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About Vernonia's voice. (Vernonia, OR) 2007-current | View Entire Issue (Sept. 11, 2012)
8 in other words september11 2012 Natural Path to Health: Self Preservation By Carl McIntyre We all know that we have to take care of ourselves. Most of the time this is “easier said than done” (so the saying goes…). I will be taking some new measures of my own to ensure I am taking the best care of myself so I can take the best care of all of you. As of October 1st, we will have new office hours. Mon/Tues/Thurs the office will be open from 10:00 AM – 4:00 PM, with the last appointment scheduled at 3:00 PM. Wednesday hours will stay the same from 3:00 – 8:00 PM. Fasting blood draws will still be scheduled in the mornings as needed. The new office hours are to accommodate my personal need to take care of my physical body. Anyone of my patients knows that I do a lot of physical body work in my office. I must keep up on my conditioning so that my body can keep up with working with all of you! Starting in October, I will be regularly attending yoga classes Tues/Thurs mornings at the Vernonia Community Grange taught by the amazing Britt Steele. This will help me to maintain my physical strength and overall health, including my mental health. The other opportunity that changing my office hours opens up is my ability to teach qigong again. I was doing this for a few years at the Grange or at the park in summer months. Once my practice grew and I gave birth to our second child, my schedule was so full I discontinued classes. Now, I am going to literally schedule in time for this very important piece of my practice! I couldn’t be happier. Although I do not have an exact ‘start up date’ for qigong, I do know that it will be on Monday mornings at the Vernonia Community Grange. Class time will most likely be 7:30 – 8:30 AM. Qigong is easily modified to accommodate everyone, no matter what level of physical ability. I would love to see more of our senior citizens or people with disabilities participate. Qigong benefits all types and levels of disease and is one of the main pieces of the healing triad of Chinese medicine- acupuncture, herbs and qigong. It is time I bring this vital piece back to life in our community and back into my personal practice. Ask around… there are many qigong supporters in Vernonia! My practice gets stronger every day thanks to the support from our wonderful community. I have patients taking advantage of the new low cost lab and taking proactive steps toward their health. Also, anyone who has Kaiser can ask for a referral from their PCP to come see me. We now have medical assistant interns rotating through the office as well, so you may see some new faces. I am very happy with the success of my practice here and am proud to serve our community. A healthy community is a happy community. Let’s do this! Here’s to self preservation. Thank you for joining me. Be Well~ Creature Comforts ~ Flower Essences for Your Pet By Victoria Guerrero Many holistic Veterinarians agree that stress can be a huge factor in illnesses effecting animals today. It has been the quest for many pet owners to find natural, gentle ways to alleviate such stress. Bach Flowers are a mild and natural way to help animals in negative states of stress. It may seem fairly normal for a human to jump into the car and drive for an hour or two, but for a dog, it can be the longest hour of its life. One hour for a cat in a crate in the car can seem like an eternity! Rescue Remedy for pets is used to support a calm peaceful state of mind during stressful times, such as a car ride, or other traumatic times. In Rescue Remedy there is found a blend of five of the original thirty eight original Flower Essences. The first is Rock Rose which is used for terror and panic. Secondly Impatiens, for irritation and you guessed it impatience. The third remedy is Clematis which is for inattentiveness, and lack of interest. Then Star of Bethlehem is an amazing flower essence used for shock and trauma. Lastly Cherry Plum is used for lack of self-control. These five essences are sustained for pets in glycerin, which is non-addictive and non- habit forming. Rescue Remedy for pets can be used for separation anxiety, stress from loud noises, shock, trauma, adjusting to new surroundings, and my personal favorite, a trip to the groomer. Granted it is important to acknowledge that some situations with animals may be beyond the help of Bach Flowers. Perhaps a dog has suddenly become aggressive. This could be assumed to be an emotional problem but it could also be a severe medical problem. Obviously giving Bach Flowers would be the wrong avenue for the owners to choose. Make certain the animal is in good health by visiting your veterinarian. Another factor to consider before using Bach Flower