As importantly, I want to stress if you are immunosuppressed or in a high risk category 1 ,
keep doing whatever it is that’s keeping you healthy and safe. This post is meant to inform
about acupuncture and its effects on the body’s immune system.
The anti-inflammatory effects of acupuncture may help with boosting immunity—if your body
is fighting less inflammation on a daily basis, it will be better prepared for any attack your
immune system must fight. Additionally, everyday stressors, poor digestion, and lack of quality
sleep can lower your ability to fight potential pathogens. If you are one of my clients, you know
that I believe every chronic issue begins and ends by improving digestion and sleep issues, and
acupuncture can help greatly in these areas, as well as reducing pain and inflammation.
Improving how all of your organ systems are running will help overall with your immunity.
The National Institute of Health’s National Center for Biotechnology Information is a fantastic
resource for anyone interested to learn more from scholarly sources regarding studies that
demonstrate the efficacy of Acupuncture. Particular to boosting immunity, I recommend an
article from Evidence-Based Complementary and Alternative Medicine, Acupuncture and
Immunity. It explains how acupuncture strengthens the human body to resist disease and how
“the characteristic that acupuncture enhances resistance is closely related with the immune
system”. 2 It further highlights how continued research demonstrates how acupuncture may
regulate immunity.
From a personal perspective, one of the key factors that led me to pursue an education in
and practice acupuncture was that acupuncture and TCM are beneficial in not simply treating
ailments, but when applied by a trained and skilled practitioner, acupuncture and TCM improve
and strengthen a person’s health by assisting the body to help itself, to do what it is meant to
do.
Center for Disease Control and Prevention, Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19), People Who Are at Higher Risk for Severe Illness, Last accessed April 20, 2020, https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/need-extra-precautions/people-at-higher-risk.html
Liang F, Cooper EL, Wang H, Jing X, Quispe-Cabanillas JG, Kondo T. Acupuncture and Immunity. Evid Based Complement Alternat Med. 2015;2015:260620. doi:10.1155/2015/260620