by urban-acupuncture | Oct 12, 2020 | Acupuncture, Massage Therapy
Acupuncture and Massage Treatments
If there was one word that could describe today’s world, many of us would chose “stressful.” And stress takes both a physical and emotional toll on our fragile bodies. Luckily, treatment options such as massage and acupuncture can help address chronic and acute aches and pains caused by stress, illness, and injury.
By realigning the body’s chi (qi) (vital life force) into proper balance, acupuncture promotes our natural ability to address and heal—at a systemic level—issues stemming from stress, chronic conditions, and even acute injury.
Massage therapy targets the muscles, tissues, and fascia of the musculoskeletal system to alleviate pain, discomfort, soreness, and inflexibility, as well as reduce stress and improve sleep.
Both are powerful stand-alone techniques when performed by a licensed and experienced therapist. However, massage and acupuncture are also complementary; when performed together, they can actually augment the results of each type of treatment.
Here are five reasons why you should consider a combination treatment with both acupuncture and massage:
Improves circulation and blood flow
As our blood flows through every part of our body, it brings life-giving oxygen and nutrients to our cells, while carrying away harmful waste and toxins. Improving circulation and blood flow both in general and in specific areas of the body with both massage and acupuncture simultaneously can promote the body’s natural self-healing processes.
Boosts the immune system
One of acupuncture’s most important benefits is its ability to help boost the immune system, which enables the body to fight off germs such as viruses and bacteria. Massage reduces stress, promotes relaxation, and improves sleep, so the body can focus on fighting off disease and illness. Together, these two treatments can amplify the immune-boosting effects of each one.
Helps manage acute and chronic pain
Both acupuncture and massage can be used to target areas of pain and discomfort, whether stemming from an acute injury or from a chronic condition. Improving blood flow to injured areas and boosting the body’s natural immune system, as noted above, are of great benefit when it comes to reducing pain. Acupuncture and massage can also help break up painful scar tissue and promote muscle relaxation for powerful relief.
Reduces stress
Relaxation and stress reduction are perhaps the most well-known benefits of both massage and acupuncture. Using both massage and acupuncture together to address the physical symptoms of stress can help you sleep better, reduce the occurrence of stress headaches, give you more energy, and overall help you feel better.
Promotes overall well-being
Most importantly, massage and acupuncture together can promote a lasting sense of overall well-being.
By enhancing circulation and proper energy flow, helping the body’s self-healing mechanisms, and minimizing feelings of stress and tension, a combined massage and acupuncture treatment will leave you feeling calmer and more centered. Helping you release negative energy enables more room for the positive energy you need to enjoy life to its fullest.
Contact Urban Acupuncture Center in Columbus, OH For More Information
For more information about how acupuncture, massage therapy and other alternative healing treatments can help you, please contact the Urban Acupuncture Center Board Certified Licensed Acupuncturist’s team at Indianola Ave, Clintonville (614) 725-2488 | Main St, Westerville (614) 426-4406 or click here. Taking new patients in and around greater Columbus, Ohio.
by urban-acupuncture | Oct 1, 2020 | Acupuncture
IVF Preparation
For everyone who has dreamed of becoming a parent, getting pregnant always seemed like it would be the easy part of parenting. Unfortunately, infertility is far more common than most people realize. According to the CDC (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention), nearly 12% of women will struggle with fertility issues at some point in their lives.
Modern medicine can help some couples achieve a successful pregnancy. In vitro fertilization (IVF), for example, involves fertilizing a woman’s eggs outside of the body and then placing the fertilized eggs back into the uterus. Pregnancy occurs when one or more of the eggs successfully embeds itself into the uterine wall to begin its natural growth. IVF is an invasive process that can take several months to complete a single cycle. Multiple cycles may be required, putting significant stress on both the body and the mind.
For some women, incorporating acupuncture into the IVF cycle can potentially improve the chances for achieving a successful pregnancy. When performed by a licensed and experienced acupuncture therapist, acupuncture can help prepare your body to promote ovulation and successful implantation. And acupuncture can help improve your overall health and wellbeing as well by reducing stress and correcting natural imbalances. If you are considering IVF, speak to your fertility specialist about whether acupuncture could help increase your chances of a successful fertility treatment.
How Can Acupuncture Help Your IVF Treatment?
Acupuncture can help improve the chances of a successful IVF treatment in two ways.
First, acupuncture has been shown to improve circulation. When incorporated into an IVF cycle, it can increase blood flow specifically to the reproductive organs. Proper blood flow to the ovaries can promote ovulation of healthy eggs. Improved blood flow to the uterus can help prepare the uterine lining which is critical for successful implantation of fertilized eggs. Moreover, by promoting healthy circulation, acupuncture can help ensure the proper flow of nutrition, anti-oxidants, and hormones throughout the reproductive cycle.
