I started HEAL in 2018 after
finally deciding to utilize my
skills in a manner that is more
outside the box of traditional
Physical Therapy. I decided to
take an innovative approach to
physical therapy. One that
wasn’t just only about treating
injuries. Of course, this is
very important. But, I chose to
work towards efficient health
and wellness for everyone I am
blessed to work with. In fact,
the word “HEAL” has a dual
meaning: One, it stands for
healing patients through my
skill set. Two, it represents
Healthy
Eating,
Active
Lifestyle.
Let’s highlight “Healthy Eating”
since the foods, beverages and
supplements we consume have a
profound impact on our wellness.
New Dietary Guidelines
Late in 2020, the United States
Department of Agriculture (USDA)
issued new dietary guidelines.
Click
HERE
for the link to the new
guidelines.
These guidelines (9th Edition)
are designed to help Americans eat
a healthier diet and are focused
on public health. The executive
summary reports that “the
scientific connection between food
and health has been well
established for many decades, with
substantial and increasingly
robust evidence showing that a
healthy lifestyle - including
following a healthy dietary
pattern - can help people achieve
and maintain good health and
reduce the risk of chronic
diseases throughout all stages of
the lifespan”.
The dietary guidelines, which are
updated every five years
(2020-2025), have one goal: To
promote health and prevent
disease. The fundamental premise
is that just about everyone, no
matter their health, personal
preferences, cultural traditions,
or budgetary considerations, can
“Start Simple” by shifting food
and beverage choices to better
support healthy dietary patterns.
In fact, the USDA even have a
motto for their current
guidelines: “Make Every Bite
Count”. The USDA has a great
website, which has a quiz to help you
begin a new nutrition journey as
well as other excellent resources
for eating healthy.
Nutrient-Dense
The third recommendation of the
new USDA guidelines encourages
foods and beverages to be
nutrient-dense. This means having
a high vitamin and mineral content
in relation to its weight with
little added sugars, saturated
fat, or sodium. This includes
vegetables of all types, fruits,
grains, dairy, protein foods and
oils.
According to
healthline.com, the eleven most nutrient-dense
foods on the planet include:
1. Salmon
2. Kale
3. Seaweed
4. Garlic
5. Shellfish
6. Potatoes
7. Liver
8. Sardines
9. Blueberries
10. Egg yolks
11. Dark chocolate (so happy this
one made the list!)
Nutrition-Related Health
Conditions
There are six health
conditions
that are dramatically affected by
what you eat: 1. Chronic Pain and Inflammation
2.
Obesity 3. Cardiovascular Disease 4. Diabetes 5. Cancer 6. Bone Health and Muscle
Strength
Chronic Pain and
Inflammation Since 2015, several
prominent
research studies
have supported the promotion of
nutrition as an effective
intervention for pain relief.
Specifically, altering dietary
pattern (intermittent fasting),
altering specific nutrients (fat and
fiber), and supplement-based
interventions (omega-3s, vitamin D,
and amino acids) have all been
scientifically shown to decrease
pain and inflammation.
Obesity According to the
2019 Adult Obesity Prevalence
Map, about 74% of adults are
self-reported overweight. Twelve
states report greater than 35% of
all adults in that state are
diagnosed with obesity (South
Carolina is one of those states),
making obesity a serious and very
costly disease.
Cardiovascular Disease Heart disease is the leading cause
of death in the United States, with
high blood pressure and high total
cholesterol also being major risk
factors. According to the
American Heart Association, half of all Americans have some
form of heart disease. The
association is taking action by
implementing nutrition guidance
called
"Healthy Living"
to help individuals who struggle to
achieve healthy eating.
Diabetes 11% of Americans have type 1 or 2
diabetes, with almost 35% of all
adults diagnosed as pre-diabetic.
People 65 years or older have the
highest rate (48%) compared to other
age groups.
Cancer Colorectal cancer in men and breast
cancer in women are among the most
common types of cancer, with incidence
and mortality rates highest among
those ages 65 and older for every
cancer type.
Bone Health and Muscle
Strength Women are affected by osteoporosis at
higher rates than men. Adults over 80
years are at the highest risk for
reduced bone mass and muscle
strength.
USDA
Guideline
Limitations
Unfortunately, the new guidelines
do not provide specific
recommendations for these
nutrition-related health
conditions. Due to rising rates of
obesity and the link between
obesity and health problems like
type 2 diabetes, heart disease,
and cancer, the new guidelines do
recommend limiting any added
sugars. Specifically, "added
sugars should be less than 10% of
calories per day".
If you fall into one or many of
these nutrition-related healthy
conditions, it is extremely
important that you seek the
correct health care to aid your
condition. One great place to
start is
Eat Right, the national website for the
Academy of Nutrition and
Dietetics, where you can
find an expert
to help!
HEAL is also here to help! The
videos below will help you
understand physical therapy and
yoga-related nutrition issues that
will assist you with choices
related to healthy eating.
Live Therapeutic Yoga Class for
Digestion from the December 01, 2020
Stream
Live Therapeutic Yoga Class for Diabetes
from the October 08, 2020 Stream.
Live Therapeutic Yoga Class for Weight
Loss from the Oct 06, 2020 Stream
Live Therapeutic Yoga Class from the
comforts of your favorite chair that
will help give you energy from the
October 15, 2020 Stream.
Live Therapeutic Yoga Class for
Constipation from the June 11, 2020
Stream
Live Therapeutic Yoga Class for Bloating
from the September 08, 2020 Stream
Connect with Others
Connection and
community are
very important to a healthy life
and stress management. Please
join me virtually every Tuesday
or Thursday @ 10am for
Therapeutic Yoga class. If you
do not already receive email
invites for these classes, just
email
healwellnessandtherapy@gmail.com
and you will be added to the
distribution list. If the time
for class does not suit your
schedule, feel free to check out
the many therapeutic yoga
classes located on our YouTube
channel or from our website
blog.
