5 COMMON MYTHS ABOUT ACUPUNCTURE

Acupuncture

Are you considering trying acupuncture?

Acupuncture has been around for over 2,000 years and has been gaining popularity in Britain since the 1970’s. The BBC reported the Queen’s fascination with acupuncture way back in 1999, and today the NHS recommend it for many conditions.

However there is still much confusion around acupuncture, here we dispel five common myths:-

1) Acupuncture is painful

Needles are used but they really aren’t painful, in fact it can be so relaxing that many patients fall asleep during a session.

The needles used are tiny, nothing like injections, and while there may be a slight pinch on insertion, deep relaxation typically occurs within minutes.

2) Acupuncture doesn’t work

There is a growing body of evidence to support the effectiveness of acupuncture for a range of conditions.

The National Institute for Care and Excellence (NICE) recommend it for chronic pain, headaches and migraines but it’s success reaches much further with studies demonstrating it’s benefits for many ‘difficult to treat’ chronic conditions. Information can be found on the British Acupuncture Council website (acupuncture.org.uk)

The key to getting the most out of your treatments is to talk to your practitioner about how many sessions may be required for benefit.

3) It’s a mystical form of voodoo

There is nothing mystical or magical about acupuncture. It is a clinical modality designed to help balance the body’s various interconnected systems.

Modern research studies believe that acupuncture encourages homeostasis by stimulating nerves in the body that then send signals to the brain and other organs to release hormones and chemicals including beta-Endorphins that can relieve pain.

4) Becoming an acupuncturist requires little or no training

This myth couldn’t be further from the truth. To become a fully trained acupuncturist registered with the British Acupuncture Council (www. acupuncture.org.uk) a practitioner must have trained for at least 3 years and obtained an acupuncture degree or similar qualification with the relevant insurance.

Always ask your acupuncturist about the length of their acupuncture-specific training and if they are a member of a professional body such as the British Acupuncture council.

5) Acupuncture is just for pain

It is true that acupuncture does wonders for pain management. However, acupuncture has been shown to reduce other side-effects and conditions including dizziness, headaches and migraines, depression, insomnia, nausea, stress, anxiety, infertility and other gynaecological conditions, the list goes on.

One key benefit of acupuncture is that it can often help with those ‘difficult to treat’ chronic conditions that can make life miserable on a dayto-day basis.

This article was written by Kate Freemantle (www.christchurchacupuncture.co.uk).

Kate is a long-standing member of the British Acupuncture Council with over 15 years’ experience. She always offers a free 15-minute consultation and can be contacted on 0788054593 or email kate@katefreemantle.co.uk

By Dr Armorel Wood

WHY DO WE SLEEP?

WHAT HAPPENS WHEN WE ARE ASLEEP?

HOW DO WE SLEEP BETTER?

Sleep is essential to allow us to recover from the physical and emotional strains of the day and recharge us for the new day ahead. As a generalisation we are awake for 16 hours and sleep for 8 hours- 1/3 of our lives spent asleep!

There are three sleep inducers:

An INTERNAL BODY CLOCK (circadian rhythm) that is set by periods of light and dark

A SLEEP SIGNAL (adenosine) that builds up as we are awake and resets at night

RELAXATION activities as a pre bed routine.

We can adjust our lifestyle in order to maximise the capacity of these inducers to get us, and keep us, asleep. Firstly, we need to get up at approximately the same time each day, even at weekends, to allow the sleep signal time to build up to a maximum by bedtime. We also need to go to bed at approx. the same time each night. i.e., staying awake for the same time period each day.

Diet, dark/light exposure and temperature can interfere with this process. Caffeine blocks the effects of adenosine the sleep signal and that is how it keeps us awake. Therefore, if you have trouble sleeping you should not have caffeinated drinks after about 2pm. Alcohol in the evening although it may make us sleepy ultimately messes with the quality of our sleep so should be limited to one unit with our early evening meal. Eating at regular times also helps our internal body clock so it is best to have breakfast on waking and our main meal at lunch with a light early evening meal. Our eyes have receptors that are sensitive to morning sunlight and evening sunlight so exposing ourselves to natural full spectrum light as early as possible by doing a short walk for about 30 minutes and again in the early evening helps the sleep-wakesleep cycle. At bedtime our bodies like to be cool, this can be achieved by a hot bath/shower which causes the skin to vasodilate and our bodies to lose heat. Bedrooms need to be about 17 degrees; a dark, tidy and quiet place, a safe, comfortable haven to relax. Bedtime routines including turning all screens off one hour before bed and those that include meditation, reading, music, breathing exercises or yoga all help set us up for a better night.

There are three phases of sleep that occur in cycles throughout the night. The phases include:

DEEP SLEEP which cleans and refreshes the nerve pathways in the brain and refreshes the tissues in our bodies.

REM/DREAM SLEEP that acts to process and reset our emotions from the day.

LEARNING SLEEP that helps store and consolidate memories and learning from the previous day.

We have 4-5 cycles of these sleep phases each night with most of our deep sleep before 3am and most of our REM sleep after 3am. After each cycle we wake momentarily (which we may not remember). Thus, a total of 10 min awake at night with 20 min falling asleep is considered normal.

If you have trouble sleeping, try not to worry about being awake as this leads to outpouring of stress hormones and puts your body on high alert. You need to try and change your expectations of being in bed to expect to fall asleep away from expecting to stay awake. Enjoy resting and relaxing, bring your thoughts back to the here and now and focus on your senses and what you can feel, practise your breathing, count, use calm music, sleep podcasts, familiar audiobooks with headphones.

Do not worry about being awake as this leads to outpouring of stress hormones and puts your body on high alert. The more you worry about not falling asleep the more you wake yourself up! You need to change your expectations of being in bed to expect to fall asleep away from expecting to stay awake. Enjoy resting and relaxing practise your breathing, count, use calm music, familiar audiobooks. You ideally need to lie in bed with your eyes closed in a state of quiet wakefulness while waiting for sleep to come. Instead of fighting to get to sleep you need to practise accepting the fact that you are still awake and welcome any unwanted thoughts or sensations instead of resisting them. It is the struggle with wakefulness that does the damage not the wakefulness itself. Any attempts to fight, or avoid your insomnia signals your brain that you are being threatened in some way. This automatically triggers your innate survival response and prepares your mind and body for fight or flight and alert wakefulness so you need to change your relationship with your thoughts rather than struggle to change them. Accepting and welcoming your insomnia is the key to getting you back to sleep!

Dr Armorel Wood Private Counsellor

M: 07765 915 211

E: woodarmorel@gmail.com

W: mapletreetherapy.org.uk