LBA can detect the potential for disease very early on, so is the ultimate preventative tool available. Traditional lab testing is good and has it place, but does not always show early signs of a possible disease.

When you see your LBA for the first time, you realize that there is incredible dynamic activity taking place within you, and you can begin to better understand the specifics that need to be addressed without guessing, without purchasing unneeded supplements or investing in unneeded therapies. It has been shown that client compliance is greatly improved with understanding – once you know what you are doing and why. Seeing is knowing.

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Homeopathy is the second most widely used medical treatment in the world. Homeopathic remedies help to strengthen our immune system and its use is safe for all individuals. Homeopathy cannot create harm to an individual because the remedy or prescription given is extremely diluted. Today, people are concerned with the over use of prescription drugs as well as their side effects.

Homeopathy is by no means a quick fix nor does it replace conventional treatment. It is an ongoing healing process to discover the patient’s unique status of health.

The Appointment

Each person will be assessed according to his or her specific needs. During your appointment your health becomes my top priority. My goal is to work together with your conventional physicians and/or other health care practitioners to restore optimal health.

The first visit is typically one to two hours. During the visit, I will review your medical history and discuss all of your symptoms including the physical, mental and emotional symptoms.

The follow up visits are usually one hour in length. Initially, they are scheduled anywhere from 2 to 4 weeks apart, varying depending on your condition. At least 3 visits may be required in order to evaluate the healing results. It is important to attend follow up visits, as this will provide the most optimal results. Consistency is extremely important.

According to the 2012 National Health Interview Survey (NHIS), which included a comprehensive survey on the use of complementary health approaches by Americans, an estimated 5 million adults and 1 million children used homeopathy in the previous year. The 2012 survey also reported that although about 1.8 percent of children used homeopathy, only 0.2 percent of children went to a homeopathic practitioner. According to the 2007 NHIS, out-of-pocket costs for adults were $2.9 billion for homeopathic medicines and $170 million for visits to homeopathic practitioners.

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The history of hypnosis is full of contradictions. On the one hand, a history of hypnosis is a bit like a history of breathing. Like breathing, hypnosis is an inherent and universal trait, shared and experienced by all human beings since the dawn of time. On the other hand, it’s only in the last few decades that we’ve come to realise that! Hypnosis itself hasn’t changed for millennia, but our understanding of it and our ability to control it has changed quite profoundly. The history of hypnosis, then, is really the history of this change in perception.

In the 21st century, there are still those who see hypnosis as some form of occult power. Those who believe that hypnosis can be used to perform miracles or control minds are, of course, simply sharing the consensus view that prevailed for centuries. Recorded history is full of tantalizing glimpses of rituals and practices that look very much like hypnosis from a modern perspective, from the “healing passes” of the Hindu Vedas to magical texts from ancient Egypt. These practices tend to be for magical or religious purposes, such as divination or communicating with gods and spirits. It’s important to remember, however, that what we see as occultism was the scientific establishment of its day, with exactly the same purpose as modern science – curing human ills and increasing knowledge.

From a Western point of view, the decisive moment in the history of hypnosis occurred in the 18th Century (coinciding with the Enlightenment and the Age of Reason). The work of Franz Mesmer, amongst others, can be seen as both the last flourish of “occult” hypnosis and the first flourish of the “scientific” viewpoint. Mesmer was the first to propose a rational basis for the effects of hypnosis. Although we now know that his notion of “animal magnetism”, transferred from healer to patient through a mysterious etheric fluid, is hopelessly wrong, it was firmly based on scientific ideas current at the time, in particular Isaac Newton’s theories of gravitation.

Mesmer was also the first to develop a consistent method for hypnosis, which was passed on to and developed by his followers. It was still a very ritualistic practice. Mesmer himself, for instance, liked to perform mass inductions by having his patients linked together by a rope, along which his “animal magnetism” could pass. He was also fond of dressing up in a cloak and playing ethereal music on the glass harmonica whilst this was happening. The popular image of the hypnotist as a charismatic and mystical figure can be firmly dated to this time.

