Support Acupuncture for Everyone

  Dear friends, patients, colleagues and acupuncture advocates,

If you or someone you know has received acupuncture or understands the benefits of acupuncture please join me in support of including acupuncture as an "Essential Health Benefit" for Americans.

To be included in the Essential Health Benefits, the health care service must be effective, safe, affordable, and easy to be incorporated into our current medical system without wasting too many resources, especially during this economic situation. Acupuncture is the perfect therapeutic modality to meet all of these demands.  Your support is needed.

1. It's easy click to send a letter via the internet.

Click Here to send electronic letter to Secretary Sebelius

2. It's easy to send a letter via the mail.

Copy and paste this letter from AAAOM and send itwith any edits you choose directly to the HHS Secretary, Kathleen Sebelius at the addresses below before Nov. 4. Please include your name, physical address and e-mail address.

Attention: Secretary Kathleen Sebelius Re: Acupuncture Petition The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services 200 Independence Avenue, S.W. Washington, D.C. 20201

We need to move forward and we can with your help.

Thank you for your participation.

Sincerely,

John Charlebois, LAc.

Additional Links:

AAAOM EHB Action Home About HR 646 Track HR 646 HR 646 Fact Book Sign the HR 646 Petition

Pelvic floor muscles are core muscles!

The reason I love working with my pregnant patients is that pregnancy is such a great time to build a wellness routine. It is also good to clarify exercise guidelines and to encourage women to check with their obstetricians in case there are special circumstances around their pregnancy that would affect their exercise tolerance.

The American Congress of Obstetricians and Gynecologists publishes recommendations that can be found here:
Exercise During Pregnancy

There is also a lot of misinformation out there regarding pregnancy and exercise, including kegels prenatally and post-partum. While these are important core muscles, it is important to remember that they need to be relaxed and flexible in order to birth a baby.

Many women will begin kegel exercises for the first time during pregnancy. Therefore, I recommend only 2 sets of 10 repetitions of "quick flicks".  These are quick kegels that you do not hold...the pace is "tighten, relax...tighten, relax" and so on.  Ten repetitions should only take 10 seconds!

Post-partum is a wonderful time to pick up kegels to restore normal pelvic floor muscle tone, increase circulation to the pelvis and to promote healing in the event of episiotomey or tearing. Return to "quick flicks", but increase to 5 sets of 10 repetitions.  Then incorporate kegels that you hold for up to a count of 20 seconds-build up to 2 sets of 10 repetitions.

Please note that it is very important not to do a kegel to stop and start the flow of urine as an exercise!  It can increase your risk of a urinary tract or kidney infection!

How do I do a kegel, you ask?
First, lying down or sitting in a relaxed position, imagine your pelvic floor muscles.  These are the muscles you contract to stop the flow of urine or from passing gas.  Trying not to tighten you abdominal or buttock muscles, gently contract your pelvic floor muscles.  Imagine lifting up and in with the muscles, feeling them tighten and subsequently relax when you release them.  As you do a kegel, begin with tightening gently to avoid using other muscles such as your abdominals.  Gradually, work towards holding the kegel longer and contracting more forcefully.

- Nancy Charlebois PT, MT

Hip Flexors are key to a happy low back & hips!

The hip flexors are an oft-neglected muscle group that can contribute to lower back or hip pain and stiffness. They often get tight from sitting (think office, car, evening tv or reading), or from repetitive motions bringing the knee in front of the hip including running, biking or walking! So basically, if you are a human, listen up! Your hip flexors may be yearning for attention! :)

What are the hip flexors? Specifically, there are two primary hip flexor muscles - the iliacus and the psoas- that originate on the front of the spine in the lower back and the front of the pelvis, and run to the front of the hips. If tight, they can make it tough to stand up straight, or they can pull your lower back into an excessive curve, tilting your pelvis forward and causing extra stress and potential pain.

