10 Ways To Get The Most Out Of Your Acupuncture Treatments
Photo by Chanel Govreau Model Mikaila Cruz
Acupuncture Aftercare Is Sometimes Overlooked
How you take care of yourself after treatment could be a game changer in your healing process. Because Chinese Medicine aims at treating the root and not just symptoms, we have to look at the body as whole to understand how to get back to optimal functioning. Acupuncture should not be looked at as a quick fix or band aid, but as a way to maintain health and prevent illness. The issue is that many people don’t think to seek acupuncture until their condition becomes longstanding and/or severe, which means some bad habits might have gotten you where you are —in desperate need of acupuncture. Acupuncture will still help you in these tough situations but it is much better to work with your treatments rather than against them. We as New Yorkers are all too often used to being impatient, especially with our health. What we have to learn is that running ourselves into the ground, rushing or doing too much got our health into trouble. These might be habits worth changing so that we can maintain our health and wellness for the long term.
Here Are 10 Ways To Get The Most Out Of Your Acupuncture Treatments:
Be more aware of how you feel. Notice how you feel after acupuncture and mark your own improvement. Notice how long your symptoms seem to have lessened and notice when they creep back up and try to discern why. Was it a sleeping position? Stress from work? Something you ate?
Create lifestyle changes along with your treatment plan. I often ask people to reduce or cut out certain foods that are be causing inflammation in the body. Cold, sugary, too spicy, greasy foods should be avoided during a healing process. These are the type of foods that normally are ok in small amounts and once in a while but should not be taken in excess amounts as our culture is prone to. It doesn’t necessarily mean you can never have these things again. We can easily think this is restrictive but the truth is excessive lifestyles can lead to excessive build up in the body. This is something we can work on together to do little by little depending on where you’re at. Lifestyle modifications are not always so easy but will result in lasting effects. This might also look like adjusting your work and computer set up, taking weekly yoga class, or decreasing your screen time at night.
Hydrate and avoid alcohol. It is important to drink plenty of fluids so that your body can flush out what you don’t need. During acupuncture your body will want to naturally detox and staying hydrated will help with this process. Avoid alcohol for the next 24 hours. As your body is detoxing you don’t want to give anything additional to your liver to flush out. If you feel residual soreness or tiredness -refrain from alcohol until it subsides.
Take it easy and rest. It may have seemed like you just laid there during treatment but internally, your body is doing work. Healing requires your energy, which means you should not push yourself afterwards because it will ask your energy to work harder when it should be in a repair and heal mode. No working out until the next day. If you feel soreness after the treatment, up your water intake and wait until the soreness subsides before resuming workouts.
Maintaining the environment of your body is important. Keep yourself warm. After acupuncture, massage, cupping and/or any other type of body work, you should not take a shower or go swimming for 12-24 hours. This allows the treatment to remain in the body undisturbed.
Come in for more frequent treatments at first and follow up according to the treatment plan given to you. Acupuncture is natural and it does not add any substances into your body but it is still medicine. All medicine should be administered over time and you want the effects of each treatment to build over time. Like going to the gym you can’t expect desired results after only one or two visits. Give your body the time it needs to heal.
Meditate. Being able to still and calm the mind will aid your ability to navigate stressful situations with more ease, which ultimately aids the healing process.
Pay attention to some of the things about your body and lifestyle you might not have paid attention before. Sometimes I ask people how their sleep or digestion is and they realize it is not as great as it should be.
Begin to think preventatively. Start noticing and being more aware of your body’s sensitivities and tendencies. This will teach you how to identify when something about your health is out of balance. Coming in for a series of acupuncture visits when you notice things are off, during seasonal changes or when you know you’ll be going through a stressful period will help you get ahead of the game. Learning to take action before your health condition becomes more severe, longer standing or difficult will save you time and money in the long run!
BREATHE better. Yes deep breathes. Set a timer for every hour to pause and take 3 really deep breathes. This is very easy to accomplish! Breathing helps everything circulate and move really well in the body which make you feel immediately good. It is also totally free!
Chinese Medicine is a way of life. There is a lot to reconcile within ourselves because we live in the modern world that draws us further from our natural selves. Simply being aware of this can help you to make small changes to incorporate a little more nature to your daily life.
By Emily Grace Siy, L.Ac.
October 12, 2020