Have you been suffering from a chronic health problem, but have found little relief from prescription medications or multiple natural remedies? If so, you may want to explore CBD (Cannabidiol) as a potential legal, safe remedy. While conferring with a practitioner experienced in its administration is recommended when using CBD, this basic primer is meant to provide sufficient information to help you determine whether trying this remedy may be right for you. What Is CBD? – Legality & Safety The endocannabinoid system (ECS) of the human body, discovered in the 1990s, is the biological basis for mind-body medicine. It...

I will never forget that morning in the spring of 2016. It was around 5:30am and the sun was just beginning to cast bright beautiful rays through my window. As I got out of bed, I happened to glance at my pillow and noticed more than just a few stray strands of hair on my pillow. “That’s weird,” I thought. While I was used to my hair shedding in different seasons, there was more hair than I would have expected on my pillowcase. A short while later, as I rinsed out the conditioner at the end of my shower,...

“Dana, I’ve recently lost a spouse. On top of an overall feeling of mourning and loss, I find myself overwhelmed with the estate and financial matters and don’t know where to begin. Please help!” First and foremost, let me acknowledge that the loss of a spouse is one of the most difficult life events and transitions that can occur during our lifetimes. Assisting with estates and transitions has been a service I’ve provided for many years. If and when anyone you know experiences a loss like this, please take the extra time to be kind, compassionate, and express that...

Emerging evidence supports the use of a new diet therapy plan, the Crohn’s Disease Exclusion Diet (CDED), as a primary treatment of mild to moderate Crohn’s disease. In the last twenty years, research in diet and Crohn’s disease has increasingly implicated the Westernized diet or Standard American Diet (SAD) as a factor in the development of Crohn’s Disease (CD). Research on the role diet therapy has after diagnosis has been underwhelming. Diet is acknowledged as an adjunct therapy in the management of CD in adults and has mainly focused on eliminating foods to minimize symptoms during active disease flares....

I had the pleasure of sitting down with Spa Director – Clinical Aesthetician, Laura Duffany, at The Spa at Litchfield Hills to talk about the hottest new trends in skincare! Laura has worked with plastic surgeons and medical doctors and has cultivated a strong and knowledgeable skincare team at the spa. Her favorite line is Skinceuticals for spa facials and daily skincare regime. The spa offers dermaplaning, medical grade peels and microdermabrasion among other skincare services. Dermaplaning One of the trendiest exfoliation options today is dermaplaning, which is performed using a sterile surgical scalpel (not as scary as it...

I have always had a fascination with lymphatic massage and the incredible power of how such a light touch can have such an impact on our health. Our lymphatic system is incredible and many people do not know how powerful it really is. The system helps make magical white blood cells called lymphocytes that produce antibodies which help build our body’s immune system and defend it against attacks from viruses, germs and bacteria. How Your Lymphatic System Gets Clogged During the recent pandemic, I was not as good to my body as I should have been, a lack of...

Symptoms are signs. Do you pay attention or ignore them? A symptom is a physical or mental feature which is regarded as indicating a condition of disease, particularly such a feature that is apparent to the patient. Have you noticed any of the following symptoms as you age? Fatigue, frequently tired or have that foggy feeling Difficulty maintaining a healthy weight Broken sleep; having to urinate too often Vision changes such as floaters, blurred vision, dark or empty spots These are common symptoms we tend to disregard and consider part of the aging process. Did you know that these...

Do you ever feel like you are in a war against yourself to create the change that you desire? Do you want to lose weight but can’t resist the sweets? Do you want to kick a bad habit but have tried countless times with no luck? From a Hypnotherapist’s standpoint, this is not your fault. This inner conflict happens because your conscious desires are fighting against your subconscious programming. What most people don’t know is that your conscious mind, where all of your thinking takes place, makes up only 12% of your mind; the other 88% is made up...

Many of you reading this article suffer from chronic pain. According to the CDC, 1 out of every 5 Americans, or about 50 million people have some form of chronic pain. Acute pain alerts us to an injury or illness. Pain is your brain’s signal telling you to stop doing the activity that caused the damage or to rest the injured area to allow it to heal. Sometimes, allowing the acute pain time to heal works; however, sometimes the inflamed state doesn’t wholly resolve. This can be due to various reasons including structural abnormalities, chronic infections, or metabolic deficiencies....

