Now available using my professional discount

I’m pretty excited about this! Physiologics is one of the few nutritional supplements manufacturers that sell exclusively through licensed health care professionals. Their products are top of the line, but have always been a little inconvenient to get, and almost never available at a discount. Those drawbacks are now gone. When you use my Professional ID, you can:

• Order directly from the company website
• Get 10% off all orders
• Get Free Shipping for orders over $65
• Get a free subscription to Rx Complement magazine to stay on top of nutritional news and information

Here’s how:

1. Go to www.Physiologics.com
2. On the right, you’ll see a “Patients” area: click the link that says: Click Here to Register
   3. The next page asks for “Your Healthcare Professional’s ID.” Enter: PL01218 and click “Next”
   4. You should see my name come up on the next page as verification. Then just type in your email and you’re all set!

You may know Physiologics from their famous products like:

• Zygest – Superior digestive enzymes
• MusclEase – All natural muscle relaxer
• CTR Support – potent treatment for sore joints
• Complete Cleanse – safe & effective colon cleanse
• Detoxinal - for the liver and gastrointestinal tract

They have a wide range of other products besides vitamins & minerals, in such categories as: immune support, joint support, cardiovascular, mental support, and lots more. Check out the website.

About Supplement Quality:
There are three main considerations when buying vitamins and supplements.

1. Quality control. You should only buy from a company that can substantiate the quality of their products. US law remains very weak for over the counter supplements. You need to be able to rely on your manufacturer, and use one with a sterling reputation. Check out the “Professional Standards” tab once you’re in the Physiologics website.
2. Ingredients and Labeling. Unfortunately, current law is very loose about what a manufacture has to put on their labels. If they are not volunteering full disclosure about what is in their products, you need a new company. Look for these in particular:

• Herbs should list the species name, not just the common name. Vitamins & minerals should list the specific chemical form, not just the common name.
• Herbal ingredients should state the part of the plant used. Many cheaper companies can (legally!) hide the use an inferior species or the wrong part of the plant by simply not being specific.
• Quantities of each ingredient should be specified. Even the best companies occasional resort to grouping everything under a “Proprietary Blend” heading (sometimes under licensing agreements), but if this is common, it’s a red flag. You simply don’t know how much of which ingredient you are getting. (But it’s a good bet that it’s mostly the cheaper stuff!).

3. Getting the right product for you: Typical vitamins and supplements are safe for most healthy people, but if you have substantial health concerns you should have a qualified health care professional overseeing the supplements and medications you are taking. As with drugs, the herbs and supplements that are right for someone else may not be appropriate for you. The Physiologics website has an excellent resource area - see the “Health Notes” tab. Tucked away in the lower part of that page are probably the best references anywhere for topics such as herb-drug interactions, top nutrient-depleting drugs, and herbal information references.

So, head on over to www.Physiologics.com, and use my Professional ID PL01218: upgrade to professional quality supplements, and save some money at the same time!

• Cardiovascular disease
• High blood pressure
• Type II diabetes
• Osteoporosis
• Stress
• Insomnia
• Digestive problems
• Immune system weaknesses

Those problems are not caused by a deficiency of pharmaceuticals. To a great extent, they come from the choices we make and the patterns we have developed.

But It’s Hard to Get Started

It sounds so simple, and yet, making lifestyle changes is one of the hardest things do to. I know it for myself. I see it with my patients. And I know that both doctors and patients are complicit in gravitating toward the illusion of an easy fix: take a pill (or maybe ten). As an acupuncturist, I’m lucky to have patients who are typically more averse to fixing problems with drugs and are more eager to take on a solution they can implement themselves. But that doesn’t make it easy.

Getting fit, losing fat, and eating well don’t come from following the latest diet fad, taking a new pill or buying the miracle device you saw on an infomercial. Those things sell like crazy because we are mesmerized by the possibility of obtaining our goals without actually changing our lives – if we would only buy the latest thing, the hard work will be done for us. The vendors know this, and prey upon this universal weakness in human nature.

