Tag: bodywork

How to Keep Your Baby Happy and Healthy in the New Year

Posted on by Whitney Board
Keep your baby happy and healthy

Josh’s Top 3 Ways to Keep Your Baby Happy and Healthy in the New Year

Happy New Year folks! With this time of year comes the battle of the various colds, flus, and other viruses for adults and kiddos alike. The following are 3 tips to help keep your baby happy and healthy.

*Note: If your baby is too little to do these tips then that means mom is doing all of these things. It’s these basics that keep us healthy in so many ways.

Josh Tip #1:

Keep your baby’s rhythm consistent with lots of sleep. Slow down and do less .

Josh Tip #2:

Feed your baby good, healthy food and no sugar. Sugar weakens their immune system tremendously.

Josh Tip #3:

Lots of exercise. Outside time while bundled up is the best to help them thrive in many ways

Keep Baby Happy and Healthy

If this doesn’t work please remember babies are built to get sick. Becoming sick can help their immune system get stronger to fight off all of these powerful illnesses. Getting sick gives their body this information it needs to clean out their house and purge out toxins. Sickness also helps their body create more embryonic stem cells that their body will then differentiate into what they really needs to continue to grow and heal. So this is why after being sick your babies and kids will go through a growth spurt. As adults we have our own personal growth spurts. All of this is why I find it so great to work with babies, kids and all people when they are sick. Their body is trying to do the work and I help them heal and regain balance at fuller level. I highly recommend a session during sickness for everyone, especially babies who are just learning how to use their immune system.

 

If you would like to speak with me for a FREE consult please click here, or call our office at 406-586-2626. I would be happy to answer your questions or fill you in on what I do here at Spring Integrative Health.

Josh Overcash

Healing Naturally with Constitutional Hydrotherapy

Posted on by Whitney Board

By Dr. McKenzie Mescon

This time of year, around the holidays, I get a lot of questions from my patients about how they can best support their immune system.  The naturopathic toolbox for immune support is vast! However, nothing is quite so fundamentally supportive of the immune system as Constitutional Hydrotherapy.

The History of Constitutional Hydrotherapy

Healing naturally with Constitutional Hydrotherapy is a time-tested naturopathic healing therapy that involves alternating an application of hot and cold towels to the chest and back.  The inspiration for naturopathic hydrotherapy is Father Kneipp, a Bavarian herbalist and priest who lived and practiced his “water cure” in the late 1800s. The entire treatment takes about 60-75 minutes and cultivates the ultimate parasympathetic, rest-and-digest, immune-boosting relaxation.  

If I could receive this treatment once weekly, I would! But I do make a point to block out my schedule for a Constitutional Hydrotherapy treatment at least once every 2-3 months (and more often if I’m feeling unwell.)  

What Hydro Therapy Does for the Body

Constitutional Hydrotherapy is not only an opportunity for your body and mind to rest and reset, it “pumps” the blood and lymph through contraction and dilation of the blood and lymph vessels.  The contrast of hot towels and cold towels increases blood flow to the vital organs in your abdomen and chest (such as your heart, liver, lungs, and digestive tract), and stimulates movement of lymph in the body. 

Immune System and Lymphatic Tissue

Your immune system lives in your lymphatic tissue, and by promoting movement of the lymph, the immune system can, in a sense, expand its reach and recycle itself. (Other ways to move your lymph include massage, yoga and stretching, breathing exercises, walking and hot/cold plunges at a hot springs). Lymph nodes are an example of where your immune system lives. You know how your neck may get swollen with tender lymph nodes when you’re fighting a cold, sinus infection, or other illness?  Constitutional Hydrotherapy helps to move that congested lymph and reinvigorate your immune system to fight off infection. 

Treatment

In addition to hot and cold towels, we apply gentle electrical stimulation to your chest and back and low abdomen during treatment. This provides an energetic boost to the cells to encourage detoxification, elimination and movement of waste products and nutrients.  

