Health Conditions Archives - Acupuncture in the Park

Energy Crisis

Do you struggle with fatigue? If so, you’re not alone. In a study conducted by Virgin Pulse, over 75 percent of employees admitted that they show up at work tired. So much so, that sleepy workers cost companies over $400 billion each year from costly mistakes and accidents.

Whether you’re working, a stay at home parent, or retired, fatigue that lasts more than a couple of weeks is your body’s way of letting your know something’s up. What’s going on is that your energy, or Qi, is depleted. And fatigue can manifest in a number of ways; you may wake up after a good night’s sleep still feeling tired, you may poop out as the day goes on, be too tired for exercise or other activities, or feel completely exhausted after eating a meal.

In Chinese medicine, fatigue is actually called a Qi Depletion, and there are a number of reasons that it may be happening:

-Lack of sleep. This may seem obvious, but you need at least seven hours a night. Regularly getting much less than that, and you’re going to feel tired.

-Long-term stress, emotional upset, or depression. Poor mental health can be exhausting. In Chinese medicine, chronic stress or depression causes your energy to become to become diverted, making it inaccessible to your body and unable to support your health.

-Your diet. Your energy is made primarily from the food you eat. When you eat good food, your body has the ingredients—the building blocks—it needs to produce energy. However, if you’re getting your meals from the drive through window or a box of food that’s been chemically engineered to last decades, your energy is going to suffer.

-How you digest your food. The reality is that even when you eat really nutritious food, if you’re digestion is funky, your energy is still likely to suffer. Digestive problems, such as stomachaches, gas, bloating, diarrhea, or constipation are all a sign that your digestion may not be ideal.

-Medical issues. There are a number of health conditions that can affect your energy levels. A thyroid imbalance, infections, anemia, heart disease, and diabetes are all examples of problems that can tank your energy.

-Lack of exercise. While this may feel counter intuitive if you’re already feeling fatigued, most people report feeling energized after as little as ten or fifteen minutes of activity. You don’t have to run a marathon; taking a walk or working in the garden qualify as exercise.

-Pain. Similar to being chronically stressed or depressed, being in chronic pain also blocks your energy, making it unavailable to power the rest of your body.

-Loss of blood. A recent surgery, labor and delivery, heavy menstrual periods, trauma, and even a very large bruise all represent a significant loss of blood. Decreased blood volume translates into diminished nutrients, as well as hemoglobin, which carries oxygen throughout your body.

-Working too hard. The Chinese have a term, overwork, which describes extremes in work. Anything from too many hours at the office to overdoing the late night cram sessions for tomorrow’s exam would qualify as overworking. The bottom line is that if you’re overdoing it, you’re depleting your energy faster than you can rebuild it, which is a recipe for exhaustion.

So what can you do if fatigue is ruling your life? You can rest, recover, and rebuild your energy through getting enough sleep. You can eat well, get a little bit of exercise (but not too much), and make a commitment to stress relief and better mental health.

However, if despite all your best efforts, you’re still exhausted, Chinese medicine may be able to offer some relief. An acupuncturist or practitioner of Chinese medicine can help uncover the source of your fatigue and create a treatment strategy unique to your specific needs. Through the use of acupuncture, combined with Chinese herbs, diet and nutrition, lifestyle counseling, and education, your practitioner can help you recover your energy.

Bruising 101

About a week ago, I bruised my shin climbing on a retaining wall. At the time, I knew from the pain that it was going to be a whopper, and over the next several days I watched the bruise develop like a Polaroid photograph. It ran almost the entire length of the front of my leg and was swollen and very tender.

The bruise was large enough that I began to wonder if I should worry. After spending a couple of minutes on an online medical information website, my worries were put to rest. It turns out that a single bruise can become a health problem if the associated swelling is so great that it cuts off blood flow to other tissues or organs, or if it doesn’t heal in two to three weeks. Neither was the case for me.

Causes of Bruising

A bruise is bleeding that occurs under the skin, and it is commonly caused by trauma. However, there are a number of other underlying reasons for bruising to occur. Among them:

Side effects from certain medications
Clotting disorders
Infections that cause toxins to build up in the blood
Certain autoimmune disorders
Cancers, such as leukemia, Hodgkin’s disease, or multiple myeloma
Deficiencies of Vitamin B12, C, K, or folic acid

While a single bruise from a bump or a fall is generally not a cause for concern, a pattern of unexplained bruising may be a sign of a serious health condition and should be checked out by your doctor.

