Acupuncturist Chapel Hill, NC

Every day we make choices that impact our health. Food and beverage containers, while not high on most people’s list of concerns, nonetheless impact our well-being in several important ways. Silicone food ware containers are BPA-free, stable, not based on petroleum, and generally considered safe. Household goods made from this pliable, lightweight, nontoxic substance deserve a place in everyone’s cabinets for many reasons. At Acupractic Natural Healing Center, the chiropractic and acupuncture offices of Dr. Lisa Oskardmay in Chapel Hill, NC, we have invested in pint-sized cups for this very reason, and we hope you will take one home today!

Silicone products are made from silica, which is sand. Silica gets synthesized into silicone via a process using extreme heat and oxygen. Storage containers and other items made from this substance are free of BPA and other harmful constituents. BPA is a compound used to line most canned foods and many other containers we use to store food and beverages hot and cold. BPA exposure is linked to adverse health effects of the brain and prostate and children’s mental health. We should avoid BPA exposure where possible for good health. Items made from silicone provide us a viable alternative.

Cups, bowls, baking implements such as spatulas and whisks made from silicone function as well as their plastic-based counterparts but with less worry. Silicone-based products do not melt at moderately high heat, making them suitable for stirring, serving, and storing hot food. They make great coffee cups for reasons mentioned above and because cups made from silicone maintain their heat well.

Although cookware lined or entirely comprised of silicone is available for purchase, the author still uses glass and metal for high-temperature cooking and recommends you do the same until further research is available. Some people have experienced sensitivity to silicone-based products, probably from long term contact (think silicone breast implants) or high-temperature cooking. Far more research exists to the detrimental effects of plastic usage, however. If you are sensitive to silicone, avoid using products made from it, and use glass or non-BPA lined metal.

A benefit of silicone-based food-ware is that it is recyclable and highly reusable. Whereas non-biodegradable, disposable plastic things fill our oceans and trash dumps, there is hope that once discarded,  silicone-based items will break down over time. Since it is easier to re-use the uber flexible, easily stored products, silicone cups, and bowls may provide a means for people to re-use rather than dispose of food containers so quickly. Having an environmentally-friendly mindset is healthier for the individual and the planet.

Please consider using healthier and more ecologically friendly products for food preparation and storage. That coffee cup you use today could be used again tomorrow! If you would like to purchase the attractive, reusable silicone-based hot/cold ‘Silipint’ beverage cup shown above, let us know.

If you have questions, contact your acupuncturist in Chapel Hill, NC today.

Acupuncture Chapel Hill, NC

When you’re sick with colds and flu, you want relief. Your immune system needs help to fight off invaders, but it’s hard to think clearly when your head is congested. Coughing and sneezing lead to body exhaustion and pain and can affect the ability to get restorative sleep. Chiropractic care at our office can help all of these problems. It is a full-body approach that enables you to feel better and can also help you from getting sick.

Dr. Oskardmay uses gentle hands-on treatments to support the immune system and clear congestion. Spinal manipulation applied to the cervical region has been shown to improve T-cell response, important mediators fo the immune system. Adjustments of the upper back help to enhance respiration and reduce breathing pain. She can mobilize the lower back vertebrae to stabilize posture and balance muscles connected to the back. Dr. Oskardmay can mobilize using either hands-on techniques or Activator Adjusting methods depending on your situation and preferences. Both ways effectively function to help improve spinal health.

Treatment directed at spine levels that energize the lungs, back, shoulders supplements nerve transmission to those regions. Nerve impingement can result from twists in a vertebra, tight muscles, inflammation, or myriad other causes. Manual care reduces nerve blockage and enhances energy flow to these vital areas. Chiropractic care assists other areas as well, including the neck, sinuses, and digestion, to name a few. The whole body and mind benefit when the nervous system runs better.

Dr. Lisa will massage aching muscles with essential oils to relax and soothe muscles affected by coughing and sneezing. Every time you cough or sneeze, a tightening occurs of muscles and ligaments near the ribs, shoulders, neck, and low back. This muscle contraction pulls vertebrae and bones out of place, resulting in muscle spasm and discomfort. Balanced soothing massage helps to alleviate this aspect of cold and flu without drugs or other invasive procedures.

Treatment also relaxes the lungs and diaphragm. Pulmonary irritation worsens coughing. Treatment aimed at lung support mitigates the vicious cycle of cough-spasm-irritation that delays recovery for many. Dr. Oskardmay may recommend specific home treatments, exercises, and vitamins to heal you further. Baby Vicks rub is very soothing, for instance, and helps unclog sinus congestion for many.

