The Central Autonomic Networkthe Key To Being In The Present Moment
When HRV gets into optimal ranges, this creates a positive influence in the Central Autonomic Network , which is very desirable indeed. CAN refers to the parts of the brain that create our executive function, consisting of:
- Working memorystore details of our current surroundings and events to integrate the changes that are happening around us.
- Gathering and organizing information from the mind and body to negotiate and respond to present moment experience.
As described in The Wild Medicine Solution, by Guido Mase:
Between these 2 functions, the CAN literally acts as a bridge between mind and body It seems to be a major, central structure involved in keeping us on top of day-to-day changes, especially unexpected sources of stress. As such, it is crucial to successful performance in response to a wide range of social and cultural demands.
Thus, a healthy CAN is key to navigating a stressful life while keeping our body in a non-stressed state of being. CAN inhibits our flight/fight response and promotes greater amounts of time spent in the rest-and-digest response .
Therefore, when our CAN is active, and HRV is high, executive function increases, and we are:
- better adapted to our circumstances
- more effective and accurate in our decision making
- more focused
- happier and less stressed about everything we are doing
- less prone to heart disease, heart attacks, stress, anxiety, and depression
Acupuncture On Point For Covid Stress Relief
June 29, 2021 — The past 18 months of the coronavirus pandemic have brought pain and heartbreak to millions of Americans. Now, many are turning to a practice that has been around for thousands of years to find peace and pain relief.
For many, acupuncture — an ancient way of using needles to treat pain — is the last post-COVID-19 relief method they havenât already tried.
âWe are desperate for ways to feel better. No one got out of the pandemic unaffected — everyone is suffering,â says Caren Campbell, MD, a dermatologist in San Francisco.
âThe pandemic has worsened a pre-existing mental health care crisis in the U.S. Any stress-reducing tool is much needed,â Campbell says.
Campbell is an enthusiast of the Chinese practice that records show has been around for more than 2,000 years.
âAcupuncture is a huge stress and pain-relieving visit for me,â she says.
Gudrun Snyder, DAc, founder of Moon Rabbit Acupuncture in Chicago, says studies have shown that COVID-19 causes whatâs known as a âcytokine stormâ that causes inflammation that could kill tissue and damage organs.
A study from Harvard University in 2020 found acupuncture reduced the impact of cytokine storms in mice. Another study from Oxford University found acupuncture treatment for COVID-19 suppressed the inflammation caused by stress, improved immunity, regulated nervous system functions, and helped cancer patients with COVID-19.
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Reasons Acupuncture Can Ease Stress And Anxiety
These days, stress has become part and parcel of our lives. Though it is not a good state of mind to be in, it warns that you are going to encounter many problematic situations.
Some people may feel without stress one cannot feel motivated to work, but this is not the right way to think. In small amounts, stress could be a good thing, but not for a longer period of time, as it may lead to a situation where one has to face many consequences related to stress.
When the pressure becomes an unreasonable part in your life, it may make you feel sick, unhappy and anxious for small things. You may even feel fatigued for small works, which shows the level of stress has become a serious issue.
Long-term stress can be harmful and can damage organs, weakens the immune system, putting the person at a significant risk of having cancer.
Some health problems include anxiety and depression that destroys the quality of life gradually. One such symptom which shows a person is in stress is feeling anxious about small issues and having butterflies in the stomach.
The clinical anxiety can be treated by using medication and other clinical methods. Before that, a person has to accept that he is undergoing stress and first try to solve the issues as much as possible. Such methods involve acupuncture which can ease anxiety and stress.
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Why Is Acupuncture An Effective Treatment
Acupuncture treatment helps stimulate the body’s self-healing process and can effectively manage different health conditions. For example, acupuncture has proven beneficial for the immune, nervous system, and endocrine systems treatments. The treatment offers relief from the discomfort, improves digestion, sleep improvements, and a better sense of well-being by stimulating different systems. There is numerous evidence that shows how effective acupuncture is at managing depression and anxiety.
The best part is that there is no side effect of the treatment, making it a must-try option for those who suffer from depression or anxiety. But it is vital to note each person has a different case which means the length and number of treatments will differ. The practitioner will discuss the available options and the treatment action depending on the other forms of treatment you have previously taken.
Acupuncture offers a new treatment to explore and find the solution that can make your life manageable. The treatment is performed to help improve the condition at minimal sessions. But you must consult your healthcare practitioner before making such a huge decision about medications or the dosage.
How Can Acupuncture Help Anxiety Symptoms
Although still considered a form of quackery by some in the medical field, anyone who’s experienced physical pain and sought out acupuncture for it already knows that the results can be amazing. The Chinese have been practicing acupuncture for thousands of years for all types of ailments, and, fortunately for Westerners, it eventually made its way across the seas and now everyone gets to reap the practice’s benefits.
Acupuncture stimulates the points of the body that are connected to the central nervous system. In doing so, feel-good chemicals are released to help with pain . But the best part about acupuncture is that it’s not only known to ease physical pain but also mental pain.
