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A Brief History of Acupuncture

Acupuncture is a holistic health technique that stems from Traditional Chinese Medicine practices in which trained practitioners stimulate specific points on the body by inserting thin needles into the skin.

Today, acupuncture is one of the most popular practices of Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) in the West. TCM is a complementary health approach that first originated in ancient China more than 2,500 years ago and has been evolving ever since.

To treat a wide variety of diseases, pain, and stress-related symptoms, practitioners of TCM use holistic techniques that include acupuncture, herbal medicines, tai chi, qi gong, massage therapy, and various “mind and body practices.”

The use of acupuncture and other TCM techniques have risen steadily in the U.S and other Western countries over the past several decades. According to a large survey done on complementary health approaches by the National Institute of Health in 2007, in the U.S. alone at least 3.1 million people received acupuncture treatments in 2007. The survey showed that the number of visits to acupuncturists tripled between 1997 and 2007.

Does Acupuncture Hurt?

Surprisingly, although needles are used in acupuncture, treatments are relatively pain-free. In fact, one of the most popular uses of acupuncture is to reduce chronic pain throughout the body in a natural way, without the need for medications that can cause unwanted side effects.

Most of the studies investigating acupuncture to date have examined whether acupuncture can safely reduce pain. However, it’s expected that in the next several years, researchers will continue to study whether or not it might help with other conditions, too – including anxiety, depression, inflammation, hot flashes, side effects of chemotherapy, and insomnia.

What Is Acupuncture Able to Treat?

Currently, acupuncture is used to treat conditions like:

• muscle spasms and pain
• chronic back problems and pain
• headaches, including reducing the frequency and intensity of migraines
• neck pain
• Osteoarthritis
• knee pain
• allergies
• Digestive
• headaches
• Problems with depression

The U.S Department of Health and Human Services states that:

“… promising results have emerged showing efficacy of acupuncture in adult postoperative and chemotherapy nausea and vomiting, and in postoperative dental pain. There are other situations such as addiction, stroke rehabilitation, headache, menstrual cramps, tennis elbow, fibromyalgia, myofascial pain, osteoarthritis, low back pain, carpal tunnel syndrome, and asthma, in which acupuncture may be useful as an adjunct treatment.”

There are many wonderful benefits of Reiki. It is a very simple process, but usually produces quite profound effects. The main purpose of a Reiki treatment is not only to support the physical body, but also to promote a positive mind so you can experience more joy in life. The great thing about Reiki is that one does not have to be ill to experience the benefits.

It helps people with their energy levels, managing the stress of daily life, or when transitions are happening in their lives. Others will come to develop themselves spiritually and experience a greater sense of meaning in life. Many of my clients are well and want to stay that way so Reiki helps them to maintain that harmony so they can respond to their challenges differently.

After a treatment most people feel calm and relaxed, and some say they feel energetic, clear-minded, and productive.

Many who come for Reiki treatments realize that balancing their systems can help them to cope better with a wide range of health conditions including stress, anxiety, depression, chronic pain, and infertility.

Promotes Harmony & Balance

Reiki helps to promote harmony and balance. It is an effective, non-invasive, energy healing modality that enhances the body’s natural healing ability whilst energising and promoting overall wellness. Reiki works directly by restoring balance on all levels and works directly on the problem and condition instead of just masking or relieving symptoms.

When I talk about balance, I mean mental and emotional balance, left and right brain, masculine and feminine, labelling things as good or bad, positive or negative, etc.

Deep Relaxation, Releasing Stress and Tension

What many people enjoy about a Reiki treatment is it allows them time to themselves where they aren’t doing but just being. Clients have reported feeling clearer, peaceful, relaxed, and lighter within themselves.

Reiki provides a space where you can be more aware of what is going on inside your body and mind. To learn to listen to your own body and make wise decisions regarding your well being from this place. Being more present means you are in your body, which helps you to access even more of that inner knowing and wisdom that we all have!

