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Showing posts from 2012

Celebrate World Hypnosis Day at Live Well Clinic!

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Have you ever wanted to know the truth about Hypnosis???? Well now you can, for World Hypnotist Day: Jan 4 th 2013 . On Friday, Jan. 4 at 3-4:30pm & Saturday, Jan. 5 at 12-1:30pm there is a lecture with a free demonstration of Hypnosis in the form of HypnoMeditation at Live Well Clinic in La Quinta. Yes this is your chance to hear the Truth about something that could change your life …. or save your life if you’re a smoker. You have heard that Hypnosis works for smoking cessation, weight reduction, fears and phobias, public speaking, anxiety/stress, painless child birth, bed wetting, sales or grade improvement, and many other behaviors. Hypnosis is a simple, natural state that we are in or pass through many times throughout the day. Hypnosis is not to be confused with truth serum.   You will not share information like your pin number, just because you are in hypnosis.   You will not be unconscious or asleep.   Hypnosis is only a state of focus or concen

Jump Start the New Year with a New You

By: Dr. Sonja Fung, ND The annual number one resolution of all time is to lose weight and get healthy. After indulging in festivities from November to January and enjoying all those sugary food and drinks, those pesky extra pounds have probably found your waist line. Participating in a 21 day detox program allows your body to rest and recover from the every day stress and toxins we put in our bodies, especially after the holidays!  Making sure your body is properly detoxifying is crucial. Detox helps with weight loss, increased energy, eliminating inflammation, normalizing digestive function, improving sleep, and reducing joint pain, headaches, and other chronic disease symptoms.  The body is amazing in what it does to keep us healthy and energized.  Our body has a complex detoxification system that constantly works to process and clear out the plethora of toxins that we intake every day. Think of a detox like an oil change. Your car won’t function optimally and efficien

A Brave New World: The Benefits of Integrative Medicine in the World of Chronic Disease Care

By Sonja Fung, ND There is a trend in health care of “conventional” medical practitioners and “alternative” care professionals working together. This practice provides the best of both health care worlds in a fully integrated model of medicine that not only addresses the acute disease process and symptom management, but also treats the causes of underlying chronic disease. Integrating a holistic perspective in to traditional medicine can provide a full spectrum of health and healing. The Take Over of Chronic Disease Our society is experiencing a sharp increase in the number of people who suffer from complex, chronic diseases, such as obesity, diabetes, heart disease, cancer, mental illness, and autoimmune disorders like arthritis and inflammatory bowel diseases. In 2005, the Center for Disease Control (CDC) reported that 1 in every 2 Americans have at least one chronic disease. Think about how that number has increased in the last 7 years. Chronic disease treatment costs

When the body turns on itself: The rising auto-immune incidence in America

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When the body turns on itself: The rising auto-immune incidence in America By Dr. Sonja Fung The National Institutes of Health reports 23 million Americans suffer from auto-immune diseases. It lands on the top ten list for causes of death in female children and women under 64 years of age. Our immune system is like our protective army, diligently patrolling the body, looking for any molecular marker that does not belong.  When it finds something foreign such as bacteria, infected cells, or undigested food particles, it initiates a war on the unwanted foreign invader.  While the army is patrolling throughout the body, immune cells also frequently contact molecules that are your normal terrain like your blood cells, skin cells, or cartilage cells.  Just as immunological identification of invaders is important, recognizing that normal body cells are not invaders is equally crucial. When a person develops autoimmunity (AI), the loss of self-recognition occurs.  There

Linking Gut Health and Arthritis

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  By Dr. Sonja Fung, ND We all know how debilitating arthritis is in our life. It can be things like the inability to put on a shirt up to the inability to walk. But did you know that your digestive health can be a critical factor in the treatment of arthritis? Maintaining digestive health is key to the health of your body. Your intestines make up 70% of your immune system called GALT- Gut associated lymphatic tissue. For example, infection activates your immune system à intestinal immune cells present pieces of foreign cells to tell the rest of your body which cells to destroy à all your immune cells find and destroy the foreign cells à your body gets better and keeps you from getting sick next time. This is the normal function of your immune system. The question is, what happens when gut immunity breaks down? Intestinal inflammation causes a disruption of the integrity of your intestinal lining, thus allowing foreign cells and proteins to slip

Q&A: Summer Health

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Why do some people say sunscreen actually leads to more cancer? Physiology answers this.   The pigment responsible for tanning, melanin, has other important roles: it absorbs the UV rays and neutralizes bad free-radicals when skin is invaded by bacteria, fungi, and viruses, and from exposure to light. When you use a sunscreen, the melanin producing cells are not stimulated, which actually interferes with the skin’s natural ability to protect against the harmful effects of ultraviolet light. Without melanin, the UVA’s are allowed to penetrate deeper into vessels, nerves, and tissues, which can lead to harmful mutations that can possibly lead to cancer. How does your body naturally protect itself from harmful affects of the sun? Your body uses endogenous antioxidants to protect your skin cells from the oxidative damage to your skin. Your body’s antioxidants mainly come from the vitamins and minerals from colorful fruits and vegetables containing Vitamin C, E, zinc, selenium,

