5 ways Acupuncture can treat Migraine Headaches

Migraine headaches can be both painful and debilitating, making it difficult to carry on the normal activities of our day. Our work, families, and other responsibilities can suffer, often for months on end with little relief coming from typical pain relievers and pharmaceuticals. Here are 5 reasons Acupuncture is an effective means of treating and curing migraines.

1. Acupuncture manages inflammation: The pain that comes from migraines is often from inflammation, which is our bodies natural way of dealing with injuries or dysfunction in our bodies. Inflammation is your body's way of saying, "Don't do that." So that we can stop whatever harmful activity we are doing and allow our body to heal. Acupuncture triggers the release of internal anti-inflammatory chemicals that do not have the side effects of traditional anti inflammatory medications.

2. Acupuncture promotes increased blood circulation: Acupuncture regulates a process called vasodialation. This means that if your blood vessels are constricted due to stress or tight muscles, your blood vessels relax, and more blood is allowed to travel to tissues. Caffeine has similar effect, which is why it is included in over the counter migraine medications.

3. Acupuncture relaxes your muscles: Acupuncture triggers your nervous system to relax your muscles. Often times migraines are triggered by tight muscles in the head and neck. By relaxing these muscles the irritation and inflammation stop and normal function can return.

4. Acupuncture regulates hormones: Often times in women, changes in blood flow and blood vessels are brought on by imbalances in hormones. By balancing the hormones Acupuncture can prevent the recurrence of migraines.

5. Acupuncture releases natural pain killers: Acupuncture promotes the release of opiates and endorphins in the body that relieve pain and reduce sensitivity to light and sound.

If you would like to learn more about Acupuncture and the Orange County Acupuncture Specialist, visit www.OCAcupunctureSpecialist.com or call 714-997-4861

Acupuncture as a Detox

Here's a question I was recently asked:

Q: Is it safe / okay to get acupuncture done while breastfeeding? Admittedly, I know almost nothing about how acupuncture works and I know you are supossed to avoid some detoxifying activities as it can get into your milk. I know detoxing through certain supplements and juice fasts, are not considered okay, but a massage for example, would be.

A: It is absolutely safe to have Acupuncture while breastfeeding. In fact there are Acupuncture protocols just for bringing in milk for a mother who is not producing, or is not producing enough.

Acupuncture has gained some notoriety as a detoxifying treatment mostly through its effectiveness in treating addiction based disorders like alcoholism and drug abuse. There are actually some counties in New York and Florida which include mandatory Acupuncture treatment as part of the probation requirements for alcohol and drug offenders. But Acupuncture doesn't work like most detox systems of cleanses you would be familiar with.

Acupuncture works as a detox system in two ways:

1. It balances and improves the efficiency of organs related to detoxing, like the liver and kidneys. If these organs are not doing their job because they are overwhelmed or weak, Acupuncture can give them a jump start and get them performing.

2. But most importantly, Acupuncture can help regulate and reduce the side effects that accompany the natural process of detoxing from any substance that is bad for us. These side effects are typically referred to as "withdrawal symptoms". They include anxiety, irritability, headaches, nausea, shaking, and sweating. This is typically one of the main reasons people cannot break their addictions, they cannot handle the withdrawal.

This scenario does not just apply to detoxing from illegal drugs and alcohol, I have also had success treating people who want to detox from prescription medications like opiates, cigarettes, and the most prevalent addiction in America: caffeine.

Of course there are many herbal supplements that can be used to detox organs like the liver, kidneys, and colon. These should be used under the supervision of a physician or trained herbalist, especially in cases of women who are pregnant or breastfeeding.  

For more information about Acupuncture and Chinese Herbal Medicine, visit my website www.OCAcupunctureSpecialist.com or my facebook page www.facebook.com/OCAcupunctureSpecialist

5 ways to achieve your New Years Health Resolutions with Acupuncture and Qi Gong

I know many of you have Health Related New Years Resolutions, and, not to be negative, I know many of you won't achieve them. Here are some ways to ensure you will be successful in the New Year.

1.  Make A Plan: Many people plan to fail because they fail to plan. A trained Acupuncturist can help you develop a proper plan based on your individual qualities and constitution. By doing a diagnosis of your individual pattern, they can help you get faster and more targeted results.

2. Set an Achievable Goal: Often our goals are set too high and we give up when overwhelmed with the magnitude of it all. Because an Acupuncturist can give an accurate evaluation of where you are, they can also accurately tell you where you can expect to go.

3. Change your mind, Change you life: Research has shown that Acupuncture, Qi Gong, and Meditation have numerous effects on the brain. These effects can allow you to stay more focused and disciplined when working toward your goal.

4. Improve your Efficiency: No matter what your health related goal is, by tuning up your body with Acupuncture, you can increase your chances of success. Whether it be improving your metabolism to help with weight loss, healing an injury to allow you to exercise more, or relieving the effects of stress to keep your blood pressure down, Acupuncture can be your ace in the hole.

5. Supplement your Efforts: Most Acupuncturists are also trained herbalists, and can give you a targeted herbal supplement to help you achieve your goal.

To learn more about Acupuncture and Chinese Herbal medicine, and how it can help you this year, visit www.OCAcupunctureSpecialist.com or call 714-997-4861 to set up a free consultation.

Acupuncture and hormones

Recently I had the honor of helping my brother and his wife bring their baby girl into the world. No, I didn't deliver my niece, although I have delivered a baby before. I simply helped to initiate the labor process by using acupuncture. Yes that's right. Acupuncture can have a strong and powerful effect on the hormones of the human body, and in this case, the hormones that initiate labor in a pregnancy. I inserted a few needles, left them in for about 30 minutes, and by early the next morning she was having contractions. Later that evening my niece, Grace, was delivered.

