​Overview
 
The patient is a man with the age of 40s.
 
When he played basketball 3 weeks ago, he felt pain in his right buttock. He started to feel pain from his right buttock to the outside of his lower leg a week ago, went to ER and took prescribed medicine, but the pain didn’t go away so that he visited my acupuncture clinic.
 
The pain at the time of standing walking gradually disappeared. He had severe pain appearing especially around the outside of his right lower leg while he is sleeping, but it  disappeared after 6th treatment.
 
Remaining tightness around his right buttock and the back of his right thigh disappeared after 9th treatment, so the course of acupuncture treatment for the sciatica from his right buttocks to his right lower leg ended at 10th treatment.
 
Acupuncture Treatment
 
The treatment is based on Individual Treatment for Adult.
 
There was weakness in his Liver energy, so I strengthened his Liver energy by using Liver points on his leg.
 
Painful points with pressure were located on his right buttock, around IT band and on Gall bladder and Stomach meridians on his right lower leg.

The number of painful points with pressure gradually decreased and it also became gradually easier to remove those painful points.
 
I only used distal points with round-tip needles to remove the painful points with pressure.
 
As a home therapy, I marked 2-3 points and had him put a penny or aluminum foil on the points for 30-45 minutes every night.
 
Discussion
 
After the first treatment, he felt a little better so that when he went back home, he did gardening and the condition got worse.
 
Before starting the first treatment, I explained him to be careful at the beginning of treatments, but it was not enough. It is understandable that you want to do something more when you feel okay to do that, but that can make the symptom worse and the time of healing longer.
 
But since then, he didn’t do anything making the symptom worse, visited my clinic for follow-up treatments as I instructed and got better as I expected.

​New Cause of Knee Pain recently discovered

Please learn what the new cause of knee pain and how to improve it by getting Free PDF "New Cause of Knee Pain". 

A lot of knee pain is caused by the inflammation substance secreted by wearing off of the cartridge.
 
According to a research reported in Poland, 2016, 4822 people who had knee pain took a substance every day and 86 % of them reported the alleviation of the pain.
 
A food contains the substance. That is Avocado.
 
Avocado is rich in good fat, vitamins and minerals, and registered as the most nutritious fruit in the Guinness World Record.
 
By the recent research, it has turned out that a substance contained in avocado is effective to suppress knee pain.
 
20 % of avocado is fat which is expected to improve knee pain.
 
The fat of avocado has the functions to protect the cartridge of the knee and to prevent the production of the enzyme which breaks the cartridge.
 
It is confirmed that eating avocado relieves knee pain and makes the movement of the knee better.
 
How much avocado should we eat?
 
It has not turned out yet that how much avocado we should eat to improve knee pain. However, avocado is eaten a lot in Mexico and according to a survey, middle-aged people who have younger cartridges of the knees than their ages eat about 3.5 pieces of avocado a week on average.
 
Avocado is rich in fat, but the unsaturated fatty acid of avocado lowers LDL cholesterol while animal fat increases LDL cholesterol.
 
How should we eat avocado?
 
It is more effective to eat avocado with soy oil. Fried avocado with soy oil is good.
When eating raw, it is good to eat avocado salad with mayonnaise because mayonnaise contains soy oil.

The patient is a 6 years-old girl.
 
She sometimes comes to my clinic with symptoms like sleeping problem or stuffy nose. This time she has had dry and rough skin around her left wrist for a few weeks. She also has 5 bug bites on her legs which are red and swollen. According to her mother, she got the bug bites the day before.
 
I gave her pediatric acupuncture treatment shown in the video of Pediatric Acupuncture.
 
In addition to Pediatric Acupuncture Treatment, I touched around the area of rough skin with a round tip needle. For the swelling due to bug bites, I tapped around each bug bite with another round tip needle to remove heat.
 
When she came to the second treatment, the swelling and redness around the bug bites were all gone. The roughness around her left wrist decreased. So I gave her pediatric acupuncture and only additional touching needles on the rough skin around her left wrist.
 
On the third treatment, the roughness around her left wrist was almost gone except only a part of it so that I gave her the same treatment as the second one and ended the treatments for the rough skin.
 
[discussion]
 
I think the rough skin around the wrist was caused by the weakness of her Lung energy because she had signs on Lung related acupuncture points, though she didn’t have any cold-related symptoms.
 
In the case of adult, I usually use heart therapy called moxa for bug bites, but tapping around bug bites was as effective as moxa for pediatric treatment.

