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stress

Acupuncture as you age

March 20, 2018 by Robert Gracey Leave a Comment

Getting older can stink (and none of us are unsusceptible)! As a medical provider, it can be a real challenge to treat an older patient. More than half of adults age 65 or older have 3 or more medical problems, such as heart disease, diabetes, arthritis, Alzheimer’s disease, or high blood pressure. That’s not even taking into consideration the general aches of growing older and the devastating effects of mental decline.

But does getting older really have to stink? Not necessarily. For instance, an improvement in any one aspect of health can alter (or even reverse) the progression of other physical or mental issues. Personally, as I’ve aged, my annual physical indicators (vitals, lifestyle review, targeted lab testing, to name some) have stabilized or even continued to get better. The simple solution is to be vigilant in maintaining balance in all areas of life, such as regular exercise, good dieting, and time for rest, relaxation and enjoyment with those things most dear to us.

Further, holistic medicine can make a difference for maintaining better balance. It works by targeting the many facets of health, and it’s proving to be a viable treatment option and pain reliever for geriatric patients.

Acupuncture can help heart disease, diabetes, high blood pressure, and Alzheimer’s disease

Yes, it’s true! UCLA researchers found over 10 years ago that acupuncture treatment showed promising help in significantly lowering stress and improving heart function in the very sickest heart failure patients. Further comprehensive research is underway by the lead UCLA author, Holly Middlekauff, MD, to study “if acupuncture decreases adrenaline levels in heart failure, thereby potentially improving survival and quality of life.” Researchers also found “acupuncture equally effective for the treatment of hypertension as…a pharmaceutical medication used for the treatment of high blood pressure and angina.”

Additionally, Alzheimer’s can often be the largest culprit in compounding physical issues for geriatric patients. After all, if an older man can’t remember to take his heart medication, that can have serious repercussions.

But acupuncture can also play a role in improving health outcomes for those with declining mental capacities. “Two separate studies have shown that acupuncture may be able to help people with Alzheimer’s. In both studies, researchers found that acupuncture could improve the lives of people with the disease by increasing verbal and motor skills and improving their mood and cognitive function.”

Chronic back pain relief

Some common ailments are not even necessarily a sign of illness.

I wasn’t that “old” when I started experiencing chronic back pain, and it’s why I sought out acupuncture. Many geriatric patients experience chronic back pain. In fact, it’s the number 1 reason why people seek out acupuncture. And for good reason.

In 2016, a group of researchers in China studied 751 patients with low back pain. The study was carefully performed measuring each patient’s pain level and functional ability before and after acupuncture treatment. They found that acupuncture may have “a favorable effect on self-report pain and functional limitations in LBP [low back pain] patients.”

Also, in 2012, the New York Times reported that acupuncture in a comprehensive and rigorous analysis of 29 randomized trials involving 17,992 patients led by Dr. Andrew J. Vickers helped reduce back and neck pain, osteoarthritis, chronic headache, and shoulder pain.

There’s no shame in help for pain

If you’re starting to experience the pains of getting older, stop by at our Belmont or Brookline offices. We can talk through what’s bothering you and get you the help you need to reduce pain and prevent the early onset of illnesses.

Filed Under: Acupuncture Tagged With: acupuncture, aging, alzheimer’s, ankle pain, arm pain, bicep pain, broken rib, chest pain, chronic heart failure, contusion, diabetes, elbow pain, femur fracture, finger pain, foot pain, fractured rib, geriatric, golfers elbow, hand pain, heart disease, high blood pressure, hip fracture, injury, injury prevention, intercostal muscle pain, intertrochanteric fracture, knee pain, lateral epicondyle pain, leg pain, lower back pain, medial epicondyle pain, meditation, neck pain, oblique muscle pain, orthopedic, orthopedic acupuncture, pneumothorax, punctured lung, scrape, shoulder pain, strained intercostal muscle, strained muscle, strained oblique muscle, stress, stress reduction, sympathetic nerve activity, tai chi, tendonitis, tennis elbow, tight muscle, trunk pain, upper back pain, wrist pain

How to set a healthy resolution

January 8, 2018 by Robert Gracey Leave a Comment

We’ve all had the best intentions January 1st—to go to the gym, to stop eating sweets, to mediate more, to learn a new language, to spend more time with the family. But for many of us, that resolution doesn’t make it to December 31st. We’re only human, after all!

So how can you keep the momentum going with your New Year’s resolution this year?

