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I'm often asked by patients something like,
"I want to boost my immune
power because I catch colds frequently."
Well, what is immune
power?
According to Dr. Toru Abo, who is an immunologist, the immune power is defined as the number of the lymphocytes in the white blood cells.
So if the number of lymphocytes is big, our immune power is strong.
When the
number of lymphocytes decreases, we tend to get sick.
The number of the
lymphocytes decreases due to mental and physical stress.
Please refer to My Mentors' Advice for the detail of this theory.
"Does
acupuncture increase or decrease lymphocytes?"
According to experiments performed by Dr. Abo's group, the number of lymphocytes
increased when the needles were inserted into the skin within 4 mm.
This means that shallow
needle insertions help strengthen immune power.
"How about your style of
acupuncture treatment?"
My style of acupuncture treatment is called Traditional JapaneseAcupuncture,
the purpose of which is to strengthen your own healing power by just contacting
a needle or inserting a needle very shallowly (within 4 mm depth) on your
skin. Therefore, this style of treatment works to increase the
number of lymphocytes, resulting instrengthening the immune power.
Some people think,
"Is it effective acupuncture because there are no needles inserted
deeply and almost no sensation from the needles?"
Actually, painless and shallow insertion acupuncture has proven to be very
effective in strengthening the immune power.
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