Detoxification
Are you on a quest for optimal health and wellness? Looking to be the best version of yourself and break free from toxins and harmful substances that promote poor health and a cycle of sickness? At GoldStar Acupuncture in Modesto, CA, we offer 100% drug-free all-natural acupuncture treatment for detoxification.
Learn more about how this traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) procedure can help support detoxification naturally, safely and effectively, and improve quality of life and overall well-being:
Discover How Acupuncture Can Naturally Support Detoxification
Modern living exposes people to high levels of stress, industrial chemicals, pollutants, heavy metals, radiation, poor diet and lifestyle choices, and other harmful factors that can overwhelm the body’s natural ability to clean itself of waste and remain balanced and healthy.
When the body’s natural mechanism for detoxification gets sluggish, toxins can be more than what body and organ systems can handle, and they can remain in the body for longer, leading to a wide variety of symptoms, serious disabling conditions and long-term health problems.
Do you know acupuncture offers a holistic approach to supporting the body’s natural detoxification mechanism and promoting health?
Acupuncture is a time-tested natural method of detoxification that can help kick-start and balance the body’s natural detoxification pathways that have been shut down with repeated exposure to stress, chemicals, and radiation, and repeated misuse of food, alcohol, medications, drugs and other addictions. Acupuncture balances underlying dysfunction between various organ and body systems to aid digestion, reduce cravings, boost immunity, and regulate detoxification pathways to improve elimination of waste and toxins. It also provides natural relief from fatigue, pain, poor sleep, stress, depression, and other common issues related to toxicity and substance withdrawal.
Benefits of Acupuncture for Detoxification
How Acupuncture Treatment Works for Detoxification
Acupuncture is an ancient Chinese medical practice that stimulates a person’s own self-healing mechanism. It involves the insertion of ultra-thin therapeutic needles into specific points along the body’s energy meridians. Acupuncture helps promote healing by balancing and restoring the flow of energy, known as Qi, in the meridians.
While it has been recently popularized for its effectiveness in treating pain conditions, acupuncture has been used to promote detoxification and overall well-being for thousands of years.
In acupuncture, when toxins accumulate they cause an imbalance within the functioning of organs and body systems, namely the Liver, Gall Bladder, and Kidneys, and the digestive, endocrine, and immune systems. Acupuncture for detoxification works by stimulating specific points on the body that are related to these organs and body systems to help balance their functions and interactions, improve metabolism and circulation, boost immunity, and encourage the elimination of pathogenic toxins and waste. Some key acupuncture points for detoxification include:
- Liver 3 (Tai Chong 太沖): Enhances liver detoxification function, relieves pain, balances mood and emotions, and reduces stress-related eating.
- Liver 13 (Zhang Men 章門: Promotes healthy digestion, enhances liver detoxification, and improves blood circulation.
- Gall Bladder 34 (Yang Ling Quan 陽陵泉): Supports liver and gall bladder detoxification function, relieves pain, and balances mood.
- Kidney 3 (Tai Xi 太谿): Supports kidney detoxification function, boosts immunity, and balances mood.
- Kidney 27 (Shu Fu 俞府): Supports kidney detoxification function, boosts immunity, and balances mood.
- Urinary Bladder 17 (Ge Shu 膈俞): Improves blood circulation, and supports the elimination of toxins.
- Large Intestine 4 (He Gu 合谷): Improves digestive motility, boosts immunity, relieves pain, and supports the elimination of toxins.
- Spleen 6 (San Yin Jiao 三陰交): Regulates digestion and blood circulation, boosts immunity, relieves pain, and reduces cravings.
- Spleen 10 (Xui Hai 血海): Improves blood circulation and supports the elimination of toxins.
- Stomach 36 (Zu San Li 足三里): Boosts digestive metabolism and immunity, reduces cravings, enhances circulation, and supports the elimination of toxins.
- NADA Protocol: Ear acupuncture technique that regulates elimination of toxins, eases cravings and substance withdrawal, and reduces stress.
Research shows that acupuncture can help stimulate the anti-inflammatory mechanism in the body that not only eases the severity of pain, stress, fatigue, poor sleep, depression, cravings and other symptoms associated with toxicity, but also regulates detoxification pathways to enhance the elimination of toxic waste and minimize side effects of detoxification and withdrawal. It has also been shown to help regulate metabolism, fat storage, blood circulation, digestion, and the absorption of nutrients to help clear toxic waste from the body and restore health faster and more efficiently.
Acupuncture Treatment for Detoxification Uses Herbal Medicine Formulas
Acupuncture treatment for detoxification also includes the use of medicinal Chinese herbs. Chinese herbal medicine is well known for its excellent ability to regulate and optimize detoxification pathways and metabolic function, improve digestion, and reduce inflammation to help eliminate toxins from the body, ease nagging symptoms, and promote overall health.
Chinese herbs offer relief of various symptoms of poor health due to toxicity, including addictions, indigestion, bloating, constipation, stress, pain, poor sleep, low immunity, inability to lose weight or excess weight gain, and others. They also are commonly used to help expel intestinal parasites and maintain healthy gut flora balance to aid detoxification. Common Chinese herbs used in acupuncture treatment for detoxification include:
- Dandellion (Pu Gong Ying / Herba Taraxaci Mongolicum Radice): Eliminates toxins, eases pain, boosts immunity, enhances liver detoxification function.
