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In August 2018 I spent a week volunteering with a project in Guatemala called the Integrative Health Project.  It was established by two American practitioners of Chinese Medicine in 2012 to bring care to under-served communities principally in Guatemala and the Caribbean.  Specifically, it integrates Traditional East Asian medicine, Mayan medicine and conventional biomedical diagnosis and treatment. […]

Introduction  Being unable to sleep can be extremely frustrating.  Once in a while it happens to most of people, and usually there is an obvious reason: Coffee after 6pm, reading something on a smart phone before switching off the bedside light, exercising too late in the evening etc.   But if you’ve drunk your camomile […]

  Introduction Depression and anxiety are common mental health issues, occurring in approximately 1 in 10 and 1 in 9 people respectively, in Ireland. Drugs are routinely prescribed for such illnesses so it’s reasonable to wonder how the ancient Chinese medical practice of acupuncture – the insertion of needles into specific places on the body – can bring […]

As many Irish people will tell you, sinusitis (nasal congestion, difficulty breathing through the nose and pronounced pain/tenderness around the cheeks, forehead and top of the head) is the bane of their lives during the autumn and winter and they don’t necessarily have a cold or the flu to start it off – they just find themselves having […]

Exciting news!  One of the leading teachers of Applied Channel Theory in the West is coming to Navan to give a three day lecture to practitioners of Acupuncture from all over Europe.  My colleague, Cyrille Bonnard of Equilibre Acupuncture who kindly covers for me while on annual leave, has invited Jason D Robertson to teach an […]

The Problem with Painkillers The most commonly used over-the-counter medicines for conditions like back pain, neck and shoulder pain, headaches and period pains, to name a few, include paracetamol and ibuprofen (Non Steroidal Anti-Inflammatories).  When these fail to adequately control pain people go to their doctors and may be prescribed stronger NSAIDs, Triptans, Opioids, steroids or […]

Last Friday’s Irish Times (24 March 2017) contained no fewer than three articles about alcohol: a surge in teenage alcohol related admissions to hospitals was reported in 2016; moderate alcohol consumption may cut our risk of heart disease; and, why alcohol may be affecting our sleep, health and fitness. These types of report are not […]

If you’ve ever looked at your tongue and been aghast to see a thick, furry, greasy looking coat on it, then you may have been tempted to try scraping it off. Boots the Chemist even sells handy little gadgets that will help you to do this, claiming that the presence of the coating is causing […]

Someone asked me the other day what a typical day is like for an Acupuncturist, and the answer is that it varies – sometimes a lot. For example, I looked at my diary for this time last year and this is a flavour of what I was treating: a young woman with severe neurological pain […]