Acupuncture is Energy Medicine!
As Oprah Winfrey is so fond of pointing out on her show, “Acupuncture is truly energy medicine!”
When you receive acupuncture, both your mind and your body are being treated at the same time. The Chinese understood the relationship between mind and body thousands of years before this concept came to be accepted in western cultures.
Acupuncture is effective in healing the majority of people who use it. Usually in 5-10 sessions an effective response can be recognized, and once that occurs healing usually follows. In all age groups many different medical problems respond, and without the side-effects medicines may cause.
Stress - Pain - Stress
Stress can produce pain and pain can produce stress. For example, stress can directly cause muscle spasm. Spasm can then cause pain, wherever it is located—neck, back, wrist, elbow, knee, head (headache), stomach, etc. That pain can then increase the sense of stress, leading to a continuous cycle of discomfort.
Acupuncture stops the Pain-Stress Cycle
Acupuncture causes the release of brain chemicals called neuro-chemical transmitters. Some of these chemicals include “endorphins”, our bodies’ own “home-made” narcotic-like pain relievers. These can effectively decrease most pain, stopping the pain-stress cycle. Additional brain chemicals released during acupuncture include serotonin and norepinephrine, which play a very major role in stress relief—for example, headaches, anxiety, depression, and other emotional issues. So these also decrease the stress-pain cycle.
The Chinese thought thousands of years ago that all pain and illness is due to obstruction to the flow of Qi energy throughout our bodies. They came to understand the intimate relationship between mind and body, and found that acupuncture could restore the smooth flow of Qi, allowing our bodies to heal naturally. Now we have some idea in western terms how this process may occur. Acupuncture is truly “energy medicine”.
