​It would be good to talk about acupuncture sometimes.
 
In the root treatment, I was taught to tonify Ki (Qi), but I was not taught which Ki to tonify. At that time, I was using sharp silver needles, but the depth of the needle varied even if just touching or pressing the skin so I think tonified Ki was changing depending on the depth of the needle without knowing it, or it might become dispersion when the needle was pressed on the skin. Yang Ki can be equal to Defensive Qi and Yin Ki can be equal to Nutritive Qi.
 
Is it necessary to use Yin Ki and Yang Ki separately?
Even if the same point on the same meridian is used, the result is different by which Ki to use. One makes the pulse, abdomen tighter and/or faster. Another makes the pulse and abdomen softer and/or slower.
 
So how can we decide which Ki should be used for the root treatment?
One method is to check by light stroke on the meridian. For Yang Ki, stroke fast and lightly. For Yin Ki, stroke slowly and a little heavily. If the pulse, abdomen and muscle tension get better after fast and light stroke, Yang Ki is good to use. If slow and a little heavy stroke makes the pulse and others better, Yin Ki should be used.
 
Another method is to check the pulse quality. If the pulse is pounding, Yin Ki is applicable. This is introduced by Mr. Niki who is an acupuncturist in Japan and I always use the information on his blog as references. To confirm whether or not Yin Ki can be used, light stroke on the meridian should be done.
 
Now this is my method or my hypothesis.
Above the abdomen, turn your hand clockwise around the navel while you are checking the patient’s pulse. If the pulse gets better, that means slower and softer, Yang Ki is good to use for the root treatment. When the pulse gets better when you turn your hand counter-clockwise around the navel, Yin Ki is good to use.
 
First decide which side of the body you will use (Refer to http://www.cozyacu.com/blog/relationship-between-treatment-side-and-micro-cosmic-orbit). Once you decided the side to treat, decide which Ki you will use by the above method. If counter-clock seems good, perform slow and a little heavy stroke on the meridian which came up by your diagnosis. If the pulse, abdomen and muscle tension get better, you can tonify one of the points on the meridian. If not, you should choose another meridian.

​Hot Flash
 
If your husband’s sweat doesn’t stop in a cool room where AC is on, it can be caused by male menopause.
 
1. Why does hot flash suddenly happen when you have male menopause?
The decrease of male hormone causes a malfunction of hypothalamus in the brain where controls the body temperature.
 
2. How is the hot flash in male menopause differentiated from normal heat in the body?
The difference is that the hot flash happens with mental symptoms such as depression, anxiety, etc.
 
Treatment of Male Menopause
 
In the case that male hormone level is low, it is general to inject male hormone. Chinese herbs are used to suppress the symptoms (in Japan). Hormone replacement can make the beard thick. That means if the number of shaving decreases, that can be a sign of male menopause.
 
Anxiety
 
If your husband can’t throw things away due to anxiety or is anxious about the work he is accustomed to, they can be caused by male menopause.
 
1. Why does he get anxious?
The amigdada in the brain secretes a substance causing anxiety while male hormone suppresses the secretion. So if the male hormone decreases, the substance spreads out to the whole body.
 
2. What happens if anxiety caused by male menopause is left as it is?
Leaving anxiety as it is can cause depression. Continuous stressful condition causes the secretion of a lot of stress substance, leading to depression. That damages the nerve cells in the brain, worsening the depression. It is important to notice as early as possible.
 

What is male menopause?
 
Q1. Male menopause is medically a disease. True or False?
Q2. What decrease in the body causes male menopause?
Q3. The main reasons that male hormone decreases are aging and what?
Q4. Which age does male menopause often start to decrease from? (A) 45 (B) 55 (C) 65
Q5. What is a major symptom in male menopause?
Q6. There is a medicine for male menopause. True or False?
 
A1. True
A2. Male hormone
A3. Stress
A4. (A) 45, recently it’s been getting younger like 40 or 30’s possibly due to a stress society.
A5. Mental problems such as depression or anxiety. Decrease of male hormone causes weight gain so called metabolic syndrome, leading to hardness of arteries and then serious diseases like heart attack. According to a research, the risk of cancer also rises.
A6. True.
 