Lazarus
and Folkman, researchers in the
study of stress, define stress
as “a particular relationship
between the person and the
environment that is appraised by
the person as taxing or
exceeding his/her resources and
endangering his/her well-being”.
This quote comes directly from
their book, Stress,
Appraisal, and
Coping.
Acute stress from a threat, such
as avoiding a motor vehicle
accident, hearing some bad news,
or physical injury to your body,
results in your nervous system
responding by triggering the
“STRESS RESPONSE”. This involves
both the central (brain and
spinal cord) and peripheral
(anything else) nervous systems.
The main parts of the brain that
respond to stress include the
amygdala, hypothalamus,
pituitary and prefrontal cortex.
The parts of the peripheral
nervous system that respond to
stress include the autonomic
nervous system and somatic
nervous system (organs and
muscles).
The autonomic nervous system is
the autonomous control center of
physical responses to stress and
is driven by the hypothalamus
(in the brain) as well as the
adrenal glands (sit just on top
of the kidneys and release
epinephrine and cortisol). There
are two parts to the autonomic
nervous system: the sympathetic
nervous system, AKA the “Fight
or Flight” response, and the
parasympathetic nervous system
or “Rest, Relax, Digest and
HEAL” response.
The amygdala regulates the
autonomic nervous system and
interprets situations, thoughts,
and events as potentially
threatening and then sends a
distress signal to the
hypothalamus. The hypothalamus
is the communication center with
the rest of the body in times of
stress and gets the autonomic
nervous system activated to
respond with the fight or flight
response. Unfortunately, if
stress persists, then the same
response that is healthy in
times of acute threat happen
over and over giving an altered
stress response - defined as
chronic stress.
Chronic
Stress
With
chronic stress, regulatory
mechanisms in the brain and body
become dysfunctional. The central
nervous system stops efficiently
regulating the responses. Specific
brain areas start having issues that
cause anxiety and depression
symptoms. Finally, there are
systemic effects like dysfunction of
the organs (examples: high blood
pressure and digestion issues) and
muscular system which cause
physical pain. The longer chronic
stress lasts, the amygdala
physically gets larger in size and
becomes more reactive to stress
responses while the prefrontal
cortex (the front of the brain)
actually shrinks in size and the
result is decreased reasoning to
stress responses and limited higher
brain function. In fact, the American Medical
Association reports chronic
stress as the #1 proxy killer
disease and the basic cause of
more than 60% of all human illness
and disease.
How do you know if you are stressed?
A great book by Stanley Rosenberg
called Accessing
the Healing Power of the
Vagus Nerve,
explains ways to determine if the
physical body is stressed with great
self-help exercises for anxiety,
depression, trauma and autism.
Humans need acute stress
responses but how do you fix chronic
stress? The simple answer is to
MANAGE stress...HEAL Wellness
and Therapy follows the Five
Pillars to Stress Management:
Mindfulness
Mindfulness
is so important for stress
management that it deserves
the first pillar! What
is Mindfulness? According to Dan
Harris, writer of 10%
Happier, it is “to
know what is happening in your
head at any given moment without
being carried away by it and it
is definitely the next health
revolution!”
Research on mindfulness is
growing every year and what we
know is that the brain is
positively affected with a
regular practice of
mindfulness. In fact,
mindfulness shrinks the
areas of the brain responsible
for stress responses
(amygdala) and grows the
areas of the brain responsible
for reasoning (prefrontal
cortex). In this research,
the more mindful a person is,
the less active the
amygdala’s response to the
stress response.
So, where to start? Here are a
few videos to work on stress
management through breathing,
mindfulness and dealing with the
vagus nerve, one of the key
nerves that supplies our organs
and reacts to the stress
response from the
brain.
Please
enjoy!
Live Therapeutic Yoga Class where we focus
on stress relief from a sitting position
from the October 13, 2020 Stream
Live Therapeutic Yoga Class for Anxiety from
the July 21, 2020 Stream
Live Therapeutic Yoga Class from the April
02, 2020 Stream
A short video to describe and talk through
performing the 4:7:8 breath for relaxation.
Nadi Shodhana pranayama or alternate nostril
breathing is a breathing yoga practice that
uses balancing the breath on the left and
right sides of the body to create focus of
the mind, relax the body and calm the
autonomic nervous system. “Nadi” is a
Sanskrit word meaning “channel” or “flow”
relating to the energy channels in the
subtle body and Shodhana means “to purify”.
This breathing practice can be performed
anywhere and anytime with no
contraindications. The main benefits of the
practice of alternate nostril breathing
include infusing the body with oxygen,
supporting clear and balanced respiratory
channels, clearing and releasing toxins
(don’t be surprised if your nose is runny
after performing this), reducing stress and
anxiety, calming and rejuvenating the
nervous system, improving mental clarity,
enhancing the ability to concentrate, and
bringing balance to the left and right
hemispheres of the brain.
Connect
with
Others
Connection
and community are very
important and the fifth
pillar to a healthy life
and stress management
Please join me virtually every
Tuesday or Thursday @ 10am for
Therapeutic Yoga class. If you
do not already receive email
invites for these classes, just
email healwellnessandtherapy@gmail.com
and you will be added to the
distribution list. If the time
for class does not suit your
schedule, feel free to check out
the many therapeutic yoga
classes located on our YouTube
channel or from our website
blog.
