Stress is one of the three primary influences of health we seek to address for every program we provide because it plays a role in everyone’s quality of life. Short-term demands of stress can influence how we feel which can influence how we carry ourselves (posture) and can further interfere with how we sleep and eat. Long-term stress can lead to exhaustion and even more substantial experiences with depression and anxiety. At Everspring Health we seek to help you develop and cultivate your mental health program whether it be self directed, lead by us or facilitated by another provider. Many people who come to us don’t feel the need to go to a counselor, but are looking for a space to cultivate a more mindful experience in their daily life, increase energy while seeking long-term relief from the demands that stress imposes on their day. Others come with a clinical diagnosis and treatment plan already in place and we create an integrative program working alongside your current program to support the progress you might already be experiencing.
Creating a balanced, integrative, whole person program begins by examining your past history and along with a series of constitutional diagnostics: some people may have experiences labeled as anxiety that are actually normal despite them not being ideal, some are experiencing discomfort that should not be considered acceptable and others have a little bit of both which often leads to compounding stressors. Integrative diagnostics will help us understand what’s normal for you and what can be improved upon thus leading to a more complete program customized to your needs. We can employ acupuncture and massage, as well as using herbal therapies to help ease stress and get you functioning at peak capacity. We also make sure to examine how your diet and sleep might be affecting your mood because these two components are crucial to a stable, productive mood. With proper diagnosis, patience, and persistence we can help you find long-term solutions to what you’re experiencing and enable you to be in control.
While treatment plans for allergies vary greatly, with results ranging from temporary relief to complete remission, the appropriate therapeutic program can often relieve allergy symptoms within a short period of time. The first objective is to reduce the acute allergy symptoms so that an effective strategy can be developed to address the underlying condition. As we are able to develop a holistic program we can effectively work to prevent the disease process from reoccurring in the future.
Allergies usually occur when our immune system is unable to digest or effectively process (i.e. metabolize, expel or protect against) something within our environment. Allergens can vary from pollen, pet dander, mold, various foods, drugs and more. The body tends to react via an inflammatory process as a means of trying to remove the allergen or protect the body from it doing further harm.
Symptoms may include a stuffy nose, copious mucus, lung/sinus congestion, fatigue, headache, indigestion, irritable bowels, redness, swelling, etc. To develop a holistic program to reduce or eliminate the condition it is important that we consider the whole pattern of symptoms that the client is experiencing. This includes considering dietary habits, energy levels, sleep patterns as well as other lifestyle practices.
At Everspring Health, we start by learning about you and your relationship with allergies – not only the specific allergen that your body reacts to and the symptoms you might be experiencing, but the severity of the reactions, when they began, if they change depending on the season or the time of day, and any other relevant information.
An in-depth knowledge of your personal experience helps us develop a treatment plan that will address your individual needs. In general, in order to relieve allergic reactions, we need to reduce your body’s exposure to the allergen, which could mean avoiding the allergen entirely, or washing the area the allergen is exposed to.
Effective therapy strategies will first focus on the acute symptoms in an effort to reduce them enough to address the underlying condition, then follow-up care for the chronic, remission stage begins. Oftentimes the acute stage is so influential that the chronic symptoms must be addressed in the opposite season (i.e. fall vs spring, winter vs summer) to make an effective investment in the underlying cause.
We might employ acupuncture and herbal therapies to help reduce inflammation around the allergic site and regulate the immune system. Dietary changes are likely to be very beneficial in the effort to control the symptoms through the elimination of food and drinks that may cause mucus to form. When our diet is optimized for our constitution and for our presenting condition, clients will experience less mucous, less inflammation, increased energy, better breathing and a greater sense of well-being. As always, we will examine the effect that stress, diet, and sleep have on your health, and make changes if need be in order to help your body combat the allergic reaction.