Manage Your Stress with Acupuncture
As the fall becomes more frigid and winter winds begin to blow your way, many stress triggers can be activated. Add this to the stress that may already be affecting your life and you could be heading for a conventional medicine response cycle. This may include taking pharmaceuticals for anxiety or depression to quell your body’s cry for help as well as other meds such as muscle relaxers, sleeping pills, and even pain relievers.
Don’t let weather changes or life pressures takeover your health with chronic stress responses that could compromise your whole system. Rather than reach for temporary, often side-effect inducing drugs, try manage your stress with acupuncture instead. It may surprise you how your symptoms decrease and your well being just might improve beyond your imagination.
Stress Stats
When it comes to human health, nowadays science is continually uncovering new data and stress is one that’s at the top of the list.
There are many causes of stress such as work, money, relationships, and worry over various news related subjects. These sources can cause minimal to major stress responses that include an excessive flux of hormonal reactions such as cortisol and endorphin release. This biological response can impact you in many ways including some you may not even be aware of.
According to recent 2017 data from the American Psychological Association (APA) as reported by the American Institute of Stress (AIS),
American Stress Impact Scores
- Stress has a negative impact on personal or professional life: 48%
- Difficulty managing work and family: 31%
- Work stress affects family or personal time: 35%
- Stress causes anger toward relatives and friends: 54%
- Alienated from friends or family due to stress: 26%
- Always or often under feelings of stress: 30%
The data goes on to cite the many chronic health symptoms caused by stress which include: fatigue, headache, upset stomach, muscle tension, change in appetite, teeth grinding, change in sex drive or feeling dizzy.
Acupuncture Stress Studies
Acupuncture has been around for thousands of years with scores of observational studies that show its unique benefits across the health spectrum. Yet, throughout history, acupuncture has been used mostly for structural applications such as muscle or skeletal pain. With what science now knows about the systemic affects of stress on the human body, many applications to reduce stress have been studied. Many of these studies included the use of pharmaceuticals, factoring in side effects and benefits. However, with the rise of CAM (complimentary and alternative medicine) treatments over the last forty years or so, science has documented safe, non-side effect inducing applications and acupuncture shows some study based benefits.
According to a 2017 study by researchers at Arizona State University, it was found that,
“…acupuncture may be successful in decreasing the perception of stress in students and staff at a large urban university, and this effect persists for at least 3 months after the completion of treatment.”
The acupuncture point known as stomach 36 (ST36) is an important point associated with reducing stress symptoms and re-energizing the body. This point is located on the upper shins just below the knee and slightly to the right between the tibia and fibula bones.
Time magazine reported on tests done on ST36 by Ladan Eshkevari, PhD, a nurse anesthetist, licensed acupuncturist and associate professor in the department of nursing and the department of pharmacology and physiology at Georgetown University Medical Center.
According to the report,
“To find out if acupuncture was affecting chronic stress, Eshkevari and a team of researchers looked at what happened in a key pathway in dealing with stress for both humans and rats: the hypothalamus-pituitary-adrenal axis (HPA)…The rats who had acupuncture at the stomach 36 point had levels of cortisol in their blood comparable to the control rats that weren’t stressed—and lower cortisol levels than the other stressed-out rats, including the rats who received sham acupuncture. Likewise, the stressed-out rats who didn’t receive acupuncture showed more anxiety, depression and hopelessness through the behavioral tests, while the acupuncture-treated rats behaved a lot more like the normal rats that hadn’t been exposed to anything”
Eshkevari commented, “In this model, acupuncture can allay some of the untoward effects of stress,”
Using acupuncture to manage stress just may help you avoid body compromising pharmaceuticals. Add in naturopathic medicine such as herbal, dietary, supplemental, and homeopathic remedies for a complete application that may not only reduce your stress levels but could rebalance many aspects of your overall health. 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.