Latest
Videos
Live Therapeutic Yoga Class for Weight Loss
from the Oct 06, 2020 Stream
Live Therapeutic Yoga Class for Diabetes
from the October 08, 2020 Stream
Yoga has
many benefits: Improving
flexibility, increasing strength,
managing stress and it can also help
improve sleep. The most common sleep
disorder that millions of Americans
suffer from is called
insomnia.
According
to the American
Academy of Sleep Medicine,
insomnia is defined as “difficulty
with sleep initiation, duration,
consolidation or quality.” Research shows
that when individuals who have
insomnia practice yoga regularly,
they fall asleep faster, sleep
longer and even return to sleep more
quickly with waking during the the
night.
With aging,
insomnia can become more prominent
and may be harder for adults over
the age of 60 to stay asleep during
the night. Regular
yoga practice has been
proven to improve sleep
quality, which results in feeling
better throughout the day for people
with insomnia. Therefore, yoga
improves quality of life.
Bedtime
Yoga
To aid
sleep and decrease insomnia, it
is important to work yoga into
your bedtime routine. It is
essential to practice the
correct yoga poses or exercises
and avoid energizing ones. These
three poses are perfect for
preparing your body for
slumber:
Knee
to chest: Lie on your back
and slowly bring one leg at
a time towards your chest.
Relax in this position and
slowly take 3-5 deep
diaphragm or belly
breaths.
Legs
up the Wall: Lie on your
back and support the back of
your legs with your hands or
put the back of your legs up
a wall, so that the body is
in a “L” shape. Relax in
this position and slowly
take 3-5 deep diaphragm or
belly breaths.
Corpse
Pose: Lie on your back with
legs straight and slightly
wider than hips, arm just
away from your sides and
palms facing upwards. Relax
in this position and slowly
take 3-5 deep diaphragm or
belly breaths.
In this
short 10-minute yoga bedtime
practice, these 3 poses are
demonstrated to help you fall
asleep faster, stay asleep and
improve your sleep
quality.
Yoga
Nidra
There is
actually a “type” of yoga that is
specifically intended to induce and
be similar to sleep called Yoga
Nidra. Yoga
Nidra is defined as “the
ability to enter the deepest,
non-REM delta wave sleep while
maintaining awareness both
internally and of one’s
surroundings”. In classical Yoga
Nidra, one is guided through the
awareness of the body’s senses (see,
feel, hear, taste, and smell) while
always being reminded to stay awake.
There is even a contemporary
adaptation of the ancient Yoga
Nidra, called Integrative
Restoration (iRest). It
shares many basic principles and
techniques with other forms of Yoga
Nidra, but differs in various way.
iRest has even been shown
in research to be
effective on mindfulness, sleep and
pain in health care
workers.
This video
is a great way to learn a bit about
HOW to improve positions of sleep in
conjunction with some yoga poses and
ends with a guided Yoga Nidra
practice. Please enjoy!
Connect
with
Others
Connection
is very important and one of the
pillars to a healthy life! Please
join me virtually every Tuesday or
Thursday @ 10am for Therapeutic Yoga
class. If you do not already receive
email invites for these classes,
just email healwellnessandtherapy@gmail.com
and you will be added to the
distribution list. If the time for
class does not suit your schedule,
feel free to check out the many
therapeutic yoga classes located on
our YouTube channel or from our
website.
Latest
Videos
Live Therapeutic Yoga Class for Low
Back Arthritis from the September 03,
2020 Stream
Live Therapeutic Yoga Class on what
we like to call "Sofa Yoga" from
the September 01, 2020
The sense of
smell is called olfaction. The part of
the nose responsible for smell is
located at two narrow
passages called olfactory clefts,
located at the upper part of the nasal
cavity. It is here where aroma or
odorant molecules stimulate olfactory
receptors via sensory nerves and
transmit the sense of smell from the
olfactory nerve to the brain. The loss
of smell, or ANOSMIA, can be total or
partial (and temporary or permanent).
Common causes for smell loss include
head injury and infection. Smell
(and taste) gradually declines with the
normal aging process. Anosmia is not
usually serious, but can impact an
individual’s quality of life.
COVID-NOSE
The CDC added
anosmia as an official clinical symptom
of COVID-19 in April, along with the
loss of taste, or hypogeusia. The most
common cause of acute or temporary loss
of smell is a viral infection, like the
common cold or influenza. When this
infection occurs, the olfactory cleft in
the nose is inflamed and blocks or
prevents aroma molecules from reaching
the olfactory receptors in the nose.
Under normal conditions, once the
swelling and mucus in the nose return to
a normal level, smell is regained.
COVID-nose appears to be different. The
sense of smell does not gradually get
blocked, but rather, the symptoms with
COVID-nose are sudden and takes much
longer to return function. Major
inflammation targets only the area
of the olfactory cleft causing
nerve damage and the return to normal
may take weeks to months as the
olfactory neurons regenerate.
SMELL
THERAPY
Treatment for
anosmia can include smell therapy,
decongestants, antihistamines, steroid
nasal sprays, and reducing exposure to
nasal irritants like smoking. Smell
therapy is a form of physical therapy
that can help someone get their sense of
smell back faster. It includes using
smells to stimulate the olfactory nerves
and rehabilitate the sense of smell,
just like strength training can increase
muscle strength.
Smell therapy
uses four essential oils for
training:
Eucalyptus
(eucalyptol)
Lemon
(citronellal)
Rose
(phenyl ethyl alcohol)
Clove
(eugenol)
Rehabilitation
includes using these intense
odors twice daily for a
minimum of 12 weeks to return the sense
of smell.1 The essential oils
are smelled using inhalers or a
cotton-soaked pad for 10-20 seconds at a
time. The key is to be very mindful of
the scents while inhaling and breathing,
so that the brain and nervous system can
“reconfigure” the pathways of smelling
due to the neural plasticity of the
olfactory system. The research indicates
that individuals who performed
smell therapy showed improved sense of
smell and were able to identify and
discriminate between smells better than
people who did
not.2
Research:
K Pekala, RK CHandra, JH Turner.