Although it has long been felt a healthy diet, regular exercise and stress reduction can result in a host of medical benefits, research has now validated many of the ideas utilized in Anti-Aging Medicine. Lifestyle Changes Healthy lifestyle slows cellular aging which has been proven through the study of chromosomal structures called telomeres. Telomeres, found at the end of our chromosomes, prevent the DNA within our chromosomes from being damaged, but as we grow older the telomeres become shorter and cells begin to age and die more rapidly. Previous studies have linked the shortening of telomeres to a decrease...

Being exposed to mold could cause an array of devastating symptoms including headaches, fatigue, brain fog and joint pain. This phenomenon of mold sensitivity is sometimes referred to as CIRS or chronic inflammatory response syndrome. While for some people this can be the sole cause of chronic disease, it is extremely under-recognized in the medical community. Raising awareness for both patients and physicians can help solve this treatable medical mystery. The mold sensitivity discussed in this article differs from a mold allergy. With an allergy, a person can get the typical symptoms of sneezing, runny nose and watery eyes....

Aging is inevitable, but premature aging is preventable. The goal of functional medicine is to help patients stay healthy, active and fit into their eighth and ninth decades and beyond. We can postpone the symptoms of aging until we are close to the end of our lives. Currently, many Americans start to feel declines in stamina, vision and flexibility decades before the end of their lives. That is premature aging and that is what is, in large part, preventable. The same factors that result in the current epidemic of chronic illness and contribute to premature death are also responsible...

Your head is pounding, your brow is sweating, and the stabbing pain in your gut is the only thing that distracts you from the nausea. You run for the bathroom, you want to run to the hospital, but what can they do for you? It’s the middle of the night and you have food poisoning. Was it the fruit salad that cousin Mary brought or the macaroni salad that Aunt Anne made? Maybe the turkey wasn’t done enough? Just thinking about it makes it worse. Then, it gets worse. Your kids come rushing into your room holding their bellies....

Stems cells are progenitor cells, meaning that they have the potential to morph into any type of body cell from nerve cell to cardiac cells and everything in between, upon maturation, and under specific conditions. These cells function either to replace old, diseased, or dead cells, which is commonly known as regeneration, or may undergo a process of change, or differentiation, generating completely different cell types. Stem cells originate from different places within the body such as bone marrow, amniotic fluid which is the fluid filled sac surrounding the developing fetus, and embryonic stem cells which derive from developing...

Our bodies and brains generate electro-magnetic fields within us and around us. We live in the Earth’s natural magnetic field and from the beginning we have been dependent on this environment. However, we have now created a vast global network of man-made electromagnetic fields – the greatest polluting element in the earth’s environment. The human body electric and the Earth’s body electric have been damaged.   ~ Wireless Radiation Rescue – Safeguard Your Family from Electropollution, Kerry Crofton, PhD (2011), quoting Robert O. Becker, MD, a leading bioelectromagnetics expert.   Especially with the recent introduction and anticipated increased presence...

Rebecca Daniels had dreamed of running a Bed and Breakfast for a long time. She always enjoyed traveling around the world and staying in unique places and her experience in hospitality and the service industry had prepared her for the role as an Innkeeper. After living in various parts of the country, she settled in Massachusetts and realized she wanted to be in New England to fulfill this dream. Her parents, Monty and Jeannette, grew up in the Midwest and lived in many places around the country during Monty’s work in the shopping center industry. His experience in the...

Quarantine, protests, virtual or no work/school, riots, face mask wearing. . . Demands, expectations, uncertainties, and judgement from others. . . I want to be pregnant, when is it my turn, none of this is fair. . . Life is full of constant change, how you are able to cope and adapt to change is imperative for a healthy reproductive system. Each day you are faced, and often challenged, with events and situations that result in a beautiful cascade of biochemical pathways adapted from centuries of human development. Unfortunately, due to the non-stop nature of the current Information Age,...