We all encounter stress in our daily lives to a certain degree. It’s estimated that 75 to 90 percent of all doctor’s visits are for stress-related issues, in fact. Stress causes painful headaches, elevates your blood pressure, leads to chest pain, and even contributes to insomnia—which in turn has an even more detrimental effect on your health. Stress is also closely linked to depression and anxiety, which can severely hinder your ability to enjoy and fully experience life.
Chronic, untreated stress can profoundly compromise your health over time. It promotes the spread of cancer, since stress releases the adrenal chemicals that allow cancer to metastasize and travel throughout the body. Stress can also be a factor in cardiovascular disease, skin conditions, and metabolic and endocrine disorders such as diabetes. So not only does it impact your day-to-day well-being, but it can also shape your future health to an extent that you might not realize.
Fortunately, acupuncture offers many ways to treat the painful symptoms that stress creates while also ensuring your long-term wellness by improving your body’s capacity to handle stress. Trigger point therapy, for example, can alleviate stress by relieving tense muscles in areas such as the neck, shoulders, and upper back. This is important because tense musculature and shallow breathing that are caused by stress often serve to reinforce it as well, creating an unhealthy cycle that can have damaging consequences to your health.
When stress has accumulated in your body, it often disrupts the flow of energy through your meridian system. Acupuncture can restore the proper flow, promoting blood circulation and delivering much-needed oxygen to your tissues while reducing cortisol levels. It can also improve your breathing, lower your heart rate, and relax you through the release of endorphins. Through a series of careful acupuncture treatments, a body that has been conditioned to exhibit a near-automatic stress response can be guided back to a healthier method of stress management.
Stress reduction treatments offer health and wellness benefits that transcend the physical dimension—they also can boost your mood, reduce anxiety, and give you a renewed sense of possibility in your daily life. If you’ve been experiencing stress, you don’t have to let it overwhelm you. By caring for your body and strengthening its ability to manage stress, you can improve your health right now while laying a strong foundation for your future well-being and happiness.
