All around us, and flowing through our bodies is an invisible life force energy, called Qi. Qi is involved in all of our physiologic functions, and controls our health. Qi moves through your body via pathways called meridians, just like blood flows through the body in the circulatory system. When Qi is out of balance and isn’t flowing properly, which can be caused by things like stress, emotions, injury, lack of movement, poor nutrition, etc., all types of health issues can develop.

Acupuncture is an excellent treatment to get the Qi moving properly again and restore balance to the body. It can both treat and prevent disease, and improve your body’s overall health.

Very fine needles are inserted at specific points along the meridians in your body, which stimulates the Qi to flow normally, allowing your body’s innate healing response to restore physical, mental, and emotional equilibrium.

1. Boosts Your Immune System

Acupuncture treatment for common colds is great especially for people who get frequent colds and flu. Acupuncture strengthens the immune system to help you fight the sickness and get you better faster. It also assists in keeping colds and flu away when you’re healthy.

2. Improves Your Sleep

A common cause of insomnia is stress and anxiety. Acupuncture relaxes us and allows our body to metabolize the stress hormones that might be preventing us from getting good solid sleep. Patients who received acupuncture reported that they slept much better after treatment.

Another cause for sleeplessness is chronic pain. Acupuncture can relieve the pain helping you sleep better. Even if you don’t have sleep issues, acupuncture will help you sleep more restfully. If you have San Francisco insomnia, acupuncture treatment will leave you feeling less stressed, help you fall asleep faster, and sleep more soundly, without disruptions.

3. Heals Aches and Pains

Whether you’re experiencing a mild ache or severe pain, acupuncture helps the body’s energy flow regularly and keeps the pain at bay. Whether you’re considering acupuncture for lower back pain relief, or pain in the knees, ankles, wrist, neck, or elsewhere, acupuncture can help. Acupuncture also accelerates rehabilitation after an injury or surgery to get back the strength and range of motion in the affected parts of your body. It can also help restore full range of motion from old injuries that might not have healed 100%.

4. Calms the Mind

Acupuncture treatments are perfect when you can’t seem to quiet your mind or are suffering from a more severe anxiety or depressive disorder. Acupuncture can help calm the body and mind and help restore the chemical balance in your body. It gets us out of that mild “fight or flight” mode and slows the body’s production of stress hormones allowing you to relax. It also calms the mind for improved mental focus which will allow creativity to flow more freely.

5. Enhances Your Mood

Acupuncture has an amazing way of helping our minds to connect more with our physical bodies. In our modern western culture, we are often stuck in our heads. This prevents the Qi from flowing properly into all parts of our physical body, which can contribute to all sorts of physical and mental woes. When we are stuck in our heads, we might be stressed, or anxious or depressed and not be able to shift out of that. Being more embodied has positive benefits on all levels of our being – mental, physical, and spiritual.

6. Promotes Weight Loss

Acupuncture can help your body to release fat more quickly and easily if you are trying to lose weight. Acupuncture stimulates the release of endorphins, otherwise known as your “feel good” hormones. This helps you feel well, calm, and relaxed, and helps you deal with cravings you may experience from reducing sugar and carb-heavy foods.

Acupuncture is not a magic cure for weight loss; it complements a healthy diet and exercise plan and helps to accelerate weight loss.

7. Improves Digestion

If you regularly suffer from heartburn or acid reflux, gas, diarrhea, constipation, bloating, or abdominal pain, acupuncture for digestion problems may be the answer. Digestion issues are closely linked to the inability to lose weight – when digestion is working well, weight loss happens more quickly.

8. Treats Fertility and Sexual Dysfunction

Both men and women can suffer from sexual dysfunction or infertility. Acupuncture can treat all kinds of reproductive and sexual issues in both men and women. And, even if you don’t have a severe physical problem, acupuncture can generally help increase energy flow, which makes sex better!

9. Increases Energy

Acupuncture can improve your overall energy. It allows our bodies to rest better and gets the Qi flowing through us more smoothly in general. It also optimizes digestion which helps us better extract energy from food. All of these factors contribute to better energy levels.

10. Releases Old Patterns

In addition to all the physical benefits, acupuncture can also help us let go of old patterns that may no longer be serving us. This could be something physical like an unhealthy relationship to certain foods or lifestyle habits, or something emotional like feeling stuck after the loss of a loved one, a job, or relationship.

Acupuncture Clinic San Francisco

This list is by no means exhaustive. Whatever your ailment or issue, visit my website, an acupuncture clinic in San Francisco to see a more complete list of conditions that can be treated. Or better yet, give me a call or send me an email to discuss if I might be able to help you. Acupuncture treatments will affect your whole being, and you may notice other seemingly unrelated health problems are resolved while a particular condition is treated, leaving you with an increased feeling of well-being.