Acupuncture

If you feel your health condition may benefit from Acupuncture or you would like a Consultation with Dr. Neal Wieder to see if Acupuncture may help you call Holistic Wellness Now at 407.330.0240.

The following is detailed information about Acupuncture to help you make an educated choice when choosing Holistic Wellness for your health needs.

What is acupuncture?

Acupuncture literally means 'needle piercing," the practice of inserting very fine needles into the skin to stimulate specific anatomic points in the body (called acupoints) for therapeutic purposes. Along with the usual method of puncturing the skin with the fine needles, the practitioners also use heat, pressure, friction, suction, or impulses of electromagnetic energy to stimulate the points. The acupoints are stimulated to balance the movement of energy (qi) in the body to restore health.
Acupuncture involves stimulating. In the past 40 years acupuncture has become a well-known, reasonably available treatment in developed and developing countries. Acupuncture is used to regulate or correct the flow of qi to restore health.

Yin and Yang

The idea of harmony and balance are also the basis of yin and yang. The principle that each person is governed by the opposing, but complementary forces of yin and yang, is central to all Chinese thought. It is believed to affect everything in the universe, including ourselves.

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Yin-Yang Symbol (Tai Chi symbol)

Traditionally, yin is dark, passive, feminine, cold and negative; yang is light, active, male, warm and positive. Another simpler way of looking at yin and yang is that there are two sides to everything— happy and sad, tired and energetic, cold and hot. Yin and yang are the opposites that make the whole. They cannot exist without each other and nothing is ever completely one or the other. There are varying degrees of each within everything and everybody. The tai chi symbol, shown above, illustrates how they flow into each other with a little yin always within yang and a little yang always within yin. In the world, sun and fire are yang, while earth and water are yin. Life is possible only because of the interplay between these forces. All of these forces are required for the life to exist. See the table below to understand the relationship between yin and yang.

The yin and yang is like a candle. Yin represents the wax in the candle. The flame represents the yang. Yin (wax) nourishes and supports the yang (flame). Flame needs the wax for its existence. Yang consumes yin and, in the process, burns brightly. When the wax (yin) is gone, the flame is gone too. Ying is also gone at that time. So, one can see how yin and yang depend on each other for their existence. You cannot have one without the other.

The body, mind and emotions are all subject to the influences of yin and yang. When the two opposing forces are in balance we feel good, but if one force dominates the other, it brings about an imbalance that can result in ill health.
One can compare the concept of yin and yang to the corresponding principle of tridoshas in Ayurveda, the ancient remedy from India. Ayurveda proposes that every person has vata, pitta and kapha. When these are balanced, there is the state of perfect health. When there are imbalances then there is disease.

One of the main aims of the acupuncturist is to maintain a balance of yin and yang within the whole person to prevent illness occurring and to restore existing health. Acupuncture is a yang therapy because it moves from the exterior to the interior. Herbal and nutritional therapies, on the other hand, are yin therapies, as they move from the interior throughout the body. Many of the major organs of the body are classified as yin-yang pairs that exchange healthy and unhealthy influences.
Yin and yang are also part of the eight principles of traditional Chinese medicine. The other six are: cold and heat, internal and external, deficiency and excess. These principles allow the practitioner to use yin and yang more precisely in order to bring more detail into his diagnosis.

Healing Applications of Acupuncture

Acupuncture is best known for the control of pain. However, acupuncture can treat a wide variety of common and uncommon disorders. The following is a list of disorders that can be treated by acupuncture (World Health Organization data):

Respiratory

• Acute Sinusitis
• Acute rhinitis
• Common cold
• Acute tonsillitis
• Acute bronchitis
• Bronchial asthma

Eye

• Acute conjunctivitis (pinkeye)
• Nearsightedness (in children)
• Cataract (without complications)

Mouth

• Toothache, post extraction pain
• Gingivitis (gum disease)
• Acute and chronic pharyngitis

Gastrointestinal Disorders

• Hiccups
• Gastritis
• Gastric Hyperacidity
• Ulcers
• Colitis
• Constipation
• Diarrhea
• Paralytic ileus

Neurological and Musculoskeletal Disorders

• Headache and migraine
• Trigeminal neuralgia
• Paralysis following stroke
• Meniere's disease
• Neurogenic bladder dysfunction
• Nocturnal enuresis (bed wetting)
• Intercostal neuralgia (pain in the ribs)
• Cervicobrachial syndrome (pain radiating from neck to arm)
• Frozen shoulder or Tennis elbow
• Sciatica
• Low back pain
• Osteoarthritis

In the United States, acupuncture is used frequently for the treatment of chronic pain conditions such as arthritis, bursitis, headache, athletic injuries, and posttraumatic and post surgical pain. It is also used for treating chronic pain associated with immune function dysfunction such as psoriasis (skin disorders), allergies, and asthma. Acupuncture is also found to be effective for the treatment of mind-body disorders such as anxiety, chronic fatigue, irritable bowel syndrome, hypertension, insomnia, PMS, menopausal symptoms, and depression. Some modern application of acupuncture is in the treatment of disorders such as alcoholism, addiction, smoking, and eating disorders.

How Does Acupuncture Work?

Historically, acupuncture points were believed to be holes that allow entry into channels. These holes provide us gateways to influence, redirect, increase, or decrease body's vital substance, qi, thus correcting many of the imbalances. Many studies and research were directed since to understand the mechanism of acupuncture.

Effects of Acupuncture

Acupuncture has been shown to stimulate the immune system. It also has affects the circulation, blood pressure, rhythm and stroke volume of the heart, secretion of the gastric acid, and production of red and white cells. It also stimulates the release of a variety of hormones that help body to respond to injury and stress.

The Gate Control Theory of Pain

According to this theory, pain signals must pass through a number of high-traffic "gates" as they move from the area of injury upward through the spinal cord into the brain. Like a road or highway, these nerves can handle only a limited number of nerve signals at one time. The pain signals travels very slowly. We can generate other signals which move faster. The faster signals crowd out the slower ones because of the limited capacity of the nerves. (Remember the time sitting in traffic near a construction zone, where the two lanes merge into one. The fast cars on the merging lanes go further and merge ahead of the slower ones, making it nearly impossible for the slow traffic on the lane to move forward. Now think about the pain signals are the slow ones sitting there waiting for an opening to move through. If one can produce enough fast signals, it can effectively crowd out the pain signals.) Acupuncture generates competing stimulus and effectively blocks the slow pain signals from reaching the brain. The result: we never "experience the pain".

Electrical Theory

The body continually generates tiny but detectable electrical discharges. This electrical field influences the growth, maturation, and functioning of some types of cells. It is known that acupuncture points are concentrated in regions of low electrical resistance. Studies have shown that there is a correlation between the electromagnetic fields in the body and the channels or meridians. So, this electrical theory of acupuncture suggests that acupuncture works by influencing the body's electromagnetic fields. Acupuncture points have certain electrical properties, and stimulating these points alters chemical neurotransmitters in the body.

For an appointment for Acupuncture at the Holistic Wellness Now, PA call 407.330.0240.