St Petersburg Nutritionist and St Pete Natural Nutrition Counseling Services to Help you Lose Weight, Regain Your Energy and Feel Revitalized and Healthy. Phone consultations available at Healthy Being Wellness Center on 4th St N St. Pete Florida 33702

Healthy Being Wellness Center offers a variety of nutrition and lifestyle counseling services. Together, we will create a strategy on how to make smart, mindful choices that are realistic for your body's individual needs. You'll learn how to easily incorporate healthful habits into your daily lifestyle. We set up sustainable and realistic goals.

Whether you want to lose weight, address health concerns, increase energy levels, or simply eat better, you'll achieve success through knowledge and encouragement. Learn to see food in a refreshing new light. Make the connection and nourish yourself!

Our counseling services focus on:

• Weight management
• Pregnancy & family
• Eating disorders and emotional eating
• Digestive issues
• Eating for your health 
• Athletic performance 
• Specialty & corporate services

A variety of people benefit from nutritional counseling. This type of counseling assists all ages, ranging from pregnant women, to vegetarians, to the elderly and people with different medical complications. Those who may benefit include those with:

• Diabetes
• Osteoporosis
• Poor nutrition and eating patterns
• Eating disorders (some of which may require eating disorder treatment)
• Digestive complications
• HIV
• Cancer
• Hypertension
• Nausea
• Nutritional questions
• Allergies
• Organ problems
• Obesity
• Hypoglycemia
• Menopause
• Fitness goals
• Heart diseases

Benefits of Nutritional Counseling

• Increase in energy
• Healthier lifestyle and food choices
• Better quality sleep
• Reduced symptoms of disease
• Less drastic range of emotions
• Happiness
• Possible increase in longevity
• Strengthened immune system
• Lesser chance of disorders and disease appearing
• Better ability to concentrate

Initial Consultation (approx. 1-1.5 hrs.)

• Included: Case review outside appointment time and personalized Lifestyle Plan .. . $85.00

Follow Up Appointments – in office or over the phone (approx. ½ to 1½ hrs.)

• Included: Case review
• Fee based hourly rate . . . . $70.00
• Additional Lifestyle Plan as needed . . . . $20.00

Our North St Petersburg office is conveniently located on the corner of 4th St N and 70th Avenue.

If you have any questions about our St Petersburg Nutrition and Lifestyle Counseling Services or other ways in which to nutrition and dietary changes can support and balance your body, give Melissa a call today at 727-502-3464.

St Petersburg Detox Diet includes Toxicity Testing, Heavy Metal Detox, Yeast Detox, Lifestyle Detox and Dietary Detox to Enhance Energy, Improve Weight Loss and overall Well Being at Healthy Being Wellness Center an Integrative Healing Center in St Petersburg on 4th St 33702 727-502-3464

Detoxification is at the core of our Naturopathic Services.  It is hypothesized that the root of many illnesses and ailments facing our clients are said, in part, to due to an overload of toxins.

Exposure and consumption of toxic substances can cause severe illness, poisoning, birth defects, disease, or death when ingested, inhaled, or absorbed by living organisms.  Our body has to work hard at detoxing and eliminating these toxins and our organs, glandular systems and our lymphatic systems are taxed.

Core Detox Organs

• Lymphatic System
• Liver
• Kidneys/Bladder
• Intestines
• Skin

A fundamental road to balancing the body is to begin a detoxification program. At Healthy Being Wellness Center, we create a personalized, individualized program that takes into account you health situation, medications you may be taking and the state of your body, energy levels, age and lifestyle.  Together we will craft a program that may be a week long or as long as a few months.
We will incorporate one or several of the following modalities to begin to create balance in your body:

1. Toxicity Testing
2. Lymphatic Drainage Therapy (aids in opening the routes of toxin elimination)
3. Food Detox
4. Heavy Metal Detox
5. Yeast Detox
6. Ionized Detox Foot Baths (ion therapy that promotes cellular toxin release) 
7. Lifestyle Detox

Symptoms which may be relieved by following our St Petersburg Detox Therapy include:

• Digestive problems
• Weakened Immunity
• Bad breath
• Hormone Imbalances
• Fatigue
• Irritability
• General malaise
• Constipation
• Headaches
• Poor Concentration
• Itchy Skin
• Skin rashes
• Joint pain
• Weight loss resistance

What are toxins?