When I feel like I’m coming down with something, or when I feel worn out from playing and working too hard, I make sure to carve out time for a Constitutional Hydrotherapy treatment. In some special circumstances, we are able to administer IV therapy at the same time as you lie swaddled in hot towels and wrapped in a warm blanket. Sounds divine, doesn’t it?  

Questions?

If you have questions regarding Constitutional Hydrotherapy please give us a call 406-586-2626 or Click Here to request a treatment online!

For more on Dr. McKenzie Mescon click the image below.

Constitutional Hydrotherapy

The Beauty of a Supported Birth

Posted on by Whitney Board
Beauty of a Supported Birth Josh Overcash Craniosacral Fascial Therapy

by Josh Overcash

I think we can all agree that one of the most powerful things the female body can do is give birth. A trauma-free birth can be the result and beauty of a supported birth. However, what happens when there are complications during birth or pregnancy? Our medical system is wonderful in emergency C-sections and keeping mother and baby safe, healthy and alive. What do we do after that situation or trauma happens? Birth trauma is happening every day. This is where the beauty of a supported birth comes in. For years I’ve been helping mothers and babies with birth support before, during and after. Over those years, I have realized that being proactive with prenatal care and postnatal care is crucial. Here are a few amazing stories that highlight how important it is to support the mother and child during this time period.

Supporting Mom During Pregnancy with Craniosacral Fascial Therapy

Birth support is amazing during pregnancy. Working with craniosacral fascial therapy the mother is able to prepare the body for birth releasing tension in the pelvis to be able to birth comfortably. This work also helps support baby in the womb.

First-hand experience: One experience of this was working with a mother where the baby only stayed on one side and the uterus. Not only was this creating pelvic/lumbar pain and sciatica, it was also affecting the baby from being able to move around. As I worked with unwinding the fascia tension in the uterus, the baby automatically dropped and started to move around in the area where it hadn’t been before because it was too tight. Which also alleviated the pelvic pain and sciatica! Fascia is what holds everything into place, if it’s tight, the tension can affect other areas. Makes sense to release the tension and let everything be loose to support having a great birth. 

Supported Birth

There have been times during the actual birth process that I have been present to help both mom and baby. Whether it’s at the hospital, home or a birthing place the staff I have worked with have been really open to the support I can provide for the families. I have visited births when the laboring has slowed down mainly from discomfort and pain. I would do the releases that need to happen and before you know it the baby is born!

First-hand experience: One family I came to visit when the birth slowed down because of low back pain. After the lumbar spine and SIJ’s released, the pain was gone and the mama had her baby within a half hour. Once the baby was born, the baby was experiencing some significant stridor (disrupted airflow from an obstruction). The nurse looked to me for help. After unwinding the tension pattern in the baby for just a couple minutes the baby coughed up and was able to dislodge the mucus that was restricting the breathing pattern that everyone was really concerned about. 

Thrive

So the work that I do is to help everyone thrive. Happy baby means happy mom. This means to help them through the challenges after birth. There has been countless babies that I have helped with colic, reflux, favoring sides of head, limb or even eye movement. Helping with nursing complications and so much more. By releasing all of the tension it helps the cerebrospinal fluid to pump further into the brain. Which helps them neurologically. This is huge. This release also helps prevents a ton of ‘common childhood conditions’ such as digestive issues, sleep disorders, speech development, just to name a few. The healing or prevention of some of these issues are just another benefit and beauty of a supported birth.

Traumatic Birth

What should be done if there is a Traumatic Birth? Here are three components I have found for healing and recovery from such an experience:

Key Components for After Birth Trauma

  1. Get the nervous system out of shock and back online into rest and healing mode. That helps the brain focus on the areas that need to be addressed.
  2. Get the physical trauma strain patterns released. Huge!! Releasing the strain pattern of the trauma is the only way the body can then heal the area that needs it. Whether it’s cord wrapped, baby stuck, affected head shape, emergency C-section, fluids in the lungs, emergency surgeries after birth, other physical strain pattern and anything else. I have worked with all of them with great success.
  3. Release the traumatic experience from a cellular level. The neuropeptides are brain matter throughout the body. This regulates function that is influenced by all experiences. The sooner the trauma gets release at this level, the sooner the whole body can heal. This helps basic functioning to return which can happen more optimally and minimizes the adaptation around the trauma. This gets the body fully into its’ natural healing state again.

