Month: September 2016

The “Real” Reason We Throw Out Our Backs and Strain Muscles

On By austinacupuncturejasonIn UncategorizedLeave a comment

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I hear it just about every day at the office; “All I did was bend over to pick something off the floor” or “all I did was get out of the car”, “all I did was…”. In almost every case that someone comes to me to help relieve their strain or sprain pain, it wasn’t because they were doing anything difficult. No, just by doing everyday normal movements, they hurt themselves. This confuses many people because picking up a piece of paper from the floor should not be enough to send them to the doctor. But it does.

The real reason our muscles and joints betray us like this is because they are weak, tired and not able to hold ourselves together as they once were. The muscles of our body become weaker with age (don’t take it personally; it happens to all of us starting at the age of about 24). The only way to prevent the occasional strains and strains and muscle pulls is to strengthen our muscles from head to toe preventatively. That’s right; the dreaded exercise! Any activity to get the blood moving and the muscles working is great. Weight bearing exercises are especially good in preventing arthritis and osteoporosis. So make it a priority to get 20 minutes of moderate physical activity every day, no matter what your age. It will not only lessen your chance of pain from here on out, but it will “recharge your batteries” and give you the vitality and energy everyone will be envious of.
Remember, we’re here for you, ready to be a major part of your healthy lifestyle. Call us and we promise to treat you the way you should be treated, without being rushed and without making you “just another number.”

On By austinacupuncturejasonIn UncategorizedLeave a comment

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Greetings! Welcome to my favorite time of the year: Back To School! I know that sounds funny, but what I mean is that this is the time of the year that the air starts to turn crisp and refreshing and we all get to put away the sandals and shorts and pull out our comfy sweaters for those cool summer nights… heaven.

This is also the time of the year that nature begins to prepare for the long winter ahead. It is the time when things ripen and fatten and get juicy. Just think of the apples and pumpkins and squash that we can all enjoy in the coming months.

This is also the time of the year to return back to a steady routine. During summer, it feels like there is no set schedule… with odd bed times and wake up times for the kids NOT in school and the various vacations and day trips summer brings, it is hard to find a routine during these past summer months… Its discombobulating.

Now that the kids are back in school, we can all have routine. They say that “who” we are and “what” we are and “how” we are is simply the sum total of our daily routines. So if you want to change something about how you feel, just start by changing one or two of your daily habits.
Jason

Snoring & Sleep Apnea

On By austinacupuncturejasonIn Conditions We Treat, UncategorizedLeave a comment

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Stop Snoring!
And
Get a Good Night’s Sleep!

Why Do Some People Snore?

Is Snoring a Health Problem?

What Can Be Done About It?

Sleep Apnea and Snoring

Chronic Snoring/Sleep Apnea affects an estimated 1 in 4 people in this country.
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Snoring can effect the spouse just as much as the snorer.
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Recent University studies have even linked snoring to a 5 fold increased risk of cancer and heart disease.
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About half of those patients who have been given CPAP machines no longer use them because of the hassle & discomfort.
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Acupuncture has been shown to reduce “apnea events” by 49% after even a single session of acupuncture.
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A short course of 6 sessions seems to produce the greatest, longest lasting benefit for most people.

 

Dear Friend,
As anyone who has a snoring spouse can tell you, the sleepless nights, tired feeling during the day and general loss of restful sleep can be a major frustration; often even causing frayed nerves & tensions in the marriage. Not only do the people around the person who snores suffer, but the snoring person can also experience severe fatigue during the day because they are not sleeping restfully at night. Recent University studies have even linked snoring to increased incidence of cancer and heart disease (possibly due to the lack of oxygen throughout the night).

Snoring affects an estimates 50 million people in this country. It can be an indicator of a serious condition known as sleep apnea (interruption of breathing during sleep) and has be even associated with hypertension, stroke, cancer and heart and lung problems.

Now there is an easy and effective solution for the problem of snoring and sleep apnea. You can read about this simple and affordable treatment in this pamphlet. Feel free to call us at (507) 434-8700 with any of you questions.

There is something you can do about it!

What Causes Snoring?

Almost everyone snores from time to time. For some, it’s simply an annoyance, for other’s a serious problem. Most snoring occurs when the jaw and tongue relax and partially block the air way at the back of the throat. This forces the body to inhale at an increased pressure causing soft tissues of the throat to vibrate and produces the noise called snoring. It has been estimated that one in four people are frequent to chronic snorers. Heavy snoring is often a symptom of sleep apnea (apnea comes from the Greek work “apnoia”, which means “without breath”.

