Acupuncture and the Vagus Nerve

The vagus nerve is part of the autonomic nervous system, which is responsible for the tasks our body performs unconsciously, like breathing, digestion, and sweating. (1) Getting more specific, the vagus nerve is part of the parasympathetic nervous system, which is responsible for the fight or flight response. It’s role is to help calm you down after a stressful situation. It does this by the Vagal - adrenal axis, (also mentioned in this blog about weight loss and inflammation), carrying signals from your brain to other areas of your body. The vagus nerve starts in the brain and extends down your neck, through your chest, around your heart, around your lungs, and through your abdomen and intestines. It is because of this long outreach that the vagus nerve can provide signals from your brain to most of your body.

Acupuncture utilizes this pathway during treatments. Research at Harvard Medical School has concluded that receiving acupuncture will stimulate the neurons that trigger the vagal-adrenal axis to signal the brain to release neurotransmitters like dopamine. Dopamine is crucial to mood, inflammation, and controlling physical movement. (2)

The neurons that trigger the vagus nerve are found in the largest numbers on our legs. More specifically, the front of the legs. Patients of City Garden Community Acupuncture will not find this surprising at all. I use a system of acupuncture called “Meridian Balancing” that uses the points on the legs and arms, (as oppose to points on the back), during treatments. Anyone who has received acupuncture at City Garden will recall favorite points of mine to use are located on the front of the legs, just below the knee. While Chinese medicine discovered the efficacy of these points empirically, we can now thank Harvard for giving us the western medicine explanation.

(1) Segal, Dayva, Vagus Nerve: What to Know, webmd, October 6, 2022, www.webmd.com

(2) Caruso, Catherine “How Acupuncture Fights Inflammation” The Harvard Gazette, November 3, 2021, www.hms.harvard.edu

Weight Loss and Medical Myths Part 2

Part 1 of this blog discussed society’s assumptions surrounding weight, whether there is any truth to to them, and how it can affect the individual. We’re now back to the original question “Does Acupuncture help with weight loss?”

Acupuncture will help with weight loss, but not in a quick crash diet sort of way. If you want to lose 10 lbs in 2 months, I can’t say that will take 8 acupuncture treatments and Viola! Acupuncture works in a much more holistic way, addressing one’s constitution and getting to the root of why your body is holding on to excess weight.

At City Garden, I have noted 5 significant ways acupuncture has assisted with weight loss: reducing stress, decreasing inflammation, regulating digestion, supporting sleep, and battling the side effects of medication. Let’s go through them one by one.

Stress

Stress affects everyone, reaching its talons into almost every aspect of our existence. It will disrupt our sleep and raise havoc on our digestion, (these are discussed in more detail below). How does stress have so much power over us? Because the stress response is the releasing of  the hormones epinephrine, (or adrenaline), cortisol, and norepinephrine. These will trigger increased breathing, heart rate, and blood flow to muscles, which is meant to aide us in escaping a dangerous situation.  This is a fight-or-flight response that will also be triggered by less life threatening circumstances, such as heavy traffic, work pressure, and financial difficulties. Over time, this constant heightened state takes it’s toll. With these stress hormones continuously coursing through our blood, our bodies are being told to hang on to extra calories. We might need them when we run from that tiger! Over time, these extra calories pack on and we find ourselves with excess weight.

Acupuncture disrupts the fight or flight response. As soon as those needles are inserted, our bodies respond. The amount of stress hormones in our system drastically decreases. Since we are no longer in panic mode, our endocrine system, which is responsible for the functioning of hormones, can regain its balance. Our bodies will be working as they should, no longer having the need to hang onto excess weight.

inflammation

Inflammation causes movement to be painful. When people suffer from arthritis or other joint issues, simple tasks can be a challenge, let alone getting regular exercise. Acupuncture is proven to help heal inflammation by stimulating the neurons that triggers the Vagal - adrenal axis to release dopamine into the system, (Caruso, Catherine “How Acupuncture Fights Inflammation” The Harvard Gazette, November 3, 2021). Dopamine is a neurotransmitter most talked about for its role in mood, but it is also crucial in controlling physical movement.

Digestion

With digestion, there are many aspects to consider; bowel movement frequency, diarrhea or constipation, gas, bloating, and reflux. Healthy digestion has daily bowel movements that are formed and easy to pass. With constipation, there is not enough movement of the intestinal muscles to move waste along, or perhaps the body is not absorbing water as it should and the intestines are dry. If one has too much water in the intestines that results in diarrhea and food moving too quickly through the intestines. Nutrients will not be properly absorbed. When your body isn’t getting the nutrients it needs, it thinks you’re starving and will hold onto weight as a means of survival.

