Just a little prick?
Auricular acupuncture is the most fashionable therapy in town and any celebrity worth their salt is wearing the tell-tale ear seed showing they’re having treatment.
Kate Moss is said to be using it to combat cocaine addiction, Cherie Blair turns to it to relieve stress. But does it really work?
It may be the latest celebrity fad but auricular acupuncture has, in fact, been used for thousands of years in traditional Chinese medicine, and is hugely helpful in treating all manner of problems, from addictions to insomnia, joint pain and fertility.
There are as many as 200 acupuncture points on the outer ear, each point named generally after areas of our anatomy – liver, heart, mouth and so on. The outer ear acts like a switchboard to the brain and each point triggers electrical impulses, from the ear, via the brain, to the area of the body being treated. After a lengthy consultation to build up a comprehensive picture of their general health, lifestyle and associated problems, patients are treated with needles – up to ten per ear – which are left in for between ten and 45 minutes. They can then be left with ‘ear seeds’ (as seen in pictures of Kate Moss and Cherie Blair), to stimulate the acupressure points and allow them to enjoy the effects of acupuncture after they leave the clinic. The seeds can be anything hard, from mustard seeds to gold-plated press studs or coiled pins, held against the ear with surgical tape.
Many conventional medical professionals may be nonplussed by this type of acupuncture, dismissing it as merely mind over matter. But what happened when I tried it out?
After talking to me about my symptoms which included wanting to stop smoking and the horrendous hot flushes experienced by the majority of women of a certain age, Geraldine from Midas Touch in Linlithgow (www.midastouchmassage.co.uk) asked to see my tongue and also felt my pulse. I then lay down and she inserted seven needles in each ear. I must admit I was dreading it but was amazed when it hardly hurt at all. All I could feel was a slight sting as the needles went in. Obviously, I couldn’t see what she was doing, but she explained that she was targeting something called the ‘shenmen’ or heart point of my ear, which supposedly calms the mind.
The needles were left in for 20 minutes and Geraldine talked me through what she was doing and approached a couple of times to twiddle them.
Then she took them out and said, to feel long-term benefit, I’d have to come back several times over the next few months.
I have now had several sessions and am delighted to say I am now a convert!!! I have not smoked a cigarette since 29th March 2011 and my hot flushes are much more manageable and less debilitating. If you are fed up with taking conventional medicine and want to give this a try, please let me know and I’ll put you directly in touch with Geraldine!
And the winner is …………
The winner in the undergraduate competition at Napier, after great and lengthy debate, was Erica Douglas with ACE Inspire (http://www.aceinspire.com/).
‘ACE Inspire – inspiring businesswomen to achieve more’
Our aim is to provide flexible and affordable training to mums who want to become mumpreneurs and business women who want to use the internet more effectively to market their business.
The other finalists, Geoffrey Allman of Nexus, Isla Baker with Prom Princess and Steven Stewart with SunSafe all performed to a high standard and it will be interesting to see how their businesses develop over the next year. Hopefully we will see some of them in the competition next year.
Erica will receive £500 to develop her ideas and will be entered in the Santander Universities national competition as a representative of Edinburgh Napier. Hopefully she will make it to the final on July 5 – fingers crossed!!!
We need your votes!
Please vote for our film Making Ugly on the International Movie trailer Festival website – http://bit.ly/mbHo5Y – search MAKING UGLY then click on VOTE FOR THIS TRAILER and its as simple as that. Thank you. The full trailer is available to watch on www.makingugly.com.
Bang that Tambourine!
According to Wikipedia, the tambourine is a musical instrument of the percussion family consisting of a frame, often of wood or plastic, with pairs of small metal jingles, called “zils”. Classically the term tambourine denotes an instrument with a drumhead, though some variants may not have a head at all. Tambourines are often used with regular percussion sets. They can be mounted, but position is largely down to preference. According to Phil Collins it is the most important instrument in Motown. To the majority of us, however, it is the instrument most strongly associated with the Salvation Army.
I have never in my life had anything to do with anything remotely religious until the lovely people at the Salvation Army in Maddiston (Falkirk) asked me to provide them with some training on how to prepare a good CV. They have lots of people referred to them from the Jobcentre for training to help them into employment and they were needing a refresher on how an employer would like to see CVs presented.
This was a fairly intensive 4 hour session but not only was I made to feel very welcome, I was provided with a delicious lunch of homemade lentil soup followed by apple crumble and ice-cream – I daresay I’ll be hurrying back if they need any more help!!!
Everyone deserves pampering
While sorting out my filing on Sunday night, I found a voucher my good friend had bought me for my last birthday. It was for a massage and facial at the rather wonderful Blythswood Spa in Glasgow. Imagine my horror on checking the details that I discovered that it was only valid until today.
What to do? Well I got straight on the phone and arranged a last minute appointment for this afternoon and boy, am I glad I did!
On arrival I was shown to my locker where a lovely soft robe, a towel, slippers and a bottle of water were ready and waiting for me. I then went into the treatment room – low lights, soft music and a really comfy bed were waiting for me. I then had what I can only describe as the best massage and facial in the world … ever!!! I left feeling so relaxed it was difficult driving home through the rush hour traffic without falling asleep. My only disappointment was that I hadn’t taken a swimming costume with me. The heat treatments, hydro pool and swimming pool were just fantastic and will definitely be used on my next visit.
Girls, if you want a bit of R and R and have a couple of hours to spare, go on, give yourselves a treat!!!
Entrepreneurs of the Future
What an enjoyable day I’ve had! I was honoured to be invited to be part of the Judging Panel for the Santander Entrepreneurship Competition on behalf of Napier University. This competition is national and the winner for the undergraduate entries will gain an award of £5000 to invest in their business idea. The selected graduate put forward for the national finals will gain a £500 award – not to be sneezed at I’m sure you’ll agree!
The four shortlisted students gave us very interesting presentations and I won’t divulge who the winner was just yet as I’m not sure they’ve been told. I would like to say however that each one had merits and were deserving of the prize. I will announce the winner on here in due course but in the meantime would like to thank the participants for their time, energy and great ideas.
Helicopter Sunday
What a weekend of football we’ve seen!!! Manchester United winning the Premiership, Manchester City winning the FA Cup, West Ham being relegated from the Premiership and up here in Scotland, Rangers winning the league at the 11th hour – a good start for Ali McCoist for his first season as Manager next season.
But what about the low-lights? With Paul Hartley retiring from football (and I have to say not before time as he’s been practically invisible throughout this season), Aberdeen have failed to renew Derek Young’s contract. Surely if Craig Brown wants to rebuild the side after 2 dismal seasons, old heads and work horses like Derek are invaluable. There is a Facebook group dedicated to keeping Derek at Aberdeen and I would urge as many people as possible to “like” the page in the hope that the Board might take notice. The link to the page is http://on.fb.me/lhDLjG
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