Focus on what to do, not what you want

If your resolution is to “get healthier,” great! But that’s not very specific. To get started:

  1. Clarify what the resolution means. Maybe that involves improving your mood, losing weight, or cutting the junk food, or all three!
  2. Find the actions that you can take. Perhaps that means getting your baseline health measurements. Perhaps it’s reading a nutrition book. Or maybe it’s going to the gym three times a week. Once you find a way to turn your resolution into behaviors or actions steps, you’ll find it’s (a little) easier to hold yourself accountable.

Short-term process over long-term progress

Thinking of that big end goal can be very daunting. That can lead to stress and anxiety, which oftentimes sets us back from our goal instead of helping us move forward!

Focus on the process and steps required to get to where you want to go, instead of on the goal itself. For example, it’s far easier (and more self-affirming) to focus and congratulate yourself for going to the gym three times a week than by focusing on your target goal weight or the vague concept of “healthier.”

When you can break your behavior down into smaller chunks of time and be present to the process of what your doing, you’ll feel more empowered while still making progress and likely enjoying the challenge.

Check-in constantly

The best way to evaluate whether your process is working or not is to keep track. Perhaps you find that you don’t get to the gym as much as you’d like because you sleep in frequently. Once you know what’s making your process (and progress) difficult to achieve, you can adjust either the process or your routine to keep yourself on track.

In this example, maybe that means getting to bed earlier.

How Gracey Holistic Health can help

While we can’t help you with every New Year’s resolution, the most popular resolutions focus on health and well-being. Gracey Holistic Health focuses on healing the body, mind, and spirit. With health and lifestyle coaching, we can help you plan out how to reach that resolution. And with offices in Belmont and Brookline, we’re always close by if you need help getting back and staying on track.

Filed Under: Acupuncture Tagged With: diet, exercise, health, holistic, medicine, new year, resolutions, stress

Treat yourself this holiday season

December 18, 2017 by Robert Gracey Leave a Comment

treat yourself

Just because it’s the most wonderful time of the year, doesn’t mean that the holiday season is all holly and lights. Holidays provide an easy way to see how our lives have changed (or haven’t changed) from year to year. They can stir up feelings of sadness, loneliness,  stuckness, and anger. Sometimes, they’re just downright stressful. And that takes a toll on your mental and physical health.

That’s why the greatest gift you can receive this year can’t be wrapped in a bow or put under a tree. But it is one you can give to yourself.

Treat yourself to self-care.

What is self-care?

As we discussed in the last blog post on holistic health, a more comprehensive view of health care should address the whole person – body, mind, and spirit. Self-care is a mode of healing that you can provide to yourself and that can improve your health holistically.

Self-care is about knowing what you need and taking the time to do those things that provide you with meaning, comfort, or joy. It’s about taking care of yourself and being as giving to yourself as you are with others (especially this time of year!). It’s truly about self-empowerment!

Need a list to check twice? Here are some ideas and habits for treating yourself this holiday season.

Start a mindfulness routine

The mental and physical benefits of a mindfulness routine are well documented. New research supported by the National Center for Complementary and Integrative Health and published in the journal Spine even shows that mindfulness-based stress reduction (MBSR) can be a cost-effective treatment for chronic low-back pain.

Starting your routine is as easy as taking a deep breath. Then taking another. Then doing that for 1 minute. I teach all my patients a qigong breathing exercise that brings this to light and serves as a reset for all mind-body systems.

If you want to get more serious about mindfulness, there are a lot of really good mindfulness tools out there. Here are just a few:

  • Headspace
  • InsightTimer
  • Aura

Choose who you spend time with

You can’t pick your family, but you do hopefully have control over who you spend time with. Take the opportunity to grab a cup of joe or tea with an old friend or go for a walk with a close family member. Perhaps you even choose to spend some quality time with yourself!

Find your escape

This doesn’t have to be to the beaches of Tahiti. Perhaps it’s into a really cute cat video on YouTube or into a good book.

Listen to your body

Sometimes our bodies need rest, sometimes our bodies need movement. Take a moment to reconnect with your body and find out what it needs. A really great workout at the gym or even a 20-minute moderately fast paced walk can be just as rejuvenating as an extra hour of sleep.

And if you feel like you need a little extra help, we’re open for business until December 23rd and reopen December 27th. Acupuncture can help treat stress as well as pain.

But if we don’t see you until the new year, from our practice, happy holidays to you and yours!

Filed Under: Acupuncture Tagged With: acupuncture, anxiety, health, holiday, lonely, mood, sadness, stress

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