Snoring, Fatigue and Sleep Apnea- Are They Related?
Do you wake up feeling nearly as tired as when you went to bed? Experience fatigue for no apparent reason? Do you have trouble staying awake after a meal? Wake up with headaches or unusual feelings of thirst?” If so, you may be experiencing sleep apnea. This condition causes a person to literally stop breathing during sleep. It can happen up to 70 times per hour. The continual interruption of needed sleep (and oxygen) results in fatigue which can become chronic. You end up feeling tired and irritable much of the time, even though you got 8 hours of “sleep”.
The Symptoms of Sleep Apnea
The causes of sleep apnea and snoring are similar. Then the air channels become restricted enough, breathing is interrupted and can even stop. This prevents vital oxygen from filling the lungs. This causes oxygen in the bloodstream to drop and makes the heart work much harder than it should in order to circulate what oxygen there is in the blood. Blood pressure goes up and the heart begins beating irregularly.

Others Suffer Too
We all know how important a good night’s sleep is to our health and well being and unrestful sleep can disrupt our lives in many ways.
In addition to the very real health concerns, noted above, the lives of those who live with someone who snores can be disrupted as well. Ask any spouse who lays awake at night, unable to sleep because of a loved one’s snoring and you’ll know the person snoring is not the only one who suffers.

What Can Be Done?
Treatments for snoring and sleep apnea have existed for some time. Unfortunately, most are very expensive, unwieldy and sometimes require surgery.

About half of those patients who have been given CPAP machines no longer use them because of the annoyance they quickly found them to be.

But now there is a painless, affordable and extremely effective way to stop snoring and get a good night’s sleep. Acupuncture has been shown is several clinical studies to be very effective at reducing snoring and sleep apnea, leading to a better nights rest. Acupuncture has been shown to reduce “apnea events” by 49% after even a single session of acupuncture. Perhaps that is why many patients who come in for other complaints often report back that they got the best nights sleep in years.

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While even a single session of acupuncture can dramatically reduce snoring and sleep apnea and restore a restful night sleep, a short course of 6 sessions seems to produce the greatest, longest lasting benefit for most people, with occasion “tune-ups” thereafter.
Many people say that they’ve never been so rested and energetic before. Even if you already wear a CPAP or been treated with dental appliances or another treatments, you can still receive this special stop snoring treatment at our office.

Don’t put up with fatigue and frustration for a moment longer. Call our office today at 434-8700 and schedule your appointment. You’ll be glad you did.

Austin Acupuncture Clinic
Acupuncture • Oriental Medicine • Herbal Pharmacy
Jason Richard L.Ac.
115 4th Ave NE Austin, MN 55912
(507) 434-8700

Simple Relief For Restless Legs

On By austinacupuncturejasonIn Conditions We TreatLeave a comment

Simple Relief for Restless Legs

What Is Restless Leg Syndrome?

Is RLS a Health Problem?

What Can Be Done About It?

What is Restless Legs Syndrome?

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“Creepy, crawly, unpleasant tugging and pulling.”

These are some of the ways people with RLS describe the sensations preventing them from relaxing and get a good night sleep.

RLS is not just an annoyance, it is often a sign of potentially severe underlying neurological and hormonal dysfunction in the body that if left unchecked, will continue to manifest as an increasing number of health problems.

You can think of Restless Legs as a warning light on the dash board of your car… an annoyance. Perhaps something you may be able to ignore for a while. But like a warning light in your car, this signal is an early warning of something critically wrong and if left unchecked will escalate into more severe problems rather quickly.

Simply by going to the doctor and getting medications which dumb down the nerves to hide the symptoms does nothing to actually correct the problem. It would be as if you pull the bulb from the warning light to make it stop flashing its warning.

What Can Be Done?
Thankfully there is a simple and affordable option for those suffering with Restless Leg Syndrome. Acupuncture has been shown to reduce or eliminate symptoms of RLS in 91.1% of clinical study participants without causing any unwanted side effects. And what is even better… those results lasted months on end with no follow up treatments needed. Mirapex must be used daily.

Acupuncture Is The Treatment of Choice For RLS.

Acupuncture is so effective that we have seen many patients come in to be treated for some other problem but quickly see improvement in their restless leg symptoms.

Generally, treatment for restless leg syndrome requires what might be considered by some to be a significant amount of treatment to give lasting results. Typically we see patients for a total of 12 visits to address this otherwise impossible to solve problem. Those twelve visits are done over just a few short weeks, and patients routinely start seeing improvements after just a 2-3 treatments.

