The Connection Between Stress, Inflammation, and Disease...and How Acupuncture Can Help
Can acupuncture help reduce stress? Can acupuncture help treat inflammation? How does acupuncture work as a treatment for disease? We can answer these common questions by looking at the connections between these three.
The Stress-Inflammation-Disease Connection
Most people know too much stress is bad, but is stress merely unpleasant or does it actually cause people to become sick? Let’s consider the effects of stress on the body. Stress of any kind leads to a “fight-flight-fright” response, leading to a number of physiological changes under the control of the autonomic nervous system (ANS). The ANS is responsible for control of bodily functions not consciously directed, such as breathing, heartbeat, and digestion. The ANS is comprised of the sympathetic and parasympathetic systems. Stress causes activation of the sympathetic and deactivation of the parasympathetic nervous system.
Sympathetic activation causes the release of the hormone cortisol, suppressing functions that are non-essential in an emergency, such as the immune response and digestion. Cortisol also causes a rise in blood sugar, inhibits insulin production, and narrows arteries. This causes blood to pump harder. Stress and the activation of the sympathetic system also causes the release of the hormone adrenaline. Adrenaline increases heart and respiratory rate. Stress also decreases lymphocytes, white blood cells that are part of the immune system, making a person more susceptible to viruses. Chronic stress leads to a cascading inflammatory response which is connected to chronic health issues. The body responds to threats like viruses, or stress, with immune system chemicals called cytokines, which cause inflammation. When there is chronic stress this inflammatory response does not cease and the inflammation starts to harm the body. Many chronic health conditions have low-level inflammation as a common denominator: rheumatoid arthritis, cardiovascular disease, inflammatory bowel disease, and depression are some examples.
How Acupuncture Helps
Acupuncture activates the parasympathetic nervous system, inducing the body’s relaxation response. “Relaxation” is something that modern society has relegated to only be important on the weekends or on vacation. However, having gained a deeper understanding of how a chronic state of stress and deactivation of the parasympathetic nervous system leads to chronic inflammation and thus chronic disease, we can see how activating the body’s relaxation response on a regular basis is critical for good health.
Acupuncture has a strong effect on the regulation of the autonomic nervous system. It affects ANS functions including blood pressure, pupil size, skin conductance, skin temperature, muscle sympathetic nerve activities, heart rate and/or pulse rate, and heart rate variability. Acupuncture has been shown to decrease heart rate and increase the dominance of the parasympathetic nervous system. This physiological response to acupuncture is a key component of why such a variety of chronic diseases improve with regular treatment - the activation of the parasympathetic nervous system, bringing the flight-fright-fight response under control and stopping the cascading release of inflammatory chemicals into the body. Acupuncture measurably decreases inflammation and decreases the presence of cytokines and other inflammatory chemicals in the blood and tissues.
Acupuncture began long before there was a biomedical understanding of the autonomic nervous system and the effects of chronic stress on the body. Fortunately now we have the technology to measure the physiological and chemical changes that acupuncture induces, and know that the insertion of needles into acupoints has a profound effect on the nervous system and thus the mechanism of chronic inflammation leading to chronic disease. Acupuncture is a simple, side-effect free way to strengthen the immune system, stimulate the relaxation response, decrease inflammation, and improve overall health.