Dissolves Energy Blocks, Promotes A Natural Balance

Regular Reiki treatments can bring about a calmer and more peaceful state of being, in which a person is better able to cope with everyday stress. This mental balance also enhances learning, memory, and mental clarity.

Reiki can heal mental/emotional wounds and can help alleviate mood swings, fear, frustration and even anger. It can also strengthen and heal personal relationships.

Because Reiki enhances your capability to love, it can open you up to the people around you and help your relationships grow.

Cleanses Your Body of Toxins and Supports The Immune System

We spend so much time in stress-reactive fight or flight phase that it becomes our ‘norm’ and our bodies literally forget how to return to balance. Reiki helps remind our bodies how to shift into a parasympathetic nervous system (rest/digest) self-healing mode.

Rest/digest doesn’t mean you have to stop being active and productive or ‘do nothing’. It allows you to sleep better and digest better which is important to maintaining health and vitality. The more you are in this space, the more you can be active and productive without being stressed, exhausted, or burnt out.

Clear The Mind and Improves Focus

Reiki can support you in staying centered in the present moment rather than getting caught up in regrets about the past or anxieties about the future. It can strengthen your ability to accept and work with the way events are unfolding even when they don’t follow your desires or timetable. You begin to react to situations, people, and yourself in a supportive way rather than acting out of habit.

Aids In Getting Better Sleep

The number one outcome of receiving a Reiki session is relaxation. When we’re relaxed, we sleep better and our bodies heal better. We think more clearly and we relate to each other more genuinely. Often clients will experience deep relaxation during their Reiki session and sometimes a deep sleep during the session as well.

Accelerate Your Body’s Ability To Self-heal

Reiki quickly returns you to your natural state, or at least gets your body moving in the right direction to self-heal.

That means your breathing, heart rate, and blood pressure improve. Breathing deeper and easier is one of the first things to happen during a self-practice or treatment received from someone else. When we breath better, our minds naturally settle.

As your respiration deepens your body moves into parasympathetic nervous system (PNS) dominance, meaning the rest/digest phase. Your body was made to function primarily in the rest/digest phase rather than the more commonly experienced fight/flight phase.

Relieve Pain and Supports Physical Healing

On the outside looking in, a Reiki treatment might appear to be merely a sequence of hand placements, but it works to restore balance on the deepest possible level. It encourages your system to improve your body’s vital functions (breathing, digesting, and sleeping) so your physical systems function optimally.

On the physical level, Reiki helps to relieve pain from migraines, arthritis, sciatica, and much more. It also helps with symptoms of asthma, chronic fatigue, menopausal symptoms, and insomnia.

Helps Spiritual Growth and Emotional Cleansing

You do not need to be into spirituality to enjoy the benefits of Reiki. However, many clients that receive Reiki treatment feel the benefits of self healing, spiritual growth, and personal development.

Reiki addresses the whole person rather than targeting individual symptoms. It can create profound, often subtle shifts from deep within your own being.

What does that look like?

Guidance about what to do around difficult situations can come more easily. Or it may inspire a change in attitude or belief about your situation. Suddenly, you see your condition from a fresh perspective and are able to deal with it in a more positive way. Or it might direct you to the right kind of action needed which is guided from within.

Complements Medical Treatment & Other Therapies

Reiki is a wonderful complement to conventional medicine and acupuncture as it helps relax patients on the levels of the mind and physical body. When a patient is relaxed the healing process is accelerated. People sleep much better and are calmer following Reiki treatments.

The beauty of Reiki is that it is non-invasive and is administered in a very gentle manner. I can perform Reiki treatments without touching the body in cases where a patient has burns or major injuries.

Reiki is safe to use if you have medical conditions such as epilepsy, diabetes, or heart conditions. You may receive Reiki treatments if you are undergoing chemotherapy. Pregnant woman can have Reiki treatments as well to support them through all stages of pregnancy.

No single treatment can help everyone, but your sciatic nerve will likely thank you if you do these two things to help ease your sciatica symptoms.

