Acupuncture is a traditional Chinese healing technique that is known to provide people with relief from various ailments. What most people do not know is that it can also benefit people experiencing hormonal imbalances. If you want to know more about acupuncture and how it can effectively treat all types of hormonal imbalances, this article will help you better understand the link between the two.
What Is Acupuncture?
Acupuncture is the ancient Chinese method for treating pain that uses thin needles inserted into different strategic points of the body. Acupuncture practitioners believe that the human body has flowing energy called chi or qi, and sometimes this energy becomes unbalanced in some areas. By inserting the needles in these detected areas, the practitioners believe that the energy would start to flow again, resulting in well-balanced chi.
Instead of this explanation, most Western practitioners conduct acupuncture to stimulate the nerves, muscles, and connective tissues of particular body parts. They say that stimulation activates the nerves, which results in a better release of hormones.
What Is Hormonal Imbalance?
Hormonal imbalance is the term used to describe the overproduction or shortage of hormones in a person’s body. While it is commonly heard when describing women’s conditions, both sexes experience a common and natural occurrence.
Hormones are the chemicals that the endocrine system produces. They serve as chemical messengers that carry essential properties to the body’s organs and tissues via the bloodstream. They play a vital role in ensuring that a person has a regular sleeping cycle, healthy reproduction, good emotional health, proper metabolism, average body temperature, boosted immune system, and high energy level.
When there is an imbalance, it could result in various side effects, such as:
- Weight loss or weight gain
- Fatigue
- Muscle weakness
- Joint pain
- Low libido
- Increased or decreased heart rate
- Depression
- Irregular menstruation
All of these occur because the organs cannot perform their functions generally as they should. While experiencing occasional imbalance is considered normal, a long-term imbalance is something to be concerned about.
How Can Acupuncture Benefit People With Hormonal Imbalances?
Acupuncture is believed to be effective for treating people’s imbalance hormonal conditions. Here are some studies that showed and proved their correlation:
- Some Western therapeutic approaches for hormone treatment are prone to increasing health risks, such as heart attacks, stroke, or cancer. Meanwhile, acupuncture has no such side effects. It is a natural and safe practice that has been called more effective than other hormone replacement therapies.
- PCOS or polycystic ovary syndrome is a common condition that affects how a woman’s ovary works. Some of its prevalent effects are irregular periods, weight gain, and bad skin conditions. One study concluded that repeated acupuncture treatments resulted in higher ovulation frequencies in women diagnosed with PCOS.
- Acupuncture is the treatment that focuses on improving the body’s blood circulation and also promoting ovulation. In this study, women who were not ovulating due to hormonal changes found that acupuncture helped adjust their FSH (follicle-stimulating hormone), LH (luteinizing hormone), and E2 (estradiol). This adjustment helped return their condition to normal.
Conclusion
While hormonal imbalances are fairly common, it does not mean that you should go through its adverse effects without doing anything about it. Instead of letting the condition affect your existence, you can explore many ways to improve your situation. There are many conventional methods to do it, but acupuncture is always an option if you prefer a safe yet proven alternative.
Should you be interested in experiencing the various acupuncture benefits, book a treatment with us at Sinclair Wellness Center. We are a multidisciplinary clinic in Vancouver offering acupuncture/traditional Chinese medicine, chiropractic, registered massage therapy, and so on. Call us at (604) 629-1120 to learn more.