Hyperbaric Oxygen Therapy
What is HBOT?
Hyperbaric Oxygen Therapy (HBOT) is an innovative treatment that combines breathing 100% oxygen in an environment with greater than normal atmospheric pressure.
How does HBOT work?
This medical treatment increases blood oxygen concentration and delivers more oxygen to damaged tissue. Increased blood oxygen content has many beneficial effects, particularly for chronic inflammatory conditions. These effects result in an improved ability for the body to heal by:
- Dramatically increasing oxygen concentration in the body’s tissue
- Promoting the development of new blood vessels to better supply the body’s cells with oxygen
- Boosting the immune system
- Increasing white blood cell production and activity
The use of hyperbaric oxygen therapy has been approved by the Undersea and Hyperbaric Medical Society for a number of conditions. In addition, the use of HBOT in the treatment of a growing list of conditions has been gaining empirical support.
Functional Medicine
What is it?
Functional Medicine is an evolution in the practice of medicine that better addresses the healthcare needs of the 21st century. By shifting the traditional disease-centered focus of medical practice to a more patient-centered approach, functional medicine addresses the whole person, not just an isolated set of symptoms.
Practitioners spend time with their patients, listening to their histories and looking at the interactions among genetic, environmental, and lifestyle factors that can influence long-term health and complex, chronic disease. In this way, our clinic supports the unique expression of health and vitality for each individual.
Why do we need it?
- Our society is experiencing a sharp increase in the number of people who suffer from complex, chronic disease.
- The system of medicine practiced by most physicians is oriented toward acute care.
- Unfortunately, the acute-care approach to medicine lacks the proper methodology and tools for preventing and treating complex, chronic disease.
- There is a huge gap between research and the way doctors practice.
- Most physicians are not adequately trained to assess the underlying causes of complex, chronic disease and to apply strategies such as nutrition, diet, and exercise to both treat and prevent these illnesses in their patients.
How is our clinic different?
Our approach involves understanding the origins, prevention, and treatment of complex, chronic disease.
Hallmarks of our practice include:
- A patient-centered approach to care,
- An integrative, science-based healthcare methodology, and
- The integration of best medical practices.
To support this approach, Holland Biomedical Clinic:
- Integrates traditional Western medical practices with what are sometimes considered “alternative” or “integrative” medicine
- Creates a focus on prevention through nutrition, diet, and exercise
- Uses the latest laboratory testing and other diagnostic techniques, and
- Prescribe combinations of drugs and/or botanical medicines, supplements, therapeutic diets, detoxification programs, and stress-management techniques.
Microcurrent Therapy
What is Microcurrent Therapy?
Microcurrent Therapy is the controlled application of low-amp electrical stimulus to specific regions of the body. The current is designed to match a similar amount of electrical activity already present during natural cell activity.
How does it work?
All of the cells in our body require small amounts of electricity to perform their functions. Typically, the cells produce this electricity through chemical exchanges on the molecular level. However, sometimes the body’s cells do not all receive what it needs to perform their functions at an optimum level. Microcurrent Therapy provides the cells with a similar charge of electrical stimulus to kickstart the natural processes within the cells, promoting healthy cellular function.
Who benefits most from it?
The primary beneficiaries of Microcurrent Therapy are those who suffer from chronic inflammation and/or pain. The therapy is an effective manager of inflammation, particularly around soft tissue injuries such as strains or sprains, muscle tears, and post-surgical wounds. Because inflammation is the leading cause of chronic pain, Microcurrent Therapy can be a very efficient manager of pain, as well as many other disorders. Microcurrent Therapy is also used in promoting faster healing of bone fractures and injuries.
Does it hurt?
No. The level of electrical stimulus provided by Microcurrent Therapy is too low for the body to register as pain. It is no more shocking than the electricity that your body produces naturally within its own cells. By comparison, a TENS device is approximately 1,000 times more potent in terms of electrical stimulation, because it is designed to directly stimulate muscle tissue. Microcurrent Therapy seeks to operate on a much smaller cellular level, and therefore requires delicate amounts ofstimulation.
Should anyone not use it?
People who have implanted cardiac pacemakers should not undergo Microcurrent Therapy, as the electrical stimulus may tamper with the device’s function. Though nothing has suggested that it is harmful to pregnant women, there has not been study its effects on pregnancy, and therefore is avoided.
Exercise With Oxygen Therapy
What is EWOT?
EWOT is a multi-step method for oxygenating the body’s tissues to promote whole body wellness.
How does EWOT work?
EWOT is a two-part process. The first part is exercising while breathing in high altitude-like oxygen conditions. This condition triggers an increased heart rate, faster breathing, and dilated blood vessels. The second part is flooding the body with a high concentration of oxygen. These two parts combines to help increase brain, cardiovascular, and vital organ health. During this process, the body will try to reroute as much blood as possible to its most important organs, the brain and the heart, going so far as to release stored blood from the spleen to improve perfusion. The perfusion allows for the cellular function of these organs to dramatically improve.
Who would EWOT help?
EWOT is beneficial for professional and amateur athletes looking to improve their endurance. It can also be used by climbers or those looking to improve their overall health.
Nutrition
What is it?
Our nutrition approach is a personalized, holistic approach to health and healing, that takes into consideration the complexity of an individual, including lifestyle, history, lab work, physiology, and genetics. Our Nutrition Consultant understands the power of food as medicine, and uses food, supplements, and lifestyle to positively affect how we feel, while preventing, healing and sometimes curing chronic illness.
How does it work?
Your dietitian will obtain a detailed nutrition history from you. She will take into consideration your whole journey, including your medical history and information gathered from lab results. She will help explain lab results to you, and help decide upon appropriate diet modifications and professional supplements to use as a part of your nutrition plan. Your dietitian will then monitor how the plan is working for you, and will make adjustments based upon your response.
What can you expect?
Providing as much information as you can at the initial nutrition appointment will be helpful. Your dietitian will want to know what has worked in the past, what hasn’t, and details about what you are doing now. Your dietitian is your partner in health. You are at the center of your care, and communication is key to navigating the way towards finding a personalized plan that will work long term for you to help you live as healthfully as possible.