Inevitably, these magical trappings led to Mesmer’s downfall, and for a long time, hypnotism was a dangerous interest to have for anybody looking for a mainstream career. Nevertheless, the stubborn fact remained that hypnosis worked, and the 19th Century is characterized by individuals seeking to understand and apply its effects. Surgeons and physicians like John Elliotson and James Esdaille pioneered its use in the medical field, risking their reputation to do so, whilst researchers like James Braid began to peel away the obscuring layers of mesmerism, revealing the physical and biological truths at the heart of the phenomenon. Thanks to their persistence and efforts, by the end of the century hypnosis was accepted as a valid clinical technique, studied and applied in the great universities and hospitals of the day.

This trend continued into the 20th Century, although in some ways, hypnosis became imprisoned by its own respectability, as it became mired in endless academic debate about “state” or “non-state”. This conundrum – does hypnosis have a real, physical basis, or not? – ultimately proved to be rather sterile. Important shifts were happening elsewhere, however. First of all, the centre of hypnotic gravity moved from Europe to America, where all the most significant breakthroughs of the 20th century took place. Secondly, hypnosis became a popular phenomenon, something that was increasingly available to the layman, outside of the laboratory or clinic. At the same time, the style of hypnosis changed, from a direct instruction issued by an authoritarian figure (a legacy of the charismatic mesmerist) to a more indirect and permissive style of trance induction, based on subtly persuasive language patterns. This was largely due to the work of therapists such as Milton H. Erickson.

More importantly, perhaps, hypnosis became increasingly practical, and regarded as a useful tool for easing psychological distress and bringing about profound change in a variety of situations. This theme has continued up to the present day. Advances in neurological science and brain imaging, together with the work of British psychologists Joe Griffin and Ivan Tyrrell who linked hypnosis to the Rapid Eye Movement (REM), have also helped to resolve the “state/non-state” debate, bringing hypnosis and hypnotic trance firmly into the realm of everyday experience. At the same time, the nature of “ordinary” consciousness is better understood as a series of trance states that we go into and out of all the time.

The history of hypnosis, then, is like the search for something that was in plain view all along, and we can now see it for what it is – a universal phenomenon that’s an inextricable part of being human. The future of hypnosis will be to fully realize the incredible potential of our natural hypnotic abilities.

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According to the legend the origins of traditional Chinese medicine is traced back to three legendary emperors/mythical rulers: Fu Xi, Shen Nong, and Huang Di. Historians believe that Shen Nong and Fu Xi were early tribal leaders. Fu Xi was a cultural hero who developed the trigrams of Yi Jing (I Ching) or Book of Changes. Ancient texts record that “Fu Xi drew the eight trigrams, and created nine needles.” Shen Nong, the legendary emperor who lived 5000 years ago is hailed as the “Divine Cultivator”/”Divine Farmer” by the Chinese people because he is attributed as the founder of herbal medicine, and taught people how to farm. In order to determine the nature of different herbal medicines, Shen Nong sampled various kinds of plants, ingesting them himself for to test and analyse their individual effects. According to the ancient texts, Shen Nong tasted a hundred herbs including 70 toxic substances in a single day, in order to get rid of people’s pain form illness. As there were no written records, it is said that the discoveries of Shen Nong was passed down verbally from generation to generation.

The first written documentation on traditional Chinese medicine is the Hung-Di Nei-Jing (Yellow Emperor’s Cannon of Internal Medicine). Hung-Di Nei-Jing is the oldest medical textbook in the world; different opinions date the book back to between 800 BCE and 200 BCE. Yellow Emperor’s Cannon of Internal Medicine lays a primary foundation for the theories of Chinese medicine which extensively summarizes and systematizes the previous experience of treatment and theories of medicine, such as the meridian theory, as well as many other issues, including, physiology, pathology, prevention, diagnosis, treatment, acupuncture and moxibustion, tuina, etc.

Some of the most specific discoveries of Chinese medicine were made during the Zhou dynasty, including the theoretical foundations of yin and yang, the five elements, the pathogenic factors of external environment as a cause of disease and further understanding of the meridians of acupuncture. The basic theories of acupuncture were established and stone needles became obsolete, being replaced by metal needles. Bian Que, a famous doctor/physician at the time of the spring and Autumn Warring States Period, was the first man in the world to use the pulse for diagnosis.