Are You an Easy Bruiser?

Some people tend to bruise easily whenever they come into contact with anything that has an edge; tables, doors, or the bedpost. Is this a problem? If easy bruising is a new thing for you or if unexplained bruises appear on your face or trunk—places you would remember bumping—you should have it assessed by your doctor. However, easy bruising is more common in women and becomes more noticeable with age, because your skin becomes thinner.

In Chinese medicine, the cause of easy bruising would likely be diagnosed as Spleen Qi depletion or heat in the blood. In addition to digestion, your Chinese Spleen organ system is responsible for a number of functions. Through the digestive process, your Spleen turns food into energy and nutrients. Spleen energy also is responsible for retaining organs in place and keeping blood in the vessels. A weak Spleen may cause easy bruising from fragile blood vessels that are easily damaged with the slightest pressure.

Another cause of easy bruising is internal heat, from a fever, infection, or inflammation. Heat expands and speeds up movement, causing your blood to move recklessly, outside of the vessels. Other signs of heat in the blood are frequent nosebleeds and bleeding gums.

The bruise itself is considered to be blood stagnation in Chinese medicine. This simply means that blood in the area of the bruise isn’t moving. Because the capillaries and small vessels in the area of the bruise have been broken, and blood has leaked into the surrounding tissue, circulation in the area has been obstructed.

What to Do About Bruising

Simple home care for a single bruise may include elevating the area and applying ice during the first 24 hours to limit the amount of bruising. If your bruise is painful, Tylenol is the best over the counter choice, as aspirin or ibuprofen interfere with clotting and may make your bruise larger. After two to three days, heat and gentle massage may help speed the healing process. Your bruise should slowly change colors, from bright red or purple caused by the hemoglobin in a fresh bruise to green and yellow from the compounds that break down the bruise after several days. Depending on your age and your overall health, your bruise should be completely healed within ten days to three weeks.

If you’re prone to easy bruising, a diet rich in fruits and vegetables, whole grains, legumes, nuts, and light proteins can help you get the vitamins you need to support clotting. Also, smoking and excessive alcohol consumption can may your easy bruising worse, as they both affect both blood flow and the clotting process.

And finally, if you’re an easy bruiser, consider acupuncture and Chinese medicine. Whether your Spleen energy is depleted or heat is causing you to bruise or bleed easily, your practitioner can help identify the problem and develop a treatment plan to resolve your bruising and support your verall health.

Treating Skin Conditions with Chinese Medicine

Most of the time, skin conditions aren’t life-threatening, but they can be hard to diagnose, challenging to treat, and frustrating overall. Enter acupuncture and Chinese medicine. When it comes to skin conditions, there are many instances when Chinese medicine can be an effective treatment. Here are some things you may not know:

1) When it comes to Chinese medicine, dermatology has been around a long time. Ancient texts suggest that practitioners have been treating skin conditions with acupuncture and herbs for about 3,000 years.

2) Chinese medicine involves understanding the underlying cause of your condition and treating it systemically—and dermatology is no exception. If you seek out an acupuncturist for a skin condition, they will likely ask you about your diet, digestion, sleep patterns, and emotional health in determining a diagnosis and how best to treat you.

3) The appearance of a rash or skin condition tells your practitioner a lot about the source of your overall health. When it comes to rashes, most will be diagnosed as either heat, dampness, or wind or a combination of those. Heat rashes are red, and may be the result of overactive hormones (think acne), strong emotions, or inflammation. Damp skin conditions tend to have blisters or look weepy and moist. They come from poor elimination of wastes and toxins from your body, water retention, and spending a lot of time in a humid or moist environment. Wind conditions tend to be dry, itchy, come and go, and move around from place to place on your body (like hives).

4) Very dry skin signals an overall dryness throughout your body, and isn’t necessarily related to how much water you drink. Dryness may result from not getting enough healthy fats in your diet, or something called blood depletion, in which the nourishing quality of your blood is poor and affecting your skin.

5) In Chinese medicine the health of your skin is most closely related to your Lung system, because your Lungs govern the exterior of your body. In fact, in Chinese medicine, eczema is called skin asthma because people with eczema, especially children, also tend to have or develop asthma. As a result, a treatment plan for a chronic skin condition usually means strengthening your Lungs as well.

