By Dr. Erica Nabers, AP of North Port Acupuncture
Need help slowing down and feeling your best during the busy holiday season?
If you’re experiencing…
- Higher stress and anxiety from increased social obligations
- Worsening of chronic symptoms due to stress (such as digestive symptoms, poor sleep, or pain)
- Increased/relentless tension in your neck and upper shoulders
- Or you really just need the opportunity to slow down and decompress for a moment…
Whether it’s one or all of the above, acupuncture can really help!
Acupuncture is wonderful for reducing stress, anxiety, and feelings of overwhelm, and there’s lots of research to back it up.
How does it work?
Acupuncture regulates the autonomic nervous system and reduces elevated heart rate [reference], lowers cortisol levels [reference], and increases endorphins.
It also regulates serotonin (which impacts mood and sleep, among other things) [reference]. Each of these actions make it phenomenal at relieving anxiety.
In effect, acupuncture helps take the body of out “fight or flight mode.”
There’s quite a bit of research on acupuncture for anxiety.
In research, the gold standard is the “systematic review.” A systematic review gathers all of the high-quality research studies that were completed on a particular topic and compiles the data. From this very large pool of data, they draw broad conclusions about the topics being researched.
Several systematic reviews in the past decade support the use of acupuncture for reducing generalized anxiety and panic attacks:
A 2016 systematic review of acupuncture and anxiety “…showed positive and statistically significant effects from using acupuncture for treating subjects with anxiety” [reference].
Another, more recent review (2018) assessed an even larger group of studies, several of which compared acupuncture to pharmaceutical treatment.
They concluded that, “Overall, there is good scientific evidence encouraging acupuncture therapy to treat anxiety disorders as it yields effective outcomes, with fewer side effects than conventional treatment” [reference].
Can I really relax and calm my anxiety with needles in?
This is a great question! The answer is yes 🙂 I know it sounds unlikely that resting with needles in would be possible, but it really is. Most of my patients fall asleep on the treatment table, no matter what they’re being treated for.
How? Two reasons:
1) The needles are incredibly thin – the width of a human hair – and many people don’t even feel them.
2) Acupuncture dissolves the body’s “fight or flight” response. So you’ll feel slowly more and more relaxed as you rest on the table.
For more detailed info and further research, read the full article about acupuncture and anxiety here. [LINK]
If you’re struggling with stress and anxiety this holiday season, come in and give acupuncture a try.
I think you’ll be surprised at how relaxed your body feels during and after your treatment!
>> Schedule your FREE 15 minute consultation by calling us at 941.423.1500