According to a new review of existing research, complimentary and alternative medicine may help men manage premature ejaculation.  For the full review, click here.

​The authors reviewed research on the effectiveness, safety, and evidence for acupuncture, Chinese herbal medicine, Ayurvedic herbal medicine, and a Korean topical cream on premature ejaculation.

Results showed that acupuncture delayed ejaculation by 30 seconds compared to a placebo, Chinese herbal medicine delayed ejaculation by about two minutes, Ayurvedic herbal medicine by nearly a minute, and the topical cream by more than eight minutes.

In one instance, the combination of Chinese herbal medicine and SSRIs (a common drug intervention) delayed ejaculation by two minutes longer than SSRIs alone and nearly three minutes longer than Chinese herbal medicine alone.

There are no approved treatments for premature ejaculation.  While there were limitations due to the weakness of the studies being evaluated, this review shows complimentary and alternative medicine is an option for men who do not want to visit the doctor, take drugs long-term, or be on a waiting list for counseling.

If you want to try something different, call up your acupuncturist.  They will be happy to answer any questions you have and find an herbal formula to help!

Giving is a gift.  So is receiving.  They are two sides of the same coin.  For every giver there must be a receiver, and for every receiver there must be a giver.  But receiving can be challenging because it creates a moment of deeper connection between people, shows a more vulnerable side since the gift is out of our control, we may feel a pressure to reciprocate, we may believe it is selfish to receive, or we may fear we are unworthy or undeserving.   

We are taught it is better to give than to receive.  But how can you give if there weren't someone or something there to receive your gift?  Since genuine giving and receiving must always equal each other, they must also be of equal importance.

How does it feel to give?  Most agree that giving feels wonderful and fullfilling.  On the other hand, how does it feel when you want to give and the other person isn't willing to receive?  It feels terrible.  So know this: if you are not willing to receive, then you are denying the joy and pleasure that comes from giving to those who want to give to you.

So, what to do?  How do you become a good receiver?  

First, begin to nurture yourself.  People are creatures of habit and you will have to conciously practice receiving the best life has to offer.  Second, go crazy with excitement and gratitude anytime you find or receive a gift.  If you are fully willing to receive anything and everything that comes your way, you will!

Also, once you are truly open to receiving, the best of your life will open up.  You will receive more money, fulfillment, happiness, love, and peace.  Because how you do anything is how you do everything.  If you're a poor receiving, you're a poor receiver in all areas of life.  When you become an excellent receiver, you'll be an excellent receiver and open to all the universe has to offer in all areas of your life.

Now, the only thing you'll have to remember is to keep saying "Thank you" as you receive all your blessings.  

I hope your Christmas is merry and you are able to fully experience oy giving and receving. 
-C-

The following are some tips and tricks for the neurotic insomniac (like me).  After lots of trial and error, I finally feel like I have an ideal routine for relaxation and sleep.  Enjoy!

Start this one hour before bedtime:

• Turn on relaxing music.  Recent favorites have been Max Richter's Sleep or Marconi Union's Weightless.
• Take a 10-20 min ice bath or cold shower* or sit for 20-30 min with cold pack, focusing on the upper back for both.  Make sure to do this an hour before sleep so your brain can calm the cold's short term stimulatory effect.  Don't expect it to be pleasant at first, but it's worth it.  Note, if you have extreme difficulty staying warm in all seasons, instead of a cold shower, dip your face in cold water and hold for as long as you can and repeat.
• Add 2 Tbs of apple cider vinegar and 1 Tbs of honey to hot water or decaf tea.  Perfect to warm up after the cold shower.
• Read a little fiction, listen to a motivational speech, or play Tetris on your phone on the lowest light setting.  Nothing too stimulating, though.  For a fiction book list I'm working through, check out this.  
• End the evening with a little deep breathing.  I usually do this in bed with the lights off and inhale and exhale as deeply as possible with equal counts.  For example, 5 counts to inhale and 5 counts to exhale.

