By tapping into your body’s self-healing potential at the cellular level, there is an increased ability to slow the aging process. That’s anti-aging. At the global level, your organs, glands, nerves, and immune system prevent and treat diseases.
Anti-aging, Menopause, and Andropause
Menopause and andropause is when we recognize deeply about the need to maximize our potential. As the symptoms become increasingly noticeable, we pay more attention to how we think and what we put into our body. For females, the most evident symptoms are hot flashes and night sweats. For males, they are mood swings and lack of energy. Also, there are secondary effects in organs, glands, nerves, and immune system, indicating a less-than-optimal physiology. What can acupuncture and Asian medicine do for you?
Holistic Benefits of Natural Medicine
Natural medicine is by nature holistic. Holistic simply means multiple benefits. Therefore, natural medicine gives you many benefits.
Yes, the solution to many challenges are already found in nature. For thousands-of-years, the scholarship and clinical application of Asian medicine had matured into a viable health-promoting medicine of today. Through natural medicine, we have much control over optimizing our internal functions. Natural medicine is safe and effective because it does not take over the body’s function. Rather, it supports the body at multiple levels in the muscle, nerves, immune system, liver, intestines, adrenals, thyroid, and so on.
A gold standard in science is the double-blind, randomized, and peer-reviewed study. Although this is most desirable, too many variables prevent a proper study in natural medicine. Rather, an acupuncturist observes a clinical pattern and implements a solution for the whole person. Although we lose the specificity of targeting a particular disease, we gain by providing multiple benefits so that our body is enhanced to self-treat its diseases. For this reason, Asian system of healthcare reliably reverses many diseases, which are considered difficult even by today’s standard. The solutions were identified a long time ago and we are reaping their benefits.
Rather than looking for a solution to a disease, the relevant question may be, “how can I improve my health so that the side-effect is a reversal of disease?”
Just by working on anti-aging, we can address many issues because natural medicine has a characteristic of being holistic:
- muscle and joint pain
- mood swings
- thinning of bones
- low stamina
- reduction of muscle mass
- hot flashes
- weight gain
- dryness
Natural Medicine is a Tonic
Natural medicine is a tonic. Tonic increases vigor and sense of well-being, which are an outcome of normalizing the physiology. Self-treatment such as meditation, mindfulness, physical exercise, and healthy foods are a tonic. They are necessary habits to keep you healthy. At times, these self-treatments are not enough. An intervention with other tonics such as acupuncture, body type foods, and Asian herbs can help you be even healthier.
Additional benefits are:
- Less susceptibility to infection.
- Diseases are not as bad as otherwise.
- Easier recovery from illnesses.
- Increased sense of well-being, focus, clarity, energy, and integration.
You may think, “this sounds too good to be true.” From my observation over 20 years, this is true for at least 60% of our patients. Within several weeks, they find it pleasantly surprising to find the stubborn problems reverse while the well-being increases. For others, it takes several months because their body’s improvement rate is not as quick. Asian medicine is relevant for most people, even with those who have had stubborn and chronic problems.
Holistic Effects
The beauty of natural medicine is that it does not use an active ingredient to combat a disease. Rather, it uses active ingredients for the body to do its job more efficiently. This is a huge difference because pharmaceutical is a replacement therapy whereas nature gives a supportive therapy.
Since the characteristic of natural medicine is holistic, an improvement of a specific problem indicates the same treatment is also benefiting other areas. With the acceptance that there is no one thing that affects just one thing, natural medicine embraces a network of influence. It is easier to categorize and address it as a whole. We are all intimately familiar with holistic medicine. They are food and exercise! Obviously, these are helpful in multiple ways. And more variety of influences, the better.
Likewise, through thousands-of-years of scholarship, natural medicine practitioners have identified a pattern with a level of measurability, repeatability, and predictability. Going forward, it is expected that coupled with biomolecular medicine, the advancement of medicine for well-being and longevity will be better realized.
When do I see an improvement?
For a general increase in health and well-being, one notices the improvement within 30 days. A total of 60 days treatment will get you to a good level of focus, clarity, and stamina. Daily bodily functions such as bowel movement, urination, and sleep are even better. Maintenance at one or two visits a month thereafter will be necessary to keep you enjoying the quality of living at the optimal level.
For menopause, 6 acupuncture treatments noticeably reduce hot flashes and night sweats. The frequency is tapered down to once a week and eventually to every few weeks to keep the symptoms minimal or gone. Herbs help to improve physiology such as dryness, metabolism, organs, and glands. Foods for the body type are milder but give similar benefits.
For andropause, the treatment is mainly with Asian herbs and body type foods. Acupuncture is optional.
By default, acupuncture, body type diet, and Asian herbs are anti-aging. You get the extra benefits. Acupuncture is often enough to simultaneously relieve stress, hot flashes, and pain in the nerve, muscle and joint. For internal medicine, such as immune system, organs, glands, diet and herbs are necessary because they are more effective in bringing internal system back to normal.
What is Body Type Foods and Herbs?
Body type diet are foods that are beneficial and harmful according to the person’s inherent make-up. Common food ingredients are not only nutritious but can have strong health impact over time. There is no male or female treatment because body type diet is same for both. Asian herbs are stronger form of foods with phytonutrients to work with the body type.
Occurring in 25% of the population, this Dry-Warm body type is highly athletic and robust. It handles heavy foods well. They need high protein and fat diet. It benefits from root vegetables as a vegetable source.
This Warm-Damp body type benefits from cooling foods. Warming foods such as chicken and ginger can create low-level but constant irritability, manifesting as restlessness and attention deficit syndrome. Occurs in 25% of population.
Having the most frail frame and physiology, this Cool-Damp body type benefits from light, not heavy foods. They are good with plant-based foods. Since raw foods are hard to digest, it should not be more than 50% of daily meal intake. Occurs in 25% of the population.
A Cool-Dry body type is most conscientious and industrious. It has a strong work ethic, satisfied with a job done correctly from beginning to end. Although it has a strong musculature and robustness, it is sensitive to chemicals. So it needs to be extra cautious in eating organically and minimizing the harmful food ingredients. Occurs in 25% of population.
Which Body Type Do I have?
We assess your body type by seeing you in person. Your psychological, physiological, and physical profiles will be considered. About 1/2 the population have a text book body type characteristic, making the assessment straight-forward. You can bring in your self-assessment profile of temperaments using Myers-Briggs Type Indicator, Four Temperaments, Need Theory, and Social Styles. It’s okay if your self-assessment is unclear. That’s why we are here to figure it out.
Looking forward to your good health and well-being,
David Lee, Che-ol Kim, and Sima Ebrahimi
805-497-6200
