Online - October 15, 2005

Bead Me Up

Acupuncture Beads

In our tireless pursuit of jet lag-free travel, we’ve done it all: mainlined melatonin, snorted lavender, and even been hypnotized. (That was one long, boring layover in Helsinki.)

But the search is over. We’ve found our new secret weapon: acupuncture ear beads.

At the beginning of a jag of particularly insane travel (M-T: Vegas, W: NYC, T-F: London, S-S: Pittsburgh), we popped into Exhale spa for a tune-up. At the end of our session, acupuncturist Loretta Soohoo (love the name) applied a tiny gold bead to each inner upper ear with invisible adhesive tape.

And what, pray tell, were we to do with those?

Answer: Rub them gently every so often to activate your shenmen acupuncture point — which they’re sitting atop. This is said to ground, energize, and generally balance your body, especially when you’re tired or stressed. Hence their ability to combat jet lag (and insomnia, anxiety, and depression).

Any acupuncturist worth her needles can apply them, and you can get them on a number of other ear points (like brain, liver, and, our favorite, the so-called drunken point — which is the go-to when everything is going haywire).

Mumbo jumbo? Malarkey? Maybe. But we sailed through the week, rubbing our ears, gathering tons of compliments for our perma fresh-as-a-daisy glow.

Time zones? Ha. Who needs them when you’ve discovered timelessness?

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