Reference: Pediatric Acupuncture at Cozy Acupuncture in Salem, MA

​Q1. Which vegetable contains more dietary fibers?
(A) Lettuce (B) Cabbage (C) Spinach
 
A1. (C) Spinach
Within 100 grams, lettuce contains 1.2 grams, cabbage contains 1.8 grams and spinach contains 2.8 grams of dietary fibers.
 
Q2. Which contains more dietary fibers?
(A) Rice (B) Bread (C) Udon noodle
 
A2. (B) Bread
Within 100 grams, rice contains 0.3 grams, Udon noodles contains 0.8 grams and bread contains 2.4 grams of dietary fibers.
 
If you like eating rice, it is recommended to mix brown rice to get more dietary fibers.
 
Bad Constipation and Good Constipation
 
In 2017, it was published that there was the constipation you can leave as was and the constipation you should not leave as was.
 
Constipation you should not leave as is:

• Condition that you can’t comfortably eliminate the stool you have to eliminate
• Harmful effects such as irritation, rough skin

 
Constipation you can leave as is:

• Less frequency but no irritation or rough skin
• No accumulation of stool found by X-ray (For example, there is a case that there is almost no accumulating stool found by X-ray even if there has been no bowel movement for 10 days.)

 
When the constipation is the one you can leave as is, taking laxative can lead to the constipation you should not leave as is or to laxative dependence.
 
Check whether or not you can leave your constipation as is

• I have bowel movements less than 3 times a week.
• I often have stomachache.
• My stool seems hard.
• I can’t eliminate stool without strain.
• I feel like I still have stools in my abdomen.
• I feel stools stuck in the anus.

 
If you have more than 2 clauses applied to you, you have to be careful.
 
There are 2 types of the constipation you should not leave as is.
 
1. Constipation with stool like rabbit pellets
 
There is not enough amount of stool, it is good to take dietary fibers to increase the amount of stool.
 
2. Constipation with pain due to difficulty to pass stool
 
Intestines are twisted and stool is hard so that it is difficult to pass stool. Even if you take dietary fibers, the amount of stool increases only, but stool can’t pass through the narrowed part due to twisting.
 
In this case, it is good to take Soybean oligosaccharides which soften stool and also become the energy source of good bacteria.
 
There is a food which is effective for both types of constipation.
The food contains both dietary fibers and soybean oligosaccharides a lot.
 
Dietary fiber within 100 grams
Burdock: 5.7 g
Dried persimmon: 14 g
The food: 18.1 g
 
Soybean oligosaccharides within 100 grams
Tofu: 0.4 g
Soy milk: 0.5 g
The food: 7.0 g
 
Experiment
 
7 women who are suffering from either type of constipation ate the food for a week.
The number of their bowel movements were improved as below.
 
(Before): during the week
 
1. Constipation with stool like rabbit pellets
(1): 5, (2): 5, (2): 6
 
2. Constipation with pain
(1): 5, (2): 16, (2): 7, (3): 9
 
The food very effective to improve constipation is Kinako (Soybean flour).
 
It is recommended to take 20 grams per day, which about 4 table spoons.
 
Eating Kinako with yogurt is recommended because yogurt contains good bacteria and Kinako contains oligosaccharides which become food of good bacteria.

​Blood sugar (glucose) level is the density of glucose in the blood.
 
For a normal person, a fasting blood sugar should be 80-100 mg/dl and 2 hours-after-meals’ blood sugar should be under 140 mg/dl.
 
When blood sugar level is always more than 140 mg/dl, the condition is considered as high blood sugar which raises the risk of diabetes.
 
Recently, blood sugar spikes are considered dangerous, which fasting blood sugars are normal, but after-meals’ blood sugars are always more than 140 mg/dl.
 
Blood sugar spikes increase glucose in the blood rapidly, damaging blood vessels. In the worst case, it can cause stroke, heart attack and cancer.
 
The risk of blood sugar spikes raises with age and persons with more than 40 should be careful.
 
Let’s check the risk of Blood Sugar Spikes

• I don’t eat breakfast.
• I eat fast.
• I don’t eat vegetables very much.
• I often eat sweets.
• I have a pot belly.
• I usually don’t exercise.
• There are more than 3 days a week that I sleep less than 6 hours.
• I have someone who has diabetes among my family or relatives.

 
If more than 4 clauses are applied to you, you have the high risk of blood sugar spikes.
 
