acupuncture Archives - Center for Holistic Medicine

You’ve probably heard about various types of alternative health treatments — such as acupuncture, homeopathy, breathing techniques, yoga and others — that claim to solve many health problems, but you may not realize that often times these treatments help people heal by changing a person’s energy flow.

But how exactly does changing someone’s energy help them improve their physical, emotional and mental health?

“In Western medicine, we don’t have a word for the energy that keeps up alive. For example, people know that when you cut your finger, it will heal. But how does it heal? This life force inside our body is called many things, but in Chinese medicine, specifically, they call it chi,” explains Dr. Kelsie Lazzell, DC, a chiropractor and licensed acupuncturist at the Center for Holistic Medicine.

Dr. Jerry Gore, MD, clinical director of the Center for Holistic Medicine, says this lifeforce, or chi or prana, is essential to making sure that our organs are functioning properly. “Too much or too little energy creates an energy imbalance. This imbalance may affect people physically, emotionally or mentally, so the goal of energy medicine is to balance your energy flow,” he says.

Although the idea that our energy field has a direct impact on our physical health has been around for centuries in many Eastern cultures, it was a concept that typically wasn’t embraced by Western doctors. However, over the last few years, more and more scientific studies have shown that energy medicine can make a big difference in our physical, emotional and mental health.

For example, according to the National Center for Complementary and Integrative Health, studies have shown that acupuncture is an effective treatment for various types of pain, including low back pain, neck pain, knee pain, headaches and dealing with the side effects from chemotherapy. At the Center, we’ve also had the personal experience of seeing that acupuncture can boost people’s energy, support their immune system and help with their sense of fatigue after being infected with Covid.

And now, a growing number of doctors and hospitals are suggesting patients try acupuncture and stress reduction interventions such as breathing, yoga and meditation as a complementary treatment to their medical care.

One of the benefits of trying almost any type of energy medicine is that, unlike taking medication or undergoing surgery, it usually doesn’t cause any side effects and is very cost effective and self-empowering.

If you’re interested in exploring more about energy medicine, here are four different types and how they work and what they are often used to treat:

ACUPUNCTURE
Developed more than 5,000 years ago, acupuncture is a type of energy medicine based on the ancient Chinese theory that your energy flows through your body through energy pathways known as meridians. When your chi is deficient, in excess, or blocked, in certain areas, imbalances may create disease in the organs that are associated with those areas.

Dr. Lazzell explains that when you are deficient in chi, you may get sick more often, feel fatigued, have trouble recovering from intense physical activity, or just feel depleted. And when you have too much chi in certain meridians, you may have a higher likelihood of getting injured or sick as well.

To keep your chi in balance, an acupuncturist will place hair-thin needles along different meridians on the outside of your body to either help increase or decrease chi in that meridian. “By using acupuncture needles locally and distally to the area of pain, you can support movement of the chi and have an overall reduction in pain,” Dr. Lazzell says. “This is why physical pain responds very well to acupuncture.”

According to Johns Hopkins Medicine, acupuncture points are believed to stimulate the central nervous system, which causes chemicals to be released into the muscles, spinal cord, and brain that may stimulate the body’s natural healing abilities.

Can Be Used to Treat:

Anxiety
Back Pain
Digestive issues
Fatigue
Fertility issues
Headaches
Insomnia
Muscle cramps/spasms
Poor immune function
Sciatica
Tennis/golf elbow

PRANIC HEALING
Pranic healing is another form of energy healing that involves a practitioner clearing away energy blockages by gently placing his or her hands on your body or a few inches above your body to assess your energy field. The practitioner uses a sweeping technique to cleanse blocked and stagnant energy around a patient’s 11 major chakras, before bringing healing energy into those areas.

Mary Ellen Boyte, a naprapathic practitioner who practices pranic healing at the Center for Holistic Medicine, says energy blockages may be the result of past emotional pain or trauma that is being stored in the someone’s energy field, and those energy blockages may be causing physical pain.

“When there is emotional trauma, I clean and energize the chakras related to the emotional issue, then I use naprapathy on the physical issue,” Boyte explains. “Working on the energy body can heal the physical body.”

Can Be Used to Treat:

Asthma
Back pain
Cancer
Flu
Headaches
Mental illness
Migraines
Multiple sclerosis
Ulcers

HOMEOPATHY
Homeopathy is a type of energy medicine that was developed by a German physician named Dr. Samuel Hahnemann in the late 18^th century in which remedies are made from plants, minerals and animal tissues that are diluted to the point that just the energy of the original material remains, and that energy in the remedy positively affects the patient’s life force.

