Boosting Immunity
No, acupuncture doesn't "boost" immunity.
It’s such a buzz phrase now, to “boost immunity,” and there’s so much out there about how we can do that. The Washington Post famously (infamously?) published that not only can’t you boost your immune system, you probably shouldn’t: that turns into autoimmunity, which we don’t want.
So as an acupuncturist, I’m going to break down the spirit of what “boosting” immunity means. No, it doesn’t mean making your immune system so robust that it starts attacking itself: it means looking at your living self as the system that you are, acknowledging the interconnectedness, and using those as tenets to accept as fact before reading any further.
I’ll wait.
I’ve had this idea since acupuncture changed my life that in addition to it being magical, what it really does is fix what needs fixing. No, that doesn’t mean that it’s a cure-all, but it does mean that the addition of acupuncture can help your body adjust in beneficial ways, within reason. I have also seen first hand how adding acupuncture into your life helps you make better decisions for yourself.
BODIES ARE DIFFERENT.
One body can come in contact with a virus and basically willingly invite the germ in, to invade and multiply (with ease!) inside of their body’s ecosystem. On a metabolic level, it would be an indication that that system was be ill equipped to deal with the onslaught.
Another body could come in contact with a virus and not become infected: pre-covid, when we actually had a cold and flu season, you’d see this all the time. And this decisive “no” to the invading pathogen would of course be a testament to the underlying immune function of the individual, but it also speaks to the breadth of metabolic energy able to go out and fight the good fight at the outset, so that there didn’t need to be any in-fighting.
Regular Acupuncture treatments and covid recovery
Since Thanksgiving, I’ve seen quite a few people now who have had covid and the ones who had been getting acupuncture regularly fared better than those in their households who also got covid, who weren’t getting acupuncture.
That’s it. That’s my study.
I’m not claiming that it helps, but I pretty much can’t see how it couldn’t: acupuncture interacting in both Susie and Alicia’s bodies will help their systems fight infections in a more effective manner, so while I would imagine Alicia faring better than Susie, I think they both would be ok.
And in this pandemic, coming out on the other side at all, let alone pretty much ok, is a huge win.
WHAT DOES ACUPUNCTURE HAVE TO DO WITH METABOLIC ENERGY?
Kind of everything. Acupuncture works with the body to send signals to all the bodily systems, effectively reminding it that it indeed is a single unit that contains multitudes and acknowledging those layers and allowing them to work together is the best path to a healthy life. Acupuncture also can do the thing that that computer program does: the one that finds all the trash and gets rid of it, and also compresses all the little bits of free space so that all those little bits become something substantial? You know the one I’m talking about? Well, acupuncture does that. For the body. And it also reminds you that feeling good feels good, so you do things like move when it feels good, eat when it feels good, hydrate when it feels good. It lends itself to a more intuitive and connected lifestyle.
why it feels like acupuncture “boosts” immunity
After a course of acupuncture treatments, your body is smarter and stronger. It knows better how to deal with invading pathogens, you sleep better, the quality of your sleep is better, you retain more nutrition from your food, you handle stress better… it renders the need for that metabolic energy that might otherwise go to managing an overloaded system to actually go to your immune system. And that can save your life.