76-year-old Mr Pearce had a fall in Feb 2012 when the weather was snowy. X-ray showed a crushed vertebra in his lower spine. He was having back pain all the time and had to take eight pain-killing tablets a day, but still didn't get relief. He limped into my clinic with a stick and said:”This pain is dreadful. I would do anything to get some relief.” I put four needles into his back and did some manipulation until he felt an electric sensation going down the legs, then used a machine to s...

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Many studies in recent years have shown that acupuncture is more effective than conventional treatments for lower back pain, though some researchers concluded that it's just a placebo effect - no more effective than sham acupuncture which doesn't penetrate the skin or places the needles in random points. I admit the existence of placebo effect, but the question is, to what extent it works? Can it work as well as real acupuncture does? In some studies, acupuncture was delivered for quite a lon...
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43-year-old Rudy is a paramedic. He was limping when he walked into my clinic. A few weeks ago he started having a back pain after lifting patients. It was so bad that he couldn’t walk properly. As a medical professional, he had tried everything he could get - taking pain killers, having physiotherapy and even injections, but none of them worked. Feeling sick of it, he decided to come to the Lake District for a holiday. Wandering in the town centre of Penrith, he noticed my clinic and promp...

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