Conditions Addressed (Click to view description)

• Stress
  Stress
  

  Stress is a condition that develops when the demands on an individual begin to outweigh the capabilities and resources available to that individual. In other words; what is expected of you is putting too much pressure on you because you don't feel you have the "tools" to perform the task. A few examples of these "tools" are emotions, energy, physical strength, and mental ability. Stress can be related to things both inside and outside the body. Some examples of things outside the body that cause stress can be related to a job, home life, and interactions with others. Things inside the body that affect a person's stress level can include the availability of proper nutrients, the proper functioning of the parts of the body, the emotional state of being, and the abundance or lack of sleep per night.
  
  The most common view of stress is a negative one; however, there are positive biological reasons for a "stress state" that help us handle stressful situations. A problem arises when there are too many of these situations occurring and the mind becomes emotionally over whelmed, the body becomes biologically overly stimulated and the person is in a general state of over reacting.
  
  If a person remains in this over reactive state medical conditions can develop. Every person is different from another and displays stress differently; however, there are some common symptoms of negative stress such as sleep disturbances, muscle tension, headache, gastrointestinal disturbances, and fatigue. Emotional and behavioral symptoms that can accompany excess stress include nervousness, anxiety, changes in eating habits including overeating, loss of enthusiasm or energy, and mood changes.
  
  If a person in an over reactive, negative stress state does not get help when these symptoms appear, more severe problems and disease states can occur. These can be psychological disorders (depression, anxiety, post-traumatic stress disorder), maladaptive behaviors (aggression, substance abuse), cognitive impairment, and physical disorders (cardiovascular, thyroid disease).
  
  Anyone in any age group can experience negative stress. Some common groups of people that experience increased negative stress due to life transitions are children, teens, working parents, and seniors. If you feel that you or someone you know is in an over reactive, negative stress state, please seek care. There are many different healthcare workers that are available to help you.
• Chronic Fatigue Syndrome (CFS)
  Chronic Fatigue Syndrome (CFS)
  

  Chronic fatigue syndrome, or CFS, is a debilitating and complex disorder characterized by profound fatigue that is not improved by bed rest and that may be worsened by physical or mental activity. Persons with CFS most often function at a substantially lower level of activity than they were capable of before the onset of illness. In addition to these key defining characteristics, patients report various nonspecific symptoms, including weakness, muscle pain, impaired memory and/or mental concentration, insomnia, and post-exertional fatigue lasting more than 24 hours. In some cases, CFS can persist for years.
  
  In addition to the primary defining symptoms of CFS, a number of other symptoms have been reported by some CFS patients. The frequencies of occurrence of these symptoms vary from 20% to 50% among CFS patients. They include abdominal pain, alcohol intolerance, bloating, chest pain, chronic cough, diarrhea, dizziness, dry eyes or mouth, earaches, irregular heartbeat, jaw pain, morning stiffness, nausea, night sweats, psychological problems (depression, irritability, anxiety, panic attacks), shortness of breath, skin sensations, tingling sensations, and weight loss.
  
  The cause or causes of CFS have not been identified and no specific diagnostic tests are available. Moreover, since many illnesses have incapacitating fatigue as a symptom, care must be taken to exclude other known and often treatable conditions before a diagnosis of CFS is made.
  
  A great deal of debate has surrounded the issue of how best to define CFS. In an effort to resolve these issues, an international panel of CFS research experts convened in 1994 to draft a definition of CFS that would be useful both to researchers studying the illness and to clinicians diagnosing it. In essence, in order to receive a diagnosis of chronic fatigue syndrome, a patient must satisfy two criteria, 1) Have severe chronic fatigue of six months or longer duration with other known medical conditions excluded by clinical diagnosis; and 2) Concurrently have four or more of the following symptoms: substantial impairment in short-term memory or concentration; sore throat; tender lymph nodes; muscle pain; multi-joint pain without swelling or redness; headaches of a new type, pattern or severity; unrefreshing sleep; and post-exertional malaise lasting more than 24 hours.
  
