Hello Dear Readers,

Today we are going to talk a little bit about some recommendations that acupuncturists give to their patients right after an acupuncture session and also discuss a little why we should follow these recommendations.

If you are an acupuncturist or acupuncture patient, you have probably heard that the patient cannot, until 2 hours after a session:

• step on the icy floor
• drink ice water
• have sex
• do intense physical activity

Have you ever wondered why these recommendations exist?

These recommendations are extremely important, my dear reader, as they are protecting the effects achieved by stimulation of acupuncture points. Let me explain:

Acupuncture has as main objective to rebalance the patient physically and energetically. Energy is a subtle, non-palpable substance that circulates through acupuncture meridians. This energy needs to circulate in a continuous and harmonic way throughout the organism for the individual to be healthy.

When acupuncture needles are inserted in the points located on the meridians, the body’s response is to circulate the energy, making it take its correct course and reach all the organs that are in need of this substance.

The energy cycles every two hours, changing its highest concentration per organ in what we call “Organ Body Clock”, maintaining itself this way throughout life. When we get sick, the energy stops flowing harmoniously, a fact that acupuncture can correct during the session.

However, we say that the peak effect of acupuncture occurs after two hours after we remove the needles. That is, the benefits will start to happen while the patient is needled, but they will only reach their peak two hours after the removal of the needles. This happens because the energy that has been unlocked needs to fall back into the “body clock”, a fact that takes 2 hours, according to the literature definition.
Knowing these facts, the question still remains: But why are there the recommendations at the beginning of this text?

1. When we step on the cold floor or consume cold drinks, we are putting the pathogenic factor “Cold” into the body, which blocks the circulation of blood and energy in the body. So, we would be acting contrary to the objective of acupuncture, which is maintain harmonic circulation.
2. When we have sex or do intense physical activity, we generate “Heat”, which will stir up the energy and prevent its circulation from being harmonious, as in the previous exemple.

Two hours after the session, the circulation of energy will have returned to normal, and consuming cold drinks, stepping on the cold floor, having sex or doing physical activity will cause the same impacts on the body, however, the body rebalanced by acupuncture can adapt to these changes and regain their balance easily after these practices.

We call this phenomenon homeostasis, which is the state of physical, chemical and dynamic balance of an organism. The body can become unbalanced, but the healthy body is able to rediscover its balance.

So, dear readers, the recommendations given to patients must be followed in full, so that the effect is complete and so that the therapist has the chance to restore the patient’s organism the ability to rebalance itself and cure its symptoms;)

I hope you enjoyed.

A big hug to everyone.

Profa. Fernanda Mara