acupuncturist Archives - Acupuncture in the Park

Why Your Acupuncturist Feels Your Pulse

If you’ve ever been to an acupuncture clinic, chances are your acupuncturist felt the pulse on your wrist as part of their exam. In Western medicine, your doctor or nurse feels your pulse to determine it’s rate. However, in Chinese medicine, pulse diagnosis is far more complicated.

In Chinese medicine, the quality of your pulse can offer your acupuncturist a great deal of information about the strength of your energy. Taking your pulse is complicated because there are almost thirty different kinds of pulses–many of which are really hard to distinguish from one another. In addition, different positions on your wrist, and the difference between left and right indicate the status of specific organs in Chinese medicine.

Despite being really, really complicated, here are a few simple guidelines that can offer some insight as to what your practitioner is looking for when taking your pulse. Among them:

Rate. As mentioned above, when you go to your doctor’s office, they take your pulse to measure the beats per minute, or pulse rate. This is also the case in Chinese medicine, but your pulse rate is usually measured in relation to your rate of breathing. In general, a normal pulse rate is four to five beats per breath (inhalation and exhalation). A pulse that’s markedly faster usually indicates some kind of heat in your body. A pulse that’s slower indicates a cold condition, or an abundance of a cold pathogen, like dampness or phlegm.

Depth. Have you ever tried to feel someone’s pulse and had a hard time finding it? Chances are you were struggling because that person had a deep pulse. The level at which your pulse is felt offers some important clues as to the location and nature of your imbalance and symptoms. A pulse that is felt deeply–meaning that you have to apply pressure to feel it–indicates that the cause of your symptoms are deep in your body, and your organs are probably affected.

When your pulse is easily felt without using much pressure, and it disappears when more pressure is applied, then your pulse is considered to be floating, or right on the surface. This means that any pattern affecting you is very exterior in nature–such as a cold or the flu. The next time someone you know gets the flu, ask to feel his or her pulse; it will likely be floating.

Force. The nature of your energy, or Qi, can be determined by the force of your pulse. A pulse that feels weak or forceless is a common indicator of a Qi or Blood depletion. A soggy pulse is one which is felt easily but feels spread out and soft. It may also indicate a Qi or Blood depletion, or, in many cases, dampness (poor water metabolism). An extremely thin or fine pulse also points to a depletion.

In contrast, a full, lively pulse that’s felt easily indicates a healthy abundance of energy. It’s possible, however, to have too much of a good thing. A pulse that feels wiry or extremely tight, like a guitar string, is common in someone who’s experiencing severe pain or someone who is under a lot of stress or has had an emotional upset.

Greater Than the Sum of Its Parts. With a pulse diagnosis, it’s the combination of factors that reveals the most information. An acupuncturist will take into account the rate, depth, quality, and differences among the various positions in reaching any conclusions from your pulse. Chinese pulse diagnosis is a subtle art; it takes years of experience for a practitioner to become proficient. While there are infinite pulse variations, which can make interpreting the nuances of your pulse very difficult, pulse diagnosis is an important component of an accurate diagnosis.

How Many Acupuncture Treatments Will I Need?

You’re ready to give acupuncture a try and want to find out a little more about what’s involved. One of the most frequent questions first-timers ask is how many treatments it will take to get better.

This is a good question. It’s a fair question, and you deserve an answer. Unfortunately any practitioner who gives you a definitive answer in terms of an actual number of treatments is not being entirely truthful; they’re guessing. For the truth is that there is no correct answer—everyone heals at their own pace.

In addition, a good practitioner should never tell you on the phone how many treatments they even think it will take for you to feel better. We don’t have a problem with an acupuncturist estimating, or even recommending a number of sessions as a course of treatment, but they have no business doing so until they’ve at least seen you in their office.

The issue here is that there are a number of variables in the healing equation, including the following:

-How long you’ve had the condition. If your elbow has been bothering you for twenty years, you most likely will take longer than the person who tweaked their elbow last week.

-The nature of your complaint or illness. Many conditions are quickly resolved with Chinese medicine, including stress, anxiety, digestive issues, PMS, and many types of pain. On the other hand, deep-seated chronic illnesses, such as autoimmune conditions may take much longer.

-Your general health. We have seen many young and healthy patients seemingly heal right before our eyes in a single treatment. However, older patients, those in really poor health, and those on numerous medications tend to need more treatments.

-Your commitment to getting better. What you do at home in between treatments can make a huge difference in how quickly you heal. If you implement your practitioner’s suggestions regarding dietary therapy, heating/cooling an injury, herbal formulas, and lifestyle changes, you can speed up your recovery dramatically.

So what do we tell prospective patients when they ask how many treatments they will need? Our best answer is that acupuncture is a therapy and while some people may heal very quickly—in a session or two, others will take longer. We advise them to give acupuncture a fair try, say three or four treatments, to see how they’re improving. At that point, we will have a better idea of how many treatments they will ultimately need to heal completely.

