By admin on September 20, 2011
Autumn is a time to nurture yourself on a more subtle level, to find peace and prepare for the challenges of winter. Autumn is a good time to relax, focus on spiritual practices, take time to think about your life and celebrate the harvest – your life’s blessings.
Autumn Health Tips:
1. Eat bountiful fresh organic foods. Celebrate the harvest season by eating more root vegetables like carrots, onions, and beets.
2. Boost your immune system in preparation for the cold and flu season. Make an acupuncture or naturopathic appointment at Sages’ Healing Center to give your immune system extra protection for the season.
3. Protect your lungs’ health to keep your immune system strong: Minimize your intake of spicy foods during this season, which may irritate the lungs – making them vulnerable to infection.
4. Avoid drafts and breezes. Cooling temperatures and increased seasonal winds can cause a chill, which sometimes leads to illness.
5. Be aware of dryness – Arizona is home to “dryness,” so it is very important to drink plenty of fluids and take warm baths with your favorite oils.
6. Take time to journal and reflect. The falling leaves of autumn symbolize the transition from an expansive, social summer to the contracting, internalized winter. Reflect on your life now: What are you presently letting go of? What are you cultivating in your life right now?
Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged Autumn, Colds, Fall, naturopathic
By admin on June 26, 2011
Welcome Summer! Now that the summer solstice is behind us, the temperatures have risen, and we’re spending more time outside, let’s talk about the sun.
Before we get to the article, we would like to share a few pieces of information. Firstly, Dr. Kate will be hosting a discussion on vaccinations and children this TUESDAY, JUNE 28th at Sages’ Healing Center (1101 E. Gurley St.). This is a great opportunity to have all of your questions answered regarding vaccines in a comfortable, stress-free environment. Vaccinations are a very personal choice for parents, so this presentation is just to provide you the resources for making informed decisions regarding your child’s care.
Secondly, we want to inform all of our patients that our clinic will be closed the week of July 11th – 15th. If you have any medical emergencies that arise, please feel free to call our normal office number (458-6748) and leave a message with our answering service to contact us, or they can direct you to a practitioner that can help you at another clinic in town.
Take care and have a safe happy 4th of July.
Sincerely,
Dr. Kate, Damon & Sophie
Is the sun good or bad for me?
There are numerous rumors running around about the controversial effects of the sun. Is it pro-cancer or anticancer? Sun is prided in its ability to give a person 10,000IUs of Vitamin D in a single golden tan. Vitamin D receptors are found throughout the body, concentrated in most organs, including the brain, heart, skin, gonads, prostate, and breasts. Vitamin D supports cell proliferation, differentiation and immune function. Continue reading “Is the sun good or bad for me?”
Posted in Newsletter | Tagged melanoma, Summer, tanning
By admin on May 25, 2011
Hello Friends,
Summertime is just about here and Prescott is warming up at last! With the change in our schedules, kids out of school, etc there is less desire and motivation to keep up with those healthy routines. Sages’ Healing Center is here to help you stay accountable! We are changing the price of return naturopathic visits with Dr. Kate. Starting Wed, June 1st, your hour-long visit will now only be $85. Kid’s visits will stay the same at $60.
Please too know that Dr. Kate may be available outside of regular hours if you or a family member is suffering from an acute condition, like an ear infection, and needs to see the doctor sooner than later. This is likely going to be a much cheaper and less stressful experience than trying to tackle Urgent Care or the ER. We can’t make any promises, but if Dr. Kate is in town and available, she would be happy to see you. After hours call and leave a message on our usual business line, and we will get back to you quickly. Keep us in mind!
Now to share with you some insightful suggestions to enhance the quality of your life:
How you can add more life to your years:
By Nazia Mallick
- Great love and great achievement involve great risk. Take the risk anyway.
- When you realize you have hurt someone’s feelings, take immediate steps to correct it. Ask for forgiveness.
- Keep your arms open to change, but don’t let go of your personal values.
- Quiet the voice in your head that says, “I can’t do this.”
- Don’t quit, no matter what.
- Spend some time alone
- Smile when picking up the phone. The caller will hear it in your voice.
- When you say “I love you,” mean it.
- When you hug someone, do it with love.
- Make eye contact.
- Live life like it is your last day on the Earth.
Take care,
Dr. Kate, Damon & Sophia Sage
Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged acupuncture, longevity, naturopathic
By admin on May 10, 2011
We apologize for the newsletter hiatus over the last few months. Sages’ Healing Center and the Sage family have been extra busy. Firstly was the birth of the newest member of the Sage clan, Sophia Sage. Sophie enjoys helping around the office and is quite good at distracting us from work-related tasks, such as writing newsletters. Now that life has settled down and spring has finally sprung in the Southwest, we are once again back to writing our monthly newsletter. If you have any ideas on what you want us to talk about, please don’t hesitate to send us an email (sages@sageshealingcenter.com)
| We are asked a lot about treating dementia and other brain health questions. While there is a lot one can do to help limit the amount of issues later in life, the best time to treat your brain is now, before you have symptoms. Here are some fun, helpful brain-saving tips to help you stay happy, healthy and alert well into your older years.
