High volume acupuncture

Stimulated by McKee et al 2020.[1] Image by Ryan Loughlin on Unsplash. We called it HVAC (“H-vac”), the high-volume acupuncture clinic that was set up at RLHH after its refurbishment in the early noughties. RLHH stood for the Royal London Homeopathic Hospital, but now it is called the Royal London Hospital for Integrated Medicine (RLHIM). … Continue reading High volume acupuncture →

Sacral needling 2020

Stimulated by Yuan et al 2019 and Sun et al 2020.[1,2] Photo by Pavel Nekoranec on Unsplash. This is a statue of Prometheus and the Oceanids.I have added coloured dots over BL32, BL33 and BL35. Rather similar to last week’s blog, I was drawn to the first of these papers by the comparison of techniques alluded to in … Continue reading Sacral needling 2020 →

EA for CP 2020

Stimulated by Wang et al 2020.[1] Photo by Mi Pham on Unsplash. This paper was published online on the 2nd January. I was drawn to read the abstract because the title mentioned a comparison of EA (electroacupuncture) and MA (manual acupuncture) in spasticity, although MA is referred to in the paper as body acupuncture. The abstract suggested a … Continue reading EA for CP 2020 →

Opioids and IM

Stimulated by Hassan et al 2019.[1] Photo by Alexandru G Stavrică on Unsplash.Woman in a field of poppies... another plant-based former-alternative medicine 😉 This is a systematic review that asks the question: Does integrative medicine (IM) reduce prescribed opioid use for chronic pain? Obviously, I needed to look, having recently highlighted a similar topic on … Continue reading Opioids and IM →

Mike’s minerva 1

Stimulated by recent letters in Acupuncture in Medicine.[1–4] Artist is Elihu Vedder (1836–1923). Photographed in 2007 by Carol M. Highsmith (1946–).Minerva is the Roman goddess of poetry, medicine, wisdom, strategic warfare, commerce weaving and the crafts. Her Greek equivalent is Athena... In the last week or so we have published several letters online, and they … Continue reading Mike’s minerva 1 →

Sensory testing again

Stimulated by Dimitrova et al 2019 & Zheng et al 2019.[1,2] Photo by Aliona Gumeniuk on Unsplash. I first came across the acronym QST some years ago in one of the big national or international pain conferences where there are always numerous companies exhibiting extraordinarily expensive pieces of kit. QST devices appeared to be just … Continue reading Sensory testing again →

Chronic stable angina and point specificity

Stimulated by Zhao et al 2019.[1] Photo by Dominik Lange on Unsplash. This paper was published online earlier this week but appeared on my PubMed search this morning. I was planning to write about hemifacial spasm today, highlighting quite a big (n=539) neurosurgical review of MVD (microvascular decompression) from China,[2] but this paper on electroacupuncture … Continue reading Chronic stable angina and point specificity →