What is Cupping and How Can it Help Me? 

Cupping has been used in many healing traditions across the world, and by families over many generations. What was once a bamboo cup is now plastic, glass but can still be bamboo. Gwenyth Paltrow made a splash by showing off her cup marks at an event years ago. Do you remember that?

Cupping can be used for general muscle tension and to relax, but that isn't all it can do. Cupping, done correctly, can help chronic pain and dramatically reduce the number of treatments needed to be pain free.

What Is Cupping?

Cups are placed on the area of pain or tension. The air in the cup is then removed either with a flame or suction. If a flame is used, it's then placed on the targeted body area. If a vacuum pump is used, it's place on the body and then the suction pump is used to remove the air and create a vacuum.

What happens next? The toxins and cellular waste trapped in the muscle tissue is brought to the surface of the skin, where the body can more easily remove it from the body. When there is tension, pain or trauma, it is difficult to promote healing as the cellular waste products can't exit the affected area. With cupping, that cellular waste is not only removed from the area, but new blood flow is brought to the area to assist healing.

The end result? If there is blockage and cellular waste, there is a coloring of the skin. If there is no tension, there will be no discoloration. The more tension and cellular waste, the more color is seen. Sometimes, cupping marks are dark purple. I'm always glad when this happens, as I know my patient will be feeling better soon!

Sometimes you have to see it for yourself. You can move a cup (when olive oil is put on the skin first) from one side of the spine to the other. On one side, there is hard suction, and when moved to the other side, there is almost no suction. There is no tension on the side with no suction. If two cups are left on each side for 10 min, you would see a coloring from light red to dark purple color form on the side with tension and no coloration on the other side.

How Can it Help Me?

Cupping can help speed your recovery from an acute or chronic condition resistant to other treatment modalities. What may take 5+ treatments to heal can be done in 1-2. This is the case with jaw pain, migraines, neck pain, back pain, hip pain and many other areas of pain and dis-ease.

If you can handle a little color, you can experience freedom from pain. How does that sound? If you'd like to add cupping to your healing regimen, give me a call; I'd be happy to help.

Yours in Health,

Kara

Kara Sorensen, MS, LAc
Acupuncture by Kara
15066 Los Gatos-Almaden Rd
Suite 200
Los Gatos, CA
e: kara(at)karasorensen.com
p: 408.805.5272 (KARA)
p: 800.514.1406

How Can Acupuncture Help Me?

Acupuncture can help you in many ways, mentally, emotionally and physically. It can help specific health concerns, and it can help you feel better overall. It helps your body balance naturally, that’s why it can help so many different health concerns. It harnesses the natural healing ability of your body and directs the healing with needles. Here are just a few things that can be helped with Acupuncture:

1. Relieve Stress

Acupuncture can help us shed stress quickly. It helps shift our bodies and minds into a healing state where balance can be restored. While many patients experience immediate relief, with ongoing treatment, they report feeling better able to deal with ongoing stress in their lives. Things that used to stress them out, are handled with greater ease. They often report being calm in the face of circumstance that would have caused them distress.

2. Relieve Anxiety

Acupuncture is so good for anxiety. This is one of the treatments I personally love to offer, as patients are often amazed at how good they feel after treatment. By balancing the body, anxiety fades away. Oftentimes, one to two treatments can greatly relieve symptoms and help one feel more grounded and calm. If ongoing treatment is needed, the anxiety levels fade even further over time.

3. Relieve Pain

Many people know about Acupuncture for the treatment of pain. It helps by interrupting the patterns causing pain, and helping blood circulation in the area to reduce inflammation and speed healing. Sometimes pain fades with one treatment and it doesn’t return, but oftentimes, ongoing treatment is needed to be pain free. By continuing treatment until pain levels are zero, patients can recover from patterns of acute or chronic pain.

4. Relieve Digestive Concerns

Digestive troubles respond well to Acupuncture treatments. Heartburn, indigestion, constipation, diarrhea, stomach pain, irritable bowel syndrome, ulcerative colitis and many other digestive concerns can be helped with treatment. Helping patients reduce and eliminate the need for medications is rewarding. Digestion is the foundation for our health, and improving our ability to digest and absorb nutrients can improve our health and prevent many other health issues.

Acupuncture can treat many other health concerns. It treats the whole body naturally, so when one area of concern is addressed, oftentimes, other areas will improve. If you’re looking for help with your health, you might find great relief with Acupuncture. If you live in the San Jose, CA area, I can help you. If you live out of the San Francisco Bay area, contact me, and I can refer you to a practitioner in your area.
 