Treating the Whole You

First-hand Experience: One mother came in to see me after her son was born two years ago. It was apparent the mom was still involved in the trauma of the birth. She was sharing with me how she was always in high alert mode for anything that would happen to her son. It was hard for her to sleep, even if he was sleeping. Any little situation seemed like an emergency for her. When I asked her how the birth was, she fell into tears with how hard the birth had been and she did everything she could and still needed an emergency C-section. Then the separation from her and her baby boy just put her over the top. So as I worked with her we changed the relationship of how she viewed the birth and she became empowered by all that she did in the birth, rather than upset by all that went wrong. This increased the natural bond between she and her son. They both were able to move on with their life with more ease. Sharing this story highlights how important this support and care can be.

Support

Please take a moment and share this with anyone that wants to have a baby, is pregnant, or had a baby and has some ‘common baby/childhood conditions’ and especially with anyone that has had any complications. It’s never too late to start healing and I would love to be a part of your journey so you can truly see the beauty of a supported birth.

Click the Image to learn more about me-Josh Overcash.

Helping Your Child Heal

Click Here to request an appointment-I look forward to helping you in any way I can.

Helping Your Child Heal

Posted on by Whitney Board
Helping Your Child Heal

By Josh Overcash

All children deserve to thrive. When it comes to our young children we will do anything for them when they need it. There are many options out there for treating pediatric health conditions. One route to take in helping your child heal is working through Accunect and Craniosacral Fascial therapy. These treatments have been profound in helping children get through some really hard childhood conditions. Conditions such as: major sleep issues, complex viruses & bacterias (RSV, pertussis, croup, chronic ear infections, etc…) lots of child digestion issues or baby reflux/colic, torticollis, nursing issues, mental/physical delays and so much more. 

Accunect

Accunect supports a balanced state of being on all levels (physically, mentally, and emotionally) increasing the functional intelligence at a cellular level. While the cranial work frees up any restriction that keeps the body stuck, to support increasing the function within the nervous system, organs and endocrine system. Which supports movement at a cellular level and helps the brain breathe again. Through these therapies every cell of the body is in the highest state of healing mode, the body gets over the condition and stays in the high healing place. That is where the growth really happens. From a deep place of optimal health. Kids just bounce out of the state of imbalance easily. They are then able to thrive and grow up from a balanced state of being!

Starting Healing Early

Imagine a 9 month old baby that isn’t sleeping deep/long that also gets scared easily around people and sensitive digestion. All of this often gets sorted out in a handful of sessions. With a little creativity you can visualize what that might be like for that person if those common childhood conditions continues as they grow into adulthood. Allergies, IBS, anxiety, migraines, chronic fatigue, possibly autoimmune, who knows? That is hypothetical because we don’t usually track children that way. So let’s just support them the best way possible and as quickly as possible.

Supporting Primary Caregiver

Another common aspect that is necessary to support is the primary caregiver (usually the parents). In a household everyone feeds off of everyone els’s energy. Therefore a parent that is stressed out will stress out a child. The ancient Chinese saying, “If the baby is hungry, feed the mother” has many aspects of truth. When a parent radiates out, ‘I’ve got you, I am here for you and I still love you’ that one of the most important factors. Brene Brown says it best, “Children are not perfect, they are wired to struggle. It is our job to show that they are still worth it and loved.” No one can do that all the time if they are depleted and stressed out. To recognize that children are supposed to struggle in order to grow is a big eye opener for many people and supports a positive shift in their perspective.

