Services

Acupuncture

Acupuncture

Acupuncture is used to diagnose and treat illness, prevent disease and improve well-being. It is effective for physical, psychological and emotional problems. Most people improve after the first or second treatment and many comment that they feel relaxed and peaceful.

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Homeopathy

Homeopathy

Homeopathy has many advantages over conventional medicine. Is good for a wide variety of conditions in people of all ages. There are no side effects or adverse reactions associated with homeopathy, and it also stimulates and strengthens the body’s healing energy; it is especially effective for people who are sensitive.

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Nutrition

Nutrition

Overly restrictive diets ultimately fail, encouraging short term success without addressing underlying eating habits. The goal is to establish balanced, sustainable eating patterns, which means avoiding processed foods and adopting organic alternatives wherever possible.

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Functional Medicine

Functional Medicine

Utilizing the whole person concept, functional medicine seeks to solve your problems before they arise. This perspective on medicine places an increased emphasis on lifestyle, personal history, and environmental factors that may lead to long-term chronic health issues.

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About

We are a group of holistic practitioners in a peaceful and plant-filled office near Porter Square in Cambridge, MA. The different healing modalities complement and support each other well. Many of our clients see just one practitioner, while others enjoy the added benefit of more than one healing technique. We each have our own phone number and office procedures. Please click on the name of each practitioner for more information about that person, and click on the name of the healing technique for more information about it. Please call the practitioner of your choice to set up an appointment or to ask further questions

Acupuncture

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What Is Acupuncture?

Acupuncture is a complete medical system that is used to diagnose and treat illness, prevent disease and improve well-being. It is effective for physical, psychological and emotional problems. Acupuncture originated in China more than 3000 years ago and, due to its proven effectiveness, has been embraced world-wide.

How Does It Work?

It is apparent that acupuncture stimulates the activity of the autonomic nervous system, which regulates the function of the internal organs. The internal organs control body functions like digestion, respiration, circulation, genito-urinary, musculoskeletal, neurological and metabolic functions. These organs also command various parts of the body: the eyes, ears, nose and throat; knees, back, chest, abdomen, and extremities. The internal organs are responsible for controlling emotional states such as depression, anger, fear, worry, grief, sadness, anxiety and obsessions. By restoring the normal function of the internal organs, acupuncture can control body functions, various parts of the body, and emotional states.

On the chart below you can retrace your symptoms back to an imbalance in the respective organs. This may be the underlying cause of many, if not all of your symptoms.

Organ

What Are Some Commonly Treated Conditions?

The World Health Organization of the United Nations recently advocated acupuncture as a safe, cost-effective means of health maintenance, as well as of treating over one hundred medical conditions, including:

  • Allergies/asthma
  • Anxiety/depression
  • Arthritis
  • Back pain
  • Bladder/kidney problems
  • Carpal tunnel syndrome
  • Childhood illnesses
  • Constipation, diarrhea
  • Colds/flus
  • Cough/bronchitis
  • Dizziness
  • Drug addictions, smoking
  • Fatigue
  • Gynecological disorders
  • Headache/migraine
  • Heart problems
  • High blood pressure
  • Immune system deficiencies
  • Infertility
  • Knee pain
  • Neck pain/stiffness
  • Premenstrual syndrome
  • Paralysis/numbness
  • Sciatica
  • Sexual dysfunction
  • Shoulder pain
  • Skin problems
  • Sleep disturbances
  • Stress/tension
  • Tendonitis
  • Visual problems
What Are the Types of Treatments?
Treatment with acupuncture needles is the most commonly used technique. However, acupuncture may include other forms of treatment such as electro-acupuncture, moxibustion (a form of heat therapy, herbal prescriptions and diet. Chinese pharmacology is used to nurture and to invigorate the body through tissue- and blood-specific herbs.
What Are the Benefits?
Since acupuncture promotes the body’s natural healing ability, most conditions can be corrected or improved. Also, acupuncture is a comprehensive system of preventive health care and health maintenance. The effectiveness of acupuncture extends far beyond the conceptions that it is only useful for chronic pain management or as an analgesic.
How Does Acupuncture Feel?
Prior to their first treatment, many people do not believe that acupuncture can be painless. Different sensations such as warmth or pressure may be felt, but the energetic sensation differs from pain. People often comment that the feeling is unfamiliar but pleasant and relaxing. Acupuncture needles are very fine, about the size of a thick hair; they are solid and nothing is injected through them. Over the centuries, refined needle insertion techniques have been developed which enable the skilled acupuncture practitioner to place a needle under the skin with little or no sensation. Only disposable needles are used.In some cases it is not necessary to use needles at all. The Stimflex 400 treats without needles on acupuncture points on the outer ear that correspond to all parts of the body. The results are often excellent for all types of health problems. It is especially suited to those sensitive to needles, and to children.
Is Acupuncture For You?
First you will need a comprehensive evaluation. We will review your medical history and give you a traditional Chinese diagnosis and nutritional evaluation. This ancient art and science can reveal the primary cause of your health problem. Electronic instruments that detect imbalances in the bioenergetic system (acupuncture meridians and energy fields) may also be integrated into your evaluation.
Do Most People Respond?
Most people improve after the first or second treatment and many comment that they feel relaxed and peaceful. Many acute problems only need a few treatments, whereas chronic and severe illnesses will usually require more treatments. My goal is to get you well and to help you stay well as quickly as possible.
To make an appointment for acupuncture please call Ronald Cruickshank at (617) 547-4133.

