Traditionally, Chinese herbs are given in formulas (not singly), which is safer and more personalized. They're prescribed by a Chinese medicine practitioner who diagnoses your specific imbalances first. Ephedra would never be given for weight loss, but only for certain kinds of colds and coughs, and only to people whose body's can handle it.

No traditional Chinese herbs should be outlawed without allowing Chinese medical practitioners to continue to use them traditionally.

Food Cravings

Problem #1 (Enzyme Deficiency): The foods you crave depending on your personal imbalances. Modern digestive science explains that when your body can't digest a food, you crave more of it - you're not getting what you need from it. This lead to a cycle of craving and overeating exact food you can't digest.

Problem #2 (Low Blood Sugar): Another vicious cycle happens when you can't digest complex carbs, so your blood sugar is low, so you eat simple carbs that raise your blood sugar which raises insulin, which lowers your blood sugar again, and your stuck eating donuts and feeling horrible. Solution: Enzymes (I recommend various enzyme formulations from a company called Transformations) and Chinese herbal formulas can help you digest your food and break both of these cycles

Weight can be lost safely if done slowly and naturally. You can lose up to 2 lbs per week without gaining it back. That means you could lose 104 lbs this year and keep it off!

Positive change is like stretching a rubber band- if you stretch too far too fast, it breaks or snaps back on you.

So avoid temptation to take an easy solution like ephedra or citrus aurantium (both misused Chinese herbs), because you'll gain weight back, and you're risking heart problems and stroke.

5 Things to Do Right Now To Lose 10 Pounds Within 2 Months And Keep Them Off:

1. Avoid heavily marketed supplements - instead, see a professional trained herbalist (acupuncturist) - it's safer and more effective - my preference would be a Chinese medicine practitioner, but some very well-educated western herbalists are good too. 2. Acupuncture Weight Loss: See an acupuncturist/chinese herbalist - Get acupuncture (once to three times per week) to SAFELY regulate your metabolism and hunger-satisfaction. Your acupuncturist can also get you herbs that will balance your digestion and cravings - and based on your Chinese pattern diagnosis, they can also give you personalized diet advice. Herbs and enzymes (specific formulations from enzyme company, Transformations) can eliminate your food cravings. 3. Develop a plan and goals with your acupuncturist and aerobics instructor- make it realistic, and stick to it. If you mess up, don't beat yourself up, just get back on track as soon as you can. Any progress is better than none at all. 4. Eat less, exercise more - Eat a low fat diet, and don't miss breakfast! Weigh yourself regularly, and exercise an hour a day. Start by walking a few minutes each day, or take stairs at work. Don't overdo it! Remember rubber band. In fact, you may want to wear a rubber band on your wrist to remind yourself to make changes slowly. Get some aerobic exercise help- a public class, or private aerobic counseling. 5. Join a support group like Weight Watchers or Overeaters Anonymous. There's nothing like positive friends to encourage you and keep you on track. OA members say that this spiritual program of action has changed way they relate to food. References and Resources

Office of Technology Assessment of Congress of United States, The Impact of Randomized Controlled Trials on Health Policy and Medical Practice, Background Paper OTA-BP-H-22. Michael Millenson's book, Demanding Medical Excellence Effect of acupuncture on weight loss evaluated by adrenal function. Journal of Traditional Chinese Medicine, 1993 Sep, 13(3):169-73. Wozniak, P., Oszukowski, P., Stachowiak, G., and Szyllo, K. [The effectiveness of low-calorie diet or diet with acupuncture treatment in obese peri- and postmenopausal women] (in Polish). Ginekol.Pol. Vol.74 Issue 2 pp. 102-107. 2003 Acupuncture on Spleen, Stomach, and Ren Mai Channel Points for Treatment of Stomach & Intestinal Replete Heat Pattern Simple Obesity. Abstracted & translated by Bob Flaws, Dipl. Ac. & C.H, Lic. Ac., FNAAOM, FRCHM Richards D, Marley J. Stimulation of auricular acupuncture points in weight loss. Aust Fam Physician. 1998 Jul;27 Suppl 2:S73-7. Zhao, M., Liu, Z., and Su, J. The time-effect relationship of central action in acupuncture treatment for weight reduction. J Tradit Chin Med Vol.20 Issue 1 pp. 26-29. 2000 Liu, Z. Mechanisms underlying effects of acupuncture moxibustion on simple obesity complicated by hypertension. Inter J Clin Acup 371-378, 1995. Studies of Weight Loss Industry Obesity prevalence and effect Overeaters Anonymous

These are not only causes of pain. It is important to know cause, and not just blindly attempt to relieve symptoms. Otherwise, ineffective treatments could be due to a missed diagnosis. Also, we may approach pain from a vertebral problem differently than we do pain of unknown origin.

Rating Pain & Measuring Progress For each pain location, I have patients rate severity on a scale of 1-10. A "10" would be worst pain possible, like giving birth or a kidney stone. Once we know degree of pain for each site, we can assess how much acupuncture treatment changed it. It's nice when there's an immediate improvement of 20-30%, or even 100%, which happens in some cases.

Sometimes, patient can't reproduce pain on table because of posture, so we have to wait until treatment is over. If possible, we can needle so that measuring progress is easier. For example, if your pain is worse when walking, we can needle your hand (this is distal needling- needling away from site of pain- another topic entirely) while you walk around. Then we can tell immediately if we're on right track or not.

Complementary Pain Management At same time, you may do other therapies. You might be looking into surgery, or other solutions- for example, than is a synthetic knee injection for people with very little knee cartilage. The synthetic fluid lasts for several months.

Interestingly, researchers have found that back pain does not always correlate to changes in spine. They've found many people with vertebral problems that have no pain at all, and that some people with constant pain have no obvious structural changes.

To me, this underlines primacy of nervous system. Your brain interprets and creates nerve signals. Sometimes pain has to be "unlearned." This process may be accomplished with acupuncture alone, or in combination with counseling, meditation, or hypnosis.

In some situations, physical rehabilitation is indicated. Specific exercises prescribed by a trained physical therapist may help you regain strength and function in affected part of body. You may also avail yourself of slow, demanding, and healing movements of Taichi.

The Process of Pain Control For some people, pain goes away immediately, and they are otherwise healthy. In that case, their partnership with acupuncturist may come to an end.

But, others are stuck with chronic pain, and need continual treatment to experience a better quality of life. In these cases, it may be better to see acupuncturist every other day for concentrated therapy- we're more likely to shift body's neurological patterns that way. If that doesn't work, acupuncturist may help you purchase a microcurrent or tens unit- these are electrical stimulator pads that you can use at home (or, in fact, anywhere) to keep pain at bay. The pads are applied to specific points according to theories of Chinese medicine.

For those whose pain is cause or greatly influenced by emotional and mental factors, Chinese medicine can recommend dietary changes and new emotional habits. Taichi and meditation can have a normalizing effect on nervous and immune systems as well.