Helping Your Child Heal

Helping Your Child Heal

All in all assess where life is for you and your family and what the stressors are in your world. Work on overcoming those stress factors and if they are stuck, that’s where the work of Accunect and Craniosacral Fascial Therapy can help out tremendously. If there are specific conditions your baby is dealing with such as: sleep issues, digestive problems, IBS, or any of the issues mentioned above please give me a call I would be happy to help your baby heal. The sooner it gets resolved, the easier it is to resolve and the least amount of stress for everyone.

If you would like to speak with Josh Overcash please call 406-586-2626 for a Free Phone Consult or Click Here to visit his provider profile.

Helping Your Child Heal

Treating Headaches with Acupuncture

Posted on by Whitney Board
headaches and the brain treating migraines with acupuncture

By Dr. Holly Thompson

Headaches are common. Most people experience some kind of headache from time to time. Tension, dehydration, fatigue, or the onset of an illness can trigger a headache. 

For some people, headaches are a frequent and unwelcome visitor. These headaches can be excruciating and seriously interfere with quality of life. 

Headaches in Western Medicine:

Western medicine recognizes five types of headache: tension, cluster, rebound, sinus, and migraine. Over the past twenty years or so, newer and better pharmaceuticals have been made available to lessen the impact of severe, chronic, and recurring headache. 

Unfortunately, most of these drugs have moderate to severe side effects.

Acupuncture and Chinese Medicine Approach

Chinese medicine is concerned more about where on the head the pain is and what other symptoms are occurring. This indicates to the practitioner what meridians or channels are involved and what pattern might be the underlying (root) cause. Based on that information, he/she will prescribe either acupuncture or an herbal formula, or both.

A newer area of medicine that I am particularly drawn to and have some training in, is functional medicine. Like Chinese medicine, functional medicine takes a whole person approach and looks for patterns to figure out how to help a person. Like Chinese medicine, the majority of treatment involves nutrition, herbs and acupuncture,  lifestyle, and supplements rather than pharmaceutical drugs.

Integrative Approaches Often Work Best

Many times for extremely stubborn or severe chronic headache, an integrated approach works the best. Here at Spring Integrative Health we offer acupuncture and Chinese herbal medicine, nutritional consulting, naturopathic medicine, therapeutic massage, and Accunect bodywork to address almost all aspects and causes of headaches.

Types of Headaches:

Tension

Tension headaches are usually felt in the forehead, at the temples , or back of the head, and will usually go away with over the counter aspirin or ibuprofen. However, If you want to try a more natural approach, try putting steady pressure in the webbing between your first and second finger. Or, you could try rubbing a little ginger or peppermint oil into the area of the head that aches. Life style changes such as stress reduction, yoga, exercise, and meditation should also help.

Cluster

Cluster headaches tend to come on suddenly and cause severe pain on one side of the head. The eye and nose may water on that side as well. Looking for a Chinese pattern would inform the acupuncture and herbal treatment. I would look for patterns in onset, diet, location,  and co-occurring events. Lab tests might identify markers that would help determine if a nutritional deficit or other imbalance was involved.

Sinus

Sinus headaches often accompany sinus infections and other conditions that feature blocked sinuses. These headaches usually occur in the forehead area, but the pain and pressure can radiate outward from there. Sometimes a change in weather will trigger them. One of the key features of this type of headache is the pressure that goes with the pain. 

Integrated Approach to healing a Sinus Headache:

Acupuncture is very useful in relieving the pressure in the sinuses, while an antibiotic or possibly a naturopathic remedy might be used to treat the actual bacterial infection. In addition a Chinese herbal formula could be used to strengthen the immune system and clear any lingering pathogens, as well as address the underlying disharmony that is weakening the immune system.

Rebound

A rebound headache is caused by medication. Or overuse/dependence on certain kinds of medication. Ibuprofen, aspirin, acetaminophen, and prescription headache drugs can all cause a rebound headache. If you notice that your headaches are increasing even on the medication, chances are you are getting rebound headaches. The fix for this is using none or less of the offending drug. Acupuncture can be used to manage the headaches while the body readjusts itself.

