Archive for the ‘Family Wellness’ Category

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Welcome our new Massage Therapist….Sarah Ryan-Knox LMT!

Saturday, April 6th, 2013

Sarah Ryan-Knox LMT

We are so excited to add a new member to our group of practitioners! Sarah is an amazing Licensed Massage Therapist with over ten years of experience offering relaxing and therapeutic massage. Along with the relaxation of Swedish massage, she also offer Hot Stone Massage. Adding heat to massage can deeply soothe your aches and release muscle tension. Sarah is also experienced in prenatal and post partum massage. It is important to choose a massage therapist who can safely and effectively treat the unique needs of pregnant women and new mamas!

Sarah is on many insurance panels and will bill insurance directly. Please see our Insurance Billing page for more details. She is here at Willow Tree Wellness Clinic all day on Sundays and Tuesdays. You can book with her online by clicking to our Genbook scheduler.

 

Bio: Before becoming a massage therapist, Sarah pursued several other paths. After earning her degree in comparative religion at Washington and Lee University, she volunteered on a kibbutz in Israel and as a health eduction volunteer with the Peace Corps in Senegal, West Africa. Sarah then lived in Paris, Miami, Florida, NYC and Cleveland studying photography. Her travel and wanderings slowed down when her grandmother was at the end of her life in hospice. Sarah experimented with massage as a comfort measure for her grandmother, who was very encouraging. It was her grandmother’s endorsement of Sarah’s healing hands that prompted her move to Tucson and enroll in the Cortiva Institute’s massage and Shiatsu program.

After graduating from massage school, Sarah moved to Portland in 2003 where she has been practicing massage ever since. A simple description of Sarah’s massage style is that she likes to find the tight spots and make them go away, mostly through deep tissue and hot stone massage. She works intuitively, admitting that science is not her favorite topic. Instead, she has learned to trust her hands. She lets her hands be her kinesthetic eyes, guiding her to where she may provide the most relief and comfort.

Posted in Auto Accidents, Detox, Family Wellness, Massage, portland acupuncture, Whiplash Treatment, Women's Health | No Comments »

Dr. J’s Preventative Tips for Allergies

Wednesday, March 20th, 2013

Juniper Martin allergy tipsby Dr. Juniper Martin

A few years ago, I had a patient come in for a first time visit who mentioned that they were dreading the changing of the seasons. Now, here in the Pacific Northwest, where it rains non-stop for months on end, this is not the normal attitude. Sunshine is craved and treated like a precious commodity (which it is!). I asked him why he dreaded spring coming, and he explained that he had suffered from horrible hay fever since he was a boy. Beginning in April, he had a regimen of staying inside and avoiding the outside world at all cost for a good 6 months. What an awful way to live! And what’s worse, he believed there was no way to lessen or eliminate his allergies.

Allergy symptoms are indeed awful. Watery, itchy eyes, scratchy throat, sneezing, runny nose…these symptoms are sure to put a damper on what ought to be fun, relaxing time outside.

Unfortunately, allergies have dramatically risen in the last 25 years for as yet unknown reasons, although there is a lot of research being done on the “hygiene” or “old friend” hypothesis. This hypothesis states that a lack of early childhood exposure to certain microbes, or exposure to as many microbes as our ancestors once were, is causing our immune systems to lose some of its ability to self regulate. To put it simply, the immune system starts overreacting, looking at things such as pollen, which should be recognized as non-threatening, and instead seeing it as a dangerous foreign invader that needs attack. To get rid of this perceived foreign invader, our immune system starts creating many chemicals that give us those aggravating symptoms.

The release of histamine triggers an inflammatory reaction, which causes congestion and increased secretions. Our body does this with the aim of making it easier for our white blood cells to attack foreign invaders. Unfortunately, with an allergic reaction, there’s no actual invader to be rinsed out with all that snot! There are many over the counter pharmaceuticals available that address histamine release. As a group we refer to these drugs as “antihistamines” since they all, in one way or another, affect histamine, either by blocking it, or lessening our reaction to it.

To reduce symptoms during this year’s season, the time to act is now.  Stabilizing the cells that release histamine, that cause those nasty symptoms of itchy eyes, runny nose, and general fogginess, can be very helpful in reducing symptoms.  Balancing the immune system, though, is the key to long-term wellness and the avoidance of worsening problems later in life.

Here are a few things you can do to minimize your experience of allergies. As with any new regime, check in with your health practitioner before starting. While it’s ideal to begin these treatments prior to your allergy season, beginning at any time is going to improve your symptoms.

