Pain Management Retreat Next Month!

For the millions of Americans living with chronic pain, treatment options can feel very limited. Long-term use of painkillers may cause irreparable side effects like liver and kidney damage. Surgeries can alleviate certain kinds of pain, but the trauma and resulting scar tissue may result in pain of other types.If you are ready to reduce your pain once and for all, the Pain Management Retreat hosted by my colleague Jing Fan and I may be a great event for you!

This 2-day event in Boca Raton, FL will provide not only acupuncture and Chinese massage sessions to instantly relieve your pain, but also teach you techniques you can use at home on your own time to prevent pain before it flares up. For example, Dr. Fan will teach a class on Yijin Jing, a form of Chinese qigong that promotes flexibility and balance by strengthening the muscles and tendons.  Once you learn the basic exercises from Dr. Fan, you will be able to practice at home and build up the strength and flexibility you need to stop pain before it happens. 

The retreat will be packed with events including: 

• acupuncture treatment
• Chinese massage
• herb sampling
• nutrition lecture
• qigong class
• tai chi class

Dr. Fan and I come from very different but complementary backgrounds in medicine. I trained and completed my apprenticeship in traditional Chinese medicine from a holistic point of view while Dr. Fan is an orthopedic surgeon, specializing in osteoarthritis and soft tissue injuries. Though we differ in our mechanistic approach towards treating joint and muscle pain, I was surprised to find that we agree on many of the fundamentals. For example, we both believe that except in very specific cases, electing to do joint surgery often causes more harm than good. Watch a snippet of our conversation about back surgery below!

If you are interested in this one-of-a-kind retreat, visit the official website at bocaacupuncture.org.  For more information about the effects of acupuncture on different kinds of pain, please visit www.bostonchineseacupuncture.com

We are offering a special 10% discount if you register before December 25, 2015 so sign up today!

More testosterone does not necessarily mean better sexual function

We all know that testosterone level is closely related with a man's erectile function, but it is not the only factor that contributes to impotence. The normal range of testosterone level is very wide: from 300 to 1000 pg/mL. You would think a man with testosterone level around 300 pg/mL would probably have some erectile dysfunction, but that is not always true. Let me tell you a story about a man who came to me for weak erections after turning 45 years old.

This man, who formerly served in the US army, used to have such strong sexual drive and function that when he was in his twenties, he went to a bar, had a one night stand with a girl, and ended up with a child before he even thought about setting up a family. He became more responsible in his thirties, got married, and had two other children. He had been a very disciplined military man and later became a successful businessman.

During his first marriage, he started gaining weight around his middle because he ate more candy than before to make him happy. Due to his unhealthy diet and lack of physical exercise, he gained more fat and lost more muscle. He ended up in the hospital for a small surgery and met a beautiful, active younger lady. This new stimulation made his sexual function stronger for a short period of time, but this did not last very long because he did not change his lifestyle.

By the age of 48, he started having knee pain after running for 20 min and noticed that his muscle mass was declining faster then he expected. More important is that although he loves his new girlfriend, his erection still became weaker and he told me he could not have as strong and as long of an erection as a few years ago. On the other hand, his girlfriend, who eats healthy and has a very positive attitude on life, still had beautiful skin and strong sex drive.



My patient did not want to develop impotence and upset his beloved girlfriend, so he did research on the Internet and found that acupuncture can help his knee pain and more importantly, his sexual function. He called me a few months before moving to Boston, and we started treating his knee pain first. Because he still has pretty good circulation and strong muscles due to years of military training and regular sleep pattern, he responded to the treatment very well, and after 6 treatments, he started running again without knee pain.

Then, he brought up his declining sexual function. He told me that he used to have sex with his girlfriend 4 to 5 times a week and their intercourse could last about 40 min. Now, he can barely make once a week, and it only lasted for 10 to 15 min. He told me his first testosterone level was low, around 300 pg/mL. I told him that he needed to build strong muscles and eat a lot of fruit and vegetables to bring up his testosterone level. In the mean time, we started using kidney and liver points to improve the energy flow to his adrenal gland, thyroid gland and testicles.