“Acupuncture stimulates the body’s natural feel-good hormones and reduces the level of stress hormones like cortisol,” Mathew Kulas, M.A., an acupuncturist, tells Henry Ford Health. “Often with anxiety, thoughts can become chaotic and there’s a certain level of fear about the future. Sometimes just knowing you’re doing something productive whether getting an acupuncture treatment, exercising, or practicing self-massage can help reduce worries about things that fall outside of your control.”
But that’s just the beginning of how acupuncture can help with anxiety.
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A Safe Holistic Way To Treat Anxiety In Seattle
If you are looking for a holistic alternative treatment to treat anxiety, stress, and depression, acupuncture may be right for you. MindBody Med in Seattle, WA, offers acupuncture as well as other stress-relieving therapies, such as massage, medical qigong, and reiki. to book your appointment.
At MindBody Med we seek to promote the health of our community at our Seattle chiropractic and massage clinic. We offer drug-free solutions to your aches and pains. If youve been injured, be proactive in your recovery and contact us today.
How Does Acupuncture Work On Stress And Anxiety
Acupuncture works on the bodys energy system. It stimulates certain points on the body called acupoints. When you feel stressed out, these acupoints send signals to your brain which helps to calm your mind and relax your muscles.
Acupuncture also stimulates other parts of your body including your heart, lungs, and stomach. These organs then work together to keep you healthy and happy.
When you receive acupuncture treatment, your practitioner will use thin needles to stimulate your acupoints. They will do this using different techniques depending on what part of the body needs attention.
For example, if you want to relieve stress, your practitioner may insert one needle directly into your skin while another might go deeper into muscle tissue. If you are feeling anxious, your practitioner may insert several needles into your skin and muscle tissues.
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The Problem With Too Many Problems
The problem comes when we are chronically locked into a fight-or-flight response, due to our perception of ongoing threats. In the average life of many modern urban students and professionals like most of the clients that come to our clinic, almost all of these threats are mental and emotional in naturenot threats of actual physical harm. When stress becomes chronic, our digestive, respiratory, cardiovascular, reproductive, and hormonal systems, as well as our brain, start to take a beating.
This kind of chronic stress starts to lead to the extensive list of stress-related symptoms mentioned above. Not so great.
How Does Acupuncture Work For Anxiety And Stress
How acupuncture helps treat anxiety and stress is not yet fully understood. Acupuncture causes many positive physical, mental and emotional changes. Research has identified a number of mechanisms that are related to the positive effects acupuncture has on anxiety and stress. Acupuncture treatment is complex and due to this its hard to study exactly what parts of an acupuncture treatment benefit you. Studies suggest acupuncture helps initiate your bodys self-healing abilities. Part of this is by leading to release of chemicals called neurotransmitters and hormones that are related to mental-emotional wellbeing along with interfering with stress mechanisms. In other words, your body is reminded to produce chemicals that make you feel more relaxed, happier and peaceful. Acupuncture also has an effect on inflammation and immune imbalances that may be associated with chronic anxiety, worry, stress and depression.
Acupuncture changes activity in parts of the brain that play a role in emotions, behaviour and attention along with reducing sensitivity to pain and stress. Anxiety and stress activate the sympathetic nervous system . In contrast, acupuncture promotes relaxation through the parasympathetic nervous system , while deactivating the thinking, analytical brain .
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Yin Tang Hall Of Impression
Location: located between the eyebrows, in the area known as the third eye
Actions: powerfully calms the spirit and takes the edge off emotional restlessness and anxiety. Connects with the pineal gland to promote deep relaxation and treat insomnia relieves headaches, foggy thinking, and helps clear nasal congestion or a runny nose. A favorite point to include in any acupuncture treatment for emotional well-being.
Acupuncture Is Proven To Reduce And Even Reverse The Effects Of Stress
- Acupuncture October 1, 2018
Acupuncture is proven to reduce stress and even reverse the effects of stress. Research shows that acupuncture stimulates the release of oxytocin, a hormone that signals and regulates the parasympathetic nervous system. Acupuncture also addresses the effects of stress, like high blood pressure, elevated blood glucose levels, and insomnia.
magine a cave woman over 25,000 years ago sitting peacefully in the bushes eating berries, when suddenly a saber-tooth tiger approaches her. All resources in her body shift away from digesting the berries and toward escaping the tiger. Her heart rate increases, reflexes quicken, blood glucose levels rise to supply energy to her muscles, and her blood clots more readily in case the tiger slashes her. What she has experienced is the classic fight-or-flight response.
During this time normal everyday maintenance functions such as: digestion, immune and hormonal functions are temporarily put on hold. Now imagine the outcome if our bodies normal everyday functions were often or always-on hold.
In todays modern world, escaping that tiger is an every-minute-of-the-day affair. Our brains cant tell the difference between I have so many emails and tasks to finish and I dont have time and Ahhh! There is a tiger chasing me.
This long-term stress increases your chances of hypertension, heart attack, stroke, diabetes, and a host of other conditions.
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Governing Vessel 20 Hundred Meetings
Location: located at the crown of the head. Place a finger at the top of each ear and follow an imaginary line upward- Du-20 is located where your two fingers meet.
