Latest / The Diva Details / Needles & Nirvana: How Acupuncture Rewires Stress, Pain, and Longevity
Transcript
- 0:01Welcome to the Diva Detail. Welcome to the
- 0:04Diva Detail, where bold, confident women embrace
- 0:08life unapologetically. From love and sex to
- 0:12wellness and reinvention, we keep it raw,
- 0:15real, and powerful. No filters, no limits,
- 0:20just fearless conversations to help you thrive. Let's dive
- 0:24in with Diva Mia.
- 0:30Hello, beautiful people. Welcome back. This is Diva Mia. And today
- 0:34we're going to talk about acupuncture for stress, for pain management, and for
- 0:38longevity. Last episode, we talked about the power of touch and
- 0:42everything massage can do for your body and your lifespan. If you
- 0:45missed it, go back and listen because today's episode is its sister.
- 0:49Today we are talking about how acupuncture is so beneficial
- 0:52for you. I know some of you flinched with the thought of needles. Oh my
- 0:56gosh. Needles on purpose? I know it sounds crazy, but let
- 1:00me tell you, the needles are not what you think. Acupuncture needles are about as
- 1:03thin as a strand of hair. Many people barely feel them going
- 1:06in. A lot of people fall asleep on the table. Seriously, I do this
- 1:09at least every 2 to 4 weeks and I pass right out. I fall asleep.
- 1:13It's a great nap time. It's very relaxing. It relaxes you in ways that I
- 1:17don't know if anything else really does. We are going to go back thousands
- 1:21of years to where acupuncture came from. And I'm gonna walk you through the
- 1:25meridians again and the energy map of Chinese medicine, and I'll show
- 1:28you why they line up in so many fascinating ways with the chakras
- 1:33that we talked about last time on the massage podcast. Then we're gonna go into
- 1:37the research that says about acupuncture for stress. I don't know if
- 1:41you know this, but acupuncture is used in hospitals in China, that with herbal
- 1:45medicine. And there's, you can actually perform acupuncture
- 1:49on someone and they can undergo operations with surgery and
- 1:52not feel it. It's so interesting the things that acupuncture
- 1:56can do. Acupuncture is there for stress, for blood flow. It helps the
- 2:00lymphatic system, arthritis, and chronic pain and acute pain.
- 2:04We're going to talk about longevity as well, including the point that's
- 2:09literally nicknamed the longevity point. I'm going to tell you about how often
- 2:13you should go and, and what feels good. And sometimes when you're having a
- 2:17flare-up, you need to go more often as well. And then there's acupressure points
- 2:21that you can do on yourself today, in your ears, on your hands,
- 2:24on your feet. And acupressure is wonderful too,
- 2:27is you can do that at home. So find a nice cozy spot, let your
- 2:31shoulders drop, take a deep breath in, and let's get started. So the word acupuncture
- 2:36comes from Latin, acus, which means needle, and puncture means pricking.
- 2:40But the practice itself has come from China and it's extremely
- 2:44ancient. So back in 1991, a hiker in the Alps found
- 2:48a frozen man who had lived around 3,300 BCE.
- 2:52Scientists nicknamed him Ötzi, the Iceman.
- 2:55His body has dozens of small tattoos, many of tiny
- 2:59lines and crosses. Researchers noticed that many of those tattoos
- 3:03sit near points used in acupuncture and close to where he
- 3:07likely had joint and back pain. This could be a very early form
- 3:10of point-based treatment. It's a theory, not proven,
- 3:14but it's still— it's wild to imagine that acupuncture has been around
- 3:18for so long. In China, the earliest tools were likely the foundation The foundational
- 3:22text again is the Yellow Emperor's Classic of Internal Medicine. It's compiled
- 3:26roughly 2,000 years ago. One part of it called the Ling Shu or
- 3:30Spiritual Pivot is basically an acupuncture manual.