Acupuncture for Dizziness

If you have ever suffered from dizziness, you know how profoundly it can affect your life. Whether from Meniere’s disease, auditory nerve damage, high or low blood pressure, or an inner ear infection, severe dizziness can leave you pinned to one spot due to a fear of falling or aggravating your symptoms.

While a number of health condition may cause you to be dizzy, not all dizziness is the same. The severity of symptoms can run the whole gamut from disabling to mildly annoying. People who suffer from vestibular (inner ear) problems may describe their dizziness as the sensation of the whole room spinning, or vertigo, accompanied by severe balance problems. However, someone who has low blood pressure may feel temporarily light headed when they stand up. To make things worse, dizziness may be accompanied by nausea, vomiting, sweating, and even fainting.

According to the principles of Chinese medicine, dizziness is usually classified as some kind of wind. Wind is a tricky pathogen, in that it tends to move around (making you dizzy). It usually affects the upper part of your body, much like the wind outdside, and its effects are intermittant, just like strong gusts on a windy day. In Chinese medicine, wind is frequently the diagnosis not only in cases of dizziness, but also with tremors, some headaches, numbness, high or low blood pressure, and even itchy skin conditions.

The root cause of wind is almost always a deficiency of some vital substance in your body, such as Qi, Blood, or Yin. For example, anemia is considered a Blood deficiency in Chinese medicine and is a common cause of mild dizziness or light-headedness. Another example is a depletion of your body’s moistening and nourishing Yin, which can cause dizziness. In this case, your body is like a farmer’s field that has dried out to the point where the smallest breeze will make the dust rise.

Whatever the root cause or depletion, Chinese medicine has a lot to offer to effectively treat dizziness. The best known treatment is acupuncture, which involves the insertion of tiny needles into your body to stimulate healing. Also effective for dizziness is scalp acupuncture, Like it sounds, scalp acupuncture entails needling acupuncture points on your scalp to affect brain function, and can be used for neurological conditions. In many cases, Chinese herbal medicine—the use of a specific formula for a specific condition—can be effective, too.

Some dietary and lifestyle changes that you may try to help your dizziness include:

-Skip the cocktails. Alcohol is a neurotoxin, is dehydrating, and can aggravate your symptoms.

-Avoid hot, spicy foods, as the heat can actually make your dizziness worse.

-Avoid caffeine for the same reason.

– While you’re avoiding alcoholic drinks, be sure to drink enough water, especially in hot and dry climates or in dry indoor heating.

-Try mild physical activity to relieve your symptoms.

-When you’re dizzy, focus on a single fixed point. This gives your brain more visual information to calm the dizziness and help you keep your balance.

-Get up slowly. This is helpful for those of you with low blood pressure, as well as those who suffer from inner ear problems. By rising slowly, you give your body and brain time to catch up with the change of position

-Review your medications. Dizziness or light headedness can be a side effect of a wide variety of drugs. Talk with your doctor or pharmacist to see if any of the meds you’re taking could be causing your dizziness.

-In all cases, see your doctor if your dizziness is accompanied by chest pain, rapid heart beat, numbness, or blurred vision.

Your Emotions, Digestion, and Acupuncture

Have you ever heard people talk about having butterflies in their stomach, a gut feeling, a nervous stomach, or a visceral reaction? Of course you have. We use these terms because we intuitively know that our emotions are very closely tied to our digestion.

One of the most common conditions that we see in the clinic is something called a Liver and Spleen disharmony. This just means that strong emotions are interfering with the digestive process. If you’ve ever had a huge emotional upset that has ruined your appetite or given you an upset stomach, you know what I’m talking about. A Liver and Spleen disharmony is similar, but it usually works in slow motion.

Your Chinese Liver is an organ system that oversees the smooth flow of everything in your body, including digestion, bowels, circulation, menses, and emotions. Stress, anger, or an emotional upheaval can cause the Liver system to stagnate. When this happens, one of the first things it affects is your Chinese Spleen, which is your organ of digestion.

In the clinic this pattern is a player in many, if not most, conditions affecting our patients. It can manifest in conditions such as Irritable bowel syndrome, colitis, depression, insomnia, PMS, fatigue, and even obesity, to name just a few.

So what exactly is happening when you are stressed out, upset or worried? Your stomach is a muscle, and when you’re in the emotional wringer, that stomach muscle contracts, making it difficult for you to digest much of anything.

Why you have this reaction goes back to the fight or flight response you experience when you’re stressed or feel threatened. Your body responds by shutting down those functions that aren’t necessary to run or fight, including digestion. The idea is that in ancient times, feeling threatened was a short-lived affair—only as long as it took to chase off or kill the wild animal lingering in front of your cave.

