How Does Cupping Work?

The newest member of our team here at Harley Place Health, Dr Vivian Wong, brings a unique combination of techniques and experience. One of the techniques she employs is cupping. 

Cupping therapy is an ancient practice that involves placing specially designed cups on the skin to create suction. It has numerous benefits including:

  • Increased Blood Flow: The suction created by the cups draws blood to the area where the cup is placed. This increased blood flow can bring oxygen and nutrients to the tissues, promoting healing and reducing inflammation. Think of it like bringing a repair crew to a damaged area.  
  • Myofascial Release: Cupping can lift the skin and underlying fascia (connective tissue) away from the muscles. This can help to release deep tension and adhesions in the fascia, improving flexibility and range of motion. It’s similar to how massage works, but with a lifting action.  
  • Lymphatic Drainage: The suction can also stimulate lymphatic drainage, which helps to remove waste products and toxins from the body. A healthy lymphatic system is crucial for immune function.  
  • Pain Reduction: Many people experience pain relief from cupping. This might be due to the release of endorphins (natural painkillers), changes in nerve signaling, or a combination of factors.  
  • Trigger Point Release: Cupping can be used to target specific trigger points (tight knots in muscles) similar to how acupressure or massage works. The suction can help to release these trigger points, reducing pain and muscle tension.  

Cupping has been used by Traditional Chinese Medicine practitioners and soft tissue therapists for hundreds of years. To book an appointment with Dr Vivian Wong simply visit our online booking page at https://www.harleyplacehealth.com.au/make-a-booking/

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GUEST BLOG – Ways to Improve Your Sleep

This post was written by Dr Jess Sammut from Whole Health Osteopathy and the Melbourne Headache Clinic and is shared here with permission. 

Do you find yourself tossing and turning when you go to bed? Maybe it’s because of an injury, perhaps you’re restless because you have a lot on your mind. Other times, it could be the food you ate before you went to bed. Here are six tips for getting a good night’s sleep.

1. Follow a sleeping routine

Reset your internal clock by getting up at the same time every day. Once you get into this rhythm, your body will naturally start getting tired around the same time every night.  Try to limit the difference in your sleep schedule on weeknights and weekends to no more than one hour. Being consistent reinforces your body’s sleep-wake cycle.

2. Watch what you eat and drink!

Cutting out caffeine after 3pm should be a no brainer, especially for those who struggle to fall asleep!  Avoid stimulants like coffee, soft drink, alcohol and cigarettes for at least a few hours before you intend to sleep. You may think that alcohol makes you sleepy, but even that cheeky glass of red can cause a restless night, and increase your chances of waking during the night. Don’t go to bed hungry or stuffed. In particular, avoid heavy or large meals within a couple of hours of bedtime. Your discomfort might keep you up.

3. Turn out the lights – especially the blue ones

If you are finding it hard to fall asleep at night, avoid looking at screens from your phone, laptop or TV as the light emitting from the screen may be stimulating your brain. Try winding down an hour before sleeping by reading or listening to calming music instead.

4. Exercise!

Regular physical activity can promote better sleep. However, it is best to avoid being active too close to bedtime. Personally, I find I sleep a lot better when I’ve been active through the day, and it can be as simple as taking my dog out for a walk, or standing out in nature and breathing in that fresh air.

5. Avoid daytime naps

Even small naps can seriously interfere with your sleep cycle. If you want a solid sleep, try to limit your nana-nap to 30 minutes, and definitely avoid them after 5pm!

6. Manage your worries.

Try to resolve your worries or concerns before bedtime. Jot down what’s on your mind and then set it aside for tomorrow. Stress management might help. Start with the basics, such as getting organised, setting priorities and delegating tasks. Meditation also can ease anxiety. If you don’t fall asleep within about 20 minutes, leave your bedroom and do something relaxing. Read or listen to soothing music. Go back to bed when you’re tired. Repeat as needed.