“Homeopathy helps stimulate the vital and healing force of the individual. With a vital boost, the body is supported to heal itself,” explains Allison Musso, who has a background in naturopathic medicine and does health coaching at the Center for Holistic Medicine and often recommends homeopathic treatments for her patients.

For example, a homeopathic practitioner may recommend that someone take Allium cepa, which contains a diluted form of an onion, to stimulate a self-healing response in someone who has allergy or flu symptoms, or they may recommend that parents give children with ear infections the homeopathic remedy Chamomilla, which contains a diluted form of the herb chamomile. Because the original plants have been diluted so much and are given in such small doses, all homeopathic remedies are non-toxic and are safe to use with infants, children and adults.

Musso says homeopathy can be used in countless situations to support the body’s natural healing capacity. For example, she says homeopathic remedies can use used to help speed up recovery after surgery, help with first aid and fevers, heal chronic disease and support people emotionally when they are experiencing a loss of a loved one or grieving or dealing with depression or anxiety.

Can Be Used to Treat:

Age-related memory loss
Anxiety and depression
Arthritis
Colds and flu
Digestion
Fatigue
Fibroids
Headaches
Heart problems and hypertension
Infertility
Injuries
Irritable Bowel Syndrome
Joint pain
Menopausal symptoms
Sinusitis

YOGA
Although yoga is often considered a form of exercise and stretching, it can also be used to help balance the energy flow in our bodies as well. In his book, Holistic Medicine, Dr. Gore explains that hatha yoga, which uses a system of slow, stretching movements and attention to your breathing, is designed to create “a sense of balanced energy, mental alertness, and the increased ability to focus and concentrate.”

Can Be Used to Treat:

Asthma
Attention Deficit Disorder
Back pain
Headaches
High blood pressure
Premenstrual syndrome
Stress

BREATHING
Not all types of energy medicine require you to go to a practitioner. Some, like breathing techniques, can be done on your own to help you balance or change your energy. For example, in Dr. Gore’s book, he explains that you can use abdominal breathing to quiet down your “fight or flight response to stress;” bhastrika breathing, which is done moderately quickly by bringing your belly button towards your spine and then pushing your belly button out, to help you feel more energized; and kapalbhati breathing, where you actively exhale for one count and then passively inhale for four counts, to cleanse the toxins in your lungs.

“Note that even though we use our physical body, the end result is to establish a certain kind of energy,” he says.

MEDITATION
Many studies have been done on how meditation can have a positive effect on pain management. And the reason is simple: Meditation helps decrease the “fight or flight” response and helps reduce stress, which also helps slow people’s heart rates, lower blood pressure and reduce muscle tension. In Dr. Gore’s book he says that meditation can also have beneficial effects on brain neurotransmitters that may positively affect your mood. So simply by quieting our mind, we are able to affect our physical, mental and emotional states.

Can Be Used to Treat:

Anxiety
High blood pressure
Muscle tension
Pain
Tension headaches

Contact us to find out more about the types of energy medicine practiced at the Center for Holistic Medicine. Make an appointment to have an acupuncture treatment with Dr. Kelsie Lazzell, a pranic healing treatment with Mary Ellen Boyte, or a homeopathic consultation with Allison Musso or Dr. Jerry Gore today!

Have you heard of acupuncture, but aren’t really sure how it works or how it might help you?

Developed more than 5,000 years ago, acupuncture is a type of energy medicine based on the ancient Chinese theory that your energy, also known as “chi” or life force, flows through your body through energy pathways known as meridians. When your chi is deficient, in excess, or blocked in certain areas, imbalances may create disease in the organs that are associated with those areas.

To regulate the flow of chi throughout your body, acupuncturists place very fine needles in specific points, called acupuncture points, directing energy to different parts of the body.

Although acupuncture was developed thousands of years before modern medicine was invented, Dr. Kelsie Lazzell, DC, DN, a licensed acupuncturist at the Center for Holistic Medicine, says part of the reason acupuncture works so well is because acupuncture points are located at points in the body that also have a collection of nerve bundles and vascular bundles, and by putting the needles in those spots, the brain draws awareness to those areas and initiates a healing response there.

“Otherwise, that area goes unnoticed and goes dormant to the brain because the brain doesn’t know there’s a problem there,” she says.