One of the most well-known story is talks about how Bian Que succeeded in curing the crown prince of the Kingdom of Guo of his fatal illness. According to the legend, the prince of Guo was very ill and as he lay dying, the court physician could do nothing to help. One version of this story has it that Bian Que was summoned to treat the prince, however when he arrived at the palace he found the crown prince being prepared for the funeral. Despite the funeral arrangements, Bian Que requested examining the prince. His examination confirmed his suspicion that the prince had actually gone into a deep coma. He gave the prince acupuncture treatment to retrieve him and then applied compresses soaked in a decoction of herbs. Within hours of Bian Que’s arrival, the prince was able to get on his feet. The prince was then prescribed boiled herbal compounds to be taken for twenty days, which helped him to fully recover.

Soon the rumours spread that Bian Que was a miracle worker who could bring the dead back to life. Bian Que said “No, I can’t bring the dead back to life, the prince wasn’t dead. I only treated his illness, and that is what brought him around.”

Zhang Zhongjing (150-219 CE), the most famous of China’s ancient herbal doctors lived during the Eastern Han dynasty was known for his remarkable medical skill. He wrote a book a medical masterpiece entitled Shang Han Lun or “Treatise on Febrile Diseases”. To date Zhang Zhongjing’s theory and prescriptions are still of great practical value. It is still used as a standard reference work for traditional Chinese medicine, including moxibustion, needling and herbal medicine.

One of the most famous physicians/surgeon of traditional Chinese medicine was Hua To (110-207 CE) also lived during the Eastern Han period. Hua To was the first of the Taoist physicians, the most famous doctor in ancient China who developed/invented the use of anaesthesia called Mafei San, and furthered the limited Chinese knowledge of anatomy. He was the first person who used narcotic drugs in the world and his skill in this field was ahead of the west about 1600-1700 years. He also developed Five Animal Play, exercises that mimics the movements and postures of five animals: tiger, deer, bear, ape, and bird. According to Hu Tao the motion is fundamentally important to health, and by mimicking the movements of different animals; all parts of the body were exercised and stretched, thereby activating the flow of fluid and energy in the body.

During the Sui Dynasty, Chao Yuanfang, together with others compiled a book called the Zhubing Yuanhou Zonglun (The General Treatise on the Causes and Symptoms of Disease), which consisted of 50 volumes, divided into 67 categories, and list 1,700 syndromes. This book had a strong influence on the later development of medicine, expounding on the pathology, signs and symptoms of various diseases, surgery, gynaecology, and paediatrics.

In 752 CE, Wang Tao another well-known scholar of Chinese medicine wrote a book called Waitai Miyao (The Medical Secrets of An Official). This book consisted of 40 volumes, 1,104 categories and discusses over 6,000 herbal prescriptions.

The Tang dynasty is often referred to as the second golden age of China. It was during the Tang dynasty when China’s first school of medicine was established. Sun Simiao (581-682 CE), the most famous physician of the Tang Dynasty devoted his whole life to Chinese medicine starting from a very young age. It is said that by the age of 15 he not only had a thorough understanding of Taoism and the classics of many of its sects, but also had also deeply researched Buddhist classics. He had mastered all the Chinese classics by the age 20 and became a well-known medical practitioner and was crowned “King of Herbal Medicine”.

During the Yuan Dynasty, China was controlled by Genghis Khan’s vast Mongolian empire. During the period of Mongolian empire Chinese medicine became increasingly specialized and the understanding of acupuncture was further detailed. In 1368 BCE, the Chinese regained control of their land under the Ming dynasty. Li Shizhen, (1518-1593 CE) was one of the greatest physician and pharmacologist of the Ming dynasty. His major contribution to medicine was his forty-year work, which is found in his epic book Ben Cao Gang-mu (The Compendium of Materia Medica). The text contains 1,900,000 Chinese characters and details more than 1,800 drugs, including 1,100 illustrations and 11,000 prescriptions, as well as record of 1,094 herbs, detailing their type, form, flavour, nature and application in treatment. This book was one of the greatest contributions to the development of pharmacology both in China and throughout the world. Materia Medica has been translated into many different languages and remains as the premier reference work for herbal medicine.