Migraines

Migraines are often the most debilitating of headache types. Severe pain lasting 4-72 hours, throbbing, nausea and/or vomiting, and sound or light sensitivity are all part of the migraine experience. Sometimes there is a clear trigger for migraine such as wine, or chocolate (sorry to say), certain types of cheese. Avoiding these substances can really help. 

Some women suffer from menstrual migraines caused by hormonal imbalance and the hormonal swings that take place just prior to the onset of their cycle.

Migraine Triggers

Often a trigger is difficult to identify. Because Chinese medicine looks at patterns of disharmony, we examine such factors as: the location of the headache on the head, known triggers, sleep patterns, hormone balance, gut health, food sensitivities, and nutritional status. By looking at these factors I can search for clues to why the headaches are occurring. 

Treatment often involves both an herbal formula and acupuncture as well as some lifestyle and dietary modifications with prescription pharmaceuticals waiting in the wings if needed. Most of the time this approach to treatment results in fewer and milder headaches that continue to diminish in both frequency and severity with treatment.

Never Experienced Headaches Before?

It is a good idea to see your doctor to rule out more serious medical conditions before starting treatment for headaches. If you are experiencing “the worst headache of my life,” particularly if you don’t typically get severe headaches, head to the emergency room to rule out life threatening conditions.

Let’s get Healing!

Headaches are a problem that are near and dear to my heart. After all, if I hadn’t suffered debilitating headaches all those years ago, would I have ever tried and used acupuncture? So, those awful headaches turned out to be a good thing!

Please contact me if you have more questions about headaches or are interested in discussing your individual condition-406-586-2626 or contact me here on Spring’s website through the Contact tab!

Click photo to learn more about Holly!

headaches and the brain treating migraines with acupuncture

OMG it’s Allergy Season Again!

Posted on by Whitney Board

By Josh Overcash

Here we go again, it’s allergy season. You love the nicer weather, but you can’t even enjoy it. It’s a love and hate relationship that many people have. What are you going to do about it this year? What have you tried already? Some things work and some things don’t. Does anything that you have tried stopped your allergies all together?

That is the support that we are offering at Spring Integrative Health. The work that Josh Overcash does with allergies has had an amazing success rate with stopping allergies all together. That’s right, not just managing the symptoms but eliminating allergies for good.

How you wonder? For years Josh has helped people eliminate allergies by helping their system calm down so the immune system can respond and not overreact to the allergen. We can go on and on about the theory and details of how this works. The easiest way to explain it is Josh finds the over-reactive pattern in your body and works with finding a more useful way for your body to support you. Letting go of the old pattern and helping your body to respond rather than overreact. It’s like letting your body know it’s just a pollen. You are not getting chased by a grizzly bear right now. If you are getting chased by a bear, you are in survival mode.  Not in rest and healing mode, your body is not taking care of you in a balanced way.

Whether it is yourself, your child or someone else in your life dealing with allergies Josh wants to make summer activities enjoyable and free from allergy suffering. Josh will work with you to help your system respond during this season without the overreaction. There will be a little homework you do on a daily basis for a few weeks. Josh teaches you how to keep your immune system on track and become desensitized to the allergen. There are other forms of therapies out there that do this. Some would take 20 sessions or even more. Josh has been able to address allergies and resolve them in often 6 sessions. For the month of June Josh is offering a six pack to specifically address allergies and get rid of them for good. Call Spring to get scheduled 406-586-2626 or click here to contact Spring through our website!

Click image below to learn more about Josh!

What’s the Deal with Sleep?

Posted on by Whitney Board

By Dr. Holly Thompson

Sleep is vital to radiant health and well-being. Even though we don’t yet understand everything that sleep does for us, we know it plays a major role in maintaining our, mental, emotional, and physical health.