  1. Take high potency probiotics daily. A good number to shoot for is between 40-60 billion cfu’s per day.  Eighty percent of our immune system is in the gastrointestinal tract, as it has to differentiate between what’s food and what is a dangerous invader. Probiotics are the beneficial bacteria that our immune system requires to be regulatory and not inflammatory. Probiotics minimize allergic reactions and also protect us against bacterial and viral infections such as the flu virus.  Purchase a high quality refrigerated.
  2. Use a neti pot to clean your nasal passages each day.  Add ¼ tsp. probiotics, and ¼ tsp salt per cup of water and use as directed. This rinses the nasal passages of any possible allergens.
  3. Avoid foods that you are sensitive or allergic to.  This decreases the overall load your immune system is processing so that allergens may not have as dramatic an effect.   If you notice that you have an itchy throat or ears after eating a particular food, chances are you are sensitive to it.  Other possible symptoms include generalized fatigue (often several days after ingesting a food), gastrointestinal distress, joint pain, headaches, depression, or anxiety.  A food sensitivity test may be a good idea if you are wondering which foods are irritating for you.
  4. Take a mast cell stabilizer beginning about three months in advance of allergy season.  The flavonoid quercitin is one such supplement. 250-500mg twice daily is a good starting dose. Taking a mast cell stabilizer, helps the some of the cells that release histamine be less reactionary.
  5. Butterbur (Petasites hybridus) is an herb that has strong anti-inflammatory effects and has been shown in at least one trial to be as effective as an OTC antihistamine for controlling hay fever symptoms. A good dose is 25mg, 4 times a day.
  6. Nettles (Urtica dioicai) is an herb that has a long history of being used as a treatment for allergies. There are many ways to enjoy this nutritious, green plant, from homemade pesto, to using as a spinach replacement (steamed!). For the best allergy prevention, 2 freeze-dried capsules 2-3 times a day works best.
  7. Local Bee Pollen. If one is not allergic to bees, bee pollen local to your area, ingested in large quantities, can help remind the immune system that pollen is a “food”, i.e. not something to react to. Take ½ tsp bee pollen and wait to see if there is a negative reaction (itchy throat, sneezing, etc); if there is no negative reaction, eat 3TBLS bee pollen 4X/day for 5 days, then 1 tsp when acute symptoms occur

Allergies of any kind are a signal that your body is out of balance in one or multiple systems. If long lasting change is the aim, rebalancing the immune system and any systems increasing overall inflammation must be addressed. Allergy symptoms are not something that has to be put up with! I’m happy to say my patient who hid in his house for half the year is now able to go out with his family on picnics, to the beach, to baseball games, anywhere he wants. He’s worked hard the last few years to change his diet and has incorporated many of the above treatments into his daily routine. Getting to fully enjoy life has been well worth the effort. Allergy symptoms are not something that has to be put up with!

 

 

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Posted in Family Wellness, Herbal Medicine | No Comments »

Why do you want me to stick out my tongue?

Tuesday, February 19th, 2013

Portland Acupuncturist Kine FischlerIt is always fun to watch a new patient’s expression change when I ask them to stick out their tongue. In Chinese Medicine, tongue and pulse diagnosis are a couple of techniques used to assess a person’s inherent constitution of their body, influence of external factors and the overall state of their current health.

The tongue is highly vascular and is richly supplied by both the nervous and circulatory system. It is nourished by saliva secreted by salivary glands and controlled by our autonomic nervous system. It contains water, electrolytes, mucus, and enzymes. It serves many functions and the appearance is influenced by physiological changes in the body. We can see how our whole body is functioning and detect imbalances in different organ systems by observing changes in our tongue’s appearance.

What does the tongue have to tell us?

First we are getting a general view of your health, and if sick the extent of the illness in the body. We look at the shape, the color, and the coating of the tongue.

Shape – Reflects the quality of the circulation of the Qi and Blood.

Color – Represents the condition of the blood, yin, and fluids as well as the yang and Qi.

Coating – Denotes the strength of externally contracted illnesses and differentiates whether it is excessive or deficient in nature.

