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HEALTHY HAPPENINGS June 2017

Embracing the Heat on Summer Solstice
By Lara Gale

The sun is a steady companion in Moab; we adjust ourselves to her habits even if we don’t realize it. Putting on sunscreen in the morning, wearing and carrying hats and clothing layers, parking in the shade – humans in the desert are more comfortable when we partner thoughtfully with our celestial goddess. One way or another, we’ll remember her around 2 pm when she gets serious about the heat on the day’s agenda.

This month is a special one for humans and our relationship with the sun because she hits her zenith the afternoon of June 21. If you can get yourself to an altitude high enough to see the horizon, the sun will make her appearance to Moab’s east at 5:54 AM. Over the day, she’ll travel along the longest arc she offers us all year – for 14 hours and 51 minutes – until disappearing again in the west at 8:45 PM.

Sound like something to celebrate? Our ancestors certainly thought so. Cultures throughout time and geography have in common celebratory traditions that center around the behavior of the sun. In ancient European tradition, Mid-Summer Day was celebrated on June 24 and marked the midpoint of the growing season, half-way between planting and harvest.

Closer to our geographic home, there is evidence in the form of rock art and ancient construction all across the landscape that sun cycles were observed closely and celebrated ceremonially in connection with spiritual practice and agricultural production. Not far from Moab, Summer Solstice can be observed as a ray of sun beams through a rock formation at high noon in the shape of an arrowhead onto the head of a giant snake inscribed into the sandstone centuries ago.

Because of the interplay of Earth’s water, land and air with its rotation and orbit, solstice has the most daylight but is not the hottest point of the year. She’s just getting started, so soak in all the sun’s rays on her big day, and be sure you’re prepared to embrace the heat still to come this summer!

Got Ondamed?
By Ray Andrew, MD

More and more people are discovering the power of Ondamed--"wave medicine"--to accelerate healing from all kinds of conditions. This is especially true since our experienced staff in both Moab and Springville underwent advanced training recently to take their effectiveness to the next level. Patients drive as far as five hours each way specifically to take advantage of this cutting-edge service.

Of all people, university physics professors understand electromagnetic waves and their therapeutic roles in human health. So it should not surprise you that we count such professors among our patients.

But you don't have to be a professor, and you don't have to understand physics, to benefit from focused pulsed electromagnetic field (PEMF) stimulation. You just have to want to get well and to realize that some of the greatest damage, and some of the most powerful healing, are accomplished by forces we cannot even see. We don't always have to take a pill, cut into an organ, or inject a needle to create favorable changes in the body. Ondamed is an FDA-cleared biofeedback device. As such, it is not allowed to make any claims regarding diagnosing, preventing, or curing any disease. However, there are numerous studies demonstrating the effectiveness of PEMF, and our patients are just happy that it works.

For example, imagine watching a case of Bell's palsy vanish before your eyes. Imagine a toddler who has had belly pain for 3 days and that belly pain disappearing thirty minutes after a session by passing a stool which was the cause of her mysterious pain. Imagine going from walking painfully for six months to suddenly being able to run half marathons again after 3 short sessions. Imagine going from feeling more than ten thousand extra heart beats every day to having only a thousand, and hardly noticing them. Or healing so unusually fast after orthopedic surgery that the surgeon wonders what your secret is. Or going from having diabetes in pregnancy to not having it anymore. Or having a tumor cut off from your hand and experiencing no bruising or swelling afterward. Or being days or even weeks late for your period and then having it the night after a brief session. Or having no more desire to smoke again. This is but a small sampling of cases we have seen at Hormone Centers of Utah.

A brief search of the US National Library of Medicine reveals hundreds of studies demonstrating the effectiveness of PEMF in a variety of other conditions. For example, it reduces brain damage from stroke, enables bones to heal that weren't healing, stimulates nerve regeneration, stimulates repair of osteoporosis, reduces skin damage from chemical burns, reduces chronic pain, accelerates healing of diabetic foot ulcers, increases blood flow in feet that would have required amputation due to gangrene, reduces postoperative pain, improves heart muscle function after heart attack, reduces arthritis pain, improves brain healing after head injuries, and much more.