7. According to the Sleep Toolkit devised by Dr Andrew Huberman, you should also View sunlight by going outside within 30-60 minutes of waking. Do that again in the late afternoon, prior to sunset. If you wake up before the sun is out and you want to be awake, turn on artificial lights and then go outside once the sun rises.

On bright cloudless days: view morning and afternoon sun for 10 min; cloudy days: 20 min; very overcast days 30-60 min. If you live someplace with very minimal light, consider an artificial daytime simulator source.

Don’t wear sunglasses for this practice if you safely can, but contact lenses and eyeglasses are fine.

No, you don’t have to look directly at the sun, and never look at ANY light so bright it is painful to view! That said, you can’t wear a brimmed hat, sunglasses and remain in the shade and expect to “wake up” your circadian clock.

Remember, nearly everyone has an occasional sleepless night, but if it concerning to you, it is worth speaking to a professional to get to the bottom of it. You can also read more about how your mattress, pillows and sleeping environment affect your sleep here!

This blog “Ways to Optimise your Sleep” was written by Whole Health Osteopath Dr Jess Sammut. Whole Health Osteopathy was established in 2017 and is located at 855 Plenty Road, South Morang, 3752. We thank Dr Jess for sharing this with us. For more information or to book an appointment, visit them at Whole Health Osteopathy

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C The Signs – AI being used to detect Cancer risk

Because I’m a bit of a nerd about health and medicine, I listen to different podcasts on those topics. Increasingly on medical themed podcasts I’m hearing doctors discuss breakthroughs that are happening due to AI.

For example, recently, an AI software created a new type of anti-biotic. This is noteworthy because over time, the effectiveness of existing anti-biotics has been decreasing and viruses are mutating and becoming resistant to them. So we need to adapt and innovate as well, but it seems inventing new anti-biotics is hard, because as this report states, this was the first new class of anti-biotics developed in over 60 years!

Then there was the study showing AI was more accurate at diagnosing than GPs.

And the study where AI was able to identify early markers for prostate cancer, one of the deadliest cancers we have. According to this report, researchers in Melbourne ” have developed a diagnostic tool that can spot prostate cancer before patients have any symptoms, using artificial intelligence to analyse CT scans in just seconds“. Improving early detection could be an absolute game changer for prostate cancer.

Which segues nicely into todays post. C The Signs is a new AI diagnostic tool being used to improve early detection of a number of different types of cancer. The AI model works by “analyzing data already available in patient electronic health records, going beyond basic risk indicators like age and gender, to examine a wide number of personal and environmental data points to precisely assess an individual’s cancer risk. By personalizing risk profiles, the platform flags people who need targeted testing and rules out those who do not, reducing the burden on primary care physicians.”

How effective is it?

“It has identified 20.7% of breast cancer cases UP TO FIVE YEARS EARLIER than standard pathways, as well as beating early-stage diagnoses of ovarian cancer using traditional methods by 53.3%.”

“C the Signs also recently unveiled new data at the 2025 ASCO Gastrointestinal Cancers Symposium using its AI model on the records of 894,275 patients registered in the Mayo Data Platform to achieve a sensitivity of 93.8% – comparable to the sensitivity level of a colonoscopy – and a specificity of 19.7% in identifying patients at risk of colorectal cancer. By detecting tumors when they can still be treated at stage 1 or 2, C the Signs increases survival odds compared to later-stage diagnoses.”

Did they just say it’s about as accurate as a colonoscopy!?! Incredible!

Furthermore, the researchers noted “29.4% of patients with colorectal cancer were identified as being at risk UP TO 5 YEARS EARLIER by C the Signs compared to diagnoses made by primary care physicians, highlighting the platform’s potential for early detection.”

This technology is advancing at an incredible rate and we can’t wait to see what the next discovery involves! And if you want to listen to the podcast I listened to, click this link.

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AI is more accurate at diagnosing than Doctors!?!?!

Ok this story blew us away.