What can I do to keep my brain healthy as I age?
There are no cures for the diseases that cause dementia and mental wasting. For Alzheimer’s, Parkinson’s, Lou Gehrig’s and the other devastating diseases, we have to focus on prevention. You may not have put prevention of these things on the forefront of your mind, but today is the day to do so. How you may ask? By incorporating a few simple things into your day. It is no wonder that the every day things you can do to prevent these diseases also have the side effect of improving your brain function.
Here are 12 things you can do daily to keep your brain healthy:
1. Exercise regularly: Exercising your body oxygenates your brain, keeping your cells happy.
2. Hydration: Drink half of your body weight in ounces in order to keep all of your cells, brain cells included, optimally hydrated.
3. Do something stimulating: Read a book, play puzzles, anything to keep your brain working hard.
4. Think happy thoughts: 80% of self-talk is negative. Instead, give yourself a compliment!
5. Surf the internet: The internet keeps your mind moving, constantly learning new things.
6. Eat brain food: The nutrients that are most important for your brain include vitamins A, B, C, E, Magnesium, Zinc and amino acids. Most of these you should be able to get if you eat lots of vegetables. That said, this is one of the many reasons that we give a liquid B-vitamin supplement to most patients.
7. Load up on fish oils: Omega 3 fatty acids are an important part of nerve cells.
8. Eat herbs: Taking herbs like gingko and ginseng can optimize your brain’s function. Be sure to discuss the appropriate dose with your doctor.
9. Learn something new on a regular basis: Challenge yourself to learn a new language, how to knit, how to do whatever it is you have always want to do. When you have accomplished that task, start a new one!
10. Don’t waste your time: Even while you are resting you can do breathing exercises (see #1), or read a book (see #3).
11. Sleep: Sleeping 8 hours a night is important in order to let your brain rest and digest your day. A lot of important things get processed while you sleep.
12. Have sex.
Happy Spring!
Love,
Damon and Kate Sage |
Posted in Uncategorized
By admin on September 21, 2010
How can I allow my child to enjoy trick-or-treating without being stuck with tons of unhealthy candy in the house?
As a child, I remember the best thing about October was not the changing leaves or the opportunity to dress up as a princess (although those were great things about the season) but rather my favorite part was going trick-or-treating for candy!
Now as a physician focused on the health and wellbeing of all of my little pumpkin patients, I am concerned about the calories and sugar intake (as well as the dyes, chemicals, etc) that comes along with this holiday tradition. But how could we possibly make this process any healthier without being considered unusually cruel?
Enter “The Great Pumpkin”! This is a method used by many student parents I met while in naturopathic school. How it works is this:
1). Child dresses up in favorite costume and trick-or-treats like all of the regular kids
2). When child comes home with all of their candy, he or she gets to pick 2 treats to enjoy and then leaves the rest for “the Great Pumpkin!”
3). The “Great Pumpkin!” comes in the middle of the night (or right after child goes to sleep ☺), hides candy so it can be donated or disposed of, and then leaves a toy for the child in its place.
This means when your kid wakes up, he or she doesn’t feel like they lost anything at all. Instead they are rewarded for leaving their candy for something that won’t make their teeth rot.
Now, all that is important is that the parents playing the “Great Pumpkin” do get rid of the candy so they too don’t become pumpkin-shaped.
Need more ideas for getting through the holiday season? Sages’ Healing Center has lots of solutions, just ask.
Posted in Newsletter | Tagged Candy, Great Pumpkin, Halloween, naturopathic
By admin on August 2, 2010
Can you believe it’s August already? We hope you have had a fun summer thus far and the recent rains in Northern AZ haven’t kept you home too much. Many times on vacation, we tend to get off of our good eating routines, ingesting foods that maybe are not the best choices for our bodies. This may cause a multitude of symptoms, like heartburn, stomachaches, or perhaps even cause havoc upon your bowels. What is a person to do to get their digestion back on track? Besides going back to your usual healthy diet, you may need a good round of probiotics.
Why do I need to take probiotics?
Did you know that you have about 3-4 pounds of gut bugs (aka intestinal flora, gut bacteria or probiotics) in your intestinal tract? There are so many that some consider your intestinal flora another organ. In fact, researchers are not even sure how many live in your intestines or the different names of all of the species! What we do know however is that gut flora plays a vital role in your health and for this reason, it is very important to keep your levels healthy and happy.
Continue reading “Why do I need probiotics?”
Posted in Newsletter | Tagged naturopathic, Prescott, Probiotics
By admin on July 7, 2010
Happy summer everyone! Sometimes doctors can bombard us with medical terms and acronyms to the point of utter confusion. Luckily Sages’ Healing Center is here to answer all of your questions and to act as interpreter for all those lab tests you have had run over the years. Today we would like to help you understand cholesterol and why your body needs it to survive.
Is Cholesterol Really Bad For You?
