by Dr. Jessica Corbeille Harris, ND

Many people deal with chronic pain (and I have a lot of remedies both at-home and in-office for helping with that), but what about those recent injuries (i.e. acute injuries)?

What do you do if you sprain your ankle playing soccer tomorrow? Or how about if you tweak your back doing some gardening this evening?

Many people have heard of the R-I-C-E acronym for injuries which promotes the use of rest, ice, compression, and elevation. What if I told you those were the exact opposite of what is actually needed for proper healing of the tissue? Instead, when people are injured, I always say, “Ask for your M-A-M-A” – which promotes the use of massage, alternating hot and cold, movement, and arnica to encourage a healthy inflammatory response to allow for proper tissue healing. Generally speaking, most of these are safe for most people, but as for any of my recommendations, if you have any questions or concerns about the safety of the remedies for you, it’s always best to consult your physician. 

1. Massage:  I’m not talking about deep tissue massage here but rather a light massage (how you might rub a baby’s head or back) to promote lymphatic movement and drainage. Not familiar with lymphatic tissue? The lymph system is another vessel system in the body that helps to move toxins and inflammatory modulators. The lymph system is very important for detox and also for healing. With a light touch massage moving from the furthest part of the injury or just past the injury (“distal”) to the more central part of the body (“proximal”), you can help to clear inflammation and swelling and promote the movement of the right molecules to the area for healing of the injured tissue. 
2. Alternating hot and cold:  Sometimes we call this “Contrast Hydrotherapy” and it traditionally involves alternating between hot and cold baths of water. This can be modified to include only an affected limb in a tub of water or even the use of hot and cold compresses if the affected area is on the core of the body. Generally speaking, the rule of thumb is 3 min of hot/warm followed by 30 seconds of cold, repeated 3 times. This whole process should be repeated several times a day initially (at least 3-5 times on the first day or two after an injury) but can be decreased as the swelling declines and the injury/pain improve. The idea here is to promote “exercise for the blood vessels” – which helps to decrease swelling and encourage good lymphatic movement.   
3. Movement:  While it is best to take it easy after an initial injury, it is NOT best to completely immobilize the affected area (in most cases). For example, an ankle sprain should not be wrapped, elevated, and not moved for 3 days. A better solution is to include light movement (non-weight bearing usually) such as ankle circles in the air to continue to encourage movement of the lymph and blood to the area. Again, the idea here is to draw the proper inflammatory components to the affected area to promote proper healing of the connective tissues. 
4. Arnica:  A popular and long-time used home remedy for acute injuries, Arnica seems to never let us down! With a recent injury, oral Arnica 6X and up to Arnica 30C can be used every 3-4 hours for days 1-3 of the injury. After that, usually dosing 1-2x/day is enough, depending on the pain and severity of the injury. Arnica also is available as a cream or gel application which can safely be used topically over any injury as long as the skin is fully intact.  Along with the M-A-M-A tactics above, I always promote healthy intake of water and proper nutrition (lots of fruits, vegetables, and protein) after an injury, so your body has the fuel it needs to heal. Trauma to your body is no small thing, and treating your body well in the acute (initial) phase of an injury is in investment into the health of your tissue for the long term! 

 
On the other hand, if your injury is not improving after a day or two or seems to be getting worse over that period, it’s always best to seek medical attention either at the emergency department or with your primary physician. Similarly, if your injury initially improves but you are left with pain or inflammation weeks or months after the injury occurs, it’s also a good time to seek attention from a trained physician to help with this situation. (This may be a good time for some of the prolotherapy treatments I write about as well - check them out here!) 
 
Questions? Would you like to discuss your acute or chronic pain/injury? I’d love to connect with you! Check out the Contact page on our site or send me an email at contact@elevatednaturalhealth.com. 

by Dr. Jessica Corbeille Harris, ND

​Physical reactions to foods are common, but not all physical responses are classified as a true “food allergy” – many are deemed “food intolerances” instead. What’s the difference? 
 
Food Allergies: An immediate immune system response to a food (even a tiny amount of that food) that causes sometimes widespread involvement in the body including (but not limited to) hives, anaphylaxis (closure of airway), asthma reaction, swelling, itching, or immediate GI distress/diarrhea. 
 
Food Intolerance: An immune system response that is often delayed and can cause wide-spread, non-specific, sometimes less severe systemic responses. Sometimes a little bit of the food isn’t enough to trigger symptoms (but sometimes it is!). Common food intolerance symptoms include: GI upset (most common), increase in muscle and/or joint pain, headache, irritability/mood changes, depression/anxiety, breathing difficulties (less severe than an asthma attack or anaphylaxis), heartburn, ear infections, sinus congestion, post-nasal drip, urinary pain or discomfort, skin reactions (eczema, psoriasis, rashes, etc.), heart palpitations, and more. Basically, many of the symptoms people experience regularly can be caused by the foods they are eating. 
 
