Ah, fall…the children are off to school and grown-up schedules ramp up to match. With the first cool breezes of September, business schedules snap awake from their vacation torpor and meetings cluster on every available evening and weekend.

Whether you’re a solo professional, a student, or a parent safeguarding your children’s needs as well as your own, you’re carrying a lot on your back…often literally, all day long! And as the summer styles slip into fall, this is a good time to make sure that you’re carrying it in a healthy way.

Handbags, diaper bags, schoolbags, briefcases, laptop cases…any chiropractor will tell you that a well-designed bag can make the difference between daily comfort and daily pain. To keep your back strong and healthy, keep these points in mind when you’re choosing and using your everyday bag:

Keep it light – Buy the lightest, smallest bag that will hold your daily necessities. If you’re carrying more than 6.5 pounds in your shoulder bag (whether it’s ergonomically designed or not!), look to redistribute the load in a backpack. If you or your child is consistently carrying around a bulging backpack, consider buying one with a metal frame, wheels, and a handle for pulling.

Choose your bag realistically: if you’re going to be carrying your laptop in it, make sure you have space for all the peripherals, and include them in your weight estimation.

Be sure your bag has wide, padded straps to protect your shoulders.

Choose a bag with lots of compartments to distribute weight more evenly.

Wear a backpack high up, between your shoulder blades, not down on your lumbar region. If you’re using a shoulder bag, switch it from one shoulder to the other.

If you’re buying a bag for your child, use this Fitting Guide for A Child’s Backpack.

Test your bag when it’s loaded up. If you’re slumping over or leaning to one side with the weight, it’s either too heavy, unevenly distributed, poorly fitted…or the wrong design for your build.

Don’t let stuff accumulate in your bag. Go through your bag frequently and clear out whatever you aren’t using. Keep the things you’ll need later on (or someday) in the glove box of your car, a locker, or a convenient desk drawer.

Finally, even with the lightest, most ergonomically-designed bag, it’s important to take care of your spine and back muscles. Do stretching exercises to keep your back limber, and consider seeing a chiropractor and massage therapist regularly to release tension and adjust misalignments before they become serious.

At first it was nothing much. A cramp or two, a passing queasiness, and “Frank” passed it off as gas. But it kept coming back, getting steadily worse, until putting any pressure on his midsection was nearly unbearable. That was when he started going to the doctors…

Eleven specialists, 4 CT and PT scans, and a small home pharmacy later, Frank was still in pain. He’d gotten 11 terrifying diagnoses ranging from lung cancer to spinal stenosis, with drugs for each one, and none of the prescriptions had any effect. “If I’d been a junkie, I’d have been in heaven,” he says now.

Finally, he came to the realization: I could just keep believing these horrific diagnoses, go home, and write my will – or I could throw away these useless meds, research my problems myself, seek my inner wisdom, and make my own decisions.

His  GI specialist did a colonoscopy and said he found “some Helicobacter pylori.”  H. Pylori lives in most people’s guts, where it does no harm unless it multiplies past a manageable level. “When that happens,” Frank said, “the standard treatment is threefold: two heavy-duty antibiotics and an acid reducer, two times a day for seven days. I said, ‘This will kill anything inside me,’ and chose a gentler way.”

“The guidance was clear that the way for me was herbal,” he said. After a great deal of research, he learned that a number of herbs were especially suited to calming symptoms like his. He put them together and began using them – and within a week, the symptoms subsided. They remained minor for the next 18 months.

It was just after his sister was diagnosed with lung cancer that Frank’s symptoms returned, full-blown. “I looked at my life and saw the cause of the problem,” he said. “I resumed the herbs, and found that they didn’t work at the level they previously did.”