Substances to Prevent Blood Sugar Spikes
 
1. Dietary Fibers
 
Dietary fibers slow down the absorption of sugar in the small intestine and prevent the elevation of blood sugar.
 
People who eat more than about 26 grams a day of dietary fibers have 20 % less risk of developing diabetes.
 
2. MX-Fraction
 
MX-Fraction improve the function of insulin which suppresses blood sugar.
 
Experiment
 
6 people with blood sugar spikes ate “a specific food” for a week. As a result of that,4 out of 6 people had lower blood sugar spikes and the blood sugar spikes lowered by the average of 36 mg/dl.
 
The food which can prevent and improve blood sugar spikes which raises the risk of sudden death is Maitake mushroom.
 
Maitake mushrooms are rich in dietary fibers and only the food containing MX-fraction. MX-fraction is water soluble, so it is good to eat maitake mushrooms in a cup of soup. 50 grams per day is recommended.
 
 
Glycemic index (GI) represents the speed to digest and absorb carbohydrate.
 
The food of GI value of more than 55 is considered as easily causing blood sugar spikes.
 
High GI value’s foods:
 
Potato: 90
Carrot: 80
Kabocha squash: 65
Japanese Yam: 55
 
French bread (baguette): 93
Bread: 91
 
Basically wheat and rice products have high GI values.
 
When you eat foods with high GI value, you can prevent blood sugar spikes by changing the order of what you eat. It is recommended to eat vegetables which have low GI value such as broccoli (25), maitake mushroom first, and then eat meats, fishes and eggs.
​

​Sudden death is unexpected death caused by a disease, which happens within 24 hours after development of the disease.
 
Check the risk of Sudden Death
 

• I have strong sense of responsibility and am very serious to anything.
• I have stage fright and get nervous in front of people.
• I eat faster than other people.
• I like fatty meat and fried food.
• I’m fat and my stomach is sticking out.
• I drink alcohol every day.
• I don’t exercise regularly.
• My life is irregular and sleeping time is less than 5 hours.
• I smoke.
• I like soaking in a hot bath and sauna.

 
How many clauses apply to you?
If it is more than five, the risk of sudden death is high.
 
People who live with the above life style easily feels stress and their life tends to be irregular. That causes the elevation of blood pressure and heart rate, putting a burden on the heart. It also easily happens that the flexibility of the blood vessel is lost, causing the hardening of the blood vessel. As a result, the risk of sudden death becomes higher.
 
60 % of sudden death are heart diseases.
 
Acute Heart Failure
 
Acute heart failure which we hear often as the cause of sudden death is the condition that the function of the heart suddenly declines and the heart stops.
 
The major causes of acute heart failure are cardiomyopathy, valvular disease and myocardial infarction (heart attack).
 
Among these, acute myocardial infarction has the highest risk of sudden death.
 
Acute Myocardial Infarction
 
The coronary artery which delivers blood to the heart muscle becomes narrower due to hardening of the blood vessel caused by the accumulation of cholesterol or others and if blood clots block the narrowed pathway and stops blood flow, the heart muscle can’t receive blood and becomes necrotic. This is called myocardial infarction.
 
If the blocked area is not good, the heart suddenly stops and sudden death occurs within a few minutes, which is acute myocardial infarction.
 
Sign of Myocardial Infarction (Heart Attack)
 
Most myocardial infarctions happen after the process of angina.
 
Angina is the condition that the heart muscle is lack of blood due to narrowing of coronary arteries.
The major symptom in angina is pain in the chest accompanying pressure like squeezing.
 
However, only half of people with angina shows this symptom. The remaining half complains about pain in abdomen, back, shoulder, arms, lower jaw, teeth or throat. This is called referred pain.
 
Referred pain of angina occurs within 30 cm from the heart. Referred pain is caused by the brain mixing up pain in the other area with pain in the heart because the nerve for the heart goes into the same bundle of nerves as the nerves for other part of the body around the spinal cord. If the cause of the pain in the above area is unknown, it can be caused by angina.
 
Risk Factors of Myocardial Infarction (Heart Attack)
 
Risk factors causing myocardial infarction are:
High blood pressure, Smoking, Dyslipidemia, Diabetes, Stress, Obesity, Aging, Heredity, etc.
 
The risk of myocardial infarction caused by three major risk factors which are high blood pressure, smoking and dyslipidemia is twice higher than normal people if one of three applies to you, and the risk becomes 5 times higher if two of three apply to you, and the risk becomes about 10 times higher if all three apply to you.
 