Ondamed is a brilliant application of quantum physics to human health. It is so powerful that actress and medical crusader Suzanne Somers (who had breast cancer) and Olympic Track star Perry Fields (who had Lyme disease) bought their own machines so they could incorporate them into their daily healing regimens. While you may not be as wealthy as Suzanne or as desperate as Perry, you can take advantage of the power of this marvelous technology for a wide variety of problems that respond poorly if at all to traditional treatment.

Moreover, because it is the ultimate biofeedback machine, Ondamed will only give you the electromagnetic energies your body needs. You don't have to worry about side effects or long-term complications because it is not forcing your body to do anything it doesn't want to do. It’s not blocking anything or disrupting any natural biochemical processes. Instead, the machine simply gives you the frequencies your body tells us that it needs.

Imagine the biofeedback process as your body designing a pill for itself, inserting precisely the ingredients it needs right now. If you come back tomorrow or next week, the ingredients and dosages will be different because your organs’ energies and chemistry will be different. Instead of picking a drug and hoping it helps without causing undesirable side effects or long-term complications, we let your body tell us what it needs on a cellular level to facilitate healing.

Call the office and try Ondamed today. It's not rocket science--it's better! 435-259-4466


Straighten Then Strengthen Your Body
By Jessica Kisiel

Physical alignment is the base upon which efficient, pain-free movement and top sports performance are built. When your posture is balanced, your muscles are in optimal positions at their ideal length and tension, able to generate maximal power. True strength, then, comes from stable and aligned posture. Joints that are out of alignment are weak, lack range of motion and are more prone to injury.

Although lifting weights can be a great way to increase strength, it can also ingrain postural disparities and movement compensations (muscles doing jobs for which they are not intended). This reality has spawned the term, dysfunctional fitness, whereby we are doing our bodies more harm than good in the weight room. You don't want to strengthen a crooked posture and dysfunctional or compensated muscle biomechanics. Before you add resistance to your body, you first need to gain structural alignment—position before condition.

This applies to strength training as well as athletics, in general. Lifting weights and playing sports are both strengthening exercises for your body. A set of bench presses and a mile run both ingrain movement patterns and build strength in the muscles used. It is important to make sure you are developing functional, not dysfunctional, power. If done in an imbalanced position, these activities further accelerate the atrophy of your postural muscles and skeletal misalignments—not to mention the negative impact poor form has on your sports performance.

The postural muscles are the foundation of your skeletal structure. The position of the joints is dictated by the muscles and soft tissues that are attached to them. Visualize the muscles around your joints in layers. The deepest layer consists of your postural muscles. Since dysfunction, lost musculoskeletal function, happens from the inside out, muscles at this most inner layer become weak and ineffective first. Once this internal support is lost the outer muscles take over for the defunct underlying tissues, thus starting the process of compensation, resulting in postural deviations.

Traditional strength training targets the large, superficial muscles. Without first putting the body in a more ideal alignment—straightening—these compensating muscles will become—strengthened—in their accessory roles and faulty positions. External strength can only stabilize your joints so much if the underlying tissues are weak. Essentially, you are creating a hard exterior with a softer, weaker interior.

A balanced strength training program will include exercises to counteract your postural deviations. Although these exercises may seem simple and remedial they are essential in the process of restoring muscle balance to your body. Lost body symmetry is the first step towards musculoskeletal injury and pain. Once your body is in an improved postural position you are ready to add resistance to your routine.

Learn exercises to improve your posture in a three-week series of free classes at the Moab Recreation & Aquatics Center, June 12-26. Posture Fitness classes will be held Monday at 11:30 am – 12:30 pm. Standing, sitting and mat whole body exercises from the Egoscue Method® and Postural Restoration Institute® will be used. Class is slow to moderately paced and appropriate for those with chronic musculoskeletal issues. For more information contact Jessica Kisiel, jessica@thepfathlete.com or 505.412.3132.


