Stress, anxiety and acupuncture

Our ardent companion

Stress and anxiety are an inseparable companion in our lives. When stress is low or moderate it gives us the necessary strength to do things. When we are in action, our body releases hormones from endocrine system which stimulates other systems in our body, like circulation and brain system, to assure the best performance.

But once a certain amount of stress is exceeded or just lasts for too long, our body falls out of balance giving rise to different unpleasant symptoms…

Acupuncture is known for regulating body balance. It can help greatly when dealing with harmful results of stress.

But;

before I tell you how acupuncture works, let’s look more at stress itself:

The threshold of stress which is stimulating and not devastating for our body is different for everyone. Usually, we push ourselves to the limits trying to face challenges which appear in our lives. Be it career, relationship or family. As the time pass by, we do not notice our body is already working on fuel reserve.

And;

as the body gets weaker, the amount of stress we can cope with shrinks. We might notice it is too much for us, but instead of letting our body regenerate, we push even harder.

When your mood swings …

As every machine breaks when pushed to its limits, the same is true for our body.

We start to have headaches, muscle tension, mood swings or memory and concentration loss. We usually ignore these symptoms by taking paracetamol or ibuprofen, and carry on.

But,

when we don’t react and change our habits, more serious symptoms start to show up:

Chest pain, palpitations, elevated blood pressure, depression, anxiety, insomnia, low sex drive, long time tiredness which is not cured with over the weekend rest.

The game changer

Through stress our physiology changes. Our body starts producing steroid hormones like cortisol, which lower our immunity resulting in e.g. frequent colds. They also influence production of other hormones like dopamine and serotonin that change our nervous system.

Result?

We start to experience depression or anxiety. Adrenaline, which is another hormone produced in excess, causes palpitations and elevates blood pressure. Over time, stress consumes our body’s resources giving rise to chronic fatigue.

Because stress affects our whole body, people suffering from it usually seek help at medical specialists such as: cardiologists, gastroenterologists, neurologists or sometimes psychiatrists.

Chinese medicine, as a holistic system, can find primary cause for all these symptoms.

Acupuncture’s strength lies in regulating mechanisms. Acupuncture can restore nervous and hormone systems bringing them back to balance and resolving most of the mentioned stress symptoms.

We can benefit from acupuncture, along with the change of habits, at the beginning of stress and anxiety related issues. Acupuncture is also beneficial as a complementary method in dealing with already developed diseases like hypertension, heart diseases, depression or chronic fatigue syndrome.

Lear more how acupuncture can help you with stress