August news

Happy August! Hopefully there will be some break from the record heat soon.

Starting August 21st, office hours will be 5 days a week, (monday- friday) from 9am-4:30pm. The office is also now credit card friendly, accepting both Mastercard and Visa, and supplement orders can always be picked up after hours if 9-5 doesn't work for you.

Hope the last month of summer allows for some real relaxation and as the picture states, some great watermelon!

Ear Stapling...don't do it!

Considering auricular therapy is one of my specialties, I was intrigued when I received a call asking if I did 'ear stapling'. At first I thought maybe the person meant ear needling but I soon found out that was not the case. Just from hearing about what this was from her I knew 1) it was a scam and 2) probably started by a chiropractor looking for another way to massacre our profession. Now that may seem harsh to those of you who know I refer to chiropractors often, but this is really a heinous thing that is being marketed as an easy weight loss fix that could have dire consequences. Not only is there the obvious risk of infection, but to hear that people are able to buy kits online and even taught to take it out themselves makes me shudder.

After doing more research I found so many horror stories, and the success stories I read started to read much like a marketing scheme..surprise, surprise. I even found a website with someone teaching this for a fee so you could do this and make "lots of money", and a website where a CMT trademarked her own technique. The japanese, french and chinese auricular masters must be turning in their graves..at least the ones who haven't reincarnated.

Are there auricular therapies for weight loss? Of course. These often use the appetite control center within the ear, maybe incorporating the NADA protocol especially if food is an addiction. But even that is too simple. There are many aspects to weight gain and weight loss one must address which a certified, professional acupuncturist/nutritionist will hopefully also address.

Why might this work and how is it explained? Well, just like stomach stapling...the person that came up with this decided to staple the stomach repesentation in the ear. Seems simple and obvious doesn't it. Well, no organ in the ear is meant to have a staple in it for 3-4 months. So, how does it work? My sarcastic guess is that you are in so much pain you don't eat as much. Plus the wishful thinking effect can be very effective especially when you read only the pros to allowing someone to do this to you.

I cannot express how horrified I am by this technique and scam. Just like any 'sounds too good to be true' idea....it is. And even worse is that this can have dire consequences.

There just is no fast and easy way to lose weight....and in my opinion this is just another way to make a "practitioner" rich at your expense.

Want to Lose Weight? Try downsizing your tableware.

That's the conclusion of a new study that found that the size of bowls, spoons and other tableware influences how much people eat.
The study, by researchers at Cornell University in Ithaca, N.Y., involved 85 food and nutrition experts invited to an ice-cream social.
Each guest randomly received either 17-ounce or 34-ounce bowls and either two-ounce or three-ounce serving scoops. The participants scooped out the ice cream themselves.

"Just doubling the size of someone's bowl increased how much people took by 31 percent," study lead author Brian Wansink, director of Cornell's Food and Brand Lab, said in a prepared statement. "We also saw that giving people a scoop that was a little bit larger increased things by about 14.5 percent," he said.

He noted that even these food and nutrition experts, who were able to judge the size and calorie counts of their portions, couldn't help themselves when given larger bowls and scoops.
"The fact that even they end up being tripped up by these cues just helps to show how ubiquitous and how subversive these illusions can be," said Wansink, a consumer researcher who studies the psychology of food choice.

He noted that experts have documented a number of environmental factors that influence consumption, including the variety of food, music, temperature, and whether people are dining with a faster or slower eater. The size of tableware also appears to be another factor that influences consumption.
"Four ounces of ice cream in a small bowl may appear an appropriate amount for a mid-afternoon snack, but the same in a larger bowl may appear too small, leading one to over-serve," the study authors said.

The findings were expected to be published in the September issue of the American Journal of Preventive Medicine.

More information
The U.S. National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases has more about portion sizes.