You’ve probably heard of acupuncture and its health benefits. However, you’ve most likely never come across a specific type of acupuncture that helps people recover from addiction and other mental health issues.
Acupuncture detoxification, also known as “acudetox” or the “NADA protocol,” is a type of ear acupuncture that involves stimulating external points on the ear. This eases symptoms associated with trauma, addiction, stress, and sleep. It also promotes healing in other areas of the body which makes it highly effective as an additional therapy to standard acupuncture treatments. If you’ve been curious as to how acudetox can help you, here are eight reasons for you to give it a go:
- Eases insomnia. A study published in 2003 entitled Complementary Therapies in Medicine proves that acudetox can ease insomnia. In the study, 15 elderly individuals suffering from insomnia were treated with ear acupuncture consecutively for three weeks. The results disclose that the partakers experienced an increase in both the quantity and quality of their sleep, which lasts up to six months after the acudetox treatment ended.
- Treats migraines. Acudetox is also useful in treating migraines and other types of headaches, based on research conducted in 2012. The Acupuncture & Electro-Therapeutics Research reveals that 35 patients with migraine have experienced significant improvements in pain and mood after undergoing two months of weekly ear acupuncture treatments.
- Reduces allergic reactions. The ear acupuncture treatment also has an anti-inflammatory effect. As such, it can prevent allergic reactions such as asthma, allergic sinusitis, colitis, purpura, or rheumatoid fever among many other diseases from happening. This particular acudetox benefit ultimately stimulates the patient’s immune system in order to reduce allergic responses.
- Helps smokers quit the habit. Numerous studies and publications also show acupuncture’s effectiveness as a smoking cessation aid. The Swiss Journal of Research in Complementary and Natural Classical Medicine conducted a one-year research study about 126 smokers who used acudetox treatment. Researchers found out that more than 40% of the total number of subjects who have undergone ear acupuncture refused to smoke at the one year mark. But aside from smoking, acudetox treatment can also help reduce the cravings for drugs and alcohol. This just proves that undergoing ear acupuncture can lead individuals to a healthier lifestyle.
- Reduces stress. Since ear acupuncture is mainly utilized to improve the body’s flow of vital energy, it can effectively reduce stress, anxiety, and depression an individual might be experiencing. When a needle is inserted in the acu-point Shenmen (also known as the “spirit gate”), it can stimulate the release of endorphins and other neurotransmitters. This opens up the nervous system and makes it more responsive to the acupuncture needles, ultimately leading to the immediate effect in relaxing the patient.
- Alleviates pain. If you’re also suffering from pain (whether physical or mental), an acudetox treatment can help relieve you from such agony. It can effectively treat chronic diseases such as low back pain, leg pain, frozen shoulder, and numbness of the extremities. Ear acupuncture also has the ability to reduce swelling, allowing it to treat infectious diseases like ear infection, tonsillitis, or rheumatoid arthritis among many others. It has been proven, though, in the Journal of Alternative and Complementary Medicine, that acudetox is most effective in alleviating postoperative pain.
- Stimulates bowel movement. Apart from treating numerous diseases, an ear acupuncture treatment can also treat constipation, according to the Journal of Alternative and Complementary Medicine. The study found that 29 individuals (suffering from constipation) who used acudetox experienced better bowel movements after the treatment.
- Improves heart health. Lastly, ear acupuncture is proven to improve heart health by having a positive impact on heart rate variability or HRV. HRV simply refers to the body’s ability to regulate the rate and time interval between heartbeats. As such, low HRV in individuals is usually associated with congestive heart failure, diabetic neuropathy, and myocardial infarction. It is also found in patients suffering from high blood pressure and post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). Fortunately, using acudetox can increase a patient’s heart rate variability (HRV) which ultimately helps treat these conditions. Acupuncture detoxification, or acudetox, is a type of acupuncture that helps ease the symptoms associated with trauma, addiction, stress, and sleep. This is done through careful and precise stimulation of the external points on the ear.