Sweet or salty? Ice cream or chocolate? Coffee or lemonade? What drives you to crave some foods over others? You probably think you’re making choices based on what sounds appealing to your mind and taste buds, but it’s actually your body telling you what will best serve your health.
If you are craving specific foods and you can’t seem to break the habit (that nightly drive for ice cream!), it’s likely there is a deeper health and physical wellness reason.
Read more about food cravings and your health in our latest blog article.
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Starting in high school, I regularly received chiropractic treatment. I was an athlete, not great with eating properly, and as a result, I had back pain with neck and shoulder tightness. As a Doctor of Chinese Medicine, I now know that my pain was caused by blood flow issues and could have been resolved with acupuncture treatments. Growing up in a small town in the ‘80s and ‘90s, acupuncture was not available. There was a good alternative in chiropractic care, and it helped to get me healthy and strong.
In conjunction with acupuncture, chiropractic care can help to alleviate pain and discomfort due to a variety of health issues. Acupuncture effectively treats digestive issues through moving blood and getting rid of stagnation while strengthening the digestive organs. Pair with a chiropractic adjustment, and mid-thoracic tightness affecting your digestion, vagus nerve, liver, spleen and stomach will be relieved.
Regular acupuncture and chiropractic adjustments act as complementary treatments, resolving a number of health issues faster than one modality alone. Back pain in Chinese Medicine is attributed to weak liver, kidney and intestine function as well as improper blood flow. Acupuncture and chiropractic treatment can resolve the acute pain and both modalities are fantastic for long term care. Chronic headaches can be another issue from compromised blood flow. A good adjustment can relieve the pain while acupuncture will keep the blood circulating to avoid future occurrences.
There are a number of great chiropractors in Jacksonville and St. Augustine that I know personally and professionally, and I’d love to refer you to them. Contact me and we can discuss complementary treatments that can help you to achieve happiness, goodness and wellness.
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Summer is the season of the Heart, the time of Fire. The heart regulates circulation and communication. Very active during this season, the heart can become overworked.
In Traditional Chinese Medicine, Restless Organ syndrome is a condition that arises from overthinking, worry and excessive anxiety. Gan Mai Da Zao Tang is the classic formula for treating this syndrome and nourishing the heart. The herbs in this formula each play a role in your health. Licorice increases energy by boosting the digestive system. Red dates calm nerves and moisten dryness, while wheat berries soften the spirit and anchor your mind.
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Gratitude and Giving Back |
Acupuncture and Traditional Chinese Medicine often seem to work miracles. There is such a wide variety of issues they can solve, not limited to physical pain, but also mental, spiritual, and emotional voids. When I can help one of my dear patients on the path to balancing their body and mind, I am overwhelmed with emotion and happiness.
Knowing that I positively affected someone’s day, let alone life, is so rewarding! Helping people to feel good is my daily job, and doing so is the greatest feeling in the world. I recently began volunteering at a homeless shelter and the experience left me feeling like I do after successfully treating someone in my clinic. I have never actively volunteered before. I always thought it was great when people told me they volunteer and helped out in the community. I envied them, or I felt guilty that I wasn’t doing the same, but this never led to me actually sign up.
Now that I have taken my first step, I wish I would’ve done it sooner! In the shelter, especially the kitchen, it’s about giving and nourishing. In TCM these two things—emotions and digestion—are at the root of every health issue. Helping to feed someone and make them feel better for at least a small part of their day, is not only bodily nourishing, but it also feeds their soul (and mine). We are made to help one another out, and commune together over food. As my late great teacher, Dr Juan Martinez frequently said, “No man is an island.”
I am thankful every day for my family, my health and my family’s health, for clean air and water and more than enough food. I am grateful for freedom. It’s been an interesting journey to see how volunteering has really brought this all into perspective. And how it makes me want to do more! When you meet someone with very little, in tough circumstances, who still has a smile and a kind word, it puts your life in perspective and makes gratitude a central focus.
Give thanks, be grateful, and try out volunteering in your community—it’s good for your health!
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Dr Danti will be out of the office September 7-14 for a visit to her home state of Wisconsin. Fall will just be starting in the north, so there will be cooler weather and gorgeous leaves to enjoy alongside family and friends.
Be Well and I will see you when I return.
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The best friend is he that, when he wishes a person's good, wishes it for that person's own sake.
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