We hear every day, these questions...... Am I toxic?  What are toxins?  How am I toxic and where is my exposure?  I eat clean, I work out, I don't know how I could be bombarded with toxins that are resulting in my feeling fatigued, agitated and how in the world are they contributing to my hormone imbalance or my son's autism??
Toxins are everywhere.  They are in the foods we eat (pesticides, hormones), products we use on our skin (chemicals we cannot pronounce), cleaning products (more chemicals), water we drink (chlorine, lead, mercury, PCBs, DDT, Arsenic, HCB), air we breathe (methane, ammonia,   According to a 2010 Washington Post Report  there are "About 80,000 chemicals are in commercial use in the United States, but federal regulators have assessed only about 200 for safety." 
Scary Toxin Facts*:

• Each and every second 310 Kg of toxic chemicals are released into our air, land, and water by industrial facilities around the world.
  
  
• This amounts to approximately 10 million tons (over 21 billion pounds) of toxic chemicals released into our environment by industries each year.
  
  
• Of these, over 2 million tons (over 4.5 billion pounds) per year are recognized carcinogens. This amounts to about 65 Kg each second.

 (*Sources: United Nations Enviroment Programme http://www.unep.org/  and US EPA http://www.epa.gov/)

Our owner and Naturopath, Melissa Gallagher, will create an individualized and thoughtfully crafted St Petersburg Detoxification Program that can offer you:

• Increased Energy
• Weight Loss
• Reduced food cravings
• Brighter eyes and clearer skin
• Reduction of allergies
• Enhanced Well Being
• Anti-aging effects
• Increased productivity
• Improved motivation

Our North St Petersburg office is conveniently located on the corner of 4th St N and 70th Avenue.

If you have any questions about our detox therapies or other ways in which to detoxify your body, give Melissa a call today at 727-502-3464.

St Petersburg Lymphedema, Chronic Venous Insufficiency, Lipidema, Edema, Lymphatic Elephantitis and Post Surgical Swelling Services at Healthy Being Wellness Center 33702 727-502-3464

Lymphedema Treatment Center for Lymphedema in St Petersburg, Florida

At Healthy Being Wellness Center, our Naturopath and Lymphatic Drainage Therapist, Melissa Gallagher provides services and therapies for lymphedema patients.

Our clients come to us for a variety of reasons:

• Primary lymphedema
• Secondary lymphedema
• Lymphatic elephantitis
• Malignant lymphedema
• Chronic venous insufficiency (CVI)
• Lipidema
• Lipolymphedema
• Edema secondary to Congestive Heart Failure
• Post-Phlebitic Syndrome
• Post-Thrombotic Syndrome
• Post Surgical Swelling
• Chemotherapy and radiation related edema and lymphedema

If you are suffering from mild to extreme edema that may be pitting or you have experienced you skin thickening and getting harder, drier, darker, crusty, tight, shiny and painful- you need to seek treatment.  There is no way to reverse your condition without extensive decongestive therapies. 
Lymphedema is a slow and progressive problem that goes through several stages.  Over time, structural changes will occur in the affected extremity(ies).  Protein deposits will cause fibrotic plaques that cause further increase in fluid retention.  The skin will actually change in structure, becoming less flexible, thicker and dryer and therefore more susceptible for wounds caused by cracks in the skin.

Recommended treatments in lymphatic and venous disorders will depend heavily on the individual diagnosis, and will include lymphatic drainage therapies, compression therapies, homeopathic and herbal remedies, dietary management, decongestive exercise and patient education.

 In the context of lymphedema, we have very specific short- and long-term goals:

• Maximal reduction of edema and restoration of normal volume of the limbs
• Optimal skin care and maintenance of normal skin texture
• Reduction of the risk of recurrent infection
• Maximal restoration of normal function of the limbs
• Education to foster independent maintenance of health

Treatment of lymphedema is accomplished through a variety and variation of complex decongestive lymphatic therapies.

Decongestive Lymphatic Therapy:

• Lymphatic Drainage: A specialized technique that stimulates lymphatic flow and has been shown to reduce the incidence of infection. Our therapist, Melissa Gallagher, can reduce edema in areas not readily accessible to compression devices and garments (head, chest, shoulder, back, flank, and groin). The massage techniques are also effective in the promotion of wound healing and the restoration of normal skin texture.

• Multilayer Compressive Bandaging: Special short-stretch bandages are applied in a specific manner to provide a pressure gradient that reduces edema volume.

• Decongestive Exercises: Simple muscular exercises promote venous and lymphatic flow.

• Meticulous Skin Care: Assessment and maintenance of skin integrity is a central issue in the care of individuals with lymphedema.

