Practiced by a man and a woman, shiatsu can be used to overcome sexual problems and enhance the enjoyment of sexual relations, according to Namikoshi. To help the male partner, the woman should press lightly on various points along the base of his spine, from the coccyx, or “tailbone,” up to the waist level. At each point, she should press for three seconds and give ten applications. Also recommended is pressing with three fingers into a point located directly on the midline of the abdomen and just an inch or two under the breastbone. This is said to promote sexual energy. Still another place suitable for relatively gentle pressure is located at the top border of the pubic hair. Finally, firm pressure first around the anus and then on the perineal area, between the anus and the genitals, is also said to stimulate response.

All this may sound rather exotic to a Westerner, but apparently it doesn’t grab the Japanese that way. According to Namikoshi, “Squeezing the testicles firmly—a Japanese proverb says once for every year of your life-proves particularly invigorating as one grows older.”

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Shiatsu, which in Japanese means “finger pressure,” may be thought of as a cross between acupuncture and massage. The art was developed in Japan over the last 40 years by Tokujiro Namikoshi, who claims to have treated more than 100,000 patients for a wide variety of illnesses. Lately, it’s been catching on in the United States.
Shiatsu is similar to massage in that it stresses the importance of deeply relaxing tense or exhausted muscles. By loosening the muscles, blood flow is improved. It differs from massage in that pressure is applied much more vigorously, usually with the ball of the thumb and sometimes even with the thumbnail.

With acupuncture, it shares the concept that there are points on the body (which may be far removed from the part that hurts) which, when stimulated, bring about beneficial results. Thus, pressure to the plantar arch of the foot is recommended not only for aching feet, but to eliminate weariness throughout the body, and even to relieve ailments of the kidneys, to which organ, according to shiatsu principles, the plantar arch is closely related.

Usually, the bulb (not the tip) of the thumb is used to apply pressure. The pressure should be firm, and the force used will vary from patient to patient and from one part of the body to another. In general, according to Namikoshi, the pressure should be “sufficient to cause a sensation midway between pleasure and pain.” The application of the pressure should last from five to seven seconds—no more. It may be repeated three or four times. A shiatsu treatment from a professional may last 30 minutes or more, but for self-treatment, several minutes at a time, a few times a day, is typical.

Did you know :

1. Breastfeeding improves your cleavage.
2. Breastfeeding encourages bonding (it’s an incredibly warm, comforting feeling for both of you).
3. Breastmilk provides nutrients not found anywhere else.
4. Breastmilk staves off allergic reactions and potentially lifelong allergies and asthma.
5. Breastmilk protects your baby and makes him less likely to get sick; formula-fed babies see the doctor almost twice as often as breastfed babies.
6. Breastfeeding dramatically lowers rates of serious illness. Breastfed babies are four times less likely to be hospitalized for bacterial infections; less likely to suffer from SIDS, cancer, dermatitis, ear infections, diarrhea, diabetes, liver diseases, and other afflictions.
7. If you breastfeed, you’re less likely to have to stay home with a sick infant.
8. Breastmilk is cheaper than formula.
9. Breastmilk is easier to prepare and digest than formula.
10. Breastmilk is always the right temperature.
11. Breastmilk is always clean.
12. Breastmilk is free.
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I have a sort of funny relationship with acupuncture: This strange and ancient Oriental art burst upon the American consciousness just about Inc same time that I entered the field of health journalism. Infact, if memory serves, the very first article on health that I wrote was on the subject of acupuncture. I titled it “Acupuncture?” By that, I meant to convey the idea that using the body as a pincushion to achieve healing was almost incomprehensible. But I concluded the article with a challenge to the medical profession to take an honest look at acupuncture to see if there was really something to it. The mere fact that Western doctors can’t “understand” acupuncture, I charged, was no good reason not to give it a fair trial.
To be perfectly honest, I never expected that a fair trial would be given. Much less did I suspect what has actually occurred.

Why acupuncture caught on so fast among American doctors, I can’t say, except to suggest that perhaps there is something about inserting needles into a patient that makes a doctor feel “right at home.” In any case, when I wrote that first article, my research was based almost entirely on some rather hard-to-get books and a few accounts in relatively obscure journals. I was able to locate only two physicians who were practicing acupuncture in the United States, and one of them consented to be interviewed only if we agreed not to mention his name.

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