6) Beyond acupuncture, Chinese herbal medicine can also be very effective for skin conditions. While more research is needed, some studies have concluded that Chinese herbs can be a valuable treatment for conditions such as eczema and plaque psoriasis. In treating a skin condition, your acupuncturist will often combine acupuncture, oral or topical herbs, and dietary guidelines for the best results.

7) One explanation for the effectiveness of acupuncture for skin conditions is that acupuncture increases circulation and decreases inflammation in the areas where needles are placed. This decreases irritation and speeds up the healing process.

8) Acupuncture can also be used on your skin for its anti-aging effects. Cosmetic acupuncture involves specific protocols in which tiny needles are placed in your face for the purpose of increasing circulation and rebuilding collagen and elastin that decreases as you age. Collagen is the net-like structure that gives your skin its firmness, and elastin allows your skin to resume its shape after being stretched. The theory behind cosmetic acupuncture is that the needles create tiny wounds, or micro-traumas, which as they heal, bring collagen, elastin, and other nutrients to the area.

The bottom line is that skin conditions can be perplexing and hard to treat. When it comes to dermatology, it might be time to think about Chinese medicine for that stubborn rash or skin condition.

Tendonitis or Tendonosis?

Tennis elbow, rotator cuff injuries, and Runner’s Knee are frequently diagnosed as tendonitis. However, more often than not, these injuries are actually something called tendonosis, and knowing the difference is important in knowing how best to treat the condition.

Your tendons are bands of thick and fibrous tissue that holds your muscles to your bones. Tendons are strong and able to withstand heavy loads, but they can become injured and painful. Tendon injuries are frequently misunderstood and frustrating to deal with, both for the patient and their practitioner. One reason these injuries are so difficult is that they seem to take forever to heal. However, a second reason is that tendon injuries are often improperly diagnosed and treated.

The confusion is between two conditions: tendonitis and tendonosis. Here’s the difference:

Tendonitis

Tendonitis is an acute condition caused by a strain, trauma, pull, tear, or overexertion to the tendon. It involves inflammation, often with swelling, warmth, and redness. In many cases, you know the exact moment when you injured the tendon. If you look at the tendon microscopically, there are inflammatory cells present, and tears or damage to the tendon is obvious.

Treatment for tendonitis may include anti-inflammatory drugs, icing the tendon, rest, and in some cases, a steroid injection to calm the inflammation. If the tendon has suffered a pronounced tear or rupture, surgery may be necessary to repair the tendon.

Tendinosis

In contrast, tendinosis is a chronic condition that doesn’t involve inflammation. It tends to be caused by overuse and can result in conditions such as tennis elbow, Achilles tendinosis, some rotator cuff injuries, and runner’s knee. If you look at the tendon microscopically, you’ll find that it has many tiny tears and disorganized fibers.

Treating tendinosis with an anti-inflammatory regimen doesn’t tend to be very effective, because it typically doesn’t involve inflammation. Instead, rest and physical therapy to stretch and strengthen the tendon can be helpful. Tendinosis can take what feels like forever to heal, and that’s because the tiny tears have to repair themselves and the tendon fibers have to reorganize and regain their original strength.

If you’re unsure whether your tendon problem is tendinitis or tendonosis, it can be diagnosed with a simple ultrasound, in which any inflammation will be apparent, leading to a diagnosis of tendonitis.

Whether you have tendonitis or tendonosis, acupuncture can be an important part of the healing process. For tendonitis acupuncture needles placed near the inflamed tendon, can increase the circulation of inflammation-fighting white blood cells significantly and clear the heat associated with inflammation. If you have tendinosis, acupuncture can help increase circulation to the area in general, as well as to speed the healing process. Furthermore, in both conditions, acupuncture can effectively decrease the pain, as acupuncture has been shown to affect your brain in a way that ramps up your body’s own pain relief mechanisms.

The bottom line is that knowing the difference between tendonitis and tendonosis can help determine the appropriate treatment. In addition, acupuncture can be a key part of that treatment to relieve pain, reduce inflammation if necessary, increase the circulation of healing blood and nutrients to the area, and speed up the healing process.

Recovering from Whiplash with Acupuncture

Whiplash can change your life in an instant. I know, because it did for me. Years ago I was rear-ended by a van going about 40 miles per hour. In a split second my car was totaled and my body was injured, and I struggled with months of low-grade disability.