Dr. Oskardmay recognizes that sleep deprivation delays healing. She emphasizes using the right balance of exercise and rest to promote healing. Ask her about suggestions you can use between visits to get better sleep while you’re sick with colds and flu. You may need more than generally suggested 8 hours a night. Chiropractic care at our office is excellent preventive medicine, too, helping you stay healthy during cold and flu season. People who get regular spinal care year-round report improved body awareness and pain levels over time.

Keep your scheduled appointments and be sure to visit our website anytime or call today to schedule or make changes to your appointments. Let family and friends know about the healing benefits of care at Acupractic Natural Healing Center, where we use chiropractic and acupuncture Chapel Hill, NC patients recommend for healing naturally.

Initially discovered in the Orient and used by millions there, Acupuncture and Chinese Medicine are increasing in our country. As people come to understand the benefits of alternative medicines such as acupuncture, they enjoy the drug-free benefits of this care. Dr. Oskardmay is a licensed acupuncturist who has worked with patients using acupuncture since 1995. Acupuncture helps people suffering from a wide variety of conditions ranging from back pain to shoulder pain to stress and fibromyalgia. Since acupuncture works to enhance the body’s natural innate healing force, it is the ideal treatment for many conditions.

Acupuncture treatment for body aches works because energy flows in channels on our collection, and acupuncture needles regulate this flow. Pain and other problems result from energy flow stagnation or blockage. Similar to how blood flows in arteries and veins and nerves carry nervous energy, acupuncture channels or meridians transport qi. Qi (pronounced chee) represents all forms of energy, and it needs to move so that we function at our best. Stagnation of this vital energy occurs when we sit too much or overeat, for example. Injury causes qi disruption, as does mental anguish, stress, and lack of sleep. Left untreated, stagnation of qi causes pain, and a lack of mental clarity.

As a licensed acupuncturist, Dr. Oskardmay carefully selects points to use to unblock qi stagnation. She may utilize acupuncture to balance qi and build yin or relaxation, which is very healing to overall body countenance. In this type of acupuncture, she will use about ten points, mostly in hand, foot, and head region, and needling depth is minimal with gentle needle stimulation.

Alternately, she may use trigger point acupuncture (aka Dry Needling Technique) to help reduce muscle spasm in specific areas. For this technique, she may use longer needles inserted to a greater depth and with more stimulation. If needed, she can apply electrostimulation to specific points to help the body release stuck energy.

Another type of acupuncture is auriculotherapy or ear acupuncture. Auriculotherapy recognizes that ear points affect the brain and the whole body. Specific treatment goals such as weight loss and addiction control use auriculotherapy at their core; ear acupuncture can be used in a variety of treatments, however.

Battlefield Acupuncture is a specific type of Ear Acupuncture for pain control in which Dr. Oskardmay will insert semi-permanent needles that stay in the outer ear for up to one week. This type of acupuncture treatment has proven very useful to reduce pain fro veterans on and off the field and is available now to patients everywhere.

Acupuncture at our office can help you with many health concerns. To learn more about Acupuncture Chapel Hill, NC patients recommend, call Acupractic today and to schedule an appointment, please visit our website.

Acupuncture Chapel Hill, NC

At Acupractic Natural Healing Center, Dr. Oskardmay is committed to helping people reduce pain naturally. She recognizes that pain can come in many forms and that discomfort has many sources; her goal is to help you in the best way for you. Dr. Lisa is trained to offer BA as a way to alleviate troubling body aches. This treatment can quickly and easily break the vicious pain-spasm-pain cycle that hinders so many despite their best efforts at pain control. While not exactly a holistic approach in that BA doesn’t evaluate the whole person, BA can still provide rest and relief from pain. Dr. Oskardmay can use this therapy in conjunction with regular acupuncture treatment or even the chiropractic adjustment at the end of treatment, or even as a stand-alone therapy if necessary. The procedure is not recommended for pregnant women or persons taking blood thinners.

BA utilizes auriculotherapy (ear) acupuncture to help break the pain cycle in which many patients find themselves entangled. Acupuncture points on the ear are demonstrated to have an intense connection with parts of the brain which mitigate the pain response. The link is particularly valid when these specific points are stimulated in specific ways using ASP needles. Comprised of gold, stainless steel or titanium, ASP (semi-permanent) needles are unique in that they are very short (2 mm) and somewhat thicker than regular acupuncture needles. They are designed to maintain their insertion for more extended periods. Some people experience a bit of discomfort on insertion, but the impact is generally minimal. Let Dr. Lisa know about any trouble you experience.