At my clinic in Orange, I also take advantage of this principle of Acupuncture to treat migraine headaches. These are often caused by an imbalance of hormones that affect the blood vessels in the head. Sometimes within a matter of 3 visits, patients are free of headaches, or they are drastically reduced. For some women who have them everyday, this is amazing.

In addition to acupuncture, herbal medicine can have a dramatic effect on the hormones of the body, without the side effects that often come with mainstream western pharmaceuticals.

If you live in Orange County and have questions about Acupuncture and what it can do for you, visit www.OCAcupunctureSpecialist.com or call 714-997-4861.

Acupuncture and Inflammation

A lot of people ask me the simple question, "How does acupuncture work?" And while it is a simple question, the answer is actually quite complicated. As it should be. A 3,000 year old system of medicine that provides side effect free relief from so many different problems cannot be simple. But one method of explaining it that most people can relate to, is by addressing its effect on inflammation.

What is inflammation?
Inflammation is a process that takes place when there is irritation or damage to the cells of your body. Typically, this is in response to an injury, or repetitive stress placed on the body that wears it down. The classic components of inflammation are redness, swelling, pain, and heat coming from the damaged area. These are all designed to isolate and immobilize the damaged area to prevent it from being damaged even further, and to allow for it to heal. Believe it or not, part of the inflammatory response involves the regeneration of the damaged cells.

Why not just take an aspirin?
This is a good question, and it is indeed what most people do. Americans take 29 billion aspirin every year. And this is not a bad solution in the short term. But for the same reason that aspirin blocks the signals that turn on inflammation, it also blocks the signals that promote healing and cell regeneration and can keep people in a chronic state of injury. Most people know that too much aspirin intake is associated with stomach ulcers, but few know why. It's because the signals that trigger the regeneration of cells, part of the inflammatory process are blocked, and so the cells in your stomach are not regenerating. As old cells die off, new cells are not taking their place, and you basically have a hole. This is essentially happening all over your body with long term aspirin consumption.

How is acupuncture different?
Acupuncture promotes the release of internal anti inflammatory chemicals that do not inhibit cell regeneration. We call this the use of the body's internal pharmacy. This anti inflammatory effect can last from a few days to a week. In addition to this, the body also releases internal pain killers, and increases blood circulation to the damaged area. All this combines to create a supercharged pain relieving, healing process that has no side effects.

If you'd like to learn more about acupuncture and how it is practiced at my clinic, visit www.OCAcupunctureSpecialist.com or call 714-997-4861 to set up a free consultation.

3 Tips to Correct Poor Posture and Prevent Headaches

It would surprise you how many times I've advised a patient that the cause of their headaches or neck pain is simply poor posture.

The difficulty with our posture is that it is dependent on so many different factors. Our mood, energy level, stress, phone or tablet usage, chair position, and even the traffic on the freeway.

As with all issues of self awareness, the first step towards correction is checking in with ourselves. I will give you a few tips that will make it easier to figure out when your posture is off, before you start feeling pain.

1. Set a timer. With the popularity of smartphones, everyone has a timer at their fingertips. Simply set a timer to go off every 15 minutes. For the first 3 rings of each hour, stop what you are doing briefly and check in with yourself. Are you hunched over? Is your head protruding towards the computer screen? Bring your shoulders down and extend your neck towards the ceiling as if there were a rope pulling up on the top of your head.

2. Use mirrors. Place mirrors around your house or your office. As you walk by one, pay attention to how you look. The use of constant feedback will help you train yourself.

3. Ask someone. Most people aren't standing around looking for people with poor posture, but they will know it if asked. Ask a coworker, friend, or family member to evaluate your posture periodically throughout the day. Again, check for alignment, shoulder position, and extension of the head.

Also, practicing a system of exercise like Yoga, Tai Chi, or Qi Gong helps us learn postural awareness. Visit www.OCAcupunctureSpecialist.com and click on the "Qi Gong" link, or simply Click Here to view some videos that teach basic principles of proper posture and Qi Gong.

The Balance Method

Acupuncture has a varied and rich history, and every practitioner has their own unique way of approaching each case based on their training and clinical history. One of the treatment styles I use at my clinic in Orange is known as the Balance Method. It was pioneered by Dr. Richard Tan and taught to me by Marly Wexler at the Pacific College of Oriental Medicine. I have recently been using this method of treatment more frequently, and seeing remarkable results in the process, especially for pain.

The basic idea is that by treating areas and correlating channels, and not directly treating the diseased area, the body is allowed to balance itself. So for example, if the patient has pain in their left ankle, I will treat the right wrist. And if the pain is along the Stomach channel in the ankle, I will treat the Large Intestine Channel of the wrist, since these two channels are paired in Acupuncture Theory. 

 

Without getting too technical about it, my typical clinical experience is that the patient feels immediate pain relief from the first insertion of a needle. And the benefit to this treatment method is that the patient can move their ankle, or back, or neck, or whatever area is painful, during the treatment both to increase the range of motion, and to gauge the pain level as the area is being used.

I can't tell you how delightful it is to have a patient smile and say, "There isn't any pain!" so quickly that somewhere in the back of their heads they believe this is some kind of magic.

To learn more about acupuncture and the Orange County Acupuncture Specialist, visit www.ocacupuncturepecialist.com