Acupuncture part 2

A post from last Fall that I never got around to posting:

The thing about acupuncture and traditional Chinese medicine is that it's an entirely different method of healing. While maybe China is savvy at integrating their traditional healing arts into modern healing methods, we're not so blended in the west. It's as though I'm operating in two different spheres: one is a holistic, body/mind/spirit world, and the other is a hormone/nutrient/vitamin world. One looks at the entirety of the body and its relational operation, the other looks at independent, miscroscopic pieces within the body. How can these even overlap? I'm feeling like I need to back off the multi-faceted poking around and just do one thing for a while. At the moment, I'm just drawn to acupuncture. I am realizing that I've been so "prevent HG" focused, and haven't stopped to think about the "pre-HG" implications - meaning, that perhaps my body is functioning at subpar levels all the time, but it's only noticeable once pregnant and all hell breaks loose. I'll still pursue the various tests because I do believe I need to know those things, but beyond that I want to lay low for a while before embarking on supplements galore (I'll focus on whole foods instead). So for right now I've ceased all supplements (except Cocolaurin for gut health and Juice+).

Acupuncture, as I understand it, is primarily about energy flow - I know, all you haters just cringed. Okay, acupuncture is primarily about blood flow and circulation. This is something I've thought about in an isolated situation. I received pelvic floor therapy about two years after my second birth. I learned my pelvic floor was chronically tight. After the therapy, I had better blood flow to my legs - they no longer became tingly 30 seconds into squatting or sitting criss-cross. Around the same time in a massage class, I learned about the obteratur internus, one of the major pelvic floor muscles. The arteries run right through these muscles and if the muscles are tight, especially in pregnancy, it can pinch the arteries leading to poor circulation and vericose veins (and can also cause perineal tearing, as I experienced). This all got me thinking about blood flow. If tight pelvic floor muscles prevent proper blood flow to the legs, could it also impair blood flow to uterus and somehow play a role in HG?

Well, researching blood flow and uterus/HG/pregnancy primarily brought up acupuncture information. While nothing was really in the same vein of thought as my "tight muscles" musing above (see what I did there? Haha - edit: is it sad that, a few months later, I don't even see what I did there? I assume it was a pun), I find it interesting nonetheless. And compelling, especially from the standpoint that these are healing practices that have been used for thousands of years. I know, I know, logical fallacy, arguing from tradition. But I think it's important to not be overlooked just because it's not "modern" or "proven" or "science". Especially during a time when a women normally does all she can to keep unsafe things - like some meds, for example - out of her body and away from her developing baby. 

This article was really interesting about the different needs of the 4 trimesters (the 4th being postpartum) according to TCM. I've heard before that the postpartum mother needs heat not cool.

This article talks about how acupuncture increases blood flow to the uterus.

This is an interesting overview explaining TCM. It also looks into research and trials surrounding the use of TCM and acupuncture.

This was just really interesting with all the minute classifications within HG that TCM looks at. Very different from the broad "persistent nausea and vomiting" HG is defined as.