Depression Can Be Totally Cured With Acupuncture Treatments

Depression treatment through acupuncture treatment in Vancouver works by addressing the physical imbalances underlying the condition. In contrast to Western medicine that sees depression as an emotional or mental problem Chinese medicine believes that depression is actually a physical condition that simply manifests emotionally. Chinese medicine perceives the underlying cause of depression to be a blockage to the flow of Qi or energy, which is commonly referred to as Qi stagnation. When the circulation of qi throughout the body does not go well, it leads to the rise of one or more of the characteristic symptoms of depression.

Sometimes, even when you’re tired you may have trouble falling asleep. Or you may fall asleep but can’t stay asleep. You may wake up at night and may not be able to go back to sleep till the break of dawn. You may even be able to sleep anytime you want all day and night but still wake up feeling that you haven’t had enough sleep. You may have eating problems, you either want to eat all the time or have no appetite at all. You may have a have strong craving for rich or high carbohydrate foods, salty foods, or sweets. You may be so mentally and physically exhausted that you don’t even want to think or move. You have absolutely no interest and have no motivation in anything at all.

Besides those symptoms, depression may also come with recurring thoughts that won’t go away, a total absence of emotions (feeling emotionally numb)or feelings of strong emotions (anger, irritability, sadness). You may have lost hope of feeling better again or are stricken with a profound sadness. Physical pain may sometimes be felt during depression like neck aches or headaches. Your brain won’t function correctly when you’re depressed. This can lead to poor concentration and memory and foggy thinking. You can become hypersensitive to people and the environment around you. You may become intolerant to normal music, voices, sounds, and bright lights.

How is depression triggered by blocked qi? And how does blocked qi occur in the first place? The flow of Qi can get blocked through factors such as a poor diet, chronic pain, trauma, and stress. Acupuncture is a very effective treatment against depression because it clears the factors that obstruct the flow of qi and helps qi normally circulate throughout the body once more. Acupuncture treatment, unlike most drugs, produce long lasting results. This means that it can get your qi to flow properly whilst strengthening your body to preserve that smooth flow in your body.

Furthermore, acupuncture can address the other symptoms associated with depression. It relieves anxiety that usually comes with depression, especially at night, clears negative thoughts and calms your mind, and improves your quality of sleep by regulating your day/night cycle. It boosts your concentration and mental alertness by activating brain activity, and reinforces your physical energy by enhancing the function of your spleen. Acupuncture helps regulate your digestive function to either lessen your cravings (if your depression has caused you to binge eat) or increase appetite after you’ve lost it.

It also raises your tolerance level to stimuli from the environment and to people around you so they no longer bother you. Your body you will regain your motivation as your Qi starts flowing again. You then can begin enjoying interactions with people around you and start feeling hopeful once more.

People who’ve been suffering from mild or moderate depression and who’ve tried acupuncture have experienced generally impressive results. Most of them had a full recovery. People suffering from severe depression, with thoughts of suicide may be treated with acupuncture provided it is accompanied by proper care from a psychiatrist.

A lot of people think they are trapped in their depression are usually only hoping to manage it as best they can. They should know that there is a better solution in the form of acupuncture.

Healing Depression the Healthy and Natural Way Using Acupuncture

People with anxiety and depression have certainly benefited from the many advantages of modern life but a lot of individuals still sadly suffer from emotional distress. Depression and anxiety are the two most common emotional-mental health issues affecting people today. Fortunately, there is acupuncture, an ancient Asian healing modality that offers people a natural and safe way of helping people return to a happier life and relieve them of these conditions.

How Can Acupuncture Help Depression and Anxiety

Traditional Chinese medicine (also called Oriental Medicine or TCM) and acupuncture have always considered the connection between the body and mind to be inseparable. Internal causes of health conditions along with the ancient descriptions of external environmental disease factors, such as Cold, Heat, and Wind were seen as the effects of emotions. Joy, worry, sadness, fear, and anger were associated with each of the body’s five Yin organs. From time to time, imbalances develop within these organs and those imbalances are where emotion has its origins from. Over the course of time, the emotion could injure the affected internal organ if it’s not addressed promptly and correctly.