Within the next 6 months, he lost 40 lbs and gradually gained back his muscle mass.He can have longer and stronger erections and have excellent sex 3 to 4 times a week. He was so thrilled about the changes. However, in a subsequent test for testosterone level, he found that his testosterone level only increased slightly. He is happy with his sexual level, but puzzled by his low level of testosterone.
My answer is that his body may not need that much testosterone to have normal sexual function. Although 350 pg/mL low for other men, it is sufficient for him because acupuncture made his testosterone receptors more efficient. Furthermore, his strong muscle also helps to make his testosterone work better. This phenomenon makes since if we draw an analogy to heart function. A strong heart does not need to beat too fast to provide enough blood and oxygen to your body and brain. From an evolutionary point of view, a lower hormone level can actually protect our body because it allows us to produce less metabolic waste products.

Boston Chinese Acupuncture can help you resume normal erectile function even if your testosterone level is low. Men who a lot of stress from work and high expectations to fulfill may need acupuncture to help them reduce their stress and redirect energy to their testicles, pituitary gland, thyroid gland and hypothalamus every two weeks or once a month. This investment to balance your hormone levels will help you have a healthy and fulfilling sex life through middle age and beyond!

DIY Neck Pain Relief

In our increasingly digital world, we are constantly looking down at our phones, tablets and laptops.  It is no wonder, then, that more and more people come to my clinic for neck pain relief.

Nerves from all over the body go through the neck to reach the brain.  If your neck muscles are tight or spasming, it can irritate the nerves and cut off circulation to the brain and eyes.  As a result, you may experience dizziness, vision problems, difficulty breathing, and anxiety.  Frankly, I cannot overstate how important the neck is to your general feeling of wellbeing.

There are several different ways of relaxing your neck muscles.  The most basic, of course, is to eliminate or reduce the activities that cause those muscles to tighten up, such as the use of electronic devices or misaligned sleeping positions.  However, for most people, drastically reducing the time you spend on the computer is simply not an option due to the nature of your work.  If this is the case, stretching and acupressure may be a good place to start.

Last December, I did a 3-part video series with Dr. Jing Fan, an orthopedic surgeon from Nanjing University of Traditional Chinese Medicine, on stretching exercises for neck pain. The original blog post can be found on my clinic's website, www.bostonchineseacupuncture.com.  Dr. Fan, who is very tall and spent many hours every day looking down to perform surgeries in China, believes that by doing these exercises for 10 minutes daily, he was able to stave off the neck pain that plagued so many of his colleagues.

If you are in need of instant pain relief and do not have the time or space to perform stretching exercises, there are a few acupressure points you can press while sitting at your desk or lying down. These four points along the neck and upper back are called Gallbladder 20 (Feng Chi), Small Intestines 15, Gallbladder 21 (Jian Jing) and Bladder 15.  I provide a detailed explanation of each one in the video below.

 

Sometimes, however, if your neck muscles have been spasming for too long or you simply cannot reduce the amount of time you spend sitting and working at the computer, DIY neck pain relief may not be enough.  If that is the case, you many want to consider getting acupuncture done at those neck pain relief acupoints to deeply relax your muscles and reset them for a healthier alignment.  I have offices in Needham, MA (20 min outside of Boston) and in Boca Raton, FL, but with the increase in the number of acupuncture schools in the U.S., you should be able to find an experienced acupuncturist near you.

That is all for my DIY Neck Pain Relief Guide for now!  As always, you can subscribe to my YouTube channel @AcuOptimalHealth for more information on acupuncture and healthy living.

All About Women and Autoimmune Diseases

As women, we go through three main periods of hormone upheaval in our lifetime: first during puberty, second during and after pregnancy, and lastly during menopause. When our body is going through such dramatic hormonal changes, we can develop a condition known as estrogen dominance, where the level of estrogen in our body is too high compared to progesterone.