It’s important to understand the difference between a true allergy and an intolerance, but often in either case, the problematic food/foods will be avoided (obviously this is a much more serious recommendation in the case of anaphylactic food allergens!). 
 
One important symptom that I like to point out to patients at my clinic is the association with food to pain.The majority of my patients seek treatment with me for their pain, but many of them are not expecting me to suggest a food allergy/intolerance test as part of the work-up for the cause of their pain. Yes, I do like to treat pain with injection therapies (i.e. prolotherapies, PRP, neural therapies, etc.), but if the patient continues to eat a food that is causing them inflammation (pain), then the treatments are not likely to have a lasting effect – and sometimes they don’t work at all until the problematic food(s) are eliminated. 
 
For this reason, I often will order a food intolerance test for patients as part of their initial workup when I suspect food as a component to their pain problem. The testing I use is relatively inexpensive and results come back quickly. These tests are really excellent ways to figure out quickly the most likely problematic food triggers for their body – and I OFTEN see that eliminating problematic foods for a period of time (or for good) will SIGNIFICANTLY change their pain problem! 

Are you ready to explore your food intolerances? If so, send us a message through our Contact page today! 

by Dr. Jessica Corbeille Harris, ND

​I’ve been getting the question a lot lately – “Why does PRP work for healing my joints and also for treating my sagging skin?” So, I thought I’d share a little more about Platelet Rich Plasma (PRP) therapy. 

For a PRP treatment, we collect a sample of the patient's own blood, process it to collect growth factors, combine it with nutrients and ozone gas, and then inject it into the damaged tissues (tendons, ligaments, bone, skin, etc.). PRP is loaded with concentrated growth factors from your body’s own immune system which is really the magic in the medicine. The healthier a patient is to begin with, the “better” their PRP product is, which means the better results they will get from a PRP treatment. 
 
In the case of joint pain, the growth factors in the PRP help the body to heal and regenerate soft tissues (like tendons and ligaments) which helps to stabilize the joint and therefore decrease the pain. Often, people think they have sore and/or tight muscles which is causing their pain. In reality, the muscles have become sore and tight to compensate for weak tendons and ligaments. So, by treating the damaged tendons and ligaments to stabilize the joint, we can actually treat the pain! 
 
With wrinkled and sagging skin, there is a similar loss of soft tissue – collagen, in this case. The growth factors from the PRP are injected here to support the collagen matrix under the skin, thus providing more of a scaffold for the top layer of the skin to hold on to. This ultimately decreases the wrinkles, “sagging”, scaring, and the dreaded “bags” under the eyes.
 
For hair regeneration, the growth factors in the PRP work to help the hair follicles regenerate thus promoting hair growth in areas where the hair follicle had degenerated. The injections themselves also work to improve circulation to the area which naturally increases hair growth as well. 
 
PRP, although wonderful and capable of dramatic results, is an advanced technique requiring special equipment and training by the practitioner. Always consult with your practitioner about their specific methods, ingredients, training and other details of the procedure to gain a full understanding of how their product and method can help you.    

If you're interested in getting started with PRP treatments today, send us an inquiry from our Contact page today or give us a call at 206-566-7225. 

I see many patients every day who struggle with pain. Sometimes joint pain, sometimes back or neck pain, sometimes muscle pain, and sometimes headaches. One thing these pains all have in common is they are symptoms. And symptoms are always a message from the body to tell us something is not quite right. When the body has all the nutrients, sleep, happiness, support, and water that it needs, the body is free of symptoms. 
 
Let’s talk today about one foundational part of your body’s needs – adequate nutrition, and this starts at the dinner table. 
 
So let’s say the body isn’t getting the right nutrients it needs. Without the proper nutrients, it cannot make enzymes work properly. Without properly working enzymes, certain things like soft tissue repair cannot happen properly. When the soft tissues are not repaired, other tissues have to work harder (i.e. muscles), and this can lead to the symptom we experience as PAIN. 
 
This means that one of the ways we can treat pain before we even use treatments like prolotherapy or PRP is by supporting the soft tissue repair. And to support soft tissue repair, we need the proper nutrients. 
 
Research has shown a few nutrients to be especially important in healing and repair of soft tissues, like collagen, for example. Some of these key nutrients are protein, vitamin C, zinc, copper, and manganese. 

