Nervous System Disorders

ADD & hyperactivity

Acupuncture balances the nervous system as well as the levels of stimulating vs. relaxing hormones in the body such as serotonin, epinephrine, and GABA.

Addiction

Alcohol, junk food, and tobacco can stimulate your brain to release a happy hormone called dopamine, which is rewarding and makes you feel joyous. Social media, computer games, and online chatting stimulate the same part of the brain which rewards you with dopamine, leading to new, modern-day addictions being formed. In order to stop the addiction, you need some other healthy way to induce dopamine and endorphin. If you find yourself fighting this addiction, you can instead go out to exercise or you can drink a cup of green tea which can calm down your brain rather than spending time online.

Spending too much time on social media or playing games can cause your dopamine supplies to be depleted. Acupuncture will help your body to produce more endorphin and dopamine. If you want to help curb your addiction, you can start acupuncture once a week for 12 weeks, while at the same time started enforcing healthy habits. Once you develop a new healthy routine, your body can achieve a balance.

Bell’s Palsy

Acupuncture helps the regeneration of facial nerves and tones facial muscles.

Dementia

Dementia affects 47.5 million people globally and every year there are 7.7 million new cases. The disease is responsible for 604 billion USD of spending a year. There are 3 major categories in dementia: Alzheimer’s disease, vascular dementia, and Lewy body dementia. Currently, medication can temporarily increase the number of neurotransmitters called acetylcholine to relieve the symptoms, but the medication does not prevent the further degeneration of the neurons which produce acetylcholine. The study published in J. Chin. Med. in 2005 used the traditional Chinese herbal formula called Huan Shao Dan to strengthen the kidney function and transform the phlegm. The Chinese researchers created a dementia model in a mouse and then fed the mouse with this formula to see how the formula can improve ischemia-induced dementia. They concluded that mice that received this formula made fewer mistakes in certain performances than the Sham group.

The most important factor in preventing dementia is having normal functioning enzymes, which are responsible for the production of the acetylcholine neurotransmitter that was increased in the cerebral cortex and hippocampus area. The Chinese formula may modulate the excessive activation of glutamate NMDA receptors, which reduce the neuronal damage caused by ischemia. The Chinese herbal formula can be combined with medication to slow down the degeneration of neurons allowing patients to have an improved memory quickly due to the medication. Therefore, they can join more activities and the Chinese herbal formula can prevent the acceleration of the degeneration of the neurons. Furthermore, using this Chinese formula for six months at a high dosage did not show any toxic effects on mice. Additionally, this formula also benefits your general health as it reduces total serum cholesterol and triglyceride levels, and improves circulation to the brain cells.

Reference:

Wang, F. Dai, W. Li, Z, Huang, K. The aging retarding effect of Huanshaodan. J. Chin. Med 16(1):35-46, 2005

Excessive Sweating Acupuncture

Excessive sweating indicates that your nervous system is not in a perfect balance. Why do some people sweat more than others? Genetically each person is different. The sympathetic nervous system and your predisposition for retaining internal heat are the key determining factors for how much you will sweat in hot weather or when you exercise.

Also Read: How Can Acupuncture Help Alleviate Excessive Sweating?

Additionally, if you have noticed that whenever you are nervous, you start to sweat more than other people, you need to calm down your sympathetic nervous system by doing acupuncture, meditation, yoga, and Qigong. Furthermore, you need to reduce your internal heat by consuming less spicy food, coffee, alcohol, and fewer sweets.

Eating dandelion greens and arugula will also help prevent excessive sweating. As an additional tip, you can drink chrysanthemum or honeysuckle tea to clear up internal heat, which can cause inflammation, allergies, autoimmune disease, or even cancer.

Headaches/ Migraines

Migraine headaches can be debilitating. More and more people suffer from migraine headaches every year. Most types of migraines are due to abnormal dilation of blood vessels in the brain. That is why drinking a little bit of coffee can help relieve migraines as they constrict the blood vessels.

If you do not drink coffee regularly, then when you have migraines, coffee will help relieve the pain. If you drink coffee every day, then the coffee will not help you. Acupuncture can help clear up the chemicals in your brain causing the abnormal dilation of blood vessels that cause chronic migraines.

If you wait until a migraine reaches its peak strength, it will be difficult to stop it right away with acupuncture. In order to prevent migraines, you need to have acupuncture twice a week for 12 weeks to reduce inflammation in your blood vessels. In the meantime, you need to avoid spicy foods, sweets, alcohol, and dehydration. If you do not have blood vessel inflammation, acupuncture can help you relieve the pain much faster. That is why diabetics, those with lupus, MS, ALS, and allergies need much longer treatment than people without systematic inflammation.

Learning disorders

Lyme Disease Acupuncture

The number of people being diagnosed with Lyme disease due to tick bites has grown increasingly. Lyme disease is very debilitating and people can even get Lyme disease in their own backyard. When a person is bitten by a tick, testing for Lyme will often not show a correct diagnosis right away. If you suspect that you have been bitten by a tick, even if you did not find the tick on your body, you can take antibiotics for a few days to kill the bacteria in the early stages. At the same time, you can also use acupuncture and herbal medicine to strengthen your immune function, so the body can kill the bacteria completely and prevent growth. Otherwise, the bacteria from the tick can damage your joints and your nervous system and cause pain, fatigue, joint problems, and depression.

Watch this video to learn how we can prevent Lyme diseases and how acupuncture can help people to repair the immune, digestive, nervous, and joint tissues.

Sleep Apnea

Sleep apnea has become a very common problem in America. Normally, when you enter a phase of deep sleep, your body does not need too much oxygen, so the trachea will naturally constrict slightly. If a person has inflammation or a lot of phlegm in their throat or their palate muscle is not strong due to malnutrition, the airway can be completely blocked during deep sleep. Because of a blocked airway, their oxygen level drops sharply to trigger a fight or flight condition and adrenaline will be released. In this situation, a person’s heart rate goes up, their breathing becomes faster, and they will wake up. If they wake up repeatedly, the person will not have sufficient deep sleep and he or she will tend to develop inflammation in his or her body.

How can sleep apnea be prevented? First, you need to cut down on your salt and sugar intake. When doing so, you will find out that the phlegm in your throat will be reduced quickly. Second, you should control your intake of dark chocolate and nuts because while these have health benefits, eating too much can bring up the phlegm instantly. Third, avoid frequent use of anti-acid medications, so you can digest food better and your muscles will not become weak. If you still cannot clear up your phlegm, you can come to see a Chinese acupuncturist and herbalist to use Chinese herbs to clear up the phlegm. The herbs can strengthen your digestive system and reduce the production of phlegm.

With twice a week treatment, acupuncture can also help strengthen the muscles around the palate and reduce the inflammation in your throat, giving less of a chance for sleep apnea to occur.

Stroke

Acupuncture has been used in China to help stroke patients to recover for hundreds of years. In each rehabilitation center, acupuncture is a standard treatment to help stroke patients strengthen their muscles and regenerate the damaged peripheral nerves. Especially for patients with strokes due to blood vessel spasms instead of blockage, acupuncture on the scalp can instantly improve the circulation to their brain and clear up the toxic chemicals, such as glutamate to prevent future serious strokes.

Acupuncture helps by:

  1. Decreasing muscle spasticity.
  2. Improving balance and walking.
  3. Strengthening the muscles to prevent atrophy.
  4. Helping to regenerate nerves.

Vertigo

Also Read: Acupuncture and Peripheral Neuropathy