  The symptoms must have persisted or recurred during six or more consecutive months of illness and must not have predated the fatigue.
  
  Risk Factors for CFS include being a woman. They are affected at four times the rate of men, and being a person in your 40s and 50s. Although CFS is much less common in children than in adults, children can develop the illness, particularly during the teen years. People of every age, gender, ethnicity and socioeconomic group can have CFS.
  
  Symptoms and their consequences can be severe. CFS can be as disabling as multiple sclerosis, lupus, rheumatoid arthritis, congestive heart failure and similar chronic conditions. Symptom severity varies from patient to patient and may vary over time for an individual patient.
  
  People who suffer the symptoms of CFS must be carefully evaluated by a physician because many treatable medical and psychiatric conditions are hard to distinguish from CFS. Common conditions that should be ruled out through a careful medical history and appropriate testing include mononucleosis, Lyme disease, thyroid conditions, diabetes, multiple sclerosis, various cancers, depression and bipolar disorder.
  
  CFS affects each individual differently. Some people with CFS remain homebound and others improve to the point that they can resume work and other activities, even though they continue to experience symptoms.
• Chronic Pain
  Chronic Pain
  

  Chronic pain is pain that lasts beyond the expected time for healing (it can be weeks, months, or years) and interferes with normal life. The injury has healed, but the pain continues. Pain is a feeling triggered in the nervous system. The pain message may be triggered by muscle tension, stiffness, weakness, or spasms. The pain may be sharp or dull. It may come and go, or it may be constant. You may feel pain in one area of your body, such as your back, abdomen or chest or you may feel pain all over, such as when your muscles ache from the flu.
  
  Whatever the cause of chronic pain, feelings of frustration, anger, and fear can make the pain more intense. Chronic pain can affect all areas of your life and should be taken seriously. Your response to pain is determined by many factors, including your emotional outlook. For example, depression seems to increase a person's perception of pain and decrease her or his ability to cope with it. Often, treating the depression treats the pain as well. Sometimes chronic pain is due to an ongoing cause, such as cancer or arthritis. Sometimes the cause is unknown. A healthcare professional can help you evaluate your pain and its cause. Fortunately, there are many ways to treat pain. Treatment varies depending on the cause of pain.
  
  Pain can be helpful. Without pain, you might seriously hurt yourself without knowing it, or you might not realize you have a medical problem that needs treatment. Once you take care of the problem, pain usually goes away; therefore, it is important to seek appropriate care when you are experiencing pain.
• Fibromyalgia
  Fibromyalgia
  

  Fibromyalgia is a disorder that causes muscle pain and fatigue. People with fibromyalgia have chronic widespread pain, as well as 'tender points' on the neck, shoulders, back, hips, arms, and legs, which hurt when slight pressure (about 9 pounds) is applied.
  
  People with fibromyalgia may also have other symptoms, such as; trouble sleeping, morning stiffness, headaches, problems with thinking and memory (sometimes called 'fibro fog'), Irritable bowel syndrome, and depression. Women with fibromyalgia may also have painful menstrual periods.
  
  The causes of fibromyalgia are unknown, but problems with the nervous system could be involved. It is estimated that fibromyalgia affects as many as 1 in 50 Americans. Most people with fibromyalgia are women, and most are diagnosed during middle age. However, men and children also can have the disorder.
• Headache, Tension, Migraine, Cluster, Sinus
  Headache, Tension, Migraine, Cluster, Sinus
  

  Simply put, a headache is pain in your head. However, a headache can be a sign of a more serious condition and should not be ignored if it is extremely intense, lasts for many days or begins after a hit to the head.
  
  Many people suffer from what is referred to as a tension headache. This type of headache can occur due to tightness in muscles of your neck or shoulders and also those that move your jaw or your scalp. You may experience this if you are under stress, or feeling depressed or anxious. Lifestyle changes that can usually help tension headaches.
  
