​What is the function of Calcium?
 
Calcium doesn’t only form bones but it is super nutrition necessary for us to live.
It has turned out that it is effective to improve various diseases.
 
Unexpected functions of calcium are controlling the muscles, regulating the movement of the heart and transmitting all the information in the brain such as sad, happy, painful or delicious.
 
3 diseases which are high blood pressure, stress and cancer can be improved by the effect of calcium.
 
A person whose weight is 50 Kg has about 1 Kg of calcium. 99 % of 1 Kg is bones and teeth and remaining 1 % exists all over the body playing very important roles.
 
Calcium is a kind of metal or mineral taken from the soil of the earth.
 
If you take sufficient calcium, there is a possibility that you can lower your blood pressure without restricting salt strictly.
 
In an experiment, 4 people whose blood pressures were higher than the guide line drank a glass of milk every meal and the movement of their blood pressures lowered down throughout a day compared to when they didn’t drink a glass of milk every meal.
 
Blood pressure is usually low in the morning, gradually goes up, reaches its peak during the daytime and goes down at night.
 
The blood pressure of people who take too much salt doesn’t go down at night, causing high blood pressure at night. But their blood pressures went down clearly. To lower blood pressure at night, it is necessary to remove salt from the body. So there is a possibility that calcium promoted the kidneys to discharge salt.
 
High blood pressure at night raises the risk of stroke and dementia. There is a research result that high blood pressure at night raises the risk of stroke (cerebral infarction) 3 times more.
 
How much calcium should be taken to improve high blood pressure?
 
A glass of milk (200 cc) contains about 220 mg of calcium.
If you want to take the same amount of calcium,
1-1/2 table spoon (3 g) of dried shrimp contains 213 mg of calcium.
2 pieces of processed cheese contains 226 mg of calcium.
2 cups of yogurt contains 240 mg of calcium.
¾ piece of tofu contains 194 mg of calcium.
4 pieces of capelin (a small fish) contain
 
The most efficient food to take calcium is milk. It is difficult to absorb calcium and most calcium is discharged with fibers. Milk has high ratio of absorption compared to the other food, but it is better to take calcium eating in good balance.
 
If you age is more than 30 years old, the recommended amount of calcium a day is about more than 650 to 700 mg for men and 650 mg for women. So if you drink 3 glasses of milk, it becomes about 660 mg of calcium.
 
Relationship between Irritation and calcium
 
Calcium is an important substance to transmit information in the brain. Lack of calcium causes a failure of transmitting information, resulting in irritation. Therefore, if you take sufficient calcium, the activity of the nerves becomes smooth and irritation can be solved.
 
Relationship between cancer and calcium
 
According to the newest research, it was found out that calcium caught carcinogen (a substance that tends to produce cancer) and discharged it to the outside of the body.
 
Cancer that calcium is expected to prevent most is colon cancer.
Colon cancer is a disease that mainly a benign tumor becomes cancerous by stimulation of carcinogen.

​The amount of the brain at the age of 20s is about 1200 cc for a man and about 1000 cc for a woman. But nerve cells start to decrease from 20s and the decrease is accelerated at the age of 50, causing shrinkage of the brain and deterioration of the memory. The brain of 70s shrinks by about 180 cc compared to the brain of 20s. in the case of dementia, the brain can shrink by 350 cc (a bottle of beer).
 
But there are people whose memory declines and people whose memory doesn’t decline. What kind of people’s memory doesn’t decline even if their brain shrinks?
 
7 people whose age are between 60 and 70 were selected randomly and the shrinkage of their brain were checked. The ratio of the shrinkage was 7.3 % to 9.3 %. Then their memory was checked. The brain ages of 3 people out of 7 people were younger than their ages.
 
The secret that their memory has not declined is related to seahorses in the head. The seahorses in the head are the hippocampus. The hippocampus retains information coming into the brain temporarily and sends important information required to be retained to the cerebral cortex. (Fig. 1)
 
It is difficult to make the brain bigger because a lot of nerve cells in the brain die with age. But according to the recent research, it turns out that it is possible to enlarge and increase the nerve cells in the hippocampus.
 
