|
WE ARE OPEN AND SERVING OUR PATIENTS' NEEDS -- SEE BELOW.
Pacific Naturopathic provides an essential health care service and we will remain open, with limited hours, to meet our patients' needs. For the present, we will be open for consultations and intravenous therapy from 9:00 AM to 5:00 PM on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays. Our Tuesday and Thursday hours for pharmacy pick-up and other business will be from 10:00 AM to 2:00 PM. Please note that hours may change week-by-week as we all adjust to this situation. Please phone our office before stopping by.
We are closely monitoring guidance from the Centers for Disease Control and state and local health officials on COVID-19 to dispel the fantasy and fiction and bring you the most accurate information. The situation is changing rapidly so we will continue to publish newsletters on a timely basis until the crisis passes.
Here are the measures we have instituted to protect you and ourselves:
- Whenever possible, consultations will be done remotely by phone or via the easy-to-use program, ZOOM. Patients do not have to know anything about the program to be able to use it. We will send you a link and all you need to do is click on the link, follow the prompts to install ZOOM, and you will be face-to-face with Dr. Connie or Dr. Marcel.
- You must wear a mask if for any reason you come to the office.
- If you need supplements, please phone us in advance. You will receive a call back to verify that we do have what you need, and when it will be available for pick-up. We will prepare the supplements for you and meet you at the door of the office.
- Of course, IV patients must come into the office for their treatments. All patients coming to the office must immediately upon entering wash their hands via the hand washing protocol pictured above the bathroom sink. Dr. Marcel will administer the IV with extreme care, and patient visits will be spaced to allow for social distancing.
- If you do come in to the clinic, minimize those things you carry with you. The virus can live on things like re-usable grocery bags for up to three days.
- If you have even a mild symptom (see symptom list in article in this newsletter) please stay home.
- Our staff is wiping down all surfaces (doorknobs, faucets, counters, chair arms, shelves, etc.) every hour with a sanitizer. The IV administration area is a special focus and is sanitized with a hospital disinfectant.
- We are well stocked with antibacterial soap and disinfectants and have ordered additional quantities of supplies that may be needed.
- We have reduced our hours to further limit possible spread through contact.
- We require our staff to stay home, should they or any of their household members develop any symptoms described below.
Although in short supply, we do have a number of effective anti-viral and immune-boosting nutrients in office, and are ordering more. Further supplies are available from Fullscript, our online dispensary. Fullscript orders are delivered directly to your home. Click HERE to register for Fullscript.
If you would like help developing a preventive or treatment plan for you and your family, or if you have any other health concerns, please schedule a phone or ZOOM consult.
May all beings be healthy and happy!
Dr. Connie, Dr. Marcel, Dr. Sage, Jane H. and your health care team
at Pacific Naturopathic and the
Hernandez Center for Adjunctive Cancer Care
|
Telehealth and Virtual Visits
at Pacific Naturopathic
|
|
Now is a perfect time to schedule a phone or video consultation for yourself or for a loved one.
While we all shelter in place, many people live in areas where there is limited access to medical care in general, let alone naturopathic care. Or, perhaps there is conventional care available, but you or your loved one desire a second opinion. Doctors at Pacific Naturopathic can offer you a different perspective, suggest alternative approaches and solutions, and guide you in your journey.
What can doctors at Pacific Naturopathic offer that my local primary care doctor and specialists cannot offer?
The doctors at Pacific Naturopathic offer functional naturopathic medicine. We offer you a holistic understanding of your health concerns, a direction to follow in pursuing alternative and complementary testing and treatment, recommendations as to what you might discuss with your current local doctors and health care practitioners, should you have access and need help.
What can a remote consultation do for you?
* Help you understand the variables to consider when working with your specialists, be they gynecologist, oncologist, rheumatologist, gastroenterologist, psychiatrist, or other.
* Educate you on what kind of testing is available to help you better understand your particular situation.
* Advise you on the usefulness of specialty laboratory evaluations.
* Interpret lab values in the context of optimal health, rather than limiting interpretation to diagnosable disease.
* Work with you to prioritize steps in your care and formulate questions for your medical office visits.
