June 19, 2009

Acupressure Therapy And Acupuncture for Depression

Posted in Category : Acupressure

Acupressure therapy or acupuncture is a modern form of an ancient Chinese art of medicine where it is believed that energy within the body can be released with the application of pressure on specific “pressure points” found all over the body. Even though there is a lot of skepticism about the validity of the theories, the practice of acupuncture has stood the test of time having been practiced in the Orient for thousands of years before being heard of in the west. Today, quite a few medical professionals strenuously promote the effects of acupuncture and recommend it highly as an alternative treatment for a number of ailments. The primary intent of acupuncture is to promote heath and alleviate pain and suffering. Traditionally, acupuncture would make use of long, pointed needles to stimulate the “pressure points” or “acupoints” as they came to be known, however modern medicine makes use of a number of alternatives like herbs, magnets, lasers and electricity in addition to the needles.

Depression is one of the most common, yet untreated conditions all over the world. There are about 8 million people in America alone going through it at any given time and is a primary cause for suicide. Western medicine has described depression as the human body’s response to an overwhelming and constant period of stress that appears to the patient to be insurmountable. The stress is usually brought on by experiences of life, food or nutritional deficiencies or even environmental allergies amongst other stressors. Depression has several symptoms including a severe depressed mood throughout the day and a general dismissive outlook. A person suffering from depression will generally have a diminished interest regarding activities that would normally excite and interest the individual as well as fatigue or a loss of energy. Continuous feelings of unworthiness, desperation, guilt and psychic pain are also common symptoms. The symptoms would gradually lead to an intentional withdrawal from the social framework while in severe cases of depression, the person may also experience hallucinations and delusions.

Acupuncture Depression Treatment

Although studies are ongoing, acupuncture has had some reasonable success in dealing with depressed individuals. The acupuncture treatment, however, needs to be very specific and will usually concentrate on treating the root cause of emotional or mental imbalance that is causing the depression. This is believed to help an individual handle the stress better. Studies have shown that when a person is exposed to acupuncture therapy according to the principles of Traditional Chinese Medicine, when treated twice a week almost 70% of the participants felt a reduction of about 50% in their levels of depression.