The Tools 

As we have stated, Integrative medicine looks at the whole person; mind, body and spirit and the context of community.  It addresses all aspects of health, and takes a proactive approach to staying healthy.  Optimal Living has created tools that incorporate Itergtaive Medicine into our daily .lives.  The result is the “Toolbook for a Longer and Healthier Life”.

Your first experience with membership will be a questionnaire and urinalysis test that will arrive with your membership kit. It will allow us to identify your body type and lifestyle, and evaluate your goals. 

The Nutrition Tool

The Nutrition Tool provides guidelines to achieve balance in your nutritional intake from food based on your body type and lifestyle.  We will cover sugar, carbohydrates, salt, protein, and fat.  We will also discuss weight loss and gain.  The tool will show you how to achieve a reasonable balance in these areas, without sacrificing the majority of foods you enjoy right now.  You will be able to create shopping lists, menus, and snack ideas that will almost immediately give you more energy and boost your immune system.  You will learn about other benefits, such as lowering inflammation in the body.  Your sleep patterns, sex drive, memory, energy levels, and disease control all are directly related to your food and supplement intake.

The Supplement Tool

This tool will be your guide in taking the right amounts of vitamins, anti-oxidants, amino acids, herbs and other supplements based on your nutritional intake from food, your body type, and lifestyle.  A program will be customized for you, and we offer a high quality line of products that can be sent to you on a regular basis.  We will guide you in an augmenting your diet with protein and soy supplements, which have been proven to decrease the onset of problems such as osteoporosis, cancer, and heart disease.  It will also dispel the myths and the benefits of herbs.  We will teach you how to eliminate free radicals and carcinogens from your systems.  In the winter months your body has different needs that in the summer months.  Once again, referring to the tool for a few times throughout the years will allow you to achieve optimum balance.  Our research shows that the FDA recommended dosages are just a starting point for vitamin, herb, and supplement therapy, and if managed properly, these therapies can be effective in staying healthy and disease free.

The Exercise Tool

It seems so simple to say that exercise is beneficial to a healthier life, and will probably help us live longer.  However, exercise is such a large topic, with so many schools of thought, that we needed to find the balance between good exercise and potentially harmful exercise.  You can seriously damage your body by exercising the wrong way.

We have stilled the benefits of exercise into three categories, useable in everyday life.  Of course, we all have different needs when it comes to exercise, but since we know your body type, and have different needs when it comes to exercise, but since we know your body type, and desired lifestyle, it’s not difficult to design an exercise plan that will work for you.  The Exercise Tool will guide you through that last step, and you then can start your personal plan.  When it comes to exercise, the research shows that sometimes “less is more”.  Too much, and we put undo stress on your bodies, not enough, and we become vulnerable to injury and disease.

The Alternative Medicine Tool

With all of the information available on alternative medicine, it is almost impossible to get a clear picture of what might be useful.  When we hear about acupuncture, homeopathic medicine, aromatherapy, or sound and light therapies, it is almost impossible to combine what might be useful for our needs without professional help.  Our team of physicians and researchers have designed this tool to help you navigate thought the vest world of alternative medicine and therapies.  After having discovered more about what your needs are now, and what they may be in the future, you can use the tool to find out what alternative therapies might be beneficial to you.  We also give references to books, articles, centers, and to various alternative medicinal therapies that have shown positive results, so you can explore on your own.

The Stretching Tool

Our research has shown that stretching is such an important part of keeping the muscular skeletal system healthy, avoiding common injuries, and relieving stress, that we have developed the Stretching Tool.  It is the tool closet to exercise, but it also has a neighbor not far away in stress reduction.  Studies have shown that ten to twenty minutes of stretching the right way every day, will not only keep you safer from things like lower back strains and knee problems, but can help decrease stress levels, and make you a happier and more energetic person.

The Sleep Tool

Most of us either don’t get enough sleep, get too much, or don’t sleep at the right times.  Or we’re not getting “quality sleep”.  Research shows that when you have a regular sleep pattern, for the right amount of time, you have less risk of being depressed, anxious, and best of all; optimal sleep patterns can boost the immune system, and reduce stress.  Your sleep patterns will be analyzed in personal consultations, and will be given recommendations for optimal sleep.

The Mind Tool

Only within the past ten years has western medicine begun to embrace and discover the real connection between our minds and our bodies.  It’s something eastern medicine has proven to effective for over 5000 years.  Now, western medical research has embraced the power of the mind/body connection.  The Mind Tool will present the best research, and demonstrate techniques that can help you stay healthy.

Mindfulness Based Stress Reduction (MBSR), a cornerstone our mental well being, is a method of using meditation and yoga to cultivate awareness and reduce stress. It is based on the ancient practice of mindfulness, which is about waking up, being fully alive, and being present in the richness of each moment of our lives. Within this awakening, we gain access to our deepest inner resources for living, healing, and coping with stress. In our program, participants practice present moment awareness, deep relaxation, and gentle movement. Through the use of these techniques, a person learns to discover and observe his or her reactions to life's stressors and to choose how to respond.

Your attitude is dependent on how you think about something, and within attitude lie all the planning and decision making that facilitates the biological steps to an optimal life.  The Mind Tool will give you guidance in stress management, preventing depression, memory loss, and compulsive behavior.  It all begins above the neck.