 

A ‘normal’ tongue fits in the mouth, is soft and moist with a pale red tongue body and should have a very thin clear coating, exhibiting proper enzymatic content and salivary secretions. To illustrate diagnosis, I will give some simple examples of health imbalances. A tongue that is swollen or has toothmarks on the edges indicates an impairment in the body’s processing of fluids or a lack of energy behind the movement of fluids. A purplish tongues denotes stagnation in the body that may be leading to pain or emotional frustrations. A thick yellow tongue coating shows us that their is an impairment in the digestive system with a build up of internal heat and dampness that can manifest as anger, stomach upset or alcohol toxicity. Check out your tongue the morning after a night out for drinks or when you have a bout with the stomach bug, you will see what I am mean!

 

We then look at specific areas of the tongue that correspond to specific organ systems and their meridians in the body.

The front and tip of the tongue reflect the nature of the Heart and Lung. A scarlet red tip may indicate restlessness in the Heart meridian manifesting as insomnia, anxiety or generalized mental agitation.

The middle of the tongue shows up how our Spleen and Stomach are functioning together to support our digestive system. A red, raised center may indicate Stomach heat with the symptoms of heartburn, indigestion or excessive appetite.

The back of the tongue gives us information about our Kidney and Urinary Bladder organs and their meridians. A thicker white coat indicates an impairment in fluids, possibly urinary disorders.

Next time you are in, just ask for more information about your tongue diagnosis!  In the meantime, take a moment to look at yours and watch the changes.

 

Posted in Acupuncture, Family Wellness, Internal Medicine, portland acupuncture, tongue diagnosis | No Comments »

Massage can heal the world! Meghan spreads her hope to all : )

Monday, January 28th, 2013

$10 off 60 minute massages in February!

by Meghan French

I often think massage is the answer to world peace. It may seem obvious at first: massage is relaxing, inspires the body to chill out and rejuvenate and the post-massage euphoria is often enough to inspire spontaneous smiles and goodwill to all you pass on the way out of the office! But why, more specifically, does this full body rub down help one feel so great?

Let’s take a deeper look at just a few of myriad of reasons:

1. Massage just feels good. Yes, but why? Our bodies respond to healthy, therapeutic human touch in a very profound way. Most disease is directly related to high levels of prolonged stress from ay number of reasons. Helping your body relax and receive the full benefits of relieving and releasing stress from the body feel great and can increase your quality of life!

2. Massage manually increases overall circulation and lymph flow, the system in our body that helps fight infection. Increasing blood flow helps detoxify lingering gunk out of our systems and stimulating our lymph makes sure it’s right on top of doing it’s job, keeping us healthy and happy more often.

3. Massage activates our parasympathetic nervous system- that part of our nervous system that, when turned on, helps our body digest food, rest deeply, relax fully and restore itself completely. Our bodies are magical in that they heal themselves- all we do is help the process! By activating the parasympathetic nervous system with a yummy massage and having your body reap the benefits of time spent in this amazing state of rejuvenation, you give yourself the gift of health and well being.

Those are just three ways massage might end world suffering, but there are so many more! Come in and find out for yourself :)

Meghan French, LMT is here at Willow Tree on Sundays 12 – 7 pm and Tuesday – Friday 3 – 7 pm.

Call 503.281.0030 to schedule your massage or you can use our online scheduler.

Posted in Family Wellness, Fitness, Massage, portland acupuncture | No Comments »

Do I need the Flu vaccine? Dr Juniper Martin helps you make an informed decision

Friday, January 18th, 2013

The flu season is here!!! And with it comes the big question, to get the flu vaccine or not? This can be a very confusing topic, and there is a ton of conflicting information out there. Ultimately, there is not going to be a one-answer-fits all, but rather we each need to evaluate our own situation and decide what is best for our health and the health of our family. But let’s try to clear up some of the confusion, so you can make the most informed decision possible!

 

Is the vaccine effective?

No vaccine is 100% effective and the flu vaccine especially has extremely variable rates of efficacy. This year the CDC is speculating about a 62% success rate, meaning that out of 100 people who have been vaccinated this season and exposed to the flu, 62 of them do not report symptoms of influenza (fever, aching, cough, runny nose, sore throat…). The reason for this variability is that the vaccine is created new each year by virologists who attempt to predict how the three most common strains of influenza will mutate, and then a vaccine is created based on those predictions. Influenza virus is one of the most constantly mutating viruses known…thus it will be impossible to create a vaccine that is 100% effective and that will create lifelong immunity.

