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Headaches & how acupuncture can help

Acupuncture NIrvana

There are various types of headaches – tension, tight upper back or/and neck pain, sinus headaches, cluster, hormonal, liver vertex, blood deficiency headaches etc. Many factors can play into why someone is getting headaches. These includes your emotional health, excessive work, social activities and exercise, diet, hormones, physical health and constitution. Acupuncturists take a whole body approach to health, so we ask where the headache is, what your triggers are, the times it occurs and how often, and specific symptoms that occur when the headache does.

During a headache treatment, your acupuncturist listens to your symptoms, looks at your tongue and pulse, and creates a treatment plan to restore the body’s balance and energy flow. Your acupuncturist then uses single use fine sterile needles on different points. The points may be related to specific organs, or they may be points to release muscular tension, or calm down screaming nerves.

The benefit of using Acupuncture and CM) to treat headaches is that it offers a safe and effective approach to relieving pain, without causing harmful side effects. If you are using headache medications in addition to acupuncture, the benefit is that the acupuncture can treat the root cause of the headaches, while the medications manage the pain and discomfort they cause.

We may suggest lifestyle changes depending on the root cause, like if food tends to be a trigger, or posture, or we may suggest reducing stress by adding in breathing exercises, yoga, hot baths, etc. Over 50 million people suffer from headaches – you are not alone. But you also have the power to do acupuncture and other things to help make your life easier when managing them!

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Stuffy noses and Mucus…and what acupuncture can do for it.

Acupuncture NIrvana

Every day, glands in the linings of your nose, throat, airways, stomach, and intestinal tract produce mucus. Mucus is a thick, wet substance that moistens these areas and helps trap and destroy foreign invaders like bacteria and viruses before they cause infection. Normally, you don’t notice the mucus from your nose because it mixes with saliva, drips harmlessly down the back of your throat, and you swallow it.  But sometimes there is so much of it that it becomes overwhelming and you get a runny nose, sinusitis, or terrible allergies.

In acupuncture, one of the theories behind this dysfunction of too much mucus is a weakened digestion.  Whenever the digestion weakens the excess becomes excess mucus somewhere in the body.  Acupuncture treats this by doing digestive points like stomach 36, or actual points on the belly, mixed with points to target the problem.  If it’s a stuffy nose or sinusitis, we do points on the sinus glands. 

If it’s allergies, this can also be a form of “wind invasion” and we do points to move wind out of the body, like Large Intestine 4 and Gallbladder 20.  Sometimes you may have gotten over a cold, but you still have a stuffy nose and then we do points to help boost your body’s immune system, strengthen it’s defenses, and local points to clear out any “stuck mucus” that may have hardened and now is creating blockages.

There are always strategies behind where we place the needles.  The idea is that mucus overwhelming the body is a disharmony, and we are attempting to bring the body back into balance so mucus can function in the way it’s meant to – as protection in the body.

PC: Unsplash

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Acupuncture for Digestion Problems

Acupuncture NIrvana

There’s a lot of organs involved in digestion.  The stomach, liver, gallbladder and pancreatic organs and small and large intestines all play a part.

Symptoms like bloating, constipation, diarrhea, nausea, cramping, and abdominal pain are all indications that things are not moving through the digestive tract efficiently. 

Acupuncture can stimulate movement in the intestines when things get stuck.  It can reduce inflammation in the stomach when there is acid reflux.  It can reduce pain and inflammation when there is pain in the belly and help bloating and indigestion.

Acupuncture can help by balancing the gut-brain axis and the nervous system to reduce stress, which in turn improves digestive function (One of the side effects of an overactive sympathetic nervous system in “fight or flight” is decreased digestive function).

Acupuncture is a great tool to help regulate the digestion, along with dietary changes and stress reduction.  Every person is different so figuring out what is going on and trying different things that can help is ideal.  Acupuncture is one of the tools to use when trying to help things improve! 

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What can acupuncture do to help a woman who is pregnant?

