Integrated Natural Medicine

Integrated means “combining or coordinating separate elements so as to provide a harmonious, interrelated whole.”

Natural needs no introduction, although with the direction of medicine, a reintroduction may be in order…it means of nature, and implies working in harmony with natural laws. The basic natural laws of natural health include healing only comes from within, requires extra nutritional support, and is accelerated with natures amazing healing plants.

Medicine is defined as the art and science of restoring or preserving health and physical condition.

The integration is of all things considered natural…hands on body work, herbs, supplements, diet, movement, posture, balance, strength, acupressure, laser therapy…and I’m sure you could think of more, but this represents the main natural tools our clinic utilizes to restore health.

We also integrate a variety of diagnostic techniques. Eastern medicine “reads” the signs and symptoms of the body. Applied Kinesiology “reads” the function and balance of muscles. Muscle testing is actually a neurological assessment…it is not a test for weakness or a lack of conditioning.
Therefore, muscle testing is a window to neurological function, and neurological systems are the basis of Regulation.

The final diagnostic assessment is the only “natural” part of mainstream medicine…the process of looking at naturally occurring chemicals, hormones, and other elements via lab testing. And, yes, it is quite natural to look inside and notice what is there.

The Key to Healing

The practice of Medicine is much safer when you start with a glowing respect for internal healing and health management functions. I call this healing system, that coordinates everything from vital functions (heart pumping, breathing) to intricate responses to our environment (sweating, muscle
coordination), “Regulation.”

If you are spiritual or religious, you might think of Regulation as the internal wisdom of our creator. If you are analytical and scientific, you might think of Regulation as the central nervous system, and it’s interactions with all the cells of your body.

Whatever your preference, it is easy to see that something special breathes life into our bodies, coordinating multitudes of functions, including turning an apple into energy, and a bean into kidney cells. It is also easy to see the cooperative and integrated relationship that Regulation has with Nature. When we eat whole foods as prepared by nature, our health and energy normally flourish, and when we eat processed foods, made or altered by man and machines, our health and energy decline.

It leads to the question I pose as the title of my first book, “When did natural become the alternative?”

I contend that Regulation never makes a mistake. Every adjustment and adaptation made within your body, ordered by Regulation, is a shift that will increase Regulation’s primary objective…survival. When you feel awful during a cold or flu, that is regulation calling into action an intricate immune system to restore health. In fact, every symptom is a signal that Regulation is shifting from balance to adapt to a stressful situation. Every symptom is a message from Regulation that something is wrong.

A natural response would be to work with Regulation to help right that wrong. When regulation causes you to feel dizzy or nauseous when you skip breakfast, working with Regulation would look like grabbing some fruit and nuts and providing the raw material Regulation uses to create energy.

Most people get it, and work with Regulation in that example. But when a headache or heart burn is experienced (or any symptom), instead of working with Regulation, we suppress the symptoms with medication. We actually block the message of Regulation!

I’m not suggesting that there is no use for symptom suppressing medications. In fact, I would take an Advil for a terrible headache…and I would inquire as to why that headache occurred. The most common causes of headaches are stress and physical imbalance causing muscle tension. Working
with Regulation could include taking some Passion Flower, one of my favorite plants, and checking for muscle injury or strain.

There is a perfect “working with Regulation” response for every symptom.

What is Kinesiology?

Kinesiology, also known as manual muscle testing, is one of the key diagnostic tools we use to identify and respond to your body’s needs.

Most people are aware of how nerve or brain damage (ie. Stroke) affects muscle function.  There are two options with damage…muscle contracture (increased tone) or muscle weakness (decreased tone).

Beginning with posture assessment, any asymmetry we observe means that a muscle has increased in tone and/or decreased in tone.  If your shoulder is elevated on the right, we know which muscles pull the shoulder down, so we manually test those muscles and identify which muscle is weakened.

A weak muscle indicates nerve damage or dysfunction.  One potential cause is injury or compression, such as a disc herniation.  But that’s not the only cause of nerve damage or dysfunction.  Using the stroke example, there was nothing physically wrong with the brain, it was starved of an essential nutrient…oxygen…and brain cells died.

Let’s stay with the stroke example…  If we were able to test the muscle weakness in that arm, and increase the strength in that particular muscle, wouldn’t that require that we revived the brain cells that caused the weakness (the answer is yes).  Since the cells are deceased in a stroke patient, that probability is low…but, because the brain is so adaptable, we might be able to activate a muscle response by strengthening brain cells near the damage, and still get the muscle to strengthen.

With the disc herniation, if we are able to strengthen the muscle, that means we are able to reduce the disc herniation.

The point is that muscle testing will only respond if you are correcting the cause of nerve damage or dysfunction, which makes it a perfect feedback system to identify your health needs…and respond to them.

On a more subtle level, in the absence of paralysis, we will often find that several muscle imbalances are present, which represent the dysfunction of the nerve.  The same principles apply…whatever we can do that increases muscle function requires that we are addressing the core cause of the nerve
dysfunction.

Dysfunction of the nerves can come from any imbalance in your body….hormonal, blood sugar, stress or inflammation.  So, when we open up our possibility that the nerve could be repaired by anything…physical, chemical, or energetic (even emotional patterns)…we can accurately assess your
blocks to healing.  And your needs for nourishment and stimulation.  And your needs for stress reduction…anything.

That helps us determine your best action steps for a return to health and healing.