Actions: regulates the movement of all yang energy in the body. Pressing on this point can both raise the yang to lift depression and sadness, and, it can ground energy to ease anxiety and overthinking. Du-20 clears the mind to help you feel focused and present. As a Sea of Marrow point, Du-20 nourishes the brain and can help treat headaches, dizziness, insomnia, and other neurological conditions.
What Are The Types Of Anxiety Disorder
- Generalized Anxiety Disorder . This is characterized by worrying about ordinary issues such as money, health, family, and many more. Moreover, a person with GAD worries about these ordinary things excessively everyday for at least six months.
- Panic disorder. This is a type of anxiety disorder that is characterized by panic attacks. Additionally, It can be a sudden attack but may come repeatedly. It can last for several minutes or more.
- Phobias. People with phobias elicit an intense fear of something that has little or no actual danger. Among the most common phobias are fear of cockroaches, heights, flying, and many others.
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Can Acupuncture & Chinese Herbal Medicine Help Stress
At Village Remedies acupuncture and Chinese herbal clinic in Balmain, Sydney, we talk about stress in a particular way. Typically when we hear the word stress, we associate it with ideas of being overwhelmed or burnt out, but this extreme doesnt cover the full spectrum of stress that we encounter on a daily basis.
When Hans Selye originally coined the term stress back in 1936, his definition was the non-specific response of the body to any demand for change. Another way to think about it is as a load that forces your body to step up and adapt. For example: waking up early for work before youve had enough sleep is a stress on the system travelling in peak hour traffic is a stress on the system running after the kids is a stress on the system eating lunch on the go is a stress on the system etc, etc.
Its important to remember stress isnt always bad, however, for example exercise is a great example of a good stress that causes healthy adaptations . Its only when the stressors, or amount of load builds up and continues for an extended period, without the necessary de-load or de-stress time.
This is the kind of definition we use when talking about stress at Village Remedies. Theres nothing wrong with being busy, but we do want to make sure were helping you offset the amount of load or stress coming in from life, to help keep you feeling strong, happy and healthy.
How Many Sessions Are Needed To Treat Anxiety
Although some clients report rapid results , many find the most benefit in a series of treatments. How many treatments and how often can depend on factors such as the severity of your anxiety and for how long youve been suffering. In general, most people require about six to eight treatments one to two times a week. After that, you may only need maintenance sessions every other week or once a month.
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Side Effects Of Acupuncture
Some common side effects of acupuncture include bruising, minor bleeding, or soreness in the places where needles were inserted. Rare side effects include dizziness, local internal bleeding, nerve damage, dermatitis, increased pain, and hepatitis B.
You may be at a higher risk for complications if you have certain medical issues. If you have a bleeding disorder or are taking blood thinners, the likelihood of bleeding or bruising increases.
If you have a pacemaker, infusion pump, or another electrical device, you might want to avoid electroacupuncture, which uses a device to generate electric stimulation. Electroacupuncture can interfere with your device.
Some types of acupuncture are believed to induce labor. If you are pregnant, be careful about the types of acupuncture you receive.
Be sure to discuss any alternative treatments you are trying with your doctor.
Additional Anxiety Treatment Options Should Be Utilized Too
Ingegno stresses the importance of using additional treatment options, too, alongside acupuncture. Big factors that affect the outcome of any mental health treatment are consistency or treatment, he says. Other therapeutic interventions , a support system , and lifestyle changes can help, as well. However, acupuncture is a whole-being medicine, he says, treating how the person is functioning. Medications are great, but really focus on only increasing the one aspect of the issue, he explains. And talk therapy is amazing, and should be included in any comprehensive treatment plan, but oftentimes it is difficult for a patient to discuss the root cause of their anxiety. Yet acupuncture provides a non-chemical, non-verbal approach to how anxiety impacts you as a whole person.
However, if a person is engaging in unhealthy lifestyle choices that help to create or encourage an anxious state, there will be only so much acupuncture can do unless those harmful activities are addressed. Which is to say, the process of healing does not end when the needles are removed. Herbal formulas, meditation, and qigong exercises are often prescribed for the patient to perform in between acupuncture treatments to reinforce a relaxed, grounded state of mind, Simon explains. This also gives the patient agency and ownership over their own healing process, of which the benefits cannot be overstated.
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How Many Sessions Are Needed To Treat Anxiety Through Acupuncture
People suffer from various anxiety-related disorders but what is it that differentiates an anxiety disorder from usual anxiety? How can we identify that a person has an anxiety disorder or he is suffering from normal situational anxiety? The simplest way to find the root cause of stress. This helps in formulating the number of sessions needed. The symptoms as per which the individual approaches the disorder are understood to find out what kind of anxiety the person is suffering with.
If in doubt, it is advisable to consult psychologists and psychiatrists for the same. Stressors are one of the major causes that enhance the possibility of an anxiety disorder in an individual. The anxiety disorders are generalized according to the intensity of such emotional responses.
It is seen that people usually start showing signs of improvement in the first session of the acupuncture treatment for anxiety relief. Some people manage to set their lives on the right pathway and unpredictably show better results. They develop their keenness to explore more of their internal states and cope with themselves in a practical way.