Acupuncture stimulates an energy current to help your body correct itself and re-establish your body’s rhythm. Water and nutrients are absorbed and let go, internal muscles move as they should. In this balanced state, your body will not feel the need to hold onto excess weight.

sleep

Sleep is a huge variable in how we feel. When we are deprived, everything is off. Our brains are foggy, our motivation low, and our tempers can be short. In terms of our physical selves, being starved for sleep can be similar to being starved for food. Our bodies are sensing danger, so we are going to hoard resources, including extra weight. When we sleep, the cells in our bodies are doing all of their maintenance and repair.  When we go without, the cells never have a chance to rebuild. That catches up over time and can lead to illness and disease.

Whether you are having difficulty falling asleep or keep waking up at night, acupuncture is able to calm you down, both physically and mentally, and to assist your body’s rhythm and help you get back to a decent sleep schedule.

Side effects of medication

And lastly, the side effects of medication. These can cause a person to hold weight they don’t need. Acupuncture will help the bodies filters, our liver and kidneys, handle the detox of the unwanted elements of a medication. It will also support an individual with other side effects such as sleep disturbance, digestion issues, and water retention.

Acupuncture’s role in weight loss is safe and gentle. It will support and heal the individual from within, both physically and emotionally. Excess weight won’t fall off overnight, but the effects on your health will be long lasting.

1. Harvard Health Publishing, “Understanding the Stress Response”, July 6, 2020.

Weight Loss and Medical Myths Part 1

At this time of year, the question is inevitable. Can acupuncture help with weight loss?

As a culture, we are obsessed with weight. Magazines, films, and television all tell us that we need to be thin. Slender is what is correct and if you’re not, you’re doing something wrong. If you’re fat, you’re being “bad”. You are unhealthy, maybe lazy, indulgent and possibly out of control. You need to have more self care. These assumptions are so prevalent that they have become factual in our minds.

In truth, each of us have a “set point”. A predetermined weight our body tries to maintain that is largely determined by genetics. This predetermination is why weight that is lost is so easily gained back. Significant weight loss in the long term is biologically impossible. This isn’t saying  that someone can be 800 lbs and claim that as their set point, it just means that not everyone is able to slim down to a size 4 and be healthy. A lot of people will carry more weight on them and it’s time to accept THAT as healthy.

Many issues like heart disease and diabetes are thought to be caused by carrying excess weight. If that’s the case, then how do we explain thin people that are suffering from the same health issues? There is a genetic factor if you’re skinny, but if a person is bigger there’s different rules? It can’t be genetics, this person just needs to lose weight. They brought it on themselves! On the flip side, there are bigger people that do not even have these health concerns.

A lot of the health issues that are thought to be caused by being overweight are actually the result of the dieting roller coster that so many people struggle through. It’s called weight cycling - lose weight, gain weight, diet, lose weight. It’s a lot to put a body through and causes chronic inflammation, which in turn makes staying healthy and feeling good nearly impossible.

Emotional stressors also cause inflammation. The stigma around being bigger greatly affects one’s mental health. The prejudice and micro aggressions of society causes constant stress, which releases a lot of cortisol and other hormones into the system. This raises havoc on a person’s wellbeing. A lot of people live their life being marginalized, feeling judged by the preconceptions that people hold about them because they are bigger. It’s assumed they are being “bad” by eating poorly, not exercising, and not caring enough about themselves. Most of the time this isn’t true at all, and these assumptions will keep people from seeking even routine medical care because of the frustration and embarrassment they might have to go through. In our society, it is believed that the choices made in terms of weight determine perceived moralities and the extent good health and respect are deserved.

And now back to the original question in Weight and Medical Myths Part 2, where we answer Does acupuncture help with weight loss?

Acupuncture, COVID, and Mental Health

The impact of COVID on our mental health has been severe. With the isolation COVID brought, people have experienced more loneliness, anxiety, and higher levels of depression. For many, this was exacerbated by not having access to the regular health care they needed, whether their medical facility was closed or they didn’t want to risk exposure. COVID also forced a more sedentary lifestyle that helped contribute to the increase in depression.

Acupuncture has been used to support mental health for thousands of years. At City Garden Community Acupuncture, I have seen the drastic effects treatments can have on depression, anxiety, insomnia, and PTSD. After acupuncture patients feel more calm, both physically and mentally. They report sleeping better and having more mental clarity.

With every treatment, acupuncture will reduce muscle tension and decrease your heart rate. Acupuncture also supports digestion and appetite, and improves the quality of sleep. A person is able to function better and has more ability to deal with daily stressors. These are the variables to overall health and quality of life. When these are strong, anxiety and depression will be reduced.

