Acupuncture & Chinese Medicine

At The Hay Clinic we provide acupuncture, allergy, and intolerance testing. As well as Animal Healing, Aqua Detox, and Aromatherapy. We also have a therapist offering Beauty Therapy, and others practicing Bodywork, Chinese Herbal Medicine, and Colonic Hydrotherapy otherwise known as colonic irrigation. cranio-sacral therapy as taught by the Upledger Institute. Dr John Upledger’s craniosacral therapy. Available here are Massage, Ear Candling, Essential Oils and other forms of Facial Rejuvenation or a Facial. We do treatments to help with infertility, and provide Healing, Herbal Remedies, and Hopi Ear Candles. Or, if you want something different we have Mediums providing Psychic Development and readings. Finally you can have Reflexology or Remedial Massage at the hay clinic centre for natural medicine.

Chinese medicine seems to hit the headlines on an almost weekly basis, as orthodox medical research "discovers" yet another health condition that responds to acupuncture. So, what are Chinese medicine and acupuncture?

Chinese medicine, like our western medicine, is a complete system. Containing many techniques for evaluation and diagnosis, and many techniques for treatment. Developed and refined together over thousands of years, Chinese medicine is the foundation of acupuncture—without that foundation acupuncture is little more than the act of putting pins in the body. Yet, when used as part of Chinese medicine, as it has been for millennia, acupuncture becomes capable of dramatically improving health.

Chinese medicine makes extensive use of a patient's medical history, as well as more traditional techniques such body and pulse diagnosis.

In one of the more advanced forms of pulse diagnosis there are 28 different positions on the wrists at which to take the pulse. These reveal the state of twelve organ systems and a variety of body areas. Each pulse position can have one or more of 58 possible qualities, each with a different meaning, and the wrist pulses as a whole can have a variety of different rates, rhythms and overall qualities. A practitioner interprets all this information to build a detailed picture of what is happening in the body, in terms of Chinese medicine, and then combines this with other information to work out the best treatment approach.

Based on the work of the internationally acknowledged pulse diagnosis master, the late Dr John HF Shen, OMD and further developed by his most experienced student, Leon Hammer, MD, this complex system provides the foundation for an in-depth diagnosis, as well as a tool for preventive medicine. After studying with Dr Shen for 27 years, Dr. Hammer is currently engaged in writing, continuing to teach only a small, select group of advanced students.

As Dr Hammer says, ‘Used correctly the pulse is an exquisite and sophisticated means of understanding the whole person; revealing the patient's constitution, previous illnesses, early insults to normal physiology, environmental stressors, trauma, lifestyle, emotions and behaviour. In terms of Chinese medicine, pulse diagnosis can also predict possible future pathologies with accuracy.’ Oliver still continues his on-going study of advanced Chinese pulse diagnosis with Dr Hammer.

One of the more rarely taught aspects of Chinese medicine, known as Stems & Branches, enables a practitioner to calculate a person’s constitutional strengths, weaknesses, and tendencies—information which is often the key to understanding a patient’s condition and the best way to treat them. This system can also be used to predict disease tendencies in the population as a whole. There are few acupuncturists in the world trained to use this ancient part of Chinese medicine.

In a typical acupuncture session the patient lies on their back (if possible) on the treatment table. The practitioner will probably palpate the pulses on the wrists and spend time working out the best treatment for the patient.

The treatment itself involves the insertion of very fine sterile disposable needles placed at specifically chosen points on the patient's body. A typical session can last up to an hour, thought the needles usually remain in place for around twenty to twenty-five minutes.

No one really knows the origins of chinese medicine. The oldest surviving medical text is around 2300 years old - due to the complexity of this text it is likely that Chinese medicine itself is even older than this. So, for more than two and a half thousand years the chinese have had a primary healthcare system for their vast population. These thousands of years of practice have enabled Chinese medicine to grow into something that provides a mature alternative to the relatively young medical science of the west.

Due to its long history of success, the technique of acupuncture has become very popular both inside and outside of the NHS, and is frequently performed by healthcare providers who have little or no training in Chinese medicine. It should be remembered that training in western medicine is not a qualification to practice acupuncture. Just as the prescription of modern drugs requires a thorough understanding of western medical theory, so the practice of acupuncture requires a thorough understanding of Chinese medical theory. As a way of protecting the public. The British Acupuncture Council (BAcC) allows only those acupuncturists with a thorough training in Chinese medicine to become members.