Fit Notes

Countless Fitness Experts 'March Into Wellness'

If you like learning about health and wellness, this day of workshops is for you!

Looking for that healthy exercise or treatment option that's right for you? The Lyceum Wellness Center hosts its "March Into Wellness" day March 24, and will offer a variety of fitness and health experts from throughout the area. Located in the Manayunk-Roxborough area, the events will provide an opportunity for people to receive a day of free wellness instruction and free treatments from a variety of practitioners. Whether you live in Narberth or Chestnut Hill, or anywhere in between, this event is the area's must-attend for health.  Below is a breakdown of the experts speaking March 24. Early Morning Stretches The day will begin with a morning stretch lead by Planet Fitness from Ardmore.  Stretching has a myriad of benefits, but is often…

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Can Acupuncture Fight The Flu?

A free lecture about the benefits will be held in the area Friday at 7 p.m.

Once again, flu season is upon us.  In my last article, I examined the importance of taking a Vitamin D supplement to empower your body to resist the flu (5000 iu per day has been clinically proven to be as effective as a flu vaccine), and two herbs (elderberry and olive leaf extract) which have been clinically shown to contain anti-viral properties effective in defeating the flu and cold. This week we’ll discuss thebenefits of acupuncture in the fight against colds and flu.  According to The World Health Organization, acupuncture is effective in preventing cold and flu as well as shortening the duration of a flu/cold if it is contracted But why?  Germs are everywhere. Viruses are everywhere. But most of us are not perpetually sick from …

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Fit Notes

Physical and Mental Healing Through Acupuncture & Acupressure

A modern perspective on a 3,000 year old healing modality.

The body is constantly working to fight against many kinds of toxins. Toxins can come as a bi-product of the natural functions of the body, from stress, or from external factors like food, inhalation of fumes, or skin contact. Along with many other alternative health disciplines, the sciences of acupuncture and acupressure deal with the body’s systems of toxin elimination.  The body has an intricate web of pathways for the circulatory, lymphatic, and nervous systems. These pathways can be found in any human anatomy book and are learned by every aspiring Medical Doctor (MD).  But over 3,000 years ago, these and similar pathways were being mapped by Chinese medical practitioners and called meridians.  Every organ is connected to a pathway, …

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Reflexology: Religion or Science?

This week, we discuss the basics of reflexology.

Last week, I attempted to explain in Western terms what Eastern or alternative practitioners mean when they talk about the body’s energy pathways. "Energy pathways" is simply a 3,000-year-old shorthand for the way the organs of your body produce energy that travels throughout the body. Eastern practitioners usually refer to these pathways as meridians and skeptics should note that these meridians actually track closely with the lymphatic and circulatory systems modern science has more recently mapped. The nervous system houses another set of these pathways. The nerves in our bodies do not just travel from one spot or another to our brains. Rather, the nervous system is a web-like network that connects every part of our bodies to at least a…

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'Hudu-Guru,' Religion, or Science? Part 2: Energy Work

We examine what healing practitioners mean by "energy?"

One thing that is heard over and over when studying various non-allopathic modalities is the concept of energy and “energy flow." Whether you’re in a yoga class or receiving acupuncture, talking with a homeopath or receiving massage, they all use this language of “energy." Then there are whole modalities dedicated to “energy work” like Reiki, Pranic Healing, and chakra meditation, at which point it starts to sound very hokey. But is it? Every cell in your body is energetic. Physics has proven that all matter vibrates with some form of energy, even a rock. If the matter did not vibrate, it would cease to have form. Though why matter vibrates as it does (a rock in one way, wood in another, water in another, liver tissue in still another) …

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Carol Haslam

12:00 pm on Thursday, April 21, 2011

SWEET!   more ›

Fit Notes

'Hudu-Guru', Religion, or Science?

We offer an introduction to a new series on "alternative" healing practitioners.

Medicine has been practiced in various forms in every culture on the planet, and has been documented, by some, for more than 3,500 years.   Previous to our pharmaceutical age, healers used herbs as medicine; promoted certain eating and cleansing habits as both preventative and cure; and provided various activity protocols for bolstering immunity, or the body's own ability to heal itself.  In this day and age, Americans have quite the love affair with pharmaceuticals, and often distrust the wisdom of the ages. I'm not exactly sure how this historically evolved, but we have replaced nutrition, herbal remedies, exercise and healthy routines, with synthetically manufactured pills.  Though I am grateful to modern science for the development of …

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A Community Living On Pins and Needles

Roxborough Community Acupuncture offers healing alternative for a friendly price.

Roxborough Community Acupuncture's second floor office space has something of a split personality. Many of the accoutrements scattered around the room recall those of a Western medical doctor: a receptionist's desk, clipboards laden with paperwork, popular magazines and framed certificates. Still other features, such as the ambient background music, the hushed voices and the closet full of herbal remedies invoke visions of a mystic healer. These are the worlds—some might even say contradictions—that practitioners David Schiman and Sarah Lefkowich attempt to straddle, harness and somehow bring into communion. Schiman founded the facility almost three years ago, opening shop in the upstairs of a stone house at 445 Lyceum Ave. known as …

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