Red Valley Chiropractic Introduces Low Level Laser Therapy (LLLT)
Dr. Johnnie L. Morgan D.C.

Millions of people deal with chronic pain on a regular basis. If you are fortunate enough to not deal with chronic pain, it is likely that you are interested in preventing it. At Red Valley Chiropractic, we are interested in helping you to effectively manage your chronic pain so that you can go on enjoying a healthy and happy lifestyle.

Chiropractic offers a natural, and drugless approach to managing pain. Dr. Johnnie L. Morgan, DC., is proficient in a variety of chiropractic adjustments that treat pain resulting from sciatica, migraines, sport injuries, weakness and numbness, TMJ, and sinus problems, to name a few.

This month we would like to bring awareness to a healing therapy also offered at Red Valley Chiropractic. The Low Level Laser Therapy (LLLT), or cold laser, is a painless way to treat a variety of conditions including arthritis, acute and chronic pain, bone injury, wound healing, post-surgical wound healing, ligament and tendon problems, a build of scar tissue, carpal tunnel, etc. This is FDA approved medical technology that works on a cellular level to improve healing up to 66% faster, according to one study done by the FDA in 2002. LLLP works to stimulate the mitochondria, which produces ATP (adenosine triphosphate), which is a chemical that in turn helps the body to heal tissue. LLLP also helps enhance blood and oxygen flow. For patients just starting laser therapy, Dr. Morgan recommends a treatment plan of two times a week for four weeks to begin the healing process. Treatments last around 8 minutes and are completely painless. We added this state of the art technology to our clinic so that we can help our patients’ progress to a higher level of wellness. When you invest in your health, you invest in your future. We are here for your pain management needs and wish you a healthy and happy season.

880 S. Main St. Moab, UT. 84532 P: (435)259-0123


Inflammation: Turning Down The Internal Fire
What’s red, hot, swollen, and painful? INFLAMMATION. These are the signs of inflammation we can actually see and feel when we are injured, cut, bruised, or infected. These symptoms are a good and necessary sign that your body is starting to heal and evidence that nourishment and immune activity is being sent to the injured area of the body that needs it.

But what about the inflammation you CAN’T see? Or inflammation that becomes chronic and spreads to healthy tissue? This is a more silent, ongoing inflammation, progressing deep inside the body in tissues and organs that have no pain receptors to indicate its presence. It is this persistent, low-level, imperceptible inflammation in the body that over time creates physical problems. Excess inflammation is the common denominator present in most chronic conditions – obesity, diabetes, heart disease, cancer, depression, dementia, and even autoimmune diseases.

So what causes this inflammation that lurks under the radar to surface much later (maybe years) in the form of chronic illness? The wear and tear we experience from exposure to pollution and environmental toxins and genetics can influence a person’s inflammatory response. Repeated and prolonged stress of all kinds can put your inflammatory responses into overdrive. BUT WHAT WE CHOOSE TO EAT IS EVEN MORE IMPORTANT!

Today’s average diet is seriously low in naturally occurring anti-inflammatory antioxidants found in vegetables, fruits, green tea, herbs and spices. Manufactured, highly refined and processed foods such as chips, pastries, white refined carbohydrates, sugary drinks, and food additives have replaced whole, plant based foods – the foods rich in nutrients with anti-inflammatory effects. At the same time the average diet is loaded with inflammation producing fats such as trans fats.
DO YOU WANT TO TURN DOWN THE HEAT OF YOUR INFLAMMATORY RESPONSE? Changing some of your lifestyle habits can make a big difference.

You can strive to include a variety of fruits and vegetables at every meal.

Add more seasonings from herbs and spices – the food category that averages the most antioxidants.

Eat real food in its natural form.

Reduce your exposure to environmental toxins and products containing harmful chemicals.
Prioritize healthy habits of regular sleep and exercise.

Develop the skills to address your stress – in all its forms – more effectively. Stress from unsatisfying work, unfulfilling relationships, overload of responsibilities, disconnection from your spirituality, and more. Broadly speaking, your stress response largely dictates the inflammatory response.

