Balance, is defined as a sense of equilibrium, stability, and poise. There could be no better way to get ready for the challenges of 2013 than to feel balanced, restored, reinvigorated, and healthy.

This year, your preparation for Spring could mean more than a new wardrobe and a wide brimmed floppy hat. You could greet Spring with a newly balanced, healthier you, from the inside, out, the natural way.  The Center is eager to help you find new and natural ways to discover the healthier you. Accupuncture might be one of the ways you should consider.

In addition to her expertise in supplements, Stephanie Kuzickis is the acupuncturist at the Center for Natural & Integrative Medicine, and we have been spotlighting her specialty in acupuncture this month. In a recent interview she stated, “Acupuncture has an amazing capacity to bring balance and healing to a person’s body and mind. There is no other medical therapy quite like it. Indeed, acupuncture often succeeds when many other treatments have failed.”

In our last blog we emphasized the pain relieving qualities of acupuncture. It is especially interesting to think in terms of balance when we regard this medical art because it is “based on the belief that living beings have a vital energy, called “qi,” that circulates through twelve invisible energy lines known as meridians on the body. Each meridian is associated with a different organ system. An imbalance in the flow of qi throughout a meridian is how disease begins.”

A Brainy Key To Weightloss?

Once this is understood, it is not difficult to believe that acupuncture can have an effect on a number one American health condition: Weight Control. The treatments work at several different levels:

First: The hypothalamus is the responsible for fine tuning the body so it regulates properly. It controls hormones, temperature, circadian rhythm, hunger, and thirst. Weight gain could result from “disturbed energy flow to and from” the hybothalamus.

“Research measuring the effectiveness of acupuncture for weight loss found treatments increased ghrelin, a hormone that controls meal initiation and decreased leptin, the hormone that regulates fat storage and metabolism.”

So, What Do Patients Say?

Second: Patients explain that their appetite is curbed and their cravings for unhealthy foods have diminished. The balancing of the “qi,” has been known to boost metabolism and improve digestion even as it enhances your use of nutrients.

Third: Evidence also suggests that accupuncture helps regulate obesity-related hormones. and enhancing the way nutrients are used.

Fourth: The treatments have also been known to influence the function of the liver which produces digestive chemicals and the disolution of fat.

Fifth: When you know you are satisfied, you don’t eat. Acupuncture may tone up the smooth muscle of the stomach. You become more sensitive to the feeling of fullness, so you are satisfied without overindulgence.

You might enjoy any one or all of these benefits from your sessions of acupuncture treatments with Dr. Stephanie Kuzicki. Likewise, there is no doubt she will assist you with tools that will enhance your healthy eating and exercise skills. It is well known that acupuncture treatment energizes other weight control strategies. She reminds you that, as with any medical treatment, acupuncture should only be done by a licensed, qualified, and experienced person.