Acupuncture and Naturopathic Remedies for Stress and Anxiety

You need stress. Stress can help rapidly build or repair cells for optimum survival as well as release pain relievers when you are in harm’s way. However, too much stress can compromise your body and mind more than you know.

It has often been reported that stress could cause serious health risks such as a heart attack (which is true), yet it is the small signs to pay attention to before such a serious outcome. These subtle signs are your body’s way of sending up red flags.

Masking these clues with conventional OTC (over-the-counter) and pharmaceutical prescriptions may lead you down a path of perpetual synthetic medicine. Before you succumb to anti-anxiety pills, sleep medication, and muscle relaxers (to name a few), acupuncture and naturopathic medicine remedies for stress and anxiety could offer a longer lasting, natural solution.

See Your Stress

The American PsychologicalAssociation (APA) reported that,

“63 percent of Americans say the future of the nation is a significant source of stress. That’s higher than the percentage who are stressed about money (62 percent), work (61 percent), or violence and crime (51 percent).”

When your body experiences stress (externally or internally) the hormone cortisol is released. Small amounts of this hormone are incredibly useful but when your stress factor doesn’t subside, too much cortisol is produced and that can cause things to go a little haywire.

Reader’s Digest reported that according to Dr. Shanna Levine, a primary care physician and clinical instructor of medicine at Mount Sinai’s Icahn School of Medicine in New York,

“Stress triggers the release of the hormone cortisol, which changes the way you metabolize fat, protein and carbs, leading to weight gain or loss,”

Dr. Levine describes how silent symptoms of stress are usually chronic (happening more than just a few times) and may include:

• Weight Fluctuation
• Headaches
• Hives
• Sour stomach
• Hair loss
• Constant colds
• Acne
• Fuzzy brain

Being aware of these signs early could increase your chances of using acupuncture and naturopathic medicine as remedies that address the source, not just the symptoms.

Meridian Movement

Acupuncture works by moving your qi (“chee” – life force energy) along meridians or pathways within the body relieving qi from being stuck, sluggish, misplaced or simply unbalanced. Stuck energy can result in stress and anxiety hovering in various parts of the body then manifesting into varied symptoms, some of those mentioned above.

Acupuncture can address these conditions twofold. It can alleviate stress and anxiety related symptoms such as hives, headaches, and digestion compromise while calming and re-balancing your mental state as well.

A 2017 PubMed study by researchers from Arizona State University titled, ‘Effectiveness of Acupuncture Therapy on Stress in a Large Urban College Population’ involved 111 participants and stated that,

“The hypothesis was that verum [true] acupuncture would demonstrate a significant positive impact on perceived stress as compared to sham [false] acupuncture…While participants of both the groups showed a substantial initial decrease in perceived stress scores, at 12 weeks post treatment, the verum acupuncture group showed a significantly greater treatment effect than the sham acupuncture group. This study indicates that acupuncture may be successful in decreasing the perception of stress [], and this effect persists for at least 3 months after the completion of treatment.”

Once the body and mind respond to acupuncture treatments for stress and anxiety the goal is to continue a protocol to strengthen this combination so the root cause does not take hold again.

Natural Stress Relievers

Let’s face it, if you have stress you probably have anxiety right alongside it. Once you determine that your symptoms are linked to your stress level then you may seek out the help of a conventional doctor. Anti-depressants, muscle relaxants, and a whole smorgarjsborhd of tongue twisting medications are available for, often, immediate relief. Yet, this relief can waver and you may need to adjust your dosage or go through several medications until they work again. This process can be ongoing along with side effects you trade-off just to get some relief. Although biologically some people could not function without these conventional drugs, many others that are lumped into this prescription protocol might be able to get just as much relief with naturopathic medicine instead.

Some examples of naturopathic medicine for stress and anxiety include:

• Homeopathy
• Clinical nutrition
• Botanical medicine
• Nutraceutical supplementation

A combination of some of these and other naturopathic remedies were studied and published in PLoS One, a peer reviewed open access journal. A small study titled, ‘Naturopathic Care for Anxiety: A Randomized Controlled Trial’ included seventy-five participants (both genders approximately 40 years old) who were employees with moderate to severe anxiety of longer than 6 weeks. The naturopathic care included dietary counseling, deep breathing relaxation techniques, a standard multi-vitamin, and the herbal medicine, ashwagandha.

The study concluded that,

“Naturopathic treatment including [ashwagandha], a multi vitamin, dietary counseling and cognitive-behavioral therapy appears to be a safe and effective, with benefit over standardized psychotherapy in the treatment of mild to severe generalized anxiety…”

This study alone introduced botanical medicine herbal treatment (ashwagandha), clinical nutrition (dietary counseling) and nutraceutical supplementation (multi-vitamin). A naturopathic doctor can offer these and many additions to these remedies through a variety of holistic attempts until symptoms subside. Sometimes it is a simple adjustment that takes hold and your life can significantly improve without side effects and reliance on consistent medications that, in the long run for some, may do more harm than good.

At Integrative Med Solutions, we will design an acupuncture and naturopathic treatment program that works for you. In many cases, insurance covers portions of the acupuncture treatment. Allow us to support you to achieve optimal health.  To make an appointment or find out more about how acupuncture and naturopathic medicine can benefit you, please call our office at 914.337.2980 or Click Here to schedule an online appointment.

*Please Click Here to see a current list of Insurance Companies that commonly carry acupuncture benefits for its members. Please call 914.337.2980 or securely email info@intmedsolutions.com to verify your specific benefits. If you are emailing, please include your full name, date of birth and insurance identification card number.

Best in Health from Integrative Med Solutions!