• Patient Education: Melissa Gallagher will give clients and their families extensive home-care instruction. Home maintenance is critical to management of these chronic conditions. Self-administered manual lymphatic drainage, bandaging, use of compression garments (and devices, as needed), a home exercise program, and skin care techniques are all taught during treatment at the center. Therapy of posthrombotic syndrome/chronic venous insufficiency involves an individualized program that incorporates many of these principles.

• Other compressive methods and devices:
  • Compressive Garments: Custom-fitted sleeves, stockings, and other garments are utilized to maintain long-term reductions in limb volume.
  • Exercise: Group and individual exercise programs promote strength and increased motion.
  • Other devices: Farrow wraps, the Flexi-touch device, pneumatic sequential pumps, the Reid sleeve, the Legacy sleeve, the CircAid device, and others.

Treatment plans vary per client.  We often see clients every day for a series of weeks or we will see them every other day for a few weeks- it depends on each case and the level of lymphatic insufficiency. The combination of education, exercise, bandaging, diet, homeopathic remedies and lymphatic drainage therapy will help in moving the lymphatic to reduce swelling.

Our clients often experience immediate reduction in limb size and weight loss.  An average of 10-12lbs can be lost in a matter of just a few days of lymphatic drainage treatment, bandaging and at home work.

Please give us a call to schedule your appointment for complete lymphedema treatment at Healthy Being Wellness Center.

Healthy Being Wellness Center

727-502-3464

www.healthybeingllc.com

Naturopathic Nutrition Advice: Root Veggies to Curb Sugar Cravings

If you are a self proclaimed sweet tooth and have intense cravings for sweets, as a Naturopathic Physician, I look at a couple of causes. There is usually a degree of imbalance within the body that is creating the symptom of sugar cravings. 

More of the time the sugar cravings are rooted in two significant factors:

• Yeast Imbalance
• Mineral Deficiency

The former requires months of detoxification and yeast balance with the use of probiotics, sugar elimination and enzyme rich programs. A less recognized cause of sugar cravings is a yeast or fungal infection in the digestive tract.  These have a high sugar demand, leaving the host craving sugary foods to feed the infection.  Other causes can include fluctuations in blood glucose levels due to food allergies or food sensitivities.

The yeast is a serious issue and is enhanced with the consumption of sugar-rich foods, alcohol and prescription drugs like antibiotics.

The later is an easier fix.

Let's talk about Mineral Deficiency.  Our day to day lives - the fast paced, fast food lifestyles we lead and the consumption of more processed less fresh and raw foods yields a diet that is lacking in minerals.  Couple that with our poor water sources, high intake of caffeine, sodas and alcohol and you have a body that is deficient.

There are two classes of minerals, major minerals and trace minerals. Even though trace minerals are required in very small amounts, they are indeed essential to good health.

Some of the common mineral deficiencies are:

• Iodine deficiency
• Iron deficiency
• Calcium deficiency
• Magnesium deficiency
• Potassium deficiency 

These can yield significant health crisis or imbalances in our organs, glandular systems and even our bone structure.    Minerals are the building blocks and foundational elements to a healthy existance.

Some diets like a high protein diet requires higher levels of calcium.  Without the calcium intake to match the requirements of a high protein diet, the body will pull calcium from itself-- bone and teeth -- yielding a deficiency and even long term ailments like osteoperosis.

Deficiencies of minerals creates a situation where the body craves sweets.  It's a common symptom and can be very easy to correct.  Apart from taking a very good multi mineral a day- which for most people is a good idea as a compliment to our diets, eating foods that are rich in minerals is essential to maintaining healthy mineral balance.

The one thing I love about foods is that nature has already worked out the right balance and harmony within the food itself.  Where we might need vitamin K to help assimilate one particular mineral- the food is complete with the right levels of each vitamin and mineral.

To help curb sweet cravings you'll want to eat more of these foods:

Root Veggies - beets, carrots, potatoes
Sweet Potatoes & Yams
Sunflower Seeds
Pumpkin Seeds
Seaweed
Steamed Spinach
Steamed collard greens
Steamed kale
Seafood - oysters, clams, scallops
Organic Beef/Veal
Free Range Eggs/Chicken

Consuming protein is essential to getting core minerals into the body.  I work with a lot of vegetarians and vegans who crave sweets in a bad way.  Their cravings are simply a way their body is communicating deficiency.  We'll look at adding a good veggie based protein to their diet with amino acids and antioxidants.

If you find yourself having a hard time cutting your sugar cravings, start by looking at changing your diet a bit and begin adding a good mineral supplement.

Please comment or send me any questions you might have as you journey to curb your sweet tooth.

Melissa Gallagher, Naturopath
Healthy Being Wellness Center
727-502-3464
www.HealthyBeingLLC.com