- 3:33It describes the channels the body energy, the body's energy travels
- 3:37through and 9 different types of needles. And it holds an idea
- 3:41I love for a longevity show. And the classic suggests that the
- 3:45best doctors treat illness before it arises, and that's not
- 3:49against Western medicine. It's just Eastern medicine. Sometimes they,
- 3:52they're more preventative. Don't wait until you're sick to seek treatment. It's like digging a
- 3:56well once you're already thirsty. Prevention, ladies and gentlemen, was the
- 4:00original goal with medicine. Around the 3rd century, a physician wrote the first
- 4:04book devoted entirely to acupuncture. It organizes the points in
- 4:08a system that influenced practitioners for centuries. Now here's
- 4:12one of my favorite stories. In the year 1027,
- 4:15a court physician had life-sized bronze statues cast to teach
- 4:19acupuncture. The statues had tiny holes at each point.
- 4:23For exams, the statues were covered in wax and filled with water.
- 4:27A student had to needle a point through the wax. If they hit the
- 4:30right spot, water would trickle out. If they missed,
- 4:33nothing. Talk about a pop quiz. Acupuncture spread to Korea and
- 4:38Japan by around the 6th century, and each culture made its own. In Japan,
- 4:41a blind acupuncturist in the 1600s is credited
- 4:45with popularizing the guide tube, a little tube that
- 4:49helps the needle slip in quickly and nearly painlessly.
- 4:53Many practitioners still use it today, and that is one of the
- 4:56reasons modern acupuncture is so gentle. It's the little
- 5:00tube that goes around the needle. Europeans first wrote
- 5:03about acupuncture in the 1600s through Dutch physicists who
- 5:07worked in Asia, but it didn't really take off in the US until 1971.
- 5:11So here it's pretty new. A New York Times reporter named James
- 5:14Reston was traveling in China when he needed an
- 5:18emergency appendectomy. Afterwards, doctor used acupuncture to ease his post-surgery
- 5:23pain, and he wrote about it in the paper. Americans were fascinated,
- 5:27and that article helped open the door. Since then, acupuncture has moved steadily
- 5:30into the mainstream media. In 1996, the FDA reclassified acupuncture
- 5:35needles as regulated medical devices. So 1996,
- 5:39not to date myself, but I wasn't just coming outta college back then.
- 5:43And it's funny cuz I was doing acupuncture in early 2000.
- 5:46In 1997, a National Institute of Health
- 5:50consensus panel said there was clear evidence acupuncture helped
- 5:54with nausea after surgery and chemotherapy and
- 5:59with dental pain. So a lot of people with cancer are using acupuncture. It's offered
- 6:03in hospitals and cancer clinics. It helps with anti-aging.
- 6:06You can do acupuncture on your face and avoid Botox.
- 6:10You can do acupuncture with weight loss. You can do acupuncture to help
- 6:14with chronic pain, to help your autoimmune or to stimulate your liver or your
- 6:18kidneys. Kidneys or your heart, acupuncture is a wonderful thing. The US
- 6:22military and VA uses a form of ear acupressure and acupuncture called
- 6:26battlefield acupuncture for pain. Most states now license the acupuncturists
- 6:30as well. From sharpened stones to hospital wards, that's quite a journey.
- 6:34In traditional Chinese medicine, life energy is called chi.
- 6:38It's pronounced chi. Chi is said to flow through
- 6:41the body along pathways called meridians. So chi or channels
- 6:46flows through your body. Health is when Qi flows
- 6:50smoothly and is balanced between Yin and Yang.
- 6:54Yin is cool, quiet, inward, restorative. Yang is warm, active,
- 6:58outward, energizing. Pain and illness are seen as Qi that's
- 7:02blocked, deficient, or out of balance. Acupuncture points are
- 7:06spotted along the meridians where the practitioners can influence the
- 7:10flow. There are 12 primary meridians, each linked to an organ system. Now,
- 7:13in Chinese medicine, an organ is more than the physical organ.
- 7:16It is web of function, emotions, and seasons. The 12
- 7:21common yin-yang pairs grouped under the 5 elements. Now remember
- 7:24that we have things that flow, nerve endings and pressures that
- 7:28flow throughout our whole body. So you could actually hit a part on your foot
- 7:32and be triggering your liver at the same time. Wood is
- 7:35the liver and gallbladder. Wood is about growing, planning, and smooth
- 7:39flow. And its emotion is anger or frustration.