Today, however, many of us are in a constant state of fight or flight due to the unrelenting stress of our daily lives—whether it’s a cranky boss, a sick kid, a late mortgage payment, or having too much to do. Constant emotional upheaval doesn’t give your body time to recover its equilibrium, and your digestion stays on the back burner, unable to do its job effectively.

What can you do to get your digestion back on track and working efficiently? The most important thing to know is that it’s a two-step process: getting your stress and emotions under control, while you pamper your digestive tract. Acupuncture can be extremely effective for this kind of imbalance. In fact, many of our patients who have recovered from this kind of pattern never dreamt that they could ever feel good again. Two things you can do for yourself:

-Calm down and chill out. This may seem to be the most obvious, but is often the hardest thing to do. Find time during your day to relax; whether you take a yoga class, meditate, go fishing, or take a stroll in the woods. Without decompressing, your emotions and digestion will not have an opportunity to recover.

-Pamper your digestion. This means sitting down and actually eating a meal—not something on the run in between meetings or kids’ sporting events. This also means eating good food, fresh vegetables and fruits, whole grains and a little protein. Cooking most of your food makes it easier to digest—raw foods take more digestive effort to break down. The same goes for very cold foods; when you drink or eat something frozen, it uses up a lot of your digestive energy. Chewing your food and enjoying the dining process will help you digest your meal more effectively.

Is Stress Causing Your Weight Gain?

There was an article in my local paper last week about the relationship between stress and weight gain. The gist of the article was that during the current economic crisis many people who are stressed about their financial situation turn to food as a way to cope.

Medical experts know that stress and other strong negative emotions have an impact on your body’s hormonal balance, specifically the balance of adrenaline, cortisol, and insulin. In addition, it’s known that hormonal changes caused by stress can be responsible for weight gain around your middle, and can increase your risk for certain cardiovascular health problems. Your doctor may describe this phenomenon as the difference between being pear shaped (good) versus apple shaped (not so good).

In Chinese medicine, this same phenomenon would be described as a Liver/Spleen disharmony, or a case of your emotions upsetting your digestion. Your Chinese Liver is the organ system that regulates the smooth movement of everything in your body, including your emotions, circulation, menstrual cycles, and digestion. The function of the Spleen system is to efficiently turn food into nutrients, energy, and blood—in other words, all aspects of digestion. You know your Spleen isn’t up to par when you have signs or symptoms related to your digestion, including food cravings or a loss of appetite, constipation or loose stools, stomachaches, nausea, and weight gain. You might think that if you’re gaining weight your digestion is just fine, thank you very much, but in reality, weight gain is a signal that your digestion is impaired in some way.

How can acupuncture or Chinese medicine help? There are a couple of answers. First, acupuncture is an excellent way to soothe your emotions. It can effectively help people who are feeling stressed, anxious or depressed. It seems odd that the insertion of a couple of needles can affect your emotions or mood, but research has in fact documented that acupuncture alters brain chemistry in a good way.

Secondly, using a combination of acupuncture, herbs, and food therapy, a practitioner of Chinese medicine can help you get your weight under control. Not only can it help you with food cravings, but Chinese medicine is an incredibly effective treatment for digestive problems.

If stress is impacting your health or causing weight gain, think about acupuncture. It’s safe, effective, and organic.

Quit Smoking with Acupuncture

A few years ago, I was walking with a friend around one of the city lakes that has made Minneapolis famous. My friend was from out of town and during our walk, he lit up a cigarette. We kept walking and talking, but very shortly after lighting up, my friend put out his cigarette because he was getting dirty looks and comments about the smoke from some of the people we were passing.

While I was sorry that my friend was uncomfortable, I was also glad in a way. I was glad that I live in a city where smoking is becoming unacceptable. I was also glad because shortly after my friend went home, he quit smoking. This was no easy task; he had been smoking for over thirty years, but he did it, and is still smoke-free today.

As an acupuncturist, I have helped a number of people successfully quit smoking. I have found that those who have been successful have a few things in common, which I believe contributed to their success.

-Every person that I have helped quit smoking was ready and really committed to quitting.

-They realized that there is no magic bullet. While acupuncture helps with the frequency and intensity of cravings, they realized that quitting was up to them.

-They generally cut down from smoking a pack or even two a day, to a few necessary cigarettes each day. Necessary cigarettes are those that are smoked out of habit, such as with your first cup of coffee, or on the drive home from work. Generally, before they quit, they were down to five or six cigarettes a day.

-They had a definite quit date. This gave them a psychological edge in preparing to quit.

-They used acupuncture most frequently in the first week or two after they quit smoking. After the first few weeks, they used acupuncture infrequently, and only as needed.

-Each person I have worked with has commented that getting tobacco out of their life was actually easier than they thought it would be. Few gained weight, and most felt better during the process than they ever thought possible.

If you are a smoker, quitting is the single most important thing you can do to improve your health. Acupuncture can help—make a committment to quit today!

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