How to effectively stretch your hip flexors: Hip flexors are tough to stretch correctly, because it is easy to compensate for tight hip flexors by overextending your low back, or by bringing your knee in front of your hip during stretches. When stretching, a general rule of thumb is to contract your abs, tucking your tailbone underneath you, and hold this position while stretching to prevent excess stress in the low back and to ensure an effective stretch.

Great hip flexor stretches are illustrated on a comprehensive website created by core performance. Just follow this link: Core Performance, or from the front page select the heading "exercises" from the footer, then select "movements", and search for (they are listed in alphabetical order): AIS Quad/Hip Flexor Stretch - Sidelying Glute Activation - Half Kneeling Forward Lunge with Rotation

A comfortable stretching sensation should be felt in the front of your hip and thigh WITHOUT low back strain or compression- remember to keep your abs tight, and tailbone tucked! Dynamic stretches (~5-10 second hold, moving into and out of the stretch) are recommended before activity (running, biking). Prolonged stretches (20-30 second static hold) are indicated to actually improve muscle length. Happy stretching!

- Heather Wacksman MSPT

Yamuna Body Rolling

Yamuna Body Rolling is a great way to compliment any sport or physical activity that you love, by toning and elongating muscles, improving alignment and circulation, increasing core strength and metabolism, relaxing the nervous system, and increasing body awareness.

Yamuna Body Rolling begins with bone stimulation and systematically works muscles from origin toward insertion to lengthen and realign the body freeing fascia and other structural restriction to ultimately increase range of motion, improve posture and prevent injury.  The ultimate goal of practicing Yamuna Body Rolling is to remove as many physical restrictions from the body as possible, so that all body parts function as optimally as possible.   You can continue to enjoy running 5k races, playing with your kids, gardening, golfing or whatever you enjoy.

The next 7 week series is starting soon. Check this link for dates.

Hatha Yoga

This class is geared toward individuals experienced with basic yoga poses. In this Hatha yoga class, you can expect to enjoy movement with limited instruction and consistent flow. The essence of yoga is being alive... to breathe, relax, feel, watch and allow. Hatha yoga emphasizes methods of practicing yoga postures (asanas) and energetic breathing exercises (pranayamas) for physical health and well-being. Ha means "Sun" and tha means "moon."

In this class, we will balance the sun and moon energies of the physical body. We will explore deepening the breath, allowing the body to find a natural rhythm through connecting the breath with movement. True strength, endurance, and range of motion are developed incrementally and gradually, not by force. The mind-body connection will be emphasized in this class, where we will practice energizing as well as restorative yoga postures. Learn to listen to your body's needs and to respect its limitations. Experience how the subtle power of yoga works with all aspects of your being- physical, psychological, and spiritual.

The next 7 week series is starting soon. Check this link for dates.

Yoga For Athletes

Yoga for athletes is a small group class designed specifically to meet the needs of active individuals.  It is led by Heather, a certified yoga instructor and licensed physical therapist who is an avid runner, cyclist and snowboarder with a background in team sports.  She understands the specific demands of athletic endeavors as well as common imbalances and injuries in athletes.

Yoga for athletes is designed to maximize athletic performance by balancing flexibility, strength, stability and endurance.  This class can help you recover from injury - or better yet, prevent it! It can also enhance awareness of and connection to your own body.  Yoga for athletes is designed for athletes of all abilities, no previous yoga experience necessary! 

Experience support with:

· Flexibility
· Lung Capacity
· Core Strength
· Endurance
· Alignment
· Prevent or recover from injury

Casual and relaxed clothing recommended.  Wear a T-Shirt, Shorts, or Sweats that allow you to stretch comfortably.

The next 7 week series is starting soon. Check this link for dates.

Mommy and Baby Yoga

This class is designed for post-partum women who want to attend yoga with their infant. It's limited to four women with their babies to provide individual attention and the opportunity for bonding between mother and baby.