Estrogen is generally an immune stimulant while progesterone is an immune suppressant. Thus, if there is not enough progesterone to balance out estrogen, our immune system may become hyperactive and attack our own tissues, resulting in different autoimmune diseases such as Hashimoto's, colitis, and ALS, depending on which tissues are targeted.

If you are interested in the mechanism of how hormone changes affects our likelihood of getting autoimmune diseases, please read the more detailed article I wrote on my website, www.bostonchineseacupuncture.com!



Below are some tips for preventing autoimmune diseases.

1. Avoid using birth control pills if possible. When you do not ovulate regularly, your body has less progesterone to balance estrogen, and therefore, immune function tends to be hyperactive. Once the imbalance reaches a certain level, your gene expression will change.


2. Avoid too much alcohol. Alcohol can enhance an enzyme called aromatase which can convert naturally occurring testosterone into "bad estrogen" that overstimulates your immune system. Also, alcohol tends to make your body produce internal heat, leading to inflammation.


3. Eat more cruciferous vegetables. Kale, cabbage, broccoli, brussels sprouts, and cauliflower can inhibit aromatase naturally.


4. Avoid dry cleaning clothing and using plastic containers. The chemicals used can serve as bad estrogen to change our immune function.


5. Practice yoga, Qi Gong and meditation to calm down the nervous system.


6. Take wheatgrass, raspberry tea, and Chinese herbal formulas to enhance your ovarian, adrenal and other gland functions to create a more balanced hormone level. Certain chemicals in these supplements can also serve as very weak, "good estrogen" to prevent the stimulating effect of "bad estrogen".


7. Regular acupuncture treatments can help adjust your nervous and immune functions.

As always, please subscribe to my YouTube Channel for regular updates on acupuncture and health!

Osteoarthritis & Acupuncture Video Series

Osteoarthritis is the inflammation of the joints caused by wear and tear. Although it can occur in any joint, osteoarthritis typically affects the knee and hip joints.

Recently, I filmed a video series about how acupuncture can help reduce the symptoms of osteoarthritis.  For example, acupuncture can reduce the amount of swelling inside the joints, which gives you greater mobility. In addition, acupuncture can induce increased production of hormones inside your body that naturally provide pain relief, such as endorphin, serotonin and dopamine. 

If this peaks your interest and you'd like to learn more about the specific acupuncture points that are used to treat osteoarthritis, please watch the following video where I demonstrate 4 points around the knees that I commonly use on patients with osteoarthritis. Since it is summer vacation right now, I performed the demonstration on my youngest son.  He doesn't have osteoarthritis, but he does play a lot of sports so I figured it's never to early to start protecting his knees with acupuncture!

If you like these mini videos, please subscribe to my YouTube channel for more.  Or if you prefer reading about osteoarthritis to watching videos, transcripts for these can be found at my website, BocaAcupuncture.org!

Acupuncture for Infertility FAQ

Last Wednesday, April 1, my clinic was featured on the WCVB show Chronicle in their episode titled Fertility. It was truly an honor for me to be make my first television appearance talking about how acupuncture can help couples conceive, a topic that has been very important to my career as an acupuncturist. The outpouring of response to this show has been tremendous and I thank everyone who was involved in its production and who took the time to watch! 

My kids took this screenshot of the show and posted it all over their Facebook pages.  I wonder if this means I am finally going to crack the 15-25 year-old demographic!

After the show aired, I received quite a number of requests for further information on how acupuncture for infertility works. I have included a few basic responses below and the rest can be found on my website, Boston Chinese Acupuncture.

ACUPUNCTURE FOR INFERTILITY FAQ 

 

How many couples have you helped get pregnant?

Over the past 15 years I have been practicing in the Boston area, I have helped a couple of hundred women give birth to healthy babies. Women of all ages and underlying fertility problems have come to me for help. I have successfully treated women as old as 46 and women with clinical reproductive problems, including severe endometriosis and PCOS. I have even helped a woman with re-opened ligated tubes get pregnant!

When should I start acupuncture treatments?

