Acupuncture and Other Practical Ways to Deal with Stress

Living in the modern world means living a stress-filled life – commuting, relationships, workplace stresses, financial problems – even reading the newspaper creates stress. But stress has always been with us since the beginning of time. No doubt, the ancient Chinese had their own fair share of problems. Sickness, marital discord, work problems, food shortages were no stranger to them. Stress is a part of life.

Many problems can arise because of stress besides the continuous feeling of worry, uncertainty, and anxiety. When it’s extreme, stress can result in headaches, digestive problems, overeating, loss of appetite, insomnia, and gynecological problems. Stress can harm relationships. It can cause more arguments among family members and can lead to self-destructive behavior such as irritability towards others, drugs, excessive smoking, or over-drinking; when it’s turned inward, stress can lead to depression.

When it comes to work occupations, stress is particularly high among the teaching and nursing professions. However, because of the economic problems these past years, financial stress has virtually affected everyone.

According to traditional Chinese medicine or TCM, the causes of disease among humans are the emotions. They are an important factor in stress. In the human body, stress can result in an over-expression of the emotions that can negatively impact the body.

Fear, anger, worry (pensiveness), sadness and joy are the five key emotions. Important aspects of a healthy human life are the emotions and the expression of these emotions can be good for the health. If a person very close to you passes away, you will naturally feel sad. We ought to be a little angry and upset if we lose our job. The anger can give us the drive to re-assess our life and give us a push to once more propel our life forward. Every emotion we feel, however, should be in moderation. Disease can develop when an emotion is overly expressed. If, for several years, we still feel extreme sadness, it actually can prevent and stop us from moving on. If we feel anger for too long, sooner or later, that anger will turn against others or even turn inward resulting in self-contempt or depression.

According to the theory of traditional Chinese medicine, the body’s various organs are associated with various emotions. The Heart, for example, is associated with joy, grief or sadness pertains to the Lung, fear associates with the Kidney, anger to the Liver, while the Spleen to worry or pensiveness. If a certain emotion is excessively expressed by a person, it can result in an overstimulation of the organ associated with that emotion which, in the end, can result in a weakness that may affect the other organs and the rest of the body since in TCM, everything is interconnected in the human body.

Stress is associated with the emotions of sadness, (Lung), fear (Kidney), depression (Spleen and Liver), worry, (Spleen), and irritation and anger (Liver). In TCM, because stress can affect several organs all at once, it has the potential to affect the entire body system. It is the job of a qualified and skilled acupuncturist to determine the system that’s most affected and what emotion is most dominant and then treat them accordingly; it’s been discovered that the Liver is the organ most affected by stress.

To describe how the body works, the Chinese often use analogies. They depicted the organs as members of the government. The Emperor is designated to the Heart as it’s considered the most important organ in the human body. Traditionally, the General of the armed forces is the Liver as it’s considered the General of the organ system. The Chinese view the Liver as a strong organ, much like a General who keeps the empire (the human body) stable and safe. But when under pressure (probably because of an invading army), the General can become short tempered and irritable and verbally or even physically attack his subordinates. He may well command the farmers and peasants to halt their production of food and help out in battle which means no new foods are produced. The General may well intimidate all the advisors and ministers to cease their duties and follow him against their wishes. Even worse, he may even rebel against the Emperor himself, overthrow him, and rule with a brutal dictatorship. Although just an analogy, this is a vivid metaphor of what exactly occurs within the body.

As mentioned above, the Liver is a strong, nay, a powerful organ and when it becomes hyperactive, has the power to affect everything else. It can overexert itself on the organ systems of the body when it’s stressed. On the digestive system (the abdomen and the Spleen), an overactive Liver can cause IBS, gas, constipation, diarrhea, and other digestive problems. Its overexertion can impact the Lungs exacerbating conditions such as asthma. Women’s gynecological system can also be harmed and along with the Kidney can result in irregular and/or cause painful menses and even cause infertility. The Heart can also be affected and since this organ is related to the function of sleep, it can result in sleeplessness and bad dreams. Also, the Liver may force the flow of energy to go upward resulting in migraine or headache.

One of the reasons overstressed individuals drink alcohol is that it helps calm down the Liver; however, the same time it’s sedating the Liver, alcohol in the long term, also stimulates it. In this regard, alcohol in the short term can help ease stress, but in the in the long term, can worsen the problem and even cause alcoholism.

