Acupuncture works for more than pain

Acupuncture works for more than pain Acupuncture is best known for its association with a release of endorphins (your natural pain-killers) and also its ability to relax tight or contracted muscles.  Acupuncture is evolving with the help of evidence-based studies which validate and demonstrate not only how it can relieve back pain (read how we treat back pain here), but also how it therapeutically modulates the nervous, and endocrine (hormone),…

Read more »

Turning Points: The speed of time

I am not sure exactly when I really started to notice and become interested in the passage of time, but I think it was as a child of around 9 or 10. I would lie awake at night, trying to go back to my earliest memory, and then letting my mind flow forward naturally, without effort, one memory connected to the next, until I came up to that current moment….

Read more »

Finding the forest through the trees – connective tissue rediscovered

Hidden from view until now – fluid filled spaces everywhere!   By Gord Grant PhD, RAc and Alina Tousseeva, RAc A medical group from New York City recently discovered something very new and interesting about connective tissue. Connective tissue (or fascia as it is also known) is the tough, gooey, elastic filler stuff between cells in and around tissues, sinews, organs and muscles of the body.  It is simply everywhere!  On…

Read more »

Taking back the essence of “leisure”

by Gord Grant, PhD., RAc. Wikipedia says: “Leisure, or free time, is time spent away from business, work, domestic chores, and education.”  It goes on to qualify it – “The distinction between leisure and unavoidable activities is not a rigidly defined one” and then further; “Certainly most people’s leisure activities are not a completely free choice, and may be constrained by social pressures, e.g. people may be coerced into spending…

Read more »

Acupuncture helps with morning sickness

Acupuncture helps with morning sickness  This blog is intended to provide information to pregnant women who are suffering from morning sickness.  Many prefer to try something else besides medications as a first line approach, or are not tolerating anti-nausea drugs well. In a 2015 Cochrane review, a respected medical journal that summarizes research over time and evaluates its quality, put together two “meta analysis” to see if acupuncture can help…

Read more »

What is your last straw illusion? Take the tracking challenge!

Normal life situations can sometimes be the proverbial last straw to break your camel’s back when it comes to your health.  Why is it that we have such a hard time seeing the problem coming? We hear people (or ourselves!) say, “It was a good day until I reached down to pick up my suitcase…”, or, “My headaches come randomly, and take away normal life so I can barely function…

Read more »

“what’s up with cupping?”

cupping

Since Michael Phelps was seen with prominent cupping marks on his shoulders during the Olympics, cupping has been more recognized and accepted in the west as therapy for athletes.  But at the Acupuncture Turning Point we have long time integrated cupping into most treatments that involve chronic musculoskeletal pain, whether you are an athlete or not! Cupping can gently break the adhesions and bring new vigor to tissues associated the inflammation…

Read more »

Time for tea?

by Gord Grant PhD, RAc My grandmother, Beatrice Hemming, always had tea at 3pm (I mean, always). She spoke with a British accent when she was a young child. But upon immigrating to rural Alberta from South Africa with her family, she told me how the kids at school teased her for the way she sounded, and would ask her to say “water” in that way the British do –…

Read more »

Acupuncture and the Back Mechanic: flexion/stretching can make back pain worse

As you would expect, we serve many people from Edmonton at our clinic and give them acupuncture for back pain.  Many come with a history of sitting too much and not getting enough exercise.   But ironically, just as many, maybe even more, despite or because of extensive and consistent strength training and/or stretching, complain of low back pain and intolerance to sitting. Why is this? There can be many reasons….

Read more »

Acupuncture at the end of the rope

Acupuncture is not main-stream, and indeed, is very different – different enough for you NOT to try it until you are at the end of your rope! So this means people often come to see us when everything else has failed.  Unfortunate but true.  But it is often just the nature of change; a necessary and unavoidable stage before, when facing a difficult issue, we will try new things.  Here…

Read more »