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INSURANCE:
Things To Know! | |
This is just a reminder that if you are going through insurance for acupuncture and have a calendar year plan, be aware of the following:
1. Your deductible will reset on Jan 1st. If you have a high deductible, please talk to the front desk staff about how we handle this.
2. If you have a limited number of visits per calendar year, as of Jan 1st - it will reset and you will start over at visit #1.
3. Each year we like to reverify your benefits in case anything changes as of Jan 1st - so please present your insurance card to the front desk staff after Jan 1st. |
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Treating
Holiday Stress
& Depression |
According to Oriental medicine, the cold months of winter are the perfect time to recharge your battery and generate vital energy, or Qi, in order to live, look, and feel your best.
The ancient Chinese believed that human beings should live in harmony with the natural cycles of their environment. The cold and darkness of winter urges us to slow down. This is the time of year to reflect on health, replenish energy and conserve strength.
Ruled by the water element, winter is associated with the kidneys, bladder and adrenal glands. The kidneys are considered the source of all energy or "Qi" within the body. They store all of the reserve Qi in the body so that it can be used in times of stress and change, or to heal, prevent illness and age gracefully.
Winter is the season where all living things slow down, conserve their energy and prepare for the outburst of new life and energy in the spring.
Eat warm hearty soups, whole grains, and roasted nuts to help warm the body's core and to keep nourished. Sleep early, rest well, stay warm, and expend a minimum quantity of energy.
While optimal health and well-being in the winter season calls for rest, energy conservation and the revitalization of body and spirit, your holiday activities may have a different agenda.
The holidays can be filled with a dizzying array of demands, visitors, travel and frantic shopping trips. For many people, it is also a time filled with sadness, self-reflection, loneliness and anxiety. Compound the usual seasonal pressures with the constant barrage of bad economic news and you may find this to be one of the most emotionally trying times of the year.
Stress, anxiety and depression can cause a disruption in the flow of vital energy, or Qi, through the body. These energetic imbalances can throw off the immune system or cause symptoms of pain, sleep disturbances, abnormal digestion, headaches, and menstrual irregularities, and, over time, more serious illnesses can develop.
Acupuncture treatments can correct these imbalances and directly affect the way your body manages stress and your mental health.
Seasonal acupuncture treatments in winter serve to nurture and nourish kidney Qi which can greatly enhance the body's ability to thrive in times of stress, aid in healing, prevent illness and increase vitality.
(courtesy of www.acufinder.com) |
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The Perfect Stocking Stuffer! | |
Why not give the gift of health and wellness to those you love?
Give them a GIFT CARD from Integrative Health Centers!
We can do it for any denomination you wish!
Call or stop in today! |
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| Cancer Patients Turn To Acupuncture To Cope With Symptoms, Side Effects | |
The following is an article from The Baltimore Sun that we thought we should share with you! Dr. Ting Bao from the University of Maryland Medical Center answers questions about this topic:
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Acupuncture, the traditional Chinese medicine that uses needles for treatment, is increasingly being used with cancer patients. Dr. Ting Bao, an assistant professor at the University of Maryland School of Medicine and faculty at Maryland's Marlene and Stewart Greenebaum Cancer Center and Center for Integrative Medicine, regularly used acupuncture to alleviate pain and treat side effects.
Question: How common is it for cancer patients to seek relief using acupuncture?
Answer: It is difficult for me to come up with a percentage because there have not been many studies performed to answer this question yet. What I can say is that based on my experience at the University of Maryland Greenebaum Cancer Center, more and more cancer patients are interested in integrating acupuncture into their cancer treatment. I started an acupuncture clinic two years ago at UMGCC and at that time, most of my patients were surprisingly not cancer patients but were there getting help for pain, anxiety, constipation or weight loss. Now, most of my patients are cancer patients seeking help to treat or prevent their cancer symptoms or the side effects of their cancer treatments.
Q: What is acupuncture and how does it work?
A: Acupuncture is a traditional Chinese medicine technique that involves inserting and manipulating filiform needles in predefined points on the skin to achieve therapeutic effect. Acupuncture has been widely used in China to treat a range of medical conditions such as pain, nausea, vomiting, infertility and seasonal allergies. Acupuncture was introduced in the United States in 1971 after New York Times reporter James Reston reported that acupuncture relieved his postoperative pain after an emergency appendectomy while he was in Beijing. While the specific mechanism of acupuncture is not fully understood, it has been proposed that acupuncture works through its effect on neurotransmitters and neurohormones. Animal research suggests that acupuncture accomplishes its effect by stimulating nerves in the muscle, which then relay a signal to the spinal cord, midbrain, and hypothalamus and pituitary system, which then leads to the release of neurotransmitters and hormones such as endorphins and enkephalins. Other mechanisms such as activation of descending pain inhibiting pathways, deactivation of the limbic system, cortical cerebral vasodilation resulting in neuropeptide release and inhibition of the release of inflammatory factors have also been suggested to explain the analgesic effects of acupuncture. A recent article in Nature suggests that acupuncture works through adenosine, a neuromodulator with pain-relieving properties.