Exercise Helps Sciatic Nerve Pain

Let’s face it—when your sciatica symptoms strike all you want to do is rest. This is typically okay for 24 to 48 hours, but prolonged rest can actually make your sciatica symptoms worse.

For example, prolonged rest can lead to deconditioned lower back muscles, which prevents these muscles from properly supporting your spine. In addition, prolonged rest can lead to tight hamstrings—and both of these issues may further aggravate the lower back problem causing your sciatica.

It is typically a good idea to develop a gentle exercise program (in tandem with your doctor) to help treat your sciatica. As part of this program, you should normally include stretching, strengthening, and low-impact aerobic exercise tailored to your lower back disorder.

As an added bonus, exercise encourages blood flow which can bring healing nutrients to the site of the lower back disorder causing your sciatica.

Apply Heat Therapy To Treat Sciatic Nerve Pain

Heat therapy has numerous benefits for people suffering from sciatica symptoms, including:

• dilation of your blood vessels, which encourages healing by increasing the flow of oxygen and nutrients.
• Stretching of your soft tissues relieves the pressure on your sciatic nerve.
• Stimulation of the sensory receptors in your skin so your brain focuses less on your sciatic pain.

There are numerous options for heat therapy, including many you can keep in your car or at the office. For example, you can always keep a disposable heat wrap handy, or simply fill a water bottle with warm water from the faucet. If you are at home when your sciatic pain strikes, you can try lying on top of an electric blanket—or give a warm bath a try.

The major caution with heat therapy is to avoid extreme heat as this can lead to serious burns. The temperature you are looking for is best described as warm, not hot.

Of course, there is no guarantee these two treatments will solve all of your sciatica-related problems. Give them both a try today and you may find significant relief from your sciatica symptoms. In turn, your sciatic nerve will most definitely thank you.

When most people hear the phrase cupping therapy they usually default to an image of a Chinese Medicine Practitioner wielding a small flaming utensil in one hand and round glass suction cup in the other. They are standing over a treatment table with a patient lying face down and the patient’s back is covered with circular hickey marks. This is the common perception of cupping therapy that most people have and generally the limited amount of understanding that most hold of this classic and effective Chinese Medical treatment therapy.

Cupping therapy is a Traditional Chinese Medical therapy that has been used as a stand-alone treatment method and additional treatment to acupuncture for thousands of years. It’s most common application is the reduction of acute and chronic muscle pain due to muscle tension, trigger points, poor circulation, metabolic waste buildup, and inflammation. Though commonly used for pain cupping therapy has a much wider treatment claim, addressing things like:

• respiratory conditions
• headaches
• digestive complaints
• common cold
• neuropathy

How Cupping Therapy Works

Cupping therapy is often referred to as fire cupping because as most cupping pictures will point out the Chinese Medicine Practitioner needs a flame to complete the procedure.

The Practitioner lights a cotton ball in a hemostat on fire, quickly inserts the flame into the glass cup for 2-3 seconds reducing the amount of oxygen inside the cup and creating a vacuum effect.

Then the Practitioner removes the flame from the cup and gently places the cup onto the desired treatment area. The cups will suction to the skin and muscle firmly – a skilled Practitioner will be able to adjust the level of suction without needing to remove and reset the cup.

The cups are either left static on the area for 8 – 15 minutes or are moved along the affected muscle or meridian pathway like a deep tissue massage using a technique know as walking cups. Both walking and static cups are typically used on large, hairless, muscular areas of the body. Depending on the level of suction both styles of cupping can penetrate muscle tissue 10 cm below the surface of the skin.

Walking cupping, unlike static cupping, necessitates a base of oil applied to the treatment area before the cups are set to ensure smooth cup gliding. Despite the health benefits and how good cupping therapy feels many people are unsure of cupping because of the famous “bruises” the cups can leave.

What Happens During & After Cupping?

The cups can leave discolorations but they are not bruises. Bruising is caused by trauma to blood vessels that cause blood to leak out of the vessels into tissues of the skin that often leaves the area tender and painful. However, the discoloration formed by the vacuum effect of cupping therapy come from the pulling of trapped toxins, metabolic wastes, and non-circulating stagnant blood from constricted tissues to the skin surface. Once at the skin’s surface, purple or red painless discolorations can form but are flushed by the lymphatic system a few days post treatment.