Whiplash is most commonly associated with car accidents, but can also happen from falls and other accidents. It’s a musculoskeletal injury that’s caused by sudden impact, a quick jerking of your head forward or to the side, and the resulting trauma to your spine. The most common symptom of whiplash is pain—neck, shoulder, arm, low back, or pain between your shoulder blades. However, there are other symptoms associated with a whiplash injury, which can include headaches, sleeplessness, dizziness, anxiety, vision problems, fatigue, and poor concentration.

Many people don’t feel any pain right after a car accident, and some assume because the impact happened at a slow speed, that they’re fine. However, crash tests have determined that soft tissue injuries can occur at speeds as slow as five miles per hour. For that reason, many people walk away from an accident thinking they’re fine, only to begin experiencing symptoms days and even weeks after the fact.

Whiplash causes inflammation to the soft tissue of your neck and back. It can also cause damage not only to the soft tissue, but also to the ligaments, tendons, nerves, and bones of your spine and surrounding areas. It can cause muscle tears, cervical sprains, ligament ruptures, herniated discs, and even fractures of the spine.

The Role of Acupuncture

A whiplash injury that’s not treated can easily become a chronic problem, and this is where acupuncture and Chinese medicine can help. A great deal of research has concluded that acupuncture is an effective treatment for neck and back pain. Acupuncture works for this kind of injury for a number of reasons:

-It reduces inflammation. Studies have documented significant increases in the circulation of inflammation-clearing white blood cells in the areas where acupuncture needles have been placed locally.

-Acupuncture increases circulation, which flushes out inflammatory toxins and brings new blood and nutrients into the area being treated, which helps to speed the healing process.

-Your brain chemistry is altered by acupuncture—in a good way. Acupuncture ramps up your body’s own opioid-like pain relief system. In addition, it increases the circulation of endorphins in your brain, which are responsible for mood enhancement and feelings of well-being.

-The decrease in pain and increase in circulation help to improve your range of motion in the injured area.

In addition to acupuncture, your practitioner may incorporate other healing methods into your treatment. This may include massage-like Tui Na, heat therapy, and cupping. If you’re experiencing systemic symptoms, they may also include an herbal formula or some lifestyle changes into your plan for healing as quickly as possible.

Sadly, my whiplash experience happened long enough ago that acupuncture wasn’t a readily available option for healing. I suffered from pain between my shoulder blades that lasted many months; it limited my activities and left me feeling unwell overall. The good news is that now acupuncture is an option, and if you’ve experienced a whiplash injury, it can be an effective path to healing.

Natural Help for Night Sweats

Night sweats can be very frustrating because they’re uncomfortable, can interrupt your sleep, and may occur several times during the course of a night. They’re described as profuse sweating while you’re sleeping or hot flashes that occur at night and that happen repeatedly. Night sweats can leave you, your nightclothes, and sheets soaking wet, and can be a major contributor to loss of sleep. A single occurrence doesn’t qualify as night sweats, nor does a room that’s too hot or sleeping with too many blankets that cause you to wake up hot.

If you’re experiencing night sweats, there are a number of reasons why this may be happening. One of the most common causes is hormonal changes that occur with the onset of menopause. However there are other conditions that can cause night sweats, and they can occur in men as well. Night sweats can also be caused by infection, illness, and the side effects of some medications. If you’re experiencing night sweats accompanied by other symptoms, such as fevers, weight loss, heart palpitations, or overwhelming fatigue, it’s time to get checked out by your doctor.

Chinese Medicine on Night Sweats

In Chinese medicine, there are also a number of reasons behind night sweats, but the most common is an imbalance between your body’s Yin and Yang. Like the Chinese character for the sunny side of the hill, Yang is warm, bright, energizing, and transformative. In your body it acts a little like a pilot light that keeps you warm and fuels metabolism, digestion, and other transformative processes. In contrast, Yin is represented by the character of the shady side of the hill. Yin is cooling, calming, moistening, and nourishing. While Yang is warming and transforming, the actual substance of all your organs, tissues, and fluids are considered to be Yin. Yin acts like a nutritious coolant in your body that balances warm and active Yang.

When Yin becomes depleted, it’s like being low on the coolant that keeps Yang’s warmth in check. As a result, Yang burns freely and can cause symptoms of heat—most notably in the form of night sweats. In addition, the heat from depleted Yin/excess of Yang occurs during the backdrop of night, which is the most cool, restorative, Yin time of day. Depleted Yin is also associated with a certain amount of dryness, and may also cause you to wake up with a dry and sore throat, have dry skin or hair, or feel thirsty.

