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With the holidays (and the scent of evergreens) in the air, comes joy, cheer...and the inevitable stress of finding everyone the perfect gift, coordinating flights home, and having all of the family under one roof.
There are many ways to combat said stress. A management tool on the rise? Acupuncture. The word alone has a connotation that makes you tense up. Needles where? And how big? I headed to see Dr. F. Afua Bromley at Acupuncture St. Louis on Big Bend thinking the same thing.
Bromley says my hesitation is common and that the funniest part for her is how much people expect the pain and their reaction when it doesn't come. "People a lot of the time come in and they're like, 'I'm a little nervous' because their experience with needles is getting a shot," she says. "Which I tell people, 'I don't like shots. Shots hurt. But you can fit five of our needles into a hypodermic syringe.
"Typically, you don't feel it at all. The most that you will generally feel is about a mosquito bite's worth," she says.
Honestly, I'm not even sure I felt that. I almost didn't notice her putting the first one in, another common reaction, Bromley says.
"People are like, 'OK, I'm ready for you to start,'" she says. "And I'm like, 'I'm done. You've got 11 needles in you. You're good!'"
I, like many other people either anticipating a large exam or handling a tough circumstance, was eager to see how acupuncture could help with stress.
I walked in and answered a few questions about myself so that the doctor could better understand my needs. I learned a lot about myself as well, such as that Bromley could tell I have a poor diet—hey, McDonald's—and sleep routine just by looking at how swollen the sides of my tongue are. (What a tattletale.)
I relaxed on the bed and let Bromley do her magic. A couple of needles in my hands, a couple in my feet, and a "happy" one—which makes people instantly feel good, she says—on my head.
She moved a heat lamp over me, made sure my feet were covered with the blanket, turned off the lights, and left me to relax.
Oftentimes her patients are so relaxed, even with that many needles in them, they fall asleep. "You can sometimes hear people's snores over the music," she says. Patients even sometimes tell her that they wish they could just sleep at her office, where they "get the best rest." I can attest to that—I was out.
So how exactly do a couple of tiny needles do all of that?
Well, Bromley offers, acupuncturists place needles in spots along what they call the meridian—a non-physical mapping of the human body as organized in Chinese medicine—to evoke different outcomes. These meridians are connected—think Western medicine's circulatory system—and strategically placing needles in certain points along the meridian lines can help with different issues. Simply put: Place pin here to feel better there.
For example, to regulate digestion, she can apply needles to points along what they call the spleen and stomach channels, which help the digestive process. It also helps to create a homeostasis, balancing the neurotransmitters that affect our mood and stress response, and helping to balance out our dopamine, mitigating that stress response.
"The sympathetic and parasympathetic nervous system goes haywire when you're stressed. So with the needles basically, and the placement of the points, you can have a point that is helping mediate that stress response," she says.
But Bromley cautions to remember that acupuncture is not a cure-all. It's great, she says, if she can help or alleviate the issue, she'll certainly do her best. But even with stress, you still should consider checking in with your primary care physician.