Substance that makes the hippocampus bigger and stops forgetfulness – BDNF
 
BDNF stands for Brain-derived neurotrophic factor and is a kind of protein. BDNF is something like feed to activate the nerve cells of the hippocampus. BDNF is expected to make the hippocampus bigger, improve memory and prevent dementia.

In an experiment, BDNF was administered to live nerve cells in the brain and they were cultivated for 3 days. Before the administration of BDNF, they were immature nerve cells (Fig. 2). 1st day they started to move actively and make something like threads. 3rd day they were connected each other and formed network (Fig. 3). Immature nerve cells were activated and formed network to exchange information for 3 days.
 
How to make BDNF in a daily life
 
The secretion of BDNF is more in young people and is less in older people. But the method to increase declined BDNF is receiving attention around the world.
 
The method is makes BDNF using muscles.
It is said that exercises increase BDNF in the hippocampus and the muscles also secretes BDNF and the secreted BDNF is transported to the brain through the blood.
 
What kind of exercise effectively increases BDNF?
 
It was found out that aerobic exercise such walking makes the muscles in all the body produce BDNF and increases BDNF by 10 %. The increased BDNF possibly enlarges the hippocampus.
 
How much walking is necessary to increase BDNF?
 
2 women whose memory was more than their age checked their BDNF in the blood and tried walking for a week. Their BDNF increased by more than 10 %. If you are concerned about forgetfulness, it is necessary to continue walking for 1 year.

FREE Quick Acupuncture
Sunday, December 18, 10:00AM-1:00PM 

I’m sorry for such a short notice.

If you are wondering whether you will try acupuncture for your health issues or not, why don't you try FREE one to know acupuncture.

As a year-end event, Cozy Acupuncture will provide FREE Quick Acupuncture on Sunday, December 18, 2016.

The treatment will take about 10 to 15 minutes using a few needles, unlike Individual Acupuncture treatment taking about 1 hour.

Please come and try or you can have your friends try.

​To sign up, please call 617-584-8703 or email [email protected]
When you like to sign up on-line, please click APPOINTMENT ONLINE below, click SCHEDULE NOW and choose service "FREE Quick Acu on 12/18/16" and the date has to be Sunday, December 18.
 
Event: FREE Quick Acupuncture
Date: Sunday, December 18th, 2016
Time: 10:00 AM – 1:00 PM
Place: A Sacred Place Wellness Center, Museum Place Mall #112, Salem, MA 01970
​

​Outline
The patient is a woman in her 60’s. She fell and sprained her left outside ankle 14 weeks ago. Since then, she has had difficult time to walk due to the pain. She tried various treatments, but the pain didn’t go away. After I explained her that I was not sure how much I could help her with the pain by only one treatment, I started acupuncture treatment.
 
At first I touched her ankles. Her left was warmer and more swollen than her right ankle. I checked her left ankle to know what movement hurt the ankle. when I pushed her left foot downward to the floor bending the ankle and (plantar flexion), turned outward (eversion) and turned inward (inversion), she felt painful at left side on top of her left foot, where was between outside ankle and the 4th toe. After the treatment, I checked the ankle again but she didn’t’ feel pain by these movements. She emailed me a few days after the treatment and informed me that she could walk with no pain since the treatment.
 
Treatment
I tonified her left KD-7 with a round-tip needle (Teishin) to strengthen Kidney energy. After that, I tonified her back and lower legs with a round-tip needle and performed spreading needle on her head, neck and lower back with Teishin to remove stagnated energy (Ja removal Teishin). Then I tonifyed right SI-7 (Clock Meridian Treatment) and checked her ankle. At this point, she mostly didn’t feel pain in her ankle, but to remove blockage of the energy around outside ankle, I tapped some points in the area around GB-41 using Dispersion needle. I checked her ankle again. Since there was no pain by pushing downward and turning both outside and inside, I finished her treatment.
 
Consideration
I had the same kind of pain in my ankle last year myself and the pain lasted for 3 weeks regardless of various treatments by myself. At that time, I received a new tool, Dispersion needle, and tried it in the area of the pain. The pain dramatically disappeared after the treatment and since then didn’t come back (Refer to A Case of Foot Pain-Experience of Shaho-shin).
 