You should start acupuncture treatments at least 3 months before you plan to conceive, whether naturally or through IVF and IUI. Acupuncture helps relax your uterus muscles and balance your hormones, increasing the likelihood of a successful implantation

How often should I come for treatments? How long will it take before I get pregnant?

I generally recommend patients come 1-2 times a week. Because the effects of acupuncture are incremental and cumulative, for the best results, I recommend spacing out treatments evenly without leaving too much time between sessions. In my experience, it takes between 2 and 12 months of acupuncture for most women to get pregnant, depending on the individual's age and general health.

Should I continue acupuncture treatments during pregnancy?

Yes. Although acupuncture can been done safely during the entire course of the pregnancy, I recommend that my patients continue acupuncture until at least 12 weeks into their pregnancy. Acupuncture treatments can help lower the rate of miscarriages, which is particularly important during the first 12 weeks of the pregnancy.

New Event: Health Seminar at Whole Foods Market Boca Raton

Next month, I will be holding a free lecture about how green juice and acupuncture can reduce inflammation to prevent cancer, allergies and autoimmune diseases at the Whole Foods Market in Boca Raton, FL. In this lecture, I will use recent scientific research to explain how green juice (blended vegetables comprised predominantly of leafy greens) can help the body balance its immune function and produce more anti-inflammatory chemicals such as cortisol, progesterone and other relaxing hormones. I will also use clinical cases to demonstrate how a powerful combination of green juice and acupuncture can help people fight infertility, menopause and arthritis and aid cancer survivors in preventing neuropathy, anxiety, depression and insomnia. At the end of the talk, I will also be sharing a few of my favorite green juice recipes!

Date: April 19, 2015
Time: 11 am - 12:30 pm
Address: 1400 Glades Rd, Boca Raton, FL 33431 (Boca Raton Whole Foods Market)

Weekly green juice excursion to Whole Foods

I admit that I was originally a green-juice skeptic before my patients convinced me to buy a Vitamix and give juicing a go. The hassle to make a frankly unappetizing, goopy mixture the texture of baby food seemed hardly worth the effort. But after making and drinking green juice for the past few months, I can say that I have been converted. The juices, which are predominantly kale-based, are pretty delicious once I looked past its coloring.  I also started experimenting by adding different fruits and honey into the mix, giving the blend a pleasantly sweet flavor and making it much more palatable.  Making green juice has become a fun kitchen experiment rather than a chore!

Most importantly, I understand now what the hype about green juice is all about. Between the extra fiber, vitamins and minerals, a cup of green juice a day leaves my digestive system running smoothly and my body feeling youthful.  I was also impressed by how full and satisfied I felt after drinking green juice. One problem I've had ever since I was little was feeling hungry between meals. I would snack frequently - a little bit of chocolate here, a handful of nuts there. But as I've gotten older and my metabolism has slowed down, I now need to be much more careful about snacking. Green juice has really helped me on this front because after drinking it, I do not need to eat as much. It's a great relief not to have my stomach clamoring for attention all the time!

Find out more about this event at Facebook and Eventbrite. RSVP today and I hope to see you there!

Using Acupuncture to Increase Blood Oxygen Level

A patient I will call Cindy grew up in Boston and came to my clinic for acupuncture treatments due to breathing difficulties and low blood oxygen levels. She had been an incredibly active and restless lady throughout her life, unable to sit still and constantly moving around energetically. As a teacher in Boston, she loves to use her knowledge and encourage kids to become passionate and creative people. She also takes good care of her family. 

A couple of weeks ago, she had a very stressful work week. Afterwards, she suddenly developed chest tightness and breathing difficulties, so she went to the emergency room and got her heart and lungs checked. Her organs showed no abnormalities, but her blood oxygen level readings (which were measured through her fingers) constantly fluctuated between 67 and 98%, with the right and left fingers showing different readings. She went to see a cardiologist and a pulmonary specialist and was told her lungs and heart have no problems. However, when her oxygen level dropped below 87%, she started having anxiety and chest tightness. 