A few more tips not related to the evening:

• Stick to a routine of going to bed and waking up at the same time.  Even on the weekends.
• If you're not getting 8 hours of sleep at night, experiment with 20 min or 1.5 hour long naps between 1:00pm and 3:00pm.  It's one or the other...otherwise you'll be more tired when you wake up.
• Eating on a schedule can be just as important as sleeping on a schedule.
• Eat a high fat and protein and minimal carbohydrates meal three hours before going to bed.  If you must have carbs, a sweet potato or beans are good choices.
• If you're waking up with a headache and you're getting enough sleep and water, it could be low blood sugar.  Have a small snack before going to bed, focusing on protein and fat.  Almond butter on celery is great.
• Make your to-do list for the next day in the afternoon to avoid late-night planning.
• If needed, herbs and supplements can be added to ehance relaxation.  Some favorites are California poppy, Jujube seed (suan zao ren), Magnesium (300-500 mg), or low dose melatonin (1.5-3 mg).  Acupuncture and custom herbal formulas are also great additions to your routine for something more personalized

*NOTE: I am sure my fellow acupuncturists are cringing at the thought of recommending exposing the upper neck to freezing cold water.  The premise is that briefly and regularly exposing the body to natural stressors (such as cold water) enhances health.  It's the same concept behind acupuncture and intermittent fasting.  To read more, click here, here, and here.

How did this work for you? Any other tips to try?  Let me know in the comments.

May you sleep in heavenly peace.

Question: Who enjoys and values their money more: those who won the lottery or those who earned it?

Sure, the person who won the lottery will enjoy their money, but I bet the person who earned their money appreciates and values it more.

When we earn something, it tastes and feels much sweeter.  There is no question.  We enjoy it more.  And this doesn't just apply to money.  It also applies to relationships, beauty, and food.

For most of us, Thanksgiving will be here soon.  Therefore, why don't we earn that meal so it feels and tastes even better?   But how?  Conditional rewards, meaning, if I do X, then I get to do Y.

If we do what we set out to do and accomplish our tasks for the day/week, it takes away the guilt we might feel from eating our favorite food or watching TV, or whatever it might be.  Why? Because there aren't all those things we know we should be doing hanging over our head.  

Some ideas of things to do before Thanksgiving:

• Finish that annoying work project
• Organize your office space
• Read and answer all emails before you leave work on Wednesday
• Have that conversation you've been putting off.
• Exercise everyday until Thursday
• No alcohol until Thursday

On Thanksgiving:

• Enjoy that meal guilt-free! You earned it!
• Don't let one day of indulgence turn into an attitude of "I might as well eat the whole pie." If you notice that...Stop. The. Eating.
• Don't beat yourself up.  It's just one day.

Day After Thanksgiving:

• Do what you need to do to get ready for the day, like putting on makeup, music, or meeting with a friend.  
• Plan on doing 45-60 minutes of moderate, steady state cardio (enough to get you to sweat) and 10 minutes (at least) of stretches that focus on twisting.  For a wonderful yoga video for digestion, click here.
• Drink lots of water, eat lots of dark leafy greens and high fiber foods (beans are an excellent choice).  Try to have little to no animal protein.
• Stop eating an hour earlier before you normally do and go to bed an hour earlier.

If we're going to eat our Thanksgiving meal anyway, why not use it as a motivator to help us do daily tasks rather than just eating the Thanksgiving meal without thought.  

Either way, give thanks and have a happy one!

Influences: My Body Tutor and Chalene Johnson.

Trigger points can be a real problem.

Not only are they painful, but trigger points also decrease range of motion, weaken the muscles, and produce excessive muscle contraction. They are formed when the process of muscle contraction and release is disrupted.  Persistent muscle contraction, strain, or overuse causes the muscle band to contract too tightly, increasing metabolic demand and squeezing off the supply of blood and oxygen to the area.  This consequently prevents the muscle from releasing.

This the the bad news: trigger points can severely impact athletic performance and quality of life.  The good news? Acupuncture can help!

Think of a trigger point like a knot in a rubber band.  The rubber band is your muscle and the knot is the trigger point. Stretching the rubber band will increase movement, but it will not release the knot.  To restore full range of motion, you must first unwind the knot.

