Treatment Options
Naturopathic Medicine
Naturopathic medicine, also called naturopathy, is a comprehensive and holistic approach to primary medical care which is designed to support the body’s natural healing capacities. Naturopathy seeks to enhance personal health by addressing underlying causes of disease and promoting positive life changes. It focuses on the use of natural remedies, diet and lifestyle changes, and a range of relevant therapies such as detoxification, homeopathy, manipulation, botanical medicine and hydrotherapy, as well as coordination with other modalities of care. It addresses the important interactions between the mind and the body, and emphasizes patient education and support. Naturopathic physicians from accredited academic institutions undergo a rigorous post graduate 4-5 year curriculum of training in basic and clinical medical sciences. Residency training is optional and most graduates opt for 1-2 year residency training. Physicians and Health & Wellness Institute are licensed in Washington State to provide primary health care services.
Massage Therapy
Massage therapy is a broad title for techniques based on touch and the manual manipulation of the soft tissues of your body. Massage involves a variety of techniques employed to normalize structure and function of muscle tissue. Goals of massage include (1) promoting musculoskeletal balance, (2) improving circulation, (3) enhancing elimination of toxins, (4) improving immune performance, (5) promoting relaxation and reducing stress, and (6) improving overall body function and performance.
Massage therapy is a broad title for techniques based on touch and the manual manipulation of the soft tissues of your body. Massage involves a variety of techniques employed to normalize structure and function of muscle tissue. Goals of massage include (1) promoting musculoskeletal balance, (2) improving circulation, (3) enhancing elimination of toxins, (4) improving immune performance, (5) promoting relaxation and reducing stress, and (6) improving overall body function and performance.
Many factors can cause stress on your musculoskeletal system and cause an imbalance in muscle, joint, and/or skeletal structure and function. The most common factors influencing your musculoskeletal system include physical trauma, overuse in work or recreational settings, poor posture and ergonomics, and biochemical changes resulting from poor nutrition, toxic exposure, and infectious agents. Your musculoskeletal system can also be impacted by mental/emotional trauma. Due to the numerous and varied factors that influence your musculoskeletal system, a wide range of clinical conditions can benefit from massage.
Depending upon your individual health needs, massage might be a standalone treatment or part of a comprehensive protocol including diet and lifestyle modification, nutritional supplementation, acupuncture, detoxification, and counseling. Prior to initiating a massage therapy treatment plan your health provider may evaluate you for fracture risk, infection, neoplasm, neurological dysfunction and other potential areas of concern. Your health provider may also utilize additional diagnostic testing and assessment techniques to determine the suitability of specific massage techniques for your treatment.
Massage can loosely be described as the therapeutic application of touch. There are a variety of massage types and techniques. Examples include Swedish massage (long strokes, kneading and friction rubs), deep tissue massage (slow strokes, direct pressure), sports massage (combining Swedish and deep tissue techniques targeted at sites of injury), acupressure (finger pressure to specific acupuncture points), points), manual lymph drainage (light rhythmic strokes) and CranioSacral massage (gentle manipulation of the head and spine).
Experienced therapists often integrate techniques from several forms of massage. Irrespective of the techniques employed, you should expect that the combination of techniques will create an overall experience of relaxation. If your massage experience is causing you any discomfort, please bring this to your therapist's attention.
You should ensure that you dress in appropriate, comfortable clothing for this action step. If you have specific questions with respect to suitable attire for your visit, please contact your health provider. If at any point during the osseous and/or soft tissue manipulation you are experiencing any pain or discomfort, please provide this feedback immediately to your health provider.
Massage sessions usually last from between 30 minutes to 2 hours with one hour being a common average treatment length. Please check when making your appointment to determine the amount of time required for your therapy session. Massage is routinely a part of any wellness plan. If massage is being used to improve a specific area of dysfunction, its periodicity may be several sessions per week. As part of an ongoing health maintenance plan, 1 - 4 massage sessions a month can provide substantial benefits. Prices for massage vary depending upon many factors including the therapist's experience and the geographic location. Check with your health professional to determine the pricing structure in your area.