Efficacy of olfactory training in
patients with olfactory loss: a systemic
review and meta-analysis. International
Forum of Allergy & Rhinology. Volume
6, Issue 3; March 2016; pages 299-307.
T Hummel, K RIssom, J Reden et al.
Effects of olfactory training in
patients with olfactory loss. The
Laryngoscope. Volume 119, Issue 3;
February 2009.
Here
is a great video to help direct you in
how to make an inhaler for smell therapy
or breathing exercises:
A great way to relax and combat symptoms of
depression and anxiety is through the use of an
essential oil inhaler. By introducing calming
smells through inhalation and using a specific
breathing technique, it will encourage the
cranial nerves that are part of the
parasympathetic nervous system to be stimulated
and relax both your body and mind. This video
will instruct you in how to make an aromatherapy
inhaler with therapeutic and evidence-based
effective essential oils.
For ideas of
breathing exercises to do in
conjunction with “sniffing
therapy”, watch the below
videos:
This breathing practice can be performed
anywhere and anytime with no contraindications.
The main benefits of the practice of alternate
nostril breathing include infusing the body with
oxygen, supporting clear and balanced
respiratory channels, clearing and releasing
toxins (don’t be surprised if your nose is runny
after performing this), reducing stress and
anxiety, calming and rejuvenating the nervous
system, improving mental clarity, enhancing the
ability to concentrate, and bringing balance to
the left and right hemispheres of the brain
A short video to describe and talk through
performing the 4:7:8 breath for relaxation.
Box or Square breath is a breathing technique to
help you relieve stress when you are
anticipating it. Watch to understand and
practice how to do Square breathing.
Connect
with
Others
Connection is
very important and one of the
pillars to a healthy life! Please
join me virtually every Tuesday or
Thursday @ 10am for a Therapeutic
Yoga class. If you do not already
receive weekly invites for these
classes, just email at healwellnessandtherapy@gmail.com
and you will be added to the email
distribution list. If the time for
class does not suit your schedule,
feel free to check out the many
therapeutic yoga classes located on
our YouTube channel or from our
website.
Latest
Videos
Live Therapeutic Yoga Class for Anxiety from
the July 21, 2020 Stream
Live Therapeutic Yoga Class for Incontinence
from the July 16, 2020 Stream
Let’s get your mind off of the COVID-19
pandemic just for a quick read.…
Did you know that gardening and yard work is
classified as moderately intense exercise?
Better yet, did you know that out of every
300,000 gardeners, 4200 of them will sustain
a serious injury requiring health care?
According to the National Institute of
Health, the frequency of gardening-related
injuries is approximately 1.4% - which is
higher than the rate of injury with walking
and outdoor bicycling. During walking and
gardening, men and women are equally likely
to get injured and age is not a risk factor.
(https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/9710864)
However, there is even better news,
according to Dr. Mark Hyman of the
Ultra-Wellness Center. Starting a garden is
considered an immune boosting lifestyle
intervention. Yes, it does help fight “the
COVID-19”!!! The sunlight increases your
Vitamin D levels, which aids sleep quality
and quantity and many immune processes to
fight illness. The physical exercise reduces
adrenaline in your body and decreases
inflammation. Finally, working with your
hands in soil reduces stress and helps
normalize your gut microbiome. Therefore,
gardening is prevention of illness, if done
correctly with your body.
Get outside and garden but let’s make sure
that you do it right! Below are some DO’S
& DON’TS of gardening to make sure you
do not cause an injury to your body. A quick
shout out and thank you to a local physical
therapist and master gardener - Steve
Konstant - who is my awesome model in the
below pictures.
SHOVELING
DON'T
⌧ Don't bend over at
the waist with legs straight.
⌧ Don't use just
your arms as you shovel.
⌧ Don't twist your
shoulders and hips in opposite directions as
you turn to lift shovel or drop it
down
DO
Do hinge at
your hips and bend at your knees, while
keeping your back straight.
Do keep your
feet apart to have a wider base of
support.
Do keep the
shovel close to your body as you
transport items. Shift your weight from
one foot to another if you need to move
side to side, staying in the hip hinge
position. As you turn, point your feet
in the direction you want to go, then
step around and turn.
RAKING
DON'T
⌧ Don't bend over at
the waist with legs straight.
⌧ Don't use just your arms as you rake.
⌧ Don't twist your shoulders and hips in
opposite directions when turning.
DO
Do hinge at
your hips and bend at your knees, while
keeping your back straight.
Do keep your feet apart to have a wider
base of support.
Move your whole body as a unit, not just
your arms.
While maintaining the hip hinge
position, shift your weight from your
front to back foot or from side to side
as you rake.
WEEDING/PLANTING
DON'T
⌧ Don't bend over at
the waist with legs straight.
⌧ Don’t stay in one position for too
long.
⌧ Don’t lift plants or bags of potting soil,
etc. with them far away from you.
⌧ Don’t twist as you lift or garden.
DO
Do hinge at
your hips and bend at your knees, while
keeping your back straight as you reach
down to pick up plant or pluck weed or
do plant maintenance.
You can also lean forward on one leg
while letting the other leg extended
back, still hip hinging and keeping your
back straight as you reach to pluck
weeds, etc.
Use the “shoveling” directions above as
you plant.
