Stress, Acupuncture and Well Being

by Toby Helmstetter, LAc

I’ve been treating a lot more people for stress lately. Not that it’s any great surprise these days. But it inspired me to write about it, because it made me think that the problems of the world are affecting us more deeply than we let on. And, since stress can have such negative repercussions on our whole body, I thought it would be a good, universal topic for our community. As an acupuncturist, I am familiar with what stress can do to a person. I would say that many of us don’t sleep well, we worry often, we don’t exercise as much as we would like and I have yet to meet a patient who is completely satisfied with what they eat every day. It’s a chicken-and-the-egg issue. Do we live this way because we are stressed? Or do we feel stressed because we can’t seem to summon the quality of self care that we need?

Stress and its impact on the body can be insidious, but acupuncture treatments get at both the root causes of stress and the negative effects it has on the body. It does this in two ways. One is simply the nature of acupuncture; treatments are very relaxing and have a balancing affect on the nervous system. Most people leave our clinic feeling calm, centered and at ease after their treatments. The other is that acupuncture can treat the physical and physiological changes that occur in the body as a result of a stress-filled life. For instance, I recently treated a woman who went through a very intense period of sudden and uncomfortable physical symptoms. Her blood pressure, which had been normal for years, had suddenly spiked and she had an increase in her peri-menopausal symptoms of hot flashes and insomnia. She was having palpitations and found that the diet and exercise plan she had been on for the past 6 months was suddenly flying out the window. When asked about it, all she said was that she was “totally stressed out lately” or that “life has just been stressful.” Obviously, the physical ramifications of this stressful period were grave. Over the course of several acupuncture treatments, we managed to help her symptoms dramatically and her stress level was considerably less just after two treatments. But what was interesting was that, underneath what we were calling “stress,” was a whole storm of emotions. She was worried about her health, fearful of the state of the world, concerned for her husband and children, uninspired and underappreciated in her work. Connecting her feelings with the physical symptoms she was experiencing, and then treating them with acupuncture, enabled her to feel healthier. Once she was feeling better, she was able to find constructive ways to work with the issues that were causing her to feel stressed and physically uncomfortable in the first place.

This article is in part a treatise on the benefits of acupuncture, how acupuncture can be of great benefit when the world around us is challenging and uncomfortable to the point of making us sick. But I also hope this article will inspire its readers to continue to take care of themselves when they are feeling stressed. When our lives at home or at work become difficult, we are quick to stop caring for ourselves in the interest of the greater good. But what I’m suggesting, and what I see in my acupuncture practice, is that neglecting yourself doesn’t do anybody any good. When we are healthy and strong and well cared for to the best of our ability, we are better able to deal with the challenges that life hands us. And it is in times like these where we must remember to care for ourselves, so that we have a well from which to give, so that we can continue to care for everything and everyone that we love.