Building Immunity Starts with Your Diet

Now more than ever, we need strong immune systems. Living through a pandemic with flu season upon us, a robust immune system can keep us healthy and help us rebound faster if we do get sick. So, what helps us build a robust immune system? Everything from adequate sleep and exercise, to proper stress management and nutrition. Nutrition plays a key role in helping or hurting us. And if we want a strong immune system, there are many foods and key nutrients that can help us build it. When we talk about nutrition, it’s important to recognize that both diet and supplementation can be helpful. While the diet can supply a plentiful dose of nutrients, we often need an extra boost of specific vitamins, minerals, phytochemicals, and antioxidants to ramp up our immunity. Some key nutrients for immunity include 

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Setting an Intention: Mental Health Tips

Simplicity is the antidote to complexity. In light of the experience of anxiety, depression and racing thoughts, simplicity helps the mind to gain clarity and settle down.  A mistake that can be made while setting an intention is the assumption that you won’t be met with challenges. As is shown in the tai ji symbol, challenges are unavoidable.The tai ji symbol (yin/yang symbol) shows us the law of nature where there is a balance of opposites. Where there is change, there is stability, where there is day...

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Covid Prevention: How to Keep Yourself Safe During the Second Wave

The holiday season is upon us, but unfortunately, the rate for Covid infections, hospitalizations, and fatalities are at an all-time high. The U.S. is adding close to 300,000 new cases per day and close to 3,000 fatalities per day1. Until we can get vaccinated, we still need to take measures to prevent infection. A protocol based guide for recommended treatment and prevention of COVID was recently written by the Chief of Pulmonary and Critical Care Medicine at Eastern Virginia Medical School (EVMS). In the guide, many of the recommendations for prevention are natural therapies. I will discuss two of the therapies recommended in this post, vitamin D and melatonin. By combining natural therapies with mask wearing and social distancing, we can help reduce the spread of infection. We know that vitamin D is an important vitamin for bone health. But vitamin D also plays a critical role in immune function

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I have my wonderful husband back!

A wonderful letter from our patient on how hyperbaric oxygen therapy and other integrative treatments helped dramatically improve the effects pf  traumatic brain injury of 30+years as well as Lyme disease 

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Hyperbaric Oxygen Therapy for Breast Cancer

Hyperbaric oxygen therapy (HBOT) has many benefits in tissue healing. HBOT increases the amount of oxygen saturated in plasma regardless of red blood cell saturation percentage. The pressure assists in driving the oxygen through all tissue and especially where circulation may be compromised due to trauma or injury. Since oxygen provides energy, the cells can start repairing and rebuilding. The pressure also helps to close surgical wounds which can help reduce infection and scarring. Treatments such as mastectomy, tumor removal, and radiation therapy can cause damage to normal tissue and may lead to infection, burns, inflammation, and swelling or lymphedema. Multiple human studies have found benefit in the U.S. of HBOT for post surgical healing, radiation induced tissue damage, and radiation induced lymphedema.

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How to be Proactive with Your Breast Health

Whether you have lost a loved one, survived the trauma of defeating cancer, or simply would like to prevent cancer from growing in your body, we are here to listen. Our Integrative Medicine approach is based on caring practitioner-client partnership that incorporates the best of conventional Western medicine with alternative and complementary therapies resulting in a safer, more natural, whole body approach to stimulate healing. Prevention of breast cancer is linked with lower levels of alcohol intake, as alcohol increases circulation of both androgens and estrogens.

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Integrating Chinese Medicine into Cancer Care

Chinese medicine can be an important and incredibly helpful addition to breast cancer treatment. Most people just think acupuncture is what a licensed acupuncturist can offer, but we are also trained in herbal medicine, nutrition, bodywork and Qigong meditation and these are all things that can be incorporated into your treatment plan and care, from prevention, to treatment, and to recovery and moving on with your life A cancer diagnosis is all consuming... Read More

Blood Sugar, Estrogen, and Breast Cancer

Breast cancer is directly connected to hormonal imbalance. When we talk about the complex world of hormones, we understand that many aspects influence them, such as stress, the food we eat, how we move our bodies (or lack of movement), and genetics. With breast cancer specifically, estrogen is a key player. So how does nutrition influence our estrogen?

By now you may or may not have heart of “estrogen dominance,” a condition where estrogen levels are either above normal levels or progesterone is too low. The typical estrogen dominant picture usually includes symptoms such as...

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The Kidney: The Body’s Energy Foundation

During ancient times, the Chinese medical doctors who had the least ill patients were considered the best. Traditionally, the practice of Chinese medicine was used to prevent disease, maintain health and contribute to longevity as well as to treat all kinds of illnesses. So, receiving regular acupuncture treatments can not only help prevent the occurrence of many diseases, but help you live longer. Treatments can help strengthen the body to improve immune function, inhibit disease growth, protect the organs to ensure their healthy functioning, and calm the mind and emotions.

Simply by living our lives and aging there is a natural amount of depletion we experience, so it is important to find ways to continually build our bodies and minds... 

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The Fountain (or Food) of Youth

Nutrition is not to be underestimated when it comes to anti-aging. Food alone has the power to keep us feeling and looking vibrant or to actually do the opposite (though please don’t take this to be a scare-tactic). If we look at the multiple opportunities daily that we have to invest in our future self, well now that’s something most of us can get behind. Most of us can find some motivation there, too. Let’s talk about some key foods and key nutrients.

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