There are many factors which contribute to successful health recovery. Among the most important are the specific therapies used. Treatments must be able to bring about the necessary changes in tissue and organ function. They must actually assist in health restoration, rather than just manage symptoms. They must be safe, reasonably easy for patients to comply with and affordable for most people. At Four Rivers Clinic, we use a wide range of therapies and apply them on an individual basis based on the needs of each patient.
Diet Therapy
Ever wonder if the way you are eating is helping or hurting your health, or what the best diet for you might be? The foods we eat and how we prepare them impact our health in profound ways. Because of this, determining an optimum diet is an important part of health recovery for most patients. The key to a diet that is not only healthy, but health restorative, is to create a personalized nutritional plan that provides the nutrients an individual needs in proper proportions for their physiology, gives targeted support to weakened organs and tissues, and avoids specific foods or compounds which are harmful.
Optimizing diet can improve energy, mental clarity, mood and sleep. It can also reduce pain and inflammation, and balance immune function to name just a few applications.
We recognize that for some people, changing one’s diet can be difficult or intimidating. Food is an important part of our traditions, habits, social relationships and contributes to our emotional wellbeing. When recommending dietary changes we work with patients to ensure that new eating patterns are both manageable and enjoyable.
Targeted Nutrient Therapy
While nutritional supplements will never replace a healthful diet, they can be powerful medicine when used in targeted ways. Nutrients such as vitamins, minerals, amino acids and essential fatty acids play specific and critical roles in almost every biochemical and physiological process in the body and, therefore, make excellent therapeutic agents. Single, or small groups of nutrients can be used, for instance, to support the healing and repair of specific organs, to address hormone deficiencies or to improve mood and cognitive function. Targeted nutritional therapy is not only extremely safe but we have found that it can often bring dramatic improvements to health and wellbeing in a relatively short period of time.
Herbal Medicine
Using plants for healing is perhaps the oldest form of medicine in existence and a rich body of knowledge exists about their use. In recent years scientific research has identified the mechanisms through which many of these herbs work which helps us to apply them in more targeted ways to assist in restoring health.
Herbs contain groups of medicinal substances that enhance or regulate organ function, decrease inflammation, support detoxification, protect against environmental toxins and a variety of other uses. Many of the pharmaceuticals on the market today are actually compounds isolated from the medicinal herbs of traditional cultures, but while the drugs often produce significant adverse effects, whole herbs, with their complex of ingredients, produce virtually no adverse effects.
Homeopathy
Homeopathy was developed over 200 years ago by a German physician who was disillusioned by the toxicity and ineffectiveness of the medicine of his day. Its popularity has continued to grow since that time and it now has adherents in virtually every country on earth. Homeopathy uses preparations made from highly diluted natural substances that trigger a healing response in the body. We find this form of medicine to be gentle, deeply acting and useful in all phases of treatment.
European Biological Medicine
Natural medicine has evolved in Europe along paths that are, in many instances, different from the United States and many effective European natural therapies are not well known in the U.S. We have made a point of staying abreast of European innovations in natural medicine and incorporating them in to our practice.
We have found a number of these approaches to be impressive for their combination of gentleness and depth of action. These therapies combine the removal of toxins that impair optimal functioning of organs and tissues with gentle stimulation of those same organs and tissues.
Injection Therapy
Perineural Injection Treatment
Chronic pain signals often persist in nerves associated with an injury long after the initial injury itself has healed. This is called neuropathic pain and it is a surprisingly common cause of chronic pain. Perineural Injection Treatment utilizes a buffered glucose solution injected just beneath the skin at key points along the nerve’s pathway to reset the nerve and restore normal function. Most patients with neuropathic pain experience some relief almost immediately after the first treatment. This means that very little time or investment is necessary to determine if this technique will be helpful for a given individual.
Physical Medicine
Stresses in the structure of the body, such as chronic muscle tension due to a previous injury, can lead to pain, chronic inflammation, a build up of toxins and more distant effects such as impaired nerve and organ function. Relieving these stresses can not only reduce pain, tension and inflammation, but can also improve circulation, detoxification and support proper nerve and organ function as well. We practice a gentle, non-force form of naturopathic manual therapy that assists in relieving physical stresses and thus restoring proper function to associated tissues.
Addressing Lifestyle Factors
We often ask patients questions such as “How rested do you feel in the morning?” or “What percentage of the time would you say that you feel content or at ease?” A complete approach to healthcare must examine external influences to health such as sleep and stress, level of physical activity or exposure to toxins and allergens in the home or workplace. We help patients identify elements of their lives that are supportive, and those that may not be, and assist them in finding ways to live a more satisfying and health promoting lifestyle.