Incorporate Acupunctue in to your Pre-Wedding Routine

Congratulations! You're getting married!

While an engagement is undoubtedly one of the happiest times in your life, it's not always smooth sailing for most. 

Brides-to-be often find themselves jam packed in the weeks leading up to their wedding - with days filled with beauty treatments, hair and makeup trials, spa treatments, dress fittings and workouts.

While on a quest to be your bridal best, there is one thing that might be missing from your pre-wedding  to-do list, and that's acupuncture. With physical, mental AND cosmetic benefits, here’s why you should schedule an acupuncture appointment stat.

Cosmetic

Aside from the wellness benefits that will leave you glowing from within, acupuncture has some pretty significant cosmetic benefits, too. From AcuScupltÔ to anti-aging treatments, acupuncture treatment can help you to slim, tone, reduce the appearance of fine lines and wrinkles, and appear more rejuvenated.

As explained in detail in this Vogue article, acupuncture “facials” can help to eliminate facial puffiness, clear up acne, soothe rosacea, brighten, tighten and tone the skin. Before splurging for expensive, often invasive facials that may utilize harsh chemicals, give this holistic treatment a try.

Wellness

There’s no doubt that planning a wedding is stressful, and all that stress can leave you feeling exhausted, tense, and anxious. To help calm and restore the mind, tiny acu-needles can pack a serious punch. In fact, in as little as one treatment you can leave feeling more balanced and calm, and improve your sleep. Oh, and those annoying tension headaches that just might pop up anytime someone mentions a budget or seating arrangements? Acu can help those, too.

Health

By restoring the flow of qi, acupuncture and accompanying targeted massage can help to soothe sore muscles and release tension by improving blood flow and releasing adhesions that might be causing pain. With improved circulation and less pain, you’ll be ready to tackle your walk down the aisle, first dance, and party all night long while being pain free.

Before your first appointment, be sure to explain your goals for treatment with your practitioner. Then sit back, relax, and enjoy.

Acupuncture Being Used in the Treatment of Pain from Breast Cancer

According to a recent post from Time Magazine entitled, ‘Here’s a Promising Way to Treat Pain in Breast Cancer Treatment,” the power of acupuncture is now being used to reduce drug-related joint pain in patients.

Through the course of breast cancer treatments, the article explains that many patients are often prescribed medications called aromatase inhibitors, which protect against the disease recurring, and can come with difficult to manage side effects including terrible joint pain. But according to research, acupuncture might have the ability to help reduce the pain and make taking the medications more manageable.

The article goes on to explain that one of the remaining on the aromatase inhibitors is important in preventing the disease from going back and yet, according to Dr. Dawn Hershman, professor of medicine and epidemiology at Columbia University and vice chair of SWOG, ““But we know that they don’t work if people don’t take them, and we know the most common people don’t take them is because they develop side effects.”

A study conducted by Hershman and her colleagues examined 226 patients with early stage breast cancer who were divided in to three groups and over 3 months one group received true acupuncture treatment, one “sham” or superficial treatment, and the third group receiving no treatment at all.

Halfway through the study, 58% of the women in the group receiving the true acupuncture reported at least a 50% reduction in their pain levels. Furthermore, twelve weeks after the treatments had stopped, the differences between those that received true acupuncture and those who did not “remained significant.”

This promising result provides hope to patients struggling with pain as a side effect to the potentially life-saving medications, and increase the likelihood they remain on them. The study explains, “Hershman says the findings should give patients and doctors confidence that acupuncture may provide some benefit to women experiencing joint pain due to aromatase inhibitors.”

Acupuncture has long been an alternative treatment method to chronic pain, and as the article supports, “A growing body of evidence suggests that acupuncture may be effective at reducing pain from a variety of sources, and in a variety of populations.”

It continues, “Experts don’t know exactly how it works, but one suggestion is that it may trigger the release of the brain’s natural painkilling chemicals, says Hershman.”