3 Major Symptoms (Anger, Hot-flush, Anxiety)
 
Anger
 
(1) Why do they easily get angry by having male menopause?
The decrease of male hormone imbalances the autonomic nervous system, making sympathetic nerve become advantageous. The sympathetic nerve works when stressed while the parasympathetic nerve works when relaxed. The advantage of the sympathetic nerve encourages the secretion of adrenalin which is a substance causing anger.
 
a. Male hormone usually suppresses a runaway of the sympathetic nerve.
b. When male hormone decreases, the sympathetic nerve works, leading to the secretion of a lot of adrenalin.
 
(2) How to differentiate from normal anger
The point is whether or not he gets angry at something he didn’t get angry at before.
 
(3) Does harmful effect occur if he gets angry too much?
When his anger becomes bigger, his blood pressure should be higher.
 
(4) How to calm down the anger
The emotion of anger is strongest for the first 6 seconds after it starts. So if you can think of something else or see other things to fend off what you get angry at, you can cool down your anger.
 
Food expected to Prevent Male Menopause (Part-I)
 
Q1. Which is better for drinking beer with to prevent male menopause? (A) Edamame (B) Beef jerky
A1. (B) Beef jerky. Because zinc contained in beef jerky helps the production of male hormone.
 
Q2. Which is better for another dish to prevent male menopause? (A) Cold tofu (B) Raw oyster
A2. (B) Raw oyster. Because oyster is rich in zinc.
 
Q3. Which is better for desert to prevent male menopause? (A) Watermelon (B) Pineapple
A3. (A) Watermelon. The white part of watermelon contains citrulline which promotes the secretion of male hormone

65 years old male had cerebral hemorrhage. An artery running near the motor nerve in his right brain was ruptured causing hemorrhage having a size of around a ping-pong ball (Fig. 1). The overflowed blood pressed the motor nerve and the left side of his body below the neck was completely paralyzed. He had a diagnosis that it was not sure that the left side of his body would move again.
 
How could he recover from the hemiplegia?
 
Though rehabilitation started, he didn’t feel anything in his left limbs even if they were rubbed and moved. 2 days after he regained consciousness, his old friend visited and told him who was saying he saw no point at living if he couldn’t move their limbs that his limbs were not broken but his brain was out of order. By his words, he realized that if he trained his brain, he might be able to move his limbs. What came to his mind first was the movement of a baby. The brain of a baby learns how to stand and walk by repeating failure many times. He thought his brain was the same as the baby’s so his brain should learn how to move his limbs and his limbs would move someday if he tried to move them with imaging it repeatedly.
 
What is his miraculous rehabilitation of the brain?
 
He started to have in mind that his thumb would move, but of course his thumb didn’t move at all. Even so, he didn’t give up. He continued this around the clock until he fell asleep except his meal time. He thought his thumb might be moving a little so he put his normal right hand under his left hand to feel a slight movement of this left thumb. In the morning of the fourth day, he felt his left thumb moved slightly on the back of his right hand. After that, he tried this brain’s rehabilitation for his other fingers, left hand and left foot while he had usual rehabilitation in the hospital. Then only 2 months later he could leave the hospital and one month later he could move fully.
 
His individual rehabilitation is used in the newest rehabilitation method called neurorehabilitation. While the conventional rehabilitation tries to promote the recovery by stimulating the brain with improving the function of the joints and muscles, neurorehabilitation tries to recover faster by increasing the stimulation to the neurons by concentrating the consciousness to the movement when the patient moves their hands and feet. The stimulation of the neurons by this method makes a new neural circuit other than the damaged circuit more easily, leading to more effective recovery of the lost body function.

​Chronic Kidney Disease (CKD) includes IgA nephropathy, diabetic nephropathy, membranous nephropathy and nephrosclerosis. The kidneys filtrate the blood and excrete wastes and toxins as urine. But even if the function of the kidneys lowers down, there are few subjective symptoms. If you keep putting a burden on the kidneys by eating too much salt, the kidney function stops before you realize. If the kidney function becomes less than 10 %, the kidneys can’t filtrate wastes and toxins in the blood sufficiently, resulting in necessity of dialysis.
 
Dialysis is a cleansing process of the blood that uses a special machine to filter wastes and toxins from the blood and return the blood to the body. In general, dialysis needs 4-5 hours per treatment, 2-3 times a week so daily life can be restricted. Dialysis also have to be continued for life. So it is important to prevent chronic kidney diseases.
 