You can also kneel on a cushioned board
or sit on a low bench, still hip hinging
as you lean forward to do your
gardening.
As you turn, point your feet in the
direction you want to go, then step
around and turn.
LIFTING
FROM TRUNK OF CAR
DON'T
⌧ Don't bend over at
the waist with legs straight.
⌧ Don't lift with object far away.
⌧ Don't twist your shoulders and hips
opposite directions when turning.
DO
Do lift by hip
hinging and bending your knees, not your
back or waist-line.
Do lift with your feet apart and have a
wider base of support.
Do hold objects close to you as you
first lift the object and as you move
with it or put it down.
PRUNING
and HEDGETRIMMING
DON'T
⌧ Don’t hold the
hedge clippers away from your body.
⌧ Don’t reach too far overhead.
⌧ Don’t bend at the waist with the legs
straight when pruning.
DO
Do hold hedge
clippers close to you and stagger your
feet for balance.
Do move your feet instead of twisting
your body as you move down the hedge
row.
If the hedges are low, hinge at your
hips and bend your knees while keeping
your back straight.
PULL /
PUSH WAGON
DON'T
⌧ Don’t lean your
trunk backwards while pulling wagon.
⌧ Don’t bend over at your waist and push
your wagon.
⌧ Try not to overload wagon so that it is
unbalanced or too heavy for you.
DO
Do brace your
trunk and pull wagon with your body as a
whole, tightening your abdominals and
bottom muscles.
If wagon is full or is a larger cart, do
push with your trunk in a braced
position (abdominals tight), hinging at
hips with knees bent.
Helpful
Videos
If you do injure your back, here is a recent
therapeutic yoga class that may help your
symptoms
If your shoulder is aching from gardening,
then watch this video
Connect
with Others
Connection is key and one of the pillars to
a healthy life! Please join me virtually
every Tuesday or Thursday @ 10am for a
Therapeutic Yoga class. If you do not
already receive weekly invites for these
classes, just email me at healwellnessandtherapy@gmail.com
to be added to the email distribution list.
If the time for class does not suit your
self-distancing schedule, feel free to check
out the many therapeutic yoga classes
located on our YouTube channel.
Just thinking about the outbreak of a
novel virus like the coronavirus disease
2019 may be stressful for people.
The fear and anxiety about a disease can
be very overwhelming and cause strong
emotions. Learning ways to cope with
stress will make you mentally stronger
to deal with whatever may come.
According to the Centers for Disease
Control and Prevention (CDC): “Everyone
reacts differently to stressful
situations. How you respond to the
outbreak can depend on your background,
the things that make you different from
other people, and the community you live
in.”
Due to the ongoing details of the crisis
and the explosion of media coverage,
certain individuals are more likely to
respond stronger to stress. These
include: people over the age of 60 and
those with chronic diseases that are
likely at higher risk for severe acute
respiratory syndrome due to COVID-19,
individuals in health care who are
having to respond to the outbreak, and
anyone with uncontrolled mental health
conditions or substance abuse issues.
The CDC and Substance Abuse and Mental
Health Services Administration (SAMHSA)
report that stress can be exhibited in
many different ways but often include:
Difficulty concentrating
Feelings of shock, numbness,
disbelief, anxiety or fear
Fear and worry about your own health
and the health of your loved ones
Changes in sleep or difficulty
sleeping and nightmares
Worsening of chronic health problems
Physical reactions, such as
headaches, body pains, stomach
problems and skin rashes
Changes in appetite, energy and
activity levels
Increased substance abuse (alcohol,
tobacco and drugs)
More importantly, here is what the CDC
and SAMHSA suggests to help support and
cope with stress:
Take deep breaths
Take breaks - make time to unwind
with mindfulness/meditation
Stretch and exercise regularly
Eat healthy, well-balanced meals
Get plenty of sleep
Connect with others - talk to people
you trust about your concerns and
how you are feeling
Stay informed
Avoid excessive exposure to media
coverage
Avoid excessive alcohol and tobacco
Seek help when needed
Take
Deep Breaths
Here are some videos to help guide you
through using breathing techniques to
cope with stress and anxiety.
Box or Square breath is a breathing
technique to help you relieve stress when
you are anticipating it. Watch to understand
and practice how to do Square breathing.
A short video to describe and talk through
performing the 4:7:8 breath for relaxation.
Nadi Shodhana pranayama or alternate nostril
breathing is a breathing yoga practice that
uses balancing the breath on the left and
right sides of the body to create focus of
the mind, relax the body and calm the
autonomic nervous system.
With breathing, there are some specific
essential oils that are known to aid
coping with stress and anxiety.
This video will instruct you in how to make
an aromatherapy inhaler with therapeutic and
evidence-based effective essential oils.
Stretch
and Exercise
Regularly
As
individuals are performing
self-quarantine or deciding that
social distancing for them means not
leaving their home, exercise can
start to get limited. Here are
several videos to help guide you
through some therapeutic yoga to
keep your body moving.
This therapeutic yoga class will allow you
to not only learn what constitutes the
“core” but also how to get these muscles to
efficiently fire up to be used and then
strengthen them. Included in this video is a
short laughter yoga session and a guided
meditation to help further understand the
concepts of the “core”.
A therapeutic yoga class with a guided
breathing exercise to get your spine moving
and wake up your diaphragm, a modified Sun
Salutation starting in kneeling to focus on
control of the hamstrings and trunk without
the worry of balance in standing, gentle hip
opening and ending with a guided loving
kindness meditation.
This video will instruct you on exercises in
sitting and laying down to help increase the
mobility or range of movement of the rib
cage and thoracic spine (middle back) to
help ease pain, tension and tightness in the
neck and low back.