A muscle with a trigger point is too painful to stretch fully, and forcing a stretch will most likely result in muscle strain.

Acupuncture is an effective way to release a trigger point.
The acupuncture needle provides a disruption to the trigger point, stopping the cycle of contraction causing a lack of circulation, and therefore, preventing release.  It can reach the depth of a trigger point without irritating the hyper sensitive tissue around it.  Restored to its full length after being released with acupuncture, the muscle recovers its normal blood supply and metabolism and function.

And its usually immediate.  A needle inserted into a trigger point will elicit a twitch followed by reduced muscular tension and increased range of motion. 

Tips to prevent trigger points from forming:

• Increase muscle loads slowly and make sure you have adequate recovery between workouts.
• Maintain range of motion and muscle balance by making sure you are equally strengthening and lengthening opposite muscle groups.
• Break up adhesions by consistently using a lacrosse ball, foam roller, or even your fingers to apply pressure to a tight muscle band and taking it through its full range of motion. 
• Regular acupuncture treatments, including cupping, guasha, or e-stim, will help to keep muscles supple and prevent injury.
  

It's that time of year when nights become longer, colors change, and nature shows us the beauty in letting go.  Autumn is a season where we find ourselves a little more serious than the carefree energy of summer.  In traditional Chinese medicine, this is a time for putting things into order, communication, setting limits, and protecting boundaries.  It's also a time for beginning more introspective and indoor projects.​

The Lung and Large Intestine are the internal organs related to autumn.  The Lung is associated with the feeling of sadness or a difficulty in letting go.  It is considered a tender organ, meaning it is the uppermost internal organ and very susceptible to wind and cold.  The Lungs also control the circulation of our protective energy, similar to immunity, which helps defend us against colds and flus. 

Pressing at the Lung's source point on the wrist is a wonderful way to help with the transition from summer to autumn, as well as to strengthen the functions of the Lungs.  To find this point, have your palms facing up and locate the slight depression at the wrist crease closer to your thumb.  The point is between the radial artery and the tendon (abductor policis longus).  Press here on both wrists for a few minutes per day.  Some indications for this point are cough, asthma, bronchitis, shortness of breath, wheezing, or heavy feeling in the chest.

If you're feeling like this isn't enough for you or your finding it difficult to let something go, schedule an appointment with your acupuncturist to tune up your energy and provide extra support!

Did you know that your brain has 100 billion nerve cells and 1000 trillion synapse? Every synapse is used to pass information around your brain and body.

Your brain changes constantly, instantly, and efficiently in response to messages from your body.  The messengers are our senses, thoughts, beliefs, memories, emotions, and movement.  Diseases, traumatic events, and stress also influence the brain.  The process by which these changes take place is called neuroplasticity. 

Every time we learn a new skill, visualize, or recall a stressful or traumatic event, we are literally changing our brains based on the new pathways that are created via the electrical and chemical signals in our cells.  Repetition reinforces the strength of the pathways, causing a genuine anatomical change.

With chronic pain, our brains change due to the constant pain signaling loop between the brain and the body.  We may suffer significant losses: loss of function, loss of quality of life, loss of purpose, and loss of any sense of control over our bodies and lives.  This may leave us feeling isolated, worries, helpless, and out of touch.

The challenge is to reverse the brain in pain.  To accomplish this, we can use thoughts, images, sensations, memories, soothing emotions, movement, and beliefs to harness the power of our brains to modify the pain.

Some tips to slow down the runaway brain in pain:

• Visualize a soothing place.  The more detail the better.
• Think about what you do to soothe someone else, then soothe someone else.
• Think about who soothed you when you were a child and how they did this.
• Pay attention to which emotions accompany your pain and then change them to something more calming.
• Focus on the pain and breathe it out of your body with each breath.
• If your pain increases, visualize getting into the upper part of your brain and push the pain back down or completely out of your body.
• Use the experience of fear that accompanies your pain as a signal to self-soothe.
• Remember the worst pain will always let up.
• Do not let your pain make you give up.
• Be relentless in your effort to reduce your pain.
• Accept the help that's offered to you with grace and gratitude.
• Give up on giving up.
• If you're drowning, throw yourself a life preserver.