While depleted Yin is the most frequent cause of night sweats in Chinese medicine, there are other patterns that may also cause them to occur. Blood depletion, which is a little like anemia in which the nourishing quality of your blood is low can also cause night sweats. Also, excess heat triggered by blockages can also be an underlying reason for sweating at night.

Many women experience night sweats and the resulting loss of sleep during menopause. That’s because many of the hormones that are decreasing during menopause are Yin in nature—they’re nourishing and moistening. The drop in these hormones are considered to be a drop in Yin substances, which causes the imbalance between Yin and Yang. Other factors that can cause depleted Yin include your diet, body constitution, stress, working too hard, or becoming run down.

For many people, Chinese medicine can be an effective way to treat night sweats. If you should choose to go that route, your practitioner will likely use acupuncture, but may also supplement your treatment with Chinese herbs. There are a number of formulas that contain specific herbs to nourish Yin, cool heat, and calm your spirit to ensure a better night’s sleep. Food therapy may also be a helpful strategy if you’re experiencing night sweats due to depleted Yin. Your practitioner can help you choose foods that are nourishing, moistening, and cooling in order to supplement Yin. The bottom line is that while night sweats can be uncomfortable and mess with your sleep, they can occur for a variety of reasons, and Chinese medicine can be an effective and natural way to get them under control.

Nine Ways to Prevent Joint Pain

If you’ve never experienced joint pain, consider yourself lucky. We all know someone who has knee problems, had a hip replaced, suffers from shoulder problems, or is hobbled by back pain. As you age, it may seem like joint pain is inevitable; but that may not be the case. In Chinese medicine, the health of your joints is explained by more than just blind luck.

According to Chinese theory, your joints are related to the internal organs of your Kidney and Liver. Your Chinese Kidney system regulates your overall body constitution; how you grow, how healthy you will be, and how well you’ll age. Your Kidney is also responsible for the health of your bones, which includes your joints. In fact, a cardinal sign of a depleted Kidney system is weakness and pain in your lower back or knees. In contrast, your Chinese Liver governs the flow of all the systems and energy in your body. Your Liver system is also associated with joints in that it’s associated with the health of your ligaments and tendons. A healthy Liver system translates into strong but flexible ligaments and tendons.

In addition, in Chinese medicine, when you have joint pain of any kind—whether from a traumatic injury, arthritis, or simple wear and tear—you have something called a Bi (pronounced Bee) syndrome. A Bi syndrome is basically a painful blockage in the joint in the form of poor circulation, swelling, and reduced range of motion.

While you can’t rebuild lost cartilage in your knees or undo arthritis in your back, there are some things you can do—or things to avoid—that can help you prevent some kinds of joint pain. Among them:

1) If you’re overweight by more than 20 pounds, know that the excess weight is putting a strain on your joints. The weight is unduly stressing your feet, knees, lower back, and may be altering your posture. I know it’s easy to say and hard to do, but losing excess weight may save you a world of pain in the long run.

2) Choose good footwear. High heels are a common cause of problems in the joints in your feet; most notably bunions and hammer toes. They also throw your spine out of alignment, which can be a source of back pain in the long run. Flip flops can also cause joint problems, in that most offer no arch support and are a common source of knee pain. Worn out shoes that no longer support your feet can mess up your posture, also raising your risk for joint problems.

3) Check your posture. In the past three decades, neck, upper back, and shoulder pain has become epidemic due to the amount of time many people spend hunched in front of their computer or looking down at their phone. Good posture means that when you’re standing up, your ears, shoulders, and hips stack up.

4) Also under the heading of posture, if you regularly carry a shoulder bag, even if it’s worn across your body, you’re putting your back out of alignment. A backpack or handheld bag is a better choice when it comes to aligning your body and saving your joints.

5) Sleeping on your stomach is a nightmare. When you sleep on your stomach, you’re twisting your spine and neck for hours on end, opening the door for arthritis, tight muscles, and joint pain in your neck and upper back. A better choice is to sleep on your back or side.

6) When it comes to healthy joints, the adage “use them or lose them” is accurate. Moving your body lubricates your joints and improves your range of motion.

7) However, know that overuse is a common cause for all kinds of joint pain. Whether it’s tennis elbow, runner’s knees, or a sore back from gardening, know when to call it quits. A good rule of thumb is to stop when something starts to hurt.

8) Stretch. You may think that stretching is only about your muscles, but it increases your flexibility overall, lubricates your joints, and helps you to maintain your range of motion.