Get
Plenty of Sleep
Enjoy
my Top 10 Tips for Better Sleep
video to help you get some improved
zzz’s. Also, if you are having
difficulty finding comfort in sleep
positions, check out these videos
for sleeping on your back and side
or a guided yoga class to better
sleep.
Ideas on how to take the habit of sleep and
change it to create the best healing
environment for your body to get the most
efficient sleep.
Instruction/education on how to efficiently
sleep on your back to have a restful and
healing night’s sleep.
Instruction/education on how to efficiently
sleep on your side to have a restful and
healing night’s sleep.
A guided yoga class that you can be perform
before bedtime to help encourage your body
to be relaxed and restful.
Connect
with Others
Please
join me any Tuesday or Thursday @
10am at Dance Theatre of Greenville
located at 1791 Woodruff Road,
Greenville, SC 29607 for a
Therapeutic Yoga class. No issues
keeping the 3-6 foot social distance
rule since class is held in a nice
big clean dance studio. If social
distance requirements become more
restricted, then feel free to check
out the many therapeutic yoga
classes located on HEAL’s YouTube
channel.
Seek
Help When Needed
If
stress, anxiety, grief and worry
start to impact your ability to do
your activities of daily living for
several days or weeks, talk to a
clergy member, counselor, health
care provider, or contact the SAMHSA
helpline at 1-800-985-5990 or text
TalkWithUs to 66746.
Please
connect, follow and have a
conversation with us on YouTube,
Instagram and Facebook - search HEAL
Wellness and Therapy!
Please join me any Tuesday or
Thursday @ 10am at Dance Theatre of
Greenville located at 1791 Woodruff
Road, Greenville, SC 29607 for a
Therapeutic Yoga class.
Scoliosis is not a “disease” but rather one
of the most mysterious conditions that
exists in the orthopedic medical world.
Historically, scoliosis has been studied
since as early as Hippocrates in ~450 BC,
but the pioneer of spine research on
scoliosis was a Greek physician named Galen
in ~AD150.
The definition of scoliosis has been dynamic
over the years but all who study and treat
this condition can agree that it is a
three-dimensional deformity or
adaptation of the spine. The
physician and researcher Basmajian in the
1960’s described it best as an “act of
dysfunctional balance of the body”.
Scoliosis is often diagnosed with a term
called “idiopathic”. What this means is that
there is no known cause or more specifically
- no conclusive research evidence as to the
etiology. Over 80% of all medically
diagnosed scoliosis falls into the category
of “unknown cause”. The remaining 20% is of
"known cause” - related to congenital
deformity at birth, neurological conditions
of the spinal cord and brain, or nerve and
muscle diseases.
Through growing research, the cause of
scoliosis is guessed to be multi-faceted and
most likely includes:
Genetics - Research at
the Medical Genetics Institute at
Cedars-Sinai Medical Center suggests up
to a 35% inherited trait from families.
Nutritional
deficiencies - There is a
tremendous growing body of evidence
linking deficiency of Vitamin C, D, K,
calcium, magnesium, iron, copper and
zinc in our food sources as key
ingredients to the onset of scoliosis
due to poor bone development and growth.
Check out the website
https://www.westonaprice.org to
understand the concept of “borrowing”
from the skeleton to understand this.
Hormone imbalances -
Research has shown strong links to low
estrogen levels, delayed puberty and low
body weight in children and teens with
some showing a 7:1 ratio of female:male.
Muscle and nerve issues
(Neuromuscular Dysfunction) - Usually
related to aging or degenerative spine
changes and diagnosed in later life with
a very significant correlation of
scoliosis with osteoporosis.
How is
Scoliosis Diagnosed?
What
is obvious from the research is that
effective treatment is based on timely
detection and appropriate intervention.
For many decades, children were screened
in middle school for this condition. As
budgets have hit school systems and
home-schooling has gained popularity,
many children and teenagers are not
being screened. In fact, screening is
now only required in 26 U.S.
states!
Our
fast-food proclivity has continued to
grow over the decades and are we are not
diagnosing scoliosis early in children
but more children are at risk for
scoliosis due to inadequate
nutrition!
If
you know a child, don’t be afraid to
screen them. You don’t need to be a
healthcare provider. The video below
shows two very common ways to screen for
scoliosis:
Scoliosis is defined as a three-dimensional
curve of the spine. This video will instruct on
two very good standardized screens to help rule
in or out if someone needs further evaluation
for scoliosis.
If
screening shows an individual may have
scoliosis, the most accurate method of
diagnosing is an x-ray (also called
radiographs). However, there is an
increased risk of cancer associated with
radiation from repeated x-rays. The FDA
has published a list of techniques that
can be used to reduce unnecessary
radiation exposure in patients with
scoliosis (https://www.fda.gov/Radiation-EmittingProducts/ResourcesforYouRadiationEmittingProducts/default.htm).
So, if you have a friend or a loved one,
please share with them these
alternatives.
How is
Scoliosis Treated?
There
is no “standard of care” for treating
scoliosis. Most modern Western medicine
uses a “wait and see” approach to
treatment which is the opposite of
intervention. Conservative treatment
includes nutritional counseling,
physical therapy, bracing, yoga,
pilates, massage and medication (if pain
is an issue)…all in hopes to prevent
progression of the scoliotic curves and
surgical intervention!
The bottom line is that treating
scoliosis must begin with nutrition!
Hippocrates quotes: “leave your drugs in
the chemist’s pot if you can heal the
patient with food”. Dietary nutrients
must be tailored to the individual’s
needs, because what works best for one
person may be poison for another. A
great resource to find a registered
dietician to help with this is the
following website: https://www.eatright.org/find-an-expert.
