Is acupuncture good for weight loss?

Many people think acupuncture is synonymous with pain relief. However, another one of the benefits of acupuncture is that it can help you lose weight. 

Before 1971, most people in the United States had never heard of acupuncture. In fact, complementary and alternative medicine in any form can be traced back to a single event that happened in 1971. A New York Times columnist, James Reston, had to have an emergency appendectomy while visiting China to provide media coverage of President Nixon’s visit there. When James Reston returned from China, he wrote about acupuncture anesthesia in China.

That famous piece in the New York Times about acupuncture anesthesia in China is what put acupuncture on the map, and many Westerners became intrigued with acupuncture’s benefits for pain relief. Since that time, acupuncture has become synonymous with pain relief, although the benefits are far more extensive than that. Acupuncture may hold the “secret” to maintaining a youthful appearance, hormone balance, longevity, fertility, and a slim physique.

 

Auricular acupuncture (acupuncture that is done at specific points on the ear) is known to help curb cravings for addictive substances, including sugar, nicotine, and drugs, and it is often used in drug rehabilitation centers to ease symptoms of withdrawal. For weight loss acupuncture in Del Mar, CA, auricular acupuncture is combined with meridian acupuncture at different points on the body. While the points on the ear help to curb cravings and withdrawal from addictive foods, the points on the body help to balance a variety of hormones.

The hormones that are considered the most well-studied ones involved in hunger and satiety are leptin and ghrelin.

Leptin is known as the “satiety hormone.” It is secreted by adipose tissue (fat cells), so typically an overweight or obese person will have a lot more circulating leptin than a lean person. The reason why overweight or obese people continue to feel hungry despite high levels of leptin is because they become “leptin resistant” in the same way that a person with type 2 diabetes becomes “insulin resistant.” The body’s cells fail to recognize the leptin (or insulin, in the case of type 2 diabetes) because leptin is chronically elevated because of chronic overeating and weight gain. Getting Acupuncture in Del Mar, CA can be beneficial by helping the body’s cells to recognize the leptin, therefore helping overweight people to feel satiated with fewer calories.

Ghrelin is known as the “hunger hormone.” When ghrelin levels rise, you feel hungry. After a meal, your ghrelin levels decrease and you feel satiated. The catch-22 with weight loss diets is that ghrelin levels increase in response to weight loss and decrease in response to weight gain. This is why most dieters end up feeling very hungry when they start to lose weight, so they end relying on willpower to maintain the weight loss with a constant feeling of deprivation and hunger. Eventually, the willpower wears off, they eat to satiety, and the weight piles back on. Acupuncture for weight loss works by lowering ghrelin levels so hunger decreases even with weight loss, and the weight loss can be maintained without having to rely on willpower and deal with a constant feeling of hunger.

Ask the Acupuncturist: What are the best foods for kids?

This article explains why too many uncooked foods can make your child sick. Learn what foods Traditional Chinese Medicine recommends for children.


Acupuncturists are trained in nutritional therapy, so when you get acupuncture in Del Mar or acupuncture in Encinitas, CA, take the time to ask your acupuncturist any questions you have about nutrition for your unique body type or constitution.

Why a Raw Foods Diet Makes Children Sick

Children are not simply tiny adults, and Chinese Medicine recognizes this. In Chinese Medicine, there are a known set of common illnesses that are unique to children. Therefore, the therapy prescribed for a sick child is not just a smaller dose of the therapy that would be given to an adult with similar symptoms. Children require a special diet that is different than that of adults (not just smaller quantities of the same foods), as well as unique herbal and acupuncture prescriptions. The way in which children get sick differs greatly from the way in which adults get sick, which is why they suffer from ailments such as colic, earache, insomnia and night terrors, asthma, lack of appetite, asthma, and bedwetting. By emphasizing most, cooked, nutrient-dense foods in your child’s diet, you can prevent some of these ailments. If you feed your child an abundance of cold and raw foods, your child will get sick more often.


How does Chinese Medicine explain the way in which children get sick? How are they different from adults? What foods should be avoided and included for optimal pediatric health?

