Acupuncture Solutions for Anxiety
Feeling anxious occasionally is normal in life. But, in certain groups of people anxiety disorder can intensely manifest in the form of persistent fear or worry about everyday situations. Anxiety disorders may involve repeated episodes of intense anxiety and terror that can peak within minutes. These episodes are known as panic attacks. Read on to know more about the condition and how traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) methods like acupuncture and herbs can bring a solution.
Symptoms of Anxiety Disorder
Feeling tense, restless, or nervous is the primary symptom. You may have a sense of impending danger or doom. The physiological symptoms may include increased heart rate, rapid breathing, sweating, and trembling. Further, there could be gastrointestinal problems. You may have trouble focusing on anything other than the present worry. The worry will be difficult to control, and there could be an urge to avoid things that trigger anxiety. The condition is more severe stages can lead to mental illnesses such as depression. Substance abuse, insomnia, constipation, headache, pain, etc., are other concerns associated with anxiety. Complications can lead to problems in school or work life, poor quality of life, and even suicide. Anxiety can also lead to panic attacks with the symptoms such as difficulty to breath, increased heartbeats, and chest pain. When people have a high level of anxiety, they can not stay in a closed area with many people, they can not drive on the highway. Anything stimulating their sympathetic nervous system can lead to a panic attack when you have a high level of anxiety.
Causes of Anxiety Disorder
The reasons for anxiety disorders are the imbalance of the nerous and hormones. In some people, who are prone to anxiety, certain traumatic life events may trigger anxiety disorders and panic attack. It could also be due to inherited traits. If there is no family history or childhood history of anxiety, the disorder could be due to underlying medical conditions like heart disease, diabetes, thyroid disorders, drugs or alcohol misuse or withdrawal from antianxiety medications, or insomnia. When people do not have sufficient sleep, their relaxing hormones are lowered, then they drink coffee first thing in the morning to stimulate their nervous system, they are very likely to develop anxiety. If this practice becomes everyday, their nervous system will be out of balance. Even they practice meditation and Qi Gong, they can still have a high level of anxiety. Coffee is an anti-depression chemical. If you drink too much, you can develop anxiety, panic attack, AF, and insomnia.
How can acupuncture help anxiety?
Acupuncture follows the principles of traditional Chinese medicine (TCM). It is a treatment that inserts very thin steel needles into the skin at specific points to facilitate the smooth energy flow, so the body can function normally. When people use coffee to stimulate their nervous system, they tend to think too much, which can cause blockage of the energy flow to their heart and lung. Acupuncture can strengthen the parasympathetic nervous system and reduce anxiety instantly. But a person with an anxiety disorder also needs to change his/her lifestyle and eating habits to reduce the stimulation by practicing meditation, yoga, and deep breathing to maintain the effect of acupuncture.
Acupuncture Research in Anxiety
The treatment methods in acupuncture stimulate the production of your body’s natural feel-good hormones such as serotonin, endorphin, and GABA. Further, it helps to reduce stress hormones like cortisol and adrenaline. In Neurosice Letter 2008, Dr. Chae and his colleagues injected nicotine in rats for several days; then they stopped the injection. The rats showed anxiety-like behavior due to withdrawal. When they applied acupuncture on Ht7, the rats showed less anxiety-like behavior, but stimulating acupuncture points on ST36 did not produce the same result. Furthermore, acupuncture treatment can change the gene expression for a certain chemical called corticotrophin-releasing factor, which can increase the stress hormone in certain brain areas (amygdala). When the stress hormone level is reduced, the rats showed less anxiety-like behavior: they were more willing to explore the open arms of the plus-maze compared with the group without acupuncture treatment.
