When Acupuncture Makes Things Worse
Those of you with complex chronic conditions may have felt this.
An acupuncturist discounting weekly acupuncture? 🤭
For the majority of people, weekly or monthly acupuncture is a glorious part of a healthful life. Blood and lymph are flowing, the immune system is modulating, the stress response is optimal, among many other benefits.
It gives you a high at a mental and cellular level.
Even if there’s soreness right after treatment, it quickly transitions into relief. This is a healthy response.
For a smaller population of people, body acupuncture may make you feel worse or cause a flare-up.
This is usually for those with:
Chronic Fatigue Syndrome/Myalgic Encephalomyelitis
Fibromyalgia
Post-Acute Sequelae of Covid
Burnout
Lyme Disease
Autoimmune Conditions
Undiagnosed Conditions where you feel inflamed, sick with flu-like symptoms, unrested.
Do these conditions eventually benefit from acupuncture?
Yes, very much so. This comes later though.
It comes after the immune and digestive systems have been optimized. Which sounds great but how tf do you do that?
It’s a process. It requires untangling one thread at a time and focusing efforts before getting distracted with the next hurdle. You can do a lot at-home once you know the order and progression.
There is more information on this process here.
Why is acupuncture making you feel weird or worse when you have one of the above conditions?
Acupuncture is another factor for the body to make sense of. Some conditions have been progressing for so long that any input, no matter how “beneficial” for you, wreaks havoc. The straw that broke the camels back.
Other times, the increased blood and lymph flow circulates inflammatory chemicals or microbial entities around even more. This exacerbates symptoms as the body has tried to slow blood flow in an attempt to clean up the invaders as swiftly as possible. This swiftness isn’t happening and there’s just a slow smolder of inflammation. The revving up of blood flow is too intense for the moment the body is in.
There is also the inevitable calm and relaxation that occurs during acupuncture. Obviously this sounds great, but some people are so used to holding on for dear life that the release seems like a threat. The body ceases up further in a attempt to save itself. Muscle, fascial, and mental tension are not an ideal state to live in but the body is defaulting to what it knows. The known is safer than the unknown. Even if the unknown is a far superior place to exist.
A sensitized-state, which exists in all the conditions named above, may see help as a threat. This is why we need a process that’s slow and informed. Building that trust overtime, not forcing it.
Which forms of Traditional Chinese Medicine may this population do well with initially?
Ear acupuncture
Ear seeds
Herbal formulas
The ear is a microsystem of the whole body. It’s also best friends with the vagus nerve. It may seem inconsequential, but stimulating points on the ear, or the ear as a whole, is a fabulous way to effect change within the body.
Herbal formulas, especially when sourced well and tested for quality, are game changers in the conditions mentioned. Plant compounds are selective. Selective to biofilm breakdown, feeding gut bacteria, and modulating inflammatory chemical mediators.
End of the day, acupuncture is great and I’ve seen it help 1000x over, but its use can be more carefully selected in complex chronic conditions. Let’s do some clean-up first.⭐️