How does acupuncture work to treat PMS and irregular menstrual cycles?
Qi or energy runs through the body in specific meridians or channels that innervate the organs and control the movement and production of blood and other vital substances in the body. When qi is not coursing smoothly and strongly through its pathways the organs cannot function to produce and move blood as they are meant to. Stagnant qi causes stagnant blood which equals pain. Qi can be accessed and manipulated by using an acupuncture needle to stimulate specifically located acupuncture points along the meridians. Different combinations of acupuncture points are chosen from the hundreds of available points for treating a patients individual imbalance. Acupuncture has been shown to assist the endocrine system in keeping balanced levels of estrogen and progesterone in the body. Hormonal imbalances are thought to be the cause of menstrual irregularities from a western medical point of view. A November 2002 study in the medical journal Archives of Gynecology and Obstetrics showed a 77.8% su
