How Acupuncture Affects Willpower

By Laura | Published September 13, 2018

By Bradley Stiles, L.Ac.

Can acupuncture increase your willpower?

According to the National Library of Medicine it can! In a study that was conducted using electro-stim at acupuncture point ST 36 acupuncture was shown to stimulate the vagal nerve supporting the bodies ability to produce dopamine.

Dopamine is responsible for your reward response in your brain. Too much dopamine and your aggressive, euphoric, or can cause intense sexual feelings. Not enough dopamine causes you to be at higher risk for Alzheimers, Parkinsons, depression, bipolar disorder, binge eating, addiction, gambling, and schizophrenia.

Acupuncture has also been shown in other scientific studies to regulate dopamine release if there is an excess of dopamine, so it creates a nice balance of dopamine in the body and can result in a reduction of negative symptoms.

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3949155/

https://www.optimallivingdynamics.com/blog/increase-dopamine-naturally

https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/evolutionary-psychiatry/201105/dopamine-primer

Bradley Stiles sees patients in Timonium on Mondays, Tuesdays and Wednesdays 7am-12pm. Read more about Bradley at https://cloud9acuclinic.com/bradley-stiles-acupuncturist/

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Five Reasons Acupuncture Helps Reduce Stress

By admin | Published September 3, 2018

Stress is a word many people are familiar with. The dictionary defines stress in multiple ways, but there is only one that matters when we discuss how stress affects our physical bodies. The definition is this, “stress is a physical, chemical or emotional factor that causes bodily or mental tension.” And while most people think of stress as being detrimental, it truly does have a function in our bodies. Stress is the body’s way of signaling for help or a break in the routine. If we don’t listen to these signals, we can develop imbalances in our bodies, which can then lead to illnesses. continue reading »

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Earth Constitutional Factor

By Laura | Published August 22, 2018

By Kelly Ferguson, L.Ac.

You may hear your practitioner speaking about your CF or Constitutional Factor, and you are probably asking yourself what that means? In Five Element Acupuncture Theory there are five elements or seasons that we use to help diagnosis and understand our patients. We have each of these elements within us, but we prefer one to two of them over the others. Those elements that we unknowingly prefer or align with are what we would call a person’s Constitutional Factor or CF. Within each CF there are the meridians, colors, odors, sounds, emotions, personality traits, seasons, etc. that go along with it.

One of these Constitutional Factors is called Earth. The season for this element is Late Summer which we are getting ready to head into. This element is very grounding or centering. It allows us to nurture ourselves and those around us. Earth CF’s can sometimes sound like they are singing as they are speaking. They tend to have a yellow complexion to their skin around their eyes, and their odor can be a bit sweet smelling. The meridians that go along with Earth are spleen and stomach meridians.

Kelly sees patients on Tuesdays & Thursdays 12p -8pm, Saturdays 10am-3pm in Timonium, and Wednesdays 12:30pm-7:30pm in White Marsh. Read more about Kelly at https://cloud9acuclinic.com/kelly-ferguson-acupuncturist/

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Five Acupuncture Points for Indian Summer

By admin | Published August 20, 2018

Acupuncture is part of a medical system that dates back nearly 3,500 years. This medical system is known as Traditional Chinese Medicine or TCM. TCM acknowledges not four but five seasons. The fifth season, Indian Summer, occurs in late August through mid-September. Each season in TCM has a pair of organs or energetic pathways it corresponds to. For Indian Summer, these pathways are those of the spleen and stomach. continue reading »

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Traditional Chinese Medicine Pulse and Tongue Diagnosis

By Laura | Published August 15, 2018

By Kelly Ferguson, L.Ac.

Looking at someone’s tongue is a helpful tool for Acupuncturists. The tongue allows us to see what is going on in a person’s body. When we are looking at your tongue we are checking the color, texture, coating, shape and markings on the tongue. By seeing what the tongue looks like we can see if we need to build qi or energy, help the flow of qi throughout the body, clear phlegm or heat, or build fluid in the body.

In addition, there are different locations on the tongue that correlate to the meridians. While we are looking at the color, texture, shape, marks and coating of the tongue; we are also looking at how they look on the different areas of the tongue to determine which meridians to use during treatment. The tongue does take time to change, so after you’ve been getting treatments for about a month take a look at your tongue and see the difference.

Pulse Diagnosis

During your acupuncture treatments, your practitioner will take your pulses on both wrists. We are looking for six pulse positions on each wrist. These pulses connect to the meridians or pathways that move qi or energy throughout your body. These pulses help us to diagnosis which meridians might need to be flushed out or strengthened.

The analogy that comes to mind is with Goldilocks and the Three Bears. In the story the porridge can’t be too hot or too cold, it had to be just right. This is what we are looking for with pulses. The pulse can’t be too high or too low in strength. We want the pulse to find a happy median.

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