Women's health
Natural remedies for health
Beyond Gynae
Of course only women have periods and can suffer from menstrual problems. But Women are also more prone to some general conditions than men. For example, we are 10x more likely to suffer from autoimmune thyroid problems. and. about twice as likely to get MS or RA.
Some of these conditions seem to be related to hormonal differences. Sometimes they get better or worse at different points in your menstrual cycle, during and after pregnancy, or at the menopause. Conversely, some of these conditions – thyroid disorders for example – can affect your menstrual health, or even your fertility..
More generally, we are more susceptible to eating disorders, osteoporosis IBS, chronic fatigue, fibromyalgia, depression and Hashimoto’s thyroiditis.
Acupuncture and Chinese herbs can be helpful for many of these conditions, either on their own or in conjunction with western medicine, though some require specialist care. To find out if acupuncture or Chinese Medicine could help, give me a ring for a chat.
Some common women's conditions
| Some women's conditions | ||
|---|---|---|
| Thyroid problems | Chronic Fatigue | ME |
| IBS | Depression & Anxiety | Osteoporosis |
| Menstrual problems | Menopause | Candida and BV |
| Frozen shoulder | Neck pain | Carpal tunnel |
| Cystitis | Fibromyalgia | Inflammation |
| Anemia | Gall stones | Migraine |
If you’d like to find out if acupuncture or herbs could help with your condition , please get in touch
Research into acupuncture and herbs
Research into the effectiveness of acupuncture is not thick on the ground; However, that is starting to change. With the increasing emphasis in the west on reducing people’s dependence on drugs such as opioids and the increased incidence of chronic conditions such as Long Covid, which are difficult to treat, there is much more interest in investigating CM.
As with a great deal of medical research in general, the quality isn’t always the best, but the British Acupuncture Council keeps track of good recent studies in various conditions if you want to have a look.
In China there is a lot of really intereesting research into the active constituents of individual herbs and the clinical efficacy of some of the great traditional prescriptions, and in Taiwan, where Chinese herbs are available under the national health system, there are large databases of prescription use. With a few exceptions, western research is rarely clinical, and is mostly focused on finding herbal constituents that can be turned into western drugs.
Although there are some scientific studies on many of the conditions listed above, they have varying degrees of validity. Here’s a meta analysis from Frontiers in Pharmacology on Irritable Bowel Syndrome.