Healing with Bones

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By: Dr. Sonja Fung As I was mulling over what health topic to write on, I thought, why not talk about one of my favorite subjects, good food. I love good food. When I get a food craving, I will drive a couple hours, even, to get my fix. So when the topic of bone broth popped into my head, I let it slowly simmer on the back burner of my brain. To me, nothing comes closer to home cooking than a beautifully prepared soup broth. I grew up with bone broths. From my earliest memories, my family would always start dinner with a bowl of some type of broth based soup, usually made from chicken, pork, or beef bones. I was reading an article in Lucky Peach food zine a few months ago about bone marrow and the virtues of bone broth. It reminded me of a paper in the Townsend Letters I had read years ago, in medical school, about the healing properties of bone broth. I finally got a knock in the head as I was sucking down some divine bone marrow at Sense Restaurant a couple weeks ago

Antioxidants: For a Younger and Stress-Free You

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What’s so special about antioxidants?             Without antioxidants, we would die very young. Antioxidants stop and block free-radical damage to our body’s DNA, repairing our tissues and organs and to resist aging. Free radicals are normal byproducts of our body’s metabolism of environmental toxins and chemicals, radiation, some pharmaceutical drugs, and even inflammation from exercise. Oxidative damage from free radicals is like what rust does to an iron rod, except in your body. In response, your body circulates a variety of nutrients for their antioxidant properties and manufactures antioxidant enzymes in order to control oxidative damage/stress. For example, vitamin C, vitamin E, carotenes, and lipoic acid are well-known and well-researched antioxidant nutrients. Your body can manufacture some of these antioxidants, but not others, and your body's natural antioxidant production tends to decline with age. What are the best sources of antioxidants?            

Food revolution: What’s on your fork?

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By: Sonja N. Fung, ND The American diet is filled with calorie-rich and nutrient-poor foods. No wonder there is an epidemic of childhood obesity, ADD/ADHD, diabetes, heart disease and cancer. People are overweight but starving! So what can we do about this crisis? The answer starts with your fork! The first step of living a healthy, vibrant life starts with optimizing your diet and nutrition. You and your loved ones can start by taking control of your body and your health. Instead of relying on fast food and TV dinners as your staples, you can save money and more importantly, your life, by buying fresh, organic (if possible) produce and proteins and cooking them yourself. Avoid the expensive packaged and processed foods filled with sugar, sodium, dyes, and a slew of other chemicals and preservatives, and be proactive in preventing future chronic disease! When talking about nutrition with my patients, I always tell them this: Food is medicine you put into your body 3

Heartburn Q&A

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1)     What causes heartburn? “Heartburn” or acid reflux, occurs when pressure from your stomach triggers the opening of the lower part of your esophagus (called the lower esophageal sphincter (LES)) and lets acidic stomach contents back up and cause burning of the esophagus. The pressure on the stomach can be caused by overeating, being overweight, having a hiatal hernia, or being pregnant. Many foods also trigger the opening of the LES, such as chocolate, caffeine, alcohol, spicy foods, gluten and wheat, fatty processed foods, and other inflammatory foods. 2)     Why are acid blockers used to treat heartburn? The majority of the time, heartburn is not caused by too much acid in the stomach. However, acid blocking medications are used to reduce the symptoms of acid reflux. If your stomach contents are not acidic, it will not burn the lining of your esophagus when you have reflux episodes. Therefore, the burning pain is resolved. This, however, causes other

Toast to a healthy new year: Your post holiday health cocktail

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By Dr. Sonja Fung, ND Yes, you read it right. A doctor is prescribing a cocktail. Your health cocktail mix: 1 part detox, 1 part vitamins, 1 part nutrition, and 1 part exercise and stress reduction. Just follow the instructions below.   Healthy Steps for the New Year:        1)       Cleaning up your gut- Time for a detox! Participating in a post holiday 14 day detox program allows your body to rest and recover from the every day stress and toxins we put in our bodies, especially after the holidays!  Detox helps with weight loss, increased energy, eliminating inflammation, normalizing digestive function, improving sleep, and reducing pain, headaches, and other chronic disease symptoms.   2)       IV cocktail of vitamin and mineral replenishment for a post holiday jump start. The “Myers Cocktail” is a well known IV nutrient formula which includes concentrated doses of magnesium, B-vitamins, and vitamin C.   This vitamin cocktail is the perfect “cellular drink”