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Acupuncture 101: Everything You Need to Know

Acupuncture has been utilized for its health benefits since ancient times, particularly in Chinese medicine. This holistic health technique has become more popular in the United States and other western cultures over the past few decades, making it easier than ever to seek acupuncture treatment for acute and chronic conditions alike.

If you suffer from headaches, hypertension, or chronic pain, acupuncture could be the treatment capable of restoring your quality of life. Here’s everything you need to know about this ancient practice and the many ways it can improve your health.

A Quick History of Acupuncture

Acupuncture was developed by the ancient Chinese as a system of pricking the skin or tissue with needles in order to treat a variety of physical, mental, and emotional conditions. They believed that by treating specific points on the body, acupuncture could release a flow of energy and stimulate the body’s healing process in order to restore balance.

Western science explains this differently, but the result is the same. Today, it’s believed that acupuncture stimulates nerves, muscles, and connective tissue to activate the body’s natural painkillers and blood flow. Continue reading Acupuncture 101: Everything You Need to Know

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Considering Functional Medicine Testing: What You Need to Know

It’s easy enough to undergo basic lab work, but those labs fail to offer a comprehensive picture of your health. It’s all too common for doctors to order a standard lab without ever digging deep into the root causes of your health problems.

If you’re struggling with symptoms that don’t seem to make sense with your lifestyle or have no obvious trigger, you need the help and expertise of a doctor who knows how to use functional medicine testing to decode your health mystery.

What Is Functional Medicine Testing?
Functional medicine testing is distinctly different than traditional lab testing. In most doctors’ offices and hospitals, physicians run standard blood work to see if they find an established disease process. Action is taken only when the lab results are out of the “normal” range.

This standard blood work process fails to help or recognize the many patients who have chronic symptoms but will not show anything remarkable or out-of-the-ordinary in blood work. Functional medicine lab testing is used to assess subtle patterns of imbalance that would otherwise be ignored. More than anything, the goal of functional medicine testing is to prevent disease before it happens by identifying potential or developing problems and guiding patient care accordingly. Continue reading Considering Functional Medicine Testing: What You Need to Know

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Start the New Year Right: 3 Reasons to Consider FirstLine Therapy

A New Year has finally arrived, which means it’s the perfect time to reflect on your wellness and make goals for the upcoming year. Healthy living is one of the most sought-after achievements, but it isn’t always easy to improve your habits alone.

Tackle your health differently this year with FirstLine Therapy, a specialized therapeutic lifestyle program that strategically helps you embrace a healthier lifestyle. When you entrust your health to FirstLine Therapy, you will learn how to incorporate a sensible eating plan, customized nutritional supplementation, exercise, and stress management techniques to transform your quality of life.

What Is the FirstLine Therapy Program Like?
You can’t walk into any doctor’s office and expect to receive FirstLine Therapy. You need to find a holistic and integrative practitioner like Dr. Shemesh at MindBodySpirit Care. Dr. Shemesh helps you take simple, gradual steps to enhance your overall health, reverse existing signs of disease, and prevent future disease.

FirstLine Therapy begins with an initial exam and follow-up testing that identifies your current health strengths and challenges. You will benefit from regular consultations and a program guidebook to identify solutions for staying active, eating well, and sticking with the best lifestyle choices. Dr. Shemesh will provide lifestyle counseling, nutritional product recommendations, and progress tracking to ensure you reach your goals. Continue reading Start the New Year Right: 3 Reasons to Consider FirstLine Therapy

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3 Benefits of Chelation Therapy

We live in a world saturated with toxins like heavy metals that threaten the body’s health and wellness. Your body system absorbs toxins even when you least expect it, like as you eat fish or visit the dentist. This means that even if you maintain a healthy lifestyle, you’re still vulnerable to the damage toxins cause.

Fortunately, chelation therapy is a simple and effective way to detoxify your body and remove dangerous heavy metals from your system.

What Is Chelation Therapy?

Chelation therapy is capable of removing heavy metals like lead, mercury, copper, iron, arsenic, aluminum, and calcium from the body. During chelation therapy, molecules of the amino acid EDTA are delivered through an IV into the body.

EDTA naturally latches onto heavy metals and carries them out of the body through the urine. By binding with and eliminating these toxins from the body, chelation can reduce the body’s toxic metal burden and minimize or eliminate a number of negative health consequences. Continue reading 3 Benefits of Chelation Therapy

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Are You In Chronic Pain? Fibromyalgia Could Be To Blame

If you experience chronic pain that has become debilitating and often interferes with your daily activities, you could be suffering from fibromyalgia.

Fibromyalgia is a complex chronic pain disorder that causes physical, mental, and social side effects. The sooner you determine whether fibromyalgia is the root cause of your suffering, the sooner you can seek effective and life-changing treatment.

What Is Fibromyalgia?

Fibromyalgia is defined as a widespread and chronic pain that creates many tender points throughout the body. People with fibromyalgia often experience fatigue, sleep disturbances, and light sensitivity as side effects of such profound pain. When fibromyalgia continues without being treated, it often becomes so debilitating that it interferes with basic daily activities.

How Is Fibromyalgia Treated?

