Evidence-informed articles for GPs and healthcare colleagues. Covering acupuncture, herbal medicine, nutrition, and laser therapy in the management of pain, ageing, fatigue, stress, eye health, and wellbeing — with an emphasis on safe use in chronic disease management alongside Western treatments.
Health crises often drive patients to change, but sustaining those changes is the greater challenge. Research shows many return to old habits within two years. Ongoing support and integrative care can make healthier patterns last.
Back pain is one of the biggest reasons people lose independence as they age. Here’s how acupuncture is proving to be a safe, effective option for over-50s.
Dancing through life without pain: acupuncture, Chinese herbal medicine, and laser therapy can help you stay active
Pain is real—but it isn’t a simple read‑out from injured tissue. What you feel is your nervous system’s running commentary on threat, shaped by sleep, stress, beliefs, hormones, movement load, diet, age, and health history. That’s why the same scan or diagnosis can hit different people in totally different ways
Trying to conceive? Learn how acupuncture can improve fertility, regulate hormones, and support natural conception—backed by evidence and clinical experience.
Inflammaging—a term now well established in the biomedical literature—describes low-grade, persistent inflammation that accumulates with age. It underpins many of the chronic, non-specific symptoms we see in older patients: fatigue, musculoskeletal pain, poor sleep, digestive slowing, and decreased resilience.
These symptoms often present before frank pathology is measurable, making early intervention both difficult and crucial. This is where Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM)—particularly acupuncture and Chinese herbal medicine—offers a valuable, evidence-aligned framework.
Low-grade chronic inflammation in ageing patients quietly sensitises pain receptors and disrupts mitochondrial energy production. This results in a clinical constellation often seen in older adults:
Persistent, nonspecific muscle or joint pain
Reduced physical resilience and easy fatigability
Non-restorative sleep and heightened sensory sensitivity
“Idiopathic” fatigue that doesn’t respond to conventional therapies
Emerging biomedical evidence highlights a bidirectional relationship: inflammation impairs mitochondrial function → lower ATP output → more reactive oxygen species (ROS) → further inflammation → more mitochondrial damage. This vicious cycle underpins syndromes like fibromyalgia, chronic fatigue, and frailty.
Inflammaging—the chronic, low-grade inflammation that accompanies ageing—is now widely recognised as a key contributor to vascular stiffening, endothelial dysfunction, and microvascular deterioration….TCM does not treat these changes symptomatically. Instead, it works systemically—restoring the functional relationships between organs, enhancing microcirculation, and addressing the root causes of degenerative vascular change.
Many people associate acupuncture with needles, but in reality treatment is gentle, safe, and evidence-informed. Acupuncture stimulates the nervous system to release natural pain- and stress-relieving chemicals while improving blood flow. In clinical practice, it is rare not to see some benefit, even after the first session