Acupuncture — An Effective Treatment for Anxiety
By Li Zheng and David Israch
Anxiety is the body’s normal mental response to stress. But if the anxiety sustains for a long period of time, which interferes with routine day-to-day life, it is recognized as “anxiety disorder”.
Anxiety disorder is described as a morbid feeling of tension, fear, or apprehension when one is faced with tough situations. It invariably leads to a confused state of mind and limits one’s decision-making abilities and living a normal routine life is hampered.
When a person is very anxious, he/she loses concentration, suffers many physical symptoms like chest pain, difficulty breathing, choking sensations, palpitations, and even a loss of motor control and incoherent speech.
Anxiety disorder happens due to a variety of reasons like stress due to illness, trauma, personality, mental disorders, drug and alcohol abuse, and inheritance from parents.
The Western medicine approach includes 1) counseling 2) medications including anti-anxiety and anti-depressants as normal course treatment to tackle the bouts of anxiety. SSRI is the most common medication to treat depression and anxiety. If patients take anti-anxiety medication for too long, they may gain too much weight or develop insomnia because when the serotonin level is too high, you are constantly hungry and want to eat more and more.
However, Traditional Chinese Medicine’s acupuncture treatment has gained popularity across the US as a successful, non-intrusive, and drug-free treatment, which, besides eradicating anxiety and depression also improves the overall health of the patient. An FDA study states that Americans have made more than 12 million visits to acupuncturists. The above published FDA data clearly highlights the efficacy of acupuncture to treat anxiety and also other ailments like back pain, neck pain, headache, insomnia, and depression.
There is sufficient clinical data that identifies acupuncture as a safe initial treatment as it uses the latent body mechanism to reinstate good health without the use of prescribed medication. Acupuncture helps your body produce more relaxing hormones, so the patient can either reduce the dosage of medications needed in the future or there will be no need to increase the dosage of anti-anxiety medications over time. Traditional Chinese Medicine believes that various pains and psychosomatic illnesses are caused as a result of the block in the flow of life energy through the meridians. Meridians are present all over the body at certain depths under the skin which connects all the organs and other important anatomical parts in the body.
Insertion of ultra-thin acupuncture needles on a select cluster of acupuncture points helps to release the blocked energy. This proper flow of energy to relevant parts of the body makes the patients feel relaxed and balance their nervous and immune systems.
Boston acupuncturist treats people with anxiety with specific protocols based on their individual constitution. With 27 years of clinical experience, Boston acupuncturist will help you feel happier and healthier during the Covid-19 pandemic. Acupuncture not only can relax your body and mind but also enhance your digestive and nervous system function, so you can produce more happy hormones yourself if you have a proper diet and sufficient sleep. Acupuncture can instantly relieve anxiety and depression, but requiring a course of 10 to 12 treatments, initially twice a week and then reducing to once per week, to achieve long-term results.