He did more research and found a recent in-vitro and in-vivo trial showed that curcumin, extracted from turmeric, arrests H. pylori growth. The trial showed effectiveness against at least 65 different strains of the gastric microbe, irrespective of the genetic make-up of the strain. In-vivo effects shown in H. pylori infected mice suggest “immense” therapeutic potential as curcumin is highly effective in eradication, as well as being restorative to H. pylori-induced gastric damage ( De R e al. Antimicrobial activity of curcumin against Helicobacter pylori isolates from India and during infections in mice. Antimicrobial Agents and Chemotherapy, 2009; 53(4): 1592-7).

He also learned that cranberries help– but that you can’t eat enough of them in a day to make a difference. “So I went to the health food store and bought turmeric and cranberry capsules,” he recalls, “and began double and triple-dosing myself: where 500 mg of turmeric was the recommended dose, I took 1500, and so forth. And now, the pain is almost completely gone.”

Today, Frank is working with an internist (M.D.) who also practices Traditional Chinese Medicine, acupuncture and herbalism, and has been inspired to study herbalism  himself.

This is just about the best success story of “going with your gut” – in several senses! – that we’ve ever heard. After hearing the dire diagnoses, Frank opted to do his own research, seek his inner wisdom, and choose the practitioners who could genuinely help him.

We’re not recommending that you fire your mainstream M.D. – far from it! Mainstream medicine does have its benefits and uses, especially in high-risk emergency situations.

However, especially with long-term illnesses, when the diagnosis is unclear or the treatment is dire, we suggest that you use the precautionary principle and explore the gentler alternative paths first. Even if they appear to be ineffective, they often offer therapeutic value over and above reducing the immediate symptoms, while their side effects are far less drastic (and may be nothing at all!).  And at best, they may resolve the root cause of the problem entirely, as Frank’s treatment did.

We’ll discuss mainstream pharmaceuticals in another post…for now, however, we encourage you not to hesitate in questioning your doctor and seeking out your own solutions. This is your body and your life; you have a right to correct answers and appropriate treatment!

These days, it’s tempting to say you’re financially stable if you are free from debt and can pay your bills every month. But no financial advisor would ever tell you to settle for simple subsistence on a knife-edge, where any crisis can throw you into a shortfall! Instead, they’ll tell you to build your savings and invest in money-making strategies to ensure your financial comfort long into the future.

Translate that financial perspective to health care, and you’ll have a pretty good idea of how we see wellness here at Howard County Holistic Center.

It’s not just a matter of being free from disease or pain.  Instead, it’s…

Knowing that you can trust your body to do whatever you want it to do…

Having the stamina not only to do the necessities, but also to do the fun things…

Feeling fully awake and energized from the time you wake up until you go to bed…

Being clear-headed, having all of your brain-power online…

Being able to balance your own emotions, not being swept away by hormonal high tides…

You get the idea! There is a tremendous difference between bare basic survival, putting up with aches, pains, brain-fog, energy-crashes, and mood swings, versus total wellness, with every system of your body functioning optimally.

Just as a responsible financial advisor is dedicated to your long-term wealth, total wellness is our goal for you!

Just as you probably have an insurance agent, a bookkeeper, a tax advisor, and an investment advisor to support you in building and maintaining your financial health, you need to have a wellness team:  an integrative physician or naturopath to keep the big picture in focus, along with other professionals whom you can question, talk to, and trust: perhaps an acupuncturist, a psychotherapist,  a nutritional counselor, etc. Each member of your wellness team supplies his or her own unique expertise in bringing you to full mind/body/spirit health.

And just as no financial advisor cannot give you wealth without your participation in the process, no healer can simply hand you total wellness in a pill or a supplement!

We see your journey as an active, long-term partnership, in which your team helps you to recognize and respond to your body’s signals, and to make appropriate decisions regarding your treatment. Meanwhile, it’s our job to provide you with support, information, treatment and – most important of all – empowerment as you take ownership of your total wellness!

For years, those words – It’s all in your head – used to be a stock response to any symptoms medicine could not explain. And patients would go away feeling shamed, blamed, dismissed and abandoned by their health care provider.

So why are we saying it?