The Revolution of 1911 saw the beginning of the  Republic of China. During this time China developed a desire to modernize and its people began to turn to Western medicine. The government of the time proposed the abolishment of traditional Chinese medicine and took measures to stop its development and use. In 1927 the Communist party of China was formed, under the leadership of Chairman Mao and in 1949 the Communist party came to power. As there was very little or no medical services at the time, the new communist government encouraged the use of traditional Chinese remedies because they were cheap, acceptable to the Chinese, and used the skills already available in the countryside. Finally the traditional Chinese medicine regained popularity by the early to mid 1950s and the use of acupuncture and herbal medicine became standard medicine in many hospitals. Many hospital opened clinics to provide, teach and investigate the traditional methods, the main research institutes being in Beijing, Shanghai and Nanjing.

Unfortunately, Chinese medicine, as a reflection of traditional Chinese culture, underwent a period of extreme hardship during the Cultural Revolution. From 1966 to 1976, traditional doctors were purged from the schools, hospitals and clinics, and many of the old practitioners were jailed or killed. In 1979, the National Association for Chinese Medicine was established, and many of the traditional texts were edited and republished.

In 1980, the World Health Organization released a list of 43 types of pathologies, which can be effectively treated with acupuncture. Today the traditional Chinese medicine with its many branches has spread far and wide, gaining popularity in all parts of the world.

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The first known book of Chinese Medicine, the Classic of Internal Medicine of the Yellow Emperor, dates back to between the first century BC and the first century AD. All styles of acupuncture currently practiced around the world trace their roots back to this text.

Without the help of modern scientific equipment, ancient Chinese scholars discovered many now familiar aspects of bio medical science, such as the effect of emotional stress on the immune system. Traditional acupuncturists are no less scientific or sophisticated than western clinicians in their understanding of how the body functions, although to this day they use terminology that reflects Chinese medicine’s cultural and historic origins.

In China during the early part of the twentieth century traditional medicine fell out of fashion as symptomatic healthcare treatments were imported from the West along with other cultural influences. Calls by western trained doctors to ban traditional Chinese medicine were rejected by the National Medical Assembly in Shanghai on 17 March 1929. This day is still celebrated every year as Chinese Doctors’ Day.

Traditional Chinese medicine remained in the shadow of western medicine until the Long March of 1934-6. Without drugs, anesthetics or surgery vast numbers of sick and wounded soldiers faced death until doctors of traditional Chinese medicine achieved amazing results using acupuncture and other traditional methods of treatment.

From this point on, traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) and western medicine were practiced side by side in China. Under the People’s Republic of China, established in 1949, all branches of TCM were nurtured and encouraged to grow. By 1978, whole hospitals and research departments were devoted to the practice of TCM.

Today traditional acupuncture is practiced all around the world and clinical trials are now confirming its efficacy. More and more people are able to benefit as traditional acupuncture becomes a recognised option within standard healthcare.

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As shoes became more accessible to the general population, people demanded better comfort. At this time shoes were both made identically. There was no such thing as a left or right shoe (a concept that would not catch on until the 1800’s.) Early innkeepers recognized that most weary travelers complained of foot pain. The first insoles were made by innkeepers from matted animal hair retrieved from the local barn (later called felt).

Over time, shoe makers, or cobblers, modified the innkeepers’ foot pads and began to add leather materials to the insides of shoes to create a better, more comfortable fit–the first arch supports were born. Early arch supports were made by laminating layers of leather strips together, molding them to shoe lasts, and then shaping the arch support by hand for wearing inside shoes. These new arch supports helped create a new level of comfort for people wearing shoes. The only problem was that arch supports were often bulky and heavy.

By the early 1900’s electricity and bench grinders made cutting down leather laminated devices much faster and therefore more affordable for the general population. Additionally, lighter and softer materials were combined with leather blanks to create an additional level of comfort.