If you're not getting the results you want to manage your pain, please consider traditional Chinese medicine as an alternative to hopelessness.

An excellent resource on neuroplasticity is neuroplastix.com

I have been seeing more infertility in clinic recently.  Most everyone questions, "What causes infertility?" and "What can I do to help myself?"  Acupuncture and Chinese herbal medicine are excellent as a stand alone therapy, or as a complement to modern fertility treatments.  Acupuncture can help by regulating your body's systems, which aides in blood flow to the reproductive organs and stabilizes hormone levels.  This will increase ovarian function in women as well as sperm production in men.

The origins of infertility or difficulty conceiving, according to traditional Chinese medicine, are related to upbringing and lifestyle. These origins are:

• constitutional weakness (the woman's parents were in poor health at conception)
• overwork (long hours without adequate rest)
• excessive physical work (including strenuous exercise)
• sexual activity at too early an age (before age 18)
• invasion of Cold (prolonged exposure to cold and damp, such as weather)
• irregular diet (excessive consumption of cold foods, greasy foods, dairy products, or iced drinks)

In traditional Chinese medicine, infertility occurs when the body cannot produce an egg, the egg cannot be fertilized, or the fertilized egg cannot be nourished.  When diagnosing infertility, your acupuncturist is differentiating between deficiency or excess.  For example, we are trying to determine whether a woman cannot conceive because her body is failing to nourish the uterus since there is a lack of energy or because there is a pathogenic factor blocking the uterus and preventing fertilization. 

Luckily, once an appropriate diagnosis and differentiation is reached, acupuncture and Chinese herbs are excellent resources to balance out the body so an egg can be produced, fertilized, and nourished into a healthy baby!

If you have been diagnosed with infertility, here are some tips to help take care of yourself:

• If you're not seeing an acupuncturist, make an appointment now!
• Eat warm and cooked foods.  Include lots of spices!
• Increase amount of healthy fats in your diet.  Healthy fats come from plant sources, such as nuts, seeds, avocado, and plant based oils.
• Avoid iced drinks, dairy products, and greasy foods.
• In cold and damp weather, make an extra effort to stay warm and dry.  That means wearing a scarf, mittens, and warm socks!
• Build in stress management activities into daily life.  These can be yoga, acupuncture, meditation, coloring, hiking, reading, journaling, photography, praying...anything that you do that lowers your heart rate and breathing rate!
• If you feel like your job is emotionally and mentally draining, see if you can cut back on the amount of hours that you work.
• If you follow an intense physical training regimen, try taking a couple months off of training so hard.
• Try to get 8 hours of sleep per night.  The hours before midnight are better than those after midnight!

If you have more specific questions or would like to schedule a free consultation to learn more about how traditional Chinese medicine can help your specific condition, please reach out to me! I would love to chat with you! (303) 349-4575, hac.crdilli@gmail.com.

Source: Obstetrics and Gynecology in Chinese Medicine, 2nd ed.; G. Maciocia

Cosmetic acupuncture, also known as facial rejuvenation, is being hailed as a natural facelift.  Younger looking skin, no more crows feet, and no Botox required!  This all sounds great, but does it really work?  Of course!  It works by making you stronger on the inside, which eventually changes how you look on the outside. 

Looking young isn't very fun if you feel old.  And no one wants to look older than they feel.  Cosmetic acupuncture is effective because it resolves the underlying imbalances preventing you from feeling youthful and vibrant.

As a licensed acupuncturist who practices cosmetic acupuncture, these are some of the most common questions I receive.  If you would like to learn more, please call me to set up a free consultation to see how cosmetic acupuncture can benefit you!

• Who is a good candidate for cosmetic acupuncture?
  

People who desire a holistic approach to concerns about their face, neck, breast, or abdomen.  I recommend anyone older than 40 should start receiving cosmetic acupuncture.  It's much easier to prevent wrinkles than make them go away!