Memory and Brain Health

  • While you sleep, your brain is busy. The glymphatic system is a newly discovered waste clearance system in our brain and central nervous system. It is similar to the lymphatic that does the same thing in the rest of our bodies.
  • The glymphatic system works mainly while we sleep to remove toxic substances and waste products as well as deliver nutrients to our brains.
  • This may be why sleep plays such an important role in memory. Researchers at Harvard Medical School have found that adequate sleep dramatically improves the ability to learn a new task and consolidate memories. It spurs creativity.
  • It also contributes to emotional stability and good decision making skills.
  • Lack of sleep negatively affects mood, motivation and judgment and is implicated in depression, anxiety, irritability, and other mood disorders.

Physical Health

There are so many physical benefits to sleep (see the following):

  • Your immune system depends on enough sleep to function at it’s best.
  • Sleep is when your body heals and repairs itself, helping to curb inflammation.
  • Long-term sleep deprivation is associated with increased risk of cardiovascular disease, heart attacks, strokes, high blood pressure, and kidney disease.
  • Because sleep is important for regulation proper blood sugar, chronic sleep deprivation is implicated in diabetes.
  • Sleep is needed for proper hormone balance.
  • Sleep is also a major factor in weight gain. When the body is not getting adequate sleep, the hunger and satiety hormones get out of kilter. You guessed it: the hunger hormone, ghrelin, levels go up while the satiety (signaling you are full) hormone, leptin, goes down. The result: your appetite signals are skewed and you are more hungry and probably are going to eat more than you need to.

Quality of Life

Everyone knows that you just plain feel and look better when you are sleeping well. Turns out, you are more productive, less accident prone, and live longer as well. It can be hard to get enough sleep!

Sleep deprivation is a major problem in our country. But before you go reaching for a sleep aid (some of which are suspected of interfering with the glymphatic system along with a host of other side effects), please give some serious effort to proven lifestyle changes that aid the sleep process.

First of all, you need to make time for sleep. That means 7-9 hours every night. It works best if you can go to bed and get up roughly the same time every day. Our bodies like their sleep, like their meals, on a regular schedule. A lot of health gurus recommend a 10pm bedtime and a 6 am wakeup, but this is a guideline and you may need to adjust it by an hour or two for your lifestyle.

Insomnia

Many people get into bed but can’t get to sleep. Others may fall asleep right away, but then wake up and then can’t get back to sleep. And the worst part of this is that it tends to be the same night after night. The sleep pattern is off.

You have probably heard most of the usual recommendations about eating earlier, avoiding upsetting topics at night, making time to wind down, making sure your bedroom is completely dark and not too hot. These are all great.

Stress reduction techniques such as meditation, time in nature, warm baths can also make a big difference.

Some recent research has shown that light plays a major role in how our brains and sleep hormones function.

One of the best ways to help reset the pattern is to get outside, morning light as soon as possible after you wake up. Stay outside as long as you can, but at least for a few minutes. This begins to shift the sleep/wake hormones into a more normal pattern.

The blue light that is emitted from electronic devices (phones, computers, televisions) can also disrupt our sleep/wake cycles and cause insomnia. The current recommendation is to avoid all screen time for two hours before bed. If this is not doable for you, be sure to put your phone on the “night shift” setting and download software that greatly diminishes the blue light coming from your computer. Flux https://justgetflux.com/is the one I use on my Mac or you can get SunSet Screen http://www.skytopia.com/software/sunsetscreen/) for your PC. Both of these apps are free and easy to install.

If these measures don’t help or help only a little, acupuncture and Chinese medicine can help, and without weird side effects. As always in Chinese medicine, one size does NOT fit all. There are many time test3ed formulas that really help sleep, but they must be fitted to the pattern of disharmony. There are formulas for difficulty getting to sleep, difficulty staying asleep, difficulty getting back to sleep, nightmares, disturbing the sleep, hot flashes and night sweats waking you, etc.