Bad diets affect our brain chemistry (among other things) and make it really hard to change our patterns. I suspect that sugar, and sugar-fat combinations, are as addictive as narcotics. (I’ve had firsthand experience with doughnuts and ice cream, but not the narcotics, so I can’t say for sure). If you’re overweight, you’re also probably not very fit; the prospect of exercising is so overwhelming, and the first attempts at the gym are so depressing, that the best avenue seems to be watching a re-run of “Lost” with a tub of Ben & Jerry’s. There’s comfort in knowing that most of the people around you aren’t doing any better.

Good News: Success Begets Success

The good news is that once you get started down a healthier path, the benefits multiply and are self-reinforcing. Your body craves real food, and is satisfied by it. It wants to be lean and strong, and it will love the exercise that makes it that way. You don’t have to count calories (or anything else, really). You don’t have to be on a restrictive diet. Most people can eat all they want of “real” food – meaning most anything in the produce department, whole grains, and some canned vegetables. And it doesn’t take much longer to prepare a meal from these ingredients than it takes to microwave nutrient-free, processed junk or drive to your favorite heart-stopping fast-food vendor.

Similarly, it doesn’t take hours a week in a gym to get amazing results. In fact, a lot of the exercise that people do in the hopes of losing weight is a waste of time. Some will find they can spend less time exercising than they do now and yet finally make progress. Change does take work and dedication but you can see good results with just 60 – 75 minutes a week (not a day!) of suitable exercise. The trick is an appropriate level of intensity. If your routine allows you to chat freely with your friends or focus on the cover story in “O” magazine, you aren’t exercising hard enough to be worth your while. But don’t worry about not being in good enough shape to start. A good system will demand the right amount of exertion for your body, but be safe and appropriate for any age or level of conditioning.

The Key: Good Food in Moderate Quantities and a Strategic Exercise Program

Your focus should be on fat loss, good nutrition and healthy exercise leading to a strong, fit body that is resistant to illness and injury. To accomplish this, you need to combine a sound diet full of unprocessed natural foods together with a properly designed exercise program that stimulates the necessary hormonal and metabolic response in your body. Both aspects are important if you want to succeed, and the combination can make positive changes remarkably fast.

You’ll feel your strength increasing in a couple of weeks. As you eliminate junk from your diet, you’ll find your cravings for them also diminish very rapidly. Your weight may not drop like a rock, because you’ll be adding muscle as you lose fat. But there’s really good news here too: fat is twice as bulky as muscle, so you’ll see big changes in your measurements and body shape even if your weight decreases slowly; muscle burns calories day and night, so the stronger you get the faster the fat will be burned up; and as you gain strength and fitness, you’ll enjoy your favorite activities more and more, with less fatigue and less chance of injury.

Finding a Good System to Follow

So, how to get started? Where can you find good guidance about healthy approaches to diet and exercise? Free information abounds, but putting it all together can be overwhelming. Getting the inspiration to start and to work through the occasional tough times can be hardest of all. One good study found that of numerous dieting systems, Weight Watchers had the highest success rates. However, that was because of the interaction and encouragement from other members, rather than any special trait of the plan or the food. When evaluating a plan, you want sound nutritional and exercise advice, combined with some kind of support system.

Watch out for these red flags:

• · Promises of results with little or no effort
• · A focus on pills, drinks or supplements
• · Special diets
• · Proprietary pre-packaged meals
• · Special exercise equipment
• · Recurring fees

What a program should offer:

• · Sound nutritional advice with a focus on a well-rounded variety of healthy, unprocessed foods you can buy in the grocery store
• · Tips on meal plans and recipes are a bonus, but you want to learn how to change your eating habits, not get a strict menu to follow
• · Guidelines for safe, effective, efficient exercise that can be adjusted/scaled for a wide range of ages and physical conditions
• · Specific exercises that focus on major muscle groups and require minimal, standard equipment
• · An ongoing support system, such as an online help desk, ongoing newsletters and/or a discussion group
• · Reasonably priced

Want some specific suggestions? Learn about two responsible, affordable programs that work:

• Fat Burning Furnace and
• Truth About Abs

in my companion article: Dieting Doesn’t Work – Here Are Two Plans that Do.

