More Complementary & Integrative Healthcare Articles
Acupuncture For Snoring
Snoring is related to the vibration of loose tissue in the upper airway. The patient has noisy and rough breathing at night during sleep. When the case gets worse, snoring will occur during the day if the body is inactive.
The basic causes of snoring include poor muscle tone of the tongue and the throat, excessive bulkiness of tissues of the throat, excessive length of the soft palate and uvula, and also, deformities of the nose or nasal septum. When all of these conditions strike against each other, the person must make an effort to breath, then snoring occurs.
Snoring can be a serious medical problem. Heavy snoring certainly affects the person's sleep, and the blockage of the airway partially at night, can cause oxygen deficiency in the body. Also, snoring can cause choking and gasping sounds, which may affect another people's sleep. This can result in poor marriage, difficulty with other family members, or even bad relations with the neighbors.
Many children and overweight people have different degrees of snoring. Some of them may suffer from other medical disorders; their snoring may not be their only nighttime sleeping problem. Also, they may suffer from many symptoms, such as headaches, dizziness, sinusitis, chest pain, depression, artery disease, indigestion, and other complications. If the person still does not pay attention to his health, eventually this can lead to high blood pressure, heart attack or stroke. For children, heavy snoring becomes a chronic problem that may lead to ADHD.
Surgical procedures for snoring include removing tissue from the back of the throat, or reshaping the nasal passages, which prevents the tongue from blocking the airway at night during the sleeping period. However, in many people snoring is only a temporary condition, such as a snore related to a cold, sinus, nose, throat, or tongue infection. As long as they are receiving normal medical care, complicated procedures can be avoided.
Since the snoring may be caused by lack of energy in the muscles of the tongue, throat, soft palate and uvula, acupuncture treatment is possible to improve the circulation of the imbalanced area, and unlock the airway. As a result, the patient's will be able to breath easier, and the entire body feels more relax, can be sleep better at night.
Acupuncture may not be able to treat all snoring cases. If the source of snoring is an obstructed nasal passage due to chronic sinusitis or allergies, acupuncture may be able to dilate the blood vessels allowing oxygen and nutrients to support the qi and reduce congestion.
