continued from Sleepless in Denver – Part One
I set up an initial consultation with Igor, during which he determined that I likely had a sympathetic/parasympathetic nervous system imbalance. This essentially meant that my body had somehow become switched “on” to state of constant “fight-or-flight” response, which was manifested in an elevated heart rate, feelings of unexplained panic and anxiety and sleep disturbances. This imbalance and the resulting symptoms made sense to me, as I had studied physiology during my undergraduate education. Although still a bit nervous about the needles, I was ready to try it. Already after the first treatment, I was sleeping better and was reportedly less irritating to my husband (potentially just as important as the sleep issue).
In the past few weeks, I have had great personal success in my athletic endeavors, and recently finished a professional level race, the Nature Valley Grand Prix, with several top 30 and a top 15 finish. As a not-yet-salaried professional, this is a significant result, and one that I am confident I would not have achieved had my sleep still been sub-optimal. Jumping back to the sleep cycle app, although I do not hold it as the ivory tower of sleep analysis, it has corroborated the results I have subjectively felt — I checked in last night, and awoke to a 93% sleep quality.
Part of my writing this is to express my upmost professional respect of and recommendation of Igor as a Practitioner of Chinese Medicine, and the other part is to illustrate the wide-spread applications of acupuncture as a field. Oftentimes, acupuncture is thought to work alongside Western Medicine help alleviate the pain of migraines, menstrual cramps, chronic low back pain, and acute post-surgery pain, and previous to my personal experiences, I also had my preconcieved notions. But I am happy to confirm that the prescriptions and fix-it mentality of Western Medicine, while valuable in so many instances, is only one of several avenues leading to optimal health and physical functioning. I am looking forward to a full season of professional-level racing and hopefully satisfying results, and Igor has played a key role in that.
written by Kimberley Turner; personal trainer, semi professional cyclist and aspiring Olympian for 2016 – Good luck Kim!
www.kimberleyturner.worldpress.com