Q: What are the side effects of acupuncture?
A: Acupuncture has been demonstrated to be a safe procedure, especially when used by competent practitioners. Some common adverse reactions are temporary and minor. These include local pain and bruising, minor bleeding, and lightheadedness. Serious side effects are rare. A cumulative review of eight systemic literature reviews between 1966 and 2001 reported 715 severe adverse events worldwide, including trauma such as pneumothorax, infection and miscellaneous events such as seizure and drowsiness. Adverse reactions such as these have significantly declined since 1988, when using disposable and sterilized needles was required by law and when more rigorous requirements for acupuncture training were mandated.
Q: Are there studies on effectiveness of treating breast cancer patients with acupuncture or any in the works? What symptoms of breast cancer and treatment could it help alleviate?
A: Yes, there have been several studies on the effect of acupuncture in helping breast cancer patients. The conditions that acupuncture was shown to help are chemotherapy-induced nausea, vomiting, tamoxifen-induced hot flashes, and aromatase inhibitor-induced joint pain and stiffness. A number of clinical trials have shown that acupuncture helped reduce chemotherapy-induced nausea and vomiting. So far, there have been three randomized, controlled clinical trials showing that acupuncture significantly alleviates tamoxifen-induced hot flashes in breast cancer patients with minimal side effects. We recently finished a multi-center randomized, controlled trial assessing the effect of acupuncture in reducing aromatase inhibitor induced musculoskeletal symptoms. We are analyzing the data and will present the results soon.
Q: Are some cancer patients better suited for acupuncture or those who should avoid it?
A: We do not have a good answer yet. We are conducting clinical trials to try to answer this question. Based on my experience, the majority of cancer patients I have treated did show some improvement after acupuncture treatment, although not everyone responded to it. Because acupuncture is a relatively safe and non-invasive procedure, very few absolute arguments are used against it. We do know that we need to be extra careful when we perform acupuncture on patients with a low white cell count or a low platelet count to reduce the risk of infection and bleeding.
Q: When should a patient expect relief and how long should it last?
A: It depends on the condition the patient is being treated for and the patient's state of health and stage of disease. Some conditions, such as chemotherapy-induced nausea and vomiting may only require one or two treatments, whereas chronic conditions such as chemotherapy-induced peripheral neuropathy (nerve pain) may take 4-8 treatments to see relief. Again, the duration of the treatment response, which may last from hours to weeks, depends on the condition being treated and on the patients themselves. In my acupuncture clinic, depending on the condition being treated, I usually start with once- or twice-weekly acupuncture treatments and then gradually adjust the frequency.
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Courtesy of The Baltimore Sun
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8-WEEK MINDFULNESS BASED STRESS REDUCTION CLASS
with Gina Sager, MD, RYT | |
The next session is scheduled for
Tuesdays 6:30-9:00pm from Jan 10-Feb 28th.
This class presents mindfulness meditation, breath work and yoga as critical skills for managing life's challenges.
These practices enable participants to see the value and preciousness of the present moment, open to the possibility of transforming crisis into opportunity, and minimize the physical, emotional, mental and spiritual tolls of ordinary and extraordinary stresses. The class is based the curriculum of Jon Kabat-Zinn and his group at University of Massachusetts Center for Mindfulness in Medicine, Healthcare and Society, with whom Gina has done training. Dr. Kabat-Zinn is an internationally known teacher and author of Full Catastrophe Living; Wherever You Go , There You Are; and Coming to our Senses.
My classes include elements of yoga, ayurveda, meditation, and even some traditional Chinese wisdom. Although the class is based on the ancient Buddhist practices and philosophy of mindfulness, I aspire to present a class that is balanced and available to all people, regardless of spiritual or religious tradition.
So the work of mindfulness is about learning to pay attention moment to moment, without judgment...paying attention intentionally in each moment. And in each moment we always get to choose what gets our attention. The practices teach us how to change the mind to understand that things happen, many of which we can't change; yet regardless of what occurs, we ALWAYS get to choose how to relate. So we don't have to change what we're thinking, but can always change our relationship to what is already so, or how we're thinking about what is already happening.
This class trains us to do just that. Together we practice working with breath, re-inhabiting the body through the practices of yoga and yoga nidra, and learning to work with the mind by practicing formal sitting meditation. There are homework assignments weekly including 4 guided CDs for home practice-1 Body scan, 2 yoga and 1 sitting meditation. We practice together in class, but if you wish for your life to really change, you are invited to take this work seriously, do the homework as offered and really let it infiltrate all parts of your life.
CONTACT GINA TO REGISTER:
Phone: 410-667-0468
Email: gina@ginasager.com
READ MORE! |
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