Linda Yamamoto is an 84-year-old Japanese-American woman who received acupuncture from the Boston Acupuncture Clinic for the past 9 years. He stayed home until his youngest son went to high school. She then started working for the government as an accountant. She has been very sociable, active and happy. She donated money to a foundation to help Asian college students in need. She doesn’t travel a lot, which gives her time to participate in many types of social activities in the Boston area. Her husband carries her around. She gets angry when her husband forgets to pick her up and rarely complains.
Good genes do not guarantee good health
Linda has inherited good genes from her mother, who lived to be 98 without any health insurance. But these good genes don’t protect Linda from getting sick. She developed a condition of hypothyroidism when she turned 40 after giving birth to her third child. He started taking Synthroid for his thyroid problem. After a few years on thyroid medications, he developed atrial fibrillation (AF). She then took a beta blocker and two other medications for her heart condition. Her heartbeat slowed down with the medications, but they never returned to normal.
HRT (hormone replacement therapy) treatment brought dreams to many postmenopausal women. They thought that they could regain their youth by taking this magic pill. Linda tried it at the age of 68 only to see her period return a year later. She thought that this was not natural and stopped the hormonal pill immediately. Her good genes could not protect her in modern society. Linda developed breast cancer at the age of 70 after taking hormone supplements for a year. He underwent surgery and radiation therapy, but did not take tamoxifen to block his estrogen receptors, thus preserving muscle strength.
At age 80 she stopped working for the government because she realized that the stress was too much for her. He spent more time at social events. She always sleeps eight hours no matter what time she goes to bed. When he went to bed after midnight, his heartbeat became irregular and his digestion worsened. For some time, he attended many social events late at night and had dinner after 7 in the afternoon. During that time, her heartbeat was irregular even though she was taking three medications for her conditions. I recommended that he stop drinking coffee, eat dinner before 7pm, and go to bed before midnight.
Get back on track with a disciplined healthy routine
Linda gradually changed her clothes. The condition of the heart and digestion have improved in recent years. She went to her cardiologist for routine checkups and eventually stopped taking all of her heart medications at the age of 87. Linda keeps coming to see me for acupuncture facial rejuvenation. His heartbeat is around 55 to 65 without any heart medication. Also, since she stopped her medications, the coldness in her hands and feet has decreased and they do not become extremely pale during the winter.
With his heart condition improved, he began personally training in a gym to tone his muscles. When he started lifting weights three times a week, he developed knee and hip pain. But because he eats healthily, he didn’t have any systematic inflammation, and his muscle aches were relieved with just one or two acupuncture treatments. With acupuncture and exercises, her joint pain and Raynaud’s syndrome no longer bother her. Her face looks like a 50-year-old woman; he still has a keen memory and never forgets to pay his bills on time. She is still cooking, cleaning and living in her own home.
In 2016, Linda fell into the bathtub and fractured her thoracic vertebrae and shrunk several inches. He was so sad that he might never be able to continue his acupuncture facelift. Because Linda has been exercising her entire life, she was able to recover from the bad fall in 2 months. He returned for his acupuncture routine 3 months after his fall and told me that he had developed more wrinkles on one side of his face. When we met in the waiting room, she said she would like me to use acupuncture to reduce those wrinkles. Some of my patients, who were in the waiting room, were very impressed with their facial skin and muscle tone. They thought he looked like he was 60 years old when the reality was that he was 93 years old.
