Stressed Out?

scentsWhen you are feeling stressed, try some aromatherapy. Studies show that the body reacts to scents. Orange can be invigorating, while lavender or vanilla can calm frazzled nerves.

Benefits of Fasting

healthy foodIn over-fed America, fasting may seem a far-fetched idea. Why would anyone in their right mind want to starve themselves? The reasons are many and may surprise you. It is also a practice that has been practiced for thousands of years, and was often prescribed by the ancient physician, Hippocrates. A revolutionary physician known as Paracelsus, during the Middle Ages stated, “Fasting is the greatest remedy – the physician within.”

What is Fasting?

First of all, fasting has nothing to do with starving yourself. In its most basic form, fasting is abstaining from food and liquids other than water. There are different kinds of fasting, but the one thing they have in common is the exclusion of selected foods or liquids for a specific period of time.

In today’s modern world, the definition of fasting has been expanded to include different varieties of modified fasting. Modified fasting permits the addition of certain foods such as fruit juice or broth, or other healthy food. Technically, these are actually “diets.” They are sometimes called “detox diets,” “cleansing diets,” or even “fasting diets.” There are many shades of grey when it comes to fasting, cleansing and a regular diet.

In his book Fasting Can Save Your Life by Herbert Shelton, he states that fasting is 1695650382_989846bf18_zabstaining from food when a person has enough nutritional reserves to provide nourishment to vital organs. Starvation begins when a person’s reserves are exhausted and vital organs begin to suffer damage.

The Benefits of Fasting

Over the centuries, fasting has been encouraged as a way of healing many health problems, as well as providing mental benefits. The benefits of fasting are:

  • Allows for detoxification and cleansing of the body
  • Cleanses and heals “stuck” patterns of emotions
  • Rests the digestive system
  • Promotes mental clarity
  • Provides an increasing energy level and a feeling of physical lightness
  • Enhances spiritual connections and promotes inner peace

Many call fasting a “miracle cure” because it can be used to treat most any ailment, among them, arthritis, digestive disorders, allergies, cardiovascular disease, asthma and skin disorders.

The body becomes overworked with the constant influx of food, which takes energy to process. When we fast, that energy is turned to other processes in the body, such as healing. While fasting, the body does housecleaning and rids itself of toxins, repairs cells, and produces new healthy cells.

Doctor Gabriel Cousens, a doctor of psychiatry, family therapist and doctor of holistic medicine probably sums it up best. He speaks about observations he made during a study on fasting. He observed that after four days, the participants’ concentration and creative thinking appeared to improve, insomnia stopped, depression and anxiety lifted, and the mind became more calm and the spirit more joyful. He believed that the act of fasting allows the body to rid the brain of harmful toxins that inevitably leads to clearer thought processes.

The clearing of toxins from the body and the energy made available during fasting
allows the body to renew and heal itself.

Even a short, one day fast can be beneficial, but two or three days is more effective. You might try an apple fast over the weekend. Eat 3-4 apples each day and drink 2 quarts of water. During your fast, you may experience flu-like symptoms, as when you have the flu, your body is working to heal itself.

The body truly has the ability to heal itself when provided the opportunity. Your body can be its own internal medicine doctor through holistic medicine and integrative medicine practices. Achieving health and wellness takes work, but the benefits are priceless.

If you would like to learn more about holistic and integrative medicine, contact Dr. Jorge Bordenave at Miami Integrative Medicine and learn what a difference alternative treatments can make to your health and life.

Published by Axiom Health Care Marketing

 

Going Vegetarian

veggieThere is a lot of information floating around lately about the health benefits of eating a vegetarian diet. Living in any large area such as downtown Miami, fresh fruit and vegetables are easily available. Talk to Dr. Bordenave and see if going vegetarian is right for you.

Keeping Options Open

integrativeThose who practice alternative therapy choose to use only holistic medicine when caring for illness, and excluding any kind of modern medicine. Here at Miami Integrative Medicine, we choose to keep options open to both traditional and modern medicine for patients from Bal Harbour and other cities.

See Our New Video

You TubeJump on over to You Tube and check out our new video for Miami Integrative Medicine. Whether you live in Little Havana or Hialeah, Dr. Bordenave and his staff will teach you how to live a healthier, happier life.

Heart Bypass Surgery Treats Blocked Arteries

Coronary_heart_diseaseHeart disease is a major killer of people in the US, and according to the Center for Disease Control and Prevention, it is what kills one in four people in the US every year. It also costs the US more than 100 billion dollars in health care, medicine and lost time from work.