Please advise your health professional of any emotions or past memories that resurface during your treatment. Past experiences and the emotions associated with them can occasionally be "locked" within your tissues as a form of memory. Generally, if this has occurred, it is an indication that you did not possess the health resources required to resolve these experiences in the past. As a result, your mind/body system has stored these experiences in your tissues. Massage can free these emotions and at this point; simply allowing yourself to cry, experience grief, or fully experience any other emotion Shiatsu (Japanese acupressure), neuromuscular re-education (deep massage of tense trigger that surfaces can be therapeutically valuable). Appropriate counseling can help resolve these past issues. When this process is allowed to come to an appropriate conclusion, individuals commonly take a significant step forward with respect to their overall wellness.
Note: If during the massage the ambient temperature of the room is to hot or cold for your comfort, please consider bringing this information to the awareness of your massage therapist. The massage should create a relaxing experience for you. If it is not it is to your benefit to take responsibility for suggesting modifications that might result in a more relaxing experience.
Biological Dentistry
Biological dentistry is an expansion of routine dentistry; it takes into consideration whether routine dental products, potential long-term infections of the teeth, and effects of dental work on the alignment of the jaw will affect overall health. Today, questions about the toxicity of dental restorative products and long-standing infections are facing the dental community to a growing extent and increasingly being investigated by the public.
Biological dentistry attempts to do you no harm by avoiding the use of potentially toxic materials in your mouth. Only biocompatible materials are placed in your mouth, and the procedures performed help reduce the toxicity of materials and infections. The move towards biological dentistry is a response to the assessment that many dental materials and long-standing infections have the potential to cause problems in the immune, nervous and energy systems of the body.
Claims have been made that removing certain types of materials, especially metals and chemicals found in fillings and root canals, has led to significant resolution of a variety of symptoms. These are criticized by the dental societies, who believe that inadequate studies prevent sufficient proof of any claim. However, even anecdotal reports have garnered very little interest in these groups to fund studies.
The effects of traditional dentistry procedures on nerves and the immune system are not difficult to understand, if you consider that toxins and infections can create local inflammation that must constantly be dealt with by the immune system. The energetic effects are based on the theory and practice that each tooth is related to an organ or organ function elsewhere in the body. This theory states that interfering with a tooth by any disease process can affect a "linked" distant organ. This is consistent with the principles of acupuncture, which asserts that insertion of a needle along an energetic path or meridian can cause changes elsewhere in the body.
Osteopathic / Naturopathic Postural Therapy (Manipulation)
Appropriate osseous and/or soft tissue manipulation can be a critical aspect of a health optimization program. Manipulation involves active or passive techniques employed to improve your joint and skeletal structure and function.
Many factors can cause stress on our musculoskeletal system; the result is an imbalance in muscle, joint, and/or skeletal structure and function. The most common factors influencing our musculoskeletal system include physical trauma, overuse in work or recreational settings, poor posture and ergonomics, and biochemical changes resulting from poor nutrition, toxic exposure, infectious agents, or other influences. Our musculoskeletal system can also be compromised by mental/emotional trauma. Because of the many and varied factors that influence our musculoskeletal system, a wide range of clinical conditions can benefit from appropriate osseous and/or soft tissue manipulation.
Depending upon your individual health needs, osseous and/or soft tissue manipulation might be a stand alone treatment or part of a comprehensive protocol including diet and lifestyle modification, nutritional supplementation, detoxification, and counseling. Prior to undertaking osseous manipulation your health provider may evaluate you for fracture risk, infection, neoplasm, neurological dysfunction and other potential areas of concern. Your health provider may also utilize additional diagnostic testing and assessment techniques to determine the suitability of specific osseous and soft tissue manipulation techniques for your individual case.
As part of this osseous manipulation action step, your health practitioner may prescribe or use hot packs, heated towels, ice or ice packs, active and/or passive stretching, soft tissue manipulation or a variety of relaxation techniques to assist you in gaining greater benefits from the manipulation.
