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Acupuncture for menopausal symptoms
Enjoying a painless transition
Acupuncture for menopausal symptoms may be able to help with problems such as hot flushes and insomnia. The menopause is a difficult time for many women, facing up to one of life's big transitions. Happily, many women come out of the other end of it feeling empowered , entering a newly self-confident and more independent era of their lives. In any case, the process itself should be painless.
Hot flushes, night sweats, insomnia and some emotional volatility are common menopausal symptoms, but all indicate imbalances that have taken you away from optimal health and a smooth transition, and all often respond well to acupuncture.
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Research |
A 2009 Norwegian study in the journal Menopause found that acupuncture in addition to self-care can reduce menopausal hot flushes(1).
Meanwhile a review(2) by the British Medical Journal described acupuncture as "very safe" when practiced by an appropriately-qualified practitioner.
The modern evidence base for acupuncture is incomplete, and this is true for a great many areas of conventional medicine too. The Clinical Evidence website of the British Medical Journal tells us that of the 2,500 conventional medical treatments their databases cover, 46% are of unknown effectiveness (as at October 2009)(3).
Jessica continues to witness the benefits of acupuncture for many people in her work, utilising the knowledge and practice of Chinese medicine built up over thousands of years. She's happy that more and more modern scientific research is being done into acupuncture, helping to bring it to a wider audience.
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Contact Jessica
Each of us responds differently to
acupuncture. Do
get in touch to discuss whether
acupuncture is likely to be right for you, or to make an appointment.
Other conditions
Acupuncture can help with a wide range of health problems, click below to find out more:
Detailed references
(1) Borud, EK et al (2009). The Acupuncture on Hot Flushes Among Menopausal Women (ACUFLASH) study, a randomized controlled trial. Menopause 2009 May-Jun;16(3):484-93, see
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/19423996
(2) Rampes (2001). The safety of acupuncture. British Medical Journal 2001;323(7311):467 (1 September), doi:10.1136/bmj.323.7311.467, see http://www.bmj.com/cgi/content/extract/323/7311/467
(3) From the 'About Us' area of the Clinical Evidence BMJ website, page titled 'How much do we know', http://clinicalevidence.bmj.com/ceweb/about/knowledge.jsp. Extract at Oct 2009: "So what can Clinical Evidence tell us about the state of our current knowledge? What proportion of commonly used treatments are supported by good evidence, what proportion should not be used or used only with caution, and how big are the gaps in our knowledge? Of around 2500 treatments covered 13% are rated as beneficial, 23% likely to be beneficial, 8% as trade off between benefits and harms, 6% unlikely to be beneficial, 4% likely to be ineffective or harmful, and 46%, the largest proportion, as unknown effectiveness"
© Jessica Kennedy 2005-8, all rights reserved