Both systems offer extensive, detailed e-books (downloadable documents) plus supporting materials on their websites, in newsletters, etc. The information and guidance is sound and they are reasonably priced at just under $40. Both have a 60 day money-back guarantee from a very reputable payment processor, so you really can’t lose anything but your fat!

With these programs, you won’t get a supply of magic pills, overpriced drinks, power bars or even the latest fad diet. Instead, you’ll get what really works, based on a solid foundation of fact-based guidance for healthy eating that you can follow and enjoy for the rest of your life. You don’t need fancy supplements, but you may be surprised at what you don’t know about your food, and how to optimize your choices for long-term health and fitness. Of course, you’ll get some sample recipes to trigger your imagination and to show you how eating real food can be easy and delicious. Some people are disappointed that they won’t be told exactly how many grams of which molecules they should eat (like the diet hucksters do). But the point is that such tedious calculations and restrictions are unnecessary.

Both programs also very good in the critical area of teaching effective exercise. They focus on shorter, variable routines, designed to be as efficient as possible – that is, to safely get the most benefit from the minimum amount of time. No, you won’t be munching magic pills and watching TV while you dream of losing weight and getting strong, but you won’t be spending your life in a gym with these plans, either. You’ll learn why long, boring aerobic exercises are unnecessary, and how to use short, effective routines instead to build lean muscle and crank up your metabolism to burn fat.

And the Winners Are…

Fat Burning Furnace and Truth About Six Pack Abs

Both offer solid information, detailed instructions, and sound advice with lots of motivational material to get you on the road to a new, healthier chapter in your life. Both have quite a bit of free information on their websites that will help give you a feel for the content and their approaches.

Fat Burning Furnace

Of the two, Fat Burning Furnace is my preferred choice. This is mostly because the material, by author Rob Poulos, is a little more accessible, and the writing style of his 158 page guide is a bit more down to earth. The program comes with “email coaching” for several months, which is essentially a series of newsletters. I believe the ongoing tips and encouragement go a long way toward keeping you motivated and excited about your program. You also get some planning/tracking forms which you can print, and some tools, including a basic body-fat-percentage analyzer.

Ron covers nutrition by discussing foods to maximize fat loss, and offers a simple way to watch what you eat and while getting nutritionally sound meals. He explains why he doesn’t recommend fad diets, and takes you through a lot of common misconceptions about nutrition. You get a sample meal plan for a day and he points you to a website with lots of free recipes you can use.

For exercise, the focus is on short resistance training workouts, and Ron explains why the typical approach to cardiovascular routines doesn’t help much. Suggested workouts can be completed in as little as 20 – 25 minutes a day, 3 times a week (2 times a week as you progress). Some basic weight equipment or access to a gym is ideal, but many exercises can be done using your own body weight for resistance. Specific exercises are combined to create a full body workout. The exercises are performed very slowly to maximize their impact. With this system, you only need to do one set of each exercise, contrary to the common three-set approach. Over the years, my experience and research has led me to a similar approach with fewer repetitions and fewer workouts per week. It may not be the only way that works, but it works!

Exercises are described in detail in the guide, and are supplemented with photos. There’s an upgrade to a more advanced option that includes videos. Importantly, the guide also has a ‘break in’ routine for people who haven’t exercised in years, along with beginner, intermediate and advanced workout plans.

For more info check out the Frequently Asked Questions page, or download an introductory e-book.

The Truth About Six Pack Abs

Truth About Six Pack Abs is also an excellent program. Author Mike Geary is an long-time fitness trainer, and his approach is in some ways more technical and in-depth, with more variety in the fitness/exercise area. But that’s a double edged sword, as some people struggle with the level of detail. Of course, others love it, and if you enjoy my long-winded blog posts, you might be one of them! A good way to get a feel for the program - and get some great info in the progress, is to download his Training & Nutrition Insider Secrets for a Lean Body ebook. Even this free “introductory” book packs a wallop at 63 pages.

