Acupuncture for Autoimmune Disease
Autoimmune diseases are complicated conditions to treat. What may provide relief for some patients doesn’t always work for others. Fortunately, acupuncture has been shown to help relieve symptoms in many patients suffering from a multitude of chronic conditions.
Acupuncture is a specific treatment derived from Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) that uses small, thin needles to illicit a chemical change in the body to help treat diseases. Acupuncturists ask about symptoms along with looking at the tongue and feeling a person’s pulse to diagnose and select a particular treatment for a person. One reason that acupuncture is so beneficial for autoimmune diseases is that acupuncturists are trained to differentiate patterns within the same disease. This enables practitioners to personalize their treatments based on each patient’s unique symptoms and not purely on the diagnosed condition.
In Chinese Medicine, acupuncturists look for patterns in different organ systems to develop a treatment for each person. While all autoimmune diseases are different, they do have some commonalities where TCM diagnosis is concerned. Many people suffering from autoimmune diseases have what acupuncture practitioners would call a ‘kidney deficiency’. This does not mean that the physical kidneys are not working. In TCM, the kidneys represent our vital energy. In other words, it can be directly related to our genetics, as well as how our hormones function. The TCM kidneys help other organs to function properly and give the basic energy (or “Qi”) to help your body work properly. When our kidneys are depleted we feel tired and worn out; vital functions may begin to weaken or fail. The TCM kidneys also help to regulate the immune system. If they are not functioning correctly then the immune system can begin to malfunction.
Another commonality among autoimmune diseases includes a symptom picture called ‘latent heat.’ In TCM theory, this is a basic description for chronic inflammation, which is present in most autoimmune diseases. Latent heat can also represent a chronic infection such as a virus or bacteria that may have preceded or aggravated an autoimmune condition.
Overall, acupuncture is very effective at differentiating autoimmune diseases. The focus of acupuncture treatment is to use each personalized TCM diagnosis to create change in the underlying structure (i.e. the response of the immune system) so as to create a permanent improvement as opposed to just treating symptoms. Acupuncture can also be very effective for symptom management as well. For example, in conditions like multiple sclerosis, acupuncture can help with numbness and tingling in the hands and feet or neurogenic bladder. For arthritic conditions, acupuncture can help decrease swelling and pain temporarily.
While acupuncture is most often used to treat pain, it can also be used for a wide variety of conditions and symptoms from acute to chronic. If you have questions about how acupuncture can be helpful for your autoimmune condition, call our office today to speak with one of our knowledgeable physicians.
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