Inger’s Blog

With the economic downturn we are currently experiencing, I think it is safe to say there is a lot of stress going around. People are losing their jobs, some are wondering if they will be able to pay all of their bills, and others are worried about their increasing debt.  We are living in a state of constant stress—now more than ever.

Stress is a part of life, but when left untreated, it can over time lead to more serious health conditions. Chronic stress can lead to depression, malnutrition, anxiety disorder, obsessive compulsive disorder, alcoholism, insomnia, headaches, high blood pressure, and hyperthyroidism. 

Some people try prescription medication to treat stress, but, unfortunately, the long-term effects of these medications can cause serious side effects.  Acupuncture, on the other hand, is a safe and non-invasive approach to treating stress, by creating equilibrium between the physical, emotional, and spiritual states of the individual. From a Chinese medicine perspective, your health is dependent on the quality and movement of your body’s qi or vital energy. It should be moving smoothly through your body’s channels, which circulate beneath the skin. The quality and circulation of your qi can become unbalanced because of high stress levels. In fact, any kind of stress can affect the body’s qi, including emotional stress such as anger, grief, and constant worry, or poor nutrition, lack of sleep, physical pain, and past trauma. 

Application of very thin needles beneath the skin’s surface allows the body’s qi to respond and move effectively through the body’s channels. During your treatment, you are given time to rest with the needles, between 15 to 30 minutes. Rest, relaxation, and allowing the acupuncture needles to engage your body’s qi allows your system to re-energize itself naturally. 

Chinese medicine takes the entire person into account, and this includes looking at one’s lifestyle, dietary habits, sleep, and digestion. After your acupuncture treatment, I will give you some suggestions for improving these aspects of your life—outside of the treatment room and on your own—which will help you experience less stress.

Regular acupuncture treatments to reduce stress levels will decrease the chance of it becoming a serious health condition and will allow you to live a more balanced life during these uncertain times. And that can make all the difference.

Two research reviews published in the Cochrane Library indicated the following:

·         In general, researchers found migraine patients tended to fare better when acupuncture was added to their standard care, which usually consisted of medication to treat acute migraine attacks.

·         Overall, 47 percent of patients who had acupuncture added to their care said their number of headache days dropped by half. That compared with 16 percent of those who stayed with standard care alone.

·         And in four clinical trials that compared acupuncture with drugs used to prevent migraines, acupuncture patients tended to have fewer headaches and fewer side effects.

Go here to read the entire article:

http://www.nlm.nih.gov/medlineplus/news/fullstory_74040.html

—Inger