There is no known cure for fibromyalgia, but doctors can recommend a number of different treatments and techniques to minimize symptoms. Non-pharmacological therapies like exercise, massage, acupuncture, herbal supplements, and yoga are all effective tools in managing symptoms. Some patients also receive IV nutritional therapy and experience relief by resolving nutritional deficiencies that caused symptoms of pain. A variety of medications have also been approved by the FDA to treat fibromyalgia, including Lyrica and Cymbalta.   Continue reading Are You In Chronic Pain? Fibromyalgia Could Be To Blame

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Experts Encourage the Mediterranean Diet for Brain Health

What if you could eat food you truly love, nourish your body, and preserve your health, all at the same time? Yes, it’s possible! Forget fad diets that force you to starve yourself, and instead embrace positive, healthy eating habits with the Mediterranean diet. The Mediterranean diet is more of a food lifestyle with powerful impacts on brain health.

Brain Health and Age

Just like the skin becomes more prone to wrinkles with age, the brain becomes more prone to forgetfulness and memory problems with age. The brain is responsible for performing countless cognitive tasks on a regular basis, from noticing colors and translating their significance to calculating time and forming language.

However, aging makes these mental tasks more difficult. The Mediterranean Diet helps you maintain a strong working memory and may even prevent the declines associated with dementia and Alzheimer’s disease.

Many studies have been completed regarding the Mediterranean diet, but this most recent study followed 400 adults between the ages of 73 and 76 for a three-year period. The study participants who ate according to a Mediterranean diet showed through MRI scans that they were less likely to lose brain volume. Continue reading Experts Encourage the Mediterranean Diet for Brain Health

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Holiday Prep 101: Anti-Aging Tricks That Will Keep You Photo Ready

The holiday season has officially started, which brings its own forms of stress and joy. From holiday cards and office parties to family gatherings, December is one of the busiest months of the year, so it can be hard to remember positive self-care techniques.

Even with a busy schedule, you deserve to enjoy your holiday season while looking and feeling picture perfect. You already know to eat healthy and hit the gym each day, but you can use simple non-invasive cosmetic treatments to enhance your aura of beauty as well.

Latisse

Latisse is an FDA-approved topical prescription medication that is used to increase the length and thickness of your eyelashes. Its active ingredient works gradually to help your lashes look longer, thicker, and more beautiful. Most women notice measurable results within 8 weeks of continuous use. Maximum results occur by week 16. The treatment process is as simple as applying mascara and makes a great gift to give yourself this season. Continue reading Holiday Prep 101: Anti-Aging Tricks That Will Keep You Photo Ready

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How to Stay Healthy During Cold and Flu Season

It’s that time of year again; no matter where you go, you’re surrounded by people who are sneezing, coughing, and sniffling. If you want to stay healthy during cold and flu season, you need to take the right steps to boost your immunity and equip your body with the tools it needs to fight infection. These tips will help you survive the holiday season feeling your best.

Use IV Nutrient Therapy To Reverse Deficiencies

IV nutrient therapy overcomes nutrient deficiencies and balances your body’s nutrients by delivering vitamins, minerals, and amino acids directly into your body’s bloodstream. Unlike traditional oral vitamins that aren’t efficiently absorbed, IV therapy ensures that your body receives everything it needs to remain in optimal health.

By nourishing your body with the right vitamins, minerals, and amino acids, IV nutrient therapy can keep diseases at bay, recharge your mind, rehydrate your body, give you more energy, support your immune system, and detoxify your body. In other words, it keeps your body in the best health possible so you don’t become the next victim of the flu season. Continue reading How to Stay Healthy During Cold and Flu Season

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4 Signs You May Have a Thyroid Disorder

More than 25 million Americans suffer from some sort of thyroid disorder, yet only a fraction of them know that the thyroid is to blame for their symptoms. Make sure you are familiar with the following 4 signs of a thyroid disorder so you can seek the treatment you need to restore your health.

What is the Thyroid and its Disease?

The thyroid is a small, butterfly-shaped gland that sits at the base on your neck. It’s designed to produce essential hormones that control how fast your body burns calories, how fast your heart beats, and more. Due to the central role of the thyroid in supporting optimized body function, any disorder or disease of the thyroid will create noticeable symptoms.

Hypothyroidism is the most common thyroid disease. It develops as a result of underactive thyroid hormone production. Without enough thyroid hormone, the body’s metabolism and other important functions begin to slow, leading to the following 4 main symptoms.

Weight Gain

If your thyroid isn’t producing enough of its hormone, you will likely struggle regularly with weight gain and the inability to lose weight. Perhaps you blame yourself for not exercising right, or you assume your food choices need to change, but the truth is that a deficiency of thyroid hormone has slowed your metabolism to a crawl. Continue reading 4 Signs You May Have a Thyroid Disorder

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Acupuncture: Should You Give It a Try?

The pharmaceutical industry has created the common – and dangerous! – misconception that health problems should be solved with pills and prescriptions. For many men and women, the prescriptions they take have actually caused more problems than they solved. Does this sound familiar to you?

If so, you should turn your attention to holistic treatments like acupuncture. The ancient Chinese developed acupuncture as a way to support the body’s natural healing abilities, and you can use it for the same purposes.

What is Acupuncture?
Acupuncture is a holistic treatment that has been used for thousands of years to relieve different health problems. The practice involves inserting tiny needles into specific locations of the body called acupuncture points. These points are selected based on how energy flows through the body below the surface of the skin.

According to traditional Chinese medicine, energy often becomes blocked or rerouted as it flows through the body. Acupuncture makes it possible to restore the natural flow of energy through the body to relieve painful and unwanted symptoms. In the Western world, acupuncture is explained as a way to stimulate nerves, muscles, and connective tissue to boost the body’s natural painkillers and increase blood flow. Continue reading Acupuncture: Should You Give It a Try?