Musings on Asheville’s Recognition as a Center for Holistic Healing Opportunities

Asheville has been known as a center of healing since the late 1800′s. People have traveled here because of the inspiring natural environment with its purity of air, water, and temperate climate. Conventional medicine has capitalized on this to the point that we now have Mission Hospital with its award winning cardiovascular and cancer services. Mission is the largest employer in Buncombe county.

Along side the development of conventional medicine here has been a growing community of natural and holistic health providers that were drawn not only to the beautiful natural environment, but also to the open and progressive nature of the people who live here. This openness, and the presence of healing waters and native american traditions of herbal cures developed from the most diverse flora anywhere in the US, opened the doors to non-conventional practitioners who have enriched the opportunities for healing to be found here. This community now offers just about any holistic healing service that is available anywhere in the world.

I was drawn to Asheville through employment as a human service worker, specifically counseling. At that time there was a joke among people I talked with that said that if you threw a Coke bottle out of the window of an airplane over Read more »

The Vision of Functional Medicine

This excerpt is a part of a white paper put out by the Institute of Functional Medicine. To see the paper in its entirety you can download it here. Wouldn’t this be nice!

“The doctor of the future will be an integrative healer whose practice differs in many ways from that of today’s typical physician. The doctor of the future will provide care that is patient-centered and comprehensive (body, mind, and spirit), care that is both high-tech (using genomic prediction tools, systems biology, and functional medicine, for example) and high-touch. Care will focus more extensively on preventing disease and injury.

The practice of the future will be provided by smoothly working teams that will include primary care physicians, complementary and alternative health practitioners, health coaches, and wellness mentors, as well as medical specialists, allied health and nursing practitioners.

Putting the patient in the driver’s seat allows representatives from any number of disciplines to serve as navigator through the healthcare system, helping people sort through conflicting data as well as the many difficult choices they must make during their lives in times of both wellness and illness. Tomorrow’s physicians will consistently assess new evidence, to ensure that their practices meet the highest standards of quality and patient outcomes.

To a great degree, the body has the capacity to heal itself; this concept, in some ways, opposes the mechanical model in which doctors act as fixers. One goal of future practitioners will be to guide and empower patients toward self-healing.  Consonant with this approach will be use of prevention and health promotion, the full range of natural treatments, use of the safest and least expensive interventions first, and also the mobilizing of community and social support for healthy living.

This vision of the future doctor does not reflect a purely in-the-clinic model.  Future clinicians, if they are to be integrative healers, need to be out where people are and to participate in social and environmental policy change.”

Latest Quantum Health Magazine

Here is the latest edition of a magazine that has, for me, a fascinating slant.

The Quantum Health magazine is one of the most relevant, to my particular questions, that I have found. Healing has been a fascination with me always coming from my background of having polio as a two year old. In looking at the idea/reality that health/healing reveals, I’ve researched and written about it on many different levels. It has been a journey, which has brought me up on Quantum Theory and its implications. Check out Quantumly Curious for more, if you are interested.

New Issue of Quantum Health Magazine

Here is the link to the newest issue of Quantum Health Magazine. What a great read!

Holistic and Integrative Initiative in Asheville

Asheville has long been recognized as a “Mecca” of sorts for those interested in holistic and natural health. It has a large collection of practitioners involved in every sort of educational and service provision that encompasses the world of alternative medicine. For the individual who first begins the exploration of this world, the myriad of options can be overwhelming, and I have often heard expressed the concern that no one can seem to get a handle on this “cloud” of practitioners and what the opportunities they offer really are. This may, indeed, be changing.

To get a glimpse of the emerging vision of the future of medicine, I would recommend reading the white paper, 21st Century Medicine: A New Model for Medical Education and Practice, published by the Institute of Functional Medicine. It presents a vision of a multidisciplinary medical practice of the future where conventional medical doctors and alternative practitioners work as a team to provide the highest quality, cost effective, patient centered care to those seeking to improve their health.