9) Think about acupuncture and Chinese medicine. If you struggle with joint problems, your acupuncturist has a number of healing tools to help relieve the pain and strengthen your Chinese Liver and Kidney systems for healthier joints.

Joint pain isn’t necessarily a foregone conclusion. With some preventative care and the help of a good acupuncturist, you may be able to improve the health of your joints and avoid painful joint conditions.

Can Acupuncture Treat Fibromyalgia?

If you know anyone who suffers from fibromyalgia, they might tell you that some days their muscles are so sore that it feels like they have the flu. Or they might say that their muscle pain feels like they completely overdid it at the gym. When it comes to fibromyalgia however, muscle pain is just the tip of the iceberg. That’s because while the symptoms of fibromyalgia are muscle achiness and pain, that pain is almost always combined with other symptoms. The symptoms can vary widely and may include overwhelming fatigue, insomnia, muscle spasms, muscle knots, depression, memory issues, and poor concentration. Fibromyalgia is a chronic condition, but the symptoms may come and go, and change from day to day.

Diagnosis, Causes, and Treatment of Fibromyalgia

Fibromyalgia can be difficult to diagnose for a couple of reasons. First, there’s no visible illness and no lab test for it. Second, because overpowering fatigue is a common symptom, it’s frequently confused with Chronic Fatigue Syndrome. Third, Fibromyalgia is a syndrome, which means that it can manifest with a wide variety of symptoms, although not every patient will have every symptom. While pain and fatigue are common, people with Fibromyalgia may also experience seemingly unrelated symptoms, such as numbness and tingling of their extremities, headaches, digestive symptoms, sensory hypersensitivity, heart palpitations, and mood swings.

Fibromyalgia isn’t considered to be an inflammatory condition, nor is it rheumatic. While the symptoms fluctuate from day to day, it doesn’t tend to get worse over time or cause physical degeneration. While diagnosing Fibromyalgia can be complicated, it’s primarily based on pain and/or tenderness at specific points on the body.

Doctors are unsure of what causes Fibromyalgia, but it’s thought that it may be related to how your spinal cord transmits pain to the brain. In patients with Fibromyalgia, the pain intensity is turned way up. Researchers also know that Fibromyalgia often runs in families, is more common in people with other health conditions, and occurs more frequently in patients who don’t exercise. Furthermore, it seems like there’s an emotional link for Fibromyalgia, with a higher incidence in people with a history of childhood abuse and in people struggling with emotional issues, such as anxiety, depression, and post-traumatic stress syndrome.

Treating Fibromyalgia in Western medicine includes NSAIDs for the pain, anti-depressant medications, and sleep aids to help with insomnia. Your doctor might also suggest physical therapy, massage therapy, heat, and physical activity.

Treating Fibromyalgia with Chinese Medicine

Chinese Medicine also has much to offer patients with Fibromyalgia. A recent review of several research studies on the effectiveness of treating Fibromyalgia with acupuncture concluded that acupuncture treatments are helpful in relieving pain and stiffness, can improve sleep, and increase patients’ overall well-being. They found that electric acupuncture, which is the gentle simulation of the needles with an electric current, is more effective than regular acupuncture.

While there are several different diagnoses for Fibromyalgia in Chinese medicine, one of the most common is something called a Liver and Spleen disharmony. In simplest terms, this means that stress and strong emotions are disrupting the overall balance in your body, especially your ability to produce the energy necessary to function normally. It also means that the flow of blood, nutrients, and energy throughout your body is disrupted, which is felt in the presence of pain and tightness in your muscles. A Liver and Spleen pattern is often just the starting point for a cascade of various other patterns and symptoms, which explains why Fibromyalgia is experienced very differently by every patient.

Acupuncture can be an effective treatment for Fibromyalgia sufferers, because it works at a number of different levels. First, acupuncture ramps up the pain modulation systems in your body and affects the neurotransmitters in your brain to help control your pain. Acupuncture also increases the circulation of endorphins, also a neurotransmitter, that’s responsible for feelings of relaxation and well-being, as well as reducing feelings of depression. In addition, Acupuncture increases circulation throughout your entire body, which is helpful for the muscle pain and stiffness related to Fibromyalgia.

If you seek out acupuncture for the treatment of your Fibromyalgia, one strategy might be to focus on relieving your insomnia first. The belief is that if you’re sleeping well, you’re more likely to feel less pain and more energy. Beyond concentrating on insomnia, a sound treatment plan is to treat your current symptoms as they arise, using a variety of healing tools. Along with acupuncture or electric acupuncture, your practitioner mayprescribe an herbal formula, make dietary suggestions, apply heat therapy, and perform a kind of hands on therapy called Tui Na.