When it comes to all the physical
modalities of treatment for scoliosis:
One sure thing is that anyone with
scoliosis needs exercise! A
meta-analysis (a combination of many
studies) in 2010 by the researcher
Negrini confirmed the efficacy of
exercise in reducing the progression
rate of scoliosis. Regular
weight-bearing exercise is necessary to
stimulate the building and retention of
bone mass and is recommended for 30-60
minutes 3x/week. Scoliosis-specific
exercises are movements performed in
order to counteract the scoliotic 3-D
curves and are necessary to improve the
strength and flexibility of the
imbalanced trunk muscles. Below are two
educational videos that incorporate
physical therapy and yoga to help with
understanding that what one side of the
body needs lengthened will be different
than the needs of the opposite side of
the body. Please enjoy!
Yoga for scoliosis can be controversial due to
the fact that traditional yoga classes tend to
treat the left and the right sides of the body
equally. With scoliosis, the body balances
itself three dimensionally but in doing so,
creates tensions that are different on one side
of the body compared to the other. The balance
the body performs for each person is varied but
this video with educate and instruct on how to
do find length in the muscles related to the
most common presentation of idiopathic
scoliosis.
A short video to perform gentle stretching to
improve alignment of the common idiopathic
scoliosis restrictions through the L rib cage
and R pelvis while sitting in a chair. These two
stretches can be done anywhere to allow
improvements in mobility or decrease
pain/tightness.
Please
connect, follow and have a conversation
with us on YouTube, Instagram and
Facebook - search HEAL Wellness and
Therapy!
Please
join me any Tuesday or Thursday @ 10am
at Dance Theatre of Greenville located
at 1791 Woodruff Road, Greenville, SC
29607 for a Therapeutic Yoga
class.
HAPPY HOLIDAYS to
you and your family from
HEAL Wellness and
Therapy!
Desk
workers listen up!
Did
you know that you use less energy when
sitting versus standing? According to juststand.org,
the average person sits for 12 hours
daily and physical inactivity has become
the 4th leading risk factor for global
mortality. Most of us understand that
the human body is designed to move, but
newer research has linked sitting to
something called “metabolic syndrome”.
This is a condition that includes the
trifecta of increased blood
pressure/hypertension, cholesterol
levels and blood sugar levels - which
lead to obesity. The cause of this
syndrome has been coined “Sitting
Disease” - which is associated with an
inactive lifestyle.
The Mayo Clinic analyzed 13 medical
studies researching over 1 million
people. It was determined that prolonged
sitting, defined as more than 8 hours a
day with no physical activity, carries a
risk of dying similar to smoking one
pack of cigarettes per day. While
quitting smoking can increase your
likelihood of a longer life, these
studies showed when prolonged sitting
for work was combined with 60-75 minutes
of moderate activity daily, the
mortality risk was countered. So, the
evidence shows that more physical
activity improves health but we have to
sit to work…or do we??? You might start
improving your health by simply standing
more and sitting less. Check out this
video to get ideas of how to stand
better while working.
Desk workers often struggle to get enough
movement in their life and therefore prolonged
sitting or prolonged standing at a desk can be
and issue for the body. This video will help you
determine if you should sit, stand or vary both
at your desk and also teach you techniques to do
it most efficiently.
The
research is clear. We need to sit less
and stand and move more! Start to think
about the activities you do while seated
every day that you could perform while
standing or walking. For example:
Stand or walk while on the phone
Walk
while “meeting” with a friend for
coffee
Walk
with colleagues rather than sitting
for a work conference
Stand
while watching TV or leisurely
reading on your smartphone or mobile
device
At
a desk all day, alternate between
sitting and standing every 30
minutes - there are so many options
out there for sit-stand work
stations and many won’t break the
bank
If
you work at a desk daily, check out
these tips to improve your efficiency of
sitting…and maybe even get an idea or
two for a friend or family member gift
for the holidays!
These 10 tips will teach you how to sit more
efficiently at your desk improving your posture
and help in preventing common repetitive strain
injuries that cause tension and pain to the
body.
It
will not take long to change a few
habits. Start now by moving more and
sitting less. Improve your chances of
avoiding metabolic syndrome due to the
“sitting dis-ease”.
Please
connect, follow and have a conversation
with us on YouTube, Instagram and
Facebook - search HEAL Wellness and
Therapy!
Please
join me any Tuesday or Thursday @ 10am
at Dance Theatre of Greenville located
at 1791 Woodruff Road, Greenville, SC
29607 for a Therapeutic Yoga
class.
Lazarus and Folkman, researchers in the
study of stress, define it in their book
Stress, Appraisal, and Coping as:
“a particular relationship between the
person and the environment that is appraised
by the person as taxing or exceeding his/her
resources and endangering his/her
well-being”.
WARNING: THIS INFORMATION IS VERY
IMPORTANT BUT HAS SOME BIG WORDS…DON’T
BE SCARED EVEN THOUGH IT IS ALMOST
HALLOWEEN!!!
Acute stress from a threat, such as avoiding
a motor vehicle accident or physical injury
to your body, results in your nervous system
responding by triggering the “STRESS
RESPONSE”. The stress response involves both
the central (brain and spinal cord) and
peripheral (anything beyond brain and spinal
cord) nervous systems. The main parts of the
brain that respond to stress include the
amygdala, hypothalamus, pituitary and
prefrontal cortex. The parts of the
peripheral nervous system that respond to
stress include the autonomic nervous system
and somatic nervous system (organs and
muscles).
