Integrative Healthcare Symposium 2023

The 2023 Integrative Healthcare Symposium took place on March 23-25 of 2023.

Here are my takeaways.

I attended several of the talks and workshops but there were two that were particularly good, one by Mark Hyman MD and Jeffrey Bland PhD (the "father" of functional medicine). Both spoke intelligently and coherently, expressing updates in recent news in Integrative Medicine / Healthcare.

I plan on getting and reading Mark Hyman's book "Young Forever." I did point out to him in a short conversation that I disagreed with the title of the book because it glorifies being young when another way to look at what he is talking about is aging better in a wonderful healthy way, living a long and healthful, meaningful life.

Also, he is quite tall.

The other talk that was good was by Jeffrey Bland. While I do not practice functional medicine, I have taken a few courses and understand/appreciate its significance. It's something that Jeffrey Bland really contributed to much over the years.

I took a photo of him getting a standing ovation at the end of his talk. I was quite far away as is evident in the photo.

Both Mark and Jeffrey mentioned Himalayan Tartary Buckwheat as a food with health benefits to look out for. It seems like it's been mentioned before and is not terribly new, but I find it worth mentioning at the very least. https://drhyman.com/blog/2021/08/19/a-bold-new-superfood-himalayan-tartary-buckwheat/

There were many, many booths at the exhibit hall. Though I had a goal to not take stuff with me, I took a few samples from Boiron (homeopathics) which I took to my office, which was a short walking distance away from the venue, and some magnesium for myself. Besides that I tried out a sauna and PEMF (ampcoil), and did a auricular acupuncture session.

I am heavily considering getting a PEMF device for myself and for my practice (www.DrFrancisYooDO.com) and a sauna for myself down the line.

I have taken hundreds of hours of acupuncture courses-training and I recognized all of the points they used but it has not been a large part of my practice. Perhaps it is time to bring it back.

I also spend some time speaking with the representatives at the Dr. Amen clinic booth and the Naturepedic bed folks.

Another item I was curious a bit about but I don't know much about is the health benefits of hyperbaric oxygen.

I also had fun speaking with fellow attendees about various health topics.

One of my attributes is that I have a wide fund of knowledge, having studied Clinical Homeopathy, Acupuncture, some Functional Medicine, and more. However, the best way for me to give value to my patients is through Osteopathy at my Midtown-NYC medical practice (www.DrFrancisYooDO.com). where I work with the Health of my patients to help resolve health concerns including back pain, neck pain, restlessness and excess-stress related conditions, Long COVID, traumas, shocks, headaches, brainfog, and more. While I don't focus too much on other modalities such as Functional Medicine, I can converse about them and make suggestions on whether people would benefit from it and make referrals when necessary.

If you're looking for a physician in New York City to help you with

- neck pain, back pain, structural issues, especially chronic

- headaches, brainfog, restlessness

- excess stress and stress related unease

- Long COVID

Start by going to https://drfrancisyoodo.as.me/

Getting your "subway" matrix running smoothly.

Have you ever been delayed because the train you are on or waiting for is stalled because of an issue with a subway train somewhere else?

"The Q train is delayed because we were working on an issue at another stop."

People can't get where they need to go. Maybe they're irritated, nervous, agitated, unhappy. This atmosphere spreads and affects others in the area, the platform, the station, and the whole system!

I consider each person an interwoven, inter-related whole with various pathways and their related stations - arteries, veins, nerves, extracellular matrix / meridians, lymphatics, cerebral spinal fluid, thoughts, emotions, nutrients, air.

I consider pain, restlessness, trouble concentrating - any symptom - to be a restriction in the whole system.

Sometimes the area of restriction is where the symptom is and sometimes it is not.

My role, as your Osteopath, is to find the station, pathway, or train that is needs some help to get the whole system to function in a more Healthful way.

I check my patients head to toe, bones, joints, fascia, muscles, blood-flow, air/respiratory circulation, nerve flow, cerebrospinal fluid, cranium and face, "fluid body," qi, primary Meridians, extraordinary vessels, the 5 phases from the Chinese medicine perspective, and more.

