Autoimmune and Inflammatory Conditions
Autoimmune diseases (and inflammatory conditions) are complex health conditions that many people suffer from in Canada. What often makes these diseases complex and frustrating to deal with is the combination of factors that contribute to them, which often can include:
a) an internal digestive component (for example chronic constipation and/or diarrhea, acid reflux, inability to digest specific foods) which can be aggravated by food, stress, weather changes, or other triggers
b) a circulatory component (cold hands and feet, irregular menstrual cycles)
c) peripheral inflammation (stiffness, aches, pains in the muscles and joints)
The factors and their resulting symptoms can often seem paradoxical, for example having feelings of inflammation in the joints while having cold hands and feet. Some patients may find it difficult to have their conditions diagnosed despite having obvious symptoms, for example dryness of the digestive tract. Some patients may respond well to oral and even infused medication, especially mild cases, yet patients with moderate-severe cases can often feel that medication doesn’t work as well after time.
How we can help
We have been able to help patients relieve symptoms associated with the following autoimmune and inflammatory conditions: fibromyalgia, Crohn’s disease, ulcerative colitis, Raynaud’s syndrome, Lupus, Sjrogen’s syndrome, Behcet disease, eosinophilic esophagitis, gout, and more. The treatment often requires patients to drink herbal teas that are customized towards variations in each of the digestion, circulatory, or peripheral components. While traditionally, a Chinese Medicine diagnosis consists of one or two pathogenic factors, such as blood stagnation, dampness, qi deficiency, etc, for autoimmune conditions there are often multiple pathogenic factors and our treatments take this into account.
Acupuncture can also help with managing symptoms, for example reducing bodily pain for fibromyalgia, but the results can often be short-term and may not be comparable to longer-term results obtained through consuming herbal teas, and so in most cases herbal tea treatment is recommended over acupuncture. Often, patients can experience improvements in the first week of treatment, but the overall timeframes for treatment can vary from 2-3 weeks to several months, based on the severity of the condition(s), patient age, health history, and most importantly, emotional/mental health of the patient. This is because while damage caused to the body from improper lifestyle habits can be reversed quickly through the change of those habits, people often take much longer to heal from emotional and mental trauma, so in cases where there appear to be a direct cause between emotional trauma and initial onset of symptoms, patients should expect longer healing times.
Even if you have an autoimmune or inflammatory condition which is not listed above, you may benefit from the treatment, because the treatment is aimed at reducing symptoms, which can often be common across different autoimmune or inflammatory conditions.
Online Booking
If you would like to book an herbal or acupuncture consultation to start the healing process, please visit our online booking link for an appointment and we will be happy to assist you.
Tips
For those of you who are unable to seek out treatment at the moment, we offer some dietary tips to help you with the inflammatory component of your condition:
1) Avoid foods that are dry/spicy in nature or foods prepared using cooking methods which deplete moisture – for example barbecue, roasting, toasting.
2) Avoid consumption of alcohol
3) Avoid remedies for constipation which cause loose stool such as magnesium citrate. There are other naturally available aids for constipation such as flaxseed, apple cider vinegar, prunes, that can help as well in place of magnesium citrate.
This post contains original content based on clinical observations from Newmarket Acupuncture – do not copy or reuse without owner permission.