  Migraine headaches are very severe headaches that may be debilitating and keep people bedridden for days at a time. Most people with a migraine are very sensitive to light and need to be in a dark room. Some people experience what is called a "prodrome" with their migraines. A prodrome is something that happens consistently just prior to the onset of the headache. It could be a certain smell, a flashing of light, a particular feeling, or any other sensation by that particular person. These types of headaches are more common in women than men.
  
  Another type of headache is called a Cluster Headache. These headaches are very excruciating and begin quite suddenly usually in the front/side of the head, or near the eye. These headaches are more common in men than women. A person experiencing this type of headache is in severe pain and may thrash about not knowing what to do because the pain is so bad and nothing seems to help take it away.
  
  Sinus headaches are very common among both men and women and can occur more frequently with the change of seasons, with allergies, or colds. These headaches may feel like someone is squeezing your head tightly and there is a lot of pressure. Touching the face on either side of the nose can be painful because these are the most common sinuses to be involved.
  
  Complementary, alternative, and integrative medicine (CAIM) practitioners can offer multiple options for treating the many different kinds of headaches.
• Insomnia
  Insomnia
  

  Insomnia is characterized by an inability to initiate or maintain sleep. It can also present as early morning awakening where a person awakens several hours early and is unable to go back to sleep. Difficulty initiating or maintaining sleep may often present itself as excessive daytime sleepiness, which commonly results in functional impairment throughout the day. Before being diagnosed with primary insomnia, other potential causes need to be ruled out, such as other sleep disorders, side effects of medications, substance abuse, depression, or other previously undetected illness. Chronic psychophysiological insomnia (or "learned" or "conditioned" insomnia) may result from a stressor combined with fear of being unable to sleep. People affected with this condition may sleep better when not in their own beds.
• Obesity, Overweight
  Obesity, Overweight
  

  Overweight and obesity are both labels for ranges of weight that are greater than what is generally considered healthy for a given height. The terms also identify ranges of weight that have been shown to increase the likelihood of certain diseases and other health problems.
  
  For adults, overweight and obesity ranges are determined by using weight and height to calculate a number called the body mass index' (BMI). BMI is used because, for most people, it correlates with their amount of body fat. An adult who has a BMI between 25 and 29.9 is considered overweight. An adult who has a BMI of 30 or higher is considered obese. It is important to remember that BMI does not directly measure body fat. As a result, some people, such as athletes, may have a BMI that identifies them as overweight even though they do not have excess body fat.
  
  Other methods of estimating body fat and body fat distribution include measurements of skinfold thickness and waist circumference, calculation of waist-to-hip circumference ratios, and techniques such as ultrasound, computed tomography, and magnetic resonance imaging (MRI).
  
  For children and teens, BMI ranges above a normal weight have different labels (at risk of overweight and overweight). Additionally, BMI ranges for children and teens are defined so that they take into account normal differences in body fat between boys and girls and differences in body fat at various ages.
  
  BMI is just one indicator of potential health risks associated with being overweight or obese. For assessing someone's likelihood of developing overweight- or obesity-related diseases, take a look at two other predictors: 1) Waist circumference (because abdominal fat is a predictor of risk for obesity-related diseases) and 2) Other risk factors the individual has for diseases and conditions associated with obesity (for example, high blood pressure or physical inactivity).
  
  Obesity increases the risk of many diseases and health conditions. These include; Hypertension (high blood pressure), Osteoarthritis (a degeneration of cartilage and its underlying bone within a joint), Dyslipidemia (for example, high total cholesterol or high levels of triglycerides), Type 2 diabetes, Coronary heart disease, Stroke, Gallbladder disease, Sleep apnea and respiratory problems, and some cancers (endometrial, breast, and colon).

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Financial Information

Average Cost per Initial Visit: $51 - $100
Average Cost per Session: $76 - $100
Credit Cards Accepted? no
Insurance Accepted? no