Let’s Bring Out our True Beauty During the Holidays !!
What You Need to Know About Cosmetic Acupuncture

There’s a moment in life when we lean a little closer into the mirror; to get a better look at time. And when I say time, I am talking about the fine lines—perhaps a blemish from stress here or there, or the dryness you feel from a morning hike.

How would you like to walk into a room and have friends say, “What have you been doing lately?” Even people who notice nothing will notice something is different. Now you can erase years from your face…safely, and without injected poisons. Facial Rejuvenation Acupuncture is a natural, healthier enhancing way to look and feel years younger. Your friends may be envious of how you look when you use the time-tested methods of Acupuncture and Chinese herbs to look and feel younger.

Why paralyze muscles with chemicals? Discover the rejuvenation process designed to help you look and feel younger naturally. Make people talk. The Facial Rejuvenation Acupuncture (sometimes called Cosmetic Acupuncture) includes sophisticated acupuncture techniques, exclusive skin care treatment PLUS special herb formula prescriptions for your individual body type.

Beauty and the Least

We all know that there is a tremendous interest these days in any product or procedure that is touted as being “anti-aging”. No matter what the state of the economy, people continue to spend billions of dollars a year on therapies and procedures that promise to make them look younger, thinner, or more beautiful. You can have a procedure to modify almost anything about your body with which you are dissatisfied. People are having chin implants, fat transplantation, arm lifts, ear plastic surgery, cosmetic foot surgery, and even (believe it or not) cosmetic leg lengthening surgery. The industry has gone so far that there is now a book written for children about mommy’s plastic surgery. When children’s books are being written about how kids can keep up with the world of cosmetic “improvements”, the field has reached a new low in my opinion.

Many cosmetic procedures began as medical treatments. Plastic surgery began as a blessing to those who had been disfigured in an accident, born with a cleft palate, or injured in combat. In fact, war injuries accelerated experimentation in plastic surgery after World War I. The history of Botox also begins with its beneficial use. In the 1950s it was discovered to relax hypertensive muscles and spasms and is still used to give relief to patients who suffer from facial, neck, or shoulder spasms.

Acupuncture treatments didn’t start out being “cosmetic” either but there were unintended outcomes (i.e., “cosmetic” results) of using certain points and techniques. For me, one of the most enjoyable parts of my practice is having the skills and knowledge to help use “the least” to help people maintain their youthful appearance. You can be youthful by using your own body! With the use of needling, herbs, Qi Gong, and/or nutritional advice – all basic therapies included in the system of Chinese medicine – our medicine can stave off the outward signs of aging. That’s because when I use Chinese medicine for “cosmetic” results, I am treating the internal causes of aging, not just the outward results of it. That is the true beauty of Chinese medicine; it treats wrinkles from the inside and the outside.

Chinese medicine can help you maintain a youthful appearance with the use of one of the “least” aggressive procedures available: cosmetic acupuncture. Cosmetic acupuncture improves your health rather than damaging it. It uses your own body to be youthful rather than injecting toxins into it. Chinese medicine can create a vibrancy and healthfulness inside that is reflected on the outside.

Let’s talk about Mei Zen …

Literally, Mei Zen means “beautiful person”. When we perform Mei Zen in an acupuncture office, we are working to help a person stay healthy and beautiful from the inside out. In Traditional Chinese Medicine, the state of physical health, emotions and spirit is reflected in the skin of the face. Cosmetic Acupuncture is an effective non-invasive alternative to plastic surgery. Mei Zen Cosmetic Acupuncture uses a needling technique that is superficial versus other deep needle threading techniques. This system is based on Traditional Chinese Medicine and results in overall rejuvenating effects in the body, mind and spirit. During an Initial Assessment before treatment, diet, lifestyle and skin care are also evaluated and addressed.

8 Reasons to Try Facial Acupuncture

1. Anti-Aging

Anti-aging is not just about fighting fine lines and wrinkles; sagging in areas like the cheeks and puffiness of the eyes can lead to a less youthful look. Most people think of treatments such as botox to target signs of aging, but instead of freezing an area, your acupuncturist works on getting it to function again.
As acupuncture needles are inserted into the skin, your body senses these wounds, also called “positive micro-traumas”, and goes into repair mode. This is the same idea micro-needling uses to get bright, anti-aging results – except that acupuncture targets specific points with less needles.

2. Collagen Production

Collagen is a protein fiber that is best known as our body’s fountain of youth; it gives elasticity to our skin, joints and ligaments, protects our arteries and moistens our eyes. About 70% of the collagen in our bodies is found in the skin and starts to deteriorate as we age, starting from the age of 26. A decrease of collagen is often the first to show the signs of aging on your face. This is why facial acupuncture comes in handy as it promotes stimulation of collagen production.

3. Acne

Facial acupuncture can help acne in two different ways: topically and internally. Sometimes acne can be a sign that your body is in a stressed, imbalanced state and acupuncture targets these internal conditions with meridian points connected to the body’s organs – giving more lasting results. Cosmetically, acupuncturists can also target acne scars or breakouts with needles to help with the blood flow and healing response in that area. Your body sends more blood and white blood cells to the area, focusing on bacteria under the skin and even builds collagen to help scars and hyperpigmentation.

4. Elasticity

Moments in our lives that make us stressed, worried or angry slowly accumulate and start to affect you physically. In terms of your face, lines appear, skin sags and isn’t as tight as it used to be. Along with boosting collagen, facial acupuncture also boosts elastin to firm and tone the face while it’s reducing wrinkles.

5. Improves Skin Tone

Environmental factors, pollution and stress in the body dull the complexion over time. Facial acupuncture is an ultimate multi-tasker, as its needles stimulate circulation and self-repairing of the skin. Increased circulation nourishes the skin and promotes detoxification and elimination of cellular waste to leave you with a clearer, more toned complexion.