- 7:42So if you've ever met anyone with an anger issue,
- 7:46or they, they, they hold on to their anger. They may also have a
- 7:50liver issue because a lot of times people bottle up their anger inside
- 7:53their body and then their organs start to suffer. When you're stressed
- 7:57and irritable, a practitioner will often say your liver qi is stuck.
- 8:01Fire is the heart and small intestines, plus 2 more,
- 8:05the pericardium, which protects the heart, and the triple burner,
- 8:09which coordinates water and warmth through the body. Fire is among
- 8:13joy, connection, and the spirit. Earth is the spleen
- 8:16and stomach. Earth is digestion, nourishment, and stability. Its emotion
- 8:20is worry and overthinking. Hello, that 2 AM thought spiral.
- 8:24That's your, that's your earth. Metal is the lung and
- 8:27large intestine. Metal is about breath, boundaries, and letting go.
- 8:31Its emotion is grief. And I don't know about you,
- 8:34sometimes when I'm not letting go of something, my digestive system and large
- 8:39intestine doesn't seem to be functioning very well. Water is the kidney and bladder.
- 8:42And for a longevity show, water is the big one. In Chinese medicine,
- 8:46the kidney stores your essence. Think of your deep reserve
- 8:50of vitality, your essence. You're born with a certain amount and how you live,
- 8:54how you eat, how you rest, how you burn the candle at both ends.
- 8:57If you have addictions, it determines how fast you drain your
- 9:00essence. You know, sometimes they say people that are sex addicted or
- 9:04drug addicted, or addicted to work, their essence
- 9:08has been drained and they're running on fumes or an empty vessel.
- 9:12Protecting your yin is the traditional Chinese philosophy of
- 9:15longevity. Its emotion is fear. There's also a
- 9:19beautiful idea called the organ clock, which says qi moves through each
- 9:23meridian at peak in a 2-hour window across the
- 9:26day. For example, the liver's window is 1 to 3:00 AM. If you
- 9:30wake up in the middle of the night between 1 and 3:00 AM, sometimes they
- 9:33say that there's something might be wrong with your liver. And the lung is from
- 9:353 to 5:00 AM. Many practitioners will ask you what time you wake up at
- 9:39night because in this tradition, it's a clue. Science hasn't confirmed the organ clock,
- 9:44but it, it rhymes nicely with what we know about circadian
- 9:48rhythms. Our organs really do run on daily cycles
- 9:52and sleeping at night is foundational to health.
- 9:56Beyond the 12, there are 8 extraordinary vessels.
- 9:592 of them matter a lot for today. The Ren vessel or conception
- 10:03vessel runs straight up the front middle of the body. The Du
- 10:07vessel or governing vessel runs straight up the back along the spine
- 10:11and over the top of the head together with the 12 that give the 14
- 10:15main channels that hold the classic set of about 360
- 10:19points. And now my favorite part. Remember the chakras
- 10:23from last episode? 7 energy centers stacked along
- 10:26the midline from the base of the spine to the crown. Well, look where
- 10:30the vessels run right along the midline, the same midline. And some
- 10:34of the most important points sit in strikingly similar spots.
- 10:38At the very bottom where the root chakra sits below the,
- 10:42the belly near the sacral chakra, you have the
- 10:46sea of chi, your body's energy reservoir. In the upper abdomen
- 10:49near the solar plexus chakra, there's major digestive points.
- 10:54In the center of the chest, the heart chakra is used to open the chest
- 10:58and settle emotion. At the notch, the base of the throat, the throat chakra
- 11:02is used for the throat and the voice. Between the eyebrows, the third
- 11:06eye, is the Hall of Impression, one of the most calming points
- 11:09there is. And at the top of the head, the crown chakra, its meaning
- 11:13is 100 meanings. It's where many channels come together.
- 11:17So a lot of times when you go in for acupuncture, they're going to do
- 11:20your third eye right between your eyebrows and then at the very top. 2 cultures,
- 11:232 languages, and 2 completely different maps, and they keep circling the
- 11:28same places. But now to be fair and accurate, scientists have not
- 11:32found meridians or chakras as physical structures. But researchers have
- 11:36noticed that many acupuncture points sit near nerves. Some of them sit near
- 11:39blood vessels and the planes of connective tissue called the fascia between
- 11:43muscles. So there may be real and anatomical story behind
- 11:47these ancient maps that weren't— we're just now still learning about and learning
- 11:51to read about. Let's talk about stress because this is one of the top reasons
- 11:55people walk into an acupuncture office, even if they came in for back
- 11:58pain. In Chinese medicine, the term stress is often described as
- 12:02stuck liver Qi because your liver holds onto a lot of stress.
