How Acupuncture Can Compliment Your Nutritional Goals

Apr 3

We all want to feel good and be in the best health that we possibly can. You’ve heard about how important good nutrition is to your overall health. The way you eat can have an effect on nearly everything in your body.

But let’s face it, it takes some people a little longer than others to get on the nutrition train. It’s not that people don’t want to be healthy, it’s that sometimes it’s easier to grab junk food. Lifestyles are hectic and stuff happens. Then one day, you wake up and you’ve gained 20 pounds, you don’t feel right, and you’re just tired all of the time. As you get older, you really start to feel some of the less than ideal things that you’ve put your body through and you start developing chronic health problems.

Prevention is best, but starting late also has benefits. So once you are at a point where you know it’s time to get serious, hiring a nutritionist could be exactly what you need. An expert can help you tailor your diet to your lifestyle so that healthy eating is sustainable. In fact, we felt it was an important addition to offer our members and clients at Water House Wellness, so we brought a Registered Dietician, Laurie, on board. Here are some of the reasons you may want to consider working with her.

This new service is an exciting way to incorporate some of the values of Water House Wellness that keep you coming back. But did you know that some of our other services can compliment the work that Laurie does? There is a lot of research to suggest that acupuncture, along with good nutrition, can provide a little extra boost for the things that brought you to a nutritionist in the first place.

Acupuncture is an ancient Eastern Medicine therapy that involves the use of tiny sterile needles to stimulate key areas of the body. While its popularity is steadily increasing in the US, acupuncture has been a part of traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) for thousands of years. Although it’s an ancient art, its full potential is still untapped. It has caught the attention of scientists and ongoing studies on how it can help people in the modern world are common.

Let’s take a look at some of the things that people may visit a nutritionist for and how acupuncture can compliment food choices for those with specific concerns.

Weight Loss

Weight loss is probably the number one motivation for most people when it comes to making nutritional changes. There’s a good chance that you’ve tried countless diets, but that’s also a good chance that you couldn’t stick with them. Some plans aren’t realistic for your preferences and your lifestyle, so hiring a nutritionist is a great way to get a personalized plan while having someone in your corner providing motivation and accountability.

Acupuncture may have the ability to increase metabolism, regulate hormones, and reduce triglycerides and cholesterol levels. A small but promising study supports those benefits and showed a reduction in BMI and belly fat in the Iranian men who served as study subjects.

There were more exciting results from another study. A total of 96 overweight and obese women had acupuncture once a day for 21 days. Their body weights and the BMIs were recorded daily. The women lost weight and had a lower BMI when compared to where they were at the start of the study.

The data in these studies about acupuncture combined with consultation from a nutrition expert could give people the extra support and motivation they need to finally lose weight.

Support for Sports and Fitness

Athletes need nutrition. Their bodies cannot perform at their best without a good balance of protein, carbohydrates, and healthy fats. Many athletes and fitness enthusiasts turn to nutritionists to get the most out of their body. Here in the Boston area, Marathon Monday prompts people to eat better while training to prepare for the big race!

Athletes need to be able to build and maintain muscle and food is required to do this. Finding a good balance between macros, vitamins, and minerals that will help you perform needs to be combined with something that works for your lifestyle. This is exactly what a nutritionist can help with.

We recently did an article about how nutrition and massage are beneficial for marathoners, but acupuncture can be added to their routine. And this isn’t just for runners, but for athletes in any sport. As a regular part of your routine, acupuncture can prevent sports and exercise-related injuries, accelerate recovery, and relieve tight, sore muscles. Other research suggests that it is a great treatment for muscular atrophy.

Establishing a relationship with both a nutrition expert and an acupuncturist can help take any athlete to the next level!

Gut Health & Digestive Issues

According to the National Institutes of Health, 60-70 million Americans deal with some form of digestive problem. Gut health and digestive issues such as IBS can have a serious effect on someone’s life. Poor gut health can show up in the form of fatigue, upset stomach, skin conditions, and autoimmune challenges. Having a strong, diverse gut microbiome can help prevent or reduce symptoms from diabetes, inflammatory bowel disease, and arthritis.

When someone is dealing with poor gut health, drugs may not help much, especially considering that you are dealing with a sensitive stomach. Food is the best medicine! Working with a Registered Dietician can help give you guidance on what foods or supplements you need to support your microbiome in order to keep your gut healthy. And adding acupuncture to the recommendations from a nutritionist can further benefit the gut.

Researchers think that acupuncture works by improving the gut-brain interaction which is the communication system between the brain and the nerves in the digestive tract. Acupuncture may help by working with the nervous system to help either stimulate or relax gut movement. This same study has shown how it can help with gastrointestinal reflux disease (GERD), IVS, Crohn’s symptoms, constipation, and indigestion. Another study found patients with GERD responded better to treatment when acupuncture was added to their therapy.

Chronic Disease

Laurie, the RD at Water House Wellness, says that she sees a lot of clients who want to use nutrition to help with chronic diseases such as diabetes, elevated blood pressure, and high cholesterol. Diet can have a serious effect on all of these issues but adding acupuncture to your routine can be a great compliment when you are eating better.

Scientists who are currently researching the benefits of acupuncture for diabetes say that there are promising results when it comes to improving blood glucose management, helping with weight loss, protecting the pancreas (which helps with insulin production), improving insulin resistance, and balancing hormones that affect diabetes.

Acupuncture may help you manage hypertension as well. One study involving 122 post menopausal women had acupuncture for 4 weeks, every 6 months for two years. When compared to a control group who had no acupuncture at all, the systolic and diastolic blood pressure of the women in the acupuncture group was lowered.

Another common chronic condition, high cholesterol, may also show improvement with acupuncture. One study involving 90 people with high cholesterol showed how combining acupuncture with medication helped the patients make more improvements than a control group who were only taking drugs. Imagine combining that with the advice of a registered dietician!

Give Both a Try!

Complementary alternative therapies such as acupuncture can make a lot of sense when you are working hard to improve your health. Chinese medicine has been around for thousands of years and if it didn’t have any merit, it would be long gone. And good nutrition is the basis for everything.

If you’re curious about combining working with a nutritionist alongside an acupuncturist, a great way to start is by scheduling a free consultation with Laurie. Together, you can discuss your goals and she can help recommend what works best for you, including acupuncture. You can book online now, or call Water House Wellness at (339) 707-0476. We also have a text line that can be reached at (781) 590-3519.