Natural Medicine & Rehabilitation

The Covid-19 pandemic has caused an uptick in depression and mental health issues over the past year and a half, due to people peeling back and removing themselves from society. ☹️

The more you pull yourself back socially, the less stimulation you are giving your brain. 🧠

Challenging our brains regularly by doing cognitive activities such as creating art and music, playing games, completing puzzles, learning a new language or embarking on a different career, are some of the recommendations we provide to our patients at Natural Medicine and Rehabilitation. 🎨🎶🧩

The brain has a remarkable capacity to reorganize pathways and create new connections. Biofeedback Therapy teaches patients how they can gain control over biological functions that normally occur automatically beneath the level of awareness such as blood pressure, heart rate, muscle tension, and brainwave frequency. 🔊🫀🫁

To learn more about biofeedback therapy and other cognitive challenging treatments we provide at NMR, make an appointment today! 🔗🩺👩🏻‍⚕️
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"Be the captain of your own ship; Learn about nutrition and do what is right for yourself." This philosophy is how Dr. Sferra and the team at Natural Medicine and Rehabilitation, encourages people to not subscribe to the way society tells them to eat. 🚢

Parents should lead by example and teach children starting at a young age how to make the right choices. 👩🏻‍🍳

*Not saying that kids can’t be kids and indulge in pizza with their friends, but for adolescents to have an understanding on the importance of nutrition is key for a better life of health. 🍕🥗⚖️

For Moms with picky eaters, here is a quick and easy recipe by our very own Anna Sferra 😘🤌🏻

Green Pasta 💚🍝

Ingredients Needed:
Organic pasta of choice 🍝
2 cups of raw spinach 🌱
1 cup of walnuts (roasted or not) 🌰
1 clove of garlic 🧄
2 tablespoons of olive oil 🫒
1 tablespoon of water 🚰

How to prepare:
* Cook pasta al dente.
* In blender or food processor, mix raw spinach, nuts, garlic, oil and water and a pinch of salt.
* Pour over cooked pasta.
* Enjoy!

There’s no better way to give your picky eater 3 servings of raw veggie goodness. Delish! 👍🏻

For more information on nutrition and how a a balanced lifestyle can benefit you, set up a consult today! 👩🏻‍⚕️

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What is the best way to care for your body and mind? 💪🏻🧠

When it comes to sustained wellness, the daily choices we make in what we eat, think and do make a profound difference. 🥗🙇🏻‍♀️🏃🏻‍♂️

“It’s important to pay attention to how you use your body,” Dr. Sferra, founder of Natural Medicine & Rehabilitation, says. You must also be cognizant of what you put in your body- “We’ve come to think that it’s normal to eat these things (processed foods and sugars), but our bodies must detoxify them and then it pays the price in chronic diseases like obesity, heart disease, diabetes, cancer and arthritic problems,” says Sferra. 🙅🏻‍♀️

Attending to your mental health is key to sustained wellness as well. Dr. Sferra suggests cognitive activities such as creating art and music, playing games, completing puzzles, learning a new language or embarking on a different career will help keep the mind stimulated. 🎨

Physical exercise also benefits the brain as well as positively effects the body’s reaction to stress. “Exercise plays an enormous role in slowing mental decline from chronic degenerative diseases of the brain like Parkinson’s, Alzheimer’s or dementia… Our bodies are equipped to deal with stressful incidents and bounce back, but the body’s response to chronic, ongoing stress is what is, figuratively speaking, killing people,” Sferra says. 🏋🏻‍♀️

*The above caption was generated based on portions of an article by Patti Zielinski; Originally published in Bridgewater City Lifestyle. You can find the article as a whole . Photography by Rachel Gallic Photography.

For more information on sustained wellness and how a functional medicine consult can benefit you, set up an appointment today!

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When women talk about endometriosis or adenomyosis, they talk about pain. 🚺

Endometriosis affects one in ten women of reproductive age, spreading like a matrix through their pelvis and causing agony and infertility. When surgeons go in to remove damage caused by endometriosis, they will see bowels, ovaries, fallopian tubes and other organs or nerves bound in a knitting of scar tissue. 🩸

In the case of adenomyosis, these damaging cells grow inside the uterine wall causing crippling pain during menstruation. 😖

Similar with all chronic inflammatory diseases, the cause is not one but many, pointing to immune dysregulation, retrograde menstruation, inflammation, and toxicity. 🦠

How can a natural and holistic program help? While some women find some relief on hormonal contraceptives, most struggle indefinitely. Although we do not fully understand all the factors that play in the development of endometriosis and adenomyosis, there are drug-free therapies that can support her body and provide relief. 🌿

At Natural Medicine and Rehabilitation, our team of experts can help guide and treat you to a better, healthier life, treating the pain caused by these debilitating diseases. 😊

Guidance with diet to help improve immune function and overall hormonal balance, nutritional therapy, supplementation, exercise, decreasing toxin exposure, and education on menstrual hygiene habits to minimize retrograde flow, as well as visceral manipulation techniques to help mobilize and soften endometriotic lesions, are all part of the process in helping our patients who suffer from these issues. 🥗🧘🏻‍♀️🏋🏻‍♀️🧼

If you want to learn more, make an appointment today! 🔗🩺👩🏻‍⚕️
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Biofeedback Therapy is a mind-body technique used to learn how to control your body’s response to stress. It is useful in treating many disorders like tension headaches, migraines, high blood pressure and anxiety. 😖

The brain has a remarkable capacity to reorganize pathways and create new connections. Biofeedback Therapy teaches patients how they can gain control over biological functions that normally occur automatically beneath the level of awareness such as blood pressure, heart rate, muscle tension, and brainwave frequency. 🧠