• Protein: Protein is hugely important for all wound healing in the body and for providing the proper building blocks for DNA synthesis and other enzyme function. Without protein, we see muscles and soft tissues (tendons, ligaments) break down leading to more pain. A good way to ensure proper protein intake is to consume protein for at least 3 meals a day. We’ll dive into great protein sources in a future post. 

 

• Vitamin C: Vitamin C is widely accepted as one of the most important nutrients for collagen repair. Remember, we need collagen to be repaired in the body so we can build the proper scaffolding for the tendons and ligaments which support the joints and hold the body together. Great sources of vitamin C include brightly colored fruits and vegetables (eat at every meal) and sometimes supplementation through vitamins. 

 

• Zinc/Copper/Manganese: These three minerals are lumped together because they are commonly found together in supplements and sometimes in foods too. The three of these are all vitally important for tissue healing because they are all cofactors (helpers) for various enzymes. Good food sources of all three include nuts and legumes, but it’s fairly common to need an additional supplementation of these when a person is working to improve pain and healing in the body. 

 
Please note that the list above is not all-inclusive (other nutrients can be very important for treatment pain too – i.e. magnesium, calcium, MSM, etc.). Diet is a great place to start when it comes to treating pain though. It’s essential that a person is getting the proper nutrition BEFORE we start treatment with prolotherapy, PRP, or other fancy treatment options to ensure your body has the building blocks it needs to make the treatment most effective.  
 
Here’s one of my favorite products for pain and healing: ArthroSoothe by Designs for Health. You can find it on our online dispensary or at our clinic. 

Please email us or give us a quick call today if you are ready to start talking about treating your pain! 

by Dr. Jessica Corbeille Harris, ND, CES

What is prolotherapy?
Prolotherapy is a type of regenerative joint therapy. By this, I mean that it is a therapy that helps your connective tissues to heal and regenerate thus supporting your joints better. There are a variety of prolotherapy types and all different cocktails of combinations of nutrients that are injected and called, “prolotherapy.”  In the case of sore joints and sometimes even sore muscles, often it is the connective tissues – the tendons and ligaments – that are the true root cause of the pain…NOT the “tight” muscles! The connective tissue is not highly vascular, so it does not get good blood supply or delivery of nutrients. Thus, it is easily injured, strained, torn, or degenerated. When the connective tissue is injured, it cannot do its job – so other tissues are recruited to do the work – the muscles and fascia. The muscles and fascia then become tight and are overworked as they work to keep the joints supported and the body moving properly. Overtime, we experience this instability as muscle soreness and pain. 
 
With prolotherapies, we are aiming to treat these injured, strained, torn, and/or degenerated tissues and joints with nutrients (like dextrose) and sometimes stronger things like growth factors (in the case of PRP/platelet rich plasma) or even stem cells. 
 
Once the connective tissues heal, it takes the workload down for the muscles, so the muscles can go back to just doing their normal job of getting the body to move – not also stabilizing and keeping the body together too.
 
Why does prolotherapy help knee pain? 
If you’ve injured your knee, chances are you’ve sprained, torn, or otherwise caused extra strain on some of the connective tissues. This causes the muscles around the knee to tighten, as discussed above, to keep your femur (thigh bone) and tibia and fibula (shin bones) together. The muscles get sore and eventually we experience pain. 
 
If we can treat the injured connective tissue by testing for and treating the connective tissues (i.e. ACL, MCL, meniscus, etc.), then the muscles can relax and go back to doing their normal job. 
 
 
Does Prolotherapy help other joints too? 
Absolutely. If there’s a soft tissue injury, prolotherapy can help! 
 
Am I a good candidate? 
People that tend to do the best with prolotherapy are those that generally take good care of their bodies in the first place. Generally speaking, this includes people who participate in moderate exercise 3 or more days per week and eat a whole-foods based diet low in inflammatory foods (like sugar, alcohol, and preservatives) and high in vegetables and fruit. 
 
The best way to know if you have connective tissue injury and if you would benefit from prolotherapy is to have an initial consultation with your prolotherapy doctor. 
 
What does the treatment look like – is it a “one-shot-wonder”? 
Dr. Corbeille can determine on the first visit if you are a candidate and if you likely have connective tissue injury. You are welcome to bring imaging results if you have them, though they are not always necessary. 
 
Typical treatment plans will be for 3-6 treatments usually at 4-6 weeks apart. Sometimes Dr. Corbeille will recommend PRP or other nutrient additives, depending on your particular condition and overall health. You can expect improvement gradually as you complete the treatments such as improved range of motion, improved function, and hopefully less pain. Dr. Corbeille will always re-evaluate at the end of the treatment plan to determine the next steps for you. 
 
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Stay tuned for a future post regarding which supplements to start taking now to improve your joint and connective tissue health!