Second, acupuncture promotes overall wellness which can also play a role in successful IVF cycles. By addressing and correcting imbalances throughout the body, acupuncture can improve digestive function and reduce inflammation. And by promoting relaxation and restoring balance, acupuncture helps to reduce stress and improve sleep, enabling both your body and your mind to cope better with the physical and emotional stress that comes along with infertility and IVF.
When to Schedule Acupuncture during an IVF Cycle
Before starting acupuncture, taking any medication including herbal remedies, or starting any medical procedure, it is critical that you speak with your fertility specialist to ensure that supplemental treatments promote, and do not adversely impact, your IVF treatment.
There are several steps during your IVF cycle at which it may be appropriate to incorporate acupuncture.
- Three to six months in advance: Acupuncture treatments before your IVF treatment can help promote healthy blood flow to the ovaries and eggs. It also promotes general health to improve your natural balance and build up reserves to prepare the body for the IVF treatment.
- Priming Phase: Weekly acupuncture may be appropriate during the month before your IVF treatment. As you begin the medications necessary to suppress the ovaries in preparation for stimulation, acupuncture will continue to promote healthy blood flow to the ovaries.
- Stimulation Phase: Weekly or even twice weekly acupuncture can promote healthy egg growth as ovulation is stimulated. Because this phase can vary in length, it is important to monitor and alter the acupuncture treatments as necessary.
- Retrieval: Most acupuncture therapists will recommend a treatment 1 to 2 days before the eggs are retrieved. Acupuncture at this point in the cycle can help the eggs grow to full maturity to ensure that they are at the correct stage and size for retrieval.
- After Retrieval: One acupuncture treatment between retrieval and embryo transfer can help relax the uterus and increase circulation to the uterine lining, as well as help relieve discomfort from cramping or other side effects of retrieval.
- After Embryo Transfer: One or two acupuncture treatments immediately after the transfer of the fertilized egg, or embryo, into the uterus can improve the chances for a successful pregnancy. One treatment can be performed that same day or on the following day, with another treatment scheduled three or four days later. Weekly acupuncture throughout the first trimester can help support and promote a continued healthy pregnancy.
Coping with infertility is difficult, and IVF can put added stress on both the body and the mind. Talk to your fertility specialist and acupuncture therapist today to see if incorporating acupuncture into your IVF treatment cycle could help promote the chances that your IVF treatment will result in a successful, healthy pregnancy.
Contact Urban Acupuncture Center in Columbus, OH For More Information
For more information about how acupuncture, massage therapy and other alternative healing treatments can help you, please contact the Urban Acupuncture Center Board Certified Licensed Acupuncturist’s team at Indianola Ave, Clintonville (614) 725-2488 | Main St, Westerville (614) 426-4406 or click here. Taking new patients in and around greater Columbus, Ohio.
by urban-acupuncture | Sep 3, 2020 | Acupuncture
Acupuncture Could Help Treat Your Hay Fever (Rhinitis) Symptoms
If you suffer from hay fever, you know just how miserable it can make you feel. Depending on the time of year and the severity of your symptoms, hay fever can even impact your performance at work or at school. Sometimes just getting through a normal day can feel like a challenge.
Hay fever is the common term for a medical condition known as allergic rhinitis. Simply put, it’s an allergic response to a trigger in the environment. Unfortunately, most hay fever triggers—like pollen—are unavoidable. Yet it is possible to control the symptoms. Conventional treatments for hay fever usually include antihistamines and nasal sprays.
Acupuncture, either as a stand-alone treatment or as a complement to medicinal treatments, can also provide both short-term relief from specific hay fever symptoms and longer-term treatment for the chronic, underlying conditions that may make you more susceptible to allergens in the environment. If you suffer from seasonal allergies and think acupuncture might offer you some relief, we encourage you to make an appointment with a licensed acupuncturist for a consultation.
Causes of Allergic Rhinitis (Hay Fever)
Allergic rhinitis is commonly called hay fever because it is usually associated with seasonal allergies. In other words, your body has an allergic response triggered by various types of pollen produced by trees, flowers, and grass. When you suffer from seasonal allergies depends in large part on where you live, the types of flora that grow in your region, and when they naturally produce triggers your body is allergic to.