The autonomic nervous system is the
autonomous control center of physical
responses to stress and is driven by the
hypothalamus as well as the adrenal glands
(that sit just on top of our kidneys in our
abdomen and release epinephrine and
cortisol). There are two parts to the
autonomic nervous system: the sympathetic
nervous system or “Fight, Flight, or Freeze”
response, and the parasympathetic nervous
system or “Rest, Relax, Digest and HEAL”
response.
The
amygdala regulates the
autonomic nervous system and
interprets contexts as potentially
threatening (like the pumpkin in
this picture) and then send a
distress signal to the hypothalamus.
The hypothalamus is the
communication center with the rest
of the body in times of stress and
gets the autonomic nervous system
activated to respond with the fight
or flight response. BOO!!!….were you
scared?? Here is the issue with the
human body - if stress persists,
then the same response that is
healthy in times of acute threat
happen over and over giving an
altered stress response - defined as
chronic stress!
With
chronic stress, regulatory
mechanisms in the brain and body
become dysfunctional. The central
nervous system stops regulating the
responses as efficiently. Specific
brain areas start having issues like
anxiety and depression symptoms.
Finally, there are systemic effects
like dysfunction of the organs and
muscular systems also causing
physical pain. Worse yet, the more
chronic stress lasts, the amygdala
gets larger in size and becomes more
reactive to stress responses while
the prefrontal cortex (the front of
the brain) actually shrinks in size
and the result is decreased
reasoning to stress responses and
limited higher brain function. In
fact, the American Medical
Association reports chronic stress
as the #1 proxy killer disease -
very scary!
How
do you know if you are stressed? A
great book by Stanley Rosenberg
called Accessing the Healing
Power of the Vagus Nerve
explains ways to determine if the
physical body is stressed with great
self-help exercises for anxiety,
depression, trauma and autism -
really an excellent
read.
You can simply determine if your body is in
chronic stress-mode by evaluating your
breath. Watch the video below to evaluate
this.
Breath Awareness can be used to determine if we
are in “Flight or Fight” mode or “Relax and
Renew” mode of our autonomic nervous system.
Follow along with this video to evaluate your
breath awareness to determine if your body is
“stressed” and then learn a controlled breathing
exercise to relax your body and calm your
nervous system.
What can we do about this? The simple answer
is to manage stress, but that is easier said
than done in most cases. HEAL Wellness and
Therapy designed and follows the Five
Pillars to Stress Management:
Mindfulness
is so important that it deserves the 1st
pillar job. What is Mindfulness?
According to Dan Harris, writer of
10% Happier, it is “to know
what is happening in your head at any
given moment without being carried away
by it and it is definitely the next
health revolution”! Research on
mindfulness is growing every year and
what we definitely know at this point is
that the brain is positively affected
with a regular practice of mindfulness.
The more mindful a person is, the less
active the amygdala’s response to stress
(research: https://news.harvard.edu/gazette/story/2012/11/meditations-positive-residual-effects/)
So,
where to start? Try this short video on
Alternate Nostril Breathing to learn to
relax the autonomic nervous system and
gain some control of stress!
Nadi Shodhana pranayama or alternate nostril
breathing is a breathing yoga practice that uses
balancing the breath on the left and right sides
of the body to create focus of the mind, relax
the body and calm the autonomic nervous system.
“Nadi” is a Sanskrit word meaning “channel” or
“flow” relating to the energy channels in the
subtle body and Shodhana means “to purify”. This
breathing practice can be performed anywhere and
anytime with no contraindications. The main
benefits of the practice of alternate nostril
breathing include infusing the body with oxygen,
supporting clear and balanced respiratory
channels, clearing and releasing toxins (don’t
be surprised if your nose is runny after
performing this), reducing stress and anxiety,
calming and rejuvenating the nervous system,
improving mental clarity, enhancing the ability
to concentrate, and bringing balance to the left
and right hemispheres of the brain
Please
connect, follow and have a conversation
with us on YouTube, Instagram and
Facebook - search HEAL Wellness and
Therapy!
Please
join me any Tuesday or Thursday @ 10am
at Dance Theatre of Greenville located
at 1791 Woodruff Road, Greenville, SC
29607 for a Therapeutic Yoga
class.
I am so humbled and excited to say those words! What has seemed like already a VERY long journey is finally becoming a reality… I am giving myself permission to let my dreams come true and help anyone who wants help taking care of their body and mind how I deem necessary including for FREE using this online platform!
Welcome To...
I am so humbled and excited to say those words! What has seemed like already a VERY long journey is finally becoming a reality… I am giving myself permission to let my dreams come true and help anyone who wants help taking care of their body and mind how I deem necessary including for FREE using this online platform!
In December of 2017, I founded the company HEAL Wellness and Therapy, LLC because, after over 21 years of physical therapy experience, I was exhausted of treating solely in our current sick-care model and being limited by medical diagnosis or treating just a specific area due to insurance or healthcare restrictions. Even though I have always treated patients to the best that my manual skills and mental capacity, I saw a real opportunity and have always had the grit and passion to treat individuals as a whole body integrating all systems to make them the most efficient beings they can be to fully enjoy this beautiful life we have been given!
With that said, please watch my first ever Youtube video introducing HEAL and don’t forget to subscribe and get notifications because their is a lot more to come!
Welcome to HEAL
Currently, my business team is very small but quite mighty! We have successfully completed 15 videos on self-care and therapeutic yoga that will be coming to your video screen in the next several months. So on this inaugural newsletter, I want to begin with the greatest thank you of all…to my brother Paul! He is absolutely the brains behind every video you will enjoy, one of my best friends, and one of the most caring people I have every met! Imagine….having your dream come to life and be able to work with the family you love and cherish! I only hope we can do what Paul and I have set out to help you do…