Expectations from Acupuncture

Although you will feel good after an acupuncture treatment, it will take numerous sessions to obtain lasting effects. The treatments should be close in frequency in order to make progress and you may need to keep it up for weeks or even months, depending on the severity your symptoms. Once you start feeling good and it lasts from treatment to treatment, it’s time to taper down the acupuncture until you only come in for the occasional tune up.

Systemic Racism is a Public Health Crisis

“Individual health and disease do not exist and cannot be understood apart from social conditions - particularly injustice, inequality, and the pervasive influence of traumatic stress” (liberationacupuncture.org)

America views itself thru a filter of individualism. The circumstances of our lives are determined by our own abilities. If our situations involve poverty or illness, it’s up to each of us to “pull ourselves up by the bootstraps” to achieve a better life. To perpetuate this American mythology, there are assumptions that are necessary. We have to pretend all of us start with the same resources and have equal opportunity to change the circumstances we’re born into.

There are social determinants of health.  Clean water and adequate food are things one requires to live. How accessible they are depends largely on where one lives and in America, where one lives is greatly determined by the color of one’s skin. Besides food and water, your everyday experience in your environment affects your health. This could be fear for your safety, whether walking down the street or in your own home. It includes having daily racist experiences.

Does the location you live in have adequate health care available? Even if it exists, are you confident in the care and attention you receive there or do you feel racial bias from medical professionals? These oppressive structures lead to huge health disparities for BIPOC – life expectantcies are lower, maternal and infant mortality rates are higher. BIPOC have more chronic medical conditions and will suffer worse outcomes from acute medical illnesses like myocardial infarction and sepsis. BIPOC are kept from accessing their basic needs and this can result in psychological distress and PTSD.

Inherited trauma is also not acknowledged in the “Bootstraps” narrative. BIPOC have faced slavery, Jim Crow, genocide, incarceration and police brutality since the beginning of Colonialism. Never in history to the present has there been a moment to heal. Violence, psychological stress, and PTSD is passed down generation after generation, adding to the obstacles that BIPOC have to navigate to try and change the cycle of poverty an American system does not want them to break.

Acupuncture is a medicine that treats physically, emotionally and spiritually. It can be used preventativly or to treat both chronic and acute conditions.  By receiving treatment in a group, keeping costs low and without the interference of insurance companies or government, acupuncture becomes a source of social justice. Community acupuncture is about accessibility to healing and addressing America’s condition of white supremacy.

Community Acupuncture, "the Commons" of the Modern Day

First off, what am I referring to when I say  ‘The Commons”? This is an old term, used for centuries in England to describe the public lands that peasants used to grow food, raise livestock, and to socialize. It was essential to their livelihood and to their tightness as a community.  Occasionally, the rich would try and absorb these public spaces into their own lands, making peasants pay for its use. This would work for a while, until the landowners’ greed was too much and the peasants would revolt, taking back what was theirs to begin with.

Fast forward to the modern day and not much has changed. Betsy Devos is trying to profit off of public education. Donald Trump is trying to use executive orders to open national forests to logging. It is the privatization of resources that belong to the people as a whole. It’s the abuse of power to generate a profit while exploiting the planet and its inhabitants.

Where does community acupuncture fit into all of this?

It is the reclaiming of space. Communal space. City Garden Community Acupuncture is a shared resource between all its patients. When we are all together in the treatment room with the acupuncture needles in, we are collectively managing our health. City Garden Community Acupuncture is supported by us and no other entity, not insurance and not drug companies. It’s every patient doing their part and participating in our community.

Save the Ave!

Like every neighborhood in Seattle, the U-District is transforming. Old buildings are knocked down and shiny new ones take their place. Stomping ground we know so well becomes unrecognizable overnight.

Zoning changes have brought in the construction crews, but University Way NE, or The Ave, has remained untouched. This is due to the efforts of the U District Small Businesses and U District Advocates, who delayed the vote for zoning around The Ave, as it is a slice of history and home to many eclectic businesses that would not be able to remain if redevelopment happens (this includes our beloved City Garden Community Acupuncture!). This vote delay will expire this fall and it will be time for the Seattle City Council to make their decision. There's still time to have our voices heard!

Sign the petition to Save the Ave by following this link, or join us for a rally at Big Time Brewery & Alehouse on August 10th from 5-9pm!

Help End Family Separation

FRIDAY MAY 10th from 2-6pm

When you come in for an acupuncture treatment on May 10th, all payments will go directly to the Texas Civil Rights Project.

The Texas Civil Rights Project (texascivilrightsproject.org) is on the front line at the border. They provide much needed social and legal services to immigrant children that have been separated from their parents and held in U.S. custody. The Texas Civil Rights Project works tirelessly to bring humane treatment to these children and to get them back to their families. To help raise money for their efforts, City Garden Community Acupuncture will be open for a special day.