Believe us, our goal is not to shame or dismiss anyone! Instead, we aim to empower you to take ownership of your body/mind/spirit capabilities…by discovering your capacity to affect your physical processes of disease and wellness.

You’ve probably heard many times that the physical world – including our bodies – is composed of energy, and that the body, mind, and spirit cannot be separated. The days of seeing the body as a machine are long over, fortunately! Instead, research indicates that our thought processes can set up the conditions for physical disease …and the degree to which we heal our minds and spirits can also contribute to our physical wellness.

Notable physicians such as Bernie Siegel, M.D., and Mehmet Oz, M.D., have written a great deal about this phenomenon. Their books, such as Love, Medicine and Miracles and Healing from the Heart, document cases of men and women who tapped into an inner wisdom to achieve healing, even in the midst of major illnesses such as cancer and heart disease.

You may be thinking, “If only I could do that!” We can’t offer any promises, but we can offer some tips that may help to boost your healing process…

Create an energetic environment that supports healing. Sounds easy, right? But how many times in this culture do we put ourselves in energy fields that do not affirm health and life – horror movies, violent video games and TV shows, angry music, etc.? What are the thoughts and emotions that such media inspire? Think about the energetic environment you’re creating around yourself, and choose to create one that nurtures your mind, body and spirit.

Affirm your worth. Do you have a lurking belief, in some part of your being, that you don’t deserve to have a happy, healthy, abundant life? Shame – the core sense that we’re unworthy or undeserving – is virtually an epidemic in this culture, and is often hidden under distractions such as work, TV, and so forth. Take some time to look at the unexamined assumptions beneath your words and actions. If you see that this is part of your inner conversation, please, talk to us, and we will offer resources for healing.

Choose joy and laughter. When Norman Cousins was diagnosed with an incurable illness, he watched one classic comedy movie after another…and his practice of laughter, along with other therapies, resulted in his healing. Medical science has proven now that laughter reduces pain and stress hormones, strengthens the immune system, releases endorphins, and has a positive effect on every system of the body.

Meditate. There are so many health benefits to meditation: It increases blood flow and slows the heart rate, lowers blood pressure, enhances the immune system,  decreases muscle tension, increases serotonin production (thus reducing depression, insomnia and headaches), reduces anxiety attacks, reduces pre- menstrual syndrome; and helps in post-operative healing. Beyond this, meditation helps you to tap into your own deep inner knowing, body wisdom, and Spirit connection.

Embrace community. Many people, when they receive a frightening diagnosis, choose to isolate and keep their journey a secret from all but a few. “Nobody wants to hear about my health issues,” they say. We’re not suggesting that you share every last symptom with everyone you meet…but we do urge you to tell your family, friends, and spiritual community that you are facing challenges..and allow yourself to receive their concern and support. In a culture where self-sufficiency is expected, showing vulnerability and receive love can go against our conditioning…and it’s good for the soul!

Most of all – talk to us here at HCHC. With our integrated approach, we can devote the energy and expertise of a full team of healers to your situation. Healing isn’t limited to one organ or system; it’s a whole-person journey. Let us walk it with you.

When was the last time you promised yourself – One day I’m going to make the time for a mental-health day. Go to a spa, get a massage, really treat myself to some serious stress relief. Yes – one day. When I’ve got the time…the money…

That’s a wonderful idea – and we fully support you in taking that day! But in the meantime, Howard County Holistic Center would like to treat you to a calming session of acupressure for relaxation and wellness every month.

Every first Friday, from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m., Member Practitioner Carol Wetherill offers SEVA stress release and acupressure treatments for minor discomforts such as aches, pains, headaches, and so forth in a free monthly “Spirit of SEVA” clinic at the Center.

What Is SEVA? SEVA (the Sanskrit word for compassionate service) is an acupressure protocol, designed as a compassionate response to support efforts in the 9/11 tragedy in New York City to relieve shock and stress. It has since been adopted as a means of self-care, designed specifically to ease the human stress response and support overall well-being.

