Many kids and teens feel anxious about going back to school after a long summer break, or starting a new school for the first time. Middle and high school present a whole new set of social hurdles for them to conquer, and it can be a jolting experience for even the most outgoing kids! If your child’s stress seems to be higher than normal, and it is starting to affect their school work or home life, acupuncture may be able to help.

It can take real detective work to get to the bottom of these anxieties, and in Traditional Chinese Medicine, we take into account all aspects of a patient’s life that may be upsetting to an otherwise healthy body and spirit. Acupuncture has been clinically proven to help increase endorphins¹ (the chemical in your body that makes you feel happy and calm), help you sleep better², and inhibit the body’s stress response³.

Some patients, especially those young enough to clearly remember the pain of bigger vaccine needles, are good candidates for acupressure. Depending on the patient, I choose to use acupressure to return the body to a more normal, stable state. Whether it is acupuncture or acupressure, the experience for them will be the same: breathing slows, blood pressure lowers⁴, and relief is immediate.

For some teens, a lot of stress comes from elevated hormones during these tumultuous years. Along with the added drama of their social and love lives, these hormones can also aggravate skin and cause chronic acne. Acupuncture can help this as well! Acupuncture has been proven to help reduce lesions and inflammation⁵ in patients with moderate acne.

The best part of it all—no side effects! There are no harsh medications necessary, no pain, and no added worries for you, as the parent. If your child is having a difficult time adjusting to the back-to-school routine, acupuncture might be just the thing to get them back into the swing of things!

1 Acupuncture and Endorphins, Han, 2004.

2 Immediate effect of acupuncture on the sleep pattern of patients…, Freier, et al, 2010.

3 Acupuncture inhibits sympathetic activation during mental stress…,  Middlekauf, et al, 2002.

4 Acupuncture for Essential Hypertension, Kim, 2010.

5 Efficacy of ah shi point acupuncture on acne vulgaris, Son, et al, 2010.