More and more people who are suffering from epilepsy are realizing that acupuncture can assist in the controlling of seizures. This ancient healing art has been part of China’s medical heritage for over 4,000 years. Having been introduced into Canada and the United States in the early 1970’s, it now is one of the most frequently sought after complementary therapies for the treatment of numerous diseases and health conditions including epilepsy.
Acupuncture along with exercises, herbal remedies and diet therapy is a very important part of TCM or traditional Chinese Medicine.
Depending on the extent and type of epilepsy, acupuncture has been proven to be very helpful for the treatment of this disorder. Unlike Western modalities, acupuncture targets the root cause of an illness. Because of this and because acupuncture is a natural holistic form of treatment, people should not expect an immediate resolution of their problem.
Helping Balance Energy
Acupuncture helps treat and prevent illness. It approaches health conditions in a very different way than Western conventional medicine. Practitioners of this natural form of therapy believe in the concept of vital energy or Qi that circulates throughout the human body via channels known as meridians. From emotions to metabolism this life force known as Qi is responsible for all body functions. When the qi circulates smoothly through the body without any blockages, a person experiences good health. But when this flow encounters an obstruction, illness occurs. And so, the aim of acupuncturists is to bring back the harmony of yin and yang inside the body. A lot of the meridians are located just underneath the surface of the skin.
In balancing energy, the acupuncturist needs to stick extremely thin, stainless steel, sterilized needles at certain points in the body where meridians are located. There are 12 primary meridians where qi circulates through the body. For the treatment of epilepsy, the needles would need to target the meridians/channels associated with the brain in order to boost the flow of blood to the head. To help remove the blockages to qi, energy flow is controlled and the acupuncturists can either lower or increase the qi at certain parts in the body. This will aid in the normalization of the flow of energy. To help better the results of the treatment the acupuncturist will also prescribe Chinese herbs and recommend dietary changes to the patient.
Acupuncturists are trained to not only resolve the symptoms of an illness but also to address the underlying cause of the problem, as well. They treat their patients as a whole and bring back balance to the spiritual, emotional, and physical aspects of the patent.
In acupuncture the body is stimulated to help itself heal. This treatment takes into consideration anything that is of a profound concern to a person’s spiritual or inner life, very important factors in the diagnosis and treatment of a person’s condition.
In order to get the best possible results and prevent any accidents or injuries during treatment, you need to seek help from a licensed acupuncturist. There are also issues you need to take into account when deciding to go for acupuncture treatment for your epilepsy condition. There may be a few individuals with epilepsy who may not benefit from acupuncture at all. In others, this treatment may actually stimulate seizures exacerbating their condition. Also, your acupuncturist may not be skilled enough to provide you with the best results or that you may need or the treatment may actually make you feel worse before the positive effects of the treatment appear. It may also simply be that acupuncture doesn’t work for you at all.
Pulses
A medical doctor reads blood loss, heartbeats and pulses to merely check if our vital signs are all normal. An acupuncturist, on the other hand, will read a pulse to gain important information about our internal organs including the liver, spleen, and stomach; the way the pulse feels is important to an acupuncturist as it indicates the health of the qi energy systems. The acupuncturist categorizes the pulse into a dozen primary parts, with each part corresponding to a specific organ and meridian. Selecting the acupoints wherein needles are to be inserted is determined by how qi flows throughout the patient’s body.
Studies
A study conducted in China has demonstrated the safety and effectiveness of acupuncture in lowering or reducing the incidents of seizures in a person. This study showed that a combination of massage, acupuncture and Chinese herbs gave the best outcomes.
Another study done in Germany observed 100 people with ages 2 to 52 all suffering from epilepsy who were given medications and acupuncture later on. During the initial weeks of the treatment, medications were discontinued. These people were then given acupuncture treatments for a month to one and a half years. About 67 of these people experienced significant improvements and their improvement came without the use of medications for a year. Later on, all the participants were given acupuncture as a maintenance treatment once over 2 to 3 months. All but 5 had experienced zero relapses of their seizures. The conductors of the study remarked that acupuncture can help relieve poor sleep, stress and other problems that worsen epilepsy.
Acupuncture epilepsy research in the U.S. mostly involves the use of dogs. A particular acupuncture study of 5 dogs resulted in the lessening of symptoms of all the dogs although three of them still suffered from seizures albeit with lesser frequency and with lower levels of anticonvulsants. The rest experienced lessened amounts of seizures.
A 21-year old woman from New York suffering from Temporal Lobe Epilepsy had decided to try acupuncture. After a number of years, she was able to reduce her medications. She remarked that although the treatment did not help her gain complete control of her seizures, she nevertheless, has experienced a significant lessening of those seizures. She added that she experienced a new sense of well-being and felt very relaxed after each treatment.
Another case of acupuncture’s usefulness in addressing seizures involved a man who was diagnosed with Partial Temporal Lobe Epilepsy and who was experiencing grand mal seizures many times while asleep. His doctor prescribed Dilantin. Wary about the drug’s side effects, this man decided to go for Chinese herbs and acupuncture instead. He stated that he preferred the natural therapies of Chinese herbs and acupuncture ove the toxic and mind-numbing effect of prescription medications.
Acupuncture is such a safe form of treatment that even young children and even babies can benefit from it. There is no age limit when it comes to acupuncture treatment.
Risks
Although very safe, acupuncture can still have certain low risks. In over a period of 30 years researchers have found out that there were four deaths and 111 cases of serious injuries from this treatment. The most common risk was the puncturing of the surrounding tissue and lung tissue of the patient. All these injuries, deaths, and accidents were due to a lack of skill on the part of the acupuncturist.
Lower back pain, addiction, stroke rehab, headaches, and migraines are some of the health issues that can be treated with acupuncture based on the 1998 consensus statement of the National Institutes of Health. Soon to be added to this list is epilepsy.
In order to prevent any untoward incidents during acupuncture treatment, we advise you to heed the following:
- You need to make sure that your acupuncturist only uses sterilized disposable needles. This is to avoid the risk of infections. The US Food and Drug Administration is the body that regulates the use of acupuncture needles.
- You need to know how much experience your acupuncturist has in the treatment of epilepsy.
- You need to ask for credentials. Select an acupuncturist who had training at an accredited school and who has the right amount of training.
Eastern Healing Solutions, LLC
10875 Grandview St #2200
Overland Park, KS 66210
(913) 549-4322
http://www.overlandparkacupuncturist.com