But if you improve the kidney function before it gets worse, you can expect the improvement of swelling, high blood pressure and frequent urination.
 
The methods to remove salt from the body are urination and sweat. Since sweat is difficult to control, urination is the only method to remove salt taken from the mouth. The organ doing the job is the kidney. So if the kidney works too much, the kidney becomes exhausted and the function lowers down.
 
The sense of the taste started becoming weak at the age of 65 in men and at the age of 60 in women. The insensitivity to the taste makes you take more salt.
 
People who have kidney diseases are insensitive to salty taste. If they continue eating lightly salted food for about a week, their sensitivity to salt returns normal.
 
How to reduce salt
(1) Choose seasonings which show “Salt Equivalent”. You can calculate about how much salt you are taking.
(2) Use a small measuring spoon, 1/8 tsp.
(3) Season with materials with strong smell such as ginger or garlic.
(4) Season with soup stocks or spices instead of salt.
(5) Eat from light seasoned food.
(6) Record what you ate and the amount of salt.
 
Other methods:
(1) Use juice of citrus fruits instead of salt.
(2) Use crushed nuts for salads instead of dressing.

78 years old female had dementia since she lost her husband. She was closing her eyes almost all day and was difficult to walk and spent all day in her bed. But she miraculously recovered from the dementia 2 years later in a certain way.
 
She was diagnosed as Lewy Bodies Dementia.
 
Lewy Bodies Dementia (LBD)
The development of Lewy Bodies in the neurons of the cerebral cortex or the brain stem impairs the function showing (1) cognitive dysfunction such as a loss of memory or inability to recognize the situation, (2) visual or auditory hallucination, (3) mobility impairment leading to inability to walk due to stiff muscles. The cause of LBD is not understood. There is no cure of LBD and the treatment is symptomatic such as loosening the muscles with medications.
 
But she recovered from the dementia in a certain way.
 
What leaded to dramatic recovery was ballroom dance.

​Her son had had her try various things seemed effective in dementia, but nothing had been effective. One day when she heard Tango in his car, her fingers started to move with the rhythm. When she was young, she was enjoying ballroom dance with her boyfriend. Her son took her to ballroom dance classes to have her watch their dance. 2 weeks later she told her son that she wanted to dye her hair. One month later she chose and wore a brightly colored shirt and danced with the instructor, and her smile came back.
 
Why ballroom dance helped her recovery from dementia?

​A lot of researches that ballroom dance is effective in maintaining and improving a cognitive function have been reported recently. The movement of ballroom dance is not only an aerobic exercise but also an intellectual activity which makes you memorize complicating steps and dance not to make a mistake thinking about the steps. Doing an exercise and intellectual activity simultaneously is effective in improving a cognitive function.
 
Another important point leading to her dramatic improvement is that ballroom dance was her sweet memory. So she could continue the dance whilst enjoying it, resulting in the dramatic recovery.
 
One year after starting ballroom dance, she went to Hawaii with her family.
 
According to a research in USA, Recreational Activities that lower the risk of dementia are:
(1) Ballroom dance: Decreased by 76 %
(2) Board games: Decreased by 74 %
(3) Playing musical installments: Decreased by 69 %
 
The similarity among these three activities is that they involve communication with other people.

​What are you doing to improve constipation?
What a lot of people are carrying out is eating more dietary fibers, fermented foods or exercise for the intestine.
 
But there is an easy method good to carry out in summer.
That is eating cold carbohydrates because they contain Resistant starch.
 
Resistant starch
Resistant starch (RS) is any starch that is not digested and absorbed in the stomach or small intestine and pass on to the large intestine, and is included in carbohydrates such as pasta, bread and rice.
 
Carbohydrates usually contain a lot of starch, but if carbohydrates are cooled, the starch in carbohydrates changes to resistant starch. Resistant starch increased by cooling reaches the large intestine without digesting in the small intestine. That increases the amount of stool and makes excretion easier. The effect of losing weight healthfully is expected as well.
 
2 constipated females tried to eat cold rice meals for a week. Their bowel movement had been once every four to five days before the experiment, but they had bowel movements almost every day and lost weight.

Cold rice can be replaced by other carbohydrates such as pasta.
 