One day, while sitting in a conference in Needham, she became almost intolerably uncomfortable by the end of the day because her oxygen level had dropped to 76%. During weekends, she does not work and consistently sleeps well, but the blood oxygen level readings of her right side would still be much lower than those of her left side, which typically hovered around 98% percent. She could not understand why the two sides were so different.

A friend recommended her to see me in order to figure out the reason behind her blood oxygen level fluctuation and the difference between her left and right sides. I analyzed her symptoms as well as her medical history. She told me that she was born with weak rotator cuff muscles, which I think may have caused her neck muscles to be extremely tight.  At the time she came to see me, she was 50 years old. Even though she still had normal periods, her ovarian and adrenal gland function had been steadily declining, leading to decreased production of “relaxing” hormones, such as GABA, serotonin and progesterone, and infrequent panic attacks during which she would feel overwhelmed by her responsibilities. The parts of her body that allow her to cope with stress, such as the hypothalamus and pituitary and adrenal glands, have nowhere near the functionality that they had when she was 20. Her estrogen levels were decreasing, but her progesterone levels, estrogen’s counterpart, were declining at a faster rate. Her unbalanced estrogen levels made her nervous system more sensitive to stress, and her overall declining hormone levels caused her shoulder and neck muscles to weaken. If she experienced the same amount of stress she used to experience when she was twenty now, her body would suffer long-term, irreparable damage. Acupuncture can help strengthen her adrenal and ovarian gland function, so she can produce more “relaxing” hormones to cope with stress more efficiently.

Before her first treatment, I asked her to measure her blood oxygen level: the reading fluctuated between 70 and 90%. When I conducted acupressure research with a nurse practitioner at the Medical College of Ohio, I learned that when babies sleep on their stomach, their blood oxygen levels typically increase and they are more relaxed. With that in mind, I ask Cindy to lie on her stomach: her blood oxygen levels started to rise instantly. Afterwards, I put in a few needles to relax her neck and upper shoulder muscles. During this treatment, her blood oxygen levels remained between 98 and 99% for the whole 50 minutes. Next, I applied electrical stimulation on her neck and shoulder muscles for ten minutes. After the treatment, her blood oxygen levels continued to stay at around 98%.  

I believe that her low blood oxygen levels were related to her tight neck and shoulder muscles. However, it seemed peculiar to me that more people do not suffer from her condition. The fact that the rotator cuff muscles on her right side were born weaker than the muscles on her left side could explain why her blood oxygen levels were constantly different on the two sides of her body. In addition, her hyperactive nervous system probably exacerbated the situation. When you are stressed out or have been sitting for too long, your neck and upper shoulder muscles become very tight, which may trigger nerve reflexes, causing your breathing to become shallow and less efficient.  As a result, your blood oxygen levels start dropping, especially in the absence of fresh air, and you become increasingly anxious. This is the reason why many people who work in confined spaces have to go out frequently for fresh air to maintain their productivity.

When a person is in a confined space with many people, lower oxygen levels in the air can cause his/her blood oxygen levels to drop and can trigger anxiety and panic attacks. In contrast, taking a walk on the beach or in the woods, where oxygen levels are high, can alleviate stress and cause one to feel relaxed and happy. If you have no time to go to the beach, simply open the window or stand outside and take deep breaths.

Recent research indicates that meditation combined with a certain type of relaxed thinking and deep breathing can actually change your gene expression. For instance, if you were born with a hyperactive sympathetic nervous system, meditating can create a balance between your sympathetic and parasympathetic nervous systems. In this way, when you have to cope with stress, you can stay calm and breathe deeply so your heart rate will not go up too high and your breathing will not become too shallow. When you are in a more relaxed state, your digestive system becomes more efficient, your heart rate slows down and your immune function is more balanced, so you can avoid many kinds of ailments, such as heart disease, cancer, autoimmune diseases and different kinds of inflammation. This is the reason why people who sleep well and stay relaxed most of the time tend to live longer and healthier lives. Genetic factors can only contribute so much to our longevity: we can change our gene expression by turning off bad genes and turning on good genes. Balance is the key for a healthier and happier life.