Weak Digestion and Immature Immune System



A few decades ago, Western Medicine began to discover that most of our immune system is actually contained in the digestive tract. This was a huge revelation to doctors and scientists alike. However, Chinese Medicine has acknowledged this fact for centuries. Infants and children have weak digestive systems, and according to Chinese Medicine this is why their immune systems are also weaker than that of adults. (Indeed, they are lacking the highly diversified gut microbiota that healthy adults have living in their guts.)


According to acupuncture in Del Mar, certain foods are “cold” in their energetic quality, regardless of how they have been cooked. These foods include tofu and soy-derived products like veggie burgers, fruit and fruit juice, cow’s milk, and uncooked vegetables. These foods can damage a weak digestive tract, and then cause a weakened immune system. This raises the potential for the development of autoimmune diseases such as rheumatoid arthritis, eczema, asthma, and thyroiditis. In the short term, these “cold” foods can cause a lack of appetite, nausea, frequent colds, runny nose, ear infections, and viral or bacterial infections. Such foods should never be fed to infants, and they should be minimized in a toddler’s diet. It’s extremely unfortunate that many infants are fed on soy-based formula. This can set them up for a variety of chronic diseases later on in life.


Condition May Change Quickly

Anyone with children knows that a child can be perfectly healthy one minute, and sick with a fever and sore throat the next. They can be running around full of energy, only to crash out and fall asleep as soon as they get in bed. This phenomenon is explained in Oriental Medicine. Children lack “Yin” (slow) energy and have a lot of “Yang” (fast) energy. They are also full of the energy of “Wind.” You can nourish their Yin by feeding them egg yolks, organ meats (especially liver), yams, lotus root, American ginseng, and bone broth. You can

reduce their tendency to contract Wind by avoiding raw veggies, dry foods such as crackers and toast, dry cereals, and any fat-free foods.

Acupuncture for Facial Rejuvenation

This article explains the benefits and popularity of acupuncture for facial rejuvenation.

According to Chinese Medicine and many other natural and complementary health modalities, health and beauty begins on the inside. In order to have great skin, beautiful nails, and lustrous hair, you could spend a fortune (and a great deal of your time) on daily makeup routines, weekly manicures, hair extensions, highlights and lowlights, botox, laser hair removal, sunless tanning, and a variety of hair and body care products made to cover up blemishes, wrinkles, discolorations, pasty complexion, thinning hair, abnormal hair growth, or premature gray hair. These products and beauty routines not only cost a lot of time and money, but they also provide a false sense of security and a false portrayal of your internal health. But seeking acupuncture in Encinitas, CA can be a great alternative.


In Chinese Medicine, skin discolorations, a pasty complexion, abnormal hair growth, hair loss, dry or oily skin, acne, nails that chip easily, spots on the nails, circles or bags around the eyes, and other imperfections that we seek to hide with makeup and other products are actually some of the subtle warning signs our bodies give us to let us know that something is out of balance. Nutritional deficiencies, lack of exercise, poor sleep, and hormonal imbalances can manifest in our outward appearance oftentimes months before they can be detected through traditional lab testing.

Acupuncture in La Jolla, CA can help balance your hormones and your body’s ability to extract the nutrition from your food, thereby improving your outward appearance and imparting a healthy glow to your skin. Traditional Chinese Herbal Medicine can also enhance your appearance by improving your skin, hair, and nails. A highly trained acupuncturist who has studied Traditional Chinese Herbology will assess your individual “constitution” to determine which classic herbal formula will best address your needs.Many Hollywood celebrities are using acupuncture in place of chemical peels, botox, and even plastic surgery. Acupuncture doesn’t have the side effects that these other anti-aging and appearance-enhancing treatments have, and the risks of receiving a “bad” treatment are nil in comparison to drastic measures such as plastic surgery.