The most common environmental triggers include:
- Tree pollen (early spring)
- Grass pollen (late spring and summer)
- Ragweed pollen (fall)
- Mold and fungi spores (can be either seasonal or perennial)
However, hay fever can also include indoor allergens such as:
- Dust mites
- Cockroaches
- Pet dander (dried particles of skin, saliva, and urine that become airborne)
Symptoms of Allergic Rhinitis (Hay Fever)
Allergic Rhinitis (hay fever or seasonal allergies) is easy to confuse with the common cold. Many of the symptoms are very similar, even if the underlying cause is very different: environmental allergy triggers for hay fever and a virus for the common cold. Common symptoms include:
- Nasal congestion (i.e. a “runny nose”)
- Post-nasal drip
- Sneezing
- Coughing
- Difficulty breathing or wheezing
- Itchy, watery, or red eyes
- Itchy nose and throat
- Swollen discoloration in the skin under the eyes
- Itchy skin or a rash
Allergic Rhinitis and Acupuncture
Acupuncture can help some patients find relief from seasonal allergies or hay fever in two ways.
First, acupuncture can help provide immediate relief from specific symptoms. For instance, stimulating acupuncture points around the nose and sinuses can help relieve nasal congestion and sneezing associated with seasonal allergies. Acupuncture points on the feet can be associated with itchy, watery eyes. And there are a variety of acupuncture points around the body that can help calm and soothe an immune system that has been sent into overdrive by the presence of allergens in the environment.
Second, acupuncture can offer some patients longer-term relief by stimulating the body’s natural defenses. Acupuncture is believed to help boost the immune system and help the body fight inflammation. Therefore, multiple acupuncture treatments in advance of allergy season can help your body develop a more appropriate—and less miserable—response to common environmental triggers.
If you suffer from seasonal allergies, and believe you might benefit from acupuncture, the first step is to make an appointment with a licensed and experienced acupuncturist. He or she can work with you—as well as with your allergist and primary care physician—to develop a comprehensive treatment plan. In some cases, this may involve multiple treatments over time, and scheduled at various times of the year to coincide with your specific hay fever triggers.
Contact Urban Acupuncture Center in Columbus, OH For More Information
For more information about how acupuncture, massage therapy and other alternative healing treatments can help you, please contact the Urban Acupuncture Center Board Certified Licensed Acupuncturist’s team at Indianola Ave, Clintonville (614) 725-2488 | Main St, Westerville (614) 426-4406 or click here. Taking new patients in and around greater Columbus, Ohio.
by urban-acupuncture | Aug 7, 2020 | Acupuncture
What is Asthma?
Asthma is a chronic form of lung disease that causes the airways inside the lungs to be inflamed or swollen, making it difficult to move air in and out of the lungs and
constricting breathing.
For asthma suffers, normal breathing that most of us take for granted can prove challenging. And at times, breathing in specific triggers in the environment can cause the airways to swell or inflame even more than normal. Breathing is further constricted by a build-up of mucus within the airways. In some cases, these triggers can even cause the muscles around the airways to constrict. These flare-ups, or asthma attacks, can be very serious and potentially life-threatening.
Common asthma triggers include airborne allergens such as pollen, pet dander (particles of skin and dried saliva), mold spores, or even cockroach waste, as well as occupational-related airborne triggers such as dust, certain gases, and chemical fumes. For individual suffering from exercise induced asthma, the airways become constricted as the individuals tries to take in greater quantities of air. Exercise induced asthma is often worse when triggered by cold or dry air.
Symptoms of asthma include:
- Difficulty breathing
- Shortness of breath
- Pain or tightness in the chest
- Wheezing when attempting to exhale
- Coughing or wheezing that gets worse during the flu or a cold
- Difficulty sleeping caused by breathing problems like coughing, wheezing, or shortness of breath
Can Acupuncture Improve Lung Function for Asthma Sufferers?
Asthma is a chronic condition that cannot be cured, but asthma symptoms can be controlled. The conventional treatment for asthma, depending on severity, is a combination of daily medication and the use of an inhaler to combat flare-ups or asthma attacks.
For some asthma sufferers, acupuncture has also proven to be an effective complement to these conventional treatments.
The key to acupuncture’s success in minimizing inflammation and thus controlling some asthma symptoms lies in its ability to spark the body’s natural self-healing mechanisms. Rooted in long-standing techniques based on Traditional Chinese Medicine, acupuncture stimulates specific points along the body’s energy lines, or meridians, to unblock the natural flow of the body’s vital life-energy, or chi.
By enabling the proper flow of chi, acupuncture can help bring the body back into natural alignment and restore homeostasis. Regular acupuncture treatments can help control asthma symptoms by reducing the inflammation of the airways, as well as improving blood flow and boosting the body’s natural immune system.
Acupuncture is not recommended as a stand-alone treatment for asthma, and will not replace fast-acting inhalers for sudden flare-ups or asthma attacks. Yet for some asthma suffers, acupuncture can work alongside conventional medications to improve asthma symptoms and even, for some patients, reduce the frequency of asthma flare-ups.