Treatment is long-lasting in part because the needles remain in place for several days at a time. Up to five ASP needles are inserted into ear points on the outside of the ear directly into the cartilage, starting at the lowest location and moving upward at specific ear points. After each insertion, Dr. Oskardmay will ask you to move about or walk around for 30 seconds to assess if more points are required. She will add more points bilaterally until pain reduction has occurred. Total treatment time depends on several factors but generally takes about 10″.

Following application, engage in average but not strenuous activity for 6-12 hours to allow the treatment to settle in. You can bathe or shower but avoid vigorous ear washing. The use of a hairdryer 6″ away from the ears will reinvigorate the points.  Inspect your ears every day to look for irritation. If your ears become red or irritation and you wish to remove the needles, turn them gentle while pulling to remove them. If they fall out or your remove them, store them in a lidded container or put them on tape and dispose of them properly. Needles can remain in place for 5-7 days.

BA can be an effective alternative to certain pain medications and can help break the pain-spasm-pain cycle many patients experiences, and that affects sleep and the ability to heal. It is a field-tested modality that has few side-effects, doesn’t take that long to receive and can be used in addition to other therapies when desired.

To learn more about battlefield acupuncture Chapel Hill, NC residents recommend, contact Acupractic Natural Healing Center today for a consultation.

Many people at our clinic ask the question posed in the title to this post. Patients who have not utilized alternative medicine such as acupuncture and chiropractic wonder how they support health and bring relief for cold-related illness. They rightly wonder how massage and hands-on healing methods might elicit body change. Nonetheless, alternative medicine treatments can bring relief.

A person can suffer cold issues in the middle of freezing winter or the damp warmth of summer. Regardless of the season, their suffering is the same- sniffling congestion, neck pain, shoulder tightness, body aches, even headaches. While modern medical care promises quick resolution to these symptoms, many people do not experience the relief promised with pills and liquid tonics. Patients then seek another path to healing, one that is more personal and effective to eliminate the problem rather than cover up its symptoms.

Acupuncture works in part because it is holistic. Chinese Medicine recognizes that each body is connected within itself by a series of meridians or channels. The metal channel, in particular, influences the respiratory system and the elimination system of the large intestine. Tendinomuscular body areas impacted by the metal channel include the neck, shoulders to hands. These connected areas suffer together, and Dr. Oskardmay works on all relevant regions to elicit a lasting healing response that gets below the surface and mere symptoms.

Cold can enter the body in the form of a cold wind on a stormy night or freezing rain day. Cold can penetrate in the form of air conditioning that beats down on a person entering a frigid building in the middle of summer. Also, when one consumes cold food or beverage, these frigid fares consume body warmth and make one more susceptible to cold’s penetrating influence. Chilly weather affects the delicate metal channel, and we see it played out as sinusitis, headaches, shoulder and neck pain. Left untreated, cold will penetrate the body. It will eventually lead to further problems such as calcifications and other collections of cold. Superficial treatment with elixirs may not help the penetrating aspect of coolness.

Dr. Oskardmay utilizes warmth and massage along connected channels in the body to expel cold and invigorate the interior. Skillful acupuncture technique to the body points helps your system engage its healing response to fight off invaders, eliminate toxins, and dispel cold. She will also palpate the spine to determine affected vertebrae and then properly adjust subluxations to support the nervous system and spine health further. Please be sure to let Dr. Lisa know where you have particular areas of sensitivity so that she can attend to them.

At Acupractic, we recognize that there’s more to health than just feeling ok. Let us know when you have neck and shoulder pain or other symptoms from colds and sinusitis. Using an array of alternative medicine techniques that have proven effectiveness, Dr. Oskardmay can help.

To learn more about how acupuncture Chapel Hill, NC residents recommend can help with colds, sinusitis, as well as shoulder and neck pain. Call us today.

We sit too much. When we sit for more than four hours a day, we gain weight, lose muscle mass, we hurt more, and our mood deepens. These metabolic and mental changes affect our productivity and increase our use of pain pills and mood-altering drugs. Many people are unaware of the adverse effects of sitting because they see it all around them and perceive sitting and sedentary lifestyle as normal. Additionally, when we spend most of our time in sedentary posture, the message we send our children is that sitting for most of the day is normal. Alternative medicines such as chiropractic and acupuncture which emphasize drugfree healthcare strive to install balance all areas; the deleterious posture of sitting is an essential area of concern.

