ALTERNATIVE THERAPIES, MODALITIES and HEALING PRACTICES

by Tracey A. Smith, M.Ed., CTRS  of Wellness WRKS, LLCwww.wellnesswrksllc.com, tracey@wellnesswrksllc.com, 215-605-3221

Alternative Therapies actually pre-date modern medicine. Ancient healing practices are ones that are

• Non-evasive, Preventative in nature
• Chemical free
• Designed to provide the support your body needs to balance and heal itself
• Treats the cause as opposed to suppressing the symptoms

What is integrative medicine?
Integrative medicine combines conventional medical care with alternative therapies.

Naturopathy (also known as naturopathic medicine or natural medicine) focuses on natural remedies and the body's vital ability to heal and maintain itself. Utilizing a holistic approach with minimal use of drugs and surgery.

Homeopathy is a form of alternative medicine that treats a disease with heavily diluted preparations that are thought to cause effects similar to the disease's symptoms

1. Aromatherapy
2. Massage Therapy – Sports, Swedish, Deep Tissue, Stone, Cranial Sacral
3. Foot Reflexology / Ionic Foot Soak
4. Acupuncture
5. Acupressure/Emotional Freedom Technique
6. Colonic Irrigations
7. Reiki
8. Hypnotherapy
9. Hydrotherapy – Whirlpool/Jacuzzi, Steam Bath, Sauna
10. Sound Healing- Tibetan Singing Bowls
11. (Bach) Flower Essences, Elixirs

12.  Crystal / Gemstone therapy

13.  Pilates  

14.  Sahaja Yoga

15.  Hatha yoga, Hot Yoga, Laughter Yoga

16.  Homeopathy

17.  Ayurvedic

18.  Tai Chi

19.  Meditation

20.  Vegetarian

21.  Vegan

22.  Herbology

23.  Dietary Supplements / Vitamins

24.  Biofeedback/ SCIO

25.  EMDR

26.  Thought Field Therapy

27. Color Light Therapy
28.  Chakra Balancing
29.  Chinese Medicine
30.  Chiropractic
31.  Ayurveda Remedies
32.  Bioenergetics
33.  Ozone Therapy, Far Infrared Red Therapy.
34.  Body work – Raindrop Therapy, Body Wraps
35.  Breath Work
36.  Pet Therapy
37.  Creative arts Therapy
38.  Recreational Therapy
39.  Occupational therapy
40.  Music Therapy
41.  Art Therapy
42.  Dance therapy
43.  Horticulture Therapy
44. Creative Writing
45.  Feng Shui
46.   Prayer
47.  Meditation
48.  Angels
49.  Ancestors
50.  Fitness/Exercise/Sports
51. Recreation, leisure activities and hobbies
52. Chanting
53.  Cassette tapes Cd’s DVD’s
54.  Numerology
55.  Mandela’s
56.  Astrology
57.  Guided imagery/Dreams
58.   Labyrinths
59. Amethyst mat therapy
60.  Pendulums & Dowsing
61.  Six sense – Intuition
62.  Native American – Tools & Practices

       Sweat lodge, Drumming, medicine wheel, dream catchers, feathers smudging, Shaman

63. Nutrition, Weight loss, fasting - Metabolic, Vegetarian, Vegan

-->

What is Integrative Medicine?

by Georgia Tetlow, MD, Philadelphia Integrative Medicine

Integrative medicine is an approach that puts you at the center and addresses the full range of physical, emotional, mental, social, spiritual and environmental influences that affect your health. This health strategy considers your unique conditions, needs and circumstances, and uses the most appropriate interventions from an array of scientific disciplines to heal illness and disease to help you regain and maintain optimum wellness.

Prevention

Many people think of prevention in terms of early detection, such as prostate cancer screening and breast examinations. Within integrative medicine, prevention means participating in behaviors and actions that foster health and wellness. This includes eating healthy, breathing clean air, drinking pure water, exercising on a regular basis, eliminating toxins from one’s home and work environments, and taking steps to reduce daily stress levels (I saved one of the most important for last!).

The importance of prevention lies in the fact that the majority of our health care dollars are currently spent after we are in crisis, when it costs the most to intervene and when the possibilities for full recovery are the slimmest. (1) Chronic conditions — asthma, heart disease, diabetes, some cancers, hypertension, stroke and obesity — account for more than half of all health care costs and more than 70% of deaths. Yet many chronic conditions are largely preventable and even reversible by making positive changes in personal behaviors.

Because changing one’s lifestyle is not always easy, inte­grative medicine providers like me create clinics and ways of relating that help you make the needed changes. Not everyone is the same, so individualized testing and a customized approach to communication and personal change are needed. Whether it is lowering blood pressure and cholesterol through lifestyle choices, herbs or supplements, or performing intracellular micronutrient testing to address deficiencies (to resolve headaches, low energy, brain fog, etc.), an integrative approach combines the best of conventional and alternative medicine for your optimal health.

Dr. Tetlow’s patients are getting well and she is ready ready to see you! Georgia Tetlow, MD, is integrative physician at The Resiliency Center. She completed an integrative medicine fellowship at the University of Arizona, has a faculty affiliation at Thomas Jefferson and has expertise in mind-body medicine, herbal therapies and diets and energy medicine to address chronic illness, cancer recovery and pain. Visit www.philly-im.com, call (888) 702-7974 or email info@philly-im.com.