- Turmeric (Jiang Huang / Rhizoma Curcumae Longae): Enhances liver and gall bladder function, promotes blood circulation, eliminates toxins, eases inflammation and pain, regulates sleep, relieves stress.
- Gardenia (Zhi Zi / Fructus Gardeniae Jasminoidis): Enhances liver detoxification function, relieves irritability, and eases pain.
- Forsythia (Lian Qiao / Fructus Forsythiae Suspensae): Reduces inflammation, eliminates toxins.
- Licorice Root (Gan Cao / Radix Glycyrrhizae Uralensis): Boosts energy, eases, spasms, cramps and pain, improves sleep, eliminates toxins, protects the digestive mucous membranes, and enhances overall digestive function.
Acupuncture Treatment for Detoxification Uses Nutrition Therapy
Acupuncture for detoxification also uses dietary modification and nutrition as part of treatment. Nutrition therapy in acupuncture promotes eating a diet consisting mainly of fresh plant-based foods that are the most vital and free from chemicals, preservatives, and over-processing. Studies have shown that eating a low calorie, high-fiber, nutrient-rich diet consisting of more whole, plant-based foods helps eliminate excess waste and toxins from the body and turn off cravings for unhealthy foods and substances, while minimizing inflammation and pain, maintaining optimal metabolic and digestive function, and promoting total health and well-being.
What to Expect During Your First Acupuncture Treatment for Detoxification
FAQs
Unfortunately, there is no straight easy answer. Insurance coverage for acupuncture varies widely among insurance companies both statewide and nationally, with plans requiring certain criteria to be met before coverage is applied. This criteria is not standardized, and insurance companies all make their own policies, including exclusions, limitations and restrictions, regarding acupuncture coverage.
As a result, even when insurance companies advertise they offer acupuncture coverage, it doesn’t necessarily mean they will actually pay for all of it, or even some of it. Most people with an acupuncture-friendly health insurance plan that want to try to use it to pay for acupuncture should expect to accrue at least some out-of-pocket costs, anywhere from co-pays and deductibles to paying for uncovered procedures and products such as herbal medicine and nutritional supplements. It is also not uncommon for acupuncture-related claims to be entirely denied by insurance companies, leaving insured patients responsible for paying the total amount billed.
Fortunately, our office is well-versed on these details to help you understand how and when it is possible to use your insurance to help pay for acupuncture. For more information, or to begin the verification process and request prior authorization for using your PPO insurance with our office, please send us a message.
No, you do not need a referral to receive acupuncture treatment. California acupuncturists are primary care providers and can provide you treatment independently without referral. Some people may seek a doctor referral for acupuncture to try and use their insurance to cover expenses or for help finding a practitioner, but this is not required.
Acupuncture itself is very safe in the hands of a competent practitioner. It generally presents little to no side effects and rarely makes a condition worse. If these do occur it’s usually indicative of the healing process and any ill effects disappear within days of treatment.
However acupuncture is not for everyone, and there are times when precautions must be made. For example, people who are not eligible for acupuncture include those with hemophilia or contagious skin diseases. On the other hand, people on blood-thinning medication, or who tend to bruise easily, or who are pregnant, can receive acupuncture but should disclose their medical history to their acupuncturist prior to treatment so that certain precautions are made.
Where severe danger exists is in the inappropriate application of acupuncture by poorly trained and unskilled non-acupuncture therapists and physicians, many which do not receive the same instruction and training as licensed acupuncturists. To ensure safety when receiving acupuncture, it is highly recommended to use a practitioner who has received proper education and schooling in acupuncture, and is certified and licensed to practice acupuncture by an official governing acupuncture board, agency, or organization.
In general, acupuncture will not minimize any treatment or medication you have used or will use. Recent studies suggest acupuncture may actually enhance the therapeutic effectiveness of other treatments and reduce some of their adverse reactions.
However because acupuncture and some herbal and nutritional supplements prescribed by acupuncturists can sometimes diminish or potentiate the effects of other treatments, it is advisable that you disclose all of your medical history to your acupuncturist, especially if you’re taking medication or are undergoing other types of treatment, or have recently undergone other treatments, so that any precautions can be made prior to treatment. For more information, send us a message.
Depending on the type of service, total visit time is between 60-90 minutes, with 20-75 minute acupuncture treatment time.
Everyone responds to acupuncture differently but in general the approach we use is so gentle and the acupuncture needles we use are so thin that most people won’t even be aware when the needles are inserted. If they feel anything at all, it may be a slight pinch at the site of needle insertion followed by a brief dull ache that dissipates within seconds. Other common sensations felt during treatment include slight tingling, subtle muscle twitching and spasms, heaviness, extreme relaxation, and warmth in the hands and feet.
Most adults looking for a natural approach to health and overall wellness are candidates for acupuncture. But if you have a specific health condition and you’re not sure if acupuncture is right for you, the best way to find out is to request an appointment for an evaluation and consult.
