Can acupuncture help prevent anxiety?

It may not seem like self-care to have several needles pierce your skin while you're under stress, nonetheless, acupuncture has been used for thousands of years in traditional Chinese medicine to treat a variety of illnesses and relieve pain.

Acupuncture needles are inserted into the inner wrists, between the eyes, and in the ears to treat anxiety. The efficacy of the practice is also supported by anecdotal and empirical evidence.

"Acupuncture eases anxiety by regulating the nervous system, specifically by bringing the branches of the autonomic nervous system back into balance," Ashley Flores, a licensed acupuncturist in Chicago, told Health. "Acupuncture treatment helps shift the body back into a relaxed state where the sympathetic system is more balanced and no longer dominating."

Energy, or "qi," is said to go through the body along certain paths in Chinese medicine.

"Sometimes the energy is blocked, deficient, excessive, or unbalanced. This puts the body out of balance and in turn, causes illness," Elizabeth Trattner, a board-certified doctor of Chinese and integrative medicine who practices in Miami Beach, Florida, told Health. "Acupuncture restores homeostasis and encourages healing."

Your body is not merely randomly covered in needles. The precise spots where they must be inserted depending on your bodily or mental symptoms are called acupoints. Possible acupoints of anxiousness are:

Between your eyebrows.

Insides of your wrists.

On the feet.

Your breastbone or ears.