PREVENTION & WELLNESS
Staying healthy is more than just not having a diagnosable medical condition. Not getting enough sleep at night for several months can affect mood and concentration as well as fatigue. Periods of loose stools or infrequent bowel movmeents, may not be part of a deeper digestive disease, but may be indicative of changes in the intestinal bacteria or result in changes in nutrient absorption (and toxicant reabsorption) over time. Even the way that we adapt to ongoing stressful situations can eventually take it’s toll on our immune or hormonal functioning.
It continues to be important to get regular physical exams and periodic blood or urine tests to identify changes happening in the background of the body, but it is also important to peridicailly evaluate or reset dietary habits which have gotten out of balance. Preventative medicine is about getting regular checkups, but also for periodic health checks on the various foundations of medicine.
As they say, "it's easier to stay healthy than get healthy".
CHRONIC ILLNESS TREATMENT & SUPPORT
Many of the same principles which apply to preventative health and wellness also apply to the management of chronic disease – eating and digesting a healthy diet, getting adequate sleep, regular physical activity, and regulating stress. While these health promoting principles aren’t mysterious or unknown to most, periods of insomnia, movement restricted due to pain, chronic fatigue or low-level digestive upset, as well as anxiety or depression can make even the fundamentals of health more difficult to do consistently. The first step in working toward chronic illness is addressing these “obstacles to cure”.
When most chronic diseases manifest, it takes both the “basics of health” and finding which body systems are out of balance and functioning properly to remove some of the reasons the body is trapped in a cycle of dysfunction. Through addressing health fundamentals, conventional and “out of the box” lab testing, and support from herbs, nutrients, and hormones, it is possible to help reduce or remove some of the influences which are contributing to ongoing disease. These can include reducing inflammation, balancing oxidation, supporting clearance of toxicants or food sensitivities, and improving digestion and elimination.
ACUPUNCTURE
The principles of acupuncture are based on the belief that energy (Qi) flows through the body in a network of channels (meridians). As in many parts of Chinese medicine, the Qi (energy) moves the blood (nourishment), and the blood nourishes the Qi. Disease or dysfunction occurs when these aspects of the body get out of balance.
While Western science has not been able to fully explain the effects of acupuncture, it works in part by working through the central nervous system. Research has shown acupuncture to be helpful for many health conditions such as Fibromyalgia, Headaches, Low back pain, Menstrual cramps, Tennis elbow, Osteoarthritis, Carpal tunnel syndrome, nausea, allergies, and Asthma.
In the US, acupuncture is often used for pain, and research have shown that acupuncture can help change the perception of pain. Since pain is subjective (different between people), it is possible to change the way we perceive pain.
Dr Kraft's acupuncture style is a mixture of classical Chinese acupuncture and Dr. Tan's Balance Method. He provides long-term pain relief for back, neck and joint pain without medication to many of his clients, and enjoys turning skeptics into believers through rapid results.
DIGESTIVE DISORDERS
Dr Kraft treats digestive disorders such as IBS, heartburn and reflux, functional diarrhea and constipation, and Small Intestinal Bacterial Overgrowth. He is also able to support patients dealing with Colitis or Crohn’s disease. One of his primary areas of focus over the past several years is the interaction between the digestive system and the immune system (approximately 70% of the immune system is in the digestive tract). Given the interaction of the digestive and immune system, as well as the nervous system, Dr Kraft also addresses health conditions such as arthritis, skin conditions, food sensitivities and even allergies or asthma through supporting normal digestion and health of the intestinal microbes called the Microbiota.
PRINCIPLES OF NATUROPATHIC MEDICINE
Principles of Naturopathic Medicine
1. The healing power of nature (vis medicatrix naturae)
2. First do no harm (primum non nocere)
3. Find the cause (tolle causam)
4. Treat the whole person
5. Preventive medicine
6. Wellness
7. Doctor as teacher.