SEVA sessions are offered in the spirit of compassionate service.  We will ask you to sign a consent form, acknowledging that this session is not a treatment for any specific illnesses and does not replace medical attention, but purely for relaxation and self-awareness.

A typical SEVA session is done on a client, fully clothed, lying on a table, or sitting in a chair if needed. The practitioner begins with a gentle leg release (stretch) and then uses gentle finger pressure applied to points on the body to access energy pathways. The session concludes with a gentle leg release (stretch), inviting balance, centering, and stress release.

This gentle practice of acupressure uses the same therapeutic principles as acupuncture. Specific points on the surface of the skin release energy that flows in predictable pathways throughout the human body. The specific acupoints used in the SEVA Stress Release were chosen carefully for their multi-functional properties. Each point is accessed with a special style of touch, and in a particular order to facilitate an optimal deep, relaxing experience.

The Chinese healing traditions make no distinction between the body, mind, and spirit. When one system is addressed, all the others are affected as well. This is why we say that the SEVA Stress Release is a “whole-being” approach.  It is based on the Process Acupressure® work of Aminah Raheem, PhD., author of Soul Return and Soul Lightening.

While monthly clinic services are provided free of charge, financial donations are welcomed, and are used for a local or global service project. Or you may choose to offer an act of kindness to another to pay forward the benefits you receive.

If you would like to schedule an appointment, or to get additional information on full acupressure sessions, workshops to learn the SEVA protocol, volunteering to participate in an upcoming research study, or subscribing to a newsletter on SEVA and related services, please contact Carol L. Wetherill LMT, MTP at 301-980-6725 or cwetherill1@verizon.net.

We hear it again and again…how people who stay intellectually active stand less chance of falling victim to Alzheimer’s or other forms of dementia. “Do the crossword puzzle,” we’re told. “Play Scrabble or Sudoku! Try the strategy games on your computer or WII!”

Well, if you’re anything like us, that’s all great…up to a point. But sooner or later, newspaper games and virtual reality start to pall, and you want a taste of the real thing. What then?

It’s rather sad, really – in this culture we’ve been so conditioned to become passive receivers of entertainment that we feel lost when we don’t have a ready-made pastime available. We wind up watching the television, surfing the Internet, playing online games…just killing time, wondering what to do with the boredom we’re feeling. Maybe we should get a hobby…scrapbooking, maybe…

Surely, we think, there must be more to life than this!

So I want to invite you to consider a possibility: what if there is more? And what if that “More” is waiting for you to take the initiative to come and find it?

Our mothers used to tell us – If you become a perpetual learner, you’ll never be bored. They used to point out the way children are endlessly learning (that is, before they get the message that learning is boring and uncool). Look – there’s a bug poking its head into a flower! Why? What is it doing there? What kind of a bug is it? Oh wow – you mean that it makes honey out of that yellow stuff it’s got all over its body? How? – and on, and on….

You get the idea…

• What if you started exploring ways of increasing your garden’s yield – and you discovered information about companion planting and permaculture guilds that can triple (or more) your output?
• What if your migraines led you to look for ways of reducing toxins in your house – and you discovered nonchemical solutions like essential oils and diatomaceous earth?
• What if you decided you wanted to learn to speak a new language – and you discovered you could be paid to take international vacations as a house-sitter?

There’s no telling what you may discover once you start asking questions and actively pursuing answers. Trust us, you’ll not only protect your brain function; you may find a whole new direction for your life!

Here at Howard County Holistic Center, we love summer. It’s a wonderful time for getting out in the fresh air, working and playing in healthy ways, enjoying the balmy breezes and warm sunshine.

However, when our clients walk in from the summertime heat, wringing wet from the heat of their “personal summers,” we’re quick to recognize – this is way too much of a good thing!

