A woman in her mid thirties, presents with lower back pain

She trains at the gym almost every day, a mixture of cardio and strength training.

Her diet is well balanced, although her hydration is very low considering the amount of exercise she does.

She has no underlying conditions although she has been trying to fall pregnant for at least six months with no success.

My approach had two facets… one was to look at her structure and the bodies muscle balance and second was to work out the state of certain systems such as circulation, blood status ie. does the body have enough blood to cope with her lifestyle and her natural body function such as her menstrual cycle.

When I started to test the first part of my investigation it became clear she had very tight hip flexors. I looked at her posture and noticed an imbalance between left and right.

On asking questions it became clear she showed what we call in Chinese Medicine, signs of blood deficiency.

I have seen many cases of female athletes whose bodies adapt so much to the training that they take blood from other aspects of the bodies function and use them to support the muscle needs.

The treatment conceited of acupuncture to release the hip flexors by stimulating the blood flow in the muscle and a review of her hydration and diet to help her body in its blood production.

Within a few sessions her back felt better so we started working on exercises to balance her muscle system and over a period of time, her diet changed.

As we started to progress she asked me to take a look at her fertility questions which from my perspective was a strong part of the picture she presented.

Over six months of focused work she got her menstrual cycle back and is planning a family. As for her back, she is able to train pain free and through proper management should stay pain free.

A woman in her sixties presenting with right frozen shoulder

The lady presented with a right frozen shoulder, she had recently had surgery on her left shoulder (decompression surgery).

Working alongside a Physiotherapist specialising in shoulders, I was asked to help reduce the pain and see if we can get her shoulder moving.

There is no definitive understanding as to why should a shoulder joint shuts down to protect itself from an injury. But what is known is how to release the shoulder by various treatments including acupuncture.

In certain frozen shoulder conditions acupuncture can have a very positive effect and this lady was referred to me because she displayed symptoms which acupuncture is able to treat.

Because she had a full investigation, I understood where the issues where in the shoulder joint and I was able to direct my treatment to the exact point. With a mixture of physiotherapy and acupuncture we started to see big changes and over a six week period she had gained around 40% of movement back in her shoulder.

At present she has been discharged with her shoulder at around 85% back to normal movement and most importantly does not need other interventions such as injections or surgery.

A man in his early thirties presented with no energy and feeling very low

The advantage of working in a team is no one practitioner has all the answers. In this case finding someone who he could talk to whilst I was treating was very powerful.

His case was a mixture of being unhappy with his work and personal life. He spent most his time on a computer with no exercise and his diet was very very bad consisting of unhealthy processed fast food and alcohol.

He had a simple choice, change your lifestyle and habits or carry on as he was.

He was expecting I would do a couple of treatments and his body would come back to balance, which were the expectations he had going to other practitioners. No surprise he had no changes and in fact became worse.

We both talked things through and I explained the change would have to come from him and I would facilitate the process, but would not take him on until he was ready to meet me half way.

I did not hear from him for six months until I got a call from him saying he was ready to change.

He came to me twice a week and once a week he was under a therapist.

His life has changed in many ways for the positive, including weight loss, diet and lifestyle. He now walks regularly and he even joined a social group. Most importantly for him, he has a girlfriend and energy to enjoy his life to the fullest.