There are food which makes your body warm and food makes your body cold.

​How can you distinguish them?

The following article is from my book, How to treat yourself at home without medicine.

There are Yin and Yang foods. As I mentioned in the previous section, Yang is centripetal, so

vegetables which grow into the ground have more Yang energy,

and Yin is centrifugal, so

vegetables which grow toward the sky have more Yin energy.

That is why root vegetables have more Yang energy. If we need to warm the body, we need to eat more root vegetables.

On the contrary, in the summer, we eat summer vegetables which have more Yin energy such as tomato, eggplant, cucumber, etc., because they are good to cool down the body.
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However, if we take too much summer vegetables, the body becomes cold. In Japan, there is an old proverb that you must not let your daughter-in-law eat eggplant, because they want to see grandchildren as soon as possible, but an eggplant is a strong Yin vegetable, so it makes their daughter-in-law’s body cold, causing various gynecological diseases, especially infertility, miscarriage, etc.

We have been offering $10 discount for Individual Acupuncture for Adult ($50) for a long time, but the treatment fee for Individual Acupuncture for Adult will return to $60 from March 20th, 2018.

However, for people who use our service frequently, the discount rate of Prepaid Treatment Packages will change as follows.

12 Treatment Package: 20 % discount (valid for 5 months)
6 Treatment Package: 10 % discount (valid for 3 months)
3 Treatment Package: 5 % discount (valid for 6 weeks)

*Prepaid Package can be used only for the person who own it and his or her family members.

By this change, Individual Acupuncture for Adult in each package will be

$48 per treatment in 12 Treatment Package
$54 per treatment in 6 Treatment Package
$57 per treatment in 3 Treatment Package

Also Initial Visit Additional Fee ($10) will remain free of charge until April 14th, 2018.

For more information about treatment fees, click Treatment Fee.

​According to a study of University of Central Lancashire, when the brains of 10 people who had had Alzheimer’s disease before their death were dissected, a common toxin was discovered from the brains of 4 people.
 
The toxin is LPS.
 
LPS exist in everybody’s body, but when LPS increases by some reason, inflammation in brain cells or others occurs and the dead brain cells cause dementia.
 
What is the characteristic which increases LPS and heightens the risk of dementia development?
 
People whose LPS has increased emit a distinctive smell from a part of the body.
 
That is halitosis (breath).
 
People whose LPS has increased emit a distinctive gas from the mouth especially when they wake up in the morning.
 
The distinctive smell is a putrid odor like garbage which is the odor of the gas generated when LPS has increased.
 
The number of normal bacteria in the mouth of a healthy person is about 200 billion and if the mouth is not cared, the number is more than one trillion. Some of the bad bacteria such as periodontal disease bacteria emit LPS.
 
What repels LPS?
 
According to a study published in Spain, when honey extract was poured into the cells inflamed by the gas generated by LPS, the inflammation was suppressed by 50 %.
 
The substance which is contained in honey and repels LPS is flavonoid. Flavonoid is mainly contained in plants and has strong antibacterial activity to repel virus and bacteria. There are 4000 kinds of flavonoid such as isoflavone contained in soy, catechin contained in green tea, anthocyanin contained in blueberry.
 
By the latest study, it has turned out that 10 and several kinds of flavonoids contained in honey are especially effective to repel LPS.
 
Flavonoid contained in honey lowers the activity of LPS and restores the cells suppressing the inflammation when going into the body.
 
However, so far the effect of flavonoid contained in honey on human has not been proved yet.
 
Experiment
 
A 78 years old woman whose halitosis was strong (958 (guideline: 26)) and LPS in the blood was 0.004 EU/ml attended the verification. She was feeling that her forgetfulness had been worse lately.
 
She did 2things for 5 days in this experiment.
 
(1) Take a tablespoon of honey at night
 
LPS increases during sleep, so it is effective to take honey at night and a tablespoon of honey is appropriate amount because honey is rich in sugar.
 
(2) Brushing her teeth right after every meal to remove bad bacteria in the mouth
 
After 5 days trial of the above 2 things, her halitosis became 233 from 958 and LPS in the blood became 0.003 EU/ml from 0.004 EU/ml. Her memory was also improved in a test.
 
It is necessary to continue this for a long period of time to see more improvement.
​

I think you have heard about Yin and Yang.

​In acupuncture treatment, it is necessary that Yin and Yang are used properly depending on the patient's condition.

So what are Yin and Yang?

​The following is a part of my book, How to treat yourself at without medication.

Our body is filled with 2 types of energy which is Yin and Yang.

Yin makes our body loose and cool.

Yang makes our body firm and warm.

If Yin is too much in your lower body, you feel cold in your lower body and you may have lower back pain.

If Yang is too much in your chest, you feel hot in your chest and you may have palpitations.

​That is to say, the imbalance of these 2 kinds of energy in our body causes various diseases.

