March 05, 2013 / by Dr. Han

Panic Attacks treated by Acupuncture and Herbs

I have treated a couple of panic attack cases lately and have achieved very good clinical results. After a couple of acupuncture treatments and taking some herbs, the symptoms never came back. Panic disorder is when patients suddenly feel rapid heart beating, difficult breathing, sweating, trembling, dizzy, nausea etc. After the panic attack, patients are very frightened about the feeling during the attack and extremely tired. Usually patients can not figure out what is the reason.

Based on my experience it is always related to stress and deficiency. Patients who suffer from this problem are often under severe stress or after a very stressful period of time. The stress has drained the body too much. The other reason for that is Qi and Blood deficiency. Patients have very low energy for quite a while. They are very tired, have shortness of breath and sweat very easily. Palpitation is one of the most frightening symptoms that patients have because they have the fear of loss of control or death. Their tongue body color is pale and pulse is weak. My treatment focuses on Tonifying Qi and Blood, especially the Heart Qi and blood. When their body and heart are stronger from treatment, they can handle stress better and prevent recurrence of panic attack. If patients have a lot of anxiety I will add acupuncture points and herbs to anchor the spirit. The points I like to use for this disorder are ST36, PC6, Si shen cong, Yintang etc. The herbs those have very good effects include cinnamon twig, oyster shell, dragon bone, Ginseng etc. After treatment, patients all feel more energy, less anxiety, and better control of emotions.