* Enlighten you as to possible underlying causes for your condition.
* Help you design a treatment protocol complementary to the conventional protocol you are following.
* Educate you on nutritional and botanical options relevant to your condition.
* Comment on natural protocols you may be considering.
* Review and revise your current supplements
* Offer access to a trusted dispensary of quality nutraceuticals (vitamins, herbs, and more) which can direct ship products to you.
Introductory offer for telehealth visits
for you and for new patients
For $295 (usual price of $365) sponsor someone you care about as a new patient at Pacific Naturopathic and receive $50 off your own 60 minute return office call in April or May (usual price of $250, but $200 with this offer).
Or simply refer a new patient. When they schedule a first office call at Pacific Naturopathic for the special price of $295, you will receive $50 off your own 60 minute return office call in April or May.
Offer good for visits during the remaining days of April and throughout May.
Be sure to let us know that you are opting in. Let us know who you have referred, and ask them to mention your name when scheduling.
Call the front desk at 650-961-1660 for an appointment.
|
|
Dr. Connie Musings...
Gratefulness in a
Pandemic World
Connie Hernandez, ND
|
Walking through our neighborhood, we passed by a household where a table had been placed on the front sidewalk. On the table was a bowl of lemons harvested from the neighbor's prolific lemon tree, and that sign we've all seen urging "
When life gives you lemons, make lemonade!"
I found myself feeling grateful in that moment for our thoughtful and humorous neighbors and for the lemons themselves (lemon squeezed in warm water and drunk in the morning provides Vitamin C. Lemon water is a wonderful way to alkalinize the body, helps prevent kidney stone formation, and much more.) Walking further, we were grateful for the inspiring sidewalk art of an unknown artist.
The upsurge of acts of random kindness and selfless service during this unprecedented period of time is reason for great gratefulness. The creativity which this time inspires is another. Yet another is the renewed sense of community which comes when people are working together for a greater good. Young people are shopping for the at-risk population. People with greater means are providing funds to help people with greater needs. Families are eating dinner together. Friends are reconnecting with distant friends.
For those not working, there is time for those activities which may fall by the wayside when we're all free to be out and about.
Reading, writing, meditating and seeking solace in silence can be given more time when days are not as busy. The outer silence we experience when there are fewer trains, planes and sirens helps promote that inner silence.
The stunning star sprinkled evening skies, the puffy white clouds accentuated by clear blue daytime skies in the now much clearer atmosphere provides a breath of fresh air. In California springtime, blossoms are bursting forth in gardens, in parks, and by the roadside. Literally having and taking the time to smell the flowers is another opportunity to feel grateful.
The news these days may seem inescapable, and there is a need to be informed. However, for many people, there is increasing agitation when attention is focused day after day on the repetitive news of the spread of the virus and on the devastating effects of the pandemic.
When we step back a little, and focus our attention on those things for which we are grateful, we are changed in good and profound ways. "Joy heals" is not just a saying, but rather a scientific fact. Gratitude helps to increase happiness, joy, resilience and a sense of connection with others. Bodily benefits include enhanced immunity, better sleep, lower blood pressure, reduction in pain. The list of benefits is long.
The more we find fault with our world, the more fault we will find, and our unhappiness will escalate. The more we seek opportunities for gratefulness, the more grateful we will feel, and the more habitual the gratitude response will be. This time seems a very good time to engage in that well-known practice of expressing gratitude every morning and every evening for all those things for which you feel grateful. You'll feel better in every way, and the world around you will too.
|
|
Face Mask Fun
|
One of the many creative opportunities open to us during this Sheltering at Home time is the production of homemade face masks. Serviceful sewers in our Ananda Community have researched designed, produced, and offered free cloth masks for everyone living in our apartment complex, as well as for neighbors. If you are in need, let us know, and we may be able to provide a mask for you.
If you're interested in available, simple and easy masks,
this YouTube video shows how to fold a bandana into a facemask using 2 rubber bands.