Let’s take a look at what kind of disease occurs when an organ has an imbalance of energy.

​I would like to talk about Yin Yang theory for a few times from this section onward. I think you have heard partly about it. Yin Yang theory is the core of eastern medicine.

Yin is centrifugal energy and Yang is centripetal energy;

However, this doesn't explain the characters of Yin and Yang very well.

Centrifugal energy is a condition that is loose and cold. Centripetal energy is a condition that is tight and warm.

Let's think about constipation.

If constipation happens because your intestines are loose and don't have the power to push the stool out that is Yin type constipation.

If the constipation happens because your intestines are too tight and all the water in the intestines has been absorbed, that is Yang type constipation.

For Yin type constipation, it is necessary to tighten up your intestines. Therefore, it is good to have salt which has Yang energy.

On the contrary, for Yang type constipation, it is necessary to loosen up your intestines so it is good to have sesame oil, vegetables, etc. which have Yin energy.

So even if the name of the disease is the same, what you need to do is different depending on whether the disease is a Yin or a Yang type condition.

​Healthy blood vessels are flexible enough to endure blood pressure, but unhealthy blood vessels which have hardening of blood vessels are not flexible enough to endure blood pressure, resulting in rupture of blood vessels. This is aging of the blood vessel. Instant elevation of blood pressure causes the rupture of the blood vessel, causing brain bleeding, rupture of artery that lead to life threatening condition.
 
According to a recent study, it has turned out that a nutrition helps keep your blood vessel young.
 
The nutrition removes active oxygen which progresses hardening of blood vessels. It has turned out that insufficiency of the nutrition causes the elevation of blood pressure and the progression of hardening of blood vessels by the research using rats.
 
Even if you take sufficient other nutrition which has been said that is good for blood vessels such as EPA, DHA, alpha-linolenic acid, you can’t avoid the aging of blood vessels if the nutrition is not sufficient.
 
What is the most important nutrition to keep your blood vessels young?
 
The essential nutrition to keep our blood vessels young is Zinc.
Below are the foods rich in zinc (per 100 grams).
 
Oyster (13.2 mg)
Pork liver (6.9 mg)
Beef loin (5.8 mg)
Cashew nuts (5.4 mg)
Almonds (4.4 mg)
King crab (4.2 mg)
Hari crab (3.8 mg)
Processed cheese (3.2 mg)
Camembert cheese (2.8 mg)
 
Elderly people tend to be a lack of zinc because the amount of meat they eat decreases and their digestion declines.
 
How to check a lack of zinc
 
Lack of zinc causes abnormality of taste. People with lack of zinc like foods tasting strong better than foods tasting bland. That is why they take more salt before they notice, leading to high blood pressure.
 
Add 3 ear-picks of salt (0.08 grams) to a glass of water (200 ml).
When you drink it, if you feel salty taste, you are not a lack of zinc.
If you don’t feel salty taste and feel it tastes like plain water, you can have abnormal taste due to a lack of zinc.
 
Even if you don’t feel the salty taste, if you take sufficient zinc, the cells to feel the taste increases and your taste will be restored.
 
2 Foods to increase zinc in your meals
Even if you don’t eat oyster or meat very much, you don’t need to worry about it.
 
(1) Egg yolk
 
Egg yolk contains 4.2 mg of zinc per 100 g. The amount of zinc in an egg yolk is equal to 2 pieces of diced steak.
 
(2) Parmesan cheese
 
Cheese is rich in zinc and among all cheese, parmesan cheese is richest in zinc. Parmesan cheese contains 7.3 mg of zinc per 100 g. The amount of zinc in 2 table spoons of parmesan cheese is equal to 2 pieces of diced steak.
 
Also sesame is rich in zinc, containing 5.9 mg of zinc per 100 g, which is almost equal to beef loin containing 5.8 mg of zinc per 100 g.
 
10 mg of zinc a day is recommended.
 
The above 3 foods are easy to find and add to your daily meals.
 
A 60 years old woman whose blood vessel age was 70 years old tried to take more zinc through the above 3 foods, and when she checked her blood vessel age a week later, her blood vessel age was 49 years old.
 
Please try to take zinc to keep your blood vessel young.

​Overview
 
The patient is a woman with the age of 40s.
Since eating foie gras at Christmas, she has been suffering from nausea for about a month. She feels nauseous 70 % of a day. She has heart burn and is taking acid suppressant prescribed by her family doctor. Her stool is loose. She also has pain below both shoulder blades since nausea started.
 
She visited my clinic 1 month after the nausea started.
 
My diagnosis was that her gallbladder was removed last year, but eating extremely fatty food made the flow of Liver and Gallbladder energy stagnated, weakening Spleen energy.
 
After 3 acupuncture treatments, nausea disappeared, loose stool became firmed stool and the pain below shoulder blades disappeared. After 4th treatment, the course of treatment for nausea ended.
 