According to the World Health Organization, acupuncture is a valid treatment for allergies, asthma, back pain, carpal tunnel syndrome, depression, and infertility. Acupuncture for facial rejuvenation is a lesser known benefit of acupuncture in La Jolla, CA. A variety of clients including actors and actresses, models, yoga practitioners, corporate executives, stay-at-home moms, and visitors to the area have gotten acupuncture for facial rejuvenation and have been impressed with the results.


Some acupuncturists have based their entire practice on facial rejuvenation alone. New York City and Los Angeles are the top locations for facial rejuvenation acupuncture specialization because of the film and modeling industries, but the benefits have been catching on and it’s now possible to get facial rejuvenation via acupuncture in Encinitas, CA, which is one of the most laid-back yoga and surfing communities in the world.



“Quite often patients come in with puffy eyes or dark circles under the eyes, sagging of the neck/double chin, smile lines, crow’s feet, lines between the eyebrows, lines on the forehead, hyper-pigmentation, acne rosacea and acne,” says Chrysso Neophytou-Tsimis, L.Ac., a college instructor who teaches facial rejuvenation acupuncture in New York City.

 

Acupuncture for Children

Acupuncture is not just for adults, and it’s not just a pain remedy! This article explains how acupuncture can help children.

Chinese Medicine is not just a pain relief method. It’s actually a pretty complex medical system that includes pediatric care for infants, toddlers, and small children. Instead of simply being treated like small adults, children are treated with a different system of therapies and methods than adults. What is acupuncture for children? Different methods of acupuncture for children include the use of shonishin, which is a non-insertion method of acupuncture that uses a special tool. Chinese Medicine pediatrics also includes tuina (therapeutic massage) and herbal medicine.

Shonishin literally translates to “little children needle” in English. This method originated in Osaka, Japan in the 17th century for the treatment of infants and children up to the age of seven. Shonishin is a pediatric method of acupuncture in La Jolla, CA that is known to treat children with heartburn (GERD), indigestion, attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), constipation, diarrhea, irritable bowel syndrome, allergies, eczema, hives, bedwetting, and even speech problems. The acupuncturist uses a shonishin tool by stroking, tapping, rubbing, and pressing the skin to create a variety of sensations over the acupuncture meridians. The entire treatment process can take anywhere from 5 to 20 minutes, depending on the strength of the child and his or her age.

Tuina massage, on the other hand, includes traction, motion, massage, and stimulation of the different acupuncture meridians at specific points. Both chronic and acute musculoskeletal conditions can be treated with tuina. Internal conditions such as digestive problems, difficulty sleeping, chest congestion, colds and coughs, and even anxiety-related disorders may also respond well to tuina treatment.

Most acupuncturists will show the child’s parents different shonishin and tuina techniques that the parent can do at home between visits with the acupuncturist. An ordinary soup spoon can be used in place of professional tuina and guasha tools for “maintenance” to keep children’s conditions under control.

It’s important for parents to utilize therapeutic physical touch with their children. This plays a crucial role in the development of a child’s nervous system, providing a healthy balance between the sympathetic and parasympathetic nervous system, the immune system, the digestive system, and the musculoskeletal system. Oftentimes physical and behavioral problems in children are simply manifestations of a lack of therapeutic touch and the usage of inappropriate physical touch (spanking or hitting).

Physical touch teaches children body awareness. This helps them to understand that if they are hungry, thirsty, hot, cold, tired, sleepy, hurt, or sick; they can either utilize some self-care by using self-massage, or asking for help. Children without such awareness may act out, scream, or be mean to others because they don’t understand what is going on inside their bodies and they don’t know what to do about it.

Herbal medicine is another forgotten remedy of Chinese Medicine that is relied upon when you get acupuncture in La Jolla, CA. Instead of using Tylenol, Ritalin, Nyquil, or other potentially dangerous over-the-counter and “prescription” drugs, Chinese herbalists rely on natural remedies that have been used for centuries without causing unwanted side effects. Herbal medicine treats the root of the disease, rather than treating the branch or symptom only. For this reason, symptomatic relief may not come immediately after using an herbal formula. However, the disease process itself will be over much more quickly.