More than one million Americans receive treatment for Plantar Fasciitis every year. And a recent study showed that 80 percent of plantar fascial patients still had symptoms 12 months after the original injury. Muscle tightness in the lower leg is a significant contributor, specifically the calf muscles (gastrocnemius and soleus). These muscles develop trigger points (‘knots’ in the muscle) that affect foot biomechanics leading to excessive strain on the heel. If this issue is never addressed, it’s unlikely that the issue will fully resolve on its own.
Fibromyalgia is a pain condition that involves muscle pain and tenderness in multiple joints or areas of the body. The pain can be hard to treat and is often chronic. Fibromyalgia affects about 4 million US adults, about 2% of the adult population.
Possible risk factors include:
Sex. Women are twice as likely to have fibromyalgia as men.
Stressful or traumatic events, such as adverse childhood experiences, car accidents, or post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD).
Repetitive injuries. Injury from repetitive stress on a joint, such as frequent knee bending.
Illness (such as viral infections).
Family history.
Obesity.
Fibromyalgia is often accompanied by fatigue, poor sleep, poor memory, and changes in mood.
Like all chronic pain conditions, it typically limits people’s ability to do the activities they love – like exercising, gardening, chasing after grandkids, and more.
But acupuncture is often helpful for this challenging condition. In a 2017 study, they found that acupuncture significantly reduced pain intensity, fatigue and depression in fibromyalgia patients. You can read the research here.
And, as if often noted in acupuncture studies, the researchers mentioned that “acupuncture did not have any side effects.” Fabulous!
Feel free to contact us at (847) 607-9957 if you’d like to schedule a complimentary consultation.
So many folks are already feeling the shift in weather through allergy symptoms like itchy, watery eyes, sneezing, and even skin symptoms like itching, dry patches, redness and hives.⠀
How can you manage these symptoms? Or prevent them if you’re prone to allergies but not experiencing them just yet?⠀
1) Get acupuncture:You knew I was going to say that, right? Acupuncture is outstanding at both preventing seasonal allergies and helping manage annoying allergy symptoms if they’ve already started.⠀
And it’s backed by science. A study in the European Journal of Allergy and Clinical Immunology showed that acupuncture was effective at reducing allergy symptoms with no side effects. You can read the full article here.
Ideally you’d start acupuncture a month before your symptoms usually start, in order to prevent them from being severe. But even if your symptoms have already kicked in, acupuncture can still help quite a lot.⠀
2) Take a probiotic: Seasonal allergies are an excess immune reaction in your body. ⠀
A huge portion of your immunity is regulated by the nerves in your gut, so good gut health is essential for a balanced immune response. ⠀
Choose a probiotic with multiple strains to keep your gut flora diverse, and (like acupuncture) start a month in advance of anticipated allergy symptoms if you can.
3) Try nettle leaf tea: Nettle leaf can help naturally reduce the amount of histamine in your body, which is the cause of many allergy symptoms. [Reference] (Of course, consult your doctor before beginning any new supplements.)
If allergy symptoms are creeping up on you, sign up for an acupuncture appointment today to keep them from progressing this season!
We’ve probably all heard motherly advice at some point reminding us to bundle up in cold weather so we don’t “catch a cold”, or hear grandpa accurately predict a storm when his hip starts aching. Or how about getting a case of the winter weather blues? Even in the Western world we recognize a relationship with nature in terms of environmental conditions. Changes in temperature, sunlight, barometric pressure, and humidity all play a role in this relationship.
When it comes to the weather and our health, many in the West automatically think of how season changes and extreme weather can aggravate symptoms of asthma and allergies, but weather-related health concerns go far beyond seasonal allergies and asthma. Changes in barometric pressure can affect joints (like Grandpa’s hip), and cause headaches.
Headaches can also be caused by heat and dehydration, so summer adventurers beware (bring lots of water!). High humidity can intensify heat too as it limits our ability to cool down through sweating, potentially leading to hyperthermia and heat stroke.
Cold weather can tighten muscles causing body pain. It also constricts blood vessels leading to an increase in blood pressure and increased risks of heart attack and stroke. While blood pressure tends to be higher in the winter, any temperature extreme, hot or cold, can affect heart function.