In her case, the pain almost disappeared by needling on SI-7 using Clock Meridian Treatment (Shigo Treatment). So I think the blood stagnation in the area of the pain was not so severe, but there was inflammation in the Blood level and the heat was effectively removed with the Dispersion needle, resulting in the disappearance of the pain.

Outline
​
​The patient is a male in 30s who wants to quit smoking. He has been smoking a pack of strong cigarettes a day for 17 years. He can’t smoke during work so he smokes during lunch time and after going back home. He is eager to smoke when he is relaxed. His other symptoms are stress, difficulty to fall asleep and stiffness and sometimes pain in his left upper back.
 
At the beginning, he had 2 treatments a week and then once-a-week or once-in-2-weeks treatments depending on his work schedule. The treatment included ear acupuncture for smoking cessation and whole body treatment. He gradually reduced the number of cigarettes he smoked a day and after the 11th treatment, the number became zero and on the 12th treatment, he was not smoking for about 3 weeks. During the series of treatments, he spent his vacation with his friends who smoked and he smoked more at that time, but he didn’t feel like he wanted to smoke so much and could go back to the planned number of cigarettes easily.

Update (12/9/2016): When his wife visited me for treatment recently, she told me that he had not smoked for more than 4 months after the last treatment with me.
 
Treatment Detail
 
Root Treatment: The first half of the treatments were mostly Spleen deficiency and Yin was tonified, and the latter half was mostly Liver deficiency and Yin was tonified. But I think the pattern was more related to other symptoms.
 
Local Treatment: For smoking cessation, I used 4 points on the ear. I retained needles for 15 minutes there and after the treatment, I attached press balls on some of the points which seemed effective (made his pulse better). Other treatments were touching needles with Teishin on his back, legs and neck and spreading needles with Ja Teishin on some tight area on his back.
 
Consideration
I think smoking cessation points on the ear are effective, but if only these points are used for the treatment, the patient has to come more often to control the desire to smoke. So it is necessary to have whole body treatment including Root Treatment in order to relax their mind and body and make the effect of the treatment last longer.
 
There was another patient who had the almost same process to reduce the number of cigarettes. In his case, he could reduce it to 1 or 2 cigarettes a day, but he couldn’t completely quit smoking because I think he really didn’t want to quit smoking. So I think, to quit the last 1-2 cigarettes, will power is desperately needed.

According to some researches,
 
Less than 6 hours sleep makes the risk of a cold 4 times more.
Less than 5 hours sleep makes the risk of high blood pressure 2 times more.
Less than 5 hours sleep makes the occurrence of heart diseases 1.5 times more.
 
Q1. To improve the quality of sleep, it is better not to run at night. True or False?
 
A1. True.
 
Intensive exercise at night such as running or weight training can be a cause of insomnia.
 
We can sleep good by decline of the core body temperature, which is not the body temperature measured by a thermometer but the body temperature of deep inside body. It is important to control the core body temperature lowering at night. If you exercise intensively at night, that prevents the decline of the core body temperature and you can’t sleep. To get sleep of good quality, it is recommended to fish intensive exercises like running by the evening. If you need to exercise at night, it is better to do light exercises such as walking.
 
Q2. To improve the quality of sleep, it is better to drink a glass of water right before going to bed. True or False?
 
A2. False.
 
It is important to have water before you sleep because you sweat during sleep. But if you drink water right before going to bed, the pressure in the bladder elevates during sleep and wakes you up to go to the bathroom, lowering the quality of sleep. Not to wake up at night to go to the bathroom, it is recommended to finish drinking water at least 1 hour before going to bed.
 
Sleep and alcohol
 
Alcohol makes you feel sleepy, but 2 hours after sleep, alcohol stimulates the nerves that move the body actively and you can’t sleep deeply. As a result, your brain and body have not rested sufficiently. It is not good to drink alcohol right before going to bed. If you really want to drink alcohol, it is recommended to drink only a glass of alcohol by 3 hours before going to bed.
 
What is lack of sleep?
 
Lack of sleep is equal to debt of sleep. People who sleep sufficiently don’t need to sleep more. People who sleep longer during weekends don’t sleep enough during weekdays and they are in the condition that they repay the debt of sleep.
 
Q3. To get sleep of good quality, it is better to drink a cup of miso soup in the morning. True or False?
 