The “Six-Pack” name is a bit of a marketing ploy, as so many people are (rightfully) concerned about abdominal fat. But Mike makes it clear that the way to deal with abdominal fat is through a comprehensive program of healthy eating and suitable full-body exercise, rather than millions of sit-ups.

The program also has a nice membership support site, which lets users interact with trainers and other members for tips and motivation.

The exercise routines vary somewhat from the other program, although both focus on resistance training and building lean muscle, rather than long, boring aerobic routines. Mike’s background a  trainer really shines through and he offers a great variety in approaches to exercise, while staying true to his fundamental principles. I find myself internally shouting “Yes!” as he tackles myth after fitness myth. Don’t worry, ladies – neither of these programs is going to make you bulk up like Arnie the Governator. You’ll just be replacing bulky fat with lean, trim muscle.

The two programs also have a similar approach to nutrition, and again, Mike’s explanations tend to be a little more analytical and detailed. You’ll do well in either case, as you’ll learn about healthy eating patterns and good food choices, while picking up some surprising nuggets that go against “common knowledge.”

The biggest complaint I’ve come across about this program is information overload. It delivers a lot, and some people get bogged down with it all. It’s easy to get overwhelmed and become distracted from actually getting started! Fat Burning Furnace just seems easier to wrap your head around. On the other hand, if you’re inspired by extra detail, lots of variety and a little more technical approach, The Truth About Six Pack Abs is the one for you.

For more about this program, visit the Frequently Asked Questions page or just go to the Home Page and click the Free Report tab to get the author’s free newsletter and a few bonuses.

Whichever you chose, pick a plan that appeals to you, read through the material, and most importantly, get started! Typing on your keyboard or lifting a low-fat latte to your lips just doesn’t count as a workout or a nutritional breakthrough!

However, there is some interesting evidence that we are going about vaccinations in the wrong way. If so, much better results might be obtained by taking a different tack. In general, the policy in the U.S., supported by the Centers for Disease Control (CDC), is to vaccinate those who are most at risk for serious illness or death. For influenza, this has meant the youngest and the oldest populations. A study published in Science, however, argues that this is the wrong approach.

This research, by Jan Medlock and Alison Galvani, indicates that the greatest public health benefit from vaccines is the “herd immunity” effect, which helps to break a disease’s transmission chain. Rather than focusing on those most at-risk for a disease, better results may be had by vaccinating those most likely to spread the disease. In this case, that would mean school-age children (who have highly concentrated social contact at school) and their parents (in particular, adults between 30 and 40 years old). Under our current system, these groups are at the bottom of the priority list.

Drs. Medlock and Galvani used the infamous Spanish Flu epidemic of 1918 and the epidemic of 1957 as models for the ways influenza spreads in humans. They evaluated the potential benefits of different vaccination programs in a number of ways. Their calculations took into account the infections and deaths that could be averted, as well as more sophisticated methods that considered economic valuations, including the costs of the programs vs. productivity gains.

In their study, no matter which epidemic pattern was analyzed, and no matter which way they measured the benefits of vaccination, the most desirable approach was always the same. Rather than vaccinate infants and the elderly, the best results against influenza was to vaccinate young people and their parents. Also, the researchers calculated that by using such an approach, the number of vaccinations in the U.S. could be lowered from a typical 85 million doses to just over 60 million.

For swine flu (N1H1), the CDC is again recommending that the most susceptible individuals should be targeted for vaccination. With that disease, however, the at-risk population is happily much closer to the population of “spreaders” – those who are most likely to pass the disease along through high levels of social contact.

With or without vaccination, washing your hands, covering your mouth when coughing or sneezing, and avoiding close contact with those who are already sick will substantially reduce the risk of spreading the infection. Give your immune system a fighting chance by eating well, getting moderate exercise and a good night’s sleep. Smoking hits your immune system hard, so find a way to stop. Chinese herbal medications can really help to dampen the effects of flu, and keep it from getting strongly established in your system. Check with a board certified herbalist and/or your medical doctor if you are already taking medications or have complicating health issues.

