Alban Acupuncture & Chinese Herbs Clinic, New York City
Archive for January, 2010
Acupuncture for Stress and Depression
Jan 20, 2010
Inflammation contributes to all sorts of diseases, mental and physical. It makes you to feel crappy when you are sick or have an injury. Chronic long term stress can lead to inflammation which may contribute to depression.
One of the most powerful aspects of acupuncture is its ability to reduce inflammation throughout the body.
Acupuncture, Depression, and Inflammation
Acupuncture works by correcting imbalances. Once the imbalance is removed, the body can work to help heal itself.
Acupuncture can help bring balance to both the mind and the body. Working on many levels, it can both help to reduce inflammation as well as calm the mind and ease anxiety and depression.
Clinical I treat depression and anxiety often. We approach each patient as an individual, giving a personalized diagnosis and treatment.
Some research now supports that acupuncture works to treat depression. One study, done through a Canadian-Chinese collaboration, showed that electroacupuncture helps to treat the clinical symptoms of depression and also to reduce the circulating levels of cytokines, which are inflammatory markers.
When to incorporate acupuncture for depression and anxiety?
Acupuncture is most useful for those with chronic anxiety and depression. It is very safe and there are very few side effects. It can be used with and enhance other therapies, like psychotherapy and psychiatry.
If you are in an emergency or crisis, you should contact your local mental heath clinic or call 1800-273-TALK.
If you are in the New York City area and are interested in learning more about acupuncture for anxiety and depression, please call us at 917-887-4946.
Stress, Depression, and Inflammation
Jan 20, 2010
The connecting between stress, depression and anxiety has been known for a long time. Of course, stress has a negative impact us emotionally. Stress also has a physiological effect on the body, causing hormonal and inflammatory changes that can lead to the development of depression and anxiety.
Releases of Cortisol
A stressful event causes the release of cortisol, the stress hormone, from the adrenal glands. This reaction involves both the nervous system and the endocrine system, and affects the whole body.
A stressful event causes a part of the brain called the hippocampus to secrete corticotrophin releasing hormone (CRT) which then stimulates the pituitary gland to create ACTH or corticotrophin. ACTH travels through the blood stream and acts on the adrenal glands to cause the release of cortisol and other hormones.
The cortisol then circulates throughout the body, affecting every organ, priming them for extra metabolic activity. This is often referred to as the flight or flight response.
A negative feedback loop stops the release of cortisol from the adrenal glands. The circulating cortisol in the blood stream will bind to receptors in the brain, called glucocorticoid receptors (GR) and to stop the further production of CRT.
Stress and Inflammation
A problem in the negative feedback loop can occur from chronic stress. This deals with the effect excess stress has on the hormonal feedback receptors.
Excessive cortisol causes the GR receptors to become less sensitive to the hormone, so it is more difficult to turn off the negative feedback loop and allows cortisol production to become excessive. As a result of the excess cortisol in blood circulation and the excess stimulation of the hippocampus, the sympathetic nervous system (fight or flight response) remains activated 1. Eventually this causes cells in the immune system to release proinflammtory cytokines, which are molecules that promote inflammation.
The proinflammatory cytokines may inhibit cellular repair of the nervous system, leading to neuronal cell death and damage. It may also disrupt the normal functioning of neurotransmitters 1. In addition, alterations in the GR may lead to changes in gene expression, further reducing the ability of the brain to repair itself 2.
Is depression just physical?
No, one cannot say from this work that depression is only physical. This theory argues that the damage to the cells and chronic inflammation may further exacerbate the impact of stress on your mind and emotions making it easier to become more depressed and harder to treat it 3. But it can also shed light on how we can improve our treatments.
In the next post, I will discuss how acupuncture can help treat depression, control the impact of stress, and reduce inflammation.
If you are currently need emergency mental health you can call 1800-273-TALK.
Photos: The Rocketeer
Foods You Should Eat
Jan 13, 2010
There was recently a great article on Well, a NYTimes Healthblog. It is about 11 foods people should be eating, but don’t often. Most of them are easy to eat, delicious, and in season now. You can get almost everything on this list from the Greenmarkets.
