Stress & Anxiety

In today’s world people are more stressed than ever.  Stress impacts all elements of health so finding a release for stress is imperative for a healthy body.

Stress is the body’s natural reaction to harmful situations, whether they are real or perceived.  When you are feeling threatened, a chemical reaction occurs in the body that allows the body to respond quickly to a stress, this is known as ‘fight or flight” which is a stress response.   During this time the heart rate increases, muscles tighten, blood pressure rises, blood flow is focused away from your internal organs and pushed to your extremities, and your breathing quickens, all  this is done so you can react quickly and move to protect yourself. This works great if you are running from a predator, a quick stress release is perfect to keep you safe and then the body can go back to its normal state.  Small doses of stress can help you accomplish other tasks that can keep you from getting hurt, so it can be beneficial for sure.

However, stress becomes problematic when we continually live in a constant state of stress (stress from work, kids, family, money, school, illness, pandemics, etc.).  Stress is detrimental to the body when it is not turned off and people are left functioning in a constant state of ‘fight or flight’.  Stress effects everyone differently so what causes stress in one person may not cause stress in someone else.  Our bodies are only designed to handle small amounts of intermittent stress.  We are simply not equipped to handle long-term, chronic stress without consequences.

When addressing stress, we have found that a multi-therapy approach gets the best results.  We start with acupuncture to calm and rebalance the body, and pull the body into a parasympathetic mode, full of delicious relaxation.  We add herbal formulas and CBD tinctures when needed for additional support.  We also address other things that can be contributing to stress like an poor dietary habits, sleep issues, an unbalanced gut microbiome, or toxin exposure.