For more information about influenza and vaccination, see my earlier post: Selling the Flu Shot.

A critical function of our genes is the issuing of instructions to make important proteins. The genetic instructions change according to the presence of epigenetic marks - chemicals that can be attached to a gene and thus change the rate that it produces a particular protein, or even stop its production altogether. Understanding proteins and their production is a huge and barely tapped area of investigation; how genes influence protein production may offer important clues in understanding, and perhaps even preventing, disease.

Juleen Zierath and her research team at the Karolinska Institute in Sweden are trying to discover how people develop insulin resistance (a precursor to type 2 diabetes). Epigenetic marks seem to play an important role, and their research, published in Cell Metabolism, indicates that these chemical markers are affected by the dietary substances they are subjected to.

In type 1 diabetes, an individual fails to produce sufficient quantities of insulin to control sugar levels in the blood. This is usually because of the failure of the pancreatic cells that should make it. In the case of insulin resistance or type 2 diabetes, however, insulin is being produced but the body has begun to ignore it. As a result, the insulin is ineffective at moving sugar out of the blood.

Dr. Zeirath’s group used muscle biopsies from a small group of type 2 diabetics plus individuals with early signs of insulin resistance, and compared them to biopsies from healthy participants. It turned out that hundreds of genes differed in ways that matched the different types of patients being examined. For this study, they narrowed their research down to one gene (PGC-alpha) that is involved with the development of the mitochondria - the power plants of a cell.

The researchers found extra epigenetic marks on the genes of diabetics and pre-diabetics, which resulted in the production of fewer and smaller mitochondria than normal. Since a poor diet and lack of exercise is strongly associated with insulin resistance, the researchers tested the idea that these circumstances could be causing the extra epigenetic marks on the genes. In their lab, they exposed cells to a bath of glucose, fat and cytokines (proteins that cause inflammation – found at high levels in the obese). It turned out that both fats and cytokines caused the appearance of more epigenetic marks in the PCG-alpha genes. In other words, our diet and lifestyle can actually damage our genes.

Dr. Zierath also tested an inhibiting chemical that was able to prevent the genetic changes. Sadly, perhaps, this could lead to the development of another drug to treat what is foremost a lifestyle disease. So many of us are, after all, ever hopeful for a pill that will undo the abuse we inflict upon bodies through our lifestyle choices. Unfortunately, the quick fix is never as good as preventing the damage in the first place. Here we have more evidence to dump upon the existing pile that our bodies, and many of our diseases, are deeply affected according to the care we give them. As Dr. Zierath concludes, “we are not victims of our genes. If anything, our genes are victims of us.”

By now, you should be suspicious of the idea that pills or supplements offer better nutrition than real food. And yet, I realize the possibility of a magic bullet that would allow us to live well on junk food remains tantalizing, even irresistible. But it is becoming clear that supplements may fail to provide the expected nutritional boost on the one hand, and actually do harm by providing excess doses, on the other. In an ongoing effort to burst some nutritional fantasy bubbles, here’s some guidance on folic acid.

Folic acid is an important B-vitamin, and it is particularly critical for pregnant mothers: a deficiency is associated with increased occurrences of spina bifida. This condition occurs when the lower end of the neural tube fails to close properly, leaving the spinal cord exposed to the amniotic fluid. Concern over this issue led several countries to require that the grains used to make bread, breakfast cereals, etc. be fortified with folic acid. And these programs have been successful. Since 1998 when the fortification program began in the U.S., there has been a 31% decrease in spina bifida cases in babies. There is also some possibility that high doses may help to reduce cardiovascular diseases, strokes and mental decline with aging.

It was once believed that folic acid was the active nutrient, but it is now understood that its important role is as the precursor of folate, which is found naturally in leafy greens such as spinach (think of folate = foliage) and oranges. Folic acid is converted into folate in the liver. However, the liver is limited in how much folic acid it can handle. Excess amounts end up, unmetabolized, in the blood and urine.

