Integrative Health

Spring into joyful celebration of change.

What an exciting season.  Mother Nature dazzles every one of my senses in Her spectacular performance of rebirth and renewal.  Last month’s little green nubs are today’s kaleidoscopic tulips and golden daffodils.  The delicious aroma of freshly mowed grass inspires me to pause for some really deep breaths.  Barefoot stepping over lush, cool moss not only delights my feet, but also brightens my already good mood.  Songbirds serenade me into wakefulness each morning like those endearing opening scenes of Walt Disney’s Cinderella.  The exquisite taste and crunchy texture of the first fresh-picked asparagus from the garden is irresistible.   

Whether you’re among the 86% of polled Americans who favor retaining “In God We Trust” on currency, or the 14% that want it deleted, here’s some down to earth encouragement to get help for living well from a powerful higher resource.  Whether you are religious, agnostic or atheist, believing in and utilizing some power greater than one’s mortal self is a topic worth exploration during these challenging times.  It’s an enduring investment with guaranteed dividends.

"In the last fifty years, the concept of an holistic approach to wellness, - integrating spirit, mind and body into the health paradigm, has been called many things, some of them unrepeatable in polite company. It has morphed from alternative to complimentary and finally integrative medicine.  This includes spirituality, stress modification, exercise, diet and micronutrition. "

Dr. Gerald Lemole, Medical Director Preventive Medicine & Rehabilitation Center and Center for Integrative Health 

  Many centers are emerging around the country primarily because the public demands empowerment and a more proactive role in their own health.

Q: You have requested I stop caffeine in order to help my arthritic pain symptoms.  This is very difficult for me to do, can you be more specific as to why I should comply with this request?

A: Look caffeine up in the Physician’s Desk Reference, you will be shocked to find out what a serious drug it is.  When you imbibe caffeine, you do not just wake yourself up but overstimulate every nerve in your body, including pain fibers.  Just as important as the biochemical side effects of this element, is where it falls on the scale of alkalinity and acidity.

Q: I seem to frequently fall on my right side. I have had several injuries over the last ten years but it seems whenever I fall it is always on the right side. Do I have some type of neurological problem?

A: Sometimes when someone has an injury there can be an imbalance created at the pelvis. Especially if one leg went out in front and the other went backwards or if the fall was on one buttocks or the other. The ilia which is like a wing of the pelvis rotates on the sacrum, the ball and socket joint becomes compromised in that the leg for which the ilia is rotated in the forward plane appears longer to the rest of the body as compared to the other side.

Q:  I own a business that requires a lot of lifting boxes from 10-50 lbs.  Owning this business has required me to give up my workout time. Can lifting the boxes substitute for working out ? I did wrench my back pretty bad on a bigger box, I should mention I am a woman also.

Q:  I have had a great deal of myofascial release over the years and I would like to wrap up my need for treatment, how do you make the results last?

A:  When are you ever done with myofascial release is a great question.  Personally, I have found that I was living a good life in pain fairly early on. Treatment relieved pain gradually over time as though I was an emerging ice sculpture.  Treatments were expensive and being young I had a great deal to learn before I put myself first.  

Q: I fell off my horse two weeks ago and broke my rib.  My hip and shoulder are sore on that side to.  I could use treatment on the hip and shoulder however, can osteopathy help with the broken rib?

Q: I have been a patient of yours in the past.  One thing always fascinated me that I was wondering if you could explain.  Sometimes I would not tell you where I was hurting and even if it was not the complaint I came to you for, you would drop your hand right on it.  How is it possible for a practitioner to know where the pain is without being told?

A: There is a great deal to this life time and this world we live in, that we cannot see.  A great deal of our world lies in the realm of quantum physics.  This aspect of living which the old time osteopaths were very aware of, has much to do with electromagnetic exchange of information that lies in the realm beyond bombarding of electrons: in the elements yet smaller than the electrons, protons and neutrons. 

Q:  You worked on my horse with osteopathy last month and it won a race later that day.  The results were immediate and now I feel inconsistency in his training sessions a fluctuation where some sessions are like race day and some are really off .  It seems if I am stiff or I have missed my stretching sessions it affects him, do you think I need to be treated to enhance his performance?

A: Many injuries for animals or people come from what we perceive as minor incidental occurrences that are easily overlooked. A twist or a kink that we feel will work it's way out. Sometimes after a fender bender or such symptoms are not felt for months.

Q: My daughter has an incredibly heavy back pack.  How can I help her ward off pains when she grows up that may occur from years of this on going stress on her posture and muscles?

A: One thing to keep in mind, is that a long duration, low intensity stress is as damaging as a quick, high impact injury. The back pack is a low impact, repetitive, long duration stress. Carrying a heavy backpack long term, can make imbalances in the postural muscles such that the scalene muscles, pectoral muscles and psoas muscles are shortened causing forward head, rounded shoulder and lordotic low back posture. 

Q: I am having a chronic problem that seems to go back and forth between my neck and my shoulder.  It seems when one hurts the other one does not and vice versa.  Why would this happen?  

