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Restorative Health

Center for Integrative Medicine

4801 Wisconsin Ave NW Washington, DC 20016 phone: (202) 244-6661

Integrative Medicine

Integrative Medicine at Restorative Health involves practitioners trained in different therapeutic modalities combining their skills in a synergistic fashion to create a comprehensive integrative treatment plan.

Your integrative visit begins with an extensive questionnaire designed to give us important information about your past medical history. You will also need to obtain past medical records and diagnostic studies from your other doctors. In addition, a detailed chronology of your health history is requested. After Doctors Safayan and Threlkel have carefully reviewed your records and done a thorough physical examination, they will outline their findings and, with your input, develop a treatment plan tailored to your needs. You can expect to spend 2-4 hours with the doctors and then receive a detailed written summary of everything that takes place. Your involvement in the process from start to finish is crucial to its success.

Medical Acupuncture

Acupuncture is one of the oldest and most widely practiced forms of medicine in the world. Known primarily in the West as a safe and effective method for the treatment of pain, acupuncture's applications are much broader and can be successfully used to help alleviate disorders of the respiratory, gastrointestinal, or autonomic systems, as well as treat musculoskeletal and psycho-emotional conditions. Acupuncture is concerned with the whole person and its beneficial effects are felt on all levels of the body.

The World Health Organization recognises Acupuncture for the treatment of:

Digestive disorders: Spastic colon, constipation, diarrhea and gastritis
Respiratory disorders: sinusitis, sore throat, bronchitis, asthma and recurrent chest infections
Neurological and muscular disorders: headaches, facial tics, neck pain, rib neuritis, frozen shoulder, tennis elbow, tendonitis, low back pain, sciatica and osteoarthritis.
Urinary, Menstrual and reproductive problems

Acupuncture uses very fine needles that are inserted into specific points on the body. These points lie along channels of the body that allow for the free flow of energy. When these channels are blocked, imbalance occurs and illness can result. Acupuncture attempts to clear these channels so energy can flow freely and health can be restored.

Acupuncture is effective for both acute and chronic conditions, with very few side-effects: addiction, headache, lower back pain, asthma, osteoarthritis, fibromyalgia, hypertension, fertility, and weight loss can all be helped by acupuncture. Acupuncture can stimulate the immune system and help to prevent illness. It can be used in conjunction with naturopathic and conventional medicine (as in the allopathic treatment of cancer) or as a treatment modality on its own.

While you lie relaxed and quiet, acupuncture needles focus your body's healing energy where it is most needed. This gentle yet powerful procedure helps your body return to good health and vitality.

Naturopathic Medicine

Naturopathic medicine is an approach to health and healing that states the body has the intrinsic ability to maintain itself in good health, and heal itself when necessary. Physicians of Naturopathic Medicine look at you as a whole person in your physical, emotional, and spiritual dimensions recognizing that the body, mind, and spirit need to be in balance to ensure good health.

Naturopathic Medicine uses a variety of treatment modalities in a holistic manner to address your immediate concerns and overall health. Nutritional counseling, herbal medicine, homeopathy, and nutritional supplements are all part of custom-tailored treatment plans that address short and long-term health needs. Naturopathic medicine utilizes the safest, most natural, and least toxic therapies to treat illness and to promote general wellness.

Naturopathic physicians dig deep to identify the cause of illness to eliminate disease and not just treat symptoms, in doing so, they discover the best plan for prevention and self- care. Your doctor will ask about your history and current experiences and will educate you how to achieve and maintain your best health possible. Naturopathic medicine is an integrated system of health care where the goal is the restoration of health, fully and completely, from the inside out.

Prolotherapy

What is Prolotherapy?
Prolotherapy treatments begin with the injection of anesthetic (lidocaine) plus a proliferant (dextrose=sugar water) into an injured tendon or ligament. The treatment promotes inflammatory cells (eg. Fibroblasts=healing cells) to migrate to the weakened area and strengthen it, resulting in the growth of new tissue. Although the injection of solution into the tendon/ligament may cause some discomfort, the doctor uses an anethestic along with the proliferant to minimize the pain associated with needle insertion. Most patients find this to be a small price to pay for the relief of chronic pain.

How Does It Work?
The presumed mechanism of Prolotherapy is simple. The localized inflammation from the solution triggers a wound healing cascade, resulting in the deposition of new collagen, the material that tendons and ligaments are made of. New collagen shrinks as it matures. The shrinking collagen tightens the injured tissue that was injected and makes it stronger. Prolotherapy is very effective at eliminating chronic pain due to tissue weakness, but response to treatment varies from case to case depending upon one's healing ability, the nature of the injury and the technical skill of the therapist. Some people may only need a few treatments while others may need 10 or more. The average number of treatments is 4-6 per area treated.