Yours in Health,


Kara Sorensen, MS, LAc
Acupuncture by Kara
15066 Los Gatos-Almaden Rd
Suite 200
Los Gatos, CA
e: kara(at)karasorensen.com
p: 408.805.5272 (KARA)
p: 800.514.1406

Question-Is Acupuncture Safe and Will it Really Help?

I recently found this quote by a prominent pain specialist:

“Acupuncture is one of the most time-tested treatments known to mankind. If the value of a treatment were based solely on how long it has been around, and how long people have thought that it was helpful, then acupuncture would probably be the most effective treatment known to humankind.”

Here's the full quote on HealthDiscovery.com, where Dr Scott Fishman answered a question about acupuncture for the treatment of back pain: 
  

Q: My doctor has recently suggested acupuncture. Is acupuncture safe and will it really help?

A:   "Acupuncture is one of the most time-tested treatments known to mankind. If the value of a treatment were based solely on how long it has been around, and how long people have thought that it was helpful, then acupuncture would probably be the most effective treatment known to humankind. Nonetheless, we still do not know why acupuncture works, how it works best, and for whom it is best used.

Many patients advocate acupuncture as a very effective treatment for many different symptoms. These symptoms include pain from a variety of causes, as well as many other conditions including nausea, smoking cessation, problems with addiction, inflammatory conditions, possibly even anxiety and depression, to name just a few.

There are many different forms of acupuncture. One form of acupuncture completed by one acupuncturist may be quite different than another, and any given practitioner may perform the acupuncture differently than another.

Typically, acupuncture is performed with a very thin needle that causes gentle sensations. It is usually not painful. Classically, acupuncture involves using a needle — although sometimes electricity is passed through the needle, and sometimes the burning of traditional Chinese herbs is employed as well. Burning these herbs is called "moxabustion."

The points that are used for the needle insertions often are at a distance from the actual area of symptoms. So, if someone has pain in their back, they may be getting needles in their feet, their ears or somewhere else distant from the actual site of the pain.

The special points that are chosen for needle insertion are along areas called "meridians." These meridians relate to what the Ancient Chinese felt were true "organ systems" and guide the placement of the acupuncture needles." However, these "organ systems" are not necessarily the same kind of systems that are defined as traditional organ systems by 21st century physicians. For instance, the traditional meridians for the spleen may have nothing to do with the actual organ that we know of today. An acupuncturist traditionally diagnoses a patient's problem by feeling three pulses on each wrist. In some cases, these diagnostic indications determine which ancient meridians are and are not diseased.

Taken all together, acupuncture is an ancient, time-tested form of therapy that seems to have exceptionally few side effects and appears to be safe for pain management. At present, however, it continues to be of unproven value for pain management in scientific circles. In my experience, many patients have found relief from pain through acupuncture. For those of my patients who have not found relief with standard medical therapies, I am always open-minded to any kind of treatment that will help, particularly those that have the fewest side effects. Thus, I embrace acupuncture. I look forward to revelations through science that better explain how it works and how it may be best applied to fight the war on pain."

What an eloquent description of Acupuncture and Chinese Medicine! Dr Scott Fishman is the Chief of the Division of Pain Medicine and Associate Professor of Anesthesiology at the University of California, Davis. You can read more about Dr. Fishman here.

Yes, We Need More Modern Clinical Trials for Acupuncture

Dr. Fishman is right, we do need more modern clinical research on Acupuncture and nobody can really explain how Acupuncture works. Generally speaking, the pharmaceutical industry funds most medical research and individual companies don’t usually fund research on medicine that can’t be patented, as it would a financial loss for them.  So, until more research is funded, you can read about the clinical trials for Acupuncture or Chinese Medicine that we do have, here, or you can try it for yourself.

My Suggestion?

Don’t wait for clinical trials or for someone to explain how Acupuncture works, because you might be waiting a long time! In the meantime, you could be finding pain relief.

If you'd like to read about people that have received relief from pain using acupuncuture, click here.

 
Yours in Health,

Kara Sorensen, MS, LAc
Acupuncture by Kara
15066 Los Gatos-Almaden Rd
Suite 200
Los Gatos, CA
e: kara(at)karasorensen.com
p: 408.805.5272 (KARA)
p: 800.514.1406

Acupuncture Helps Neck Pain of a Computer User

Here's a testimonial a recent patient wrote about her experience with Acupuncture and how it dramatically helped her recovery from pain. Surgery was mentioned and she called me right away to see what I could do to help her. I'm REALLY glad she came in for treatment:

'I am an IT professional and that means that I am at a computer at least 8 hours a day at work and at home another couple of hours. Ironically my previous employer (a health care company) did not provide proper ergonomic support.  