Studies have shown that acupuncture can have a real, positive impact on many different medical conditions. And acupuncture has very few side effects, making it a safe alternative to taking many long-term medications.

Here are five of the top conditions that can be helped by acupuncture.

Stress and Anxiety
During the pandemic and the turmoil of recent events, Lazzell says she’s seen a lot of people seeking out acupuncture treatments as a way of reducing their anxiety and stress. In fact, one study from 2015 showed that acupuncture improved symptoms for people with anxiety who didn’t respond to other treatments, including psychotherapy and medication.

On a basic level, Lazzell says acupuncture can help reduce anxiety and lessen stress simply because when you spend 40 minutes in a session lying still and breathing deeply, you’re going to feel more relaxed. “How often do we get that as adults?” Lazzell says.

Plus, Lazzell says acupuncture can help direct more blood flow to the brain, which can help improve imbalances of your neurotransmitters, and to the gut, where many neurotransmitters are produced. “When you have better nervous system flow, you feel better overall,” she says.

(If you’re looking for more ways to reduce stress, stay tuned for our February blog, where we will discuss our holistic approach to stress and emotions.)
Insomnia and Sleep Issues
Lazzell says acupuncture can also significantly improve insomnia and sleep issues, mainly because by reducing anxiety, it allows people to feel calmer and more relaxed when it’s time to fall asleep. In fact, in a recent analysis of 1,108 patients, acupuncture was found to work better than a placebo in improving sleep quality, sleep duration and ability to fall asleep.
Chronic Pain
With the opioid crisis still raging throughout the United States, many people are seeking alternative treatments for chronic pain that don’t involve medication. And one of the safest and most effective treatments you can try is acupuncture. Multiple studies in the last ten years have found that acupuncture was more effective than non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs, such as ibuprofen) for treating chronic knee pain and inflammation.

“Acupuncture does a nice job of addressing old injuries that are likely still causing issues,” Lazzell explains. For example, an old hip injury may be causing a blockage in energy, which may be causing pain in your lower back.

Lazzell says as people get older, they tend to become less attuned to their bodies and more able to dampen their stress response, which makes pain linger longer. Acupuncture helps wake your body up to certain areas that need to be addressed. “As we get older, we do a nice job of walling off problems in our body and we can’t heal as easily,” she says.
Digestion Problems
Acupuncture is also an effective treatment for dealing with digestion issues. “I use a lot of acupuncture points on the belly so we’re creating micro-traumas in that area so the body sends more blood to the gut and to support the healing force there,” Lazzell explains. There are also points specific to address digestive complaints such as speeding up a slow digestive time or increasing gastric acid production.
Fertility and Women’s Health Issues
Dr. Lazzell often uses acupuncture to treat women who are trying to regulate their menstrual cycle, who are struggling with infertility, and to support pregnancy and labor induction. Using localized acupuncture points near the uterus helps direct healing energy and blood flow to that area. “Just by doing a session, it also helps the patient bring mental awareness to that area so they can send good energy to there,” she says.

And acupuncture can also help women reduce anxiety during their pregnancy so they can improve their sleep and have an easier labor and delivery.

Want to try an acupuncture session? Now offering 30-minute acupuncture sessions with Dr. Kelsie Lazzell for only $50 through Jan. 31! Schedule an appointment today.

As you age, the likelihood of your knee joints causing pain and discomfort will only increase. Often, this is a result of osteoarthritis — the natural wear and tear of the cartilage between your knees causes it to wear away, decreasing the protective space between your bones. However, many other factors can lead to the chronic pain and stiffness that prompts knee surgery, including overuse, an injury, or a poor diet.

Luckily, many natural remedies exist to increase your mobility, reduce pain and swelling, and build your knee strength. In many cases patients who opt for natural solutions can avoid knee surgery entirely or significantly delay it.

Here are some natural treatments you can try for your knee pain at the Center for Holistic Medicine:

1. Cold Laser Therapy

Cold lasers are non-thermal lasers that are powerful enough to affect the structures of the cells beneath your skin. FDA-approved, cold laser therapy is a non-invasive knee treatment option that involves sending photons of light to tissue cells up to five centimeters below the surface of your skin.

The photons from cold lasers cause a chemical reaction in the injured cells of your knee that helps restore their mitochondrial function. This reduces your knee pain and inflammation in just a few minutes, and the procedure is painless!