Researchers Steven Bailey and Bruce Ames (of the University of South Alabama and the University of California, respectively) warn that consuming more than 1 mg a day of folic acid, from any source, will result in higher levels of the unmetabolized chemical circulating in the body. This is undesirable, as high doses are suspected of exacerbating certain cancers. There is enough concern on this matter that some countries, and the European Union, have discontinued programs to fortify grains with folic acid.

The recommended daily dose of folic acid is 0.4 mg. In most people, this amount will be converted into folate. However, the quantities put into cereals sold in America can result in the consumption of up to 0.8 mg per standard serving. Not only do many Americans eat more than the standard serving, but many are consuming additional amounts from supplement pills. Most vitamin pills contain at least the daily recommended dosage, and many contain multiples of the daily amount.

Ensuring sufficient folic acid/folate consumption for pregnant women and aspiring mothers remains important. The recommended dosage is twice that for others, or 0.8mg. The researchers stress that these individuals should not avoid folic acid supplements. But the rest of us need to focus on getting our vitamins from our dinner plates, and not from a bottle.

At toxic levels, mercury can cause reproductive problems, tremors and memory dysfunction in adults. For infants and fetuses, exposure can cause deafness, blindness and mental retardation. The biggest single source of mercury is the burning of coal in power plants. This accounts for about 40% of the mercury that affects humans. Other contaminating activities are the burning of hazardous waste, chlorine production, and the breaking and/or improper disposal of mercury containing products.

Two of the favorite “oily” fish for consumption are the (salt water) salmon and (fresh water) trout, but shark, tuna and swordfish are other popular choices. The problem with those large carnivorous fish is that mercury tends to accumulate at the top end of the food chain: indeed the difficulty in ridding it from the body is part of why it is such a harmful contaminant.

Recently, however, a study by the US Geological Survey found a prevalence of mercury in fresh water fish of the United States as well. Traces of methymercury – a form that is easily absorbed – were found in every fish sampled in the 291 streams that were tested around the country. Worse, the level of mercury detected exceeded the level considered safe for human consumption (as established by the EPA) in about a quarter of those fish. For smaller fish-eating mammals the news was even more alarming  – about two-thirds of the tested sites had mercury levels that were considered excessive for their consumption.

In addition to alerting us about an aspect of our food supply, this news about our fresh water environments speaks to the need for tighter environmental protection policies. We cannot always see such a clear connection between human activity and its impact on a large and important food source. Here is a case where government policies can be directed to make a distinct improvement in our nutritional health, as well as benefiting the environment as a whole.

The headline conclusion was that organic food offered no health benefits. But lets look a little deeper. The report’s authors came to the “no benefit” conclusion based only on the nutritional value of the foods examined (produce, meat, dairy and eggs). That is, they found very little difference in the level of nutrients in organic vs. non-organic foods. There were some minor variations, such as a tendency for higher nitrogen and acid levels in the organic vegetables, but nothing that was considered significant for health. This is not particularly surprising, as nutritional analysis (how much vitamin C, iron, etc.) contained in a food has never really been categorized according to its growing environment. Of course, some heavy metals, for example, can show up in plants when they exist in the soil, but that is independent of the growing method. Perhaps it is actually something of a relief that the non-organic food most Westerners eat can provide good nutrition. (If only we were eating a good, balanced diet in the first place. Organic pork rinds really are not the answer.)

However, this study chose not to address other important issues. For example, there was no attempt to evaluate the possible long-term effects from residual pesticides. There is also no consideration of the environmental harm caused by modern non-organic commercial farming. For many people, reducing the environmental footprint of commercial farming is enough of a reason on its own to consider organic food. While there are other systematic improvements in cultivation and irrigation that could be made in non-organic farming, choosing organics makes a change now.