At Natural Medicine & Rehabilitation, we use complex biofeedback machines and computer software to detect internal bodily functions with great sensitivity and precision that allow involuntary physical functions to be translated in ways that can be understood. 📊

If you want to learn more about how biofeedback can benefit you, make an appointment today! 🔗🩺👩🏻‍⚕️
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The hips are the gateway to a pain free kinetic chain! 🌟

If your hips are tight, pain can manifest in the lower back as well as down into the knee, without even having any pain at the hips. 😱

Pigeon Pose is an excellent stretch to open your hips and increase mobility. Increased hip mobility is directly related to improved lower back and knee health! 😌

This pose helps to increase the length of the hip flexors/adductors/gluteal muscles all which can become tight with prolonged periods of sitting. 🦵🏻

* Begin on your hands and knees in the quadruped position (table position).
* Bring your right knee between your hands, placing your right ankle near your left wrist. Extend your left leg behind you so your kneecap and the top of your foot rest on the floor.
* Press through your fingertips as you lift your torso away from your thigh. Lengthen the front of your body. Release your tailbone back toward your heels. Work on squaring your hips and the front side of your torso to the front of your mat.
* Draw down through your front-leg shin and balance your weight evenly between your right and left hips. Press down through the tops of all five toes of the back foot.
* Hold for up to one minute.
* To release the pose, tuck your back toes, lift your back knee off the mat, and then press yourself back into hands and knee position.
* Repeat on the opposite side, 2-3x per side.

If you want to learn more about how to better release tension and tightness from you body, set up a consultation today! Click the link in our bio. 🔗🩺👩🏻‍⚕️
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As your body prepares to give birth, the hormone relaxin kicks in to loosen your pelvic joints; soft tissue, muscles and ligaments. 🌸

In some cases, this can cause joints to become too mobile, creating instability and causing pain. Pelvic muscle imbalances (tight and loose muscles) can also contribute to this pain as well, even if the joint itself is remaining stable. 😖

Good posture (especially while sitting), partaking in prenatal yoga and Pilates regularly, and being mindful of moving often/not sitting for extreme periods of time, are all beneficial in helping reduce this pain and help with positioning of the pelvic joint. 🧘🏻‍♀️

Pelvic floor specific exercises can help build and restore strength in the group of muscles that support the pelvic organs- which are what weigh down drastically on your p***c joints during pregnancy. 🤰🏻

Benefits of pelvic floor exercises include: Pelvic floor and core activation and stability, gluteal strength, adductor (inner thigh muscle) strength, and hamstring strength. 💪🏻

If you want to learn more, set up a consultation today! Click the link in our bio. 🔗🩺👩🏻‍⚕️
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As your body prepares to give birth, the hormone relaxin kicks in to loosen your pelvic joints; soft tissue, muscles and ligaments. 🌸

In some cases, this can cause joints to become too mobile, creating instability and causing pain. Pelvic muscle imbalances (tight and loose muscles) can also contribute to this pain as well, even if the joint itself is remaining stable. 😖

Good posture (especially while sitting), partaking in prenatal yoga and Pilates regularly, and being mindful of moving often/not sitting for extreme periods of time, are all beneficial in helping reduce this pain and help with positioning of the pelvic joint. 🧘🏻‍♀️

Pelvic floor specific exercises, such as the supine (laying on your back) bridge, help build and restore strength in the group of muscles that support the pelvic organs- which are what weigh down drastically on your p***c joints during pregnancy. 🤰🏻

Benefits of pelvic floor exercises include:
Pelvic floor and core activation and stability, gluteal strength, adductor (inner thigh muscle) strength, and hamstring strength. 💪🏻

To properly perform the Bridge Exercise:
1. Lay on floor with knees bent
2. Place a ball or pillow between the knees
3. Brace your abdominals
4. Contract and pull up on the pelvic floor
5. Squeeze the ball (helps activate pelvic floor muscles)
6. Press down on your feet, contract your glutes and lift the pelvis.
7. MAINTAIN STEADY DEEP BREATHES THROUGHOUT ALL THESE STEPS WITHOUT RELEASING THE MUSCLE CONTRACTIONS.
Hold for 5 counts.  Slowly lower to the floor. Let go of all contractions and repeat 10x for 3 sets.

If you want to learn more, set up a consultation today! Click the link in our bio. 🔗🩺👩🏻‍⚕️
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FUNCTIONAL MEDICINE FRIDAY!!! 🧠

Your brain is the most important and complex organ in the body. 🧠

Neuroinflammation, or brain inflammation, is an inflammatory response within the brain or spinal cord. 🧬

Common symptoms of brain inflammation are things people may deal with daily and do not equate to being an issue- such as brain fog, fatigue, depression, lower brain endurance, lowered ability to creatively think, or even dizziness. 😶‍🌫️😵‍💫

A doctor that is well versed in neurology, brain health, and/or neuroinflammation is exactly what is needed in order to complete a consultative interview as well as examination to determine neuroinflammation and the impact it is having on your brain. That is what we provide at Natural Medicine and Rehabilitation. 👨🏻‍⚕️🩺

At NMR, our brain health programs will support patients with a known family history of Alzheimer’s, Parkinson’s, and Dementia that are looking to prevent cognitive decline before it starts. Other conditions that may benefit from this type of rehabilitation are stroke, concussion, brain trauma, and seizures, among others. 🤕

To receive a complimentary, new patient, consultation with Dr. Sferra, click the link in our bio. 🔗🩺👨🏻‍⚕️
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