Four Seasons Acupuncture

Acupuncture is a useful supportive therapy to add to your exercise and diet program to assist you in your weight loss. Unfortunately, there is no magic cure or we’d all be skinny.

Chinese medicine does not have thousands of years experience treating weight problems. Only 10% of the Chinese population is overweight (compared to 60% of Americans). That number has doubled in the last few years as the Chinese emulate our fast paced lifestyle and fast food.

How does acupuncture help with weight loss?

• Acupuncture boosts your body’s production of endorphins, the feel good painkiller, treating painful conditions so you can exercise. If you can’t stick to your routine because of back or knee pain, acupuncture can help.
• Acupuncture boosts your energy levels.
• Acupuncture balances serotonin levels in your brain. This will help you sleep, helps with depression and anxiety, be more satisfied with food, and helps to reduce pain. One big part of weight gain is inadequate sleep; night shift workers are fatter.
• Acupuncture balances emotions to stop your stress related eating; you’re not eating because you are hungry, you are eating because you are tired or are mad at your boss.
• Acupuncture helps to reduce cravings and makes it easier to satisfy your hunger with less food. But it will not make you eat broccoli instead of ice cream!
• Some people suggest that it improves metabolism, but I think it just makes all organ systems more efficient.

One of my greatest challenges as a therapist is to act like a detective and find out just what is contributing to your inability to lose weight.

• Is your thyroid working properly? If your body temperature is normally low you may have a thyroid problem even if your doctor found your TSH is in normal range. You may need herbs and natural thyroid supplements.

• Do you have insulin resistance? Acupuncture can help lower insulin and fat levels in the blood. You must stay away from white foods like bread, pasta, and cakes and have protein at every meal.

• Are your hormones out of balance? Acupuncture helps balance your hormones and decrease menopausal weight gain. Your weight can result from estrogen dominance or from hormones in foods, exposure to pesticides, plastics, or cleaners which mimic estrogen. I may recommend bio-identical hormone replacement or other interventions.

• Do you have unrecognized food sensitivities, allergies, and immune system weakness? This may be true for you if you have headaches, irritable bowel, or sensitive skin. Acupuncture normalizes your immune system.

• What do your cravings tell about your nutritional deficits? If your body can't digest a food well, you crave more of it since you're not getting what you need from it. If you can't digest carbohydrates like beans, your blood sugar drops and you feel weak and dizzy. Then you try to recover by eating simple carbs like bread or donuts to raise your blood sugar. But then your insulin levels shoots up, dropping your blood sugar, and you feel horrible and tired yet again. Another example: if you crave chocolate, you may need magnesium.

For the average patient, who wishes to lose five to ten pounds, two acupuncture treatments a week should be enough. More severe weight problems might initially require five treatments a week, tapering off slowly over a period of three to four weeks.

Lose no more than 2 lbs a week! The low cost clinic may be an option for some clients.

I also perform an abdominal protocol series to help balance digestion and help you lose inches. Please look at my cosmetic acupuncture webpage for more details. I may also suggest various stress reduction methods including breathing exercises, acupressure, abdominal massage, Tai Chi, yoga, meditation or biofeedback. I will send you home with ear pellets to continue the effects of the treatments.

What else can you do?

Isn’t it peculiar how you can be overweight, yet nutritionally deficient at the same time? The processed foods many busy people rely on are loaded with salt, sugar, and few valuable nutrients. Even if your diet is rich in fruits, nuts, vegetables and whole grains, you are not getting enough trace minerals due to the depleted soil found at most large factory farms. Remember, the Recommended Daily Allowance set by the government is the minimal amount needed to keep you out of the hospital, not for peak brain and body function.   

• You may really be thirsty, not hungry. Try a glass of water first!

• Don’t starve yourself. Eat breakfast and frequent snacks, with your biggest meals earlier in the day. Eat frequent small meals with protein. My problem is that I don’t eat lunch and am ravenous at dinner. Some people (like my mother) don’t eat enough. her body thinks she is in a the middle of a famine and holds onto every calorie that passes her lips!

• If you have energy lulls at certain times of the day, take a stretch and breathing break. Get some oxygen to your brain!

• Spend time outdoors! Sunshine boosts metabolism and mood.

• Plan for a slow and steady weight loss. You did not gain it over 3 months, why do you think you should be able to lose it (and keep it) off that quickly?

• Use the natural extract stevia instead of sugar or artificial sweeteners in your drinks and for cooking. Stevia is not a carbohydrate, so it is safe for diabetics and does not cause that burst of energy followed by the inevitable crash. Artificial sweeteners can increase your insulin levels like sugar, plus they trick your body into thinking you are eating less.  Studies show that the people who drink diet sodas actually gain more weight than people who drink regular cokes. Also, artificial sweeteners are implicated in many digestive and pain syndromes like fibromyalgia and irritable bowel.

• If you eat because you are tired, or are dependent on caffeine, try Yerba Mate tea. Mate is mild diuretic; decreases cholesterol levels, strengthens your immune system, alleviates allergies, and decreases blood pressure.

• Don't eat on the run or while you are doing something else like reading, working on the computer, or watching TV. 

• You’d be surprised just how much you really do eat. Write down everything as it passes your lips! You won’t remember that soda or those jelly beans if you wait to document it at the end of the day. Don’t forget mayonnaise, mustard, gravies, etc.

• You MUST get some form of daily exercise! When you are tempted by that donut your co-worker brought in, think about how long you would have to walk to burn it off!

• Avoid most popularly advertised diet pills. They stress your adrenals and can be deadly. I will recommend safe vitamins, herbs, and suggest dietary modifications that work for your particular pattern of symptoms.

• Eat what is grown locally according to the seasons, in a form as close to nature as possible. No pineapple in winter!

• Keep your home and office temperature closer to outside temperature. Your body thinks it is a cold snap every time you walk into an air conditioned building and starts to store fat for the upcoming winter that never comes. Spend more time outdoors.

• Your diet should be based on lightly steamed or sautéed vegetables, whole grains, with minimal high quality organic meat, eggs, nuts, and oils. Pay attention to balancing sweet, bitter, sour, salty, and spicy flavors at every meal. Drink green tea or other warm beverages with meals to promote digestion.

• Digestive Enzymes and Chinese herbal formulas can help you digest your food, stop bloating, gas, constipation or diarrhea, while helping you absorb the nutrients in the foods you eat.

Supplements for assisting your weight loss:

Calcium 1,500 mg daily, breaks down fats and curbs your appetite. Take a brand with magnesium and Vitamin D.

Vitamin C speeds up a slow metabolism, but you have to take 3-6,000mg a day.

Essential fatty acids (found in flaxseeds, primrose oil, or fish oil) are needed by every cell in the body. An insufficiency can cause dry skin, depression, joint and muscle pain, and cravings for fat.

Vitamin B complex, 50 mg each of the major B vitamins, divided into 3 doses for total of 150-mg day, needed for proper digestion.

Take a multi-mineral compound with potassium, zinc, copper, and particularly magnesium (deficiency causes insulin resistance and elevated blood sugar levels) 300-500 mg daily.

Spirulina, wheatgrass, and kelp stabilize blood sugar, provide protein, and can be used as a meal replacement.

Green tea, cinnamon, cayenne, and cardamom are thermogenic herbs that burn fat! Green tea also has more antioxidant activity than broccoli or strawberries. You need at least 4 cups a day for best effect.

Chromium picolinate 200-600 mcg daily helps with sugar cravings

5-HTP suppresses cravings for carbohydrates, reduces irritability, and helps you sleep better.