Besides a well-balanced diet, getting food that is ripe and fresh is more important nutritionally than organic vs. non-organic. That means buying more foods that are in season and perhaps grown in your own region. It really depends on the type of produce and how efficient the transportation system is for that particular food. Local isn’t necessarily better, even from an economic-environmental point of view: more fuel is consumed (per pound of food) in driving your four bags of groceries home in your car, than is used shipping 30,000 tons of fruit on a ship from South America.

So should you be eating organic? There may be a lot of good reasons to do so, but getting more vitamins and minerals from your food really not one of them. The good news is that, from a purely nutritional point of view, you don’t have to worry about your non-organic food leaving you malnutritioned.

1. Stop eating things with added sugar/honey/fructose or other sweeteners. (that’s almost any ready-made food, including condiments and a lot of “natural” products. If you want something sweet, eat some whole fruit (not juices, which are mostly sugar (fructose) and water)

2. Stop eating processed grains - e.g. white flour and white rice. You’ll be hard pressed to find breads with 100% whole grains, but the higher the percentage the better. The term “made with” usually means “made with barely any.” If you like rice, switch to brown rice.
These two points are almost one in the same: your body treats white flour and rice about like it does sugar.

So what left to eat? Almost anything that qualifies as real food. And you’ll find you can eat pretty much all you want (ok, maybe not sticks of butter). You won’t find much ready-made/processed food that qualifies, so you’ll probably have to spend a little time cooking. But it’s easy to make up a batch of rice or pasta and then steam or sauté your favorite veggies to go with it. I like toasted sesame oil and Braggs amino acids for flavor. Spray a little olive oil and vinegar on your salads rather than slathering them with high fat & sugar salad dressings. Personally, I don’t eat meat - but broiled or baked lean meat, fish and poultry are fine.

Want to add some moderate exercise? Fabulous. It is beneficial on many levels. You may find you lose weight more slowly because you are building muscle as you lose fat, but you’ll see the changes in your body shape. And one of the side benefits of muscle is that it burns calories all day long, even at rest.

Cupping uses a vessel to create a vacuum as it is pressed to the skin, stretching the tissues and creating enhanced circulation in the area treated. These days, many practitioners use a glass “cup” which actually looks more like a miniature fish bowl. A vacuum is created by quickly flashing an open flame inside the cup, just before it is placed on the skin. As the air inside the cup cools, it reduces in volume. A modern variation makes use of plastic cups with built in check-valves. A hand pump is then used to suck out some air and create the vacuum. I find the glass cups to be more comfortable for the patient, especially if they will be used in a moving fashion to cover a large area. The plastic versions are superior for getting a strong suction in a very small cup, which can be ideal for working on small bony areas, such as an elbow or knee.

I find cupping therapy useful for a number of soft tissue problems, such as chronically tight muscles (especially on the back) and tendinitis (for example, with tennis elbow). I have used it on a couple of patients with back muscles so tight and sensitive they would actually spasm further when acupuncture needles were inserted. After a cupping treatment or two, I could use acupuncture normally. Cupping is sometimes superior to needling when a large area of muscle is involved, and in chronic conditions.

Traditionally, cupping is also used to stimulate almost any acupuncture point, similar to the way we might use needles. In other words, it can be used for internal medicine treatments, as well as musculoskeletal problems. I don’t do this often, but find it a very helpful treatment for chronic respiratory diseases such as asthma (in which case I treat points on the back of the neck and upper back). An ancient Chinese treatment for asthma was to use a small caustic poultice, including herbs like mustard seed, with the intent of creating a blister on the skin. Cupping is a much gentler way to achieve a similarly strong, long-lasting stimulation of a point.

Cupping is usually done with the expectation of causing some bruising. This comes from the suction that is created, rather than blunt trauma - most people find the sensation of cupping to be comfortable or even enjoyable. It seems to be the weak capillaries that break; as the tissue gets healthier, bruising is much reduced or eliminated. Cupping causes a strong stimulation at the time of the treatment. Afterward, the stimulation continues, as the body flushes out the affected tissue and then builds new, healthier blood vessels. The result is a relatively strong and long lasting treatment, whether the intended target was specific acupuncture points or entire muscle groups.