According to a recent study (which was performed on a small number of people to be fair), ChatGPT was more accurate at diagnosing illnesses than a group of doctors.

From the source article:

“A new research study indicates that Open AI’s chatbot Chat GPT-4 is better at diagnosing diseases than human doctors, according to The New York Times.

Fifty doctors, a mix of attending physicians and residents, participated in the study; diagnoses were based on evaluations of medical patient cases. All in all, Chat GPT-4 got a 90% score for the diagnoses it delivered; the doctors on their own got average scores of 74%.

The doctors also reportedly performed worse than the chatbot when they were allowed to use Chat GPT-4 in their work. Physicians who used the tool performed only marginally better — getting scores of 76% — than physicians who did not use a chatbot at all.”

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How Hope Beats Mindfulness When Times Are Tough

I recently read an article entitled “How Hope Beats Mindfulness When Times Are Tough” which outlined the relative benefits of both approaches.

First things first, what’s the difference?

According to the authors, “hope is inherently forward looking, while mindfulness is about appreciating your current circumstances”. The researchers wanted to see how each of these two mindsets influenced people’s well-being and professional attitudes during difficult times.

They found that mindfulness presents two challenges: “First, it’s hard to be mindful when you’re experiencing stress. Second, if it’s a truly difficult time, you don’t necessarily want to dwell too much on the experience you’re going through.”

And this was borne out in the results:

“Fundamentally, our findings tell us that hope was associated with people being happy, and mindfulness was not,” says Kristin Scott, study co-author and a professor of management at Clemson University. “And when people are hopeful – and happy – they experience less distress, are more engaged with their work, and feel less tension related to their professional lives.”

“Being mindful can be tremendously valuable – there are certainly advantages to living in the moment,” says Sharon Sheridan, study co-author and an assistant professor of management at Clemson. “But it’s important to maintain a hopeful outlook – particularly during periods of prolonged stress. People should be hopeful while being mindful – hold on to the idea that there’s a light at the end of the tunnel.”

The paper, “Work-related Resilience, Engagement and Wellbeing Among Music Industry Workers During the Covid-19 Pandemic: A Multiwave Model of Mindfulness and Hope,” is published open-access in the journal Stress and Health.

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10 Squats beats a 30 minute walk!?!?

Ok this is pretty cool! A study on overweight people (who are at risk of developing diabetes), found that in an 8 1/2 hour workday, if they got up every 45 minutes and simply did 10 squats, it was better for them than if they went for a half hour walk! Sounds too good to be true but the results don’t lie. A simple health hack for you to add to your workday!

If you want to read more about the evidence these results are based on, the full study can be found here: https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/sms.14628

Abstract

The efficacy of interrupting prolonged sitting may be influenced by muscle activity patterns. This study examined the effects of interrupting prolonged sitting time with different muscle activity patterns on continuously monitored postprandial glycemic response. Eighteen overweight and obese men (21.0 ± 1.2 years; 28.8 ± 2.2 kg/m2) participated in this randomized four-arm crossover study, including uninterrupted sitting for 8.5 h (SIT) and interruptions in sitting with matched energy expenditure and duration but varying muscle activity: 30-min walking at 4 km/h (ONE), sitting with 3-min walking at 4 km/h (WALK) or squatting (SQUAT) every 45 min for 10 times. Net incremental area under the curve (netiAUC) for glucose was compared between conditions. Quadriceps, hamstring, and gluteal muscles electromyogram (EMG) patterns including averaged muscle EMG amplitude (aEMG) and EMG activity duration were used to predict the effects on glucose netiAUC. Compared with SIT (10.2 mmol/L/h [95%CI 6.3 to 11.7]), glucose netiAUC was lower during sitting interrupted with any countermeasure (ONE 9.2 mmol/L/h [8.0 to 10.4], WALK 7.9 mmol/L/h [6.4 to 9.3], and SQUAT 7.9 mmol/L/h [6.4 to 9.3], all p < 0.05). Furthermore, WALK and SQUAT resulted in a lower glucose netiAUC compared with ONE (both p < 0.05). Only increased aEMG in quadriceps (−0.383 mmol/L/h [−0.581 to −0.184], p < 0.001) and gluteal muscles (−0.322 mmol/L/h [−0.593 to −0.051], p = 0.022) was associated with a reduction in postprandial glycemic response. Collectively, short, frequent walking or squatting breaks effectively enhance glycemic control in overweight and obese men compared to a single bout of walking within prolonged sitting. These superior benefits seem to be associated with increased muscle activity intensity in the targeted muscle groups during frequent transitions from sitting to activity.