Impossible you say? Perhaps not. I attended the meeting of the Asheville HUB this morning to hear the report of the Integrative Health taskforce which presented a breakout session during the recent Institute for Emerging Issues in Raleigh that focused on healthcare. In the IEI report given out at the HUB meeting, the regional healthcare innovations were highlighted. Our western region was designated for integrative healthcare. Also presented was the Integrative Health taskforce’s proposal for a Center for Integrative Health for Western North Carolina. From that proposal the following strategy is outlined:

“Establish Asheville as THE National City of Health and Wellness, a nationally recognized apex of the practice of Integrative Health in the U.S. This recognition will:

1. Provide a unifying focus for all providers of integrative health, including allopathic/osteopathic and complementary and alternative practitioners in WNC
2. Highlight the Asheville Area as a primary location of Integrative Health
3. Create a Board of Visitors composed of nationally-recognized allopathic/osteopathic, CAM professionals and other national leaders
4. Host national educational and research conferences on Integrative Health
5. Serve as a national Center for Public Healthcare Policy and best practices as applied to health and wellness.”

The implications of this are profound for those who are providing CAM services and those who are seeking a more comprehensive and organized access to those services.

I intend to follow this closely and will keep you abreast of what emerges.

Penny

Post Polio Syndrome and Homeopathy Update

On October 20th I wrote about deciding to explore homeopathy as a way to deal with the fatigue of Post Polio Syndrome (see the past post). I wanted to write now about what I have found in that exploration.

It has been three and a half months that I have been taking the remedy that Steve Coward gave me. What I first noticed was that I had unexpected energy and alertness in the evenings. Then I realized I wasn’t experiencing any mid-afternoon energy dive. As time passed, I noticed that I hadn’t had any bouts of central nervous system fatigue (I still haven’t). I began to have a sense of well being I hadn’t known in a very long time.

Wikipedia pans homeopathy, and perhaps it’s a placebo effect, but I’m convinced. I would, from my experience, recommend to anyone with PPS to try homeopathy. It might not work, every individual is different, but there is no reason I can think of not to try it. Based on the improvement I feel in my own health, I want to let everyone know this may be an undiscovered option.

SCENAR is, in my experience, also very helpful to those who have PPS. I believe it somehow nourishes the 40% of remaining motor neurons that are struggling to survive under the load. I have given treatments to a number of clients with Post Polio Syndrome, and the most of them were amazed by their improvement, just as I was 6 years ago with I encountered it.

Just wanted to pass along more options. Options are freeing and empowering.

SCENAR and Complementarity

One of the most wonderful things about SCENAR is how it complements any other modalities that are available in the treatment of pain. There is one exception to this, which is important for those who are considering using SCENAR to know. If  narcotic pain killing pharmaceuticals are being used on a schedule of more than once a day, the receptor sites for the body’s own opiate substances (endorphins) are taken up by the synthetic narcotic drug and prevent the body from using its own internal pharmacy to address pain.

The SCENAR’s main action is to help the body regulate and heal itself. Pain relief is the most obvious of the effects, however, much more is being activated within the body to reestablish homeostasis. In my experience over the last 6 years, I have noticed that clients who are using other modalities as well as SCENAR find that they make better progress toward healing. I have worked closely with chiropractors who find that SCENAR treatments can make adjustments easier and that they hold better. SCENAR also can find subluxations in the spine easily, which can be addressed quickly by the Chiropractor.

There is an acupuncturist, Dr. Donald Snow, in Louisiana who uses SCENAR and acupuncture together and finds that his results are better with the combination than with using either modality alone.

There have been times, because of Post Polio Syndrome, when I have used Physical Therapy.  Along with the PT, I have used SCENAR to ameliorate the pain that can result from those treatments. I have also found that I recover a lot faster, since using the SCENAR in this way, than I did before I had the SCENAR to complement what I was doing in PT.

My experiences with the complementary way in which SCENAR works with massage therapy have been impressive.  If someone has a SCENAR treatment before a massage, the relaxation and pain relieving effect is enhanced. It also makes it easier for the massage therapist because it is easier to go more deeply into the muscles to effect a release.

In SCENAR literature it is often suggested that when working with someone who is taking a pharmaceutical for a chronic condition such as diabetes, that the levels of the drug be monitored. This is because as the body begins to balance itself and recover, not as much of the drug will be necessary.

Unlike the idea in conventional medicine that one cure fixes all, natural medicine recognizes the uniqueness of each individual, and that very often a mix of modalities appropriate to the individual will speed healing faster than using only one. For this reason it is good to find a natural practitioner, such as a naturopath, who understands this and can monitor your progress if you are using more than one modality.

This capacity of the SCENAR to complement other treatments is also a good reason to own one. If you are interested in discussing owning a SCENAR and which one might best suit your needs you can contact me at 828-337-6854.