Recipes using Cold Rice (Fig. 1)
1. Cold Rice with Okra, Yamaimo, Ume-plume and Mentsuyu (needle soup)
2. Cold Rice with tofu, Avocado and Wasabi soy source, sesame oil and scallion
3. Cold Rice with Mozuku vinegar, Tomato, Cucumber and grated Ginger

​The big cause of high blood pressure is too much salt intake.
When the concentration of salt in the blood becomes high, water goes into the blood vessels from the cells around to make the concentration thinner. That makes the amount of blood increase, pressing the wall of the blood vessel. This is the condition of high blood pressure.
 
High blood pressure causes arteriosclerosis that the blood vessel becomes hard and narrow. It can lead to serious diseases such as stroke and heart attack.
 
So it is important to reduce salt to improve high blood pressure. But it is difficult to continue reducing salt in daily life. Even if low salt is kept, sometimes high blood pressure is not improved as expected.
 
A whale gave us the secret of how to solve this unconquerable problem?
 
A whale is the biggest mammal on the earth. The characteristic is that they live very long. Some of them live for more than 200 years.
 
So a researcher thought that whales must have maintained healthy blood vessels because they lived long. What is the difference between whales and human beings which are the same mammals? Is the difference related to dive under sea water? Based on such unique hypothesis, the researcher studied about blood vessels of the people who dived a lot into the sea. The people who the researcher paid attention to were Japanese female pearl divers who dived into the sea daily. When the researcher checked the condition of their blood vessel, surprising results were found out.
 
115 of Japanese female pearl divers whose average age was 65 years old were checked about their age of blood vessels (vascular age). The average of their vascular ages were 11 years younger than their actual ages. This proved that they could be controlling their blood pressure.
 
Why are their vascular ages young?
 
That their vascular ages are young is related to a hormone called ANP (Atrial Natriuretic Peptide) which is secreted by water pressure at the time of their diving. When we dive into water, the veins in our arms and legs are especially compressed because they are soft. That increases the amount of blood returning to the heart, making a part of the heart larger. At that time, the hormone called ANP is secreted by the muscles of the heart and is sent to all over the body. Especially the kidney is influenced by ANP and is promoted to excrete urine and excessive salt is discharged with the urine. As a result of that, blood pressure goes down and blood vessels are kept young.
 
Actually ANP is used as medication for heart failure because it lowers blood pressure and reduces a burden on the heart.
 
ANP of three Japanese female pearl divers was checked and the amount of ANP drastically increased right after diving. Also their blood pressures are within the normal range and their vascular ages were less than their actual ages.
 
Age: 69 / 72 / 72
Before diving: 28.8 / 21 / 30
Right after diving: 44.5 / 73.1 / 129.6
Blood pressure: 134 / 126 / 123 (mmHg)
Vascular age: early 50’s / early 50’s / late 60’s
 
Divers dive to a depth of more than 5 meters (16.4 feet), but we can’t do that. So how deep do we need to dive or soak in the water to increase ANP?
According to an experiment, it is possible to increase ANP if you soak into the pool above the pit of the stomach.
 
52 years old male whose blood pressure was about 140 mmHg tried to spend all day in a pool with his wife and daughters (9 and 11 years old). As a result, his ANP increased and blood pressure lowered after playing in the pool with his family as follows.
 
ANP: Before 12.6 / After 31.6
Blood pressure: Before 143 mmHg / After 132 mmHg
 
ANP and Cancer
 
Cancer occurs everywhere in the body except the heart. One of the reasons that the heart doesn’t have cancer is ANP which is secreted from the heart. When ANP is administered to patients with cancer, the metastasis and recurrence are suppressed.
 
How to increase ANP other than playing in the pool
 
ANP is secreted by raising heart rate so it is effective to exercise as hard as breathing becomes a little heavy.
 

The skin strong against UV is dark skin becoming darker instead of red when exposed to sunlight. The skin weak against UV is fair skin becoming red when exposed to sunlight. The reason that the skin becomes red is that DNA of the skin is damaged.
 
The method that the person who is easily affected by UV changes to the person who is strong against UV is soaking in bathtub.
 
