How acupuncture actually changes our brain waves and helps us heal

9/27/2022

“You can’t wait for healing to feel wholeness. You have to feel wholeness for that healing to occur.” — Joe Dispenza.

Ok, it's time for some real talk here. People in this late stage pandemic life are more stressed than ever. In the clinic on a day to day basis I'm seeing more anxiety, depression and trouble sleeping than ever before! Yesterday, I treated about 30 patients, and I'm pretty sure half of them are barely sleeping at night. This of course has many different causes, but the outcome is the same; it disrupts the body's ability to heal and restore itself.

Recently, I've started reading Joe Dispenza's amazing book called, "Becoming Supernatural." I HIGHLY recommend reading it if you are interested in how healing can occur in the body through our own efforts to shift our brain waves into a healing and receptive state. This was new information for me, and I was very intrigued!

Below is a chart with the main electrical brain wave patterns that happen in different states of consciousness. As you can see, Beta waves are our waking state, active thinking brain, where Alpha brain waves are when we are awake and relaxed. What really interested me, was when we go into a deeper relaxation state of Theta Brain waves, which are also known as "the healing wave." In theta brain waves, it's a state of relaxation where you aren't quite asleep, but also not quite awake. It is a calm and creative state that is conducive to healing the body. What jumped out at me was that this is how I feel when I get into a deeply relaxed state during acupuncture!

So I got very interested to find out if acupuncture helps shift our brainwaves into a relaxed state for healing. I intuitively knew it did, but was happy to see that science backed me up. Acupuncture points help to take the autonomic nervous system from a state of 'fight or flight' to a more relaxed parasympathetic state of 'rest and relaxation'. During research studies, acupuncture shifted patient's brain waves from Beta, to Alpha and then to Theta brain waves even without any guided mediation or additional relaxation practices! This is so important in understanding how and why acupuncture treatments can help absolutely EVERYONE. By slowing the brainwaves into more coherent theta brainwaves, acupuncture can put the body and brain under the proper condition for healing, and this is seperate and in addition to all of the other ways that acupuncture can bring pain relief, improved blood flow and decreased inflammation to the body. Moral of the story....acupuncture works!!

So acupuncture supports healing, but it's our own brainwaves that are doing the healing! So in addition to acupuncture, anything we do to help our body's mentally and physically relax, will support healing. This includes, mediation, deep breathing, walking in nature, quiet time where we aren't busy, and deep restorative sleep! Sleep takes us even deeper into Delta brainwaves which are very healing since it also stimulates the release of human growth hormone. Delta brain waves have anti-aging properties and support healing and pain relief.

So, if you are feeling stressed and also not sleeping well, remember you are NOT alone, not even close! But what I also want you to understand is that you must prioritize working on improving in both of these categories. Of course acupuncture is an amazing way to help, but we also have some excellent herbs and supplements in the clinic that can support a calmer mind and more restful night!

More than anything, take some time for yourself to relax. Try not to over-book your life and give meditation a try. The benefits are immense! Ask us in the clinic for resources that can support you in getting started!