This link will take you to a youtube instructional video by Asha Nayaswami, our very own maskmaker.
|
|
| Our office manager Marisa is wearing one of the masks in the photo below as she relaxes and receives an immune boosting I.V. |
|
|
|
Another of our favorite homemade masks is modeled below by our caretaker at Pacific Naturopathic Retreat Center.
|
|
|
Patients at Pacific Naturopathic have found fun ways to be with their masks, cloth and otherwise.
|
Remember that you are wearing your mask for the protection of others. Asymptomatic people can be hosting and transmitting the virus. Wearing a mask helps prevent transmission of viral particles. Photos below are of Dr. Marcel, Anna at the front desk, and Dr. Connie.
|
|
More fun --
Outrageous face masks!
|
|
|
| Drink 5 gallons of water, a bit of box-cutter surgery and you have a full head shield! |
|
|
| Muli-purposing sponges. (Can she really breathe?) |
|
|
| Is that a...? No... it can't be! |
|
|
| Plastic linen packaging offers head and shoulders protection as well. |
|
|
Recycled bags work just as well
|
|
|
| Birthday party hat or sno-cone cup? |
|
|
Intravenous Vitamin C Infusions
at Pacific Naturopathic
-- safe, easy and effective
Marcel Hernandez, ND
|
Why hesitate?
Protect yourself and your family now!
The reason most people give for not receiving a vitamin/mineral infusion is that needles are "yucky." Almost every single person who has come to Pacific Naturopathic for intravenous therapy prefaces their first infusion by saying they are averse to needles. I tell them that if they had told me that they couldn't wait to get stuck by a needle I would have denied them service. But after a few infusions, most repeat patients just babble away as I am setting up to start the drip. Many barely notice when the drip has started. The procedure is surprisingly easy and much less uncomfortable than the imagination makes it.
We offer several IV therapy formulas at Pacific Naturopathic that contain therapeutic amounts of vitamin C:
* Vitamin C infusions in doses from 10 to 100 grams per IV.
* Vitamin C infusions in 2 to 50 grams per IV that also contain vitamins (all the B's) and minerals (selenium, zinc, magnesium, calcium, potassium) and trace minerals.
(Please note that a 30-minute safety and informational intake is required before beginning your IV program. The intake and your first infusion can be held on the same day. Also, any infusion greater than 10 grams of vitamin C requires a special blood test called a G6PD as a safety measure.)
* Interested? Please phone to schedule an appointment 650-961-1660.
* Want more information before scheduling? Dr. Marcel offers 10-minute free phone chats to address your questions.
* Please note: we are not treating patients who have been diagnosed with Coronavirus. We are offering IVC preventively.
|
|
Humor
|
|
Mind/Body...
Follow These Tips To Manage Uncertainty
in Uncertain Times
Jane Hernandez, CCHT
|
We all know too well that living every day with uncertainty that can be difficult to cope with.
Right now, you may feel worried and are struggling to keep anxious thoughts in check. Perhaps you feel unsure about what the future holds for you when it seems that no one has the answers.
But help is at hand - you CAN learn to live with uncertainty and it will make a huge difference in your everyday life.
Did You Know That Facing Uncertainty is Scarier than Facing Physical Pain?
In 2016, a group of London researchers explored how people react to being told they will either "definitely" or "probably" receive a painful electric shock. They discovered an strange paradox.
The volunteers who were told they would definitely receive a painful electric shock felt calmer and were measurably less agitated than those who were told they only had a 50 percent chance of receiving the electric shock.
The uncertainty of something bad happening can be more stressful than the knowledge of something bad happening.
And when we're facing outcomes imbued with uncertainty, it's the fact that something bad might happen that "gets" us.
Uncertainty Engages our Primitive Survival Instinct
When we can't neutralize a perceived threat, it is very normal to fret and worry. Over and over we review the situation to no avail and this just leads to feeling worse.
We all do this in our need for certainty. Humans are naturally wired to catastrophize which causes the worry to balloon and turn into anxiety.
So, we have this modern brain which struggles to distinguish between real and perceived threat.
But the primitive brain steps in during this struggle and triggers the primitive survival instinct, the fight-or-flight.
So, what do we do? We ask questions like this:
What is going to happen...to me, the country, the world?
Am I doing enough to prepare...?
What should I be doing...?
What if my livelihood is threatened...?