Dr. Richard Bisceglie, a naprapathic practitioner at the Center for Holistic Medicine, has seen great results with cold laser therapy. “Laser therapies will reduce inflammation, increase blood flow, and increase lymphatic drainage,” he says. Bisceglie says cold lasers can also cause an increase in the growth of new soft tissue cells in muscles and ligaments, as well as the growth of new bone and joint cells.

2. Chiropractic Adjustments

You might think that chiropractic adjustments are only good for helping your back, but in fact, adjustments to your ankle and hip joints can do wonders to relieve knee pain as well. That’s overuse, poor posture, and injuries can cause your ankle and hip joints to get out of alignment, which can cause pain in your knees.

“Any dysfunction in the hip or the foot can transpose right into the knee,” says Dr. Mitchell Katz, a chiropractor at the Center for Holistic Medicine. “For knee pain, there is a protocol where we use the decompression table to apply gentle traction to the knee joint to separate the bones a bit, creating more space and allowing nutrients to be absorbed to nourish the disk and the cartilage,” he adds.

However, another cause of your knee pain may in fact be your feet. “Before we do anything, I look at the structure of the foot for flat-footedness, to make orthotics if appropriate,” Dr. Katz says. “If the foot is flat, it can cause some bones to rotate as a result. If the structure is not right, everything else you look at is an illusion before you fit the foot with some arch support.”

3. Anti-Inflammation Diet

Eating foods that reduce your inflammation is an effective and affordable treatment option for knee pain as well. “Awareness of inflammatory foods is important for people with arthritis,” says Patricia DeAngelis, a functional medicine practitioner at the Center for Holistic Medicine.

A diet of fresh vegetables high in foods containing omega 3 fats will provide the best benefits. “Eat organic as much as possible,” DeAngelis notes. Patients can check out the Environmental Working Group’s Clean Fifteen and Dirty Dozen guides when shopping for produce.

Foods to incorporate into your diet if you are experiencing knee pain include:

Salmon, tuna, cod, and sardines
Leafy green vegetables
Olives and extra virgin olive oil
Walnuts and almonds
Spices: cayenne, cinnamon, garlic, ginger, and oregano

4. Supplements

In addition to changes in your diet, consider adding these daily supplements to ease knee pain.

Glucosamine & chondroitin sulfate: Dr. Bisceglie advises taking this supplement “to provide more ‘food’ for the joint” if you have osteoarthritis, along with a specialized bone formula.
Omega 3 & turmeric: “We do an omega 3 or fish oil supplement along with a turmeric supplement for inflammation,” Dr. Bisceglie says. Turmeric is a popular spice that contains curcumin as an active ingredient, which possesses anti-inflammatory properties. Omega 3 fatty acids, found in fish oils and walnuts, also have a proven track record of reducing inflammation.
Magnesium: When your joints are injured, your body will induce muscle spasms to contract the muscles around the joint. While this stabilizes the joint, it also blocks blood flow to your knee joints. Magnesium supplements naturally relax your muscles to get the blood flowing again. Dr. Bisceglie recommends patients “use supplements related to the modeling of the bone and soft tissue” in addition to supplements for inflammation to target both the joints and bone simultaneously.

Before you take any supplements, however, it’s best to check with your doctor for specific recommendations.

5. Gentle Exercise
Although you might think exercise will exacerbate your knee pain, in fact, Dr. Bisceglie says doing the right kind of exercise can actually strengthen the muscles that support your knee and lessen your pain.

“Movement has an amazing healing property because it keeps the joint fluid flowing and the joints a little more free, reducing the pain,” he says.

Dr. Bisceglie recommends using ellipticals and bicycling. “Bracing while doing those exercises helps additionally support your knee so you can do the exercises with less pain,” he says.

6. Naprapathy

Naprapathy is a natural method of relieving compression on your joints. When your leg muscles and soft tissues become tight from overuse, that resulting tension puts an additional strain on your knee joints and can cause your bones to rub together. Naprapathy is a technique that involves manually manipulating the soft tissue around your joints to relieve tension, bring blood flow back to the joint, and improve your mobility.

Dr. Bisceglie, who practices naprapathy at the Center for Holistic Medicine, says he also gives patients suggestions for stretches and exercises they can do at home to help relieve pain, too.

7. Acupuncture

Acupuncture has been practiced for over 5,000 years, and the ancient Chinese technique can provide serious relief for patients with osteoarthritis and knee joint pain. Kenji Aoki, a licensed acupuncturist at the Center for Holistic Medicine, says by opening up your meridians and balancing your energy at specific acupuncture points, acupuncturists can alleviate much of the pain associated with common knee joint issues.