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Exercise is Better than Anti-depressants?!?!

That’s the conclusion of a major study of more than 14,000 people which has found some types of exercise can be better than anti-depressants alone. A summary, posted on the ABC News website, stated that “it doesn’t matter how many times a week you exercise, but the more vigorous the better.”

As a result, GPs are being encouraged to refer more patients to exercise physiologists. Two local EP based clinics we especially love are Longevity PT and LiveWell Fitness.

Some conclusions from the summary include:

Walking or jogging, yoga and strength training are about as effective as cognitive behavioural therapy and more effective than anti-depressant medication alone.

The review found yoga and qigong (a Chinese system of physical exercises and breathing control) are likely to be more effective for men, and strength training is best for women.

Yoga is somewhat more effective for older adults and strength training can lead to greater improvements among younger patients.

Dance is also great at lowering depressive symptoms.

The intensity of the activity does matter; so the more vigorous, the better.

The benefits are also greater if you participate in exercise with other people as opposed to going at it alone.

Those experiencing depression might meet the criteria for a chronic disease management (CDM) plan, which could get them up to five subsidised sessions under Medicare with an exercise physiologist.

Accredited exercise physiologists often design programs for people with anxiety, depression and post-traumatic stress disorder.

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The “Perfect Way To Spend A Day”

They call it the Goldilocks Day. The perfect balance of everything, that is, sitting, standing, exercising and sleeping.

According to the latest research, as summarised on the ABC News website, “new Australian research published in Diabetologica provides an hour-by-hour breakdown of daily activities to reduce the risk of cardiometabolic diseases, which include disorders of the heart, diabetes and chronic kidney disease.”

The study looked at thousands of people and included numerous measurements of health including waist circumference, blood glucose and insulin levels, cholesterol, blood pressure and triglycerides (a type of fat found in blood) .

The average Australian sits for about eight hours a day but desk-based office workers can spend around 10 hours seated.

And most of us only get two hours of physical activity each day (that’s light and moderate activity combined), which is about half of what the study recommends.

Light physical activity includes slow walking or doing chores, and moderate to vigorous activity can be brisk walking, jogging or difficult tasks like shovelling.

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Tennis Anyone?

We recently were alerted to a 2018 study on the effects of different sports on longevity. It turns out that regular participation in sports is great for helping you live a longer and healthier life. No surprises there, but the magnitude of the effect differs between sports quite considerably.

The Copenhagen City Heart Study followed nearly 9,000 people for 25 years and monitored their sporting and other lifestyle habits. This is what they found:

Life expectancy gains compared with the sedentary group for different sports were as follows: tennis, 9.7 years; badminton, 6.2 years; soccer, 4.7 years; cycling, 3.7 years; swimming, 3.4 years; jogging, 3.2 years; calisthenics, 3.1 years; and health club activities, 1.5 years.

Nearly 10 years longer life by playing tennis! Incredible. Why was that so much more effective than the other sports/activities?

