​Flu has two characteristics that are high fever and physical weariness.
A very strong flu was going around this summer in Australia, so it could come here this winter.
 
To prevent flu, the strength of the immune system is important.
 
The immune system is the self-defense system that prevents the invasion of viruses and germs into our body and attacks harmful cells to our body.
 
To strengthen the immune system, it is important to elevate the ability of immune cells.
 
What food strengthens the immune system?
 
The difference between people whose immune system is strong and people whose immunes system is weak is the difference of the ability of the immune cells.
 
The stronger immune cells eat multiple viruses and germs while normal immune cells eat one virus or germ.
 
The important substance is Lipo Poly Saccharide (LPS) which is drawing attention as a substance effective to prevent flu, dementia, cancer, etc.
 
LPS is rich in root vegetables.
 
Taro: 93 (micro gram/100 g)
Carrot: 80
The food to strengthen the ability of immune cells: 567
 
Relationship between age and immune strength
 
The strength of the immune system is peak at 20 years old, half at 40 years old and becomes 10% of the peak at 70 years old.
 
Experiment
 
6 people whose ages are between 40s and 60s and who have 0 to 1 % of active immune cells ate the food to strengthen immune cells for 10 days.
 
The number of active immune cells became 17 to 24% from 0 to 1 %.
 
The food that strengthens the immune system and prevents flu is Lotus Root.
 
Lotus root also contains substance of mucin that prevents a virus and a pollen from invading the mucus membrane.
 
Recommended amount of LPS a day is 500 micro grams, which is contained in 100 grams of the lotus root (Fig. 1).

It is good to know that LPS is contained more in the skin and the section portion of the lotus root (Fig. 2).

Related article:
If Your Cough Continues For More Than 2 Weeks

​It often takes time to treat cough if it is caused by other than a cold.
 
If you cough with the change of the temperature
 
The cough can be caused by cough variant asthma.
 
Inflammation of the membrane in the air way makes it sensitive to light stimulation, causing cough. If the cough continues more than 2 weeks after recovering from a cold. Cough variant asthma is pre-asthmatic condition, so it can lead to asthma, in which the bronchial tube becomes narrow due to inflammation, causing difficulty of breathing.
 
If you cough while you are sleeping
 
The cough can be caused by Reflux esophagitis (Acid Reflux).
 
Reflux esophagitis is inflammation of the esophagus caused by the backflow of acid due to the looseness of the muscle between the stomach and the esophagus. While you are sleeping, the stomach acid backs up into the throat causes cough.

Drink to Suppress Cough is Coffee
 
Caffeine contained in coffee expands bronchial tube and suppresses inflammation, so it makes breathing easier.
 
According to a research in Italy, people who drink more than 3 cups of coffee a day have 28 % less risk of development of asthma than people who don’t drink coffee at all.
 
If you can’t drink coffee, you can drink green tea or black tea which contain half the amount of caffeine of coffee.
 
Recommended Food for Any Lung Problems
 
It is recommended to eat dishes containing lotus root frequently for Lung related problems for prevention and improvement of constitution. If it is difficult to find lotus roots, it is very convenient to get Lotus Root Powder. You can take it any time as a cup of tea.

One of my patients just presented me with Eden Food Lotus Root Tea Powder which actually I had recommended her to take to prevent  and improve asthma, and by taking the lotus root powder, her breathing is stable even in the most difficult season for the lung. There are other brands as well, so get one for prevention and improvement especially if you have asthma. 

​2. Nutrition to lower the risk of heart attack
 
According to a research, people who take the nutrition has ½ risk of heart attack (myocardial infarction).
 
The nutrition is vitamin B.
 
It has turned out that vitamin B can prevent the aging of the blood vessel.
 
Amount of Vitamin B in Blood vs Aging of Blood vessel
 
The more the amount of vitamin B in the blood is, the younger the blood vessel is.
 
People who take vitamin B a lot have ½ risk of heart attack (myocardial infarction) compared to who don’t.
 
Vitamin B has the function to remove substances which make the blood vessel age.
 
What kind of food contains a lot of vitamin B?
 
B vitamins are a class of water-soluble vitamins that have similar functions.
 
There are 8 kinds of vitamin B such as B1, B2, B3 (niacin), B5 (pantothenic acid), B6, B7 (biotin), B9 (folate), B12.
 
Among B vitamins, taking 3 kinds of nutrition reduces the risk of heart attack.
 
They are B6, B9 (folate) and B12.
 
The food which contains all 3 nutrition in well balance is liver of chicken, pork and beef.
 
Even the lack of one of 3 nutrition makes difficult to stop aging of blood vessels.
 
Because as we age, the substance progressing the aging of the blood vessel increases. When the 3 nutrition is absorbed and reaches the blood vessel, B6 removes the half of the blood vessel aging substance, and folate and B12 remove the remaining half. That is why the lack of even one of three prevents the removal of the blood vessel aging substance, and the surviving blood vessel aging substance damages the blood vessel.
 
