6 things the body must do well to be healthy...

Are you optimizing these 6 biological systems?

1. Respiration: Breath is so important and many of us do not do it well. We have allergies, sleep apnea, chest breathe, asthma, etc.

2. Alimentation: Since the modern food industrial revolution we have not been eating well. What is a better way of eating?

3. Elimination: Are you going #1 & #2 daily? If not, why? It is so important to eliminate well so that we can continue to thrive.

4. Activity: Are you not active or too active? What is right for you?

5. Sleep/Rest: Are you sleeping about 8 hours a day? Are you rested after sleep? Are you a night owl or morning lark? Do you sleep 8 hours in a row or are you a biphasic sleeper? Everyone must rest and rest well to be optimally healthy!

6. Procreation/Sex: Every biological system has the need to procreate. It is how we continue our species and to pass down our knowledge and traditions. Are you doing it healthfully?

The next few blogs will address these topics and what the view is from a Chinese medicine and modern science. You will be surprised as to how similar they are!

HOW DOES ACUPUNCTURE RELIEVE BACK PAIN?

First Acupuncture relieves muscular spasms.  Many people experience pain due to some sort of physical trauma causing muscle spasms. When a person has a trauma the body first becomes stressed to address the immediate pain and trauma.  It “splints” or protects itself by triggering stress and inflammatory responses. This is a normal protective response.  The problem comes when the response becomes chronic or uncontrolled.  When this happens you have more constant or chronic pain.  This is when acupuncture can do so much to help to release the spasms and help relieve the inflammation.  When there is trauma acupuncture has the ability to help the body heal faster by enhancing the body’s parasympathetic response, it’s own healing mechanisms.

Another way that Acupuncture helps is by looking at the body with the yin/yang perspective.  What this means when it comes to pain is that perhaps the pain is a result of something that is triggered somewhere else.  In modern terminology, this is the understanding of how agonist/antagonist muscle groups works.  For example, to treat low back pain one must treat the front hip flexors that are on the front of the body.  Acupuncture and Oriental medicine is considered a whole-systems medicine, where one part cannot be separated from the other parts, and when one system is out of balance the whole system is effected. 

These are two simple examples of how Acupuncture can help back pain

DOES ACUPUNCTURE HURT?

The answer is “yes”, but minimally.  The reality is that there is a needle being inserted into the body.  The nerve endings fire to let you know there is something there.  In fact, not feeling pain is dangerous.  Pain is subjective and depends on what is going on with the person.  Some people experience very little or no pain. Some people feel it more.  If you are stressed or very emotional you may experience pain more in general. 

Most people are afraid of acupuncture because they think a needle is entering their body. Modern experience with needles, in the West, is a thought of a hypodermic needle that is used at the doctor’s office or hospital.  Acupuncture needles are completely different and much thinner. In fact, you can fit many acupuncture needles in a hypodermic needle.  Acupuncture needles are solid filaments that are spun to a fine point, so as they enter the skin they part tissue.  A hypodermic needle is a hollow tube that is sliced to have a sharp edge to cut through a vessel, skin or muscle to inject a fluid into the body.