Acupuncture, Prolotherapy & Dry Needling in Tampa, FL | Hanson Complete Wellness | 813-534-0311

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Can acupuncture help anxiety?

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Can acupuncture help anxiety?

Acupuncture is a holistic medical treatment that works to provide relief from anxiety with no bad side effects. Even better, acupuncture has been shown to provide permanent results unlike the harsh medications that are often used.

You see, the problem with regular anxiety treatments is that most doctors just hand you a prescription for xanax. You might find temporary relief from a sedative medication like xanax, but the second you stop taking it, your anxiety is just right back to where you started.

What makes acupuncture so different and effective is that it actually helps to re-wire your brain and stimulate your body to release natural anti-anxiety neuro-transmitters.

Over time, acupuncture can give you LASTING relief from your anxiety.

Our lives are full of stress and pressure. The non-stop emails, the inability to get away from work because we all carry our smart phones with us, the constant bad drivers. There will always be a stressor, something to make sure your anxiety is in full swing.

Acupuncture is great to help control how your body responds to all of these external stressors. It’s a little get away, in an otherwise stressful world.

Anxiety is actually one of the more common problems that I treat here at Hanson Complete Wellness, in Tampa, FL.

If you’re dealing with anxiety, expect to complete a course of treatments (1 course of treatments is 8 acupuncture sessions) to see a significant drop in anxiety. After a course of treatment, most patients move into a maintenance phase that involves a treatment every 1-4 weeks.

If you’re dealing with anxiety, and you’re sick and tired of the it controlling your life, then give my clinic a call 813-534-0311 at so we can see how we can help you.

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Can acupuncture help nerve pain?

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Can acupuncture help nerve pain?
ABSOLUTELY!

Acupuncture can help to reduce nerve pain. This is actually one of the most studied area when it comes to acupuncture research because acupuncture is one of the most effective treatments for chemotherapy induced neuropathy (neuropathy that is caused by cancer treatment is really common). But it’s also great for any kind of nerve pain.

Are you dealing with things like…. Pain, sensitivity, numbness, tingling or prickling, burning, or even problems with feeling your hands or feet? Maybe it’s starting to feel like lightning bolts are shoot down your legs or arms, or it feels like your hands or feet are falling asleep.

These are all signs of nerve pain. And most chronic pain is actually caused by nerves. Let me break down how pain works, and you’ll understand that acupuncture is THE best choice when it comes to nerve pain.

You might not like it but pain is a warning system. Pain is initially there to protect you. But it becomes a problem when you are experiencing nerve pain for no reason.

I like to explain nerve pain as a car alarm that keeps going off, even though there is no one trying to break into it. The horn keeps blasting a warning signal even though there is nothing wrong. The only way to stop the car alarm is to hit your little key fob and turn it off. Eventually you need to get your car alarm rewired so it doesn’t keep acting up.

Well acupuncture helps to turn the alarm signal of pain off by blocking that signal from reaching your brain. Over time, acupuncture has been shown to acutally re-wire how your brain responds to pain signals. What that means is that acupuncture helps to calm nerve pain down and also help to get rid of it forever.

So if you’re dealing with nerve pain, and you’re sick and tired of the pain, sensitivity, numbness, tingling or prickling, burning feelings, then give my clinic a call 813-534-0311 at so we can see how we can help you.

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Are acupuncture results permanent?

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This is one of the most common questions I get!

I can understand why… when you’re struggling with a problem, like back pain that keeps you stuck on the couch or in bed… then you really want to know what can be done to fix your pain. FOREVER.

I remember when I hurt my back.
I literally had trouble walking more than a few steps without doubling over in agony.
I remember trying to go to a concert with my girlfriend (now wife and baby momma) and telling her I had to sit down because my back hurt so bad.
I remember wanting to play golf, but I couldn’t because my back hurt so bad.

Right now, ask yourself this question, “What is my pain limiting me from doing?”
Ask yourself, “What am I missing out on because of my pain?”
Ask yourself, “Why hasn’t anything I’ve done so far worked for my back pain?”