Is there any other food containing the 3 nutrition a lot in well balance other than liver?
 
It is difficult to eat liver every day to take the three B vitamins.
 
So the recommended food containing B6, folate and B12 is Seaweed (Nori).
​

Are you worried about tiredness, palpitation, breathlessness or high blood pressure recently?
 
if so, the blood vessels in your heart can be blocked by a plaque (cholesterol or others), narrowing the passage of the blood.
 
If this aging of the blood vessel progresses, you might have heart attack which can result in death.
 
To prevent the aging of the blood vessel, tofu for high blood pressure and fishes with bluish back for cholesterol were introduced before, but in addition to them, 2 more nutrition will be introduced below.
 
1. Nutrition to improve Blood Sugar
 
What color of food do you like?
Our health depends on what color of food you eat.
 
For example, lutein contained in spinach which is green can protect our eyes. Sweet potato or lotus root which are brown contain a lot of dietary fibers and are good for constipation. Orange in carrot is the color of Beta carotene. Red in tomato is the color of lycopene.
 
The color of the food is deeply related to the nutrition contained in the food.
 
What is the color to improve blood sugar?
 
According to a research, people who eat a color of food have 57 % lower risk of developing diabetes (type II).
 
The color of food expected to lower blood sugar is yellow.
 
What is the nutrition contained in yellow food?
 
The nutrition is β-cryptoxanthin.
 
The cells of people who have high blood sugar are inflamed. This inflammation suppresses the effect of insulin lowering blood sugar. β-cryptoxanthin suppresses the inflammation and improves the effect of insulin, lowering blood sugar.
 
What is the food containing a lot of β-cryptoxanthin?
 
The food is mandarin orange (can be replaced by clementine).
 
100 grams of mandarin orange contains 2000 micrograms (μg) and this amount is more than other kinds of citrus. Flesh of mandarin orange is especially rich in β-cryptoxanthin.
 
What mandarine orange contains more β-cryptoxanthin?
 
The sweeter the mandarin orange is, the more β-cryptoxanthin is contained.
 
How many mandarin oranges should be eaten?
 
3 pieces or less a day is good amount.
3 pieces of mandarin orange can provide enough β-cryptoxanthin and is not too much sugar for a day.
β-cryptoxanthin is oil soluble nutrition, so it is easier to be absorbed by eating 3 pieces separately after each meal.

​Overview
 
The patient was a woman with the age of 50s.
Her complaint was pain in her right neck and shoulder area. When she woke up in the morning she came to the clinic, she couldn’t move her neck very well due to pain. It was difficult to rotate her neck to the right side and when she looked up and down she felt pain below the right side of the back of her neck.
 
She had a lot of painful points with pressure around the area and on the right side of the neck. After the first treatment, she felt easier and less painful to move her neck, but still painful at the end of each movement.
 
The next day she felt better, but there was pain below the right side of the back of her neck at the end of looking up and down and the right rotation. When I checked her neck and shoulder area, the number of pressure pain points were less. After the treatment, she didn’t feel any pain when she moved her neck, so the course of the treatments for her sprained neck ended by 2 treatments.
 
All the treatments were performed with non-insertion needles.

She also had a sty on her right eye. Heat therapy (moxa) on her hands helped make the sty smaller.
 
Detail of Acupuncture Treatment
 
[1st Treatment]
From her symptom, I assumed that the pattern of her condition would be Spleen Deficiency Liver Excess, but actually the pattern was Liver deficiency judging from the pulse, abdomen and light strokes on the channels.
 
I tonified Left LR-3 and performed Spreading Needle on her neck and head and let her take a rest for 15 minutes. After the rest, I gave general treatment on her back and removed painful points with pressure using points on her head and hand. Having her sit up, I gave a little strong stimulation with Dispersion Needle to the points where she still felt painful when she moved her neck. Her neck didn’t become completely better, but I finished the treatment for her neck for the day, considering the dosage of the treatment.
 
She also had a sty on her right eye, so I did moxa on her LI-4.
 
[2nd Treatment]
The pattern of her condition changed to Spleen Deficiency Liver Excess which I had assumed before the 1st treatment. I tonified Right SP-3 and PC-7 with Yang and tonified Left GB-36 with Yin. After 15 minutes rest, I gave her general treatment on her back and had her sit up and removed painful points with pressure around her neck and shoulder using the points on her head. I asked her to check her neck and she still had tightness and pain at the end of the movements. After I used Right TW-3, She felt looser but still had pain at the end of the movements around Right SI-15. After I used Dispersion Needle on the point, the pain was gone.
 
The sty on her right eye already became small, but I added moxa on LI-4 again.
 
Consideration
 
The pattern in the first treatment used for the root treatment might be more for sty in the eye. Spleen Deficiency Liver Excess used for the second treatment must fit sprained neck.
 
I think Spreading Needle on the back of her head which I skipped in the first treatment helped releasing the pain and tightness on the diseased area.
 
I also think the good point to treat often shows up around SI-15 in the case of sprained neck.