The idea that cholesterol causes heart disease, while popular, is not compatible with human life. Cholesterol is essential to your health and survival. Continue reading “Is Cholesterol Really Bad For You?”
Posted in Newsletter | Tagged acupuncture, Cholesterol, Health, naturopathic, Prescott
By admin on June 8, 2010
Happy June from Sages’ Healing Center!! We have officially declared June to be “Hydrotherapy Month” – a month to utilize water as a powerful, health producing therapy. As the summer heat beats down upon us, it is essential to make sure you are drinking enough water. What you may not know is that water can also be used externally in a variety of methods to help to reduce inflammation, clear toxins from your body, and even boost your immune system.
Interested in learning more about hydrotherapy? This Saturday, June 12th, Dr. Kathryn Sage will be giving a lecture entitled, “Hydrotherapy: Harnessing the Healing Power of Water”, at One Root Tea and Herbothcary (500 W. Gurley in Prescott). The lecture will start at 9:00am and will go over many of the basic tenants of hydrotherapy, as well as give you some easy, at-home hydrotherapy treatments for the entire family.
For now, here is one of our favorite hydrotherapy treatments that we share with many of our patients:
Hydrotherapy treatment #1
This is an easy hydrotherapy treatment that you and your family can do everyday in the shower. It will wake you up, improve your mood and give you more energy. The treatment also helps boost your immune system so you may notice over time that you will get less sick or not sick at all with the “nasty bug” everybody else is catching.
This most basic and tonifying hydrotherapy treatment uses alternating hot and cold in the shower. When you use hot water on your skin, blood is drawn towards the smaller vessels closer to the skin, thus the reason you turn red/pink. When it does this, it brings with it nutrients and oxygen to feed tissues that often time don’t get as much fresh blood. When you use cold, the blood gets pulled back towards the center and out of the small vessels, the reason you turn white. When the blood is drawn back in, it brings toxins and wastes with it to be disposed of by the liver.
Ideally it is best to do two minutes of hot water all over your body and then thirty seconds of cold (as cold as you can stand it) all over your body. If possible, try to do this a total of 3 times in the shower. As I know I am asking a lot, better than nothing is to always end your shower in cold water for 30 seconds. You may find that it brings more energy and vitality to your day.
Posted in Newsletter | Tagged Hydrotherapy, naturopathic, Prescott, sages
By admin on April 26, 2010
Now that the weather is getting warmer, how do we keep our bodies healthy as we resume our exercise routines? And keep from getting injured?
The sun is finally shining and our bodies are ready to get out and play in the sunshine. Before you embark on day-long hikes, spend the weekend out gardening, or begin an aggressive exercise regimen to lose that winter weight, you should realize that your body may not be ready to jump right into all of the fun. Instead, it is important gradually work into your summertime movement routines. Here are some helpful tips to get you started:
1). Before working out, the best way to get your muscles warmed up is by going on a walk. Get outside and walk for 10-15 minutes, gradually working the pace. Stretching before exercise can be dangerous when done on cold muscles; instead stretch at the end to keep your muscles from getting sore or even seizing up.
2). Don’t try to climb Granite Mountain (or any other mountain) as your first hike of the spring. Instead stick to an easy to moderate hike, one that lasts 1-2 hours max, and enjoy it! Give your body a chance to just move, be outside, relish in the sun rather than working really hard to get to the top. If you get tired along the way, take a rest. It is not worth pushing yourself because it increases the chance of injury. There is plenty of time to work up to the more strenuous hikes later in the season.
3). Don’t be a “weekend warrior”. These are the people that only move their bodies on the weekends and sit for the rest of the week at work. Instead, try to fit in short walks or other aerobic exercise during the week so you don’t overdo it on the weekends. Weekend warrior injuries are especially common for people who garden: lifting, bending over, and digging can all cause injuries if your body is not used to that sort of movement.
Springtime is a time of transition: let us let our bodies transition too. Listen to it and be cautious to not over do it so when summer comes, we can take full advantage of all of the amazing outdoor activities the season has to offer.
Posted in Newsletter | Tagged acupuncture, naturopathic, Sage, Weekend Warrior
By admin on April 6, 2010
Greetings from Sages’ Healing Center. Since spring is in the air, a fact well known by those with seasonal allergies, we have decided to post a follow-up to last month’s springtime allergies article. What’s the point of knowing about allergies, if you don’t know how to treat them. One of our favorite herbs for allergies is the nettle plant.
Stinging nettle, Uritica Dioica, grows along roadsides and in the forests almost throughout the US and Canada. It is best known for its ability to “sting” you with its prickers, causing an uncomfortable urticaria or itchy rash that may last up to 12 hours. Although not a commonly known herb now, nettles have a rich history of medicinal uses and its leaves and roots have been used for everything including bladder issues, allergies and even hair re-growth. Continue reading “Can Nettles Help My Allergy Symptoms?”
Posted in Newsletter | Tagged acupuncture, Allergies, Natural, naturopathic, Nettles, Prescott