A3. True.
 
Soy which the material of miso soup contains melatonin that is the substance inducing deep sleep. It takes about 15 hours to produce melatonin after eating miso soup. If you drink a cup of miso soup, melatonin is produced when you go to bed, leading to sleep of good quality.
 
The reason that it is better to eat breakfast
 
The clock in the brain is called the central clock. The clock in each organ is called the peripheral clock. The peripheral clock is often off. It is necessary to set the peripheral clock with the central clock to get sleep of good quality because the body can’t recognize what time it is now if there is difference between the clock in the brain and the clock in each organ. Eating breakfast is important to set the peripheral clock. The brain recognizes the food after you don’t eat anything for more than 8 hours as breakfast. Eating breakfast resets the peripheral clock with the central clock, leading to good sleep.
 
Q4. When you can’t sleep, it is good to wear gloves. True or False?
 
A4. True.
 
Hands of babies are warm. They release heat from their hands and feet to lower the core body temperature. In winter, the core body temperature can’t lower down due to the coldness of hands and feet, leading to low quality of sleep.
 
There is an area you should not warm up. That is the head. Warming up the arteries running behind the head makes it difficult to sleep because that elevates the core body temperature. It is said traditionally to cool the head and warm the feet. There is a research result that icing the head by something like an ice pillow leads to easier sleep.
 
Q5. When you can’t sleep, it is good to listen to music you like. True or False?
 
A5. False.
 
It is important to relax before sleep. Listen to the music you like excites the brain. Music without lyrics can be expected to lead to sleeping. Even relaxing music disturbs the rest of auditory sensation if it is kept on, leading to shallow sleep. It is necessary to turn off the music when you feel sleepy.
 
Q6. When you can’t sleep, it is good to wear an eye mask to darken the sight. True or False?
 
A6. False.
 
Many people tend to think that it is easier to sleep when the sight is dark. In antient time people slept making a fire to protect them from other animals. So it is thought that darkness makes people anxious instinctively. To eliminate the anxiety, it is better to keep a dim light by a foot light or opening a curtain slightly.
 
Does watching a smart phone before sleep lower the quality of sleep?
 
Recently is said that the light of the screen doesn’t affect the quality of sleep because the light is not so strong. What affects the quality of sleep is the contents you read such as you are worried about no reply to your emails or reading something interesting excites your brain.

At home during the daytime
 
Q18. It is better to wash the clothes of a person who have a cold separately from others. True or False?
 
A18. False.
 
Viruses can be washed away mostly by water.
 
Q19. Ventilating the room by opening windows increases viruses in the room. True or False?
 
A19. False.
 
Opening windows doesn’t increase viruses in the room because outside is less people, that means there are less viruses than in the room.
 
Viruses usually become inactive within half a day to 2 days. “Inactive” means “not infectious”. Viruses can’t increase without infection to people.
 
However, if you don’t clean the room, viruses can float up in the air when you open the window. It is recommended to clean the room frequently.
 
Q20. A snack to prevent a cold is dried squid rather than Manju (steamed cake filled with a sweet red bean filling). True or False?
 
A20. True.
 
This is because when you chew dried squid, you secrete a lot of saliva, and you can wash away viruses with the saliva. People who don’t secrete saliva a lot tend to catch a cold, so it is important to wet the throat with water. Chewing a gum is also good for the same reason.
 
Q21. Taking a nap in Kotatsu (a low table covered with a heavy blanket and the inside is equipped with electric heat source.) causes you to catch a cold. True or False?
 
A21. True.
 
In Kotatsu, upper respiratory which is important for the prevention of a cold is hard to warm up. Kotatsu and electric blanket is not good to use when you sleep because they heat up forcibly. A hot-water bottle is good to sleep with because if you feel too warm, you can kick it out from your bed.
 
Q22. Muscular people hardly catch a cold. True or False?
 
A22. True.
 
Relationship between sleeping time and a cold
 
According to a research held by a research group in the United States, it was discovered that people who slept less than 6 hours caught a cold about 4 times as easily as people who slept more than 7 hours.
 
Q23. When you have a cold, to warm up the body, it is okay to drink a little hot Sake (Hot Japanese wine) or any kinds of alcohol. True or False?
 