People’s mental health surely has been severely affected by the Western motto of “more is better.” While some people tend to over exhaust themselves by playing or working hard, other people may think too much worrying about every aspect of life. They have no time at all to just unwind and take it easy without seeking some social event or powering on the TV. The body and mind becomes so tied-up inside because of this lifestyle eventually resulting in depression and anxiety. Acupuncture offers a treatment for people suffering from emotional- mental disorders by helping them to “un-do”. This treatment will provide patients with a deep state of relaxation enabling them to heal and rest both their body and mind.

Anxiety Acupuncture Treatment

Manifesting in a variety of ways, anxiety can be experienced from mild worrying about an upcoming speech or exam to a nervous stomach, PTSD (post-traumatic stress disorder), phobias, and even panic attacks. Anxiety is usually a healthy normal reaction of the mind and body to new situations and the daily stresses of life. But when anxiety arises in an excessive or random manner, this should be a sign for concern. The good news is that acupuncture can restore balance to both the physical and mental manifestations of anxiety helping you to get back to an easy-going life.

When you are over anxious, it makes you experience obsessive thoughts that transfix your mind to the fearful situation. It can lead to physical symptoms such as headache, nausea, stomach pain, shortness of breath, increased heart rate, and chest pain. The acupuncturist observes your tongue and pulse and evaluates the exact manifestations of your anxiety to determine what specific TCM anxiety pattern you are suffering from.

Kidney and Heart energy imbalances are the most common TCM diagnoses for anxiety. Seen as a Water (Yin) organ, the Kidney’s function is to balance the Fire of the Heart helping to contain an excess of Fire. An energy deficient Kidney causes the Heart Fire to rise up and disturb the mind. Considered a Yang organ, the heart organ system constantly pumps blood throughout the body. When the Heart becomes over-excited due to an imbalance of Fire or to excessive joy, it can generate Heat resulting in insomnia and anxiety.

Anxiety treatments using acupuncture in Overland Park can utilize both ear acupuncture (auricular acupuncture) and body acupuncture. The Spirit Gate or Shenmen ear acupoints and other ear acupoints can help relieve anxiety effectively; oftentimes small magnetic balls or ear tacks are retained on these ear acupoints to prolong the benefits of the treatment until the next treatment session comes. Body acupoints including the Spleen 6, Kidney 6, and Heart 7 are needled to harmonize the Kidney and Heart and to nourish the Yin energy of these organs. The points Heart 8 and 9 are treated to sedate the Fire within the Heart if Heart Heat is excessive.

Acupuncture Depression Treatment

The United States has about 20% of its population suffering from depression at some point in their lives. Due to its rifeness, doctors labels depression as the “common cold” of psychology. One of Western Medicine’s treatments for this condition is pharmaceutical medications but the side effects of these drugs forces people to consider a safe and natural alternative treatment such as acupuncture.

More often than not depression may feel like a kind of extreme exhaustion. There is just not enough energy to make you feel better no matter how much you want to be. Each individual may manifest symptoms of depression in different ways; nevertheless, each of them shares a common poor state of mind that that a depressed person can’t seem to surmount. The key to overcoming this condition is to break out of this rut.

Depression, according to TCM, is a problem of constraint, called Yu. The Liver is the main Yin organ related to this issue with the Heart and Spleen playing complementary roles. As the organ responsible for the flow of vital energy (Qi) throughout the body, the Liver is very much affected by your mood. If you are depressed or if your mood is low, the flow of Qi slows down and stagnates causing Liver Qi Stagnation. When this happens, all other physiological activities are affected including energy level, sleep, and digestion. If left unresolved, this will lead to additional stagnations of Blood, Phlegm, and Heat possibly resulting in body pains, mental cloudiness, and mania respectively. Secondary stagnations over the course of time will eventually affect the Spleen and Heart causing additional symptoms, such as fatigue and poor memory.

Treating depression with acupuncture will aim at improving Qi flow as well as restoring balance to the circulation of Qi to alleviate symptoms. The Four Gates treatment is the most common acupuncture procedure to boost Qi circulation. It involves the treatment of the Liv 3 points on the foot bilaterally and the LI 4 points on the hand also bilaterally. These pairs of acupoints are located in similar anatomical positions on the body: Liv 3 between the 2nd toe and the big toe on top of the foot and the LI4 in the fleshy web between the index finger and thumb in. Extra points treated may include Spleen 6 and Stomach 36 as they can be used to boost production of Qi in the body and reinforce digestion. You can start to feel your strength coming back and your life in full swing once more once your energy levels are normalized and your Qi is flowing properly enabling you to say good bye to your depression.

