By Jennifer Dubowsky, LAc
This blog post is part of our Olympics Series on Qi. Find out which other Olympic athletes use acupuncture here.
The London games are in full swing and several smart Olympians are showing that acupuncture helps athletes for health maintenance, performance enhancement, and pain relief. US gymnast and gold medalist McKayla Maroney recently used acupuncture along with other treatments to help speed the healing of her big broken toe and get her in shape for the vault jump, her specialty.
Another American Olympian showing that acupuncture helps athletes is 400 meter dynamo Dee Dee Trotter. Dee Dee has brought her hometown acupuncturist to London with her in order to continue treatments during the games just as she did during the Olympic trials. And my favorite, Amy Acuff, a fellow acupuncturist (!), is an Olympic high jumper who relies on acupuncture for maintenance as well as for faster recovery from injuries.
How acupuncture helps athletes stay in top form
Jennifer Dubowsky, LAc
Olympic athletes are men and women who depend on their bodies to work expertly under stressful and difficult conditions. We can adopt some of their methods of healthcare for ourselves.
Most of us are never going to somersault into the air or hurl ourselves over a bar six feet above the ground but we can certainly learn some of the methods that these amazing athletes use to keep themselves in world class form.
Athletes Depend On Acupuncture For 5 Important Reasons
1. Pain relief: Acupuncture is well known for its powerful ability to reduce and often eliminate pain. This is a huge attraction for athletes who are plagued by strain and injury. Using acupuncture to relieve pain, the athletes never have to worry about experiencing side effects from pharmaceutical drugs or failing a drug test. How does acupuncture alleviate pain?
There are several studies which have shown that when needles are inserted, they stimulate points that boost our natural painkillers. In one study, researchers at the University of Michigan (published by University of Michigan Health System in Journal of NeuroImage, Vol. 5, No. 83, 2009) found acupuncture affected the brain’s long-term ability to regulate pain.
2. Muscle relaxation: Athletes train for thousands of hours which is punishing to their bodies. Acupuncture reduces soreness from workouts and increases blood flow throughout the body. This helps athletes get ready for another day by relaxing their tight muscles and reducing inflammation.
3. Fast healing: When an athlete has to skip training or miss a competition, precious time is lost. Acupuncture helps injuries to heal faster so athletes do not miss valuable training time.
4. Energy enhancement and better sleep: Acupuncture boosts athletes’ energy when they are awake and helps them to sleep at night. The body repairs itself at night so sleeping well is vital to a good performance.
5. Improved blood flow: Acupuncture increases the amount of nitric oxide in the body. A study from UCLA Medical Center (Responses of Nitric Oxide-cGMP Release in Acupuncture Point to Electroacupuncture in Human Skin In Vivo Using Dermal Microdialysis. In Microcirculation, 2009 May, 26:1-10) concludes that one reason acupuncture is effective is because the needles increase the release of nitric oxide throughout the body. Nitric Oxide causes the blood vessels to relax and to widen, thereby opening up the arteries. This allows better blood flow to the heart and your other important organs.
Acupuncture can improve your well-being
Whether you are an Olympian, a sports enthusiast or, like most of us, a person with a busy schedule who needs all the energy you can muster, acupuncture offers many benefits. We all want to perform at our best no matter how big or small the competition; the high jump or the business meeting.
Acupuncture can improve your well-being because it alleviates pain, increases blood flow, helps speed the healing of injuries, relaxes muscle tension, boosts energy during the day and helps us to sleep at night.
Jennifer Dubowsky, LAc, is a licensed acupuncturist with a practice in downtown Chicago, Illinois, since 2002. Dubowsky earned her Bachelor of Science degree in Kinesiology from University of Illinois in Chicago and her Master of Science degree in Oriental Medicine from Southwest Acupuncture College in Boulder, Colorado. During her studies, she completed an internship at the Sino-Japanese Friendship Hospital in Beijing, China. Dubowsky has researched and written articles on Chinese medicine and has given talks on the topic. She maintains a popular blog about health and Chinese medicine at Acupuncture Blog Chicago. Adventures in Chinese Medicine is her first book. You can find her on www.tcm007.com.
This blog post is part of our Olympics Series on Qi. Read another blog post in this series here and here.
photo credit: jabberwock via photo pin cc