What is Sound Acupuncture?
Sound Acupuncture is a combination of acupuncture techniques together with delivery of sound vibrations that entrains the central nervous system and produces calming affects. It has been demonstrated to facilitate relaxation, improve mood & sleep, improve digestive & immune function and contribute to the alleviation of stress.
How do we “sense” the world?
I gave you a hint in the headline there. We sense the world with our 5 senses! Sight, Touch, Taste, Smell and last but not least, our sense of HEARING. Doesn’t it “make sense” that we can affect the body & mind with the correct stimuli? It really is all about vibration:
Sight: We take in “vibrations” in the form of light waves for seeing, - Touch: the skin is also highly sensitive to vibrations, and that these vibrations produce corresponding oscillations in the afferents, or nerves, that carry information from the receptors to the brain. The precise timing and frequency of these neural responses convey specific messages about texture to the brain, much like the frequency of vibrations on the eardrum conveys information about sound. (source)
- Smell: your nose listens to the acoustic bonds of aroma molecules. (source)
- Taste: Our sense of taste is transmitted by our taste buds which are also frequency receptors! It has even been shown that sound can affect your sense of taste (here)
- Hearing: our ears and the apparatus inside them take in sound waves and transmit the frequencies to the brain.
How does Sound Acupuncture work?
To begin to understand how Sound Acupuncture works, consider the strings on a guitar. They are anchored to the top and the bottom of the guitar, yet remain free to vibrate and move in between. Depending on the tension of the strings, the guitar is either perfectly “in tune,” or some degree “out of tune.” In order to express the most optimal sound, it is essential to continually refine the tuning so that it is as close to perfect as possible. Tuning the guitar is done primarily at the very top and the very bottom. When the strings are at the correct tension, or more specifically vibrating at the same frequency, they are said to be in tune, or “entrained.”
Now envision your body. The brain, spinal cord, and nerves were perfectly designed to send and receive clear vibratory messages between one another and the rest of the body. When the body undergoes stressors that it cannot adapt to, whether they be physical, emotional or chemical in origin, it often assumes a defensive structure and function, placing adverse tension on the entire nervous system (throwing the “guitar” out of tune). This physiological state prevents a person from experiencing true health because vibratory signals in the nervous system become interrupted or distorted. When this occurs the electrical system of the body, or, as acupuncturists call it the “meridian system”, develops static, distortion and/or disruption in the flow of electromagnetic energy through the system. Because the human body is so intelligent, it can sometimes figure out a way to “get back in tune” and regulate the flow on its own. However, in many instances, the system needs some assistance in order to release the stored static or blockages and become “entrained” back to optimal tuning and flow.
What is Sound Acupuncture good for?
- Stress & Anxiety conditions
- Digestive & Elimination Dysfunction*
- Immune dysfunction*
- Reproductive dysfunction*
- Sleep Problems
*(usually together with a functional medicine approach)
Our Autonomic Nervous System:
Acupuncture is a powerful and safe way to create beneficial changes in central nervous system function. The majority of patients at my clinic experience stress relief after each and every treatment.
To understand this further, let’s look at the two main divisions of the Autonomic Nervous System which control the bodily functions that are not consciously directed—like breathing, digestion and heartbeat. These two main divisions are the Sympathetic Nervous System (SNS) and the Parasympathetic Nervous System (PNS).
Fight-or-flight: the Sympathetic Nervous System
When we experience stress our Sympathetic Nervous System (SNS) is triggered. Usually known as the “fight-or-flight” response, the SNS is responsible for getting the body and mind ready for confrontation.
And of course, this is how you’d want your body to respond in an emergency—it’s a reasonable response to a threat.
SNS overload — The problem comes when we are chronically locked into a fight-or-flight response, due to our perception of ongoing threats. Most, if not all of these threats are mental and emotional in nature—not threats of actual physical harm. When stress becomes chronic, our digestive, respiratory, cardiovascular, reproductive, and hormonal systems, as well as our brain, start to suffer.
Rest-and-digest (and reproduce)—the Parasympathetic Nervous System (PNS) – Also called “rest-and-digest (and reproduce),” the PNS gets you ready for relaxation, digestion, and general feelings of calm and well-being.
Acupuncture—creating balance in the nervous system
Acupuncture is like a physical therapy for the nervous system. With sufficient numbers of treatments, acupuncture helps the nervous system adapt and re-educate itself to operate in a more optimal and balanced way. Many times I see clients who have been in “fight or flight” response for such a long time they don’t know what it’s like to feel any different. Sometimes even after a single treatment their systems shift into a more parasympathetic mode. They feel calm and peaceful. Something they forgot they can feel and may have never even felt in their lives.
Simply put, acupuncture helps get our heart rate variability (HRV) into optimal ranges, which also keeps our Central Autonomic Network healthy. A 2012 study on acupuncture and HRV found that acupuncture does indeed improve patients’ HRV scores. This helped patients improve their symptoms, which in these studies were heart disease, hypertension, mild anxiety and depression, insomnia, migraines, and muscle pain.
Acupuncture is like a physical therapy for the nervous system. With sufficient numbers of treatments, acupuncture helps the nervous system adapt and re-educate itself to operate in a more optimal way.
Brainwave Entrainment with Sound Acupuncture
Brain Wave Entrainment is any procedure that causes one’s brainwave frequencies to synchronize with a periodic stimulus (sound, vibration or light) having a frequency corresponding to the intended brain-state (for example, to induce a trance, dreams, sleep or relaxation.) source
Most of us live the majority of our lives in a state of primarily beta brain waves – aroused, alert, concentrated, but also somewhat stressed. Acupuncture alone has been studied in regards to shifting the brainwave activity from primarily Beta to Alpha waves (relaxed, calm). When we introduce sound from Tibetan Singing Bowls the brain can also move into the Theta brain wave frequencies that induce deep meditative and peaceful states, clarity of mind, and intuition. The sound vibrations impact our nervous system, engaging our relaxation reflex and inhibiting the stress or pain response. The Tibetan Singing Bowls are an ancient technology for stimulating our brainwaves! A 2016 study found Tibetan singing bowl meditation significantly reduced tension, anger, fatigue and depressed mood in participants.
The synergy of acupuncture and sound can only be experienced and not written about. Come in for a Sound Acupuncture treatment and feel it for yourself.