The good news is that there are other ways you can do proactively to calm down a hyperactive Liver and restore balance in your health and life, enabling you to deal with your stressors in a sensible and healthy manner. These other ways may involve:

1. Consulting with a qualified and reputable acupuncturist. When an acupuncturist needles certain points on your body, he/she is helping restore balance to the organ systems in your body. With, acupuncture in Tarzana, your body can be placed in a deep state of relaxation giving you the liberty to wisely reflect on the situation that stresses you out enabling you to deal with it on a more positive way. Those who receive acupuncture treatment regularly have discovered a way stabilize their emotions making it easier for them to deal with stress.

Besides acupuncture, there are other ways to help you relax and beat stress. One way is to make the Emperor stronger. This is done by giving him more power, which like it or not, the General has to obey. The Heart can benefit a lot from meditation, which can be a powerful thing if the person meditates on the Heart chakra.

2. The color green which is also associated with the Liver. This color has a calming effect on the Liver. Eating leafy green veggies (kale, spinach, and cabbage) can help. Placing plants inside the house has a soothing effect on people, so as taking regular walks in the park.
3. Relaxing the eyes, which are organs that also have a special relationship with the Liver. In our modern way of living, our eyes tend to get used a lot (too much computer work, smart phones, internet, TV, etc.). Meditating and shutting our eyes can help calm the Liver.

Small changes such as these, nevertheless, can yield tremendous benefits to our health in the long term. And since most of us will live on this earth for several decades, we might as well be armed with the proper tools to help overcome the various stresses life hurls at us on a daily basis.

Stress Risk Factors

All people experience stress in one degree or another. Some can handle their stress very well while some can be overwhelmed by it and can result in mental or physical health conditions that can be deadly if not managed properly.  There are people prone to stress and it manifests in their health or the quality of life they live.

Listed below are some of the conditions that make a person a high-risk candidate to stress-related health problems.

• A piling up of often encountered stressful situations, especially situations that are difficult for the person to control.  This can include an unhappy relationship and a highly stressful job.

• Persistent stress resulting from a severe acute reaction to a traumatic event. An example would be a vehicular accident.

• Acute stress combined with a serious condition such as heart disease

People react to stress in different ways and in different conditions.  These conditions can include:

• Early care – Children who have been treated badly may develop long-term dysfunctions in their hypothalamus-pituitary system.  This is the system which controls stress.

• Personality traits – There are people with certain personality traits who are predisposed to overreact to stressful events.

• Genetic factors – People with certain genetic factors such as problems in the regulation of their serotonin level can exhibit inordinate reactions to stress.  These reactions can be heightened blood pressure and heart rates. Serotonin is a chemical found in the brain that is responsible to a person’s relaxation or state of well-being

• Immune regulated illnesses – Some diseases connected to immune problems like eczema or rheumatoid arthritis can make a person vulnerable to stress.

• The intensity and duration of stress factors – The longer the person is exposed to stressors or stress factors, the more intense these stressors are can obviously affect the person negatively.

Individuals with High Risk for Stress

• Senior People – The older a person gets the more difficult it becomes for him to respond in a relaxing way to stressful events. Aging may mean the wear and tear of systems that properly respond to stress.  Becoming old may cause these systems to not address stress properly as they used to do before.  Old people also often experience high stress factors like financial problems, changes in living environment, loss of loved ones and medical problems.

• Women and especially working mothers – Working mothers generally regardless of their civil status are immersed with stress with levels that are higher than those of a typical male.  These kinds of mothers regularly experience high levels of stress which oftentimes affect their health.  They are often burdened with a work load considered heavy for a typical woman.  This is a typical reality experienced by working mothers in Europe and in the United States.  The stress these women acquire in their workplace often spills out to their home affecting their children and spouse.
• Less educated people
• Widowed or divorced people – Many studies have indicated that unmarried individuals on the average have a shorter life span that married people.

• People experiencing long term unemployment, financial problem and those with no health insurance.

• Lonely or isolated people

• Individuals who are sexually or racially discriminated

• People living in urban centers

The Workplace

Work stress in the office or workplace not only leads to low productivity but can even lead to harassment or even violence in the place of work.  Stress cost the economy billions of dollars not only in loss of production but also in medical expenses each year.  Stress is a major issue in all developed countries.  The Japanese even concocted a new term to describe a person who suddenly died due to overwork.  This term is known as “karoushi.”

 

Dale Roach is a licensed acupuncturist and the founder of Dale Roach, MD,L.Ac in Larchmont, NY.