Ski season is officially here and there’s one thing I expect to see more than my Facebook friends sharing their adventures.
And that’s skiing injuries.
Every winter, I see a lot of patients who come in with injuries – they want to speed up their recovery so they can get back on the mountain faster.
You might think this sounds like a fantasy, but it’s not.
Acupuncture is an incredibly powerful tool for tapping into your body’s natural healing process to accelerate injury recovery and provide better outcomes.
How is this possible? What can you expect when you come in for acupuncture after getting an injury?
Increased blood flow
When you get injured, your muscles and cells need extra oxygen to make repairs. Your body carries oxygen throughout your body using your blood stream.
When your blood flow improves, your body can carry oxygen to your injured tissues more easily and efficiently. This gives your injury the resources it needs to heal faster.
Acupuncture increases your blood flow through several processes. It stimulates nitric oxide, which regulates your circulation and increases blood flow. It also directly impacts your nervous system which triggers it to release signals that promote blood flow.
Taking a pain reliever might help the pain go away, but it doesn’t help your tissues recover. This can worsen your injury because you may not realize that you need to take it easy in that moment.
This is why promoting blood flow is so important, it can quicken the process of healing so you can get back to what you love without threatening a worse injury.
Endorphin release
Not loving the sound of avoiding pain relievers and toughing through the pain? Acupuncture can help with that too.
Acupuncture needles stimulate your nerves, sending signals to your brain. Your brain will then release endorphins to offer natural pain relief.
Endorphins reduce pain by blocking nerve cells from receiving pain signals. This will help take the edge off your pain without damaging other organs or offering other side effects.
Reduced inflammation
Inflammation occurs when you’re injured or sick, and it causes damage to your tissues and cells. The longer inflammation lasts, the worse the damage becomes.
Your body sends out chemical messengers called cytokines that trigger inflammation, and acupuncture can successfully reduce the release of inflammation causing signals.
Acupuncture can do this successfully because of the way it influences your nervous system. Being able to control these chemical signals can work wonders to help your body recover from injury.
Whether you’re an avid skier or participate in another sport or type of exercise, you can use acupuncture to recover from your injuries faster. Not only will the pain stop interfering with your daily life, but you’ll be able to return to your favorite sport even faster.
Come in for an appointment if you’ve been struggling with an injury. We can find a plan tailored for you that uses our arsenal of natural tools to help you recover from your injury and get out of pain.
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