How Effective is Prolotherapy? Have Studies been Done?
Historical review shows that a version of this technique was first used by Hippocrates on soldiers with dislocated, torn shoulder joints. He would stick a hot poker into the joint, and it would then heal. In 1987 the Lancet, a respected British medical publication, reported that 35 out of 40 patients in an experimental prolotherapy group showed greater than 50% improvement. Another study published in the U.S.' Journal of Spinal Disorders found similar results. Scientific studies going back as far as 1956 have proven its validity. The University of Iowa studies (1983 and '85) as well as the Sansun Research Foundation study in 1987 substantiated earlier findings regarding its efficacy. Biopsy studies have shown that the injected tissue can increase in thickness up to 50% and is 200-400% stronger.

In spite of prolotherapy 's well documented benefits for chronic pain relief, there are those in the medical community that remain skeptical as to it's value. A recent study was reviewed by Dr. Hauser, a prominent prolotherapyist and author of "Prolo your Pain Away" In this study, (Yelland, Michael. prolotherapy Injections, Saline Injections, and Exercises for Chronic Low-Back Pain: A Randomized Trial. Spine; 2004: 9-16) and others regarding prolotherapy, the difficulty lies in the fact that there is not a placebo group that can satisfy the true requirements of a placebo. A placebo is to have no biological effect. Studies have shown that sticking a needle into an area of pain with or without injecting a substance into the area has a biological effect and helps eliminate the pain. As such, prolotherapy studies can just compare one solution to another. As long as the studies show that both solutions work, as the latest study has, instead of allopathic physicians claiming prolotherapy doesn't work (because the prolotherapy solution group did not reduce pain significantly more than the control injection group), they should accept the fact that simple solutions can eliminate people's pain as long as the technique of prolotherapy is used. Injecting sugar or saline-type solutions into the ligament/bone interface eliminates chronic pain. This is consistent with the current thinking among prolotherapy physicians that the chronic pain that people suffer from is at the ligament/bone interface called the fibro-osseous junction. Prolotherapy, by inducing a mild inflammatory reaction in the area, helps it to repair. Once this interface is strong, the person's chronic pain is eliminated.

Who is most likely to benefit from Prolotherapy?

Persons with shoulder pain, or those who have trouble sleeping on their shoulders.

Sufferers of joint dislocation.

When a joint is generally worse with activity and better with rest.

When chiropractic adjustments help but don't last.

Grinding, popping or clicking in a joint.

Shoulder pain when moving or lifting one's arm.

When muscle relaxants, arthritis medication, cortisone shots or nerve blocks fail to resolve the problem within six weeks.

When surgery has failed, as in Failed Back Syndrome

When a joint is aided by a sling, brace or splint.

If ligament or tendon sprains or tears have been diagnosed.

If there is a deep aching or pulling pain in the joint.

Shooting pains, tingling or numbness.

What About Side Effects?
Most commonly patients experience soreness and stiffness at the site of injection for several days. This is an appropriate response and will resolve. Other more common side effects include bleeding, bruising and swelling in the area of injection. Some people may have a sensitivity, in the form of headache, nausea and tiredness, to the proliferative agent and/or the anesthetic. This reaction is rare and temporary and it does not last longer than two to four days after the injection. Other more serious but rare side effects include infection, puncture of the lung, nerve and tissue injury.

Why haven't I heard about Prolotherapy from my Doctor?
This style of treatment is not taught in medical schools; though it is taught in post-graduate courses. Moreover, most doctors are too busy in their own private practices to spend the time necessary to take this specialized training. On top of that an overwhelming percentage practicing physicians in this country are not aware of this treatment method because the substances used are not patented, and therefore the pharmaceutical companies are not interested in marketing it to doctors.

For more information on how prolotherapy has been effective for particular conditions, go to http://prolotherapy.com/prolohelp.htm.

NAET Allergy Desensitization

$130

NAET® (Nambudripad's Allergy Elimination Techniques) is a natural and drug-free treatment for allergies. Whereas the conventional medical approach uses drug therapy to control allergic symptoms, NAET® attempts to correct the underlying problem of the allergy sufferer. The result can often be permanent freedom from allergies. NAET® can be used to treat those who currently suffer from allergic symptoms as well as healthy individuals with hidden allergies that may cause illness in the future.

An allopathic physician may view allergies as a symptom that needs to be treated. Integrative medicine treats allergies in a different way. An allergy is understood as an imbalance in the body that can harm different organs and systems. Left undiagnosed and untreated, an allergy can be a cause of illness, ranging from mild, severe or chronic ailments.

Respiratory, circulatory, gastrointestinal, genitourinary, and musculoskeletal conditions, skin problems and environmental reactions - just about any health condition could be a symptom of underlying allergies. Allergies are diagnosed by using muscle response testing to uncover imbalances in the body caused by allergens and are treated by stimulating specific points along the spine using massage techniques, often followed by acupuncture to reinforce the treatment.

NAET® is an effective therapy to assist in the diagnosis and treatment of allergic conditions and to help your body rid itself of allergic reactions. NAET® can allow you freedom from your allergies so that you can take in the whole of your surroundings, and experience the full joy of living.