Homeopathy

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What Is Homeopathy?
Homeopathy is a system of medicine developed by the German physician Samuel Hahnemann in the early 1800s. It uses medicines made primarily from natural substances (mostly herbs, also minerals) which have been diluted so many times that the original remedy substance is no longer present. Instead, its vibrational pattern has been imprinted on the water it was dissolved in. It is this energetic imprint which the remedy imparts to your body’s Vital Force or chi (healing energy), stimulating it to react against your health condition and push it out of the body for good.
As an energy-based healing system, homeopathy has many advantages over conventional medicine. There are no side effects or adverse reactions; it stimulates and strengthens the body’s healing energy, instead of weakening it and lowering the immune system; it is especially well-suited for people who are extremely sensitive (to medications, environmental toxins, etc.); it can address mental and emotional as well as physical symptoms; the remedies are inexpensive and do not need to be taken indefinitely.
What Is It Good For?
Homeopathy is good for a wide variety of conditions in people of all ages, from newborns to the elderly, and even for pets. (The fact that it works in infants and pets tends to dispel the notion of the placebo effect!)
And it works for a wide variety of conditions, whether acute (such as colds, flu, bee stings, cuts, bruises) or chronic (arthritis, allergies, hypothyroidism). The problem may be physical or mental (such as learning disabilities in the young or loss of memory in the elderly), emotional (depression, anxiety, low self-esteem), behavioral (addictive behaviors, ODD) or energetic (hyperactivity, fatigue).
It works especially well when there is a strong mind-body component (such as in stress-related conditions like ulcerative colitis or Crohn’s disease, or in women’s issues like menopause). It also works well for any condition when there is a clear “Never Well Since”, in other words when the patient can say “I’ve never really felt the same since my mother died [or my husband left me, my business partner betrayed me, etc].”However, it can work well in many conditions when these factors are not a part of the picture. And many times the homeopathic process helps people discover such connections between their emotions, their life-traumas, and their symptoms.
How Do We Know It Works?
Homeopathy is part of the conventional health care system in many countries around the world, including England, France, Germany, Russia, India, and much of South America. Medical doctors in these countries commonly use homeopathic medicines or refer patients to their colleagues trained at homeopathic medical schools. Two hundred years of clinical experience have demonstrated the effectiveness of homeopathic remedies.
In addition, their activity has been demonstrated by scientific studies. We still see statements in the popular press, even in medical journals, that homeopathy is unscientific and unproven. There has been extensive testing of homeopathy; unfortunately, nearly all of the studies have been conducted abroad, due to lack of funding for research in alternative medicine. The most promising type of research is called outcomes research, which indicates that for many health conditions, homeopathy provides better results, at lower cost, with fewer side effects and greater patient satisfaction. Unfortunately, most doctors in the US remain unaware of homeopathy’s scientific status because, until recently, complementary medicine was not taught in American medical schools.
For a homeopathy appointment

Nutrition

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Our Philosophy and Approach

We encourage all of our patients to choose an organic, whole foods diet that has minimal sugar, white flour products, synthetic additives, or other ingredients that may be difficult to pronounce. This is an important first step, a major dietary change that universally effects everybody in a positive way.

We each possess unique constitutions and preferences, which makes developing a “one-size-fits-all” nutritional plan impossible. Therefore, our next step is to individually develop and mold nutritional guidelines for each patient. We weigh several factors during this process. For example, some people respond better to a raw food-based diet, because they are yin-deficient (dry and over-heated), while those who are yang-deficient (cold and depleted) require predominantly cooked food.

By examining and restructuring your nutritional habits, we strive to create a sustainable, healthy eating plan that you can incorporate long-term. This approach is very different from traditional, short-term diets, which rarely produce lasting results. If your diet feels unnatural, forced, or excessively uncomfortable, then there’s probably little chance of it being a viable long-term solution. Instead, our goal is to help you incrementally adjust your daily habits until you’ve fully adopted a new system of nutrition.

Our eating habits are closely related to how well we manage stress, express our emotions, and maintain awareness of our core beliefs. We frequently turn to food for gratification and comfort, which often indicates a deeper imbalance in the mind. Our ultimate goal is to address these root causes, so that you can make positive, lasting changes.

Functional Medicine

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Our Philosophy and Approach
Functional medicine provides a new, holistic approach to patient diagnosis and treatment. This approach to medicine is exceedingly sophisticated in that it combines all of the latest advancements in western medicine with traditional botanical treatments, supplements, individualized nutrition, diet, and exercise. With this proactive approach to treatment, our goal is to seek out and address the underlying causes of chronic diseases and disorders before they strike. This is in stark contrast to the prevailing system of reactive medicine, which is more focused on diagnosing and controlling acute symptoms.
Our Goal
Adopting a whole-person concept, we spend extensive time learning about each individual patient, understanding their way of life, their history, and their habits. We also pay particular attention to factors that may link lifestyle and history to particular problems, whether they be existing or potential future conditions. This allows us to develop highly customized treatment plans for each patient. From here, we work step by step with our patients, combining lifestyle changes with various treatment options to address ailments both chronic and acute. Our goal is to provide treatment and lifestyle options that are easy to adopt and sustain, allowing you to free your mind and body of the toxins and stress that burden it.

Contact US

We are located in Porter Square just off Mass. Ave., about two blocks closer to Harvard Square from Porter. You can find us in the back of the same building as Susanna’s dress shop at 1776 Mass. Ave.

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    Contact Info

    Phone: (617) 547-4133

    Web: http://www.eastwesthealth.info