By pulling these toxins, metabolic waste products and stagnant fluids are pulled out and away from the injured or affected area. Normal and healthy tissue circulation can now be restored. During follow up cupping treatments, pain and discoloration often reduce as space is created for fresh blood circulation, oxygen, living cells, and nutrients to circulate freely.

At Endpoint Wellness, we specialize in Cupping Therapy in the Albuquerque area.

What Is The Sciatic Nerve?

Sciatic nerve pain can be so excruciating and debilitating that you don’t even want to get off the couch. Common causes of sciatica can include a ruptured disk, a narrowing of the spinal canal (called spinal stenosis), and injury.

Sciatica pain can occur for a variety of reasons and identifying what doesn’t move is the first step toward solving the problem. Often, the most problematic body parts are the lower back and hips. The best way to alleviate most sciatica pain is to do any stretch that can externally rotate the hip to provide some relief.

Here are five exercises that do just that:

• reclining pigeon pose
• sitting pigeon pose
• forward pigeon pose
• knee to opposite shoulder
• sitting spinal stretch

Reclining Pigeon Pose

Pigeon Pose is a common yoga pose. It works to open the hips. There are multiple versions of this stretch. The first is a starting version known as the reclining pigeon pose. If you are just starting your treatment, you should try the reclining pose first.

• While on your back, bring your right leg up to a right angle. Clasp both hands behind the thigh, locking your fingers.
• Lift your left leg and place your right ankle on top of the left knee.
• Hold the position for a moment. This helps stretch the tiny piriformis muscle, which sometimes becomes inflamed and presses against the sciatic nerve, causing pain.
• Do the same exercise with the other leg.

Once you can do the reclining version without pain, work on the sitting and forward versions of pigeon pose.

Sitting Pigeon Pose

Sit on the floor with your legs stretched out straight in front of you.
Bend your right leg, putting your right ankle on top of the left knee.
Lean forward and allow your upper body to reach toward your thigh.
Hold for 15 to 30 seconds. This stretches the glutes and lower back.

Repeat on the other side.

Forward Pigeon Pose

• Kneel on the floor on all fours.
• Pick up your right leg and move it forward on the ground in front of your body. Your lower leg should be on the ground, horizontal to the body. Your right foot should be in front of your right knee while your right knee stays to the right.
• Stretch the left leg out all the way behind you on the floor, with the top of the foot on the ground and toes pointing back.
• Shift your body weight gradually from your arms to your legs so that your legs are supporting your weight. Sit up straight with your hands on either side of your legs.
• Take a deep breath. While exhaling, lean your upper body forward over your front leg. Support your weight with your arms as much as possible.

Repeat on the other side.

Knee To Opposite Shoulder

• This simple stretch helps relieve sciatica pain by loosening your gluteal and piriformis muscles, which can become inflamed and press against the sciatic nerve.
• Lie on your back with your legs extended and your feet flexed upward.
• Bend your right leg and clasp your hands around the knee.
• Gently pull your right leg across your body toward your left shoulder. Hold it there for 30 seconds. Remember to pull your knee only as far as it will comfortably go. You should feel a relieving stretch in your muscle, not pain.
• Push your knee so your leg returns to its starting position.

Repeat for a total of 3 reps, and then switch legs.

Sitting Spinal Stretch

Sciatica pain is triggered when vertebrae in the spine compress. This stretch helps create space in the spine to relieve pressure on the sciatic nerve.

• Sit on the ground with your legs extended straight out with your feet flexed upward.
• Bend your right knee and place your foot flat on the floor on the outside of your opposite knee.
• Place your left elbow on the outside of your right knee to help you gently turn your body toward the right.

Hold for 30 seconds and repeat three times, then switch sides.

At Endpoint Wellness, we help with the recovery of sciatica pain.