What if my life is threatened...?
WHOA! You don't have to be a victim to uncertainty and unanswerable questions. There are several things you can do to lessen it:
- BE AWARE - acknowledge your feelings and emotions
- CATCH YOURSELF - when you notice the "worry story" you are spinning - try to distance yourself from it
- FOCUS - breathe long, slow belly breaths - this is gold
- DON'T STRUGGLE - Accept uncertainty - allow yourself to rise above it - see below
Here are some actionable mood-changers:
* Exercise, walks, dance around your house - any kind of movement
* Meditation - quieting the mind
* Self-hypnosis - goal-oriented mind influence
* Learning something new
* Something pleasant or fun
Make it a habit, every day, to focus on yourself positively and you will find that you have created a sense of balance.
The more you practice all these strategies, the better you will feel!
For more information about Jane Hernandez and her work, click
HERE
Jane is usually available on Thursdays at Pacific Naturopathic office in Mountain View. However, during this Sheltering-in-Place time, she is offering virtual visits.
Schedule directly with her at 510-676-1460
|
|
Acupuncture...
Anti-Viral Advice
and Virtual Visits
Anandini Wadera, Lac
|
Hello friends!
I hope you are all staying well, safe and sane during these trying and unprecedented times.
In order to continue providing care to those in need, I am holding virtual appointments and herbal consultations. This includes herbal consultations for
anxiety and stress management, immune boosting as well as for those of you experiencing mild flu-like symptoms that may or may not be covid-19.
Chinese Medicine has a great history of working with epidemics; there have been 320 large-scale epidemics since the Han dynasty. In fact, many of our classical texts, such as the Shang Han Lun and Jin Gui Yao Lue, include various herbal remedies for varying flu-like pathogens.
During the covid-19 outbreak in China, 80%-85% of those infected with covid-19 received Traditional Chinese Medicine herbal treatments in tandem with hospital care. While such widespread use of TCM has not been adopted in the US, Italy was sent a group of medical professionals from China that included TCM providers and herbal supplies.
While this, however, does mean that herbs are on short supply,
I would like to provide the best care I can during these times and continue to prescribe herbal formulae that can be drop-shipped to patients' homes.
In the meantime, stock up on immune boosting elixirs like elderberry, astragalus and cordyceps.
I say this one all the time: keep your necks covered and protected from the Wind! I know the sun is starting to peak out more often these days and we wish to dance about in its glory, but please keep your neck covered while you enjoy the sunshine and fresh air. And lastly, remember to be kind to yourselves and loved ones-this is new territory for everyone, and it's important to create space in our minds when we can't create it in the physical.
And I will leave you on a brighter note. I had a fabulous trip to Tanzania (although it was cut short), and I was able to see many prides of lions. Here's a pride basking high atop a boulder for all to see. Truly majestic!
T
o schedule with Anandini, please contact her directly at
Visit Anandini's web site: http://anandiniwadera.com
|
|
The Myers Cocktail: for Colds, Flus, Immune System Support and much, much more...
|
Myers Cocktail:
Safe, Powerful Effective
The Myers Cocktail has been around for more than 40 years and is the most popular IV cocktail in our clinic. Read this detailed information sheet and you will see why.
Want to learn more about the Myers Cocktail? Alan Gaby, MD, has written the definitive, easy-to-read
MONOGRAPH
about it.
Please phone 650-961-1660 for more information.
|
|
Hawaii Retreat Center
|
|
|
 |
|
Dr. Connie sits by the pond at
Hawaii Peace Garden Retreat Center
(Visit virtually -- for a video of the pond, click
HERE
|
|
Though Hawaii is not allowing short term visitors at this time, you can experience the soothing scene and sounds of one of the gardens at Pacific Naturopathic Retreat Center, like Dr. Connie is doing above.
Thinking of visiting once we get the "all clear?"
You can check the retreat center calendar by going
HERE and clicking on "Rates and Availability.
|
|
Pacific Naturopathic
and
The Hernandez Center
for Adjunctive Cancer Care
1580 W. El Camino Real, Suite 7
Mountain View, CA 94040
650-961-1660 (v)
|
|
|
|