Heart disease can occur due to many reasons. Some of these are due to blood vessel problems such as atherosclerosis, when a substance called plaque forms in the blood vessels it can clog them up. Since these vessels are what carry nutrients and oxygen throughout the body, when they are clogged, your body will be starved of those vital components. This problem is often due to a poor diet, being obese, smoking or not exercising. All of these can lead to someone having heart disease and possibly needing heart surgery to repair their heart.

Coronary Artery Problems

In cases where a person’s heart disease is caused by blocked coronary arteries, they have coronary artery disease. A cardiologist may need to create a new pathway for the victim’s heart through heart bypass surgery. This means that a special type of surgeon who studied in cardiology will redirect the blood flow of the heart areas that are restricted and may have to put a graft into the heart to restore good blood flow.

If the proper blood flow isn’t restored to the heart, the person could end up having congestive heart failure, which means they could have a heart attack and possibly die. So, DSC06088the heart bypass operation, which is actually very common in the US, is done to prevent this possibility. The graft for the heart sometimes is taken from a blood vessel in the victim’s legs or arms or even their chest. It all depends on how bad the heart is clogged and how much of the existing blood vessels are blocked or ruined.

What is Done Prior to Heart Bypass Surgery?

Before someone undergoes heart bypass surgery it is likely the doctor will check out the heart using tests like an echocardiogram to check the heart, plus any needed blood tests or other tests. They must also make sure that the body is strong enough to withstand the rigors of heart surgery.

You may also be asked to change your diet so that your health will improve either before or after the surgery. This alternative therapy will help to get your arteries unclogged through eating a nutritious and healthy diet and limiting things like too much fat, which can cause a rise in ‘bad’ cholesterol. This contributes to the build up of plague in your arteries and causes heart disease and cardiomyopathy, which is another word for heart attack. If you find out you have an enlarged heart, this shows that your heart has been working too hard and the tissues have stretched out in an attempt to be able to pump all of the required blood throughout your body.

Heart disease is not something you want to have and in some cases it can be very hard to treat. However, if you end up having to get heart bypass surgery, this operation can help to save your life.

Contact Dr. Jorge Bordenave at Miami Integrative Medicine and set up a health care consultation. He can discuss with you ways to improve your heart health and general wellbeing using natural methods whenever possible.

 

Mammograms: Are They Really Necessary?

5224604214_6381448fa2Mammograms are a special kind of x-ray procedure used to scan the breasts and take a picture so that it can be read by a radiologist to check for breast cancer or other types of breast problems. Some women get them every year as part of their women’s wellness checkups. However, some people question if getting these tests are really needed annually and if the radiation danger warrants not getting them that often.

Who Should Get Mammograms?

Health providers encourage women to get mammograms for several reasons, most especially if a woman has found a lump while doing monthly self-breast exams. Also, it is a good idea to get mammograms if there is a history of breast cancer in the woman’s family, as this can make her more prone to getting breast cancer during her life. If any woman in their family was diagnosed with breast cancer, then the women in that family should get screened for breast cancer annually, unless otherwise recommended by their doctors.

A woman or her doctor won’t be able to feel a lump until it is at least a few centimeters in size, and once that occurs, the breast cancer has already gotten to stage two out of the four stages of cancer. A mammogram, however, can find a lump long before this and so the woman would have better odds of surviving breast cancer as a result of the medical information gotten from the scan.

Women who are post-menopausal should also get mammograms at least every two years, as this procedure works well in detecting breast cancer in this type of women. They should also continue to do breast exams every month as part of her health and wellness activities. Another group of women that mammograms work well for are women who are over 40 years old.

A study done in Sweden showed that 29 percent of the women who got annual mammograms in their 40s, and 10 percent over 50, were able to have breast cancer detected early and at a stage where it could be successfully treated.Doctor_viewing_mammogram

Should Younger Women Get Mammograms?

While studies have shown that mammograms may be valuable for women over 40, it is not certain how valuable they are for women under 40. There are mixed reviews in answering this question. On one hand, women under 40 have breasts that are denser than older women, therefore a mammogram might not work as well on them as it will on an older woman.

The American Cancer Society says that women ages 20 to 40 should do monthly breast exams to check for lumps or other signs of breast cancer. The best day to do this is the day after their period ends each month. They recommend starting at 40, to get a mammogram, but if there is cause for getting one prior to this age, such as family history, it should be discussed with their doctors to see if the risk of radiation from the mammogram is worth the possible risk of breast cancer.

All women should follow a nutritious diet and exercise program and talk to their doctors about whether or not they should get an annual mammogram. Integrative medicine is a proponent of regular mammograms, especially for those with a family history of breast cancer.

To learn more about how to eat right and attain health and wellness for your body and mind, contact Dr. Jorge Bordenave today at Miami Integrative Medicine and set up an appointment for a health care consultation.