WHAT IS STRESS?

​Stress is a normal reaction to the demands of everyday life and most of us experience it on a regular basis.

 

When confronted with stress, our bodies respond with a burst of hormones to help us cope with the situation on both physical and psychological levels. This response is known as the sympathetic or the so-called fight, flight or freeze mode. Once the stress is gone our bodies are designed to return to a normal relaxed state (parasympathetic or rest and digest).

Unfortunately, the nonstop pressure of modern life often keeps us in a constant state of stress. Although a certain amount of stress is good, being in constant overdrive is not and, over time, will lead to a wide variety of dysfunctions throughout the body, including brain (feelings and emotions), heart (hypertension, arrhythmia, atherosclerosis, coronary artery disease), muscles (stiffness and pain), stomach (acid reflux, peptic ulcer disease, irritable bowel syndrome), and immune system (weakened immune system, frequent infection).

 

HOW CAN ACUPUNCTURE HELP YOUR STRESS RELATED COMPLAINTS?

​One of the unique strengths of Acupuncture is being able to bring your nervous system back to balance without any chemicals or side effects. Acupuncture treatments will not only temporarily get you out of this constant overdrive mode but, more importantly, will help re-educate your nervous system to cope better with stress. This is crucial for the body as all healing, elimination of waste and regeneration of tissues, building immunity occur while we are in the parasympathetic mode (i.e relaxed). In other words, Acupuncture treatments will kick in your body’s self-healing mechanisms and help with the other stress-related complaints.