Sedentary jobs have increased by more than 83% since 1950. The Mayo Clinic concludes that sitting time and activity levels found in those who sat more than eight hours a day with no physical activity had an increased risk of dying. This risk is similar to the dangers of dying posed by obesity and smoking. When a person sits at work and then drives home to sit in a leisure activity such as tv or computer gaming, this poses a health problem with regards to stationary behavior disorder. Dr. Oskardmay will help you recognize the problem and help you make changes to improve this unhealthy situation.

At Acupractic Natural Healing Center, Dr. Oskardmay will perform a complete exam to determine how much sitting affects your health. Too much sitting contributes to neck pain and upper back pain, inflammation and spinal degeneration with its resultant dowager’s hump appearance. Nerves arising from these spinal areas innervate the shoulders to hands. Additionally, they go to internal organs such as lungs and heart. Degeneration of spinal units affects these areas over time. Excessive sitting posture exacts its toll on the lumbar spine, as well, causing low back pain and leg muscle imbalance, lumbar nerve inhibition.

Through careful exam and treatment, Dr. Oskardmay helps you understand and overcome the effects of sitting. A licensed chiropractic physician, she will mobilize irritated spinal segments in the neck and back to impact posture and pain resulting from excessive sitting. She may suggest diet changes to improve digestion and recommend other dietary and supplement additions to reduce pain and inflammation while you heal. Additionally, she can assist you with exercises and lifestyle adaptations to reduce the amount you sit and to reduce the negative consequences of too much sitting.

Dr. Oskardmay is also a licensed acupuncturist. Acupuncture can help balance and sustain the healing response and reduce stress. Dry Needling technique helps to reduce muscle spasms in tight areas that can result from too much sitting. Gu sha, cupping, and other soft tissue massage techniques soothe the tissues and restore blood flow to areas injured and weakened by too much sitting.

If you suffer from back pain due to sitting for extended periods of time, consult with an acupuncturist Chapel Hill, NC residents recommend from Acupractic Natural Healing Center.

Adequate sleep is imperative for good health, and Dr. Oskardmay strives to help you improve this life aspect through inquiry and education. She uses alternative medicine concepts to understand how to address problems in a unique way that is nonetheless effective. She can apply chiropractic and acupuncture treatments to support general body health and to reduce stress and pain in a balanced fashion. The holistic care available at our office is the perfect choice to help remove obstacles that hinder sleep.

The Chinese medicine concept of balance is integral to good sleep. As we shift from morning wakefulness to afternoon fullness to evening relaxation, we pass through all stages of yang and yin. Yang refers to the sunny warmth of the day, full of activity and thoughtfulness- our nervous system’s sympathetic tone. Yang’s opposite, yin relates to the darker, calm spirit of the night, relaxed and sleepy- our nervous system’s parasympathetic tone. Ideally, we inhabit both stages equally, just as we pass through day and night. The crucial balance of our autonomic nervous system facilitates every aspect of our being from breathing to heart rate, to digestion to sexual performance. Dr. Oskardmay uses acupuncture, chiropractic adjustments, and massage techniques such as gua sha and cupping as part of a treatment plan to restore the balance lost.

Acupuncture treatment may emphasize specific channel dynamics. For example, the fire channel reflects sleep and consciousness, whereas the metal channel reflects energy and grief. The water meridian correlates with the spine, nervous system, and the emotion of fear. The wood channel controls the eyes and the capacity to control, and the earth channel affects humidity, the muscles and ligaments and the sweetness of joy. Imbalance of these briefly described energy transits will affect sleep. Acupuncture treatment helps.

Similarly, chiropractic care influences body-mind balance in many ways. Central portions of the autonomic nervous system lie next to the spine; restful sleep requires the balance of the two opposing aspects of the ANS. Dr. Oskardmay mobilizes spinal vertebrae to improve nerve function of the ANS and support sound sleep. When you have neck or back pain along with a sleep disorder, the chiropractic adjustment can help you.

It is easy to see how we have lost restfulness and the ability to sleep. We live in a world where lights illuminate the nighttime sky, and televisions and cell phones and computers beckon into the wee hours. Work is taken home as bosses require us to be on-call. We do not value sleep as we do wakefulness.

Additionally, many people experience stressful thoughts that plague their dreams, and others experience body aches and pains that make sleep positions uncomfortable. Dr. Lisa will help you find options that support the evening bedtime ritual of restful sleep. She offers soothing pain reduction treatment to help you establish sound repose.

For more information about how to improve sleep using alternative medicine and acupuncture treatment in Chapel Hill, NC, contact  Acupractic today.