‘Tis the Season for Holiday & Winter Blues

By Laura Shin

While department stores dress up their windows and shoppers search for the perfect gifts, those who work in the mental health profession prepare for the holidays in a different way: making sure New Yorkers stay healthy and happy during the holiday season. Read more

A Sweet & Healthy Holiday Treat

Real benefits to eating dark chocolate—in moderation

By: Dr. Cynthia Paulis

It’s that time of year again, when friends and family get together to celebrate the holidays and your diet gets ditched as you indulge in all of the wonderful and fattening treats of the season. But before you despair, there is actually one treat that is good for you: dark chocolate. Read more

Christmas Cocktails Are OK, But Remember the Sober Details

By Lisa Elaine Held

During the holidays, everyone drinks more.

It’s just inevitable, with holiday parties at work, seasonal soirees with friends and multiple family occasions—almost every night is another opportunity to socialize and celebrate, cocktail in hand. Read more

Long Island School Finds a West Side Alternative

Riverside Church will host classes for New York College of Health Professions

By Lisa Elaine Held

After Pedro Sanchez, a 27-year-old Brooklyn resident, completed his occupational studies associate’s degree in massage therapy this summer, he decided he wasn’t finished.

“The last two trimesters, we go to the clinic,” said Sanchez. “When you treat the people and see them getting better, the reward is so great, it’s almost kind of addictive.”
Read more

Thinking About Becoming a Reiki Practitioner?

By Gerry Gavin

If you have ever considered a career in the healing arts and feel drawn toward alternative or complementary health care, Reiki may be the perfect way to start your new career path.

Reiki (pronounced “ray-key”) is a therapy tracing back more than 2,500 years to ancient India and Tibet, and there are some who believe it has its roots in the healing arts of the Egyptians. Reiki was handed down by a lineage of practitioners until it was rediscovered in Japan in the early 1900s by Dr. Mikao Usui. It is used to complement traditional medical treatment and in the alternative healing arts.
Read more

Spiraling Away the Pain

A different technique for battling pain

By Daniel Fabiani

Arthur Jaffe uses the spiral techniques on a patient.

Arthur Jaffe is a modern medicine man practicing a mixture of Eastern and Western philosophies to cure muscle pain.
Read more

Ants in Your Pants

If you can’t stop twitching in bed, you may have restless leg syndrome

By Dr. Cynthia Paulis

You’ve had a long, hard day and now it’s time to settle into the comfort of your bed and feel the cool sheets on your skin. You wait and wait, and still can’t get to sleep. Now your legs are doing the mambo. You may be suffering from a condition known as restless leg syndrome (RLS).
Read more

Kids & Asthma

Respiratory problems often worsen in the fall

By Dr. Cynthia Paulis

Summer will be over before you know it, and, with the arrival of fall, doctors will be treating more cases of asthma in the emergency rooms. Asthma affects an estimated 300 million individuals worldwide and its prevalence in children is increasing.
Read more

Healthier Backpacks for Children

Don’t put the weight of the world on kids’ backs

By Lisa Elaine Held

Backpacks do much more than carry students’ books when they return to school each year.
Read more

Treating Allergies, Naturally

Herbs can sometimes work better than medications

By Alan Krawitz

For thousands of city residents who suffer from watery eyes, sneezing, coughing, wheezing and other debilitating symptoms that can accompany seasonal, environmentally-based allergies, prescription medications are not always the answer.
Read more

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