TMS Health Solutions is always on the lookout for forward thinking remedies for clinical depression. Each individual’s path to wellness takes a different route and often requires various treatment methods to overcome their mental illness. While there is no substitute to evidence-based medical treatment, TMS Health Solutions takes a holistic approach that incorporates all kinds of alternative treatments to suit the needs of their patients. In their search for innovative treatment options, TMS Health Solutions is looking to the past to examine Traditional Chinese Medicines.
For thousands of years, practitioners of traditional Chinese medicine have used various mind and body practices to treat and prevent mental illness. Manual therapies such as acupuncture, tai chi, yoga and meditation are all part of traditional Chinese medicines aimed at curbing the symptoms of depression. Medicinal herbs and teas, vitamins and nutritional supplements, along with a healthy diet are all a part of this traditional practice. While some consider such methods to be pseudoscience as these practices have been around longer than the scientific method itself. But as our understanding of the brain continues to expand, the scientific and personal benefits of these ancient wellness techniques are overwhelming. Let’s take a look at a few.
Tai Chi
Tai Chi is a mind-body exercise that has originated in China as early as the 1500’s. Combining elements of meditation and martial arts, this Chinese practice promotes balance and inner peace. By slowly performing, dance like poses that flow into one another, those practicing tai chi report improved mental concentration, muscle relaxation, physical balance, and deep-breathing. There are two primary forms of tai chi, taolu and tuishou. Taolu is practiced alone and emphasizes deep abdominal breathing, proper posture and your natural range of motion. Tuishou which is practiced with a partner by “pushing hands” together. One study suggests that the tai chi interventions can have beneficial effects on an array of psychological ailments including depression.
Chinese Herbal Medicine
The recorded use of herbal medicine to treat depression goes back to the Ming Dynasty. The Chinese Materia Medica is a pharmacological book used by traditional Chinese medicine practitioners that describe many medicinal substances—mostly plants, minerals and animal products. Different parts of plants, such as the leaves, stems, roots, flowers, and seeds, are used in traditional Chinese Medicine. Such herbs are usually combined in formulas and given as teas, liquid extracts, capsules, or powders. Such herbal remedies are attractive to those who have adverse reactions and side effects to anti-depressants.
Acupuncture
Acupuncture is another form of traditional Chinese medicine that goes back thousands of years. Traditional Chinese medicine practitioners view the body as an interconnected whole and acupuncture is believed to relieve blocked energy and correct imbalances in one’s organs. Western medicine explains the positive effects of acupuncture by claiming that the needles have a natural painkilling effect stimulating one’s nervous system. One recent study in the Journal of Alternative and Complimentary Medicine suggested that electroacupuncture was just as effective at treating depression as Prozac. Further studies have shown that acupuncture can have a positive effect on Heart Rate Variability which can promote healthy brain chemistry.
Dietary Therapy
A staple in traditional Chinese medicine is dietary therapy. Chinese medicine categorizes food according to it’s energetic effects. Some foods are used for building chi while others have yanf or yin building properties. Thus, the exact same food will have different effects on two individuals depending on the people’s energy. Therefore, according to traditional Chinese medicine, it is not enough to eat healthy food, but one must eat healthy foods that are right for your body type and makeup. Western nutritional psychiatrists have only recently discovered the strong correlation between diet and one’s mental health. Several studies have shown that there is a link between what we eat and our risk of depression.
TMS Health Solutions realizes that depression effect’s everyone differently and as such, what remedy works for one person might not work for another. Pairing cutting edge therapies like Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation with an assortment of alternative therapies is leading our mental health care professionals towards treating patient’s holistically. Call us or check out our website to examine what an individualized treatment plan could look like for you.