Truth is, hot flashes are a bit of a mystery to Western medical science. Mainstream medicine has established that declining estrogen can cause problems in the body’s system for controlling and regulating body temperature. Exactly how this works, however, they don’t know. Men can have hot flashes, and even in women the problem isn’t limited to perimenopause. Some of the common causes can include:

• Stress: when you experience a “stress reaction,” your body releases adrenaline into your bloodstream, causing blood flow to increase, and thereby raising your temperature.
• Coffee, alcohol, and spicy foods: these can also help to open your blood vessels and trigger hot flashes.
• Obesity and cigarettes: both of these increase susceptibility.

So what’s to be done? The average GYN, working with a patient who’s facing The Change, will recommend either hormone therapy, bioidentical hormone therapy, or other pharmaceutical treatments. Complementary medicine offers a wider range of options:

• Isoflavones (plant-based estrogens found in foods such as soy, chickpeas and lentils, and some supplements).
• Chinese herbs (licorice root, Panax ginseng, black cohosh, wild yams, and some others)
• Acupuncture
• Bodywork (massage therapy, shiatsu)
• Exercise (Yoga, tai chi, Qi gong)
• Stress reduction techniques (meditation, visualization, breathing techniques)

While neither mainstream nor complementary medicine offers a magical quick cure for hot flashes, you can begin to work on reducing their intensity today, while you build your knowledge of your body’s responses. As with any complex physical condition, true healing is a process that can take time…we suggest you take the journey gently, with as few chemically-caused side effects to your body as possible!

It hurts. Tingles. Burns. Jabs. Turns excruciatingly sensitive to touch…and sometimes goes completely numb. And that’s not even touching on all the deeper issues…the infections, nausea, dizziness…

When you’re struggling with neuropathy, you scarcely know where to begin describing the problem…and sometimes you may wonder if the side effects of the medications aren’t worse than the disease!

But what other answer is there?

Here’s the good news: you do have other options. Marilyn Burdiken, an acupuncturist at Howard County Holistic Center, works specifically with clients suffering from neuropathy. While she says that acupuncture can provide quick relief for the symptoms of nerve pain, the causes lie deeper than needles can reach. The clients who have experienced long-term cures were the ones who looked at their lifestyles and made conscious changes.

Acupuncture treats pain as knotted or deficient chi (life force energy), says Marilyn. If you have a muscle strain or charleyhorse, for example, the chi is knotted and needs to be dispersed to reduce the inflammation. On the other hand, age or degenerative conditions may lead to areas of deficient chi. In either case, the body is often depleted of chi and needs to build up a new reserve.

While you may experience neuropathy from a number of causes, most often they are related to inflammation or knotted chi. To relieve the deeper conditions that are causing this (while you disperse the chi immediately by needling), you can take simple steps like these…

• Get plenty of sleep (at least 6 hours) to build your energy reserves.
• If you drink alcohol and/or coffee, reduce the amount, or stop entirely: both of these can increase inflammation.
• If you must drink a caffeinated beverage, choose green tea.
• Avoid high-fructose corn syrup (now listed on labels as “corn syrup”): individuals with neuropathy in patient support groups agree that this can worsen the pain.
• Consider a natural detox, such as those offered by Arbonne or Young Living. You can also find natural detox kits in a number of health food stores. The Master Cleanse is also very effective.
• Shift your diet for a couple of days to see whether your problems may be due to food intolerance. For example, you might want to try cutting out red meat, or cutting out milk products, or eating only fruits and vegetables. Doing this for a limited time, while not as effective as the Rotation Diet in identifying problematic foods, can give you preliminary clues.
• Track your symptoms and view them as your teachers: what do you do that causes them to worsen? What reduces them? Keep a log and adjust your habits based on the patterns you discover.

Because neuropathy is a systemic issue, it can take time to find the cause (or causes). By coupling lifestyle changes with acupuncture, however, you can remain comfortable while you focus on eliminating the problem entirely. Let us support you on your journey to a pain-free life!

