Unfortunately, anxiety seems to be a common side effect of living in today’s world. Almost everyone I speak to recently seems to be suffering from anxiety to varying degrees. I guess that as we get older we become more susceptible to anxiety as we try and juggle life’s challenges. Others may be longterm anxiety suffers which can be crippling to normal life.
According to Anxiety UK, 10% of the population suffer from anxiety. This could include OCD, health anxiety, phobias, IBS, postnatal anxiety to name a few examples. Whilst stress is related to an external factor, such as work pressure and is resolved when this factor is removed, anxiety is with the sufferer even once the external factor had been removed.
Anxiety causes an increased activity in the sympathetic nervous system causing the fight or flight reaction of the body. This makes the sufferer feel unsafe in their environment or panicky. It can cause panic attacks and lack of clarity. Acupuncture calm’s down the sufferer and places the patient into a deep relaxation state.
Acupuncture’s effect on mental and emotional wellbeing has been demonstrated in various western research studies. Biomedically, acupuncture has been demonstrated to cause changes in neurotransmitters involved in emotional regulation such as serotonin, autonomic nervous system modulation and improved immune function. This activates the homeostasis system stimulating natural healing and physical and emotional wellbeing.
It is amazing to hear from patients, during their acupuncture treatment, how relaxed they feel in comparision to when they entered my clinic. This is aided by my lovely my therapeutic heat lamp on their back. In fact some as so realxed they even fall asleep! This feeling usually lasts for several days and I always help them along the way with an earseed (small bead on a sticky plaster) placed on the ear Shen Men point. This can be rubbed in moments of stress and provides acupressure to the de stress auricular point.
Why not give it a try!
For further reading research papers:
Evidence Based Acupuncture website
