If you hold your stress in your neck, shoulders, or jaw-Read this.
Do you ever feel like you hold all your stress in your neck and shoulders? You might even clench your jaw or grind you teeth. As for your shoulders they’re always stiff, tight, and so tense they creep up around your ears. It might feel like there’s a weight on your neck.
From a TCM perspective tension is often held in the meridians of the neck because when we’re stressed or resisting uncomfortable emotions it impacts on flow and circulation through the body.
Put simply, these physical signs are common responses to chronic stress.
Why Stress Shows Up in Your Body
When your nervous system is stressed it triggers the sympathetic nervous system-’fight or flight’. This leads to muscles tensing, heart rate to increase, breath to tighten and become restricted. It’s a survival response and in acute danger serves a purpose.
But with chronic overactivation of the stress response this can show up as:
neck, jaw and shoulder tension
headaches or migraines
TMJ or TMDD (Temperomandibular joint dysfunction)
Poor posture
Low energy or fatigue
Insomnia or broken sleep
Hormones such as adrenaline and cortisol play a role in keep muscles activated and ready to fire-basically they’re on high alert in case of danger.
Acupuncture for stress relief
Modulating the Stress Response: A study from Georgetown University Medical Center found that acupuncture can reduce stress by influencing the hypothalamus-pituitary-adrenal (HPA) axis, leading to decreased cortisol levels in stressed rats. This suggests a potential mechanism for acupuncture's stress-relief effects in humans
Clinical Evidence for Anxiety Reduction: A systematic review and meta-analysis published in the Annals of General Psychiatry concluded that acupuncture has a positive effect on anxiety disorders, including generalized anxiety disorder (GAD). The analysis included 20 randomized controlled trials, indicating a significant reduction in anxiety symptoms among participants receiving acupuncture.
Acupuncture and Muscle Tension
Tension-Type Headaches: A 2024 systematic review in Frontiers in Neurology reported that acupuncture effectively alleviates tension-type headaches, which are often associated with muscle tension in the neck and shoulders. The study highlighted acupuncture's role in increasing endogenous opioid release and modulating pain pathways
Muscle Tightness Relief: According to a recent article from LifeWellMD, acupuncture can improve blood flow, release muscle tension, and promote healing. Research cited in the article indicates that acupuncture can relieve pain by about 50%, making it a highly effective treatment option for muscle tightness.
If you’re in the Surfcoast area, in Anglesea, Torquay, Aireys Inlet or Lorne-we’re here to help. We always create an in-depth and individualised treatment plan suited to your needs.
To find out more about how Peter can support you with acupuncture and chinese medicine in anglesea or if you would like to make an appointment follow the links below.
