5 Ways Acupuncture Helps Patients After Head Injuries

acupuncture

Acupuncture and Healing

According to research by the American Stroke Association, a person under 50 increases the chance of suffering a stroke by three times after an injury to the head or neck. These findings are extremely important in modern medicine. However, research is also showing that acupuncture is a great treatment option for those who have suffered damage due to a stroke.

In fact, acupuncture is already the most popular treatment modality for stroke patients in China. Chinese practitioners have effectively used holistic health treatments like acupuncture on patients for centuries. Patients who receive acupuncture treatments twice a week for ten weeks report significant improvements in their balance, walking, and mobility. It also promotes a good overall mood and positive emotions. With more ease in their daily activities, patients see an improvement in their quality of life.

Causes of Stroke after Injury

Scientists have found that a major cause of stroke after a serious head or neck trauma is due to tears in the blood vessels of the head or neck from the injury. If these artery damages can be assessed at the time of the injury, an acupuncturist can treat a patient to help heal the injuries quickly and efficiently. With treatment, patients can help to prevent a stroke in the future. Because of this, it now appears that acupuncture can actually help reduce the risk of a future stroke in people who have suffered prior head or neck injuries. So how does this ancient holistic medicine practice help? Here are a few ways that acupuncture helps to prevent strokes after a head or neck injury:

Acupuncture Can Facilitate Nerve Regeneration

Research has proven that acupuncture helps to repair damaged nerves. Tests from researchers demonstrate that patients who received treatments show increased nerve regeneration. There have even been some interesting case histories involving re-wiring taking place in the brain following damage to the spinal cord. However, this has not been fully tested yet. Of course, every case is unique. The best advice is to visit a licensed acupuncturist. They can give a face to face assessment of what treatments might be possible given a patient’s own unique and specific circumstances

Prevents the Aggregation of Blood Cells

When blood cells aggregate, they tend to stick together. This process occurs more often around tears in blood vessels or skin, such as after an injury. This is similar to how your blood coagulates on your skin after you receive a cut that breaks the skin. However, when blood cells coagulate around blood vessels in the head or neck, a stroke can occur. Regular acupuncture treatments keep the flow of blood regular and help prevent this aggregation of blood cells.

Dilates Blood Vessels by Triggering the Release of Hormones

In addition, acupuncture helps to stimulate the local sensory nerve endings in the skin and muscles in a patient’s head and neck. Nerve endings there send impulses into the spinal cord and brain. However, these nerve endings also release various chemical substances into local tissues that are near the treatment of acupuncture. These chemicals help local blood vessels to dilate, which causes blood flow to increase. Both of these help to promote local tissue healing.

Helps Surviving Nerve Cells Find New Pathways

Nerve endings create impulses that travel into the spinal cord. Research has recently shown that acupuncture has a stimulating effect on brain cells. This stimulation causes a proliferation of new cells in the brain. These biochemical responses also stimulate nerve endings, causing them to induce regeneration if possible. In fact, according to scientific researchers, acupuncture has been shown to “increase the release of nerve growth factors (NGFs) to make nerve cells survive and axons grow, synthesize neurotransmitters, (and) metabolize toxic substances”.

Helps Your Brain Bypass Damaged Areas

As shown above, acupuncture helps a patient’s brain create new nerve endings, pathways, and even brain cells. It also aids neural pathways in creating better connections with the right and left brain. The body will naturally use these connections to bypass damaged areas of the brain and nervous system. In fact, researchers have taken this concept to new levels, using specialized techniques based on acupuncture to regenerate neurons in the brains of rats. Although medical advances like these are in our future, techniques like acupuncture help pave the way for research such as this.

Relax Holistic is the the Premier  ‘go to’ clinic for  Acupuncture healing.

At Relax Holistic, our stroke patients have shown major improvements after having acupuncture treatments. Our staff  have personally witnessed how it works so well for patients. They report reduced swelling, improved circulation and overall range of motion. We have even seen it instantly restore a patient’s speech after a major stroke. Call us to learn and experience how acupuncture works.