Acupuncture, Cold Weather, and Your Health

It’s winter in Minnesota, and let’s face it, the sub-zero temperatures are getting old. We’ve had enough of wearing layers, trying to heal cracked fingertips, wearing earmuffs, and hunkering down.

Don’t get me wrong—I love winter. I can appreciate the beauty of the first snowfall, tramping through the winter woods on snowshoes, and actually needing hot chocolate to warm up. It’s just that it’s so…cold. In the southern climes, you don’t have words in your vocabulary like wind chill, subzero, black ice, and polar vortex, so you can’t quite relate.

In Chinese medicine, cold has an additional meaning, as it’s considered to be a pathogen—a way to describe an illness or a pattern of disharmony. You can be cold, damp, hot, or windy—any of which are a bit like bad weather in your body. However, cold is a pathogen that doesn’t get much airtime.

There are a number of different ways cold can show up in your body. You can have external cold, which is the stuff of colds and flu. It begins with a light fever (or none at all) and lots of chills, aches and pains, and upper respiratory symptoms. It’s considered to be an external problem, because in most cases your body shrugs it off fairly quickly. Treating external cold in Chinese medicine involves acupuncture and herbs that relieve your symptoms, strengthen your immunity, and help you fight off the virus or bacteria at hand.

Internal cold is a different story. Your body has something akin to an internal pilot light, which we practitioners call Yang. It keeps your body warm, fuels digestive fire, and keeps your metabolism running smoothly. When you have an imbalance described as Yang depletion, you’re likely to feel cold to your core that no amount of warm clothing can change. You may retain water, have problems with your digestion, struggle with an underactive thyroid, and feel sluggish or tired most of the time.

There are a number of reasons why your Yang pilot light can become diminished. Becoming run down, burning the candle at both ends, stress, eating foods that make your body cold, and even stress can play a role in chronic Yang-depleted cold.

Treating a pattern of internal cold is a significant undertaking and takes more time than dealing with an external pattern of the flu or an upper respiratory infection. If your Yang has become depleted, treatment would likely involve a combination of acupuncture, warming herbs, food therapy, and even warming your body from the outside. It takes longer to treat, because in most cases your pattern of internal cold was a long time in the making

A third kind of cold pathogen in Chinese medicine is called a cold strike. This is when cold affects your body directly in the form of muscle pain, muscle cramps, joint pain, or even a hernia. I experienced a cold strike several years ago when I was on a kayaking trip. Sitting in a wet kayak for hours on end caused a muscle in my butt to seize up to the point that I couldn’t walk. It took several weeks of acupuncture and physical therapy to recover.

Cold strike usually comes from being out in the cold, and often manifests as a spastic muscle or a very cold and achy joint. Think about it: cold causes everything to contract, including your muscles and joints. Treatment for cold strike is pretty straight-forward and involves a combination of acupuncture and heat.

In Chinese medicine, we practitioners are big fans of keeping warm. If you run cold, there are a number of things you can do at home to help stoke your internal pilot light. Among them:

-Warm your core from the outside. You can do this by using a heating pad, hot water bottle, or heated rice bag applied to the small of your back or your abdomen right below your navel. Do this for 15 or 20 minutes several times a day until your body begins to feel warmer.

-Add some warming herbs to your meals. Ginger, garlic, mustard, cayenne, pepper, and cinnamon are easy to add to your diet and are very warming in nature.

-If you have muscle or joint pain that is worse with the cold weather, applying heat can help relieve the pain and loosen it up.

-Dress appropriately when you’re spending time outdoors in the cold (and the wind). Cover your head and ears, and wear a jacket that is long enough to cover your lower back and butt.

-And finally, if you are constantly cold to your core, struggle with pain that’s worse in the cold, or seem to catch every cold or flu that’s going around, enlist the help of a practitioner of Chinese medicine. They have a number of tools that can help warm you up and strengthen your immunity.

The Low Down on Headaches

One of the most common questions I get about acupuncture is what it can treat, and one of the most common conditions I am asked about is headaches. Before answering, I need to find out what’s going on, because it’s important to know what kind of a headaches they’re having. There are several kinds to choose from, and it makes a difference in their treatment. Here is a brief rundown on the different kinds of headaches that you may experience:

-Tension headaches are just what they sound like. They’re caused by stress and worry that tend to tighten up your shoulder and neck muscles, which inhibits circulation in the blood vessels in your head. Tension headaches can be chronic, the pain tends to be dull and achy, and may affect your entire head.