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​Hardening of blood vessels which can result in stroke or heart attack is mainly caused by high cholesterol and high blood pressure.
 
It has been found by recent researches that there are 2 ingredients which prevent and improve high cholesterol and high blood pressure.

Fig. 1 is the cross-section of the blood vessel which path reduced by half due to plaque formed by cholesterol.

The ingredient to decrease cholesterol is a fish with glistening skin
 
Fishes with glistening skin or bluish back such as sardine, mackerel whose oil contains DHA and EPA which smooth the blood and rejuvenate blood vessels. This is actually what a lot of people already know.
 
But it turned out by the latest new research that there was a new fact that fishes with glistening skin stopped the aging of the blood vessel.
 
There is a possibility that eating bluish back fishes will remove plaques blocking the blood vessel and restore the blood vessel to the healthy condition.
 
If LDL cholesterol increases too much in the blood, LDL cholesterol forms a plaque by invading the blood vessel, resulting in hardening of blood vessels. What was believed previously was that increasing HDL cholesterol leaded to decreasing LDL cholesterol accumulating in the blood vessel. That means you have to increase HDL cholesterol to prevent aging of blood vessels.
 
But it has turned out that eating bluish back fish decreases LDL cholesterol without increasing HDL cholesterol.
 
Experiment: Difference of the amount of LDL and HDL cholesterol between people who eat a lot of bluish back fish and people who don’t
 
6 women with the age of 50s to 70s attended the experiment. 3 of them eat bluish back fish 2-4 times a week (Bluish Back Fish) and another 3 of them eat bluish back fish about once in 2 weeks (No Bluish Back Fish).
 
HDL cholesterol (guide line: more than 40 mg/dl)
Bluish Back Fish: 72, 43, 70
No Bluish Back Fish:  54, 79, 48
 
Whether or not eating bluish back fish didn’t make big difference about HDL cholesterol.
 
So what about the age of blood vessels?
Bluish Back Fish: 8-11 years old younger than their actual ages
No Bluish Back Fish: 3-8 years old older than their actual ages
 
What makes the big difference about the age of blood vessels even if their HDL cholesterols are almost the same?
 
We all have different power of HDL cholesterol.
 
According to the latest research, the stronger the power of HDL cholesterol is, the more hardening of blood vessels is prevented.
 
Bluish back fishes have the effect to increase the power of HDL cholesterol.
 
How about the power of HLD cholesterol of the above 6 people?
 
(guide line: more than 0.34)
Bluish Back Fish: 0.38, 0.35, 0.35
No Bluish Back Fish: 0.33, 0.32, 0.33
 
People who often eat bluish back fishes have strong HDL cholesterol and young blood vessels.
 
Why does eating bluish back fishes strengthen the power of HDL cholesterol?
 
It has turned out that a nutrition contained in bluish back fishes strengthens the power of HDL cholesterol.
 
The nutrition is EPA which is rich in the fat of bluish back fishes.
 
EPA strengthens the power of HDL cholesterol and decreases LDL cholesterol accumulating in the blood vessel.
 
HLD cholesterol usually retrieves LDL cholesterol accumulating in the blood vessel and delivers them to the liver, but can’t retrieve all LDL cholesterol.
 
EPA improves the ability of HDL cholesterol to retrieve LDL cholesterol, leading to improvement of hardening of blood vessels.
 
How much EPA should be taken?
 
It turned out that taking 1800 mg of EPA every day leaded to strengthening the power of HDL cholesterol and improving hardening of blood vessels.
 
1800 mg of EPA is equivalent to 2 slices of mackerels (Fig. 2).
 
A canned mackerel in water contains 1860 mg of EPA (Fig. 3).

Hardening of blood vessels which can result in stroke or heart attack is mainly caused by high cholesterol and high blood pressure (Fig. 1).
 
It has been found by recent researches that there are 2 ingredients which prevent and improve high cholesterol and high blood pressure.
 
The ingredient to prevent and improve high blood pressure is Tofu.
 
Tofu is rich in magnesium.
Tofu is made from soy milk and brine (Nigari) which is actually magnesium chloride, a byproduct of extracting salt from sea water. One hard tofu contains 390 mg of magnesium.
 
Magnesium excretes extra salt from the body.
 
When salt in the blood increases, water in the blood also increases because salt draws water. As a result of that, pressure to the wall of blood vessels increases, leading to high blood pressure.
 
Magnesium promotes the function of the kidney which excretes salt from the body as urination.
 
Experiment: if you eat a lot of tofu, how much salt can you excrete?
 
Young and healthy people generally take 24 hours to excrete 80 % of salt taken for a day. The amount of salt excretion of the couple with the age of 51 and 56 who produced and ate a lot of tofu were 84 % and 97 % while the amount of salt excretion in 40s to 70s was about 40 % in a research.
Their blood pressures are 114 and 126, and their age of blood vessels are early 50s and early 40s (actual age: 56 and 51). This mean that they keep their blood vessels healthy.
 
Firm or Extra firm tofu contains more magnesium than soft tofu.
​