All About Women and Autoimmune Diseases

As women, we go through three main periods of hormone upheaval in our lifetime: first during puberty, second during and after pregnancy, and lastly during menopause. When our body is going through such dramatic hormonal changes, we can develop a condition known as estrogen dominance, where the level of estrogen in our body is too high compared to progesterone.

Estrogen is generally an immune stimulant while progesterone is an immune suppressant. Thus, if there is not enough progesterone to balance out estrogen, our immune system may become hyperactive and attack our own tissues, resulting in different autoimmune diseases such as Hashimoto's, colitis, and ALS, depending on which tissues are targeted.

If you are interested in the mechanism of how hormone changes affects our likelihood of getting autoimmune diseases, please read the more detailed article I wrote on my website, www.bostonchineseacupuncture.com!



Below are some tips for preventing autoimmune diseases.

1. Avoid using birth control pills if possible. When you do not ovulate regularly, your body has less progesterone to balance estrogen, and therefore, immune function tends to be hyperactive. Once the imbalance reaches a certain level, your gene expression will change.


2. Avoid too much alcohol. Alcohol can enhance an enzyme called aromatase which can convert naturally occurring testosterone into "bad estrogen" that overstimulates your immune system. Also, alcohol tends to make your body produce internal heat, leading to inflammation.


3. Eat more cruciferous vegetables. Kale, cabbage, broccoli, brussels sprouts, and cauliflower can inhibit aromatase naturally.


4. Avoid dry cleaning clothing and using plastic containers. The chemicals used can serve as bad estrogen to change our immune function.


5. Practice yoga, Qi Gong and meditation to calm down the nervous system.


6. Take wheatgrass, raspberry tea, and Chinese herbal formulas to enhance your ovarian, adrenal and other gland functions to create a more balanced hormone level. Certain chemicals in these supplements can also serve as very weak, "good estrogen" to prevent the stimulating effect of "bad estrogen".


7. Regular acupuncture treatments can help adjust your nervous and immune functions.

As always, please subscribe to my YouTube Channel for regular updates on acupuncture and health!

Acupuncture for Infertility FAQ

Last Wednesday, April 1, my clinic was featured on the WCVB show Chronicle in their episode titled Fertility. It was truly an honor for me to be make my first television appearance talking about how acupuncture can help couples conceive, a topic that has been very important to my career as an acupuncturist. The outpouring of response to this show has been tremendous and I thank everyone who was involved in its production and who took the time to watch! 

My kids took this screenshot of the show and posted it all over their Facebook pages.  I wonder if this means I am finally going to crack the 15-25 year-old demographic!

After the show aired, I received quite a number of requests for further information on how acupuncture for infertility works. I have included a few basic responses below and the rest can be found on my website, Boston Chinese Acupuncture.

ACUPUNCTURE FOR INFERTILITY FAQ 

 

How many couples have you helped get pregnant?

Over the past 15 years I have been practicing in the Boston area, I have helped a couple of hundred women give birth to healthy babies. Women of all ages and underlying fertility problems have come to me for help. I have successfully treated women as old as 46 and women with clinical reproductive problems, including severe endometriosis and PCOS. I have even helped a woman with re-opened ligated tubes get pregnant!

When should I start acupuncture treatments?

You should start acupuncture treatments at least 3 months before you plan to conceive, whether naturally or through IVF and IUI. Acupuncture helps relax your uterus muscles and balance your hormones, increasing the likelihood of a successful implantation

How often should I come for treatments? How long will it take before I get pregnant?

I generally recommend patients come 1-2 times a week. Because the effects of acupuncture are incremental and cumulative, for the best results, I recommend spacing out treatments evenly without leaving too much time between sessions. In my experience, it takes between 2 and 12 months of acupuncture for most women to get pregnant, depending on the individual's age and general health.

Should I continue acupuncture treatments during pregnancy?

Yes. Although acupuncture can been done safely during the entire course of the pregnancy, I recommend that my patients continue acupuncture until at least 12 weeks into their pregnancy. Acupuncture treatments can help lower the rate of miscarriages, which is particularly important during the first 12 weeks of the pregnancy.