This past summer after working on a home improvement project with a friend - I was in a lot of pain in my neck and shoulder area.  I tried chiropractic and deep tissue massage and had some improvement in managing my pain.

However, by August - I was in so much pain that I went to urgent care and was prescribed pain medication and muscle relaxers. In October my doctor sent me to get x-rays, sent me to physical therapy and continued the pain meds and muscle relaxants.

In November, my doctor told me that there was some thinning in my spine and if I didn't receive some benefit from the physical therapy - she would send me to get an MRI and possibly surgery!

The mention of surgery freaked me out!  I sought help from Kara.

With just one treatment, I could feel my tight muscles unravel. It's as if my muscles were a tight ball of yarn and someone gently let the yarn roll away.

I've only had three treatments but I have had signifcant relief with acupuncture treatments with Kara.  Years ago I went to an acupuncturist in Walnut Creek - I had very little response with that practitioner.  The short time I've been working with Kara makes me wonder - what took me so long to seek help from Kara?

I would recommend Kara to anyone needing pain management or relief from other physical stresses.'

Vivien Neves
San Francisco, CA

If you're in pain, consider Acupuncture as an option for your pain relief. If you live near Los Gatos, CA, I would be happy to help you. If you need a referral in your area, check out the referral list for Acupuncturists here. Either way, don't just live with the pain, find relief!

Yours in Health,

Kara Sorensen, MS, LAc

Acupuncture by Kara &
The Food Craving Solution

15066 Los Gatos-Almaden Rd
Suite 200
Los Gatos, CA

e: kara(at)karasorensen.com
p: 408.805.5272 (KARA)
p: 800.514.1406

Acupuncture Helped Emotional Trauma and Relieved Low Back Pain

Here's a testimonial a recent patient wrote about her experience with Acupuncture and how it helped her recover from a traumatic loss and low back pain from a bulging disk:

'I went to see Kara after experiencing a traumatizing loss that left me experiencing overwhelming feelings of guilt, fear, shame and grief.  I was also experiencing low back pain from a bulging disk, which I believe was related to the stress caused by the emotional trauma.  When I first met her, I immediately felt comfortable talking to Kara about my painful emotions.  She truly cares about helping people and provides a safe environment where I feel nurtured, and where healing is facilitated.  She’s highly skilled and sensitive to my experience when she is administering acupuncture.  She is careful and thoughtful, and is truly delighted in seeing the progress and improvement of her patients.  Since seeing Kara on a weekly basis, I have seen a dramatic improvement in my emotional state, and reduced pain.  I trust and highly recommend Kara.'

Anne
San Francisco, CA

If you're in pain, either physically or emotionaly consider Acupuncture as an option to help your recovery. Even if you're seeing other health professionals, it can help your healing process in many ways. If you live near Los Gatos, CA, I would be happy to help you. If you need a referral in your area, check out the referral list for Acupuncturists here. 

Yours in Health,

Kara Sorensen, MS, LAc

Acupuncture by Kara &
The Food Craving Solution

15066 Los Gatos-Almaden Rd
Suite 200
Los Gatos, CA

e: kara(at)karasorensen.com
p: 408.805.5272 (KARA)
p: 800.514.1406

Patient Testimonial: Relief from Neck Pain with Acupuncture

This patient was first treated for neck pain with great success, and then continued her treatment for other health issues like allergies, food cravings and hormonal balance issues. I'm grateful for her testimonial and here it is:

'I first went to Kara Sorensen for acupuncture, but she also prescribed Chinese herbs, provided supplements, and helped with my food cravings/allergies. After one brief acupuncture treatment for neck pain that had been going on for a number of weeks, I was pain-free and have been ever since.

Kara is warm and genuine, knowledgeable, and professional. She goes out of her way to help her patients, is happy to answer questions and provide assistance between appointments, and has continued to help me even after my acupuncture treatments ended. The treatment rooms are comfortable and private, and they patiently and successfully helped with my insurance issues. I can't say enough good things about them. Kara helped me physically and emotionally through a painful period--I was lucky to have found her.'

Michele
San Francisco, CA

If you're struggling with neck pain or other health issues, and you're looking for natural solutions, please contact me. If you're not in the San Francisco Bay Area, I'm happy to refer you to someone near you.

Yours in Health,

Kara Sorensen, MS, LAc
Acupuncture by Kara
5 Bon Air Road, Suite 109
Larkspur, CA
415.819.8172

800.514.1406

I'm a Licensed Acupuncturist in the state of California with a BS in Dietetics an MS in Nutrition Science and an MS in Traditional Chinese Medicine.