The next major enhancement came in the 1960’s when a new generation of thermoplastics was introduced to the marketplace. When hot, thermoplastics mold to a form, such as a replica of your foot. Once cooled, the material retains the molded shape of the form. Thermoplastics, such as polypropylene, are extremely lightweight. More importantly, thermoplastics provide a strong, durable, and thin orthotic that can support the foot and body while fitting into modern shoe styles. As a further plus, polypropylene is recyclable.
The introduction of thermoplastic materials led to new theories about how to make arch supports. Instead of using a shoe last to make the device, medical professionals began using a mold or cast of a person’s foot, thereby creating a true orthotic. The medical definition of an orthotic is a brace that supports a specific body structure. More importantly, scientific principles were (and continue to be) applied to the foot’s structure and to foot orthotics to develop foot supports that can actually control the function of feet, legs, hips, back, and neck.

Since the 1960’s, the art of custom orthotic making has been continually enhanced so that today we can fabricate an orthotic that can help correct foot deformities (such as bunions, flat feet, etc.) that cause typical aches and pains in the feet, legs, hips, back, and neck–the types of aches and pains people in all cultures and all parts of the world experience.

Medically prescribed custom orthotics can be compared to eye glasses: neither changes your body, but instead assist you in performing at a higher level. If you don’t wear them, they are not helping you. If you need glasses and wear them, seeing and reading become much easier. The same applies to custom orthotics. If you need them, they can greatly enhance your general comfort and wellbeing. If you depend on your feet to work or play, you will find it hard to function without foot orthotics once you have experienced the benefits.

There are a full range of orthotics available, from inexpensive insoles to custom foot orthotics made to perform under very specific conditions, such as snow skiing, golf or other sports. The future promises a continuing stream of enhancements.

To read more visit: – SaveYourself.ca

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Ayurveda, the traditional Indian system of medicine, places great emphasis on the therapeutic benefits of massage with aromatic oils and spices. It is practiced very widely in India.

Doctors such as Ambroise Pare, a 16th-century physician to the French court, praised massage as a treatment for various ailments. Swedish massage, the method most familiar to Westerners, was developed in the 19th century by a Swedish doctor, poet, and educator named Per Henrik Ling. His system was based on a study of gymnastics and physiology, and on techniques borrowed from China, Egypt, Greece, and Rome. Physiotherapy, originally based on Ling’s methods, was established with the foundation in 1894 of the Society of Trained Masseurs. During World War I patients suffering from nerve injury or shell shock were treated with massage. St. Thomas’s Hospital, London, had a department of massage until 1934. However, later breakthroughs in medical technology and pharmacology eclipsed massage as physiotherapists began increasingly to favour electrical instruments over manual methods of stimulating the tissues.

Massage lost some of its value and prestige with the unsavoury image created by “massage parlours.” This image is fading as awareness of the value and a therapeutic property of massage grows.
Massage is now used in intensive care units, for children, elderly people, babies in incubators, and patients with cancer, AIDS, heart attacks, or strokes. Most American hospices have some kind of bodywork therapy available, and it is frequently offered in health centers, drug treatment clinics, and pain clinics.

A variety of massage techniques have also been incorporated into several other complementary therapies, such as aromatherapy, reflexology, Rolfing, Hellerwork, and osteopathy

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In 1894, four nurses in Great Britain formed the Chartered Society of Physiotherapy. The School of Physiotherapy at the University of Otago in New Zealand in 1913, and the United States’ 1914 Reed College in Portland, Oregon, which graduated “reconstruction aides.” Since the profession’s inception, spinal manipulative therapy has been a component of the physical therapist practice.

Modern physical therapy was established towards the end of the 19th century due to events that had an effect on a global scale, which called for rapid advances in physical therapy. Soon following American orthopaedic surgeons began treating children with disabilities and began employing women trained in physical education, massage, and remedial exercise. These treatments were applied and promoted further during the Polio outbreak of 1916. During the First World War women were recruited to work with and restore physical function to injured soldiers, and the field of physical therapy was institutionalized.