- 12:06Energy that supports to flow smoothly gets tight and tangled,
- 12:10and you feel it as irritable tension, headaches, a tight jaw,
- 12:13PMS, trouble sleeping, or digestion that goes haywire
- 12:17when you're upset. A classic treatment used is
- 12:21a combination called the Four Gates. It's on the hands in the web of between
- 12:25your thumb and index finger and on top of your
- 12:29foot. Between the big toe and the second toe. So if you,
- 12:322 on each side. Now, what does Western science say? When a
- 12:36needle goes in, it stimulates nerves in the skin and muscle that
- 12:40sends signals to the spinal cord and the brain. Researchers have found
- 12:44that acupuncture can trigger the release of the body's own pain-relieving and mood-related chemicals
- 12:48like endorphins. And brain imaging study shows it can change
- 12:53activity in the areas of the brain involved in pain and emotion. There's also exciting
- 12:57work on the stress axis, the chain from your brain to your adrenal glands
- 13:00that controls cortisol. Animal studies have found that acupuncture
- 13:05can calm that stress response. Reviews suggest acupuncture
- 13:09can help reduce anxiety. Though many studies are small, the evidence
- 13:13is still promising rather than rock solid so far. But I will tell you
- 13:17from anecdotal evidence for me, it does definitely relax me. It does
- 13:20help me. I had a gallbladder problem where I had a gallbladder
- 13:24attack a couple years ago. I went in for acupuncture every single day after.
- 13:27Just to calm my body down, went on some Chinese herbs, and I ended up
- 13:31keeping my gallbladder because of it. Now I'm not a doctor and I'm not going
- 13:34to say that everybody has the same result, but because of that experience,
- 13:38I took acupuncture to a whole new level in my mindset as
- 13:41far as healing goes. Here's a cool connection. It also connects
- 13:45to the vagus nerve, the rest and digest nerve we talked about last
- 13:49episode. The vagus nerve has a branch that reaches the outer ear.
- 13:53So that's one reason ear acupuncture is so popular. So a lot of times
- 13:56when you go for an acupuncturist, they may give you some pressure points to press
- 14:00on your ear with these little sticky tabs so that you can
- 14:04press on your ear in between your treatments. There's a 5-point ear protocol used
- 14:08widely in addiction and trauma recovery where people often sit in a group quietly
- 14:12with these tiny needles in their ear. Many describe it as deeply
- 14:16calming. You know, there's been hypnosis, there's been different
- 14:20types of treatments, EMDR. It helps with drug
- 14:24addictions, different types of sex addictions, different types of personality disorders.
- 14:28Some of these things can be treated with needles. Isn't interesting. And what
- 14:32nearly everyone notices is whether the science says is that acupuncture
- 14:36is the nap after. You lie there with needles in the room and
- 14:40quiet. 20 minutes go by in what feels like 5.
- 14:43People call it the acubuzz or the acustoned,
- 14:47that, that deep, heavy relaxation in your nervous system shifting gears. I will
- 14:51tell you, you're on the middle of a little massage table and you just pass
- 14:55right out. And it's so relaxing. I will say it's very relaxing. I always
- 14:59get a nice nap in. And now let's talk about circulation. In Chinese medicine,
- 15:02there's a saying that's that where qi goes, blood flows. Qi and
- 15:06blood are partners. Where qi is stuck, blood can stagnate,
- 15:09and that's often how traditional practitioners explain sharp,
- 15:13fixed pain. So modern studies have measured what happened to
- 15:16blood flow when needles go in, and research has found that acupuncture
- 15:21has increased local blood flow in the skin and muscles around the needle.
- 15:24Part of that seems to come from the release of nitric oxide.
- 15:28That's a molecule that releases blood vessels and lets them, them widen.
- 15:31There's a body of research on acupuncture for blood pressure.