-Cluster headaches can be nasty. The pain often occurs near your eye and is usually one-sided. You may have nasal congestion, tearing, flushing, sweating, and a red face with this kind of headache. The pain associated with a cluster headache is severe, often described as burning or stabbing. This kind of headache can be short-lived, but sadly, you can have more than one of these beasts in a day. Cluster headaches are more common during the seasonal changes of spring and fall, and tend to be more common in men than women.

-Migraines are the king of headaches. The pain is severe, throbbing, can last for several days, and can cause sufferers to end up in the emergency room begging for relief. Migraines frequently are one-sided, and sufferers can frequently pinpoint the exact spot where their headaches begin. Migraines tend to occur in stages, beginning with feeling out of sorts or irritable, followed by vision or other sensory stages (aura), then the actual headache, and ending with the feeling of a shadow headache, or feeling completely depleted. Many migraine sufferers can identify triggers that set off their headaches, such as scents, foods, dehydration, low blood sugar, stress, and even the resolution of stress. Interestingly a large percentage of people report suffering from migraines on the weekends—a time when the stress of the week has lifted. Sometimes a combination of factors may set off your migraine, which makes it more difficult to pinpoint the exact trigger.

-Sinus or allergy headaches are caused by the buildup of pressure in your sinuses. The can be caused by a sinus infection, chronic sinusitis, allergies, or a structural problem that makes it difficult for your sinuses to drain. The pain from this kind of headache is felt in your face—your forehead, behind your cheeks, or even in your teeth—depending on which sinuses are affected. Sinus headaches can be acute or chronic, depending on the underlying cause.

-Hormonal headaches are caused by fluctuations in your hormones, and may occur with your menstrual cycle, during perimenopause, menopause, and during pregnancy. Interestingly, for some women, the hormonal changes associated with becoming pregnant relieves their headaches. The pain with a hormone-related headache can be intense, and for some women the fluctuation in hormones can trigger a migraine. For most women who suffer from hormonal headaches, their symptoms are relieved after menopause.

-A Caffeine headache occurs when you drink a lot of coffee and decide to quit cold turkey. The ensuing headache you experience is known as a caffeine headache, and is fairly common. This occurs because caffeine affects the constriction and dilation of your blood vessels, and the sudden change of quitting coffee can trigger a headache. In addition, it’s possible to get a caffeine headache simply from drinking too much coffee in general.

-An Exertional headache is a headache occurs after you’ve had a hard workout, and is caused by an increase of blood flowing to your head. The pain from this kind of headache can become very intense very quickly, and may be related to migraines. While an exertional headache is generally benign, if you experience them, you should get checked out by your doctor.

-Hypertensive headaches are headaches caused by high blood pressure. They occur because the force of the blood flowing in your arteries is elevated. Needless to say, if you suffer from blood pressure that is high enough to give you a headache, you should be working with your health provider get it under control.

-A Post-traumatic headache is one that occurs after a head injury or concussion. The pain of this kind of headache can vary, but may feel like a tension headache or a full-blown migraine. These headaches may last on and off for six to twelve months after the initial injury, and should slowly abate during the healing process.

-Rebound headaches may occur when you quit a medication that you have been using to control your headaches. Any headache medication that you take more than a couple of days a week is a candidate for giving you a rebound headache when you quit taking it. It’s frustrating to have your headaches return as the result of your medication, but the headaches should stop after a few days off the medication. It’s important to note that if you’re taking a pain medication for another reason, such as arthritis, stopping it won’t give you a rebound headache unless you suffer from headaches in the first place.

So what does acupuncture and Chinese medicine have to offer if you suffer from any of these types of headaches? Your practitioner can create an effective treatment strategy in many cases, based on the underlying cause of your headaches. They will ask you whether your headaches are episodic or chronic, where the pain is occurring, the nature of the pain, other symptoms associated with your headaches, and about your overall health. From that information they can make an accurate diagnosis and develop a treatment plan that will likely include acupuncture, Chinese herbs, lifestyle changes, stress relief, and diet modifications. In many cases, treatment with Chinese medicine can greatly reduce the incidence and severity of your headaches. Your noggin will thank you!

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