Importance of Blood Flow & How Acupuncture can help

Have you ever had an aching pain that lingers on?

You may have noticed that after applying some heat to that aching shoulder, stiff neck or low back gave some temporary relief. A common question I ask during my treatments in regards to pain whether it be physical or emotional is “what helps alleviate your symptoms?” Most of the time the answer for physical pain is heat and for emotional pain it is getting outside in the sun! Both have this commonality of warmth and re-awakening the body by sending blood to ALL parts of our body.

If we tend to sit or stand throughout most of our day, blood will start to accumulate to the lower parts of the body due to gravity. It’s like the little corner in the house that has been forgotten and over time dust starts to accumulate. Our body will do the same, if we don’t “clean up” or move our bodies we won’t get blood flow to those forgotten areas. Our tissues will suffer and little aches and pains will start to accumulate.

In Traditional Chinese Medicine physical pain is termed as local Qi stagnation or blood stagnation. Meaning that the region of the body has a restriction or a lack of blood flow to the tissue.Acupuncture uses very fine needles that are inserted into the body which stimulate blood flow to the local acupuncture site but also to distant parts of the body far away from the acupuncture point.

For example, there was 2012 PubMed study which looked at the effect of blood flow using Color Doppler Imaging. When Liver 3 (Tai Chong) was needled, which is located between the first and second toe, the radial and brachial arteries (in the forearm) had significantly increased in blood flow.

It is important for ALL of our tissues to receive blood as it delivers oxygen, nutrients and healing properties like proteins and platelets. It keeps our body and mind nourished and feeling alive. Acupuncture is a great way to improve blood flow to most areas of the body that we can’t necessarily get with exercise alone.

Reference

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3388479/