6. Sun Damage

Smoking, poor hydration, stress and most importantly, prolonged sun exposure are all collagen killers. As collagen starts to disappear with age, our skin becomes thinner and sun spots or other discoloration from sun damage often becomes more visible. As needles are seen as foreign to the body, it quickly goes to work to heal the skin, leading to collagen production and increased circulation to fill and fade sun damage marks.

7. Enhances Glow

Regular acupuncture on the body is used to promote general health and reduce stress, which is a huge factor of your body feeling well-rested and balanced. When your body is balanced, your skin is delivered the perfect amount of nutrients and oxygen, nourishing skin from the inside out. Acupuncture needle points also stimulate your lymphatic and circulatory system, which helps detox, even out your complexion and promote your skin’s glow.

8. Reduces Redness

Redness can be correlated with internal imbalances, such as digestive or hormonal issues in Traditional Medicine. Facial acupuncture activates muscles in the face to lift, improve tone and increase blood circulation, which reduces redness by stimulating points on your face. It can also treat these issues from the inside out by targeting points in the stomach and other symptom related points.

Additionally, acupuncture and Traditional Medicine focus on much more than symptom management. Your complexion improves by strengthening your entire body, so you not only look better, but feel better. Regular treatments coupled with herbal remedies aim to rebuild your body and restore some of the vital substances lost during the aging process.

General health benefits include improvement in:

• Depression and mild anxiety
• Hot flashes
• Energy levels
• Hormonal balance
• Insomnia
• Digestive symptoms

Angela Soto, Licensed Acupuncturist and herbalist, is certified in Facial Rejuvenation Acupuncture. She has studied from 3 different teachers of Cosmetic Acupuncture. Realizing the limitations of each system, she has designed her own powerful system of Facial Rejuvenation.

At blue root & Wellness Center we offer a 3 month cosmetic program after an assessment has been done to determined the health of your overall body, mind and spirit. Once the treatment starts, it includes two 90 minute visits for 6 weeks, and one 90 minute visit for 6 weeks. At the end of each session, you will receive a pampering skin treatment with high quality skin products.

The Science Behind the Efficacy of Cosmetic Acupuncture 

1. Holistic Balance – First and foremost, we want to balance cell function in the body and skin. This goal is often neglected in topical or medical beauty treatments because those treatments are only focusing on the skin and not the entire person. Acupuncture for any conditions help stimulate this process of balance and being. Physiologically the body is lowering oxidative stress, decreasing stress hormones , increasing cell longevity and ATP synthesis, and triggering dopamine release. Acupuncture helps to supply skin cells with the essential building blocks they require by improving digestion, regulating stress – this enhances the nutrition we receive from our food and also increases blood flow, and lymphatic drainage to the face. The function of the full body acupuncture treatment can be considered anti-aging in and of itself due to its profound effects on regulating the body’s response to stress.

2. FibroBlast Are Key – Needling into the face also produces an incredible effect on the body and the skin itself. We can consider the process of needling the skin wounding to the body, and our body’s immune response to such a wound can produce an anti-aging effect when done precisely and correctly. A wound in the body – like that from an acupuncture needle – stimulates the division of fibroblasts – fibroblasts are responsible for making collagen, elastin and glycosaminoglycans (GAGs), which all cause ideal features in the skin – firmness, tightness, and plumpness, secondary to good hydration.

3. Preserving Integrity – Great skin care aims to preserve the integrity of the epidermis. Acupuncture, micro current and LED therapy are all minimally invasive treatments that maintain the integrity of the skin while simultaneously treating it. There is no downtime or peeling that occurs with the treatment, thus allowing the skin to remain fully intact and functional, offering the most benefit from the treatment without having to undergo a recovery period. By preserving the integrity of the skin, we also preserve the dermal papillae, this layer is important in supplying the exchange of oxygen, nutrients and waste products between the epidermis and the dermis, and is also responsible for providing strength between the layers. When this layer is compromised, a separation between these layers occurs and this is how wrinkles are formed. Acupuncture needles produce minimal damage, the most common undesired side effect is bruising at needle sites, and the skin remains intact and strong, enhanced by the treatment as opposed to weakened by it.

4. Muscle training – While all the effects of a cosmetic acupuncture treatment produce wonderful results in a safe way for the skin itself, we can not forget about the importance of the muscles of the face. The musculature of the face is complex, consisting of 57 muscles which lose their tone and mass as we age. We also often wind up training the muscles of our face to contract in a certain way which results in a undesirable breakdown of the dermal papillae between the dermis and epidermis – the classic “11” lines between the eyebrows are a great example of this. Cosmetic acupuncture treatments aim to address these issues of the muscles – triggering some muscle to re-engage, bringing tone back into the muscle resulting in a lifted appearance, and triggering other muscles to disengage – relaxing these muscles help resolve and soften wrinkles.

The Takeaway 

These four components to healthy, effective anti-aging skin care are what makes cosmetic acupuncture such an all around a successful treatment. Treating skin care holistically is of outmost importance, because the health of our skin is dependent upon the health of our entire body. Ignoring any one of these treatment strategies results in a less than desirable treatment, perhaps producing results, but with severe side effects and damage to the skin, or not producing results that are satisfactory to our patients.

Stay tune for PART 2 of our Cosmetic Skin Care newsletter! We will talk about the importance of Chinese Herbal Medicine and skin care, Bio-Injections and much more!

From all of us at blue root & Wellness Center – THANK YOU for your loyalty to the practice and to be part of a Holistic movement that honors your body, mind and soul ! We wish you a wonderful holiday!

Sending always love and healing light,
Angela Soto, O.MD, L.Ac