In 1918 the term “Reconstruction Aide” was used to refer to individuals practicing physical therapy. The first school of physical therapy was established at Walter Reed Army Hospital in Washington, D.C., following the outbreak of World War I. Research catalyzed the physical therapy movement. The first physical therapy research was published in the United States in March 1921 in “The PT Review.” In the same year, Mary McMillan organized the Physical Therapy Association (now called the American Physical Therapy Association (APTA). In 1924, the Georgia Warm Springs Foundation promoted the field by touting physical therapy as a treatment for polio.

Treatment through the 1940s primarily consisted of exercise, massage, and traction. Manipulative procedures to the spine and extremity joints began to be practiced, especially in the British Commonwealth countries, in the early 1950s. Around this time when polio vaccines were developed, physical therapists have become a normal occurrence in hospitals throughout North America and Europe.

In the late 1950s, physical therapists started to move beyond hospital-based practice to outpatient orthopaedic clinics, public schools, colleges, universities, health-centres, geriatric settings (skilled nursing facilities), rehabilitation centers and medical centers. Specialization for physical therapy in the U.S. occurred in 1974, with the Orthopaedic Section of the APTA being formed for those physical therapists specializing in orthopaedics. In the same year, the International Federation of Orthopaedic Manipulative Physical Therapists was formed, which has ever since played an important role in advancing manual therapy worldwide.

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The term naturopathy was coined in 1895 by John Scheele, and purchased by Benedict Lust, the “father of U.S. naturopathy”. Lust had been schooled in hydrotherapy and other natural health practices in Germany by Father Sebastian Kneipp; Kneipp sent Lust to the United States to spread his drugless methods. Lust defined naturopathy as a broad discipline rather than a particular method, and included such techniques as hydrotherapy, herbal medicine, and homeopathy, as well as eliminating overeating, tea, coffee, and alcohol. He described the body in spiritual and vitalistic terms with “absolute reliance upon the cosmic forces of man’s nature”.

In 1901, Lust founded the American School of Naturopathy in New York. In 1902 the original North American Kneipp Societies were discontinued and renamed “Naturopathic Societies”. In September 1919 the Naturopathic Society of America was dissolved and Benedict Lust founded the American Naturopathic Association to supplant it. Naturopaths became licensed under naturopathic or drugless practitioner laws in 25 states in the first three decades of the twentieth century. Naturopathy was adopted by many chiropractors, and several schools offered both Doctor of Naturopathy (ND) and Doctor of Chiropractic (DC) degrees. Estimates of the number of naturopathic schools active in the United States during this period vary from about one to two dozen.

After a period of rapid growth, naturopathy went into decline for several decades after the 1930s. In 1910 the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching published the Flexner Report, which criticized many aspects of medical education, especially quality and lack of scientific rigour. The advent of penicillin and other “miracle drugs” and the consequent popularity of modern medicine also contributed to naturopathy’s decline. In the 1940s and 1950s, a broadening in scope of practice laws led many chiropractic schools to drop their ND degrees, though many chiropractors continued to practice naturopathy. From 1940 to 1963, the American Medical Association campaigned against heterodox medical systems. By 1958 practice of naturopathy was licensed in only five states. In 1968 the United States Department of Health, Education, and Welfare issued a report on naturopathy concluding that naturopathy was not grounded in medical science and that naturopathic education was inadequate to prepare graduates to make appropriate diagnosis and provide treatment; the report recommends against expanding Medicare coverage to include naturopathic treatments. In 1977 an Australian committee of inquiry reached similar conclusions; it did not recommend licensure for naturopaths. As of 2009, fifteen U.S. states, Puerto Rico, the US Virgin Islands and the District of Columbia licensed naturopathic doctors, and the state of Washington requires insurance companies to offer reimbursement for services provided by naturopathic physicians. South Carolina and Tennessee prohibit the practice of naturopathy.

Beginning in the 1970s, interest waxed in the United States and Canada in conjunction with the holistic health movement. Today, naturopathy is practiced primarily in the United States and Canada.

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