Are you waking up periodically during the evening? Does your partner keep telling you that you continuously snore? The diagnosis could end up being Sleep Apnea.
Acupuncture for Sleep Apnea
Sleep apnea is a disorder that causes people to occasionally stop breathing while they are sleeping and have no idea that apnea is happening. One of the most common types of Sleep Apnea is obstructive sleep apnea, which is created by a restricted airway, while the central sleep apnea occurs when our brain fails to send signaling to the lungs that they need to breathe.
Acupuncture points stimulate the muscles of the upper air pathway because with apnea they typically collapse during the episodes of sleep. The acupuncture is also applied to strengthen the tongue muscle so that it cannot block the airways. For severe cases of sleep apnea, acupuncture will focus on the outer ear. The ear in acupuncture represents a map of the entire body. This treatment is called auriculotherapy.
Studies performed by Brazilian and Chinese experts between 2007 and 2015 were putting two groups of sleepers on various trials, and they came to a stunning conclusion that acupuncture was even more effective than widely accepted nCPAP machine treatment for sleep apnea.
Chinese medicine offers four possible causes of sleep apnea which may interfere: The Spleen, Qi stagnation, Phlegm and Blood Stagnation.
- The Spleen is believed to turn food into blood and energy, regarding sleep apnea, it may mean that your body is not digesting properly, or that you are eating the wrong kind of food.
- Qi stagnation can take long periods of time and effect on Spleen, which can then develop tension in muscles or a feel of having a lump in the throat.
- Phlegm represents what block your nose our collects in breathing pathways, and it is an equivalent of what Western medicine describes as fatty tissue around the throat and larynx.
- Blood stagnation stops Qi from moving as it naturally should be, especially the flow of chi in our lungs is affected, and that results with sleep apnea.
Can Acupuncture Help With Sleep Disorders?
By: Marijana|Published on: Mar 17, 2019|Categories: Better Sleep News
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