A palpable, sensitive area of soft tissue (muscle) can indicate an area of localized dysfunction or can be related to underlying functional challenges in one or several organ systems. When an area of soft tissue in need of treatment has been identified, appropriate treatment can be a critical component of restoring optimal wellness. Soft tissue manipulation is most commonly used to normalize soft tissue function prior to osseous manipulation and to promote or restore functional and postural integrity and balance. Soft tissue manipulation can assist with improved function in many areas of health because there are relationships between the healthy function of our internal organs and the structure and function of our musculoskeletal system. Soft tissue manipulation is also a valuable means to mobilize stored toxins, promoting physical and emotional detoxification.
Many different soft tissue techniques are employed in order to normalize muscle structure and function. Direct pressure might be initiated at a pain point. Stretching and contraction of the muscle are also routinely utilized. Other soft tissue manipulation techniques can be employed depending upon your health practitioner's assessment of your individual needs.
You should ensure that you dress in appropriately comfortable clothing for this action step. If you have specific questions with respect to suitable attire for your visit, please contact your health provider for instructions. If at any point during the osseous and/or soft tissue manipulation you experience any pain or discomfort, please immediately notify your health provider.
Please advise your health provider of any emotions or past memories that may resurface during your treatment. Past experiences and the emotions associated with them can occasionally be 'locked' within our tissue as a form of memory. Generally, if this has occurred it indicates that for some reason we did not possess the health resources required to resolve these experiences in the past. As a result, our mind/body system has stored these experiences in our tissues. Bodywork can free these emotions, at which point appropriate counseling can help resolve these past issues. When this process is allowed to come to an appropriate conclusion, individuals commonly take a large step forward with respect to their overall wellness.
Note: If the ambient temperature of the room is too hot or cold for your comfort, please consider letting your health provider know.
Cardiovascular Intravenous Nutrition for Cardiovascular Disease Risk,
Cancer and Immune Support
Cardiovascular Intravenous Nutrition is the treatment of choice to lower disease risk and minimize arterial plaque formation. Intravenous nutrients are used. It has been demonstrated that use of Vitamins B complex, B6, B12, Vitamin C, Folic Acid and trace minerals are very effective in preventing advanced disease and minimizing plaque formation. The sessions are usually 2 hours in length per treatment and a recommended 24 treatments is the typical protocol to lower risk markers down. Cardiac Risk Markers can include HSCRP, Homocysteine, Vitamin B12 B6, and Folic Acid Values, Lipids, Platelets, Fibrinogen and in some cases Neopterin.
Integrative Cancer Treatment
Integrative cancer treatment blends the best of conventional medical therapies with alternative therapies. At Health & Wellness Institute we utilize the following as part of cancer treatment:
- Intravenous Nutritional Therapy
- Intravenous Immune Enhancing Therapy
- Intravenous Vitamin C
- Intravenous Bio-Nutrients
- Homeopathic Autologous Vaccines
- Homeopathic Fractionated HSP Vaccines
- Homeopathic Fractionated Cytokine Vaccine
Website and Information (www.ehealthandhealing.com)
We are currently in the process of developing our information database for use online. There is current access to help information sites that will prove useful to you in your search for your health care needs. Please be patient with us as we are developing our site!
Learning about Health Can Improve Your Health
It has been our experience that by including health education in our work with our patients, their health improves more rapidly and completely than without it. We know this, not just from observing and surveying signs and symptoms, but from objectively monitoring both physiological and psychological indicators of health and aging status.
There is no alternative to your learning and more consistently practicing the activities of nutritious eating, proper rest and targeted exercise, sufficient recreation, constructive self-reflection, caring and truly supportive relationships, creative expression and fulfilling vocation. Each of these disciplines are absolutely essential to health. There is no alternative to them. No pill nor therapy can ever remove the ill effects of: overly processed, synthetic, chemically altered foods; insufficient exercise; insufficient rest and recreation; negative self-talk; worry and fear; low self-esteem, resentment and conflict in your relationships and unsatisfying or even distressing work.
Health education along with proper support enhances the effectiveness of virtually all medical therapies. By learning to optimize your own health you assist health professionals in their efforts to help you. Feeling better about the choices you make will improve both your adherence to the steps you choose and the results you are likely to achieve.
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