The key to prevent sudden death is Vascular Age
 
Vascular age is a guide line of how old your blood vessel is. Blood vessels become harder with age. While blood vessels of 20s are flexible, soft and elastic, the blood vessels of 70s become hard and fragile. The higher the vascular age is, the higher the risk of hardening of blood vessels is.
 
High vascular age elevates the risk of myocardial infarction (heart attack), cerebral infarction (stroke), high blood pressure and diabetes.
 
Check the risk of your vascular age
 

• I eat until my stomach is full.
• I like salty food.
• I eat or drink something within 2 hours before going to bed.
• I have gained weight a lot compared with the past.
• I just stay home on a day off without doing exercises very much.
• I’m hasty and get irritated easily.
• My parent, brother or sister had a heart disease or stroke.

 
If more than 4 clauses apply to you, your vascular age can be more than your age.
 
How to rejuvenate vascular age
 
To rejuvenate your vascular age, increasing NO in your blood is effective.
 
NO softens and widens blood vessels. As a result of that, blood flow becomes better and waste matters are hard to attach the wall of blood vessels.
 
It is important to take LTP (Lacto tripeptide) in order to increase NO.
 
Food to rejuvenate your vascular age
 
Experiment:
 
66 years old woman whose vascular age was 80 years old ate a specific food for a week and her vascular age became 64 years old (-16 years old).
67 years old male whose vascular age had been 70 years old ate the same food for a week and his vascular age became 44 years old (-26 years old).
6 out of 7 people who attended the experiment had younger vascular age after eating the specific food for a week.
 
The food to rejuvenate your vascular age is Blue Cheese.
 
30 grams (1 Ounce) per day is recommended amount (Fig. 1).
 
The amount of LTP (within 100 grams):
Blue Cheese: 46 mg
Cheder Cheese: 40 mg
 
If you don’t like blue cheese, cheder cheese can be a replacement.
 
Vascular Massage to rejuvenate Vascular Age
 
1. Put your left hand on the right chest below the clavicle.
2. Massage the muscle of the chest up and down, left and right with your palm for a minute (Fig. 2).
3. Massage the left chest with your right hand for a minute.
4. Massage inside of the forearm from the wrist to the elbow with the strength of good pain for both arms (Fig. 3).
 
NO is secreted by the stimulation to the blood vessels.

Overview
 
The patient is a male with the age of 40s.
 
He complains that he has had irregular and fast pulse for a few days. His other complaints which have started with irregular and fast pulse are seeing something like stars when he opens his eyes, chest pain and sometimes difficulty in breathing.
 
Irregular pulse disappeared right after the first acupuncture treatment.

​The number of fast pulse gradually decreased and disappeared after the forth acupuncture treatment.
 
Treatment
 
The acupuncture treatment is based on Individual Acupuncture for Adult.
 
According to my diagnosis, I found weakness in his Lung energy and touched a Lung point in his elbow with a round-tip needle for a few seconds. After that, I tapped around his neck and head with another round-tip needle and let him rest for 15 minutes.
 
After the 15 minutes rest, his pulse was calm down and there was no irregular pulse.
 
I had him lie on his stomach, checked pressure-pain points on his back and gave general back treatment and the treatment to remove the pressure-pain.
 
After the first treatment, his pulse became slower and there was no irregularity.
 
On the second and third treatment, he didn’t have irregular pulse but fast pulse. I chose a point to slow down the pulse and touched the point with a round-tip needle. (I use acupuncture points on Yang meridian to slow down the pulse instead of the points on Yin meridian. In this case, I used a point on Small Intestine meridian.) The treatment on his back was the same as the first treatment.
 
On the forth treatment, he told me that he had had fast pulse with palpitation the day before, but his main complaint was digestive issue and a sty on his right eye. When I checked his pulse, his pulse was not fast.
 
When he came back for the fifth treatment, he said he hadn’t had fast pulse, so the treatment for irregular and fast pulse ended.

​A healthy heart moves widely, repeating contraction and expansion. By this movement of the heart, blood is delivered to all over the body and we can maintain our life.
 
But if the function of the heart declines with age, the movement of the heart becomes smaller like the heart itself becomes hard. That makes the contraction and expansion of the heart smaller as well, and sufficient blood can’t be delivered to all over the body. This condition is the aging of the heart. Aging of the heart can cause sudden death such as heart failure even if you were fine the day before it happens.
 