Heat shock protein that is a protein increasing by the stimulation of heat. Usually heat shock protein increases when the cells are damaged by bacterial infection or others and repairs the damaged cells. The increase of heat shock protein elevates the ability to repair the damaged skin cells. Therefore, the skin becomes strong against UV.
 
The easiest way to increase heat shock protein is soaking in a bathtub once in three days.
If you soak in a bathtub every day, your body gets used to the heat stimulation and heat shock protein doesn’t increase easily. Also the amount of heat shock protein is peak 2 days after soaking in a bathtub and returns to the original amount in 7 days. So 3 days later when heat shock protein starts to decrease is a good timing to stimulate again by soaking in a bathtub to keep sufficient amount of heat shock protein in the body.
 
Soaking in water of 41 degrees C (105.8 degrees F) for 15 minutes once in 3 days is effective to increase heat shock protein. Taking a shower on other 2 days with water of 37 degrees C is recommended not to get used to water of 41 degrees C.
 
The female B whose photoaging is progressed tried the above bathing method for 2 weeks.
The important points at the time of bathing are taking water, taking rest outside of the bathtub when it feels hot and sweating on the face that is the proof that heat shock protein increases.
As the result of the 2 weeks trial of the bathing, her skin became strong against UV as shown in the comparison between the before and after the test of exposure to weak UV for 1 minute (Fig. 2). Also heat shock protein in her blood increased by 1.3 times.

​Photoaging is changes in the skin induced by long-term ultraviolet ray (UV) exposure. When illuminated with UV, a substance called collagenase is activated and collagen is broken down. Accumulation of this process for a long time causes spots and flabbiness on the skin. But the effect of UV is not only spots and flabbiness on the skin.
 
What increases these days is base-cell carcinoma. When illuminated with UV, DNA of the skin cells is damaged. If the damaged cells are repeatedly divided, skin cancer occurs.
 
Langerhans cells are immune cells protecting the body from viruses and others. When they are illuminated with UV, the number of Langerhans cells decreases so the function of the immune system becomes weaker.
 
Pitfalls of countermeasure against UV
 
There are two 50’s females who pay attention to prevent UV, wearing sunscreen and using a parasol when they go outside. But there is a big difference about the quantity of collagen under the skin between these two females. If you keep being exposed to UV, breakdown of collagen is progressed. That makes the difference about photoaging.
 
What makes the difference about photoaging between these two females?
 
1. Movement of the Sun and pattern of behavior in the house
The female A whose photoaging is not progressed moves at the other side of the Sun. on the other hand, the female B whose photoaging is progressed moves in the room getting sunlight.
 
There are two types of UV. UVB mostly doesn’t pass through windows, but UVA passes through windows and pours into a room. UVA doesn’t make the skin red so there can be exposure to a large amount of UVA without notice. The female B is likely to be exposed to a large amount of UVA in the house.
 
2. How to use a parasol
UV comes from all the directions by reflection. If you use a parasol at the high position, you can’t prevent UV coming from sides and below. While the female A whose photoaging is not progressed use a parasol at lower position, the female B whose photoaging is progressed use a parasol at high position. This makes big difference about UV strength around their faces. Also the female A whose photoaging is not progressed changes the direction of her parasol to make it face direct sunlight.(Fig. 1)
 
Quiz for UV measure

Q1. Which place has the strongest UV?
(A) On the sea shore
(B) At the top of a mountain
(C) In the city
 
A1. (B) At the top of a mountain
Since the altitude on the top of a mountain is high, the air is clear, containing less dust and fluff in the air so that UV is not absorbed. That makes UV strong at the top of a mountain.
 
Q2. Being by the window exposes you to UV. Which can prevent UV more?
(A) Closing only the window
(B) Closing only the lace curtain
 
A2. (A) Closing only the window
Windows absorb most UVB which becomes a cause of sunburn and skin cancer. Closing both the window and lace curtain is more effective. (UV intensity in the experiment: Only window 0.86, Only curtain 1.30, Both 0.18)
 
Q3. It is important to choose the material of clothes to protect the skin from UV. Which material doesn’t pass UV most?
(A) Cotton
(B) Silk
(C) Polyether
 
A3. (C) Polyether
Polyester absorbs UVB which is most dangerous to the skin. But polyester doesn’t absorb sweat so it is recommended to wear mixed material of cotton which absorbs sweat and polyester which absorbs UVB.