You see, it’s crazy to think… but your regular doctor is not really that good at treating pain. For a family doctor, they just don’t have the right skills to effectively treat your pain. In school, they don’t really get any classes on actually using their hands to help fix back pain. They learn how to prescribe muscle relaxers and pain killers.

Here’s the big problem – when has a muscle relaxer or pain killer actually fixed someones pain?

NEVER! All they do is numb the pain.

The only thing that can actually fix your pain…. is you! Your body has this built in superpower that lets it rebuild it’s cells and rejuvenate them.

When your body is functioning right and your have good circulation to all of your tissues and organs, then your body should not deal with pain.

I know what it’s like to wonder if you can get permanent results from a treatment. It’s what we all want!

Well there is good news. Acupuncture has been shown to have lasting results, even a year after you finish your treatment plan.

I find most people need a slight tune up every month or so keep living their best life.

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Having enough Vitamin D3 has been shown to prevent the Flu!

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Having enough Vitamin D3 has been shown to prevent the Flu!

There was a really interesting study just published in the journal Clinical Nutrition that looked at about ~500 people in japan. What they did was measure their Vitamin D levels before flu season and what they found is that people who are deficient (<30ng/mL) had a much higher risk of getting the flu.

This means if you have good Vitamin D levels (I like then around~50ng/ml) you have a much better chance at NOT getting the flu!

About 70% of the population is deficient in Vitamin D, which is a super important vitamin that acts more like a hormone in our body. It’s responsible for thousands of different actions inside of us and there are only 2 ways to you get your levels high enough to prevent deficiency:
1. Expose your whole body to sunlight for 15-30 minutes daily.
2. Supplement with a high quality Vitamin D3 supplement. The dosage will depend on where your levels are currently at.

The supplements you buy at CVS, Walmart, etc have been shown to be underdose or contain nothing at all. So you need to get pharmaceutical grade supplements from someone like me who can make sure they have been tested to contain what they say they contain.

I’ve literally never seen someone with adequate blood levels of vitamin d that didn’t supplement.

So if you want to get your immune system functioning as best as it possibly can, then get your vitamin d levels where they need to be. You can ask your regular doctor to check your 25-hydroxyvitamin levels so you can see where you’re at. It’s a ~$25 dollar test… so just do it and a high quality Vitamin D3 supplement is cheap to take everyday.

Reference:

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/27595379

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How Regulating Your Cycle Can Increase Fertility And What You Can Do To Regulate It!

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Guess what? Over 40 factors can affect your fertility – and one of the biggest predictors of your fertility is your menstrual cycle. If your cycle isn’t regular, then there’s a good chance you have trouble ovulating and your uterine lining isn’t optimal for implantation.

There’s a whole bunch of menstrual cycle characteristics that can affect your fertility.

Here are the 4 I find have the GREATEST impact on your fertility:

  1. Cycle regularity
  2. Cycle length
  3. Quality of menstrual blood
  4. Symptoms like PMS, cramping

So why do these signs and symptoms matter?

How do they affect your fertility?

Well if your cycle is regular, then you have an increased chance at ovulating regularly. That means you can predict your ovulation and time your intercourse to maximize your fertile potential. According to 1 scientific study, women with irregular cycles had only ¼ the chance of getting pregnant each month as those with normal cycles1.

The length of your cycle allows for enough time for the egg to grow big and strong and mature and for your uterine lining to grow thick enough for implantation. If your cycle is short or long, then this will affect your fertility by 50%2.

The quality of your menstrual blood – like the color and the amount is an indicator of the health of your uterine lining. If you’re producing a lot of clots, or bleeding too much or too little signifies that your uterine lining is not optimal.

Symptoms like PMS and cramping are good indicators of your hormonal health. If you’re experiencing any negative symptoms, and PMS is most certainly a negative symptom, then your hormones are imbalanced. Women with fertility issues report symptoms like PMS and cramping at a higher rate than women who don’t experience symptoms.

Now you understand the importance of having a regular menstrual cycle.

Let’s look at what a regular menstrual cycle SHOULD look like.