I use my hands to find work with your "subway" system to take care of those delays so everything can flow better. With this comes resolution of bothersome symptoms.

If you would like me to help with your whole system and get things moving and flowing better make an appointment at https://drfrancisyoodo.as.me

"I'm currently the most fit and metabolically healthy I have ever been my entire (adult) life."

"I'm currently the most fit and metabolically healthy I have ever been my entire (adult) life. And it's gonna get better."

I posted this on my personal social media account yesterday and I had one person comment:

"What do you credit it to?"

And another person commented:

"Do you have a routine of some kind."

It has been a 3 year journey that has started to yield evident fruit in my life and I have been adapting various actions, thoughts, and feelings through it all. I'll break it down to these three categories. I'll probably do separate posts about each of these in the future.

Actions

- I have been doing a brief exercise in the morning using the X3 bar at home as my primary modality of exercise. The focus is on high intensity interval training using variable resistance. - I have been seeing a Jungian psychoanalyst for 3 years. In these weekly ~1 hour sessions I get help from my psychoanalyst to explore my psyche via symbols in daily activities and my dreams.

- Sticking to a waking up / going to bed time most of the week; at least 4 days of the week I go to sleep and wake up at the same time.

- Cultivation: I have been doing various practices and routines to cultivate Health, Harmony, Presence, Wholeness. This includes

-- using magnets and cords on extraordinary vessel master-couple points.

-- QiGong / Inner Alchemy / KAP practices

- Going to see doctors and other health-care experts, especially getting Osteopathic treatments for myself.

- Nutrition and eating: I realized recently that I had an unhealthy relationship with food and eating and only recently started training myself to eat in a way that is nutritious for me.

-- I make sure I get enough protein to also go along with my muscle training. I supplement with Fortagen daily as well.

-- Daily Athletic Greens.

-- I avoid wheat because I have been told by trustworthy physicians that I am sensitive to it.

-- Minimal (digestible) carbohydrates (bread, rice, fruits) unless I am being really physically active.

Thoughts

- I've been feeding my head-mind-brain with useful, positively-transforming ideas and implementing the ones that are appropriate for me. This is a bit vague but it's partly because I've been reading so many books.

- Here is one example: "The Gap and The Gain" is a book I am listening to now and it is helping me self-observe and reframe negative perspectives and self-defeated/value-lowering thoughts.

Feelings

- I have been practicing tuning into my inner Integrity, Authenticity, Values and what my Body Center is asking of me. Being willing to face my feelings and be earnest with them has been valuable to me.

- Re-evaluating my values and whether my priorities matched my values and whether my actions matched my priorities.

My current morning routine:

1) Wake up.

2) Check my oura ring's data about my night's sleep.

3) Sometimes I do morning cultivation with magnets and cords for an extraordinary vessel.

4) Athletic Greens, Fortagen (I'm not sure if it's optimal to take them together but it works for me for now.)

5) Physical exercise with X3 bar. (During breaks between sets I study a few Japanese vocabulary words).

6) On days where I do not need to leave right away I journal while drinking Mud/Wtr.

I do plan on getting to the journaling on a more consistent basis.

My current bed-time routine

1) Computer and phone goes on "night mode" to reduce bright lights ~2 hours before bedtime.

2) I take "pass thru the night" herbal preparation in hot water. (I brush my teeth at some point after I drink this as a tea).

3) I sometimes turn off lights as well and use a candle indoors. I do realize I have a certain luxury to be able to do this and might be harder for others.

4) Stretching - sometimes I do it head to toe but I usually focus on specific muscle groups I need to stretch.

5) After lying down I do a cultivation "technique" (based on the biodynamic perspective of Osteopathy in the Cranial Field and Inner Alchemy) where I get my autonomics nervous system Neutral, still, and balanced. If I don't fall asleep right away (which is often) I extend this to other parts of my body.

As mentioned earlier, getting Osteopathic treatments for myself was instrumental in all of this. If you have any questions or want to set up an appointment with me go to: https://drfrancisyoodo.as.me/