- 15:35Some women have actually used it for menopause symptoms. If you have hypertension,
- 15:39think of acupuncture as a possible complement, never a replacement for your medicine.
- 15:43Don't say, I'm just gonna go do acupuncture and I'm gonna go off my meds.
- 15:46No, that's not the way it works. It's a supplement to.
- 15:49And the lymphatic system, I wanna be very clear here because this is different
- 15:53from massage. Acupuncture is not a lymphatic drainage technique.
- 15:56Lymphatic drainage, as we covered last episode, is a hands-on
- 16:00massage. It's gentle motions. Acupuncture works more through the nervous
- 16:04system and local circulation. With that said, Chinese medicine has its
- 16:08own way of talking about fluid. A practitioner might describe puffiness,
- 16:11heaviness, and sluggishness digestion as dampness.
- 16:15And they also look at your tongue typically on the top and under the bottom,
- 16:18as well as your eyes. And it's often linked to weak spleen.
- 16:22Points like this on the inside of the lower leg below the knee
- 16:26and traditional used for, to resolve dampness. And here's
- 16:30an important note for anyone who has had breast cancer or lymph nodes removed.
- 16:34For years, patients were told never to have needles in an arm at risk
- 16:39for lymphedema because of the infection. Early studies suggest it may be
- 16:43safe in the hands of a trained practitioner. Make sure everything's clean. It can actually
- 16:46help with your swelling. But this is a specialized area. If that's what you're
- 16:50looking for, find an acupuncturist who works with oncology patients and
- 16:54get your cancer teams okay first. But my honest advice
- 16:57is if puffiness and lymph flow are your main goal, Do lymphatic
- 17:02drainage plus movement and use acupuncture for stress and pain release and
- 17:06kind of an overall balance. They complement each other beautifully.
- 17:10Now we're gonna talk a little bit about chronic pain. This is where acupuncture
- 17:13has the most research behind it in the West, because in the West we have
- 17:16a lot of chronic pain. A team of researchers combined individual patient
- 17:20data from dozens of high-quality trials, more than 20,000 patients
- 17:24for chronic pain conditions, including back pain, neck pain,
- 17:27osteoarthritis, and headaches. They found that acupuncture worked better than
- 17:31no acupuncture and better than sham acupuncture, which is fake
- 17:35or shallow needling. Importantly, the benefits largely, they held up over
- 17:39a year. For arthritis specifically, the American College
- 17:42of Rheumatology in 2019 guidelines conditionally
- 17:46recommended acupuncture for osteoarthritis of the knee,
- 17:49hip, and hand. I will say it's also helped my ankle. Scientists are also debating
- 17:53why even shallow needling triggers some of the same effects as regular
- 17:56acupuncture. But for someone with arthritis pain,
- 17:59the practical takeaway is that many people get meaningful relief
- 18:04the risks are low, it may help you rely less on pain meds. That matters
- 18:07because long-term use of anti-inflammatory pills can be very hard
- 18:11on your stomach, on your kidneys, and even on your heart. Rheumatoid arthritis,
- 18:15it's a big one. The evidence is a little bit thinner, but acupuncture may help
- 18:19with pain and quality of life, but it doesn't change the underlying autoimmune disease.
- 18:23If you have rheumatoid arthritis, keep working with your rheumatologist
- 18:28and treat acupuncture as support for pain, sleep, and stress. For those of you dealing
- 18:31with arthritis, here's my favorite Power combo acupuncture to calm
- 18:35the pain, massage to keep the tissues around the joints soft
- 18:39and mobile, and gentle stretching and strength training to support the joints.
- 18:43Each one works. And if you do them all together, they work
- 18:47even better. Longevity, sometimes it's not a quick fix. I think so
- 18:50many people are looking for that quick fix pill they can just pop in their
- 18:55mouth. But longevity, it takes daily practice and daily work and
- 18:59weekly work. Chinese medicine has been obsessed with long life for thousands
- 19:03of years. Remember Jing, your essence? Your inherited
- 19:06battery, the whole philosophy is about protecting it.
- 19:09Rest when you're tired, eat warm nourishing food,
- 19:13live with the seasons, don't overdo it, and tune up
- 19:16before you break down. And there's a point with the legendary representation.
