By Mark Larsen, Licensed Acupuncturist, Natural Health Center

Can acupuncture help treat chronic conditions and, in doing so, prevent serious diseases from taking hold? Well … can it? While most people associate the practice of acupuncture with managing pain and treating muscular-skeletal conditions, using the principles of Classic Chinese Medicine, it holds the potential for doing so much more.

Seeking ways to promote wellness, and preventing trouble down the road, not only informs the long-term goals of my acupuncture treatments, but is something I think and read about as it pertains to the way our culture views and treats illness.

Unless you are someone who recently crawled out from under a rock, you most certainly are aware that eating mindfully, getting more sleep, exercising regularly … blah, blah, blah … leads to healthier outcomes. The “blahs” above are not at all an attempt to discount these important suggestions; rather it’s my way of pointing out that while we are awash in information, many of us struggle with acting upon the well-intended and readily available advice.

So, instead of a lecture, I’ll offer three brief anecdotes from my practice that illustrate ways in which acupuncture helped people find the agency to make change in their lives, and, in doing so, are preventing serious illness down the road.

Patient 1: Finding calm in the chaos

A middle-aged male came in seeking help managing his blood pressure. His work environment was a pressure-cooker that involved the need to make quick decisions with consequences attached. Before receiving acupuncture, the endless flow of hot-button, time-sensitive issues that came at him kept him in a near-constant state of stress. After receiving four acupuncture treatments, he reported an instance of an especially volatile situation coming up that illustrates the change in his health. Instead of feeling the usual rising stress, leading to a likely increase of blood pressure, his reaction was pleasantly matter-of-fact and calm. Another change he was able to make was eliminating the nightly ritual of having the one to two drinks he relied on to calm himself, and switching to one “something” on Friday evening. And his blood pressure readings reduced 10-15 points throughout the day.

Patient 2: Breaking free from isolation

A middle-aged woman came in looking for help for a whole litany of health complaints: neck pain, traveling pain throughout her body, aching joints, lack of appetite with gas and bloating. She shared that her continued pandemic habit of isolation was not helping her anxiety and depression. She felt stuck in that mode and, to calm her mind, she had adopted a daily pot habit. After receiving a few acupuncture treatments, she had tapped into the will to quit her habit, had dusted off her running shoes and resurrected her love of running. Her optimism and renewed vitality were obvious, and the aches she now felt were of the type that accompanies muscles being used again and were nothing like the dull, constant aches she had been dealing with for several years.

Patient 3: From chronic pain to wellness

The third patient fits more into the category of someone who uses her treatments for preventative purposes. Being new to acupuncture, she carried a healthy skepticism, but was open-minded to whatever might help her after having spent years trying to clear up chronic sinus infections, UTIs and rash that multiple rounds of antibiotics and topical steroids had failed to cure. Additionally, she had chronic hip pain. In her personal life, she was adjusting to many changes: retirement, a new marriage and coordinating care remotely for her mother with whom she had always had a strained relationship.

Flashing forward two and a half years, with her hip pain gone and being free from sinus infections and UTIs, she has gained insight into the stressors in her life. Her once very irritating rash transformed into mild itches that develop with heightened stress, and now serve as a reminder that she needs to come in for acupuncture.

Two reading recommendations on chronic illness

Two readings I love that deal with treating and preventing chronic illness are:

1. The Connection Cure, by Julia Hotz. The main focus of this book is to encourage a change in mindset when providing care to patients with chronic illness. She wants to flip the script from asking patients “What’s the matter with you?” to “What matters to you?” Hotz describes that some other countries are prescribing and actually paying for opportunities to engage people in what matters to them by connecting them to Movement, Nature, Art, Belonging and Service. Here is an interview with her will make you want to read this important book.

2. Becoming Healthy, Staying Healthy, by Ann Cecil-Sterman. This great little book offers 56 succinct tips inspired by insight into Chinese Medical theory on health gleaned from the author’s decades of experience in Classical Chinese Medicine. The author is someone I have studied with and who has helped me deepen my practice. In an effort to empower patients to take up their own healthy practice, I have several copies of this book, several of which are out on loan. Oh, and she writes in a way that is not at all “blah, blah, blah”… :)

About Mark Larsen, Licensed Acupuncturist

Mark is a licensed and national board-certified acupuncturist in Anchorage who uses the wisdom of Five Element tradition to help patients of all ages optimize health and access vitality. Mark uses sparse and gentle needle insertion to stimulate positive change. His goal is always to alleviate immediate health concerns while also correcting root problems that are impeding the body’s healthy functioning.

Learn more about Mark Larsen and acupuncture at Natural Health Center, or contact us to schedule your appointment!

Acupuncture: A Path to Wellness and Chronic Disease Prevention