Ideal Menstrual Cycle:

  • 28 days long
  • Ovulation occurring on cycle day 14.
  • You should notice abundant, clear, stretchy cervical fluid right around ovulation time.
  • Your period should last for 4 days, no more and no less, with enough blood to soak a tampon or pad every 4 hours.
  • You shouldn’t experience any PMS, pain, clotting, cramping, or spotting.

If your cycle does not look like this, don’t freak out. This is just something to get close to. Your cycle doesn’t have to look exactly like this to increase your fertility. But the closer you are, the higher your chance of getting pregnant naturally.

In my clinical experience, 70% of women are able to get their cycle to look like this. When your cycle looks like a fertile cycle, you’re basically cheating and stacking the fertility odds in your favor.

So the big question you’re asking yourself right now is, “What can I do to make my cycle look like this?”

That’s a great question.

I’m going to lay out a 2 part solution you can implement to start taking control of your menstrual cycle.
Part 1: Self Care

You have quite a few different areas of your life that you can directly control. The big 4 are how you eat, how much you sleep, how you exercise and lastly, how you manage your stress.

I don’t have enough time to give you every single detail about how to overhaul your entire lifestyle but I can give you some targets to aim for in each specific area.

Eating – How you eat is directly under your control – focus on eating meat and vegetables, nuts and seeds, some fruit, little starch, and no sugar. I know this is such a distilled down and simplified look at nutrition (which can be really tricky) but if you focus on the basics – eating the rainbow of veggies, eating a palm sized portion of protein with your meals and limiting your starch…. Then you’re moving in the right direction.

Eating like this helps to control your blood sugar, which in turn helps to regulate your hormonal system.

Sleep – Sleep is easy – you need it and you probably aren’t getting enough of it. So set a bed time and stick to it. Seriously. You need 8-10 hours of sleep, and I promise you that even if you think you do well with just 6…. you don’t. Get this, one single night of poor sleep can make your blood sugar levels look like that of a diabetic3. So there are some serious hormonal impacts to not getting enough sleep. Set a bed time, turn off the phone and tv an hour before bed, dim the lights. Get your sleep!

Exercise – Exercise is another easy one. You need to do it and you probably aren’t doing enough. There is some good news though. You don’t need to work out like Arnold Schwarzeneggeror or The Rock. But you do need to move your body at least 3 times per week. Just think how much time you spend sitting each day, 8 hours minimum at work, then you come home and sit and watch TV, then you lay in bed. Most of your life is spent not moving. So to combat this inactivity you need to move your body!
Shoot for a 30 minute walk as many days a week as you can and 3 days of some kind of strength training. I promise you that strength training 3 times a week will not make you look bulky. But it will help to regulate your hormones. So just do it. Join a gym, or find a trainer or follow a YouTube video with weights. There are plenty of options! We have some great trainers we can recommend.

Stress – Stress can have a HUGE impact on your menstrual cycle and your overall fertility. Trying to grow your family can be really stressful. A study published in Human Reproduction in 2013 showed that perceived stress and anxiety levels were high among all women undergoing in vitro Fertilization (IVF) . The good news is that there is a whole lot that you can do to reduce that stress!
There are 2 things you can do, at home to help manage your stress. The first, exercise, is something I’ve already covered. The second is something called, Mindful Meditation. Now mindful meditation isn’t some hippy weirdo woo woo stuff. It’s actually a really simple and well studied technique to bring you to the present moment. It’s all about being aware of your body and the sensations you are feeling. The best part is, you can download a Free app on your phone that will guide you on a short 10 minute journey that will relax your body and your mind. I recommend you download 2 different apps: Headspace and Oak. See which one works best for you. Just take 10 minutes out of everyday and do it!

So that is my exhaustive list of what you can do at home to help get your body working optimally. But sometimes that just isn’t enough… so let’s talk about another option!

Part 2: Extra Help!

So when self care isn’t enough on it’s own, it’s time to really bring in the big guns. Did you know that Acupuncture & Chinese Medicine has been used for over 2000 years to increase fertility?

In Chinese Medicine, the female menstrual cycle is cherished and used as a key indicator of overall hormonal health.

Well guess what?

Those Chinese literally wrote down 2000 years of written case histories and observation by the brightest medical minds in China.

