acupuncture works. on anxiety.

/

it’s not exactly catching.

but there’s a lot going around.


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Of all disorders of the psyche and spirit, Anxiety is both more common and more treatable (thank goodness!). 

What exactly IS anxiety?

  • It is the ‘how’ the body reacts to stress, danger, unfamiliar circumstance, and modern-life realities: demanding jobs; long hours; overworking; over-scheduling; insufficient nourishment; poor quality sleep; environmental pollutant assaults.

  • A mental/mind ‘dis-order’, yes. Dread. Distress. Disquiet. Apprehension. Tension. Agitation. These are the feelings that bundle up into ‘anxiety’.

How do you ‘know’ you are suffering? What are the symptoms?

  • You may be worried, preoccupied, irritable, moody, angry, restless.

  • You may have palpitations, lightheadedness, shortness of breath, muscle tensions and contractions,

  • You may experience nausea, sweating, difficulty swallowing, frequent urination, insomnia, fatigue or exhaustion.

There is no diagnosis of physiological disease. But anxiety distress signals often multiply and won’t just go away. When severe, anxiety is truly persistent. It is its own cause and becomes its own effect. It keeps us from engaging, from completing - or beginning - everyday tasks and activities. It comes on over and over, lasts for months, and worsens when real-life stressors are present.

Fortunately, the good news is… Acupuncture. Works. On Anxiety.

There has been and is now quite a bit of acupuncture research being done nationally and globally. You can read one or a few studies and get the sense and confirmation that Acupuncture Works. [You can see study references as well as statistics regarding national anxiety prevalence on my Medium post here…]

Studies show that acupuncture has a beneficial effect on the ANS autonomic nervous system, our internal homeostasis regulator, both the sympathetic and parasympathetic branches. The SNS sympathetic nervous system releases excitatory signals and increases heart rate while the PNS parasympathetic nervous system releases relaxation and lowers blood pressure. Acupuncture positively directs and affects both. Interestingly, rather than a consistent single even beat, the heart at its best is able to change and calibrate to meet stressors and the environment. This is called the Heart Rate Variability HRV measure, Acupuncture improves the heart and body’s ability to respond to stressors by improving the HRV. With that flexible heart rate, falling into a state of anxiety is significantly less likely or likely not at all.

The hypothalamus releases hormones that do the work of maintaining homeostasis at the direction of the ANS. Under stress, the hypothalamus can release too much and acupuncture has the effect of calming this excess response, Acupuncture also has been shown to increase the release of endorphins our happy, pain relieving hormones. They are the hormones that make us feel good and are natural antidotes to anxiety.

In our clinics when we are seeing patients & according to the scope of our practice, we are not diagnosing diseases but rather identifying ‘syndromes’. We are Western and modern so we nonetheless know the diseases or disorders that patients come to us with. Anxiety lends itself particularly well to our ‘Syndrome Differentiation’ way of diagnosing. 

TCM: Syndrome Differentiations / How Anxiety Presents

  • Heat. Feeling agitated, restless, desperate, flushed, jittery, fast, hot, panicked.

  • Qi Deficient. Preoccupied, worried, fatigued, obsessive. Not much appetite. Palpitations, insomnia, needing to sleep but cannot.

  • If it’s Earth/Spleen that is Deficient — Obsessive with digestive troubles. If it’s Water/Kidney — Preoccupied with fear & dread. If it’s Metal/Lung — Sadness, feeling lost with shortness of breath, sweating, weakness.

  • Stagnant Qi. Feeling irritable, angry, moody, depressed, tight, stuck. May be feeling full in the stomach or the heart. Constipation and/or loose stool. Arghh!!!

  • Blood Deficient. Insomnia, palpitations, dizziness, fatigue, fuzzy brained. Feeling vulnerable, overwhelmed, lethargic.

One or more of these may sound — or feel — familiar if you are a person experiencing and suffering. As practitioners, we are able to diagnose and distinguish between these presentations, and using TCM treatment protocols (acupuncture & herbs), we can effectively assist patients: relieve symptoms, calm systems, restore equilibrium. 

In my own practice, I see patients from elementary school children to elders with primary issues of anxiety as well as secondary backstage presentations and they all respond well to acupuncture. A grownup can tell me clearly how over time they feel ever calmer and clearer, bit by bit steadier and able to breathe deep. And when a young one comes back again and again and says I just really like this, I know it’s doing the job.

If you haven’t thought of it before, give it a try. Acupuncture Works. On Anxiety.