- 19:20It's called your Stomach 36. The name means Leg 3
- 19:24Mile. The story goes that the soldier would stimulate
- 19:28it so they could march 3 more miles when exhausted.
- 19:31It sits about 4 finger widths below the kneecap. And one
- 19:35finger width towards the outside of the shin bone. In Japan,
- 19:39there's a long tradition of warming this point, burning a small
- 19:43amount of the, of the herb mugwort near the skin as a longevity practice.
- 19:47Chronic low-grade inflammation is one of the biggest drivers of aging
- 19:51for people. So when you connect it all, acupuncture supports
- 19:55longevity by lowering stress, easing chronic pain, so you keep
- 19:59moving, improving sleep for many people, and possibly calming inflammation.
- 20:04And philosophically, it brings you into a relationship with your health before
- 20:08something goes wrong. Again, preventative medicine. Now,
- 20:11how often should you go? For a new or acute issue like
- 20:14a pain flare, a stress crisis, or insomnia, most acupuncturists
- 20:18recommend 1 or 2 sessions a week. If it's extremely critical,
- 20:22you might have to go every day for a few days. Many people notice
- 20:25a change within 3 to 6 weeks. For chronic conditions like
- 20:30arthritis, chronic back pain, or ongoing anxiety, a typical plan
- 20:34is once or twice a week for 6 to 8 weeks. That matches what many
- 20:38of the clinical trial vials used, then you taper back to every 2 weeks,
- 20:42then once a month. Right now I'm on once a month maintenance.
- 20:45For maintenance and longevity, once a month is a lovely rhythm. And there's
- 20:49a traditional approach I adore. It's a seasonal tune-up. 4 times a year at the
- 20:52change of each season, you go into a rebalance. Chinese medicine believes
- 20:56that each season places different demands on the body. So it
- 21:00fits perfectly for a longevity lifestyle.
- 21:03Twice a week is for the start of treatment. When you need momentum,
- 21:07once a week is the steady therapeutic dose, and then month or seasonally is
- 21:11more of a maintenance, same patterns as massage. And that's no
- 21:15accident. Your body likes consistency. Here's my rules for acupuncture.
- 21:181, see a licensed practitioner. In most states, that's a
- 21:22licensed acupuncturist, often with the letters LAC,
- 21:26or a medical doctor trained in medical acupuncture. Also know that
- 21:31dry needling, often done by a physical therapist, it's related but different.
- 21:35It focuses on trigger points in muscles without the Chinese medicine framework.
- 21:38Or number 2, make sure they only use sterile needles and ask if
- 21:42you're unsure. The needles should be brand new every single time.
- 21:45And number 3, share your full health history. Tell them if you're pregnant or
- 21:49trying to conceive, because certain points, including some of the points I mentioned
- 21:53earlier for stress, are traditionally avoided in pregnancy. Tell them if you're on
- 21:57blood thinners, having a bleeding disorder, a pacemaker,
- 22:00which matters if they use electrical stimulation, or a
- 22:04weakened immune system. You should also make sure,
- 22:07number 4, is that you have— if you have serious side effects, or especially in
- 22:11trained hands, the most common are a little bit of bruising, a bit of soreness,
- 22:14or feeling lightheaded. Very rarely a needle placed too
- 22:18deep or in the chest or back can puncture a lung. But you know,
- 22:20honestly, I've never had acupuncture come anywhere near that, which this
- 22:25is exactly why training matters though. And finally, prep and aftercare.
- 22:28Eat a light meal an hour or 2 before so you don't feel faint.
- 22:32Wear loose clothes and don't come in hungover. You don't want to do
- 22:36acupuncture if you're hungover. Afterward, drink a lot of water, just like you do
- 22:40in massage and skip the hard work and the cocktails that day and
- 22:43let yourself rest. Let your body rest. You may feel sleepy. And if you
- 22:47do, take a nap. If you're curious about acupuncture, there's cousins.
- 22:50There's also cupping. I've done cupping as well. Gosh, I've done almost all of
- 22:54these healing modalities. The suction cups that leaves those round marks.