Holistic Medicine and Chronic Pain

If one looks only at the philosophy of the alternative and conventional  medical approaches, holistic or alternative medicine would seemingly be the place to start if a chronic condition is the issue. American conventional medicine is the best in the world related to treating acute trauma or crisis situations. But, because its approach is toward the disease, not the patient, and  seeing the person as a collection of parts resulting in the narrowed view of specialization, the holistic well-being of the patient is often overlooked. In relationship to pain, the major intervention is drugs, which usually only mask the symptoms and can have dangerous side effects.

In the late fall, a conversation of sorts between an MD and a DC was carried out through letters to the editor of the Crossroads Chronicle, the Cashiers, North Carolina local newspaper. In a column titled, “Arthritis one of most common problems treated by physicians,” written by Dr. Richard Matthews, the only recommendation for the treatment of the pain of arthritis was the use of drug therapy. In response to this article, Dr. Jim Johnson, DC, DACBN, CCN, writing from the perspective of holistic medicine, illuminated not only the numerous alternatives available, but also the philosophy of healthcare guided by respecting the whole person and the capacity of the human body to heal itself. I was so impressed by what he wrote that I wanted to include it here in its entirety.

“I read with much interest the article on arthritis in the Crossroads Chronicle Wednesday, October 20, 2010. As someone who has worked with patients to find alternative approaches to health challenges, it strikes me that only drugs are offered as the answer to such problems. Aleve, Advil, Motrin, Mobic, Feldene, etc. are pharmaceutical drugs that offer effective pain relief; however, their long term use is not desirable due to a large number of secondary effects. NSAIDs, in particular, actually make the overall disease process of arthritis worse, by increasing ‘leaky gut’ and by depleting the very nutrients necessary for joint repair, including iron, folic acid, calcium, and zinc. COX 2 inhibitors, introduced with a media blitz touting them as a much safer drug therapy, are now known to also have serious side effects.

Are some diseases, or even all diseases, the secondary manifestations of altered or abnormal states of health? Does the swamp exist first, and various pests such as mosquitoes find it to be a good habitat for their propagation; or do such pests pick a random landscape and then set about to create a swamp to support them? Read more »

Parasympathetic Mind Through Meditation Linked to Cellular Health

A new study investigating the physiological effects of meditation has been conducted by researchers at the University of California. It was discovered that there is a link between feelings of positive well-being and the presence of higher telomerase, an enzyme important for long term health of the cells in the body.

In a previous study we cited on this blog about the positive effects of slow breathing on pain, the lead author said, “The first change that occurs with slower breathing is greater parasympathetic response which provides a counterbalance to sympathetic activation that is often aroused by pain, and that engenders feelings of anxiety and nervous tension. A greater state of calm induced with slower breathing also opens the mind to a greater capacity to feel emotions other than pain, providing perspective, flexibility, and choice in the regulation of inner states. In doing so, slow breathing reduces the dominance of the fight/flight response within us, extending the calm influence of parasympathetic activation to allow for better emotional regulation and cognitive shifts from helplessness to action.”

In the current study, it was found that participants who underwent meditation training “showed increases in such beneficial psychological qualities as perceived control (over one’s life and surroundings), mindfulness (being able to observe one’s experience in a nonreactive manner), and purpose in life (viewing one’s life as meaningful, worthwhile, and aligned with long-term goals and values). In addition, they experienced decreased neuroticism, or negative emotionality. Meditation may improve a person’s psychological well-being and in turn these changes are related to telomerase activity in immune cells, which has the potential to promote longevity in those cells. Activities that increase a person’s sense of well-being may have a profound effect on the most fundamental aspects of the physiology.”

Both of these descriptions point to what I have called Parasympathetic Mind that I became aware of by seeing it consistently in clients who have had SCENAR treatment, which stimulates the parasympathetic aspect of the autonomic nervous system to promote the body’s own healing response.

Read more »

Finding Your Way in the CAM World

The number of modalities and options for treatment available in complementary and alternative medicine can be quite daunting to those who are looking into this field for the first time. With names like craniosacral therapy, acupuncture, SCENAR, rolfing, chiropractic, homeopathy, herbalism, etc. selecting what might work can be challenging. In any medical field, one therapy does not necessarily fit all. In traditional medicine seeing a specialist may actually narrow one’s choices. When you see a orthopedic surgeon, likely surgery will be the main option.

So what are some guidelines for exploring the natural, holistic options? Read more »