Stress triggers your body to produce hormones that allow you to handle it. Still, prolonged production of these hormones can have detrimental effects on the body, leading to symptoms like headaches, depression, insomnia, high blood pressure, palpitations, and even an increased risk of a heart attack. It may cause your liver to produce too much glucose, leading to weight gain and an increased risk of diabetes. It may lead to digestive issues, heartburn, backaches, infertility, libido problems, and decreased immune system efficiency, you name it.

What Can You Do?

You should care about what stress does to your body. Certain changes in lifestyle and avoiding stressors may be of great help, but you will need to look at things from an entirely new perspective to achieve a measure of success:

Diet

Stress will often lead us to eat a terrible diet in greater quantities than we would normally, and they will often be foods that affect our mood. This leads us into a downward spiral of abusing food such as sweets and carbs, leading to weight gain, or maybe we’d starve ourselves due to how stressed we feel. This is a great place to start the changes. Try to shop outside your usual grocery store, don’t go to the aisles, but look for fresh food you can enjoy. Turn to vegetables and fruits, lean meats and a balanced diet to serve your needs.

Exercise

Exercise is an essential step toward dealing with stress. It will help your body flush your stress hormones, producing endorphins instead, replacing them and improving your mood. Many exercises allow you to find relaxation, such as tai chi, yoga and qigong. The exercises must be tailored to your individual needs and will differ at every stage of your life. They are great for anyone on many levels, so you can explore them at any stage, even when you grow older.

Meditation

Some people lack the patience for meditation, but it can benefit you if you try it out and bear with it. Although we focus on active exercises, some self-reflection and relaxation in a meditative state can help a great deal regarding stress. The brain changes as a result of your meditation practices; it helps you relax and wind down from the stresses of life, providing you with a solid foundation for dealing with stress in general. Many people take antidepressants for help, but you don’t need them in most cases. Meditation can help your brain’s ability to learn and memorise; it improves your attention and concentration, reduces anxiety and may even help with addiction. 

How Acupuncture Helps You Deal With Stress

Acupuncture is proven to reduce stress hormone levels in the body, but it also helps the brain release endorphins. It improves circulation in your body, cycling out stress hormones and oxygenating your tissues. As a result, your heart rate will decrease, your blood pressure will lower, and your muscles will relax after a session. In many cases, patients may even fall asleep on the table, waking up without realising where they are. Your body is truly healing only when you’re at rest. The reason acupuncture works so well is that it allows the body to enter a deeply restful state, reducing stress hormones and improving the body’s natural healing abilities, putting the patient in a state that helps recovery. You will find yourself completely relaxed and refreshed after a session.

©The Acupuncturists Ltd

In the world of today, when stress, anxiety and depression threaten to overwhelm us and decrease our wellbeing, we need to pay attention to the various ways that prevent such a process. Everyone needs to take proactive steps to counter stress, and one such is acupuncture. 

The treatment has deep roots in Chinese tradition and Chinese Medicine practices. It has been used for thousands of years, although it has been mostly utilised in Western societies for a century. People have relied on acupuncture for a whole host of conditions, in addition to stress relief. It is based on the idea that essential energy (Qi) flows through meridians in the body. As these become blocked, the energy doesn’t flow freely, and so negative conditions follow. By working on specific points of the body to unblock the pathways of the Qi energy, acupuncture aims to restore balance and bring back emotional and physical wellbeing. 

The mechanism of work for acupuncture is inserting very thin needles in acupuncture points in the body. This process releases tension and there is a certain psychological aspect to it that makes it particularly effective for stress relief. There are many reasons to try out acupuncture for stress: 

• It helps the body release natural ‘feel-good’ hormones – one of the main reasons why acupuncture is so effective against stress lies with the main mechanism of action. As the needles are inserted, the body releases feel-good hormones, which instantly lead to relaxation and overcoming the negative effects of cortisol. This process occurs naturally with acupuncture, making it a very effective tool for combating stress. 
  
  
• It leads to relaxation – acupuncture is a process that leads to relaxation. The whole procedure is centred around the comfort that one needs to experience, to feel good. Usually, the person will lie down on a table, and then the acupuncturist will insert the needles into pressure points. The needles will then remain in place for a short time. The acupuncturist may also utilise essential oils and calming music to further contribute to the relaxation and feeling of calm for their client. 
  
  
• A fine alternative to medication – many people think the only way to address the issue of stress is to rely on some sort of medication. This is especially the case if they have reached a new level and are dealing with anxiety and depression. But medications are often associated with many unwanted side effects and that is what makes them questionable. Acupuncture, on the other hand, doesn’t have any negative side effects and that is why it is such a good option for stress relief. 
  
  
• It acts like physical therapy for the brain – because acupuncture works to release stress-combating hormones in the brain and the body, it is like doing physical therapy. And once a person has a regular acupuncture schedule, the brain learns to trigger this release of hormones daily. This can happen when a person is consistent with their acupuncture sessions and shows perseverance, to make the most of it. 
  
  
• Acupuncture teaches a person to make time for themselves – the beauty of acupuncture sessions lies with the beauty of spending time for oneself and not worrying about anything else. Acupuncture means self-care and that is the best strategy for combating stress anyone can adopt. It shifts the fight or flight response towards personal growth and wellbeing. 
  
  

There are many advantages to relying on acupuncture for stress relief. It is an effective solution to a notable problem. 

© The Acupuncturist Ltd