I'm pleased to report that the results from my masters degree research project - acupuncture treatment of frozen shoulder - are quite positive so far.

I'm not talking about the research results, but rather the clinical results. I'm treating the third patient right now. He is an old gentleman who developed shoulder pain 2 years ago after taking up bowling. When the symptoms first appeared he received acupuncture and massage treatment, but as the results were not significant he stopped and resigned himself to living with the symptoms.

He told me today that when he agreed to take part in the study (at the insistance of his wife, who saw me treating another patient at the hospital), he had no hope of seeing any improvement in his symptoms after two years of no change. With this background, he was doubly surprised at the improvement in the range of movement of his shoulder. This in spite of the sudden dip in temperature that we experienced recently (he is usually worse in the winter).

I'm hoping he will have a painless winter!

fwiw, he feels that the most effective point was 'zhong ping' (中平).