Here are some ways I like to prepare the local ingredients from that list.
Beets are great roasted or boiled. Serve with a little goat cheese. Last week, we sliced them thinly and put them on our homemade pizza.
Pumpkin is also east to cook. Just chop it up and roast for 1 hour with some olive oil. Also tastes great with cheese. Or add it to chicken or vegetable broth and blend it into a soup. Don’t forget to dry and then toast the pumpkin seeds. Makes a healthy snack or garnish.
Of course cabbage is too often overlooked. It is very affordable, and extremely healthy. Cutting it up from some homemade cole slaw is always delicious. For an Asian style, use sesame oil, a dash of soy sauce, and sesame seeds. Or you can saute the cabbage and add some hot pepper. I remember this is how they cooked it in Hunan, where I studied Chinese medicine.
And remember, Think Globally, Eat Locally!
What Makes Us Happy
Jan 11, 2010
This week, PBS is playing a wonderful documentary about emotions and happiness called This Emotional Life. It discusses what happiness is, how to achieve it, and how we can be more resilient.
There is a lot of science looking into happiness these days. Some of it examines the effect meditation has on the brain, which may prime neurological circuitry towards positive emotions. Some of looks at a new branch of psychology called positive psychology that focuses on character strengths and virtues.
And much of it comes back to what we already knew. Strong social connection
s, ties with friends and family make us happy. In fact, some researchers have shown that happiness is actually contagious. If a friend of a friend is happy, you are 15% more likely also to be happy. This continues down to 4 degrees of separation from you!
Smile and be happy! Someone may catch it from you.
Acupuncture and Chinese Herbs for Eczema
Jan 6, 2010
Eczema, or dermatitis, is an inflammation of the skin. It is an autoimmune condition which causes redness, itchiness, scabbing, and scaling of the skin. Generally, the condition is worse in the winter.
In Chinese medicine, when eczema occurs only in the winter it is called winter dermatitis.
Acupuncture and Chinese herbal therapies can help reduce the symptom intensity and frequency by correcting correcting imbalances in the body. Once the imbalances are removed, the body can work to heal itself.
Here’s one patient’s story.
This patient was a woman in her early 30’s. She was experiencing raised red and scabbed lesions on her hands which were which were very itchy. At times there was a thin and watery discharge. There was a direct relationship between the temperature and the irritation– the colder the temperature, the worse the inflammation. The spots lay only on the hands between the thumb and the index finger, at the acupuncture point Large Intestine 4.
She had the condition for a couple years and did not know why. It generally begins in the early winter and continues until May or June, when it warms up again. At first, believing it was an allergy she tried different soap and skin products with no help. Every year since it began, it was getting worse
The issue was an imbalance of the Qi (or energy), which is very common in winter dermatitis. In this case, there was not enough qi.
Qi serves to warm the body and to moisten the skin. In the winter, the qi is working harder to warm the body. If there is too little qi it will not have enough to go around. So it is difficult to also moisten, which then can result in irritation and rashes.
Qi is also strongly associated with the immune system. Most autoimmune conditions are caused by a qi imbalance.
Treatments with both herbs and acupuncture are most effective. The acupuncture included points for moving the qi, clearing heat, and boosting the qi, such as Du 20, LI 4, LI 10, SJ 5, LIV 2, Sp 9, Sp 6. I have written about how acupuncture can enhance immunity. It may also help to regulate autoimmune conditions through the similar neurological and immunological mechanisms.
The herbal formula is a modified version of the All Inclusive Tonifing Formula. It is focused on boosting the qi of the body. This formula has many herbs that regulate the immune system such as ginseng, astragalus, and licorice.
Results: After the first acupuncture treatment and herbs, the lesions began to disappear. She returned every other week over the course of the next 3 month. Although, there were some days of intense itching, it was generally less itchy. The lesions disappeared quicker, earlier, and more completely than in previous years.
We stopped treatment over the summer when the rashes disappeared. Treatment then resumed in October of the following year to prevent them from recurring in the winter.
In some cases, the dermatitis will be cured. In others, people will need preventative treatments during the winter months. It depends on how deep and how long the imbalance has been present.
