Acupuncture Increases Circulation

Acu-points influence circulation by affecting
hormones like histamine to dilate and constrict
blood vessels in the affected area.

Specific hormones work together to govern blood flow in the body, but there is no single hormone that modulates circulation.

A familiar hormone may help us understand the relationship between circulation and acupuncture. Many of us seek to block histamine in our respiratory systems; we use anti-histamines to cause the blood vessels to constrict so we don't feel swollen and snotty with allergies. Histamine can be very useful in combination to relax vessels and push the blood flow to an area.

Chinese medical concepts
may seem esoteric, but
they produce real, metabolic
results.

As blood reaches the site we are stimulating with acupuncture, it carries immune components, endorphins, and other beneficial compounds like vitamins, fats, and blood constituents. Once we have created the proper building blocks for healing, acupuncture directs the blood flow to the parts of the body where it is most needed, improving the circulation of the entire body. Sometimes, a specific area is involved – for example, the back, knee, and neck are all areas where the blood flow has commonly been reduced to a trickle. And one can feel it, whether as a direct source of pain or through indirect means, like edema (swelling), numbness, or tingling.
Often in response to poor circulation, it's easy to further decrease that circulation by applying ice, consuming numbing medications, or using compression socks. Unfortunately, this begins the process of removing circulation from the extremities, killing the nerves and causing muscle atrophy from mis- or dis-use.

As a licensed acupuncturist, I highly recommend stimulating the circulation to painful, numb, and swollen areas with acupuncture and the complimentary aspects of Traditional Chinese Medicine before seeking more drastic means to inhibit these symptoms. Reducing circulation creates a great deal of side effects which can be irreversible, while acupuncture poses minimal risks in comparison.

When structural problems interfere with
circulation, we can use acupuncture to
direct blood flow where it's needed.

One of my patients experienced severe tennis elbow, and he was instructed that he could only receive cortisone shots, pain medications, and surgery for his condition. During his first visit, I could quickly see that his elbow pain was related to severe circulation problems in his spine, specifically referring from his neck. I informed him that I would need to address both his neck and his elbow in order to reduce the pain. Additionally, because his neck had bone spurs, I could only affect his circulation around these structural conditions.

The patient had substantial relief after the first session, which became exponential as his treatment plan progressed. While I could not change the shape of his neck, I increased the circulation within and reduced his inflammation by positively influencing blood flow in his neck, thus stopping the elbow pain.

Read more about the mechanisms of acupuncture in this excerpt from the American Journal of Acupuncture.

Acupuncture Meridians and Shiva Nata

"...performing such movements sets a series of alternating active and passive fragments of the energy flow. These energy impulses purify energy channels and balance the circulation of energy inside them." - Andrey Lappa, the man who systematized Shiva Nata

I began teaching classes because I want my patients to practice Shiva Nata. We are always working with the meridians of our bodies. These landmark pathways are also known as channels or vessels, and they are the primary means by which acupuncture affects the body.

In acupuncture, we place needles at a location and depth which is indicated to promote the balance of hormones, endorphins, immunoglobulins and circulation. A point's indication depends on three main qualities: its immediate location, the meridian pathway, and its category (a combination of depth and connectivity to other meridians and branches).

The meridian pathway is essential to any acupuncture point's function. The best resource to explore while learning about how Shiva Nata affects the meridians would be to learn the meridian pathways. Instead of seeing meridians as energy channels that float on the surface of the body, we could see them as embedded in all our tissues to the deepest level. Once you are familiar with the pathways of the primary organ systems, you can foster an understanding of how these movements activate and strengthen their relationship.

When we practice, our focus is on twisting, flailing, and ultimately balancing those meridians. We rotate the arm channels on all axes. Shiva Nata powerfully supports this balance because it addresses all of the meridians - as opposed to most of our activities, which focus all our energy into one, two, or a handful of positions and movements. Balance can be achieved because no channel is left unused, unstretched, or unrotated. The meridians are activated either by a relative emphasis on the energetic meridians or the physical structures that they involve.

The path learning Shiva Nata combines all possible movements of all the meridians in a balanced and coordinated way. Horizontal arms 4 is a strong position for the heart and lung channels - meaning there's effort and tension in those systems when it is held. Moving from 4 to 3 horizontal is a rotation that integrates the large intestine and small intestine channels. According to Chinese Medicine, the heart and small intestine, and the lung and large intestine are intricately related to one another, and they work "as a husband and wife." Moving from horizontal 4 to 3 strengthens this relationship, and practicing this movement and its derivations could repair a damaged relationship between organ systems to restore balance.

I am not so far as to diagnose a complex syndrome based on level-related struggles or prescribe certain movements to harmonize dissonant organ system patterns. We have barely begun.