If you’ve lived for a while in Maryland – unless you’re up in the mountains or “downey ocean, hon” – you know that breathing can be a real challenge when weather reports include the word “Code” and colors on the hot side of the spectrum. Even if you don’t have allergies, asthma, or other health issues, our regional smog, humidity, and pollen count can reward a deep belly-breath with a spell of gasping and wheezing.

What to do? Nobody wants to cower in an air-conditioned environment, or tote a small pharmacy with them whenever they venture outside! Isn’t there a way to enjoy the summer outdoors without having to fight for every breath?

Fortunately, there are a number of holistic steps you can take to reduce your discomfort without drugs. First of all, take a look at your diet for possible causes of your breathing troubles. Naturopathic doctor Sally James suggests these simple solutions:

Allergies may not be the cause of your stuffy nose, runny eyes, and sinus headaches. A diet heavy in wheat, dairy, and sugar – not to mention preservatives, yeasts, and highly allergenic foods such as nuts – can trigger the same symptoms. Talk with us about easy steps to find out whether they might be part of the problem.

• Highly acidic items such as tea, coffee, alcohol, sugar, red meats, and processed foods can cause respiratory inflammation and depress your immune system. You can often reduce asthmatic symptoms by consuming fewer acidic foods and beverages and adding more alkaline foods to your diet. You can find a fairly complete chart of acidic and alkaline-forming foods here.
• To reduce respiratory irritation and congestion, Dr. James recommends adding recognized anti-inflammatory spices such as garlic, ginger, turmeric, black pepper, onions and chilies to your diet. The American Association of Naturopathic Physicians advises further: deep yellow and orange vegetables add the antioxidant beta carotene, and nettles, bamboo shoots, cabbage, beet tops, beets, carrots and yams add Vitamin C. To break up mucus, eat onions, garlic, ginger, cayenne, and horseradish. And of course, drink plenty of water to keep fluids moving.

Finally, if you’re looking for complementary practitioners to help you handle your respiratory issues, the World Health Organization documents acupuncture as an effective treatment for both asthma and allergies. The National Institutes for Health, also, have given the nod to Chinese herbs as a treatment for these conditions. Ask us how we can help you by using either of both of these modalities.

Finally, let’s be realistic: there are some days when it simply makes sense to stay inside! When the temperature and the humidity are both registering in the 90s and the weather reports are blaring “Code Red,” it’s a good idea not to venture out for long periods. And there are occasions when pharmaceutical tools are an effective backup to holistic strategies. But with that said, we can help you to enjoy the summer with less suffering and greater wellness!

Every cardiac patient hears it again and again – to maintain heart health, reduce stress. Why? Plenty of reasons…

Your heart isn’t just a pump. More than half of the cells of the heart are actually neural cells similar to brain tissue, rather than muscle cells. According to physician Carol Scott, “With every beat, the heart not only pumps blood, but transmits complex patterns of neurological, hormonal, pressure and electromagnetic information to the brain and throughout the body. The heart is uniquely positioned as a powerful communication hub that connects the body, mind, emotions and spirit. Research suggests that there is an elaborate feedback network of hormones, chemicals and nerves that exist between the brain, the heart and centers of thoughts and emotions.”

No wonder the heart is so sensitive to stress! Dr. Scott traces parallel epidemics of stress and cardiovascular disease in this country going back to 1900. Stress can affect the heart at many levels, she says, including the energetic impact of emotions such as hostility and anger, damage to the blood vessels and heart through continual adrenaline release, and/or accelerated atherosclerosis, which can result in problems such as coronary artery disease, insulin resistance, or an irritable heart muscle.

So what can you do to protect yourself? It’s easy to advise the obvious – avoid stress – but in this society, that’s a pretty extreme challenge. So, rather than avoiding it, here at Howard County Holistic Center, we help you to manage it, using drug-free techniques such as…

Don’t endanger your heart unnecessarily when you are facing stress in your life. Talk with us to learn your options in managing that stress, and how you can use simple, practical steps to build a calmer, more peaceful life.