How Acupuncture Works in Oakland

Chinese Medicine is simply concerned with your blood flow. Acupuncturists basically are like plumbers. We are concerned mainly with your plumbing system, and how it’s working. Every cell, every organ in your body gets everything that it needs through blood. It’s how every part of your body is supported. If you have a lack of blood flow in any area of your body due to trauma, overuse, surgeries, etc., it can’t function properly as it’s supposed to. As a result, the area of your body can’t get enough nutrients that you are consuming, it doesn’t get enough hormones that your body is producing, it doesn’t get enough analgesics, it doesn’t get enough oxygen, enough anti-inflammatory substances produced by your body. Eventually, the tissues with lack of blood flow will become diseased. How fast it’ll happen depends on how much restriction is present in the area. Acupuncture and Chinese herbs simply bring the blood back to the area of weakness. Contact our Oakland chiropractic clinic today to learn more.

How Injuries Become Chronic In Oakland

All the healing abilities of your body are found in your blood.
The question may arise, why a body restricts blood flow to damaged tissues if it needs actually to do the opposite? Your brain can only recognize pain. It doesn’t know the reason for the pain. Either you tripped and fell or got bitten by a poisonous snake, it’s all the same signal for the brain. Your midbrain will constrict the small vessels in that area, so if it’s a poison or sepsis it won’t spread as fast to the rest of the body. It technically sacrifices the part to save the whole. As you can understand, if there is a restriction of blood flow through those small blood vessels, it makes it very difficult or almost impossible for that area to heal. That’s how the injuries become chronic.

What Happens From An Acupuncture Needle?

Two things happen when we stick an acupuncture needle into our body. We are simply stimulating the nervous system. When we do it, the signal travels to the spine, from the spine up to the midbrain, and tries to jump-start it to release enkephalins. Enkephalins are endogenous opioid peptides. Once they are released, the pain decreases and the midbrain “realizes” that it’s safe now to vasodilate those small blood vessels. It opens them back up again. The blood rushed into the area and finally can heal.

The same effect happens with diseased organs. Lack of blood flow leaves “the debris” in your organs and tissues, and eventually, you can become sick.

We look at four areas in your body: blood flow, oxygenation, function of your organs, and functions of your nervous system. When all these systems work well, you are healthy.

Our body is amazing and often times it corrects a problem on its own. But if the problem becomes too big over a period of time or due to trauma, then the body needs an external healing force.