This class will help support your efforts to recover from childbirth, rebuild core strength, and teach you how to incorporate exercise, stretching and relaxation into playful time with your baby.  Special attention is placed on developing core strength and stability, involving a particular emphasis on strengthening the back, abdomen, and pelvic floor, as well as relieving tension in areas such as the neck, shoulders and back.  The babies benefit from the bonding time with mom, baby massages and the stimulating environment with new baby friends!

The next 7 week series is starting soon. Check this link for dates.

Gentle Yoga

The mind-body connection will be Gentle Yoga emphasized in this class, where Maura will encourage you to listen to your body's needs and respecting its limitations. Strengthening core muscles in a safe and functional manner will aid in the reduction of pain. In addition, this class can be very beneficial to those with lower back discomfort. By practicing yoga regularly you can learn tools to optimize your physical health and well-being. Receive individualized attention in this intimate class setting.

The next 7 week series is starting soon. Check this link for dates.

Yoga For Guys

The physical benefits of yoga are a wonderful way to compliment whatever sport or physical activity you love.  Yoga stretches, strengthens, and invigorates the entire body and internal organs.  It increases core strength, flexibility, range of motion, and improves balance.   Practicing yoga as a form of cross-training will increase your performance and reduce the risk of injury.

This class is designed to alleviate everything from stiff backs and sore muscles to low energy and work-related stress. Attending the weekly Yoga for Guys class can help correct the alignment of the spinal column, and improve your overall posture.  You will learn how to breathe deeper, which will give you extra endurance for exercise, sports, or just to have more energy throughout the day.

Additionally, when men do yoga in a men's yoga class, they are more relaxed, less guarded and more focused.  There is a completely different energy in the room.  When a man looks around and sees other men doing yoga, he feels more included and accepted: their bodies are similar to his body; their challenges are similar to his challenges.

The next 7 week series is starting soon. Check this link for dates.

Prenatal Yoga

Inside you is an innate wisdom that understands about the very natural process of birth.  Linking yoga postures with breath will lead you to new discoveries, bringing awareness to the mind, body and spirit.  The class conducted in a peaceful environment will promote strength and flexibility, improve circulation, aid digestion, exercise the spine and increase overall comfort.  An intimate class size allows you to freely discuss any issues, from discomforts and concerns, to the wonderful new changes your body and baby are experiencing.  This class will emphasize comfortable and safe yoga poses during pregnancy.

The next 7 week series is starting soon. Check this link for dates.

Yoga For Athletes

Yoga for athletes is a small group class designed specifically to meet the needs of active individuals.  It is led by Heather, a certified yoga instructor and licensed physical therapist who is an avid runner, cyclist and snowboarder with a background in team sports.  She understands the specific demands of athletic endeavors as well as common imbalances and injuries in athletes.

Yoga for athletes is designed to maximize athletic performance by balancing flexibility, strength, stability and endurance.  This class can help you recover from injury - or better yet, prevent it! It can also enhance awareness of and connection to your own body.  Yoga for athletes is designed for athletes of all abilities, no previous yoga experience necessary!  Experience support with:

· Flexibility
· Lung Capacity
· Core Strength
· Endurance
· Alignment
· Prevent or recover from injury

Casual and relaxed clothing recommended.  Wear a T-Shirt, Shorts, or Sweats that allow you to stretch comfortably.

The next 7 week series is starting soon. Check this link for dates.

Yamuna Body Rolling Class In October!!

How we take care of ourselves- physically, mentally, and emotionally play a significant role in how we engage in life, and connect with ourselves as well as others.  Yamuna Body Rolling is a great way to compliment any sport or physical activity that you love, by toning and elongating muscles, improving alignment and circulation, increasing core strength and metabolism, relaxing the nervous system, and increasing body awareness.

Yamuna Body Rolling begins with bone stimulation and systematically works muscles from origin toward insertion to lengthen and realign the body freeing fascia and other structural restriction to ultimately increase range of motion, improve posture and prevent injury.  The ultimate goal of practicing Yamuna Body Rolling is to remove as many physical restrictions from the body as possible, so that all body parts function as optimally as possible.   You can continue to enjoy running 5k races, playing with your kids, gardening, golfing or whatever you enjoy.