Re-establishing a healthy and restorative sleep pattern is one of the best things you can do for your health. Click here to see how I can help!

 

If you would like to request an appointment with Dr. Holly Thompson please click on the Contact Tab on our home page or click here to be taken there directly.

 

What is Cupping? And why is it good for you?

Posted on by Whitney Board

By Dr. Holly Thompson

Those bubbly things are cups and I admit they do look a little weird. These days you’re likely to see the tell tale, but temporary, large rounds marks made by cups on celebrities like Jennifer Anniston, Gwyneth Paltrow, or David Arquette, but the reality is that it is one of the oldest methods of medical treatment known in the world.

Cupping was practiced by the Chinese, as well as ancient Egyptian and Middle Eastern cultures.  

I was surprised to see a set of bamboo cups on display in the doctor’s office at the Old Salem Living History Museum in Winston Salem, NC. Apparently the pre-Revolutionary Moravian doctors knew a thing or two about this interesting and effective treatment modality.

Why would anyone want to do that?

Good question. For one, it’s relaxing. Sort of like a deep tissue massage without the pressure. A flame or a pump is used to create a vacuum that suctions the cups onto the skin. Depending on the condition being treated, the cups are either stationary or slid on the skin to massage a larger area. The suction mobilizes the flow of blood, lymph, and that elusive thing known as qi to promote the healing of a wide range of problems: Tight shoulders and neck, low back pain, headaches, some types of tendonitis, gastro-intestinal, and respiratory problems.

A Case Study:

One of the most effective uses for cupping is respiratory conditions. Lingering cough, asthma, bronchitis, even the common cold respond well to cupping therapy. When my daughter was in college, she came down with a bad case of the respiratory bug that was running rampant through the dorms before finals. Not wanting to bring needles and a Sharps box into the dorm, I arrived with my set of cups.

A pale and sweaty face greeted me as she opened the door and a deep cough racked her body.  She didn’t need to say “I feel awful,” but she did anyway. After a review of her symptoms to rule out a more serious bacterial infection, she laid face down on her bed. I affixed the cups to her upper back amidst questions like will this leave a mark? (Yes, but it won’t hurt and will only last a few days), will this work? (Probably will help, won’t hurt).

The cups drew so much heat out of her body, they fogged up. My daughter fell in to a deep sleep for the first time in days. Twenty minutes later, when she awoke and I removed the cups from her back, she took a deep breath without coughing. After a brief look of surprise, she smiled. “Huh.”

“Feel a little better?”

“Yeah. That was weird, but I do feel better.”

She made a rapid recovery after that and had no problem showing up for her final exams.

Obviously, not all cupping sessions produce such dramatic results, but time and again, it has proved to be an effective therapy for both acute and long-time problems.

Please contact me if you have more questions about cupping or are interested in discussing your individual condition-406-586-2626 or contact me here on Spring’s website through the Contact tab!

 

Dr. Holly Thompson

 

Skin-Brain Connection?

Posted on by Whitney Board

By Doctor Holly Thompson

Eastern medicine has always considered skin conditions to be external indicators of internal conditions, and recognized the importance of the gut in all aspects of health. All Chinese herbal formulas for skin problems are based on resolving the internal disharmony that is behind the outbreak.

The long and very successful history of Chinese herbal medicine for dermatological issues speaks to the efficacy of this approach. Like all problems in Chinese medicine, the signs and symptoms and details of the whole person are taken into account to determine a particular pattern that is at the root of the problem. Treatment is designed to address the problem at both the level of the root and the symptom. Typically, this is done with both internal (herbal formula) and external (topical medicine and/or acupuncture) treatment.

Western medicine has traditionally looked to resolve skin issues with topical medications or steroids, and not looked for internal reasons for conditions such as acne.

But, it wasn’t always this way.

Seventy years ago, two dermatologists, John Stokes and Donald Pillsbury, proposed a gastro-intestinal mechanism for overlapping anxiety, depression, and skin conditions such as acne. Stokes and Pillsbury hypothesized that emotional states might alter the normal intestinal microflora, increase intestinal permeability and contribute to systemic inflammation. They experimented with probiotics to correct the microbiome.