Essences is training of the animal. Some pets have been ill trained, and possibly ill-treated. Flower Essences can be of help in retraining but the remedy alone will not change bad manners. As mentioned, there are 38 flower essences which Dr. Bach, who was a British Bacteriologist, developed beginning in the 1930’s, which became Bach Flowers. Dr. Bach recognized that there was a link directly related to his patients’ physical illnesses, and certain states of mind. He left his lucrative practice, and devoted the rest of his life to a new way of helping people, and of course, animals. He spent years preparing and testing thousands of plants until one by one he found the ones he wanted. Each flower focused on balancing the negative state to the opposite. At first it may seem strange that a flower can change a state of mind, but consider how you feel when you smell a fragrant rose, or the feeling you may have from leaning against a pine tree. One of my favorites, which isn’t actually a flower, is Rock Water. If you have ever had a calmness from putting your feet into the rocks of the creek, and letting the water run over them, well that is the same balancing energy one can achieve from the essence of Rock Water. Creatures is able to special order Bach Flowers at this time. We highly recommend having some Rescue Remedy for pets on hand, in case of stress or an emergency. We are also able to help you choose individual flowers for your pet’s unique needs. If you are wanting to do additional research on the internet, we recommend www.bachcentre.com, also www. nelsonsnaturalworld.com. Creatures can be reached at 503-429-PETS (7387) Disclaimer: I am not a Veterinarian, nor would I ever claim to be a Veterinarian Licensed, or unlicensed. If you feel your animal is ill and needs medical help, I urge you to seek help from a responsible trusted veterinarian. If you need help locating one, please feel free to contact me, or my coworkers at the number attached to this column. The information in this column is from years of personal experience and research. I am not therefore approaching this column from a diagnostic point of view, rather, I am approaching it from a lay person’s point of view, sharing information that I have used on my pets over the years, that have been very very helpful. I hope this information is as helpful to you as it has been for me. Meet Your Police: Brent Thompson continued from front page his job. “I grew up here and the commu- nity has always been there for me. It’s nice to be able to give back and be part of the community.” Thompson was hired in Verno- nia as a Reserve Officer in 2009 while he was still in college, and attended Mid Valley Reserve Training in Marion Coun- ty, graduating in May of 2011. Before he entered reserve training, Thompson vol- unteered 400 hours during the summer of 2010 as a Reserve Officer, working for the City of Vernonia. Thompson graduated from Western Oregon University in June and two weeks later came back to Vernonia and was hired through a grant obtained by the Vernonia Prevention Coalition, working part time as a Community Re- source Officer and part time as a Code Enforcement Officer for the City of Ver- nonia. He was hired in August of 2011 as a full time Police Officer, attending the Police Academy in Salem from Oc- tober 2011 to February 2012. He com- pleted his Field Training in July and has been riding on his own on patrol for the G.B. You Are Hideous to me! I.L.Y . W.A.M.H. S.B. Hunting Season is here! Archery Equipment - Sporting Goods Calls - Cammo - Boots - Accessories Binoculars - Scent Killers - Targets Family owned & operated for over 40 years 834 Bridge St, Vernonia 503-429-6364 last few months. Thompson said his time at the Police Academy was beneficial and edu- cational. “It was a good experience be- cause they pull instructors from all over the state,” explains Thompson. “Many of them are retired and are just working to train and develop new officers, so you get different mind-sets from all around the state. Everyone does things just a little bit differently and there were pros and cons to it. One person would say this was the way to do something, someone else would tell you something different. Both ways work and get to the same ob- jective, but might be very opposite. And that’s the thing about law enforcement from what I’ve found, everyone has their own way—their own way of talking to people, their own way of doing things. It’s not right or wrong as long as you get to the end result.” Thompson is a young man who has overcome several difficulties to reach the goals he has set for himself. He has never met his father and was estranged from his mother at the start of his fresh- man year in high school. He lived with the family of a good friend in the Mist/ Birkenfeld area for three years and was continued on page 9
