Integrative Health Blog

Viral and bacterial infections are all around us; if your child is going to daycare or school, they are exposed to numerous microbes every day. 

Many of those microbes are not disease-causing, but the many that can cause disease could be severe enough to cause symptoms for your child and even your whole family. 

Below are my top 5 tips to boost your child’s immune system to keep viral and bacterial infections away. 

1- Abundant and Restful Sleep

A good night’s sleep should be refreshing for the body. During nighttime our body can reset many of the functions, clear the “bad stuff”, and strengthen the immune system. School-aged children need 9-12 hours of sleep every night, so make sure to get the kids to bed on time! 

The movie “Concussion” and various past/present NFL stars suffering from repeated collisions have helped raise greater public awareness regarding the serious impact of repetitive sports injuries leading to potential traumatic brain injuries (TBIs).

Impact sports such as football, hockey, and soccer where players may repeatedly experience full impact to the head can lead to concussion, or sub-concussions. The long-term effects of playing football or other high impact contact sports is not fully known, but the evidence suggests that this type of repetitive head injury may lead to subsequent brain disorders.

Some parents are questioning their son’s participation in football, or wondering about the long-term effects of playing football and other contact sports.

Linking the Evidence

1. Make Social Connections with Others 

All dentists are taught to extract teeth. Some hone their skills with advanced training in residencies and internships, and others are mentored by experienced practitioners.  However, biological dentistry brings different principles to the oral surgery procedure and there is a distinction between what is done conventionally vs. holistically to optimize healing following the removal of teeth.  

Oral Surgery Procedures Biological Dentistry vs. Conventional 

Various studies worldwide have shown the prevalence of insomnia is 10%–30% of the population, with some studies even as high as 50%–60%! It is common in older adults, females, and people with medical and mental health issues. (1)

Studies also show that insomnia negatively affects work performance, impairs decision-making, can damage relationships, increase chances of work-related/motor vehicle accidents, and lead to an overall decline in the quality of life. (2)

As you talk with your doctor, the following criteria must be met for it to be considered insomnia, rather than a short-term sleep issue:

• The problem should be present for at least 3 nights per week.
• It has occurred for at least 3 months.
• It is not the result of medication or a medical/mental disorder.

Diabetes and increasing age are significantly associated with insomnia. Hence, all diabetic patients should be screened for insomnia by the primary care physician using a self-assessment questionnaire.

A Traditional Chinese Medicine Understanding of Insomnia

While the Coronavirus pandemic has certainly taken its toll on in-restaurant dining, many of us have continued to feel comfortable ordering take out. But leaving aside for a moment the impact on the economy, there are likely health reasons to consider preparing your own food at home (food here is defined as anything your great-grandmother would have recognized as food).

The fact is that fast food samples have been found to contain chemical toxins, several of which have been linked to cancer, endocrine conditions, difficulty losing weight and testicular abnormalities. Chemical contamination of food may disproportionately impact marginalized groups, given the higher densities of fast food restaurants in neighborhoods predominantly populated by marginalized peoples.

Dr. Ron Murray works to unlock your body’s innate ability to heal itself using Manual Regulation Therapy which he created himself. If you have ever had a traumatic brain injury, such as a concussion, or unexplained pain in your body, he works to resolve this trauma. Ron’s MRT uses biological and energy medicine alongside manual body-mind therapies to help your body heal itself.

He will begin with a body scan to identify increased levels of rigidity in your body and then treat those problem areas using his specially designed therapy. He has training in advanced forms of cranial, visceral, somato-emotional release and psycho emotional work, to name a few. He will use gentle manipulation of your extracellular matrix to get extraordinary results.

Read through his patient Ebony’s success story to gain a better understanding of Ron Murray’s work and how he helps to heal his patients who had previously lost hope, in just a few visits!

Where do you start when you want to work on your aches and pains on your own?

This is the start of a 3 part series on how to address your body’s pain and dysfunction from a very simple approach. It has all to do with posture!

Posture relates to the spatial positioning of the head-shoulder-hips/pelvis-knee-ankle from the side and backside of your body. The backside view is the relationship of body segments to the horizontal plane, in this case the floor. Level shoulders, level head and level hips are the key. From the side it is the relationship of body parts that are in line with one another. If we drew a perpendicular line on the side of the body it should intersect the ear, shoulder, hip and ankle regions through the middle. These both would be labeled correct posture.

When there are asymmetries to the ideal/correct posture it creates compensation in our body which can create muscular, tendon, ligament, joint and nerve issues.

Let’s look at your posture. Posture is what your body looks like from the side and the backside.   Here are some positions that you may have seen in your own posture:

Are you experiencing autoimmune inflammation? 

In an autoimmune based illness, the immune system mistakes part of your body, like your joints or skin, as foreign and releases proteins called auto antibodies that attack healthy cells. Autoimmune conditions can range from skin conditions such as psoriasis, to rheumatoid arthritis and Lupus, all the way to Chronic Lyme disease and CIRS. 

Lifestyle choices can make a profound impact on optimal health. Many of us don’t realize the simple yet powerful steps we can take to prevent, improve and even reverse some of the most worrisome conditions such as cardiovascular disease (CVD) and metabolic syndrome. With CVD being among the leading causes of death in the United States for nearly a century, it goes without saying that heart health should be a priority. Unfortunately, we may be missing some critical tools to support our longevity in ways very much within our reach.

According to the research of James Yeh, MD, MPH, instructor of medicine at Harvard Medical School and practitioner at Massachusetts General Hospital, “Nearly half of all premature deaths may be due to unhealthy lifestyle choices, such as insufficient exercise, poor diet, and smoking. These risk factors increase the risk of high blood pressure, diabetes, heart attack, and stroke.” (2019) The flip side is that healthy lifestyle choices have been found to play a vital role in prevention of these same morbidity factors. According to a 2017 review, successful modification of lifestyle choices can reduce the relative risk of cardiovascular disease and the risk factors for CVD such as diabetes mellitus and high blood pressure. (Masana, et al.)