Even though sleep deprivation is viewed as a benign problem in America, it can lead to a severe decline in your mental and physical state as you age. According to a study by Neuroscientist Adrian Owen, people who sleep less than four hours perform duties as if they were almost nine years older. Increasing your sleeping hours can reduce that consequence; however, that extra shut-eye time often doesn’t come easy for some people. Instead of forcing your eyes to close or taking vasts amount of sleeping medication, we wanted to provide some alternative holistic treatments that can maximize your sleep and overall health.
Massage Therapy
The soothing muscle contractions and neurotransmitter stimulation during massages increase muscle relaxation and your brain’s ability to sleep quicker. The type of massage treatments that are the most effective is Deep tissue, Swedish, and Myofascial release.
Acupuncture
Sterile needles precisely placed by a qualified acupuncturist improve circulation and reduce pain and stress. Many studies have shown that properly executed acupuncture treatments can actually help those who suffer from sleep apnea.
You can receive all of these treatments and more at Relax Holistic. We are conveniently located in West Hollywood,
According to research by the American Stroke Association, a person under 50 increases the chance of suffering a stroke by three times after an injury to the head or neck. These findings are extremely important in modern medicine. However, research is also showing that acupuncture is a great treatment option for those who have suffered damage due to a stroke.
In fact, acupuncture is already the most popular treatment modality for stroke patients in China. Chinese practitioners have effectively used holistic health treatments like acupuncture on patients for centuries. Patients who receive acupuncture treatments twice a week for ten weeks report significant improvements in their balance, walking, and mobility. It also promotes a good overall mood and positive emotions. With more ease in their daily activities, patients see an improvement in their quality of life.
Causes of Stroke after Injury
Scientists have found that a major cause of stroke after a serious head or neck trauma is due to tears in the blood vessels of the head or neck from the injury. If these artery damages can be assessed at the time of the injury, an acupuncturist can treat a patient to help heal the injuries quickly and efficiently. With treatment, patients can help to prevent a stroke in the future. Because of this, it now appears that acupuncture can actually help reduce the risk of a future stroke in people who have suffered prior head or neck injuries. So how does this ancient holistic medicine practice help? Here are a few ways that acupuncture helps to prevent strokes after a head or neck injury:
Acupuncture Can Facilitate Nerve Regeneration
Research has proven that acupuncture helps to repair damaged nerves. Tests from researchers demonstrate that patients who received treatments show increased nerve regeneration. There have even been some interesting case histories involving re-wiring taking place in the brain following damage to the spinal cord. However, this has not been fully tested yet. Of course, every case is unique. The best advice is to visit a licensed acupuncturist. They can give a face to face assessment of what treatments might be possible given a patient’s own unique and specific circumstances
Prevents the Aggregation of Blood Cells
When blood cells aggregate, they tend to stick together. This process occurs more often around tears in blood vessels or skin, such as after an injury. This is similar to how your blood coagulates on your skin after you receive a cut that breaks the skin. However, when blood cells coagulate around blood vessels in the head or neck, a stroke can occur. Regular acupuncture treatments keep the flow of blood regular and help prevent this aggregation of blood cells.
Dilates Blood Vessels by Triggering the Release of Hormones
In addition, acupuncture helps to stimulate the local sensory nerve endings in the skin and muscles in a patient’s head and neck. Nerve endings there send impulses into the spinal cord and brain. However, these nerve endings also release various chemical substances into local tissues that are near the treatment of acupuncture. These chemicals help local blood vessels to dilate, which causes blood flow to increase. Both of these help to promote local tissue healing.
Helps Surviving Nerve Cells Find New Pathways
Nerve endings create impulses that travel into the spinal cord. Research has recently shown that acupuncture has a stimulating effect on brain cells. This stimulation causes a proliferation of new cells in the brain. These biochemical responses also stimulate nerve endings, causing them to induce regeneration if possible. In fact, according to scientific researchers, acupuncture has been shown to “increase the release of nerve growth factors (NGFs) to make nerve cells survive and axons grow, synthesize neurotransmitters, (and) metabolize toxic substances”.
Helps Your Brain Bypass Damaged Areas
As shown above, acupuncture helps a patient’s brain create new nerve endings, pathways, and even brain cells. It also aids neural pathways in creating better connections with the right and left brain. The body will naturally use these connections to bypass damaged areas of the brain and nervous system. In fact, researchers have taken this concept to new levels, using specialized techniques based on acupuncture to regenerate neurons in the brains of rats. Although medical advances like these are in our future, techniques like acupuncture help pave the way for research such as this.
Relax Holistic is the the Premier ‘go to’ clinic for Acupuncture healing.
At Relax Holistic, our stroke patients have shown major improvements after having acupuncture treatments. Our staff have personally witnessed how it works so well for patients. They report reduced swelling, improved circulation and overall range of motion. We have even seen it instantly restore a patient’s speech after a major stroke. Call us to learn and experience how acupuncture works.
Candida is a common condition but is also less well known. Many bodily disorders are associated with Candida, so it is important to recognize if you do have it.
Candida is yeast overgrowth and it can affect many different areas of the body. Yeast overgrowth emits toxins into the body that result in chronic illness and causes a variety of symptoms such as headaches, fatigue, irritability, and ‘foggy’ brain.
If you have Candida, don’t fret. We will go over how to test for it, understand its causes, recognize the symptoms, and offer holistic care options available to you for treating it.
Testing for Candida
A simple way to test whether you have a yeast imbalance is to take the spit test. This is something you should do first thing in the morning without having put anything in your mouth yet.
You will need to grab a clear glass and fill it with distilled or filtered water. Do not use tap water as it may contain many impurities that will affect your test. Collect saliva in your mouth with your tongue and spit it into the glass. Observe what happens to your spit for 15 minutes to see if yeast colonies are present in your saliva.
Yeast colonies are present if you see:
Saliva stays at the top and you see thin strands that look like strings or spider legs extending downward
Saliva floats to the bottom and looks cloudy
You observe little specs floating in saliva
Symptoms
Candida can affect all parts of your body as it doesn’t discriminate.Here are different areas of the body that Candida effects and their symptoms:
Head: dizziness, fatigue, mood swings, anxiety, depression, insomnia, bad breath, migraines, headaches, poor memory, brain fogginess in the morning, cravings for sugar, earaches, sinusitis, poor vision, floaters, and learning disorders
The most common type of candida involves gut flora. The health of intestines is key to the overall health of your body. When your gut flora is unhealthy, you will usually suffer adversely. Several other factors that influence yeast overgrowth in the body are:
Antibiotics – One or more cycles of antibiotics is enough to weaken the digestive system.
Regularly eating refined sugars, starches.
Regularly drinking soda or alcohol.
Curing Candida with Holistic Care
If any of these observations occur, don’t panic as Candida and most diseases of the body can be easily addressed! It takes just a little guidance and a bit of willpower for 3 months to rid oneself of unwanted yeast. You may need to change your diet as well as consider holistic care options such as acupuncture.
Our Relax Holistic Acupuncturists can address concerns of symptoms you may have arising from yeast, with acupuncture treatments that correct yeast imbalance and dampness in the body.
Relax Holistic has three convenient locations in West Hollywood, Marina del Rey, and Culver City. Call for a free consultation and they will be happy to discuss any health concerns with you.
