More Complementary & Integrative Healthcare Articles
Acupuncture For Stress
Stress is related to both external and internal factors. External factors include professional, relationship, family, and other personal issues. All difficulties challenge us under a daily and periodic basis. In this complicated modern world, we almost cannot avoid environmental problems and difficult lifestyles. Certainly, they can cause different degrees of stress.
Many people can cope with stress better than others. It depends on the individual person's ability to respond to the difficulties of external factors; nutritional status, emotional well being, fitness level and hobbies also can assist them in dealing with the stress.
Generally speaking, psychotherapy may be helpful in reducing some stress for patients, but it requires several months, even years, of treatment. Most people simply try to ameliorate the circumstances of their life themselves. If the stress is severe and becomes a chronic condition, it can aggravate an already troublesome health condition, and have a significant impact on the person's life.
Symptoms of stress include insomnia, depression, neck pain, headaches, fatigue, short of breath, and pain/aches all over the body. Our body's nervous system is designed to activate the fight and flight response, but not remain in a constant state. Some people can tolerate mild and moderate stress, but most of us need some form of stress management in order to have reasonable health and better quality of life.
Acupuncture is a unique holistic approach to relieve stress. It can improve behavioral and mental health, and also can help people recover from disaster and emotional trauma. Acupuncture was used to treat victims and first responders of the World Trade Center attacks and Hurricane Katrina. The effects of acupuncture on veterans of the Iraq war who are suffering from post-traumatic stress syndrome is being studied by Walter Reed Medical Center.
In acupuncture theory, stress relates to anxiety, depression and other emotions, which interrupt the smooth flow of energy through the acupuncture meridians, almost like traffic blocking the highway. The needle stimulates certain acupuncture points. It is possible to improve the immune system with acupuncture. Although acupuncture treatment cannot solve a patient's personal problems, it can help them cope with the difficult situation better. The body's qi, through the specific acupuncture meridians, can alleviate stress by releasing natural chemicals in the brain, in order to balance the body's energy. The calming nature of acupuncture treatment also decreases heart rate, blood pressure, and can bring about a peace of mind.
