Here we break down how acupuncture works from a Traditional Chinese Medicine perspective.
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As you attempt to adapt to the changing seasons, life can sometimes feel like an uphill battle. Learn how to manage your resources, or better yet, improve your health to better able to handle the ups and downs of life using acupuncture & food therapy.
Acupuncture works by stimulating points on the body that reduce inflammation. Where the inflammation appears in your body determines which acupuncture points we select to clear it out.
It’s your New Year’s resolution to get fit this year. You’ve made the decision to hit the gym or train for a marathon so you can get the body you want. There’s only one thing holding you back. That annoying pain in the bottom of your foot that acts up even just during your warm up! Argh! How are you EVER going to achieve your fitness goals this year?! Every time it feels like you’re just getting started, the pain tells you you’ve got to slow down, stop for a moment, and give your foot a rest.
Let’s face it, heel pain sucks. You start to think “Is this what getting old feels like?” and “Am I going to be stuck with this heel pain for the rest of my life?” You may have been told before that you have "plantar fascitis", which worries you because you're not sure if there's a cure for that!
Relax. Take a deep breath. Heel pain ISN’T something you need to live with for the rest of your life. And guess what? It’s NOT a sign that you’re getting old. It can be corrected, and you can get your active, healthy lifestyle back again!
In Chinese Medicine, pain is usually a result of a blockage in the body. These blockages are often created by stress and tension, or over-exhaustion. Here’s how:
Stress causes your body to tense up and your blood vessels constrict. This leads to decreased circulation and blood flow to various parts of your body, depending on where you hold your stress. Then out-of-nowhere you’re hit with pain.
Over-exhaustion, on the other hand, causes a different type of blockage. This drains the body’s energy. Your body is taking care of a lot of things all day, every day. Your over-used heel is likely last on the list of your body’s priorities. Which means, it never fully heals. (Pun unintended.)
With many of my clients, after removing such blockages and improving circulation to the bottom of their foot through acupuncture - the pain disappears! The best part of it all is after a few sessions you can finally go ALL-OUT again in your workouts, sports, or other activities you love to experience without heel pain holding you back.
I also recommend a foot soak you can do at home. Simply fill a tub with hot water, pour in some epsom salts (half a cup), and soak your feet for 10-15 minutes. Not only does the warmth improve circulation, but epsom salts have minerals like magnesium that lower blood pressure and help the body to relax.
So, if you’re ready to get your workouts back in gear again, you can book a session at one of our acupuncture clinics in Toronto, where we’ll discuss your health concerns, and get to the bottom of that annoying heel pain.
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Did you know acupuncture can relieve more than just pain? Here, we'll discuss acupuncture's benefits in relieving you of seasonal allergies, digestive complaints, and insomnia.
We tend to perform the same motions day in and day out. The majority of the time this isn't an issue as long as we have the right posture, and are using the right technique. It's when we aren't being mindful of these things that we tend to develop imbalances, which leads to pain, and tension.
POOR POSTURE
The imbalances poor posture creates is endless, from pain in your shoulders, to pain between your scapulas (upper back), to lower back pain. All of these areas become obstructed, and can even lead to tingling sensations running down your leg, or through your arm. Acupuncture can actually help to alleviate pain by improving circulation, and re-activating energy channels that run through the areas of pain. So how does it work? From a western medicine perspective, when your body detects an acupuncture needle, or a foreign object in the body, your immune system naturally sends its immune cells to scope out the area[1]. Indirectly what this does is increase blood flow to the area, and improve circulation[1]. In Chinese Medicine, pain is a sign of stagnation, or a blockage. By examining what area you experience pain, this tells the acupuncturist what energy channels to open using the acupuncture points along the channel. Other signs of stagnation are a tendency to sigh, feeling depressed at times, or pain along the ribs.
WHEN YOU'RE BURNT OUT...
When your body is feeling tired, you might find yourself getting lazy, having a tendency to slouch, or just using piss-poor technique. And then just like that, you hurt your neck, or your lower back lets out. For the next week, you're spending your spare time rubbing tiger balm, and vaporub, along with ice and heat packs to try and relieve this agonizing pain.
But it's not just the bad technique that leads to injury and pain. It's the fact that your body is tired that leads to injury as well! When you're tired, your body has a more difficult time keeping things together. The first thing we do when we're tired is we slouch. It's like your body is too tired to hold itself up, so it just lets yourself go aloof.
This concept can be used to understand why people get slipped discs or bulging discs leading to sciatic pain. And may also explain why in the elderly their organs prolapse as their bodies are slowly running out or resources to hold everything in place.
In this case, popping needles into where it hurts does little to improve your condition. When acupuncturists do acupuncture, we focus on the internal imbalances. In this case, we need to improve your energy. The best organ for that is the Kidneys. Just think about adrenaline - it's a form of energy, and where it comes from (the adrenal glands), which sit on top of your kidneys! So by using acupuncture to stimulate points that strengthen the kidneys, you should expect to notice an improvement in your condition by the end of that acupuncture treatment.
INFLAMMATION
For some of us, the areas we get pain, also feel hot, and appear red at times. These are signs of "Heat" in Chinese Medicine, or "Inflammation" in western medicine. In Chinese Medicine, some points have the function of "Clearing Heat". This may seem like a foreign concept, but actually western medical studies have been performed to prove acupuncture's effectiveness in reducing inflammation [2]. Other signs of heat in the body are a red face or rosacea, unquenchable thirst, constipation, or dark urine.
By paying attention to your body, you can become more mindful of what is causing the pain.
If you're looking for relief from pain, ACUSOUL is an acupuncture clinic in Toronto that provides relief to pain, along with many other health issues. If you haven't already done so, book an appointment today at one of our Toronto acupuncture locations.
Not only can we detect what kind of imbalances you have, but also treat them and provide preventative measures to keep your body free from pain using acupuncture and food therapy.
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References
1. http://www.elotus.org/article/mechanisms-acupuncture
2. http://www.healthcmi.com/Acupuncture-Continuing-Education-News/1352-acupuncture-anti-inflammatory-effect-revealed