Dr. Tetlow is a fee-for-service provider and provides you a receipt for you to submit to insurance for reimbursement at an out of network rate, after your deductible. She has programs at every financial level and hopes to soon offer insurance-reimbursed group classes at The Resiliency Center. Please call to inquire!

References

1. Oz, MD, Mehmet. (2009). Real Health Care Reform: What’s Next. http://www.huffingtonpost.com/dr-mehmet-oz/real-health-care-reform-w_b_356123.html. Retrieval 2011-1-18.

Integrative Recommendations for Rheumatoid Arthritis

An integrative approach to autoimmune illness, including rheumatoid arthritis, includes general measures to reduce inflammation in the body.  Simultaneously reducing stress and improving stress management maximizes your healing response and can help reduce flares, because stress is expressed as inflammation in the body.

Mind- Body Techniques

Meditation is highly recommended for all patients with severe generalized inflammation. Consider enrolling in a Mindfulness Based Stress Reduction program, or learning vipassana meditation. Mindfulness has been shown to measurably reduce salivary cortisol and plasma DHEAS (“Mindfulness-based stress reduction in relation to quality of life, mood, symptoms of stress and levels of cortisol, dehydroepiandrosterone sulfate (DHEAS)….Carlson et al, Psychoneuroimmunology 2004.

Relaxation exercises and the development of improved methods to cope with stress are also believed to be helpful, through the use of Tai Chi, Yoga, or a similar body based meditative practice. 

Reflective or disclosure journaling is helpful, particularly writing regarding emotionally charged events in your life. 

Removing toxins

Eliminate coffee and tobacco.  Make alcohol are rare treat, if at all. Consider elimination of commonly offending foods, with or without IgG food sensitivity testing.  Dairy, wheat, citrus, and nuts are common culprits.  Total elimination of suspected foods from your diet for three weeks followed by reintroduction of each food separately may be revealing.

Shift to an organic based diet, including dairy, eggs, and meat products.  At least avoid the more pesticide laden foods – see foodnews.org to learn which foods are more important to get organic. Limited research suggests a substantial improvement for some people with rheumatoid arthritis with a change to a vegan diet.  Improvement is seen only after several months.

Nutrition

Increase omega-3 fatty acid intake by eating more cold water fish, adding ground flaxseeds, or fish oil.  See www.ewg.org/node/15436 for information to help you avoid excessive mercury exposure. Consider the recommendations of the anti-inflammatory diet and gradually incorporate as many of these as make sense to you. 

Acupuncture

Helpful for many people with Rheumatoid Arthritis; less likely to be beneficial for those taking corticosteroids such as prednisone.

Supplements

Fish oil supplements are recommended.  Look for high quality brands like Nordic Naturals or Carlsons.  Determine your dose not by the total amount shown on the front of the bottle, but with the sum content of DHA plus EPA.  Start with a daily dose of 1000 mg  of DHA + EPA, and increase every five days or so until you take a total of 25 mg DHA and 15 mg EPA / lb of body weight, or 3-5 g/day, ideally split between morning and evening doses, with food.

GLA (Gamma Linolenic Acid), as GLA 1.4-2.8 gm/day) or Evening Primrose Oil (12-22 gm/day). Start two weeks after beginning fish oil, and use ONLY IF TAKING MODERATE DOSE OF FISH OIL AS WELL!

Vitamin D, 2000 IU/day or as indicated by testing.

Calcium 1000 mg daily, ideally as Ca Citrate

Magnesium 400 – 750 mg daily, as tolerated.

Selenium 100 mg  (not to exceed 400 microgram/day) and less if you eat many nuts (one brazil nut provides an average of 100 micrograms of selenium.)

AND PERHAPS: Vitamin C, 250 mg twice daily.

Botanicals:  (each are included in the supplement Zyflamend)

Ginger, starting with 1 gm twice daily, increasing weekly up to total of 2 gm twice daily. Turmeric, ½ gm twice daily, increasing to 1 gm twice daily.  To absorb it, cook it must be cooked in oil.

Exercise

A personalized well balanced exercise program has numerous and significant benefits.

Avoid herbal supplements that stimulate the immune system, such as Echinacea, Astragalus, Alfalfa Sprouts, Iron, St. Johns Wort. Alfalfa sprouts contain the amino acid L-canavanine, which can stimulate the immune system in people with lupus and increase inflammation. Other legumes are safe to eat as they have a much lower concentration of L-canavanine.  It’s probably best to also avoid iron unless you are anemic and iron deficient.  (Keep in mind some menstruating women will need appropriate doses of iron to prevent anemia.)  St. John’s Wort can cause many other medicines to be less effective.

Pharmaceuticals

As recommended by your rheumatologist.

Post Authored by : 
Georgia Tetlow, MD
Clinical Assistant Professor of Rehabilitation Medicine, Thomas Jefferson Medical College
Phone: (888) 702-7974
Email: info@beingmybestself.com
Website: www.beingmybestself.com