The authors suggested that “the leisure-time sports that inherently involve more social interaction were associated with the best longevity”. Which is consistent with other research on the importance of social interactions. Loneliness has been shown to have numerous negative health impacts as per this information from the Tony Robbins website:

HEIGHTENED FATIGUE

Learning how to deal with loneliness can have a profound impact on other parts of your mind and body. Those who are lonely often choose to eat “comfort foods” that are higher in fat and sugar and usually experience a decline in sleep quality and quantity. But when you are happy and fulfilled, you operate at your peak state, with energy and vitality

PREMATURE AGING

Loneliness can lead to heightened levels of stress, which alters the natural flow of various cellular processes inside the body and opens you up to premature aging. As with comfort food, loneliness may lead to indulging in alcohol or other substances to the point of dehydration, which also affects cell function that may cause signs of aging, like fine lines and wrinkles, to become more prominent.

COMPROMISED IMMUNE SYSTEM

Research shows loneliness is as deadly as if you smoked 15 cigarettes per day and that people who are lonely are 50% more likely to die at a premature age. An extended period of loneliness compromises your immune system, which can lead to heightened inflammation, heart disease and a host of other serious health conditions. 

SHORTENED LIFESPAN

“The effect of [loneliness] is comparable to obesity, something public health takes very seriously,” says BYU researcher Julianne Holt-Lundstad, lead author of the study. “We need to start taking our social relationships more seriously.” The BYU data found that the subjective feeling of loneliness increases risk of death by 26%.

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Interesting Podcast

Thought we would share a few notes from a super interesting podcast we listened to this week. Dr Rhonda Patrick is an American MD who specialises in healthy aging. You can read her background her https://www.foundmyfitness.com/about-dr-rhonda-patrick

In the episode, Dr. Patrick describes strategies you can apply immediately to enhance cellular health, protect the nervous system, elevate mood, reduce inflammation, promote muscle and bone function, and help prevent chronic disease.

The conversation focuses on things like Vitamin D, Magnesium and Omega 3s and their role in brain health. She tries to emphasise ‘low hanging fruit’, that is, things you can do that are cheap and easy and accessible to everyone, that also make a massive difference.

She also talks about the importance of different types of exercise and their effects on health and longevity which is great information. For example:

A large-scale trial of the effect of aerobic exercise such as running on cognition in the 20- to 67-year age range. Here’s what they found:
Better Thinking Skills as You Age: Exercise helped people’s executive function – that’s your brain’s ability to manage tasks, plan, and focus. This improvement was especially noticeable in older participants, suggesting that regular aerobic exercise might counteract age-related decline in these skills. But it wasn’t directly tied to age; younger adults also had improvements in executive function.
Thicker Brain Cortex, Regardless of Age: Participants showed an increase in the thickness of a part of the brain involved in executive function, and this wasn’t dependent on how old they were. This is important because it means exercise supports brain health at any adult age. A thicker cortex is often associated with a higher cognitive reserve, which refers to the brain’s ability to improvise and find alternate ways of getting a task done. This can help people maintain functioning in spite of brain aging or damage from conditions like Alzheimer’s disease. A thicker cortex may signify a form of resilience or a slower rate of degeneration in aging processes and diseases like Alzheimer’s. A thicker cortex is also often a sign of greater neural plasticity, which is the brain’s ability to reorganize itself by forming new neural connections throughout life. This is crucial for learning new information and skills. Certain regions of the cortex are involved in emotional regulation. A healthier cortex might contribute to better emotional health and stability.
Real-world Application: The way the workouts were implemented could be a practical recommendation for improving brain health for the general public.
Consistency is key: participants exercised about 40 minutes, four times a week for six months.Gradually increasing effort: they started easy and slowly increased their workout intensity. During the initial two weeks, participants targeted a heart rate of 55%-65% of their maximum, constituting a mild to moderate effort, followed by an increased intensity in weeks 3 and 4, aiming for 65%-75% of their maximum heart rate, representing a more solid moderate effort.
Monitoring progress: using heart rate monitors helped them stay in the desired exercise intensity.
Flexibility: participants could choose the exercise (running or cycling) they preferred and set their schedules.

You can listen to, or watch the podcast by clicking this link:

https://www.foundmyfitness.com/episodes/ifm-micronutrients-exercise

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