- 22:59And now your at-home acupressure. There's no needles,
- 23:02just firm controlled pressure with your thumb in small
- 23:06circles for 1 or 2 minutes per point when you breathe slowly. And the
- 23:10first one is 3 fingers across the inside of your wrist,
- 23:13starting at the crease. If you, if you put your hand out
- 23:18out and you go 3 fingers down from the crease, the point is just above
- 23:22your fingers and oh, it feels so good between the 2 tendons. It's famous for
- 23:26nausea. That's why they have those nausea wristbands with those
- 23:30little hard plastic things in there that are supposed to help you with nausea
- 23:34if you get seasickness. It's calming for anxiety. And then there's one between
- 23:38your eyebrows. Gently pressure, press on slow circles.
- 23:42It's wonderful before you go to sleep or in a stressful moment. In the web
- 23:46between your thumb and your index finger, that's a high point of the muscle,
- 23:50you press and hold it together. So if you put your finger like an L
- 23:54and then you press— oh, that feels good too. That fixes a lot. It's great
- 23:58for tension. It's great. Skip this one if you're pregnant. Completely skip it because
- 24:02you don't want to do that. But because it's kind of like a point that
- 24:04just helps all different areas, but if you're pregnant, you're going to need to skip
- 24:08that. Then there's the longevity point, 4 finger widths below the kneecap and
- 24:11then 1 finger towards the outside. It's like right along your shin. And if you
- 24:15press on that, it It's the longevity point. And so if you wanna live a
- 24:19long life, and if it's sore, sometimes I've always been told
- 24:22if an area is super sore, that means that it needs, it needs the chi
- 24:26to flow better. There's another point on the sole of your feet in the dip
- 24:30about a third of the way down from the toes. Its name means bubbling
- 24:34and it's grounding, it's root energy, and you can roll a ball under
- 24:38it. And bonus, if you gently tap the top of your head,
- 24:42the crown with your fingertip for about 30 seconds,
- 24:45it'll wake yourself up. So if you are sleepy during the day or you're sleepy
- 24:48in a class, you know, keep tapping the top of your head for
- 24:52about 30 seconds and see what happens, because this might help you get through your
- 24:56day without the coffee. And then there's a few longevity, you know, habits that are
- 24:59straightforward from the Chinese medicine playbook. You got to go to bed no later than
- 25:0311, preferably no later than 10, before the gallbladder and liver hours
- 25:07begin. If you're going to bed after 11 or 10 o'clock, your liver
- 25:11and your gallbladder may be struggling. And you need to favor warm cooked food,
- 25:14especially in winter, and live with the seasons and try tai chi
- 25:19or qigong, gentle moving meditations that researchers
- 25:23link to better balance and fewer falls in older adults.
- 25:27I mean, tai chi is great for older adults. It's like relaxed kata.
- 25:31So let's bring it home. Acupuncture is thousands of years old.
- 25:34It's from sharpened stones to bronze startups to hospital wards It's
- 25:38built on the meridians, right? And there's a map.
- 25:41It can calm your stresses. It can help your response to stressful
- 25:45situations and helps blood flow, ease chronic
- 25:49pain, and helps with inflammation. So twice a week to start, if you need it,
- 25:52up to once a week for therapy and monthly or seasonally to stay well.
- 25:57And if you pair it with what we talked about last episode with lymphatic movement,
- 26:01good sleep, human touch, I think you're going to get the most
- 26:06bang for your buck. So if this episode's helped you, share it with somebody that
- 26:08you think might use acupuncture and why it might be
- 26:12helpful to them. I think longevity is a process in life.
- 26:15It's not a destination. It's all about what you do daily.
- 26:19I hope this helped. I know that changing and shifting into
- 26:23new ways of being takes time and change sometimes takes a little bit of
- 26:27struggle, but I think you can do it because your health is worth it.
- 26:30This is Diva Mia. Live long, live well, and stay focused and
- 26:34love yourself because we are all about love. Take care. Ciao ciao.
- 26:44Thanks for tuning in. Like, subscribe, and drop
- 26:48a comment. We love hearing from you. Visit thedivadetails.com
- 26:53to connect. See you next week for more.
- 27:00Diva Details podcast and website are intended solely for informational and entertainment purposes. The content
- 27:04provided does not constitute professional medical, financial, or legal advice. We are not licensed medical
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