During your acupuncture treatment, a licensed acupuncturist will gently place very small, sterile needles at specific points along your body’s meridians. Each acupuncture treatment is customized to your unique needs, depending on the triggers and severity of your asthma. And while the main goal of acupuncture for asthma suffers is to reduce and help control asthma specific symptoms, most patients find it can also help improve overall wellness through enhanced relaxation and improved sleep patterns.
If you suffer from asthma and are wondering if acupuncture might help control your asthma symptoms, we encourage you to speak with your doctor about incorporating acupuncture into your treatment plan.
Contact Urban Acupuncture Center in Columbus, OH For More Information
For more information about how acupuncture, massage therapy and other alternative healing treatments can help you, please contact the Urban Acupuncture Center Board Certified Licensed Acupuncturist’s team at Indianola Ave, Clintonville (614) 725-2488 | Main St, Westerville (614) 426-4406 or click here. Taking new patients in and around greater Columbus, Ohio.
by urban-acupuncture | Aug 6, 2020 | Acupuncture
Acupressure and positional techniques to help manage labor pain and encourage a smooth delivery.
About this Event
Join licensed acupuncturist Autumn Snavely, LSW, L.Ac, as she demonstrates effective acupressure and positional techniques to help manage labor pain as well as encourage a smooth delivery. This class is great for partners or support people to gain an active role in the labor and delivery process. Due to COVID-19, many hospitals are not permitting the presence of doulas, who would typically help with managing pain and providing emotional support. Now more than ever, these techniques will be crucial to families as they navigate this new birth world.
Virtual Webinar: This event will be hosted online via Zoom. Event registrants will receive a webinar link via email within 24 hours of the event.
by urban-acupuncture | Jul 1, 2020 | Acupuncture
Panic Attack Treatment
If you have ever experienced a panic attack, you know just how scary, overwhelming, and even debilitating it can be.
Put simply, a panic attack is a sudden, short, and unexpected burst of extreme fear accompanied by physical symptoms such as shortness of breath and difficulty breathing, nausea, elevated heart rate or chest pains, dizziness, and muscle tension (to name just a few). In fact, a panic attack can be—and often is—confused with a heart attack or other medical crisis.
Panic attack are usually associated with extreme stress, a trauma or memory of trauma, extreme fear or discomfort, or a specific trigger like a frightening place or event. But whatever the immediate cause, panic attacks are sudden, unpredictable, and both physically and emotionally overwhelming.
And they are surprisingly common. It is estimated that nearly one-third of Americans today will experience at least one panic attack at some point in their lives. For individuals living with trauma or post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), recurrent panic attacks can be truly debilitating.
Acupuncture as a Treatment Option for Recurrent Panic Attacks
Whether you’ve had a single episode of panic or find yourself suffering from recurrent, debilitating panic attacks, acupuncture may be able to help reduce your anxiety and even prevent future attacks.
The root of ancient Chinese medicine stems from the belief that our mental health, as well as our physical health, is dependent on balance in our chi (qi), loosely translated as vital life energy. If the body and the mind are in balance, the chi can flow freely through our body’s meridians (energy channels). However, if that balance is disrupted, the chi becomes blocked or congested.
Acupuncture works by restoring the proper flow of chi along the body’s meridians, restoring the fundamental balance between the mind and the body. Restoring this balance can decrease the frequency, duration, and even the intensity of panic attacks. Even one treatment can help some patients find a greater sense of centeredness, control, well-being, and self-confidence.
Restoring the proper flow of chi and bringing the mind and body back into a health balance can also help treat some underlying conditions—such as stress and insomnia—that often contribute to recurrent panic attacks.
Is Acupuncture Scary or Painful?
If you suffer from anxiety or panic attacks, just the idea of acupuncture can be pretty intensive and even scary.
In fact, acupuncture is not painful and most patients find the treatment relaxing and soothing.
Your acupuncturist will place very small, sterile needles along so-called acupuncture points, or specific points along the body’s meridians. Different acupuncture points treat different physical or mental ailments. Anxiety and panic, for instance, usually involves acupuncture points along the breastbone, the eyebrows, and the insides of the wrists.
Acupuncture is generally considered to be a risk-free treatment option for many patients, when performed by an accredited, licensed acupuncturist. However, as with any medical treatment, it is important to discuss incorporating acupuncture into your treatment plan with your medical practitioner.
Contact Urban Acupuncture Center in Columbus, OH For More Information
For more information about how acupuncture, massage therapy and other alternative healing treatments can help you, please contact the Urban Acupuncture Center Board Certified Licensed Acupuncturist’s team at Indianola Ave, Clintonville (614) 725-2488 | Main St, Westerville (614) 426-4406 or click here. Taking new patients in and around greater Columbus, Ohio.
