How Does Acupuncture Improve Your Immunity?
Think acupuncture is just for pain relief? Acupuncture treatments could strengthen your immune system and help you avoid illnesses and infections.
Strengthening Your Immune System with Acupuncture
Acupuncture treatments balance yin and yang, opposing forces that help you stay physically and mentally healthy. Yin-yang imbalances can occur if Qi, an essential life energy, becomes blocked in one or more of the meridians that carry the energy through the body. Stress, illnesses, overexertion, illness, poor diet or fatigue can prevent the free flow of Qi and cause yin-yang imbalances.
Treatments remove Qi blockages, restoring normal yin-yang balance. Improving balance is essential for many aspects of health, including good immune system function.
6 Ways Acupuncture Enhances Immunity
Acupuncture may improve immune system function by:
- Increasing White Blood Cell Production. White blood cells are your body's natural germ fighters. The cells identify and destroy viruses, bacteria, and fungi. Acupuncture can increase white blood cell production, making it easier to fight colds and infections.
- Maintaining Homeostasis. Homeostasis is the process that regulates and stabilizes the body's systems, including the immune system. Regular acupuncture treatments may help your immune system maintain homeostasis and enhance the system's ability to protect you from illness and disease.
- Lowering Inflammation. Chronic inflammation affects every part of your body and can cause or worsen heart disease, acid reflux, joint paint, high blood pressure, joint pain, type 2 diabetes, and fatigue. Inflammation can also interfere with immune system function. Acupuncture treatments reduce inflammation, making it easier for your immune system to target and tackle substances that could make you sick. A 2020 Harvard University research study explored the benefits of acupuncture in inflammation in mice. Mice with inflammation that received electroacupuncture treatment had lower levels of three types of cytokines. Cytokines are proteins that regulate inflammation.
- Improving Circulation. Acupuncture improves blood flow needed for optimum immune system function. Increasing circulation ensures oxygen and nutrients and white blood needed for good health reach the body's cells and tissues. Acupuncture treatments also improve lymphatic system circulation, making it easier for the lymphatic system to remove the body's waste products.
- Reducing Stress. A stomachache or pounding headache can make things seem even worse when you have a stressful day. Stress can also take a toll on your immune system and may even weaken it. Acupuncture reduces stress naturally and helps you feel calm and relaxed. Calming hormones released during acupuncture treatments counteract the effects of stress by helping you feel calm and relaxed. Treatments also have a beneficial effect on autonomic nervous system activity, according to a 2025 research study published in Frontiers in Human Neuroscience. The autonomic nervous system controls key functions, like breathing, digestion, heartbeat and the fight-or-flight stress response. The fight-or-flight response floods your body with stress hormones you need to handle a challenging situation (fight) or escape it (flight).
- Helping You Sleep. Poor sleep has a negative effect on your immune system and may increase your risk of illness. In 2015, UC San Francisco researchers reported that people who sleep six hours or less were four times more likely to catch a cold when exposed to a virus compared to people who slept more than seven hours. Acupuncture helps you sleep by calming your mind, relieving aches and pains, and regulating the sleep-wake cycle.
Does it seem like you're frequently under the weather? Acupuncture could give your immune system a much-needed boost. Contact our office to make an appointment with the acupuncturist.
Sources:
Oxford Academic: QJM: Acupuncture and Its Ability to Restore and Maintain Immune Homeostasis, 6/15/2023
https://academic.oup.com/qjmed/article/117/3/167/7198587
Frontiers in Human Neuroscience: Regulation of Autonomic Nervous System by Acupuncture: A Heart Rate Variability Study on Physical Stress, 11/10/2025
https://www.frontiersin.org/journals/human-neuroscience/articles/10.3389/fnhum.2025.1676863/full
Harvard Medical School: Quieting the Storm, 8/12/2020
https://hms.harvard.edu/news/quieting-storm
Dove Press: Journal of Inflammation Research: The Anti-Inflammatory Actions and Mechanisms of Acupuncture from Acupoint to Target Organs via Neuro-Immune Regulation, 9/28/2021
University of California San Francisco: Archive: Short Sleepers Are Four Times More Likely to Catch a Cold, 8/31/2015
https://www.ucsf.edu/news/2015/08/131411/short-sleepers-are-four-times-more-likely-catch-cold