We are now offering individual or pairs Yamuna Body Rolling sessions and classes will begin in the fall.

The next 7 week series is starting soon. Check this link for dates.

Staying Well in the Summer Heat: Yoga and Breath Work

Taking a moment for yourself

Come summer time, with increased light, increased energy, and perhaps a fuller social calendar there is a longing to connect to that carefree, relaxed summer feeling, and perhaps to a deeper sense of balance.

With the extra hours of light in the summer, allow yourself to wake a little earlier to take your time transitioning throughout your day.

It can be easy to feel rushed or have the mentality that once we finish x, y, z, then we can relax. It's okay to slow down, and actually it's more than okay, it's healthy to slow down!

By getting outdoors for 30 minutes each day, you'll feel refreshed and it'll be a reminder of how good it feels to take care of yourself. Whether you're heading outside to run, walk, read a good book, take a nap on the beach or play Frisbee with some friends, be sure to stay hydrated by drinking water .

In honor of the sun, try a Sun Salutation outside...  being inverted in downward dog outdoors can be a great way to change your perception!

And help you to move from a place of balance, playfulness and enjoyment.

Maura Hintlian

Staying Well in the Summer Heat: Physical Therapy

Summer Exercise

If it's physical, it's therapy!  As we have finally met up with our warm weather and longer days, it's great to be outdoors again exercising.  Here are a few summer exercise tips:

1. On hot days, break up your workout into 2 sessions to avoid the heat.  Get outside in the early am and then do a follow up workout in the evening. You'll boost your metabolism twice during the day and can get in some variety. Bike in the AM followed by run in the PM anyone?
2. Stretch AFTER a brief warm up.  Warmed up muscles are more elastic so you will get more out of your stretching.
3. Hydrate and take cover! Signs of heat exhaustion include dizziness, weakness, nausea, muscle cramps, inability to sweat and the feeling of being cold.
4. On poor air quality days, take it inside.  Join a class, jump in a pool or go to the gym.
5. Want a refreshing, cool and easy summer beverage? Add a few slices of cucumber to your water and let it set for a few minutes.  Gulp, gulp....ahhh.

- Nancy Charlebois PT, MT

Staying Well in the Summer Heat: Traditional Chinese Medicine

Foods that Cool

Hopefully, this article arrives in the presence of sunshine and warmer weather. Summer temperatures will be here soon and I have some advice about foods to keep you cooler. In my studies of Traditional Chinese Medicine, food can play an important role in moderating the impact of heat or cold weather.

When the weather gets hot include some of these foods to cool the inside of your body, replenish fluids and replace electrolytes. Choose a diversity of foods ranging from snack to side dish to entree. Go to food websites that allow searches using these cooling foods. Nurturing against the intense heat makes an impact and allows greater enjoyment of these precious few months of summer.

Fruit

• All Citrus
• Apple
• Banana
• Cantaloupe
• Pear
• Persimmon
• Tomato
• Watermelon

Vegetables

• Alfalfa Sprouts
• Amaranth
• Asparagus
• Barley
• Bok Choy
• Broccoli
• Button Mushroom
• Cauliflower
• Celery
• Cucumber
• Legumes & Grains
• Lettuce
• Eggplant
• Mung Bean & Mung Sprouts
• Millet
• Napa Cabbage
• Radish
• Soy Milk
• Soy Sprouts
• Spinach
• Summer Squash
• Sweet Corn
• Swiss Chard
• Tempeh
• Tofu
• Zucchini

Others

• Barley Grass
• Cilantro
• Dandelion Greens
• Kudzu
• Marjoram
• Micro-algae
• Nettles
• Peppermint
• Seaweeds
• White Peppercorn
• Yogurt

- John Charlebois L AC

Spring Cleanse #4 – 2011

Thanks for waiting.  Here’s my final blog post on the remainder of my fast/cleanse.

