arthritis treatment - acupuncture
courtesy of NRAS

Rheumatoid Arthritis is our immune system attacking our own body. It starts as early as in our 20’s. It can worsen with age. The joints (specially hands, feet & neck) can become deformed. It can have episodes, & even ‘burn itself out’ (stop getting worse for ever)  at any time.

Osteoarthritis is wear & tear. it affects joints,bones & cartilage. We all have it, as seen on x-rays whe we get into our 60’s and 70’s, but a lot of us get little or no pain.

Interestingly, severe osteoarthritis can show on x-rays, & be causing no pain or problems. You can be in a lot of pain with healthy x-rays. We dont know why.  what this means is whatever the x-rays show, there is hope!

Acupuncture for Arthritis

I find acupuncture helps my clients with arthritis much more often than research on the internet says it should. Why is this? Chinese Doctors talk of energy pathways (meridians) in us, which will be in pain if blocked. The doctors in China use acupuncture needles to free up the pathways, which stops the pain.

Clients of mine diagnosed with painful osteoarthritis have left pain-free after just a few acupuncture treatments.

Rheumatoid Arthritis & Acupuncture

Rheumatoid Arthritis is not so easy to help. Regular acupuncture can manage the pain, lessening it. The hands & feet can also be helped to be more free and in less pain. Also I have sometimes had Rheumatoid arthritis burn itself out when I begin treating it with acupuncture.

Case 1 – Hip Osteoarthritis

Interestingly, a Lady of 65 came to see me with severe pain in her hip. She had been diagnosed with severe osteoarthritis, and was scared of surgery. I gave her a course of treatment, & amazingly her pain disappeared totally! She also regained mobility in the hip. I last saw her 2 years later, when she was still pain free & happily mobile! So hip arthritis can be helped. Usually, when bad and worsening, a hip replacement is needed. The consultant wont want to replace it until they really have to, as new hips last at most for 15 years.

Case 2 – Knee Osteoarthritis

A man aged 40 saw me some time ago. X-rays of his knees showed severe osteoarthritis. He was on pain killers, but they were not helping. Just a few treatments from me & the knee pain was gone, and his knees moved freer. He came back for several years for other health problems, & his knees stayed pain-free.

Case 3 – Rheumatoid Arthritis, severe.

arthritis treatment - acupunctureA lady aged 65 came to me many years ago. She was a magistrate, and had been a nurse before. She had been suffering from severe Rheumatoid Arthritis for 35 years. She was in a wheel-chair. Her hands, feet and neck were deformed by the disease, and she was hunched over. She also had Ankylosing spondylitis, a nasty condition of the spine. Linked to all this she had really bad reflux and anxiety.

She had acupuncture with me for many years. Just after I began seeing here her arthritis burned out. For her, acupuncture ever 2 weeks gave her relief, more movement in her feet and hands, & her arthritis stopped getting worse. Also her reflux was eased considerably, and she felt happier, and was not so anxious. She was a really nice lady with a wonderful memory. while she was being treated I learnt a lot about medicine, the law and life. She did so much better in her later years than she thought she would.

 

David Gilbert

 

 

 

Treating Migraine with Cranio-Sacral Therapy and Acupuncture

 

 

I have had amazing results treating migraine with cranio-sacral therapy and acupuncture in Guildford, Surrey.

I have treated many people over the last 30 years for migraines in my clinic in Guildford. I have found the combination of cranio-sacral therapy and acupuncture to be amazingly effective. Acupuncture on its own can work, cranio-sacral therapy on its own is more likely to work. The two together work far better in my experience.

Migraines vary enormously in location, intensity and cause. Every person who comes to me with a migraine is different, so they have to be diagnosed and treated differently. In chinese medicine there are different migraine syndromes, and in cranial work also.

To give 3 examples of how migraines vary:

One older man who came to see me 25 years ago suffered from horrific migraines, where he would be incapacitated for days. Alongside treatment I gave him dietery advice. As he was desperate to try anything, he agreed to cut out most foods and gradually re-introduce them. We discovered that the cause of his migraines was red meat. He stopped red meat and never had another migraine. He is the only person I have heard of where red meat was the cause.

Another man in his 40’s who I saw 15 years ago, was suffering from the worst migraines I have ever heard of. He had had them consistently for 25 years. He had them at least once a week & they would last for up to 3 days. If one started when he was in public he would be totally floored, and unable to talk. So often he was mistakenly seen as drunk and put into a prison cell. I treated him with cranio-sacral therapy. He was cured after just 1 treatment.  He came to see me weekly for 6 weeks, then occasionally for the next 6 months. Then he never had any need to return. The cause with him was the joint between his head and his neck being stuck tight. We worked out that at the time his migraines started he had 3 severe impacts to the head in a short space of time. He had come off his bike and landed on his head, fallen down stairs, and been involved in a fight with another boy at school where he was hit hard on the head.

A third patient of mine is a retired woman, who I have been seeing for the past 3 years. She was having up to 3 migraines a week, and found them severely debilitating. She had had them for over 30 years. I treated her weekly, then fortnightly, then monthly, with acupuncture and cranio-sacral therapy. We have managed to reduce the migraines to about once every six months at the moment, and she only comes for treatment when she has a migraine. We have never quite worked out the cause of her migraines.

So cause and treatment vary, but I have been amazed looking back how often treating Migraine with Cranio-Sacral Therapy and Acupuncture has radically improved people’s lives.

Treating Trigeminal Neuralgia with Acupuncture and Craniosacral Therapy

I have had amazing results treating Trigeminal Neuralgia with acupuncture and craniosacral therapy at The Gilbert Clinic in Guildford, Surrey.

Trigeminal Neuralgia presents as pain on one side of the head. It is usually intense. It can go from the ear area to the the jaw, cheek or forehead, or all three. It often comes on fairly quickly, and the pain can move around. It can last for weeks, months or years. It can pull your lips cheeks and eye muscles out of shape, causing you to look like you are grimacing on one side of your face.

It is often misdiagnosed by dentists as a tooth problem. While the cause is seen as unknown, it is thought to be linked to the swelling of an artery in the face.

Consultants will often treat it by surgery under a local anesthetic to reduce the swelling in the artery. This sometimes helps.

I have just been treating trigeminal neuralgia with acupuncture and craniosacral therapy, with stunning results. The pain was excruciating when they came to see me. Their dentist had diagnosed their problem as a tooth problem, and was about to start a course of very expensive dental treatment.

After I had treated them 4 times with acupuncture combined with cranio-sacral therapy, the pain has gone totally.

In Chinese medicine Trigeminal Neuralgia is seen as wind getting in. In one area of China at a certain time of year they have ferocious windy weather, and the doctors are inundated with cases of trigeminal Neuralgia. Their preferred treatment is acupuncture.

Acupuncture and Cranial work are excellent for treating many facial problems. I have found even problems that have been going on for 20 or 30 years can respond well. Many years ago a lady came to see me had a top lip that was permanently raised over an inch on one side, disfiguring her face. It had been like that for 20 years. I treated her with acupuncture and she came back the next week with a normal mouth. She was one very happy lady that day! The lip has stayed normal ever since.

So if you know someone suffering from one sided facial pain, it is always good to first get a diagnosis from your doctor. Also tell them that treating trigeminal neuralgia with acupuncture and craniosacral therapy can really help.