A23. False.
 
When you drink alcohol, your body temperature goes up once but after that, your body temperature goes down sharply.
 
Q24. To warm up the body, it is better to eat hot spicy food. True or False?
 
A24. False.
 
When you eat hot spicy food, you sweat too much all at once and after that, you feel cold suddenly. It is important to sweat slowly to recover from a cold.
 
Q25. When you have a cold, it is better to eat meat rather than vegetables. True or False?
 
A25. True.
 
Meat contains less fibers than vegetables, so meat is digested more easily than vegetables. When you are coming down with a cold, eating meat is good to strengthen your energy as well.
 
Q26. If you cough only a little bit, it is better not to sop a coughing with the medicine. True or False?
 
A26. True.
 
Coughing is an action that the body is trying to discharge viruses in the body. If you stop coughing completely, you can’t discharge the viruses from the body. If the coughing makes you very tired, it is good to stop the coughing at a certain level.
 
Honey is effective for coughing, but please do not give it to children who are less than 1 year old because it is dangerous for them.
 
It is better not to stop runny nose completely with the medicine for the same reason.
 
Q27. It is okay to take Chinese herbs right before going to bed. True or False?
 
A27. True.
 
Taking Chinese herbs makes the body effectively, so it is okay to take it without caring about when to take. But in the case of western medicine, it is necessary to follow the prescription.
 
Q28. When you are coming down with a cold, soaking in the hot bath water for a short time is better than soaking in the tepid bath water for a long time. True or False?
 
A28. False.
 
You can’t warm the core of your body if you soak in the hot bath water for a short time, so it is better to soak in the bath water that you feel comfortable to stay in to warm the core of your body.
 
A cold usually gets better naturally. But if you experience symptoms you have never had or your condition is getting worse, it is better to go see a doctor.
​

​Outside during the daytime
 
Q8. It is possible to take in viruses even if wearing a mask. True or False?
 
A8. True.
 
The size of a virus is 1/10000 mm, so viruses can go into your mouth and nose from the gap between a mask and your face. Therefore, it is important to wear a mask without a gap. There is a mask called N95 mask which avoid 95 % of water-based viruses.
 
Q9. Gargling every hour is good enough. True or False?
 
A9. False.
 
Q10. Drinking water every 20 minutes leads to the prevention of a cold. True or False?
 
A10. True.
 
Gargling every hour is not enough because cold viruses can invade your body in 20 minutes. So if you drink water every 20 minutes, that leads to the prevention of a cold. If you drink water or other beverage every 20 minutes, you can wash out the viruses in the throat, they go into the stomach, and they are killed by stomach acid.
 
Q11.A scarf protects your body from a cold better than gloves. True or False?
A11. False.
 
The important thing is not which is warmer, but which can protect your body from viruses. Gloves can protect the hands where viruses get easily attached on.
 
Q12. Cold viruses can live on the palm for 1 day at the longest. True or False?
 
A12. False.
 
There is a data that viruses lived for 1 week on the palm. That is why it is important to wash hands.
 
Q13. Virus infection happens less in the airplane than in the train. True or False?
 
A13. Downward air flow in the airplane is stronger than in the train, so viruses tend to stay on the floor.
 
What is a cold? (Difficult Questions)
 
Q14. How many times does a person catch a cold in a lifetime? (A) About 200 times (B) About 600 times
 
A14. (A) About 200 times.
 
Children catch a cold about 10 times a year because they don’t have the immune. The number of catching a cold decreases when you become an adult because an adult has the immune.
 
Q15. How many kinds of cold viruses exist? (A) About 20 kinds (B) About 200 kinds
 
A15. (B) About 200 kinds.
 
We catch a cold many times because there are many kinds of cold viruses.
 
Q16. What condition is called a cold?
 
A16. A cold is a condition that patients visit a doctor complaining that they catch a cold.
 
Flu is diagnosed by some tests, but there are no tests for a cold.
 
Q17. A cold is a condition showing common cold symptoms excluding__________________.
A17. Diseases other than a cold
 
There is no definition of a cold. Common symptoms such as headache can be caused by other diseases. It is not until all the possibilities of other diseases are excluded that a cold is not diagnosed.