Life Changes

Altering your lifestyle into a healthy one can help balance your mind regardless of whether you are experiencing depression, anxiety or some other emotional difficulty. The mind oftentimes tends to resist acceptance of new ideas and attaches itself to negative emotions. You need to think about embarking on an exercise program that will help circulate your own energy and study some form of meditation to learn how to relax and control your mind. Yoga, Qi gong, and Tai Chi are excellent mind-body exercises that can make you to better able to control both depression and anxiety. Regular acupuncture treatments in conjunction with these activities provide the groundwork for a healthy change in your life.

Acupuncture Cures the Emotional and Physiological Aspects of Depression

Treating depression with acupuncture seems to be an unlikely proposition but the fact is, acupuncture, for many depressed people, has been the most effective and powerful treatment that allows them to escape depression and lead happy, fulfilling lives. Numerous studies have been done to verify the claims of many who have been cured of their depression using acupuncture. It seems to be a potent natural treatment protocol for depression and anxiety in Orlando .

Acupuncture, What Is it Anyway?

Acupuncture is an ancient Chinese healing method or fitness program that utilizes reed-thin non-hollow sterilized needles into certain points in the body known as acupuncture points wherein certain nerves underneath the skin are stimulated initiating a chemical reaction in the body that treats pain and promotes well-being..

The usability and efficacy of acupuncture is being scientifically studied by modern medicine and there has been significant proof of the treatment’s potency in treating muscular pains in the back and neck areas of the body as well as headache and nausea related to anxiety and depression.

Physiological Effects of Acupuncture with Regards to Anxiety And Depression

A lot of researchers are now beginning to believe that depression is more a physiological condition than it is psychological. This disease is caused when the body is deficient in certain vitamins, nutrients and biochemicals to keep it healthy and in balance.

Depressed people have reported to get well quickly when these inadequacies have been met and because of this, researchers are now creating ways to help maintain the normal levels of vitamins, nutrients and biochemcals in the body. When these physiological needs have been met, many depressed people get well dramatically. For these reasons, researchers are now finding ways on how to retain these vitamins, nutrients and biochemicals longer and how to stop the biochemicals from prematurely breaking down.

These researchers have discovered that acupuncture can actually help do all this. This treatment stimulates nerve endings to transmit bioelectrical impulses to the important organs and help sustain the levels of vitamins, nutrients and biochemicals in the body. Acupuncture also causes the release of beneficial chemicals that help keep the body in balance.

A depressed individual receiving regular acupuncture therapy may not even require sedatives or other drugs to resolve their symptoms. If you are depressed, you may only need to consult with a licensed acupuncturist and realize the joy of life and peace you may have not felt for quite a while.

Results from Health Institutions

The NIH or National Institutes of Health have stated that acupuncture is a valid form of treatment highly recommended for anxiety and depression. It is ideally used in conjunction with conventional medicine for a number of conditions. More research is recommended to further appraise its clinical value.

There have been other noteworthy studies done on the medical and clinical use of acupuncture especially towards depression. One study revealed that when drug therapy or even psychotherapy didn’t work, when acupuncture was added into the treatment program, the patient responded more favorably to the treatment plan.

Targeted Treatment

In order for acupuncture to be truly potent, it should be done regularly and needs to be targeted and focused. One other study dealing with depression and acupuncture conducted by the University of Arizona involved 38 subjects with mild to moderate depression. They were all given acupuncture treatment twice a week for a full month (30 days). During the succeeding months they were still given acupuncture but with lesser frequency each month. At the end of the study, greater than 50% of the subjects stated that they now only experience 50% of the symptoms; some have completely resolution of their symptoms.

An acupuncture treatment, that is focused on important acupuncture points can help decrease anxiety, induce relaxation and accelerate the treatment process of the patient. If the acupuncture treatment does not target the important acupoints, the treatment might take long although it can help treat other conditions.

Lifestyle And Diet Change

Oftentimes acupuncture treatment is more effective when it is combined with dietary and lifestyle changes. When truly applied to traditional Chinese medicine, acupuncture in the strictest sense of the word, incorporates dietary and lifestyle aspects that helps make the outcome of the therapy long-lasting and even permanent.