Anyone who’s had the flu can attest to how completely awful it is. However, the far majority of us recover fully within 10-14 days. Where the flu can become a problem is when it sets the stage for a secondary bacterial infection, namely pneumonia. There are particular subsets of the population that are more susceptible to a secondary infection, namely the very young (less than one year old), the elderly, and those with a compromised immune system or lung issues (chronic asthma, COPD, emphysema). Ironically, the influenza vaccine works the least well in these populations, with much lower success rates than in older children and healthy younger adults. The reason for this discrepancy is based on how the vaccine interacts with our immune system. The part of our immune system that the flu vaccine stimulates to make antibodies, is not as active or developed in the very young or elderly, and in those already fighting a chronic illness.

Many people have questions of additives and preservatives in the flu vaccine. It is a fact that the multi-dose vaccine vial used for adults (the most commonly used vaccine) has thimerosal used as a preservative. Thimerosal is a mercury based preservative. While the amount of thimerosal in a single dose of vaccine is FDA approved, it is still a dose of mercury, which is a known neurotoxin. Thimerosal is not present in the children’s vaccine, nor is it present in single-dose vials. There is also a very small amount of formaldehyde in the vaccine. Formaldehyde is used to disinfect the vaccine (to make sure nothing live is growing in it, which would be very, very dangerous). Formaldehyde is, of course, not good for anyone; however, this is, again, much less formaldehyde than we’re often exposed to daily as a natural by-product in regular foods we are eating.

 

Does the vaccine help my immune system?

Something else to consider is that there is conclusive research that shows that our long term immunity to the flu is not helped by the flu vaccine. This has to do with how the vaccine was made to interact with our immune system and have minimal side effects. The live vaccine, which is not regularly used anymore, is a little bit different and not what I’m referring to here. When we naturally get the flu, our immune system is being exposed to the whole virus, all the different bits and pieces and all the different chemicals created by that virus. All the different parts of our immune system respond to this information and our immune system records this data and uses it in future attack. And although the influenza virus is constantly shifting and mutating, and there are different strains, there are many basic parts that stay the same. So the more often we’re exposed to and fight an actual flu infection, the better our immune system gets at reacting to the virus, and our symptoms become less severe and have shorter duration. Because the flu vaccine is stimulating only one part of our immune system, and is focused on making our body recognize just one little part of one specific strain, our immune system does not record this information for future use, and the vaccine does not give us long term protection from the flu.

What can I do to prevent getting sick?

There are many things you can do to help protect yourself from the flu without getting the vaccine (or in addition to). Hygiene is first, of course. Lots and lots of hand washing, lots and lots of alcohol based hand sanitizer like Purell (I don’t love the “antimicrobial” sanitizers or soaps). Cough into your elbow; be aware of the space you share with others. The flu virus is a seasonal bug, with a consistent flare in late winter/early spring in both hemispheres. There has been great research done that is pointing to the idea that it’s not specifically us being in closer quarters during these months that gives us a rise in influenza, but it’s lack of sun that is increasing susceptibility.

Research has shown that those taking Vitamin D (800-2000 IU/day) through the winter months have much less susceptibility to the flu and record much less severe symptoms. We know now that Vitamin D is integral to our innate immune system’s ability to recognize and quickly fight a foreign invader. Our innate immune system is the part of our immune system that is the first line of defense against attack (before an antibody response). Both Echinacea and Elderberry have been shown to have specific anti-influenza virus affects in vitro (they work similarly to Tamiflu in stopping viral replication). Clinically, I see these herbs work best when taken heavily and consistently at the first sign of illness or known exposure. Probiotics taken daily (10 billion cfu/day)  help regulate our immune system, as these beneficial bacteria create a chemical that the T-cells of our immune system require to become regulatory and not inflammatory. And lastly, good old fish oil (2000mg/day total omega 3), taken daily, has been shown to increase innate immunity, and balance the immune system. Please consult your health practitioner before starting any new supplement or herb.

Who should get the Flu vaccine?

In healthy adults who have very young infants at home, I often recommend the vaccine, along with other protective measures, since newborns are an especially vulnerable population with completely undeveloped immune systems, and they’re only defense is their mama’s milk (if they are breastfeeding). Similarly, if you have family members at home who cannot take preventative measures against the flu and who are immune compromised or elderly, it may be extra protective for you to get the vaccine.

Whether or not to get the flu vaccine is ultimately going to be a personal decision based on one’s own health, where you work, what you’re exposed to, and who you’re going home to, and how old you are. I know it’s confusing, and there’s a lot of fear. Please feel free to contact me with more specific questions!

Dr. Juniper

Posted in Family Wellness, Internal Medicine | 3 Comments »

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