Even better is that modern medical research has confirmed that Acupuncture & Chinese Medicine are super effective at increasing fertility.

So this second step is actually pretty easy – find an Acupuncturist in your local area (If you’re in Tampa, FL then give me a call at 813-534-0311) and get setup with a treatment plan to regulate your cycle and increase your fertility.

When someone comes to see me for fertility acupuncture I always start with a very in depth health history. I’ll want to know what your cycle currently looks like, how long you’ve been trying to get pregnant, any lab tests you’ve had done and what your goals and timeline are.

Realistically, for about 70% of women we are able to get their cycle looking close to a fertile cycle in about 90 days with our recommended treatment program. If you’re doing things naturally (not currently taking any medications for undergoing IVF or ART procedures) then our recommend program is generally 12 weeks long and includes acupuncture twice a week along with a custom chinese herbal medicine formula.

Our goal is to reduce your stress, regulate your hormones, help you grow a nice strong healthy egg and a good uterine lining. This doesn’t happen overnight which is why we work in 12 week cycles.

Now you have an action plan – get started with the self care section RIGHT NOW and if you need some extra help then do not hesitate to call my clinic at 813-534-0311 or email me directly at office@hansoncomplete.com to get setup with a complimentary phone consultation to see if we can help.

References:

1. Kolstad HA, Bonde JP, Hjøllund NH, Jensen TK, Henriksen TB, Ernst E, Giwercman A, Skakkebaek NE, Olsen J. Menstrual cycle pattern and fertility: a prospective follow-up study of pregnancy and early embryonal loss in 295 couples who were planning their first pregnancy. Fertil Steril. 1999 Mar; 71(3):490-6. PubMed PMID: 10065787.

2. Brodin T, Bergh T, Berglund L, Hadziosmanovic N, Holte J. Menstrual cycle length is an age-independent marker of female fertility: results from 6271 treatment cycles of in vitro fertilization. Fertil Steril. 2008 Nov;90(5):1656-61. Epub 2007 Dec 21. PubMed PMID: 18155201

3. Obesity Society. “Insulin sensitivity: One night of poor sleep could equal six months on a high-fat diet, study in dogs suggests.” ScienceDaily. ScienceDaily, 4 November 2015. <www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2015/11/151104134039.htm>

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Benefits of Acupuncture During IVF Treatment

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Trying to grow your family can be really stressful. A study published in Human Reproduction in 2013 showed that perceived stress and anxiety levels were high among all women undergoing in vitro Fertilization (IVF) . The good news is that there is a whole lot that you can do to reduce that stress!

Some different options and techniques include: CBT (a type of talk therapy), emotional support groups and even acupuncture.

There is extensive research showing that that acupuncture can help reduce stress and release feel good endorphins, regulate your menstrual cycle and improve blood flow to the ovaries, uterus and endometrial lining.

There are 5 main benefits of acupuncture for improving IVF outcomes, which include:

Reducing stress – This is one of the most important reasons for receiving acupuncture and is a specialty of Hanson Complete Wellness during your IVF treatment. Through our unique technique, relaxing environment and friendly staff, we can ensure your IVF journey is as stress free as possible.

Reducing uterine inflammation – This encourages the uterus to hold the embryo and prevent detachment from uterine wall.

Increasing blood flow – Beneficial for improving endometrial growth and the supply of nutrients to your developing baby, ensuring healthy development.

Improving ovarian function – Important for the development of good quality eggs.

Decreasing uterus contractions – Important after embryo transfer to improve embryo attachment to the uterine wall.

Ideally, you should begin acupuncture as soon as possible which will help to reduce your stress, develop a good endometrial lining and to promote an increase in blood flow. The good news is acupuncture can be helpful at any stage of your IVF process.

It’s important to understand that depending on an individuals diagnosis and what they are doing (example – trying to conceive naturally or with IVF medications) the frequency of receiving acupuncture will change. On average you can expect to come one to two times a week in the weeks leading up to your transfer. You can not have too much acupuncture but you can have too little! Just like any other type of medicine, there is what we call a “therapeutic dose”. Your acupuncture doctor will go over your individual treatment plan based on what you need!

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