reprinted from:

Los Angeles Times Bits ‘n’ Pieces

Press Play, Cure Your Headache

Throb, pound, thump. The conga drum inside your head won’t stop beating, and you’re out of painkillers. No need to visit the pharmacy. Just turn on your VCR. A DVD by “Dr” Jerry Teplitz promises “instant headache relief – within 90 seconds- the easy natural way,” by pressing your fingers to your head.

Teplitz believes the ancient art of shiatsu (finger pressure) can cure “migraines, sinus attacks, colds – even hangovers!” And this 40 minute “Teplitz Headache Relief” DVD promises all that and more: “If it doesn’t work, you get your money back.”

We tracked down the Brooklyn-born healer, 51, at his Virginia home and learned that he’s a lawyer-turned-marketer and professional speaker for such groups as the Young Presidents’ Club. And he’s just about to become your late-night best friend, Teplitz’s TV self-help sales pitch will hit local airwaves soon, he says.

-Bettijane Levine

Reprint of Article published in Prevention THE MAGAZINE FOR BETTER HEALTH

“Push Here For Pain Relief” by Linda Shaw

The toughest audience Jerry Teplitz has ever had to work with was inside a prison. “The prisoners didn’t know who I was or why I was there or what on earth I was going to do,” recalls Jerry. “They were basically told they could either work or see my program, so they obviously chose me over work.”

There later were moments on stage when Jerry wished they hadn’t. Usually five minutes into his program, he would have nearly 100 percent audience participation as he instructed people how to use -various techniques to relax or to energize their bodies. But the prison audience was different – restless, talkative, smoking and shuffling around.

To make matters worse, in order to demonstrate Shiatsu, the ancient Japanese finger pressure technique used to relieve numerous ailments, Jerry usually picks someone who has a headache from the audience. Unknowingly, he picked a prison ringleader from the fidgety crowd.

“He sat down on stage and I demonstrated the headache technique on him. When I got done, he said his headache was worse,” laughs Jerry, who still remembers the misery of the moment. “I talked to him a little more and discovered he was having a migraine headache which he gets all the time. So I did the Shiatsu treatment for migraine on him and his pain completely disappeared.”

Positive Feedback

Before the prison performance Jerry always had been astonished by the success of his program. Whether he faced a crowd of college students, business executives or older adults, his program seemed to have something for everyone. Maybe an audience full of convicts was stretching his luck just a little too far. And then the prisoners’ performance evaluation forms were turned over to him. To his surprise, the prisoners had written that they believed Shiatsu and meditation would help them in their lives.

Subsequent feedback from prison staff members further boosted Jerry’s spirits. “The monetary system of the prisoners is cigarettes,” relates Jerry. “A staff member told me that one prisoner earned two packs of cigarettes by doing shiatsu for another one’s headache. And the toughest guy in the prison is a Muslim who carries a file folder with all of his prayers in it. Tucked within that folder is the Shiatsu headache diagram I left with them,” Jerry says. “It was the toughest audience I ever went through, but there, too, it worked.”

In Jerry’s program, audiences learn by doing different finger pressure techniques used to relieve headaches, migraines, sore throats, sinus colds, eyestrain and neck fatigue. “It’s a seed planting profession,” says Jerry. “I’m planting the seed for people that they can heal themselves in a whole variety of ways. They’ve got more power and potential than they probably ever thought they had.”

Ex-Lawyer, Ex-Skeptic

Actually, Jerry admits he isn’t anyone to quibble over skepticism, since he was the biggest skeptic of all when first introduced to what he does now. A graduate of Northwestern University Law School, Jerry was a lawyer with the Environmental Protection Agency in Illinois before he abandoned law for a more unorthodox lifestyle.

“If you had asked me in law school if I could see myself doing this five years after I graduated, I would have thought you were crazy,” he quips. “As a lawyer you are trained in skepticism and to tear things apart. I tried to tear these things apart. They wouldn’t tear. The more I tried, the more I experienced, and the more excited I got.” He began attending the Temple of Kriya Yoga in Chicago and became a master teacher of hatha yoga. Eventually, he quit the law profession. “It was like taking a deep breath and, in a sense, going off the deep end – but knowing there wasn’t a deep end there.”

How to Relax and Enjoy

Jerry has written a book with Shelly Kellman entitled Managing Your Stress: How to Relax and Enjoy , which describes some Shiatsu methods, hatha yoga exercises, general relaxation and meditation techniques, and discusses proper nutrition. With several other books in the planning stages, Jerry continues to lecture to groups around the country and in Canada. He claims that in as little as two hours he can teach people relaxation and energizing techniques they will be able to use for the rest of their lives.

“You can use shiatsu on yourself as well as on other people,” explains Jerry. “My goal is to make people self-sufficient. My real purpose in doing a lot of this actually is to put me out of business. That will mean everybody is running around healthy because they know how to do these things.”

Shiatsu is an ancient therapy that is older than Japan’s recorded history. Practitioners wanting to relieve a headache use the fleshy part of their thumbs to bear down on a series of pressure points along the skull and the back of the neck. Jerry reports that headaches and hangovers can be relieved in as little as a minute and a half. In some cases, a third treatment is necessary to alleviate all pain. “Of course, if anyone has an ongoing problem, I recommend seeing a doctor,” he adds. “The individual should look at what is going on in his or her environment. Something is really pretty intense either physiologically or externally that needs treating.”

But for ordinary ailments, Shiatsu is quite effective, says Jerry, although no one really knows why. “There are several theories,” he continues. The hard pressure exerted by the thumbs may cause extra blood to circulate through the painful area. The blood acts as the natural cleanser of the body, bringing antibodies and oxygen to the area and removing waste products and carbon dioxide, says Jerry. A second possibility is that Shiatsu may act like acupuncture, stimulating certain nerve meridians and motivating the body to heal itself. Others suggest that when pressure is put on the head, natural substances called endorphins are released by the brain. Endorphins act as pain inhibitors which block the pain signal throughout the body. Another theory is based on the physics concept that every action has an equal and opposite reaction. “With a hangover a person has restricted blood vessels,” says Jerry. “The Shiatsu pressure may cause the blood vessels to expand and relieve the pain.”

Whatever the scientific explanation may be, Jerry says shiatsu often works as long as people follow the directions.

Results

Although he has worked with the therapy for many years now , Jerry still is surprised at times by its effectiveness. He relates the story of a friend with wisdom teeth problems who called him long distance for help. He was in intense pain but his dentist could not see him for several weeks, says Jerry, so “I proceeded to give him the instructions for the shiatsu treatment for toothache over the phone. I saw him a few months later and he said not only did it work, but after several treatments the pain completely vanished. He still had to go to the dentist, but he was totally painless to the point of going,” says Jerry.

In case of a toothache, Shiatsu may provide three or four hours of pain relief. When the pain returns, all the person may need to do is to repeat the shiatsu treatment. “Shiatsu is a good alternative to aspirin and to the negative effects of any chemical on the body,” Jerry asserts.

Jerry enjoys his work and believes he can teach others to enjoy life no matter who they are or what they do for a livelihood. “My fantasy for the future is that instead of company coffee breaks, they will have meditation breaks,” he says. “Production will go up and absenteeism will go down because people will just be a lot happier with what they’re doing.”