The two pillars of our clinic are “Deep Muscle Acupuncture” (DMA), developed by Director Kadoya, and the original “self-care” methods that we have patients practice themselves.
In a single phrase, it can be defined as:
“A needling method that uses a single needle to trigger a response (hibiki) in tension from the superficial to the deepest layers, transforming it as it goes.”
The features of Deep Muscle Acupuncture are as follows:
Deep Muscle Acupuncture consists of four techniques:
By using these four techniques to transform muscle tension, symptoms are improved.
The “dissolving needle (Youshin)” mainly targets non-chronic fascial twisting and fascial tension that forms on the surface of muscles.
The “paralysis-releasing needle (Mahishin)” targets tension that has become adhered and hardened. It loosens fascia and tendons, reducing heaviness and pain, and improving muscle and tendon symptoms.
The “bone-contact needle (Kotsushin) is used for even more chronic tension in the periosteum (the membrane covering bone).
The “reflex-triggering needle (Hanshashin) targets tension appearing along the meridians, with the aim of treating internal organs, among other purposes.
What Is Deep Muscle Acupuncture? An Easy-to-Understand Explanation
At Naoshiya Acupuncture Clinic, we value not only having patients come in for treatment but also our original “self-care” methods that let patients improve their own symptoms.
Practicing self-care speeds up healing and promotes overall constitutional improvement.
We especially provide self-care focused on improving blood circulation, along with advice on daily life matters such as diet, posture, and how you use your body.
For patients with panic disorder, we also share self-care techniques to help prevent panic attacks and reduce panic symptoms.
Many illnesses are related to blood flow. For example, even frozen shoulder, which might not seem related to circulation, improves more easily when overall blood flow in the body is good. When air conditioning cools the body and reduces blood flow to the arms, arm pain tends to occur more easily.
Similarly, with panic disorder, improving blood flow throughout the body improves blood flow to the brain, reducing panic-specific symptoms such as panic attacks.
If we compare the human body to a mountain, blood vessels are like rivers. When water flows through a river, crops grow well.
The same is true for the body — when blood flow is normal, the functions of each organ are kept running smoothly, allowing for vigorous activity. Naturally, this also boosts natural healing power.
(1) Chew Thoroughly
The key to making healthy blood and improving circulation is, first, “keeping the intestines healthy — by chewing food properly and thereby keeping the intestines in good condition.”
The small intestine’s main role is nutrient absorption, but when food isn’t chewed enough, the small intestine ends up having to handle digestion as well, just like the stomach.
It then has to digest, absorb, and also make blood — all at once. This places excessive strain on the small intestine, preventing it from properly performing its main job of producing the nutrients needed for the blood.
As a result, the small intestine becomes hardened. When the small intestine hardens, the function of the entire intestinal tract worsens, preventing good blood from being made — and this, in turn, worsens blood flow.
Chewing thoroughly is a way to make good blood without placing a burden on the stomach and small intestine. We tell patients to “chew each mouthful 25 times (or more).”
Twenty-five times per mouthful is enough. People are often told to chew 30 times, but that’s hard to keep up. Twenty-five times is sustainable — it’s just the right number to stick with.
(2) Massage the Abdomen (Anpuku)
Japan has a cultural tradition of caring for the abdomen. A soft belly, like a baby’s, is considered a healthy belly, and there is a long medical tradition — using abdominal massage and herbal medicine — aimed at achieving that softness.
In Japan, massaging the abdomen is called “anpuku.” Japanese Kampo (herbal medicine) doctors would examine the firmness of the abdomen (a diagnostic method called “fukushin“) to determine which herbal remedies to prescribe. Since ancient times (abdominal treatment is said to have developed most during the Edo period), practitioners of Eastern medicine softened the abdomen from the inside with herbal medicine and from the outside with anpuku.
Specific instructions on how to perform anpuku are provided when you visit the clinic.
(3) Massage the Calves (Calf Release)
The calf is said to be unique to humans. This is because humans are the only animals on Earth that walk upright on two legs.
Blood above the heart flows downward due to gravity, but blood below the heart must be pushed back up. To handle this, the human body developed the large calf muscle in the lower body — where 70% of the body’s blood resides — far from the heart, in order to return blood from below the heart back up to it.
For this reason, the calf, found only in humans, is called the “second heart” and has been shown to play an important role in blood circulation.
Performing this calf release loosens and softens the muscle from deep within, improving blood circulation throughout the body, which helps improve a wide range of illnesses and symptoms. It is effective for swelling, poor circulation (cold sensitivity), high blood pressure, low blood pressure, and heart disease, as well as atopic dermatitis, asthma, and gynecological conditions. It is also effective for improving one’s constitution and preventing aging. For panic disorder, calf massage is effective because it improves blood flow to the brain.
The principle behind this was discovered, and calf massage was developed, by the late Dr. Yoichi Ishikawa, a surgeon. Dr. Ishikawa got the idea from observing that IV drips would not flow properly into blood vessels, and from this he created calf massage.
I was personally taught calf massage directly by Dr. Yoichi Ishikawa, its creator, and have used it in treatment for many years. Building on the calf massage he taught me, I developed my own original calf release technique.
Specific instructions on how to perform calf release are also provided when you visit the clinic.
2003年 ふくらはぎマッサージ研修会の後
（当院の玄関で石川先生と)
Disease symptoms are results — they always have an underlying cause.
Eastern medicine was never originally a symptomatic treatment that only addresses the symptoms themselves; rather, it is a medicine aimed at finding the root causes, improving them, and restoring the body to its original healthy state so a person can live more happily.
The image below, based on an iceberg metaphor, represents “disease symptoms and their causes” — the basic principle underlying Naoshiya’s self-care approach.
The visible part of the iceberg represents the disease symptoms and phenomena, while what creates those symptoms are the causes hidden beneath the surface of the water.
There are broadly three (four) categories of causes:
First is “Life Rhythm.”
Since “humans are diurnal creatures,” the autonomic nervous system functions according to that daily rhythm, so it’s important to live in a way that matches a diurnal rhythm (regarding desk work and sleep). It’s also important to understand the “time-of-day activity of the internal organs.”
Second are “Breath, Diet, and Movement” (息・食・動) — things that fall under one’s own responsibility to manage in daily life, and that no one else can do on your behalf.
Third is the underlying “Mind/Consciousness” (想) behind the symptoms.
As expressed in the Eastern concept of “mind-body unity” (心身一如), the mind and body are connected, and the state of one’s mind and consciousness is extremely important.
Fourth is one’s environment — home, school, workplace, and so on.
(Life Rhythm + Breath, Diet, Movement, Mind, Environment)
At our clinic, we provide advice tailored to each patient’s constitution, lifestyle habits, and chief complaints — covering life rhythm as well as diet, movement (posture, exercise), and mind (kokoro).
Additional Notes
As a distinctive feature of our clinic, for patients with panic disorder, we share self-care techniques that can reduce panic symptoms (hyperventilation, palpitations, anxiety, autonomic nervous system overactivation, nausea, a feeling of a lump in the throat, etc.).
