Easy Acupuncture for CT

Posts Tagged ‘Acupuncture’

Acupuncture and Weight Loss

You know you need to lose weight otherwise you wouldn’t be reading this page right now would you?

I am sure you have tried every diet under the sun. Every weight loss plan, exercise plan, etc, etc…

You have spent countless hours and dollars to try and drop the pounds that never seem to come off or stay off.

The truth is diets don’t work.

As a friend of mine who struggles with her weight once said to me “Diet is Die with a T!” Most are unrealistic and are so restrictive that you feel as if there will never be anything fun to eat again ever!

Is that about right?

Look, there is no single cause for weight gain in any person. There are many causes. Some are obvious, like over eating and not getting enough exercise… Others are not so obvious like stress eating or lack of sleep. (Yes lack of sleep can cause weight gain!).

Maybe pain in your body is stopping you from exercising, or maybe there is a underlying health challenge or “dis-ease” process in the body that is contributing to weight gain.  Read more here…

Corrective Care vs. Symptom Relief

When you have a health problem most likely you want a “cure” when you visit your doctor. Curing a problem means restoring back to full health, you know… problem solved! Unfortunately, a lot of folks mistake symptom relief for curing the problem.

In Chinese medicine we don’t think in terms of a “cure”. We think in terms of correction. Energy imbalance is the source of illness so correcting the the imbalance corrects the health problem. We call this corrective care.

Corrective care fits in neatly with a concept in Acupuncture called “Root and Branch”. The “Root” is the cause of the problem and the “Branch” is the symptom that results.

If you have headaches, which result from a breakdown in organ function, blood stagnation, or energy stagnation (“the root”) then these can cause an effect, such as a muscle tension in the head, which can result in a headache (“the branch”).

Typically, you would take and aspirin or pain reliever to deal with such pain.  Relief care is similar to taking aspirin, and while it may temporarily get rid your headache, it does nothing to correct or “cure” the source of the problem.

With Acupuncture, corrective care focuses on making certain the organ malfunction or energy stagnation—“the root” cause–is corrected and therefore the headaches—“the branch”—will disappear.

Here is a good analogy for relief vs. correction.  Let’s say you have water on your floor because of a leak in the roof. You can put a bucket under the leak, which keeps the water off the floor or you can patch the roof and stop the leak altogether. A bucket is pretty cheap and hiring a roofer is expensive. Think of the bucket as relief care, it keeps the water off the floor! Problem solved!

But wait, water has damaged the ceiling and the roof structure. Now you have to replace the roof and the ceiling!

Correction would have been to simply fix the roof.  Although it would cost more initially, it would have saved you money in the long run.

How Long Is This Gonna Take??

The truth is, not everyone can achieve correction.  Sometimes we wait too long before addressing a problem and now it has reached a point that complete correction is impossible. As an acupuncturist I will inform you of the extent of your problem and let you know if I think correction is possible.  If we can’t completely correct the problem, then we can focus on getting you as healthy as possible and keep the problem from progressing.

If correction is possible, it normally takes a period of frequent care followed by a period of maintenance.  Correcting a person’s function is similar to having braces on your teeth. Initially the braces are adjusted frequently while the teeth move towards their new position. Once the teeth are in place the braces remain while the structure of the jaw adapts to the new position of the teeth. If you remove the braces too soon the teeth will shift and your smile will be ruined!

For example: A person who’s had migraines for 20 years has an established energy pattern just like crooked teeth! It will not change with one treatment! It will take a few visits to establish a new pattern of energy movement.

After this first phase of care, visits of once every two weeks to once every two months are necessary (maintenance care) to allow this new pattern of function to become stable.  Just as teeth with braces require time to stabilize, so does organ function and energy flow.

Great Reason To Continue Care

At Acuhealth in Cheshire CT, the focus is always on curing the underlying cause of your “dis-ease”. To get the full benefit you have to follow through with care.

Maximize your health investment! Remember, symptoms are often the last thing to appear and are the first thing to disappear. Just because the “branch” is feeling better doesn’t mean the “root” is cured!  Continuing care encourages your body to heal fully and faster than on-again, off-again treatments.

Remember, without continued care, your organs and energy can return to their unhealthy state.  Part of this corrective care phase retains and stabilizes proper energy flow.  Following all of the recommendations regarding diet, lifestyle and exercises will insure a return to old patterns does not happen.

Once you are feeling great you can move into preventative or wellness care. You can come in several times per year for a tune up to keep you feeling your best!