Surviving the Cold and Flu Season with Acupuncture
While the misery of cold and flu season may be inevitable for some, one thing is changing: where we look for relief.
Acupuncture to Get Better Faster
The first thing to cross your mind when you feel that tickle in the back of your throat probably isn’t calling your local acupuncturist, but perhaps it should be. Acupuncture treatments are known to relieve all the symptoms associated with a cold or flu virus, including chills, fever, body aches, runny nose, congestion, sore throat, and cough. In addition to bringing immediate relief, treatments will reduce the incidence of an upper respiratory infection and shorten the length of the illness. Best of all, acupuncture is a natural remedy and has none of the troublesome side effects that you would typically experience using common cold medicines.
Acupuncture for Prevention
Before you get sick, get a treatment! Acupuncture and Oriental medicine can prevent colds and flu by strengthening the immune system with just a few needles inserted into key points along the body's energy pathways. In TCM (Traditional Chinese Medicine), disease prevention first addresses the protective layer around the exterior of the body called Wei Qi, or defensive energy. Since the Wei Qi is the first line of defense, the first barrier germs and disease must penetrate, it must be fortified against infection; when the Wei Qi falls, the body falls. If you catch colds easily, have low energy, and require a long time to recuperate from an illness, your Wei Qi may be deficient.
Acupuncture Point: Du 14 and Building Immunity
In acupuncture, we talk about points, along the body’s energy highways, that can be stimulated to promote healing elsewhere in the body. When seeking to build immunity in the body, the most important point to attend is Du 14, located below the spinous process of the seventh cervical vertebrae, approximately where the collar of a T-shirt sits on the neck. Du 14 activates the circulation of blood and Qi to strengthen the outer defense layers of the skin and muscle (Wei Qi). This point is often used to prevent, as well as shorten, the duration of colds and flu. The great, immune-building effects of treating point Du 14 can last several months.
Seasonal acupuncture treatments, just four times a year, not only prevent viral illness from invading the body, but also serve to tone the inner organ systems and correct minor symptoms before they become serious problems.
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