It has been considered so far that the major causes of heart failure were high blood pressure, high cholesterol and others.
 
Recently a substance aging the heart has been discovered.
 
The substance aging the heart exists in everybody’s body. if the substance aging the heart is secreted too much by some influence, negative effects are caused to the muscle of the heart, declining the pump function of the heart.
 
According to a research conducted to 3000 Japanese people, the increase of the substance aging the heart doubled the risk of having heart diseases in 10 years.
 
The substance aging the heart is a type of protein
 
Protein taken from meals is broken down and transformed into various kinds of other protein in the body. The protein aging the heart is one of them.
 
There are about 100 thousand kinds of protein in our body.
Typical protein synthesized in our body are:
Hemoglobin is a type of protein that delivers oxygen to all over the body by moving in the blood.
Insulin is a type of protein which is a hormone controlling blood sugar.
Collagen is a type of protein which consists of skin, bones, blood vessels, etc.
 
The protein aging the heart is Angiopoietin-L2 which is normally secreted from the heart cells and maintains the condition of the heart cells, but over-increase of angiopoietin-L2 damages the muscles of the heart and declines the heart function.
 
Angiopoietin-L2 is secreted from all the body cells.
If it increases too much in the heart, aging of the heart is caused.
If it increases too much in blood vessels, hardening of blood vessel is caused.
If it increases too much in the skin, wrinkles are caused.
According to a research using a mouse, if Angippoietin-L2 is always high, that elevates the risk of developing cancer.
 
What increases Heart aging protein Angiopoietin-L2?
 
One of the causes is aging, but the biggest cause is fat around the heart. Fat cells around the heart also secrete Angiopoietin-L2, so if there is a lot of fat around the heart, the heart function declines.
 
What is the life habit accumulating fat around the heart?
 
The difference between a person with high Angiopoietin-L2 (more fat around the heart) and a person with low Angiopoietin-L2(less fat around the heart) is sitting time (Fig. 1).
 
According to a medical research paper published in US in 2014, regardless of doing exercises, the longer the sitting time is, the more fat around the heart accumulates.
 
Continuing the life habit of sitting for a long time accumulates fat around the heart and other organs.
 
There is a possibility that fat is accumulated around the heart if the weight has gained more than before.
 
If you stand up once within an hour, more calories are consumed than sitting and it is expected to decrease the fat around the heart.
 
Stretching decreases Heart Aging Protein
 
It has turned out that stretching muscles suppresses the production of angiopoietin-L2.
 
In addition to standing up at least once every hour, stretching yourself when you stand up is more effective. When you stretch yourself, raise your arms above your head crossing your fingers with your abdominal muscles stretched.
​

​Overview
 
The patient is a man with the age of 50s.

His right shoulder started hurting a month ago and the pain got worse the past few days. He visited my clinic because he had had an acupuncture treatment with me a few years ago for shoulder pain and his shoulder had gotten better after one treatment.
 
When he came in, he could barely move his right shoulder due to pain and felt severe pain around his right shoulder even with even a light touch. His right shoulder was also hurting at night. He had had a massage including around his right shoulder a few days before visiting me and it seemed like the massage caused more inflammation in his right shoulder, resulting in severe pain with a little bit of movement or a light touch and pain at night without movement in addition to usual shoulder pain.
 
In the course of acupuncture treatments, I focused on removing severe inflammation caused by the massage for the first 3 treatments. By these treatments, pain at night disappeared and I could press around his right shoulder. Then I gave him regular shoulder pain treatment twice and he could use his right shoulder with strength though the range of motion was not complete yet.
 
After the last treatment, he had to go on a trip, so I told him to come back when he would come back from the trip. He didn't come back for more treatment for his shoulder, but his shoulder got better and referred his client with shoulder pain to me.
 
Treatment
 
I mainly tried to remove severe inflammation around his shoulder using Dispersion needle for the first 3 treatments. After the inflammation decreased and around should was able to be pressed, I tried to remove pressure pain and tightness around his shoulder and between his shoulder blades using round-tip needles on distal acupuncture points. I attached a press-ball on Left ST-36 (2 inches below Left knee) at the end of the treatments, and that seemed like helping the rage of motion improved.

​Cozy Acupuncture in Salem, MA specializes in Pain Management.
If you are suffering from shoulder pain, we're here for you!
​Call Today to make an appointment: 617-584-8703 or Book now Online.