Acupuncture NIrvana

What can acupuncture do to help a woman who is pregnant?  Treatments during pregnancy can help handle the nausea/morning sickness and the discomfort of pregnancy. The goal of pregnancy acupuncture is to continue miscarriage prevention but to also help the mother continue with the best state of health while the baby is growing.  The goal is also to have an easier birth and a healthy mother and baby after the birth.

A recent pubmed study showed some positive results with acupuncture for pregnant women: The summarized findings indicated a small but growing body of acupuncture research, with some evidence suggesting a benefit from acupuncture to treat nausea in pregnancy. Findings from the review also highlighted promising evidence for the effectiveness of acupuncture to manage back and pelvic pain, acupuncture-type interventions to induce change in breech presentation, and pain relief in labor. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/19747272/

PC: Unsplash – Devon Divine

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Kidney 7 – Returning Current

Acupuncture NIrvana

Kidney 7 is my very favorite point to release the iliopsoas muscle when it is tight and is causing hip, back or leg pain.  It’s also a very big point to bring body fluids into balance – so it’s great for edema, urination issues, excessive sweating, night sweats.  On a deeper level when a patients yin is depleted this point can help – so it’s nicknamed “returning current”.

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Acupuncture Is Essential

Acupuncture NIrvana

With the increase in COVID cases and the variant being found in Saratoga Springs we understand that it can be scary to go anywhere. Acupuncture Nirvana is considered ESSENTIAL and will not be closing. Our goal is to treat pain, anxiety and addiction and to keep people out of the ER or having to visit their doctor. And we are here for all the usual issues, from infertility to indigestion.

We prescreen via a phone call 48 hours before an appointment, and 24 hours via email. When you enter for your appointment your temperature and O2 are taken and you are again asked COVID questions by the front desk. Then you are escorted to your private room for a treatment. Your practitioner is then notified by the front desk and meets you in your room. All bathroom facilities are cleaned after each and every patient. All treatment rooms have all linens changed and all surfaces disinfected between each and every patient, and an air purifier is in each room, reception and staff room to purify the air of viruses. At this point both providers have done the first covid vaccination. Everyone is masked during the treatment. So I think it’s safe to say we are at the level of a doctors office and if you need the help we provide, you can feel assured that it will be as safe as a doctors office. We want you to know we are here for you, and are taking every precaution to keep you safe. We understand that pain does not pause, and are here for you. ❤️Acupuncture Nirvana

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Nourishing the kidneys during wintertime

Acupuncture NIrvana

The Kidneys are crucially important to our overall health and well being. These kidney bean shaped organs have a list of tasks to complete during the day, including controlling blood pressure by releasing hormones, controlling red blood cell production, balancing fluids, returning vitamins and minerals to the bloodstream, excreting drugs and waste products, balancing acidity and managing the amount of blood in circulation!

Winter is the time when we tend to reduce our activity, which helps the Kidneys to rest and recuperate. But what happens according to chinese medicine when we don’t rest and are kidney qi/yang becomes deficient?

~ tiredness/exhaustion
~ cold feet
~ swollen ankles
~ a lack of drive or motivation
~ shortness of breath on exertion
~ oedema
~ low back pain/knee pain/bone issues
~ asthma which is worse with cold weather
~ fear/ scary dreams/ fear of change
~ incontinence
~ irregular menstruation or infertility
~ craving salty foods,
~ Struggling to warm up (touch your lower back with the back of your hands to see if the skin is cold)

Stay tuned for the next post on how to strengthen our kidney qi/yang during the winter time. Thank you to https://www.yasminhodgeacupuncture.co.uk/post/foods-to-nourish-kidney-qi-yang for great advice for this post!

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We are officially out of network as of 10/29/24 from BCBS in all circumstances.

Acupuncture NIrvana

While our termination date was actually earlier in the year, BCBS has some issues with not getting the paperwork done despite our confirmation that it was received in February 2024, and we have had mixed results with some patients being paid in network and some only paid if they submit out of network.

I’m so sorry for the confusion. I did hire a service to verify we our out of network in all situations and they have confirmed it via a document from BCBS.

You may still have out of network benefits with BCBS – and while you do have to pay up our cash rate, we then give you a superbill to submit to BCBS for reimbursement. Thanks!