Helix Clinic blog

This Mother’s Day, Paola, one of our massage therapists is running a special offer on her natural face lift massages. It’s a wonderful gift to give to your mother as a way to show your appreciation for everything that mums do. And the best bit… if you buy your mum a natural facelift for Mother’s Day, you can get one yourself for free!

Why not check out Paola’s article on how to look more youthful and refreshed in just one hour? Try her massage and we guarantee you won’t be disappointed.

Tags: natural facelift

This year, we ran a fundraising event for Red Nose Day 2009. A great day was had by all, with our massage therapist Dawn working flat out to bring deep relaxation to many people in the building. They all went into the weekend feeling pretty chilled out and the fact that all donations went to help those in need only increased the good feeling.

Thanks to everyone who came along and donated money for such a good cause. We managed to raise a total amount of £105!

Tags: massage, red nose day

As we mentioned yesterday,  insomnia often responds well to acupuncture. However, chronic insomnia can sometimes be trickier to shift. In these cases it can be useful to try a natural supplement in addition to acupuncture treatment.

When thinking about supplements for insomia, it is useful to keep in mind the basic brain chemistry that leads to a good night’s sleep. Serotonin is the neurotransmitter that initiates sleep, and its precursor is the amino acid L-tryptophan. The reason that taking a direct serotonin supplement wouldn’t help is that once absorbed into the bloodstream, it wouldn’t be able to pass through the blood-brain barrier and get to where it’s needed. However, L-tryptophan and its metabolite 5-hydroxytryptophan (5-HTP), from which serotonin is synthesized, can and do cross the blood-brain barrier, so are suitable as dietary supplements that could help in the synthesis of serotonin.

5-HTP can be bought as a direct supplement, but in addition certain foods have a higher L-tryptophan content so can be useful to eat later in the day. Avocados, bananas and wheat germ are particularly good, so instead of eating a late dinner high in protein (which tends to stimulate and wake up the brain), why not try a bowl of sweet potato soup, with a lettuce and avocado salad, followed by a banana (or a banana smoothie made with added wheat germ).

Another remedy that could be worth trying is the one described on the BBC’s new series ‘Grow Your Own Drugs’. The presenter made a small pillow stuffed with dried hops, and tested it out on a couple of people who had suffered from chronic insomnia. They found good results when the small hop pillow was placed under their usual pillow at night. It’s an unconventional idea, but if it works it has to be better than going for the sleeping pills.

Tags: 5HTP, avocados, bananas, hops, sleep

Mmm, a whole month dedicated to lovely sleep. It’s wonderful when you get it, but unfortunate that so many people have problems sleeping, and attempts to improve it can often be frustrating and slow to take effect. Why is this?

In Traditional Chinese Medicine, imbalances can be categorised as full or deficient conditions. Full conditions often come on quickly and generally have stronger symptoms, whereas deficient conditions tend to develop slowly over time so are generally more chronic, and often the symptoms are less intense (but no less annoying).

A simple example of a full condition affecting sleep would be disturbed sleep after an alcohol enhanced evening. You can feel hot, restless and sweaty - the alcohol creates hot and damp energy in the liver that keeps you awake. But although the symptoms come on quick, they can be cleared relatively easily. Similarly if someone has a lot of physical stress and tension stored in the body that is affecting sleep, this can be relieved quite quickly using acupuncture.

A common deficient condition that can affect sleep is when there is a deficiency in the body’s yin energy, that reservoir of cool and calm energy. Classic symptoms that would suggest yin energy is low include waking in the middle of the night, or waking feeling thirsty, or experiencing night sweats. In this case it generally takes longer to change the sleep patterns because yin deficiency often takes longer to build up and manifest.

We have made a few posts before on how to build yin energy, either through yin building activities such as acupuncture, deep breathing, yoga, tai ji or meditation, or through eating yin-building foods, or through being in a yin-nourishing environment. If you are having trouble sleeping and the usual remedies are not having an obvious effect, maybe your yin energy is what needs a boost.

Tags: insomnia, sleep, yin energy

Regular readers of our blog will have noticed a ’stop smoking’ theme over the past couple of weeks. We’ve given advice on how shorter, more frequent acupuncture treatments can help beat cigarette cravings, and how important it is to get into the right mindset before giving up smoking. We’ve looked at the benefits that can be gained within minutes of stopping smoking. And yesterday we speculated on the role that a good posture could play in helping to anchor good feelings to your future non-smoking self.

Next week is national no-smoking day so if you are a smoker, this is a great time of year to think about quitting for good. We appreciate how hard it can be to give up, so we’ve decided to run a competition with a prize of 3 weeks acupuncture treatment and support targeted to help someone start a healthier lifestyle without tobacco.

To enter our competition, simply fill in our short smoking survey. We’ll be picking a winner at random on national no smoking day so your treatment can start straight away. Good luck!

Tags: competition, no smoking day, smoking