Holistic Healing? Part 1: The Benefits of Acupuncture
Published on: March 7, 2019
Sure Western medicine has its place, but so does body work (think myofascial release) and acupuncture.
Case in point: I developed a severe case of tennis elbow and after 6 months of physical therapy, I wasn't a whole lot better. Enter acupuncture! I could tell an improvement after 1 session, but it took 6 twice weekly treatments and some follow up appointments (1x weekly, then 1x every other week) to correct the problem. Still, acupuncture worked to completely alleviate the problem, and traditional PT didn't.
Why is acupuncture so effective?
I have come to believe that injuries and at least some physical ailments are not totally physical. While acupuncture does have some explanation from a Western medicine viewpoint (improving circulation for example), both acupuncture and reiki largely rely on correcting energy movement in the body, resolving areas of stagnation and improving overall health.
Is acupuncture's efficacy just due to the placebo effect?
Well, it works on dogs...
I became a convert to acupuncture around 2009. We had a dog who had arthritis, and our holistic veterinarian recommended acupuncture. We decided to try acupuncture, and it helped.
A few years later, another one of our dogs developed congestive heart failure (CHF) and stopped being his normal little food hound self. Acupuncture improved his appetite (he would turn his nose up at bacon, deli meat, any other delicacies we could think of before a session, and after a session, no need for delicacies, he would eat dog treats).
Here's the thing about animals... the placebo effect is not a possibility. Our dogs weren't making anything up in their minds and weren't pretending to be better.
We were seeing real effects of acupuncture.
Several years later, I developed gall sludge and started having problems associated with gallbladder attacks. That's when I first tried acupuncture for myself, and it's kind of like evidence based faith... while I may not be able to fully explain everything, I know it's real because I can feel the results.
If you're in the Oceanside, CA area, here are a few clinics you should check out:
Brandy's a formulation scientist and self-proclaimed health geek who loves hiking, gardening, bird-watching, and body boarding.
Her struggle with acne during her teens and 20s led to a holistic and healthy approach to skincare, embracing skin as an organ to be loved and cared for rather than a canvas to wage war on.
Since 2008, she's been developing all-in-one products for a simple routine at home, & Rain Organica started when her backpacking friends asked for a portable skincare routine to keep their skin healthy & happy on and off the trails.
You can try Rain Organica for yourself with The Essentials Kit, a complete skincare routine in just 3 steps.