A:  Neck pain can occur in conjunction with shoulder pain for many reasons.  The simplest reason is that a muscle in the neck becomes overused or strained to the point that it develops a trigger point.  Trigger points may develop in for instance the scalene muscles located at the lateral aspect of the neck on both sides that can cause symptoms that radiate into the shoulder even down the arm mimicking rotator cuff symptoms.

The approach to health differs between the western model and holistic models.  In the west health, is defined by conventional or allopathic practitioners as the absence of disease.  Very little time or resources or committed to looking at the whole person and the connection between mind-body-spirit.  Yet, these very same practitioners do recognize that some connection exists and that those with mind-spirit disruptions do not fare as well with treatments.  These are often those with chronic illness who continue to resist treatment or life style changes and those who seem unable to heal.  This is not absolute of course.  Many succumb to a multitude of diseases that are very strong in mind and spirit.  The nature of healing is a complex process and is not an event.  It involves the role of the patient and practitioner(s) in a complex process.  This process of integrating healthy life styles into the essence of life often involves using multiple avenues by the patient with the assistance of one or often more practitioners.  No set time frame can be applied since this is a very personal process with a unique purpose for each person involved.  This includes the healer/practitioner.

Earl’s raspy breathing often preceded him on his visit to the doctor’s office.  “Darth Vadar!” the receptionist would kiddingly say as he opened the office door.  This, plus his shortness of breath, fatigue and depression sent him repeatedly to his family practitioner, cardiologist and pulmonary doctor.

When Earl came to see us at the Center for Integrative Health, he was ashen, gray and wheezing.  After an extensive interview, we put him on a regimen for his symptoms.  A week into his treatment he felt better but when his studies came back he was seen to have a severe Vitamin D deficiency and was immediately put on 5,000 IU daily of Vitamin D3.  

      Celebrate! Maintaining Health and Weight
 
      Balancing feasting with fasting is my secret for ebulliently enjoying holiday festivities to the max.  (I’ve heard, however, there are more restrained levels of holiday enjoyment.  Choose what suits you.) Yes, I can party hearty with a free conscience and keep my svelte physique.  And you can, too.  Here are the details for you to emulate or adapt respecting your personal physical condition to boost your holiday pleasure without diminishing your health or adding inches to your waistline.

Touch + Intention + Attention = Healing

You have used your hands for a myriad of tasks today, but most likely none of them have involved healing.  That’s about to change.  It is both simple and easy to transmit healing energy using the very hands that zip up your jacket, open doors, hold a phone or hand over a credit card.  

Touch is a powerful catalyst for healing energy. 

Put this magazine down for a minute, and place your palms and fingers lightly together in the classic prayer position ~ not to pray, but just to feel.  Focus on their temperature for a moment.  Relax a bit.  Maybe take a satisfyingly full breath.  Be present with your experience.  Is there even the slightest shift in temperature?  Now concentrate on sensations shared by those hands.  A slight pulsation perhaps.  Any buzzing, humming or prickles?  Be patient.  Pay attention.

“We urgently need to find practical ways of reestablishing our conscious sense of connection with living nature.”  RUPERT SHELDRAKE, one of the world’s foremost biologists

Tending a simple little plant can be a doorway to enchantment in your everyday life.  Nature’s rhythmical entrance into the season of rebirth is a perfect time to align with the physical and mystical energies of rejuvenation.  Whatever state you may perceive your life to be in right now, you can experience the thrill of a new beginning just by tending a new, simple little plant.  Synchronize with natural forces and proceed without doing any research.  Just follow your intuition.

“Take rest; a field that has rested gives a beautiful crop.” OVID, Roman Poet, 43 B.C. – 17 A.D.

       When was the last time you experienced a deliciously refreshing night’s sleep?  Or a deeply restful hour with loved ones.  Or a quiet moment of solitude relaxing into your spiritual self?  If you need to look beyond the past 24 hours for the answers, let me help you rest right now.   
      

Power Wash Your Energy Field!
You surely know that feeling good generates healing chemicals and activities in your body.  You might know that the law of attraction brings us more of what we’re feeling.  But do you know that positive emotions cleanse your aura?  Energy flows into us clean and clear, and it outflows as emotions.  When your emotion is positive, the flow of that energy “power washes” your portals.  When your emotion is negative it carries all kinds of sludge and debris that clogs up your field.

World class athletes use holistic visualization to enhance learning and performance, and you can, too. Here's proof.  Recall--as vividly as you can--holding a fresh lemon in your hand.  "Feel" its weight.  Imagine tossing it in the air.  "Hear" it land in your palm.  "Examine" the knobbly texture and colors of the rind. "Hold" it close to your nose.  "Smell" the aroma of pure lemon oil.  Imagine lifting a knife and halving it.  "Pick up" half and look at the little sacks of juice.  "Squeeze" it slightly and "lick" the juice.

Tah dahhhh! Your salivary glands respond like you really licked a lemon! And that puckery feeling at the sides of your throat is equally real.