Detail of Acupuncture Treatment
 
The treatment is based on the treatment shown in Individual Acupuncture Treatment.
 
[1st Treatment]
 
When I checked her abdomen, there were more than 5 painful points with pressure in her abdomen, but after strengthening weakened Spleen with a Spleen point on her leg and 15 minutes rest after that, all the painful points disappeared.

I asked her to lie on her stomach and checked her back. There were a lot of painful points with pressure between shoulder blades and under the left shoulder blade. These painful points with pressure disappeared after touching the points on the back of her head with a round-tip needle.
 
I added moxa (heat therapy) on the points located even with the lower part of both shoulder blades (BL17) and the points located 2 inches lower than those points which are related to Gallbladder (BL19).
 
[2nd Treatment: 3 days after the 1st Treatment]
 
She didn’t have nausea since the last treatment. She felt bloated in her lower abdomen. Her stool was still loose. There was pain below her left shoulder blade.
 
There were less painful points with pressure on her abdomen and back.
 
The treatment was almost the same as the 1st Treatment, but I added moxa (heat therapy) on a point on her left wrist (TW4) and a point near her right knee (Gallbladder-34).
 
[3rd Treatment: 5 days after the 2nd Treatment]
 
She didn’t have nausea. When she ate fatty food, she felt heart burn a little. Her stool was still loose. When she sat long time, she felt pain below her left shoulder blade.
 
The painful points with pressure on her back were less than 2nd Treatment.
 
The treatment with needles were almost the same.
 
I did moxa on the points related to Heart, Liver and Spleen on her left back and a point related to Stomach on her right back in addition to her left TW4 and right GB-34.
 
[4th Treatment: 5 days after the 3rd Treatment]
 
There was no nauseous feeling and no pain below her left shoulder blade. Her bowel movement became formed from loose stool.
 
She complained a little bit of low back pain, so in addition to the same treatment as the 3rd Treatment, I added treatment to release her low back pain.
 
Since her complaints related to her nausea got better, the course of treatments for her nausea ended.
 
Consideration
 
Her gallbladder was removed, so there was no gallbladder. But gallbladder energy and the energy pathway still exist and they were affected by what she ate. I think that is why the points related to Gallbladder energy showed up as pain or other reaction, and also helped her recover from all the nausea-related symptoms.
​

​If you are suffering from nausea now and live near Salem, MA, Cozy Acupuncture is here to help you. Call today to set up an appointment: 617-584-8703 or Book Online.​

Why do you let the patient take a rest on the table after the treatment on the front of the body?
 
The treatment on the front of the body includes touching a few acupuncture points on the leg or arm with a round-tip needle and tapping on the front and sides of the neck and head with a round-tip needle for tapping purpose.
 
Touching a few acupuncture points on the leg or arm is called the Root Treatment that affects all the body. Tapping on the neck and head is to remove a kind of dust in the energy pathway which can’t be removed by the Root Treatment.
 
I usually let the patient rest for about 10 to 15 minutes after the Root Treatment. After the rest, a lot of painful points with pressure on the abdomen and the other area which have been checked during the diagnosis disappear because the energy flow of the body can be improved by the Root Treatment.
 
According to an acupuncture classic book, the energy in our body circulates 50 times a day. That means it takes about 30 minutes that the energy moved by the Root Treatment circulates all the body once.
 
So it is ideal to have more than 30 minutes rest after the Root Treatment. If I could do that, remaining painful points with pressure after 15 minutes rest could disappear too. However, more than 30 minutes rest between the front and back treatments is too long for my clinic considering the space and time of the treatment.
 
That is why I have my patients rest for 10 to 15 minutes between the front and back treatments.

Click FAQ to read other FAQs.

​According to a study to compare the risk of the development of Alzheimer’s disease between people in India who use a lot of spices in their meals and people in USA who don’t use spices very much in their meals, people in India had one-fourth the development risk of Alzheimer’s disease of people in USA.
 
What is the difference between India and USA?
 
People in India eat curry a lot.
 
Turmeric used to color curry is expected to prevent dementia.

Turmeric is rich in Curcumin that is good for the brain function.
 
Curcumin prevents the substance causing dementia from accumulating in the brain.
 
The substance is called amyloid-Beta and the Accumulation of amyloid-Beta kills nerve cells.
 
Fig. 1 is a brain cell of a mouse and all the black dots are amyloid-Beta.
​
Fig. 2 is a Brain cell of a mouse having eaten curcumin every day for 17 months. There is almost no amyloid-beta.
 
It has turned out that curcumin removes amyloid-Beta and prevents amyloid-Beta from accumulating.
 
When does amyloid-Beta start to accumulate from?
 
Amyloid-Beta starts to accumulate from the age of 50s and dementia is developed in their 70s-80s.
 
People of all ages should eat curry to prevent dementia.
 
If you don’t like curry so much, you can add turmeric to your soup or other dishes.