Aging well with Acupuncture
Admittedly, as holistic healthcare practitioners and practicing acupuncturists, we are a little biased when it comes to how awesome our medicine is (just a teeny, tiny bit), but I believe that one of the best things anyone can do who is moving into the second half of life and is looking to age well and support their overall health, energy, and stamina, as well as nurture a sense of vitality and vigor in their life, is to receive acupuncture on the regular.
Acupuncture works by tapping into our body’s inherent capacity to self-regulate and heal. When combined with a health-supporting lifestyle, receiving acupuncture regularly helps keep our body functioning in a more optimal capacity. Additionally, the side effects of acupuncture are incredibly positive. Patients receiving regular acupuncture treatments find that their mood is improved, they are sleeping more soundly at night, their digestive processes are balanced, and that they have an abundance of energy.
How can acupuncture help you age well? Let me explain…
Managing life stressors
Stress is undoubtedly a part of life, but it can get particularly heightened at certain developmental stages throughout the human lifespan. Many individuals moving into middle age find themselves taking care of not only their children but also aging parents. This time of life can come with increased financial, occupational, and interpersonal burdens and stressors. Managing stress skillfully helps people to meet the responsibilities and obligations in their life with the energy and determination that they require. Receiving acupuncture regularly helps to regulate stress hormones and soothe a distressed, frazzled and fried nervous system.
Hormonal changes
If you are starting to experience an internal heat wave due to the fluctuating hormonal changes that can come with the transition to menopause, receiving acupuncture can help take the edge off and greatly diminish of some of these incredibly uncomfortable symptoms, which can also include fatigue, irregular periods, bloating, sleep disruption, anxiety, irritability, and feeling slightly homicidal towards everyone in your near vicinity. It can really help.
Aches and pains
Increased aches and pains are definitely part of the deal when it comes to aging. Kind of a major bummer on many levels. Arthritis, achey joints, old musculoskeletal injuries that start to flare up, repetitive motion injuries, pain that is triggered by barometric changes in the atmosphere. Tripping over that doggy chew toy on the stairs for the millionth time. It’s a total bummer. Thank goodness for acupuncture, am I right? Many patients we see for pain-related issues are able to manage their pain with regular acupuncture, thus continuing to be able to engage in the activities that give their life meaning and joy. Additionally, many patients find that they need less Western medical interventions to manage their pain - be it steroid shots or pharmaceutical pain relief - when they are receiving regular treatments.
Immune support
If you work in an office, if you’re around kids a lot, if you’ve been shopping at King Soopers and are starting to see the premature appearance of everything having to do with pumpkins and Halloween, then you know that it’s about to be that time of year when the colds and bugs will start to descend upon us. Luckily, you don’t have to live in a hermetically sealed bubble. Acupuncture can help. Receiving acupuncture on the regular can help mitigate some of the fallout from catching a bug by keeping you body strong and healthy enough so that it can fight it off. And if it does happen to get the best of you, you’ll be able to bounce back faster.