I personally enjoy juice fasting.  My body feels less dense and heavy. Organics are important to use at this point.  Some say use just clear juices but I enjoy vegetable juices for a “full” sensation that clear juices do not provide.  There were challenges during meal prep for my kids. Several times I would almost taste the food while cooking as a pattern of the process. Patterns such as that shape our choices, portions, and ritual around food.  At the juice fast portion all of those attachments have come to awareness.  Also the social implications within friend and family circles attracts a lot of attention.  People are fascinated and have great questions.

I chose not to water fast this year because the weather was too cold and my children needed their parents to be physically able to do things like play with them so I stayed on juices for another two days instead.  The fast makes you slow down.  I felt calm and clear in many ways.  I enjoyed greater happiness and great dreams at night.  All that nirvana was great but after five days with no solid food I wanted a banana worse than anything.  Chewing was wonderful and the texture was... well... texture. So until about Halloween my eating practices will have improved tremendously.  The family holidays and cooler weather/shorter days will undoubtedly resurrect my old ways but shortly after the beginning of Spring I will do this once again to begin anew.  Thanks for reading.

WCSH Fit at Five Video

Jade Integrated Health – 10th Anniversary Open House

In celebration of our 10th anniversary, we invite you to our open house, this Friday June 3rd from 4:30-6:30.  Bring a friend and come to enjoy music, laughter, tasty treats from the five flavors and a beverage or two.

In addition, we have new some beautiful new artwork gracing our walls lent to us by Ann Deutsch.  Ann enjoys working with colors and appreciates the relationship of sky and water changes brought by passing clouds and breezes across the water. Please take time to notice her collages and landscape oil paintings.

See you there!

Spring Cleanse #3 - 2011

A few days have past since my last “check in” and I feel quite different from the last time I blogged.  This cleanse is different for every individual.  Some people in poor health may not be able to go as far in the elimination stages as some others.  If anyone reading this is inclined to try the cleanse in Dr. Elson M. Haas’ book Staying Healthy Through the Seasons please seek a professional with experience in this area.  The cleanse essentially starts with me eliminating “building” foods such as meat and dairy over the course of two weeks.

Then last Friday, my diet went strictly vegan with the elimination of all eggs and dairy.  The key to remember is that there are a lot of choices at that time. Nuts and beans are very satisfying and the grain varieties available are nutritious and economical.  This is when I feel the physical ease.  I think some of the “foods” we consume put actual stress on the body.  This weekend the elimination continued with nuts and beans on one day then seeds next on Sunday.  The former is harder to loose than the latter.

Now is the point where I began a strict cleansing diet due to the percentage of fiber that is digested.  I am loosing weight in various ways.  Yes I am slimming, but I am eating as much as I want.  It helps to have referenced tasty things to eat and planned ahead to have sustenance within my reach at all times.  I’m lighter also because I feel much less “stuck” in my choices and attachments to food habits.  I feel free from foods that weigh me down.  Tomorrow is the last day of chewable foods I...just juices on Thursday, Friday & Saturday.  At Sunday’s transition things get real interesting.  Thanks for reading this.  I look forward to dialog.  Please ask any questions that come to mind.

Spring Cleanse #2 – 2011

Not a bad week all-in-all.  The day after my last entry was when sugars and bleached flowers were eliminated from the diet.  That practically eliminated the majority of processed or convenience foods. Essentially, the middle isles in the supermarket have food I cannot eat.  Fortunately, I have done this several times over the past ten years so diversity of food choices becomes the key to success.  The following day meat became the eliminated food category.

Protein now comes from dairy, nuts, beans and seeds as well as the grain quinoa.  Lastly, yesterday was elimination day for any dairy foods.  I do feel less tense over the pat few days but did experience some headaches apparently from a lack of caffeine.  Now the attachments I have about the standard/cultural ways of nurturing myself are the strongest.  These emotional patterns can be overcome.  I can eat, as much as I want of the types of food that are left so I am not deprived.  I’ll post on Tuesday so have a great weekend everyone.