FOR MORE INFORMATION about how to turn down your internal fire, join Christina Myers when she presents on this subject at Moonflower Coop on Thursday, June 22nd at 6 PM. Call Christina at 937-284-2190 for private consultations or Moonflower at 435-259-5712 for more information.
Integral Brain Health
Integral Brain Health believes all learning difficulties do NOT result from lack of intelligence, but from the degree of access each person has to specific brain functions and how well these functions can be integrated.

If a person can access all Gestalt and Logic Brain functions and their subordinate subconscious functions at all levels in the brain with equal facility they will perform well in all areas of learning. If for any reason, they cannot access certain specific brain functions, they will have difficulty.

The most commonly observed learning difficulty is Gestalt dominance in processing information. People with this pattern of learning dysfunction have good access to most Gestalt lead function, but poor access to Logic functions. These people may often display many of the following behavioral symptoms:
• Tendency to be impulsive
• Little appreciation of the connection between cause and effect
• Difficulty budgeting time, concentrating
• Difficulty spelling, mathematics
• Poor memory
• Poor comprehension

Logic Dominance individuals display the following behavioral symptoms:
• Cannot spell
• Have great difficulty reading
• Display dysrhythmia, an inability to clap or tap a tune
• Are physically uncoordinated or clumsy
• May display rigidity and over organization
• May not understand social clues

Integral Brain Health is centered around the Brain Integration Technique developed by Richard Utt, Founder of the International Institute of Applied Physiology, and was further developed into Crossinology® by Susan McCrossin.

BIT is a natural, holistic process which opens access to both Gestalt and Logic lead functions and removes blocks to integrated function and corrects the specific learning difficulties in clients. It is a one-time, permanent, non-invasive technique that does not include medication. By directing electrical impulses within the body and communication with the subconscious, a practitioner is able to open direct pathways within the brain, so that a person can experience full brain function.
Look out for Skin Cancer
As the weather heats up in Moab, the opportunities for outdoor activities increase. It is extremely important to take care of the skin and protect it against cancer. Here are some facts about skin damage and skin cancer.

Every hour, someone in the US dies of melanoma, the deadliest form of skin cancer. Melanoma is highly treatable if caught early. The 5 year survival rates for early detected melanoma that is treated before it spreads to the lymph nodes are 98%. The 5 year survival rates for late stage melanomas are 15%.

Males over the age of 50 are at the highest risk of developing skin cancer. However, skin cancer can affect people of either sex, all skin types, or all ages.

The sun is amplified by water and sand, making Moab a very dangerous area for skin damage from the sun.

SPF 30 sunscreen does not protect against all of the sun’s rays. Some sunscreen only protects against the rays that cause sunburn. It is important to try and cover up as much as possible and seek out shady spots, even when protected by sunscreen.

One in five Americans will develop skin cancer in their lifetime. 1 in 50 will develop melanoma. Simple actions such as protecting skin in the sun, receiving regular skin cancer screenings, and keeping an eye out for abnormal moles or skin rashes can go a long way in preventing skin cancer.

Many people wonder what an “abnormal mole or skin rash” looks like. It is as simple as following the ABCDE’s:
Asymmetry- When a line is drawn down the middle of a mole and the sides are not symmetrical, this could be a sign of skin cancer.

Border- A benign mole will have smooth even edges. Many malignant moles will have uneven or notched edges.

Color-A mole that is more than one color, including different shades of a color, is a warning sign that the mole may be cancerous.

Diameter-A mole that is larger than the size of a pencil eraser should be watched closely.

Evolving-Any change to a mole—size, shape, color, elevation, itching, or bleeding, should be evaluated.

It is a good idea to discuss any moles of concern with your family practice physician at your annual exam. If you have a personal or family history of skin cancer, it’s recommended that you schedule an annual skin exam with a medical provider who provides skin checks. Dr. Kim Brandau performs annual skin checks at Moab Regional Hospital. She can also remove skin abnormalities if needed, which are often outpatient, in-clinic procedures. You can schedule an appointment with Dr. Brandau by calling her office in the Moab Regional Health Center at (435) 719-5500.
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