Health Blog

Why Acupuncture Treats Stress

Why Acupuncture Treats Stress

The Center for Disease Control recognizes over 80% of all illness as being effected by stress.  You probably are aware that many complaints that you may already have are stress related.  Here are a few obvious ones: tension headache, lower back ache, insomnia, anxiety, neck and shoulder pain, mild to moderate depression, feeling of unease.  Here are some not so obvious stress related symptoms: fatigue, digestive disturbances, irritability, ringing in the ears, nervousness, dizziness, weight issues, losing patience with your spouse or children, chronic pain and more. These are only a few of potentially hundreds if not thousands of stress related symptoms that can be treated with acupuncture. 

If you have any of these symptoms consider getting some acupuncture treatments. Acupuncture works for all of these imbalances because it stimulates your relaxation response, which is the opposite of your stress response.  If the body-mind is held in a holding pattern of stress for too long, it begins to literally fall apart.  It is only when the body-mind is relaxed that you can heal yourself.  This may explain the fact that acupuncture patients feel so relaxed during and after their treatment. Remember that acupuncture has a cumulative effect, the more treatments you have the longer the results.

“ I have suffered with anxiety for over 12 years. Bryn’s treatments in addition to relaxation techniques and herbs she has recommended has helped me tremendously.” Mark J

Eye Health Naturally

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Wolfberry:

Wolfberry, also known as Goji Berry or Lycii Fructus, is an  berry that has been used for thousands years in Asia. It has been used as a rather tasty, longevity herbal supplement, eaten like raisins, cooked with meals or made into tinctures or soups. Wolfberry is a powerful antioxidant for preserving youth, it strengthens the body, protects health, and supplies energy to stimulate healing.
Wolfberry or go ji has been used and scientifically studied. Here are some of the proven benefits:

☯ It helps the body to balance blood sugar, cholesterol and blood pressure.


☯ It improves vision because it is rich in carotenoid zeaxanthin, which is the antioxidant pigment,
required for vision

☯ it is beneficial for the immune system: studies have found that Wolfberries contain Lycium
Barbarum Polysaccharides (LBP), which regulate and improve the immune system; so Wolfberries
could be taken as an immune‐boosting supplement.


☯ It reduces fat and increases athletic stamina, quicker muscle recovery time. It also improves energy, both physical as well as mental.


☯ Wolfberries are rich in the carotenoids that scavenge free radicals to keep liver from inflammatory toxins,and with betaine to protect and repair liver cells, Wolfberries are very beneficial for the recovery of hepatitis.

☯ For those with anemia: it is high in iron.



Usage:
Once a day, take one ounce of berries to 8 ounces of boiling water, soak for about 10 to 15 minutes, then drink the tea and eat berries. You can also put into oatmeal to cook or put into cereal after soaking. Some people even take dry wolfberry as a delicious snack.
☯ Come in before Christmas and we will give you a small bag of Goji Berries to try for yourself!

Traditional Chinese Medicine and Infertility

Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) is one of the oldest, continually practiced medicines in the world. The written literature reaches back almost 2,500 years, and 1/4 of the world's population uses it.  TCM is practiced extensively in China, Japan, Korea, Malaysia and parts of Southeast Asia. Now it has gained unprecedented popularity in North America as well. TCM works by establishing balance in the body's flow of chi or vital life force. 

Within the system of Traditional Chinese Medicine is: acupuncture, herbs, acupressure, moxibustion (heat therapy) , diet and lifestyle consultation. A practitioner of TCM should be well versed in these different modalities. She then uses these to create a treatment plan aimed towards restoring health, energy and balance in the patient.

With respect to infertility, TCM provides a low cost, non invasive alternative and complement to modern western medicine. It emphasizes a re-balancing of the body's energetic system. The treatments are tailored to the individual's particular energetic imbalance.

How does the practitioner of TCM view infertility?  Through the four exams of looking, listening, smelling, feeling the pulse and asking questions the practitioner discovers a pattern of energetic disharmony.  It is this pattern of disharmony that is treated. To put it more simply if a person is energetically cold you want to warm them up with moxibustion, warming herbs, and having then eat a warm, nutritious diet.  Conversely if a person is too hot they need to be cooled, if they are weak they need to be strengthened etc. 

The most common patterns seen in infertility are: deficiency of kidney yin or yang, symptoms could include: weakness and/or chronic aching in the lower back, with deficiency of yin you could feel warm in the evenings with possibly night sweats.  With deficiency of yang you could be more sensitive to the cold and have cold feet.  Stagnation of liver chi could show up as irritability or anger, PMS, or possibly fibrocystic breasts.  Stagnant heat might cause you to bleed excessively during your menses. Blood deficiency might present with dizziness or weakness and a cold uterus with cysts, or fibroids.  You might be thinking that you have some symptoms from a few categories.  This is very common and all can be treated with acupuncture and TCM.

If you are considering becoming pregnant the first thing to consider is to normalize your menses. If your menses are already normal, i.e. it comes every 27-30 days, the flow is normal, not too scant, not too excessive, if the color of the blood is normal, if the flow is pain free without cramping and without lower backache then you could be good candidate for pregnancy.

If however your period is not normal,  consider seeing an acupuncturist and practitioner of TCM to help you with normalizing your period.  The success rate with acupuncture and infertility is very high and it is non-invasive and very relaxing.