Stress, Mood, Anxiety

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Stress has become part of everyday life in the United States. When stress becomes amplified or continues over time, it can lead to more serious concerns. Anxiety disorders are one of the most common mental health conditions, and it is estimated about 18 percent of the country’s population, have an anxiety disorder. Acupuncture has been proven to reduce stress, and treat the symptoms arising such as anxiety, depression, head, jaw, neck, and shoulder pain, weight gain, and poor sleep. Chinese Medicine is safe, effective, and a natural approach to health care.

In Chinese Medicine, the most common causes of ADD are either weakness of the lung, adrenal gland, and thyroid combined with slight anemia; or excessive heat/inflammation in the body causing enormous agitation. In either case, Chinese Medicine is effective and efficient, especially with children, in restoring the natural vitality and focus to the human body. 

In Chinese Medicine, insomnia is a symptom of lack of health and function, not simply a disease of its own.  The inability to sleep properly is one of the worst maladies that a patient can suffer. Insomnia makes everything worse — pain, anxiety, digestive disorders and a host of other problems. In Western Medicine, pharmaceutical drugs are the treatment of choice. The problem with these drugs, such as zolpidem (Ambien), eszopiclone (Lunesta), zaleplon (Sonata) or ramelteon (Rozerem), is that they can cause severe allergic reactions, facial swelling and unusual behaviors, such as driving or preparing and eating food while asleep. Side effects of prescription sleeping medications are often more pronounced in older people and may include excessive drowsiness, impaired thinking, night wandering, agitation and balance problems. 

In Chinese Medicine, there are at least ten different causes of these conditions. First, we determine the etiology (causes) for the problem using Pulse Diagnosis. Once we are certain of the cause, the treatment follows automatically. Physiologically acupuncture increases in the level of neurobiologically active substances, such as endorphins and enkephalins, induces the release of norepinephrine, serotonin, and dopamine. Chinese herbs may be used to treat internal conditions which cause these symptoms.

For mild forms of depression and anxiety, our success rate is encouraging. For more severe problems such as bipolar disease or schizophrenia, Western Medicine has a much better success rate. By properly diagnosing the causes of emotional disturbance, we assist our patients in finding the appropriate treatment, even if it is not in our clinic.

Treating smoking, drug, or alcohol addiction using Acupuncture has been well researched in the United States. The results show that the success rate is about the same as other methods, specifically about 50%. For this reason, in our office we combine both Acupuncture and Chinese herbs, which greatly increases the success rate.

The role of Acupuncture in nicotine cessation isn’t limited to reducing cravings. Acupuncture has also been shown to promote relaxation and better sleep. Moreover, Acupuncture can be used to treat many disorders associated with smoking, such as damage to the bronchopulmonary and cardiovascular systems and the symptoms from nicotine withdrawal. In our experience, the effectiveness of Acupuncture to stop smoking varies with many factors, including the length of time the patient has been smoking, their overall health, and the frequency of treatment. In many cases, we will also use Auricular (ear) Acupuncture to help the patient retain the effects of Acupuncture between treatments.