Please note, those who are in poor health may require acupuncture and herbal treatments before starting a cosmetic acupuncture series.  There needs to be a baseline of health to build on in order to yield cosmetic improvements.

Also, those with sun damage may have unpredictable results.  Some people have excellent results while others take longer.

• What is unique about cosmetic acupuncture?

Cosmetic acupuncture is unique from other types of facial rejuvenation techniques in that it not only addresses cosmetic concerns like sagging skin, fine lines, poor elasticity, uneven skin tone, and acne, but also supports health from the inside out.  It's about treating the external and internal signs of aging.

• How is cosmetic acupuncture different from acupuncture?

Cosmetic acupuncture uses a set protocol of acupuncture points for the face, neck, breast, or abdomen to yield cosmetic results.  My approach also includes individualized acupuncture points that are appropriate for balancing each person's unique system.

The needling style is also different from acupuncture.  In cosmetic acupuncture, needling is shallow and just barely goes into the skin.  Also, the needles are much shorter than acupuncture needles.  The cosmetic acupuncture needles are similar to those used for auricular or hand acupuncture.

• How many treatments does it take to start seeing results?

It truly depends on the person.  Some notice changes after one treatment and some are still unsure after three or four.  Usually, people will notice other results first, such as deeper sleep, increased energy, or improved digestion, before they notice significant cosmetic improvements.  But you can be sure if you are getting these types of results, you will eventually see cosmetic changes as well.

• How does cosmetic acupuncture work?

Cosmetic acupuncture treatments address the causes of aging by needling body acupuncture points.  Then, by placing needles in specific points on the face, neck, breast, or abdomen, it creates a microtrauma which causes an increase in circulation and collagen and elastin to flood the area and rebuild the skin.

• How much does it cost?
  

Cosmetic acupuncture is a 10 treatment protocol.  It takes at least 7 treatments for changes to permanently take hold in the matrix of collagen and elastin.  After those 10 treatments, you can expect the results to last 2-5 years.  With that in mind, I charge $90 per treatment.  A full session will cost $900.

It seems like insects are showing up everywhere, from protein bars to restaurants to cookbooks.  Eating insects is a hot topic.  Did you know that traditional Chinese medicine also uses insects for their health benefiting properties?  For example, scorpions may be used to stop spasms and convulsions or earthworms may be used treat burning and weak urination.  Also, ants can be consumed for their replenishing and adaptogenic properties.

Put simply, adaptogens are herbs that enhance the mind and body's ability to adapt to change.  Adaptability requires energy.  The greater the stresses of life and the more dynamic the change, the greater is our requirement for adaptive energy.  The Chinese tonic herbs are one of the best tools for maintaining adaptability.

The Chinese mountain ant, Polyrhachis vicina, is a premier adaptogenic in Chinese tonic herbalism.  It:

• Strengthens the kidney and adrenal system-- soothes the nervous system, increases digestive function, aides with daily detoxification processes, supports musculo-skeletal system
• Supports the thymus gland-- an important organ of the immune system, it stimulates the production of lymphocytes.
• Source of zinc-- critical element in human sexual function
• Contains bioavailable ATP-- providing direct and rapid energy to the cells
• Source of amino acids, vitamins, enzymes, and minerals-- contains eight essential amino acids, which are the building blocks of protein.  Also contains essential vitamins (B1, B2, B12, D, and E), enzymes, and trace minerals.
• Increase synthesis of DNA and RNA--encourages faster cellular repair when damaged

The Chinese mountain ant is perfect for anyone who desires a powerful adaptogen.  It is also ideal for athletes as a pre and post workout tonic. 

Herbs & Acupuncture Clinic sells the Chinese mountain ant in a superior adaptogenic formula called Adaptogen Energizer.  It is a balanced formula for increased mental and physical energy, with half of it comprised of the Chinese mountain ant.  It can help you look and feel your best!

Contact me if you would like more information or to see how herbs and acupuncture can benefit your concerns.