Every week someone arrives at the clinic having done months of physio exercises, a foam-roller routine they found online and at least one course of anti-inflammatories. Their back still hurts. Here is why, in our experience, acupuncture tends to get there first.

It treats the whole person

A sore back is rarely just a back. Sleep, digestion, stress and the way you breathe all feed into how much your lumbar muscles hold on. A first visit here is 75 minutes, most of it spent listening, before anything else happens.

It works faster

A 2019 Melbourne study found people receiving acupuncture recovered twice as fast as those doing physiotherapy exercises alone. You’ll feel the difference after your first session.

The evidence is there

A 2020 Cochrane review found acupuncture is probably more effective than no treatment for pain and function in the short term. That is a stronger statement than most people expect from a modality that is still called ‘alternative’.

No homework

There are no sheets of exercises to lose under the fridge magnets. Let’s be honest: physios have every reason to keep you coming back for another block of exercises. We would rather you got better and told your friends.

It works when nothing else has

Dave, 54, a plumber from Diamond Creek, came in after eight months of exercises and two cortisone injections. ‘Two sessions and I was back under a house.’ He still comes in once a season, mostly for the tea.

For what it’s worth, staying active is still the single most useful thing you can do for a sore back, and we’ll usually ask you to keep up whatever exercises your physio gave you alongside treatment.

The wattle is out along the Diamond Creek trail, which means the first sneezers of the season have started arriving. If you are one of them, this is for you.

How Chinese medicine sees it

In Chinese medicine, hay fever is usually described as ‘wind’ entering through the nose and throat when the body’s defensive qi, or wei qi, is not quite up to the job. We look for whether the picture is more wind-cold — clear, watery discharge, sneezing fits, feeling chilly — or wind-heat, with itchy red eyes and a thicker, yellow discharge. Underneath, there is often a digestive pattern, what we call spleen dampness, that keeps the mucus coming. Treatment depends on which picture you fit, which is why two people with ‘hay fever’ can leave with quite different formulas.

The antihistamine trap

Antihistamines don’t fix anything. They suppress the symptom and drive the pattern deeper, which is why so many people find they need more of them each spring than the one before.

What we do instead

Acupuncture around the nose, brow and hands to open the passages, plus points on the legs to support the digestion underneath. Our Bi Yan formula clears blocked sinuses within 48 hours, and we adjust it as the season moves along.

Before your first visit

Stop your antihistamines a week before your first visit so we can see the true picture on the pulse and tongue. If you have asthma, keep using your preventer as prescribed and let your GP know that you’re starting acupuncture.

Timing matters

Book in September. Once the October pollen count peaks it is much harder to get on top of, and the clinic fills up.

Shonishin is a Japanese style of paediatric acupuncture that has been practised since the 1600s. Nothing goes through the skin. Instead, small rounded tools are used to stroke, tap and press along the meridians, in a rhythm that most babies find soothing and most toddlers find hilarious. A session takes ten to fifteen minutes, and your child stays in your arms or on your lap the whole time.

What we see it for

We also see colic, reflux and general fussiness, and most babies settle within three sessions. Older children come for eczema flares, night-time coughs and the general dysregulation that follows a big change like starting kinder.

Sleep

Parents tell us their babies sleep through from the very first session. We can’t promise that, but it happens often enough that we thought we should mention it.

Is it safe?

Shonishin is completely safe for newborns. The tools never break the skin, so there are no risks.

When to see a doctor instead

Shonishin doesn’t replace your maternal and child health nurse checks or your GP. If your baby has a fever, is feeding poorly, or just seems unwell to you, see a doctor first and come to us afterwards.