For whatever reasons, Stokes and Pillsbury’s work fell by the wayside.

Until recently.

The microbiome (mostly gut flora-the good and not-so-good bugs that live in our intestines) and all its possible influences are currently amongst the most researched areas in medicine. As part of  that research, the gut-brain-skin connection is again being studied. There have been a number of studies in Europe that indicate probiotics can be effective in the treatment of acne. Studies done in Russia and Italy found that giving the probiotic bacteria L. acidophilus and B. bifidum to acne sufferers improved outcomes and accelerated the time needed for standard therapies to work.

Another study found that giving a lactobacillus-fermented dairy drink improved acne over the course of 12 weeks. While all this research is wonderful and confirms what we have known in both Chinese medicine for some time, the problem is that it will be years until this knowledge will be put into use in standard conventional medicine. We have the ability, today, to use  time-tested Chinse Medicine Dermatolgy to treat skin problems at the root for lasting results.

If you are suffering from acne, or other skin conditions such as rosacea, eczema, or unexplained rashes and want to deal with it at the root cause level, give the office a call or send me a message today!

Dr. Holly Thompson

 

 

Basic Needs and the Newborn Baby

Posted on by kincade

By Josh Overcash: Bodytalk, Craniosacral Therapist, Accunect, LMT

Sleep.  Eat.  Poop.  Repeat.

This is the life of a newborn baby.  In a perfect world, there are no problems with the functioning of these basic needs but oftentimes I see babies in my practice at Spring Integrative Health who are struggling with quality sleep, feeding issues, and constipation and/or gas.

Positioning in-utero and birth trauma can and do contribute to tight fascia in the newborn, which can contribute to the fulfillment of these basic needs being compromised.  Fascia is one big web of soft connective tissue that wraps throughout the body.  Unwinding fascia tension in newborns using the Gillespie Approach of Craniosacral Fascial Therapy leads not only to healthier, smarter, stronger, and happier babies, it also helps relieve and resolve common complaints such as breastfeeding difficulties (latch, suck, and swallow), reflux, colic, constipation, indigestion/gas, and napping issues, as well as strabismus, torticollis, pyloric stenosis, stridor, and clubfoot.  

Sleep

Both parents and baby need good sleep.  When baby doesn’t sleep well, parents suffer.  Colicky babies don’t sleep well and CFT helps release tension in the digestive system so they can be more relaxed and less fussy.  CFT calms the whole body and allows the brain to “breathe,” calming the nervous system and allowing it to function in a more balanced way.  

Eat

Babies with restricted tongue movement enjoy more tongue mobility thanks to CFT.  It’s been incredible to watch babies be able to stick their tongue out for the first time!  I have noticed increased lift of the tongue, better side-to-side movement of the tongue, and newfound ability to cup the tongue as well.  Latching is more comfortable for mom and there is a decrease in the intake of air as baby feeds and general reduction of gassiness in baby.  Babies who have been referred by their physician to a dentist for a tongue and/or lip tie revision benefit greatly from receiving CFT in the days before the revision and following the revision.  Some mothers have noticed enough of an improvement in breastfeeding following CFT that they choose not to go and get the revision.  

Poop

Fascia strain around the digestive organs or in the sacrum can contribute to constipation and gas.  Parents bring their baby in saying that baby hasn’t pooped in days!  Unwinding this fascia tension usually results in a very full diaper either during the session or in the hours following it.  Within a few sessions elimination happens consistently on a regular basis.  

What else?

Parents have reported their baby’s head shape improving and becoming more smooth and round.  Parents have also reported baby smiles more, baby begins to unclench and unfurl hands, baby becomes more relaxed, baby rolls in both directions, teeth come in with less complaint, life with baby seems easier!  CFT sets babies up to thrive!

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Spring Integrative Health