In fact, multiple studies in the last ten years have found that acupuncture was more effective than non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs, such as ibuprofen) for treating chronic knee pain and inflammation.

A combination of several holistic treatments can alleviate your knee pain and treat inflammation and tension without the need for surgery. Schedule an appointment with our functional medicine practitioner, Patricia DeAngelis, who can assess your symptoms and refer you to our specialists who can help you heal naturally.

If you’ve ever suffered from chronic headaches, you know that the pain can sometimes be unbearable. The pressure in your head, in the back of your neck or behind your eyes can be enough to make you want to crawl back into bed and call it quits for the day.

When headaches strike, most people try to power through and take some Advil or Tylenol to deal with the pain. But taking too many NSAIDs (non-steroid anti-inflammatory drugs) over time can lead to serious side-effects, including gastrointestinal issues, heartburn, liver and kidney problems, and even, you guessed it, headaches.

Luckily, there are many integrative treatments that can help you improve your headaches without relying on medication. Here are five holistic treatments you can try.

Drink water
Did you know that one of the most common causes of headaches is simply dehydration? When we’re dehydrated, the brain can temporarily shrink due to loss of fluid, and that can cause the brain to pull away from the skull, causing a headache.

Dehydration can also increase tension in our muscles, and when the muscles around the spine are tense, it can cause tension in our neck and bring on a headache.

That’s why Dr. Richard Bisceglie, a doctor of naprapathy at the Center for Holistic Medicine, says the very first thing he recommends people do when they have headaches is to drink more water.

“People are often walking around in a dehydrated state,” says Bisceglie says.

According to Dr. Gore, founder of the Center for Holistic Medicine, you should aim to drink half of your body weight in ounces per day.

Go to the chiropractor
Another cause of headaches? Muscle tension. If you often work at a computer or do another activity over a long period of time (such as driving), you may be tensing up your shoulders, causing your neck muscles to compensate in the wrong way, which can cause a headache.

“The whole theory behind chiropractic is if you have restricted mobility in one area of the neck, the muscles compensate to that lack of mobility, and when they do that, they don’t work properly,” says Dr. Mitchell Katz, a chiropractor at the Center for Holistic Medicine. “Chiropractic can potentially help with that if you restore function to the spine or the neck.”

Try naprapathy
If you are more comfortable with a long treatment, and your pain is mostly in the muscles and fascia, naprapathy can release muscle tension in your neck and shoulders. Naprapathy involves gentle manipulation of your connective tissue, which runs throughout your body and supports and connects all of your joints, muscles, ligaments and more. When your connective tissue is constricted, it can limit your blood and lymph circulation and interfere with your nerve pathways, causing pain in your head.

“I work on the connective tissue (muscles, tendons and ligaments) to rebalance them to address those tightness patterns in the upper back, back, neck, shoulders and cranium,” explains Dr. Richard Bisceglie.

Try acupuncture
If your headache is due to emotional as well as physical stress, you might want to try acupuncture. Kenji Aoki, a licensed acupuncturist at the Center for Holistic Medicine, says long-term stress can affect blood circulation to the brain, which triggers migraine headaches.

Acupuncture works to affect the way that energy flows through meridians in your body, clearing away blocked energy in some meridians and restoring energy to meridians that are deficient.

Aoki says acupuncture is especially effective in treating headaches. “Usually the success rate is 90 percent. That’s higher than medication,” he says.

Long-term emotional stress can also require behavior therapy, and our integrative approach includes the physical and emotional treatment.

Adjust your diet
Sometimes, headaches can be caused by chemical, rather than physical symptoms. Recently, several studies have suggested that migraines could be caused by our gut bacteria, and that those who suffer from migraines may be more sensitive to certain foods, especially ones that are high in nitrate preservatives, such as hot dogs, bacon, lunch meats, pepperoni and ham. Other foods, such as those high in MSG (such as soy sauce), and sulfates (such as in red wine), have also been known to cause headaches.

In fact, our gut is often referred to as our “second brain” because it is where many of our neurons and hormones are produced, which affect our mood and our brain function. For example, our gut produces the majority of our serotonin, and those who suffer from migraines often have low serotonin levels.

If you’re interested in having your gut bacteria levels checked, schedule an appointment with Patricia DeAngelis, MS, APRN, a functional medicine practitioner and nurse practitioner, at the Center, who can make recommendations about what foods to add or eliminate from your diet to balance out your good and bad bacteria.

Tag: acupuncture

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