Sunlight is another aspect of weather that has a lot of influence over our health. Seasonal Affective Disorder (SAD) is often associated with the colder, darker fall and winter months. The reduced sunlight alters our melatonin and serotonin levels, potentially leaving us with disruptions in sleep and mood.
Ancient Chinese Medical texts describe a similar relationship between humans and their environment, though the wording and understanding of the nature of the environmental conditions differs slightly.
In TCM there are 5 main “climates” or environmental influences related to our health.
These are: COLD, HEAT, WIND, DAMP, DRYNESS
These potential causes of illness described in Chinese Medicine sound like weather patterns themselves and are considered external influences in origin but can penetrate to have effects on the body and create what we can think of as internal weather. We can also be more prone to their influence based on our constitution and lifestyle, (and can even manifest these ‘climates’ internally without external exposure).
Any extremes with these various conditions can allow pathogens to enter, if our self-protective energy and efforts are weak, and leave us vulnerable to infections, such as with colds/flus.
They can also go deeper in the body to directly affect the organs, with symptoms presenting throughout the body in the respiratory, digestive, urinary, reproductive, nervous, musculo-skeletal systems and skin.
Wind is understood as the biggest trouble-maker as it often combines with other influences to wreak havoc in the body. It can affect the joints, bring on skin rashes, or cause a spell of dizziness, among other issues. Cold can kill the digestive fire; combine that with a damp invasion and you can experience bloating and/or nausea. Heat and dryness, on the other hand, can injure the blood and fluids of the body causing symptoms such as fever, restlessness, scanty painful urination, brittle hair and excessive thirst.
Chinese medicine takes a more preventative approach to these issues by addressing imbalances before they express as more severe symptoms. There is also a focus on the integrity of the defensive system of the body as well as the body’s ability to handle transitions with stability. Knowing our bodies will be continuously exposed to the challenge of seasonal weather changes and potential extremes of climate conditions, we can prepare accordingly.
Don’t wait for an internal weather emergency to call for an appointment, get in ASAP to strengthen your resilience to external weather conditions, balance out your internal climates and assist you in transitioning season to season with ease and well-being!
Did you know that Acupuncture can alleviate Anxiety?
Anxiety is an increasing problem worldwide, affecting 40 million adults in the United States age 18 and older, or 18.1% of the population every year.
A 2009 WHO World Mental Health Survey found that anxiety was the most prevalent form of mental health disorder.
According to the most up to date evidence, acupuncture is an effective treatment for anxiety.
In 2017, The Acupuncture Evidence Project, co-authored by Dr. John McDonald, PhD and Dr. Stephen Janz, was published, providing an up-to-date comparative review of the clinical and scientific evidence for acupuncture. This comprehensive document, updating two previous reviews, determined that acupuncture is moderately effective in treating anxiety according to high level evidence. Their evidence included a 2016 systematic review with over 400 randomized patients that concluded that ‘the effects from acupuncture for treating anxiety have been shown to be significant as compared to conventional treatments.’ The largest of these studies, which included 120 randomized patients, found that acupuncture had a large effect on reducing anxiety and depression compared to conventional treatment involving pharmacological approaches and psychotherapy, with over twice the reduction in symptoms.
A more recent systematic review published in 2018 found that all 13 included studies “reported an anxiety decrease for their treatment group relative to the control groups.”Three of these studies used pharmaceuticals as controls.
Research: Errington-Evans N. (2015). Randomized controlled trial on the use of acupuncture in adults with chronic, non-responding anxiety symptoms. Acupuncture in medicine : journal of the British Medical Acupuncture Society, 33(2), 98–102. Link
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Wind is understood as the biggest trouble-maker as it often combines with other influences to wreak havoc in the body. It can affect the joints, bring on skin rashes, or cause a spell of dizziness, among other issues. Cold can kill the digestive fire; combine that with a damp invasion and you can experience bloating and/or nausea. Heat and dryness, on the other hand, can injure the blood and fluids of the body causing symptoms such as fever, restlessness, scanty 
