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| Eat a diet rich in fresh fruits and vegetables |
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| Reduce stress with tai chi, meditation, or prayer |
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Acupuncture for Weight Maintenance
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.
Acupuncture has no harmful side effects and no chance for addiction.
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What happens in a weight loss consultation?
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.
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What happens in a weight loss consultation?
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.
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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.
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