Stress & Anxiety
- Stress and anxiety are increasingly common, and many people find that the pressures of modern life can affect their sleep, energy levels, digestion, mood and overall wellbeing.
While stress can sometimes help us focus and respond to challenges, ongoing periods of stress may leave us feeling overwhelmed, exhausted or unable to switch off. Over time, this can affect both physical and mental health.
When we experience stress, the body’s “fight or flight” response becomes activated. This is a normal physiological response designed to help us respond to challenges or perceived threats. Heart rate increases, breathing changes and energy is redirected towards systems that help us respond to immediate demands.
While this response can be helpful in the short term, many people today experience ongoing stressors such as work pressures, financial concerns, caring responsibilities and busy lifestyles. Over time, this can leave people feeling stuck in a heightened state of alertness, making it harder to relax, sleep well and recover.
Many people choose acupuncture as part of their approach to managing stress and supporting emotional wellbeing. Acupuncture is commonly used alongside other approaches, including lifestyle changes, counselling, psychological therapies and conventional medical care.
People may seek acupuncture support for:
- – Stress and overwhelm
- – Anxiety and excessive worry
- – Difficulty switching off
- – Sleep distubances
- – Fatigue and burnout
- – Physcial tension and muscle tightness
- – Digestive symptoms
- – Feeling emotionally depleted or overwhelmed
Acupuncture for stress and anxiety: the evidence
Research has explored the use of acupuncture for stress, anxiety and emotional wellbeing, and a number of studies have reported favourable findings relating to the ways in which acupuncture may influence the body’s stress response and nervous system regulation.
Studies have explored whether acupuncture may:
- – Influence areas of the pain associated with pain processing, stress regulation and relaxation (Hui 2010)
- Affect neurotransmitters and hormones involved in mood regulation, including serotonin, dopamine, GABA and noradrenaline (Lee 2009; Samuels 2008; Zhou 2008; Yuan 2007)
- – Influence activity within the autonomic nervous system nervous system, including pathways associated with relaxation and recovery (Arranz 2007)
- – Affect inflammatory markers that have been associated with stress and anxiety-related symptoms (Arranz 2007)
- – Influence behavioural and physiological responses to stress in experimental models (Kim 2009)
