Did you know that acupuncture is often used for stress and anxiety with great success?

In fact, this is a super common reason that patients come in and see me for, as acupuncture has long been used to treat stress disorders.

Acupuncture has a strong effect on regulating the nervous system, and helps promote a parasympathetic state, which is basically “relaxation” mode. This state helps put our bodies into “rest and digest” mode which helps to lowers our cortisol levels.

In other words, acupuncture stimulates our body’s “feel-good hormones”, and reduces the body stress hormones.

Acupuncture sessions also provide patients with valuable and much needed time to rest and unplug from their phone and experience a bit of quiet after a busy week of phone calls, emails, deadlines, and work and home-stress.

Below are some symptoms we often experience when our stress get out of hand :

• Upset stomach, diarrhea, nausea, constipation, heartburn, or other gut issues

• loss of appetite

• Rapid heart rate or chest pain

• Trouble sleeping

• Loss of sexual desire or reduced sexual function

• More colds or seasonal illness than usual (lower immunity)

• Clenched jaw or teeth grinding

• Sore, tense muscles, especially in the neck and shoulders

• Constant worry

• Always seeing the “worst case scenario”

• Racing thoughts

• Feeling frazzled and unfocused

• Disorganization and forgetfulness

Stress has negative effects on our immunity, digestive system, mood, age, inflammation, pain, and our hormone health. Read the studies below if you’d like to learn more about how acupuncture can help your stress levels!

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4203477/

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3677642/

While it isn’t likely that acupuncture will completely take ALL of your stress away (we can’t really do that without actively changing some parts of our lives), it can help our body adapt to stressful situations, and mitigate the effects of stress on the body. You will also leave feeling relaxed, rejuvenated, and rested. I have personally seen such promising results and changes with my chronically stressed-out patients!

As always, give me a call or shoot me an email if you want to learn more or make an appointment.

I look forward to working with you and seeing you BLOOM!