Unfortunately, what sometimes happens is that after a patient sees the first signs of improvement, or gets their first quiet night of sleep, they erroneously believe that the therapy has cured them of their problem and that they can simply quit their remaining sessions of acupuncture.

Like a good doctor encouraging their patient to finish all 10 days of their antibiotics, I always encourage my patients to finish their entire course of treatment even after their symptoms disappear. By doing this, we can, often times completely address the underlying issues which causes the symptom and prevent it from returning weeks or months later.

If you or someone you love is dealing with Restless Legs, or having an otherwise difficult night of sleep, I encourage you to give us a call. We love helping our patients and their friends and relatives through their tough times by getting them feeling better fast! Call us, and we will assist you in putting together a customized treatment plan. It’s not an expensive luxury anymore! With our affordable fees, it’s less expensive than you think!

 

Don’t put up with fatigue and frustration for a moment longer. Call our office today at 434-8700 and schedule your appointment.

You’ll be glad you did.

Peripheral Neuropathy

On By austinacupuncturejasonIn Conditions We Treat, UncategorizedLeave a comment

Find relief from
● Burning & Tingling
● Numbness
● Sharp stabbing pain
● Insomnia & fatigue
● Muscle weakness
● Side effects from prescribed Rx
peripheral-neuropathy

Whether your peripheral neuropathy is originally caused by diabetes, chemotherapy or is of unknown origin, acupuncture can significantly reduce the signs of peripheral neuropathy (PN).

It is estimated that 20 million Americans endure PN and more are being diagnosed every day. Whether it is experienced as the “pins and needles” or burning or cramping, PN can seriously impact the quality of life and wellbeing of patients.

Most people first turn to their doctor who prescribes medications such as Gabapentin or Pregabalin (Lyrica) which often have such seriously negative effects on ones quality of life. Often the side effects are unbearable and lead to the patient stopping treatment altogether.

As one patient put it; “Well, it had eased my pain some, but the side effects had taken my life from me. I’m dizzy at times, my head is always foggy and not clear thinking, I have depression, anger outbursts I’ve never had before, daily nausea, and am so tired that I can sleep all day and night long and can barely function. Unfortunately the alternative medications have even worse negative side effects, so what are we supposed to do in order to have some normalcy?”

By design, drugs like gabapentin and pregabalin (lyrica) are anti-epileptic, anticonvulsant drugs whose purpose is to slow down the impulses of the brain function and throughout the entire nervous system. In effect, it is intended to “dumb–down” the brain and nerves so we simply feel less pain. It is also substantially addictive and has significant withdrawal symptoms when you stop taking it.

Acupuncture Offers An Alternative.

Thankfully, there have been several high quality university studies looking at the effectiveness of Acupuncture as a treatment. And without exception, acupuncture is shown to not only offer significant relief to symptoms but is able to do so with none of the negative side effects of the pharmaceutical medications.

As one study reports “Acupuncture was significantly more effective than placebo for treatment of numbness of the lower extremities, spontaneous pain in the lower extremities, rigidity in the upper extremities and alterations in temperature perception in the lower extremities after therapy.”

The treatment protocol for acupuncture depends on the individual. Every case is unique. Some people need less acupuncture and some people need more; just like any medicine or therapy. What we have seen in our office is that just 12 sessions spread over 6 weeks can commonly offer significant relief from the signs and symptoms of PN.

Acupuncture is a very “user friendly” experience where the patient comes to the office and relaxes as the acupuncturist places very fine filament-threads of wire (which are often referred to unpleasantly as “needles”) into the skin at certain points on the body. The patient is typically relaxing in a recliner or on a massage table and often dozes off during their 40 minute treatment. It is 100% painless for virtually everybody that comes and is seen almost universally as a pleasant experience.
Like most interventions; healing takes time. Acupuncture is not intended to offer spontaneous relief. It often takes 2-3 treatments to begin to see improvement and that improvement continues to grow throughout the course of treatment over the several weeks. Thankfully, the effects are worth it; with no negative side effects (but do expect to see positive side effects which appear with treatment), acupuncture is addressing many of the underlying causes of the PN and therefore is known to have very long lasting effects (unlike pharmaceuticals where the benefit disappears as soon as you miss a dose). Once patients find their significant relief after 12 or so treatments, many choose to come in periodically for an occasional “tune-up” to keep the results solid. This is because, just like everything else, preventative acupuncture medicine is so much more effective than trying to fix the problem after the fact. With all of the positive side benefits of acupuncture, many do choose routine acupuncture “just because” they like it.