Key West Wellness Center

Author: Dr. Ashley Hoyt, A.P.

  • How Acupuncture Can Relieve Stress

    relieve stress so you don't end up like this frustrated businesswoman

    Dr. Ashley Hoyt vs. Stress

    How does acupuncture help relieve stress?

    Firstly, we use AcuGraph to help us map the client’s physiology and energy pathways. AcuGraph is a sophisticated tool used by acupuncturists to define a person’s acupuncture points. Points are found on paths in the body called “meridians” which are named after organs of the body. Organs have behaviors connected to specific symptoms. They achieve balance when an acupuncturist stimulates a person’s acupuncture points. Then they can start working for you instead of against you.

     

    Which emotions indicate stress?

    Next, we ask clients about how they’re feeling and how they’ve been expressing themselves. Emotions are some of the first indicators of an imbalance in the body. We use emotions to help pinpoint causes of stress by relating them to observable activity in the body. Emotions that indicate stress include:

    • increased anger
    • anxiety
    • sadness
    • depression
    • aggression
    • isolation

    Each of these emotions connects to a particular meridian. A qualified acupuncturist can diagnose the imbalance by getting to the root of an emotional issue.

    Oftentimes stress indicates an imbalance in what is known as the Earth Element. For example, Stomach and the Spleen influence stress levels in individuals. A practitioner can initiate treatment by tracking the patient’s meridians and tracking down the appropriate source point.

     

    Help cancel out stress with Vitamin B Complex

    Finally, acupuncture significantly reduces the negative effects of stress on your body. Vitamin supplements multiply the benefit of the treatment when applied at acupuncture points. B Complex plays a part in producing serotonin and other neurotransmitters that help relieve stress. Our bodies already produce these helpful chemicals, but a shot of B Complex can give you a much needed boost.

    If stress is affecting you, or you just have questions about acupuncture, book an appointment with Dr. Ashley Hoyt today.

  • Mobilizing the Hip Joint

    mobilize hip joint

    This week, we feature a friend of Dr. Ashley Hoyt’s Key West Wellness Center, Dale Alexander.

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    The hip joint is most often characterized as a ball and socket joint. The problem with the human hip is that the head of the femur bone (the ball) very often slides backward and starts riding the edge of its socket. Over the years, this wears a flat spot into the normally spherical shape of the femoral head. Also, when this slide occurs, it pulls on the tendon of a crucial muscle that moves the thigh forward when we walk. Again, over many years, this compresses the artery that feeds the femoral head. 

    These brief descriptions are the two most common reasons that people end up getting a hip replacement, osteoarthritis and avascular necrosis. The motion within a healthy hip joint is characterized by its ability to “roll and spin.” When the femoral head slips backward, these normal motions become less. 

    What appears to have eluded many is that the other end of the femur bone is where the 

    nibby knobs interface with depressions in the bone of the tibia, the (femoral condyles) and the (tibial plateaus). Together these moving surfaces comprise the knee joint. Most often when the femoral head slides backward, it also twists. This twist is communicated down the length of the bone influencing the tracking function between the opposing surfaces of the knee joint. 

    How the knee works is to twist between these surfaces to unlock the joint allowing it to bend and the thigh and leg to move forward. Then as a person’s heel and foot come down and pushes off and forward, the nibby knobs need to have twisted back into their originally locked position for one to have power in their stride and “pep to their step.”

    As you might already imagine, if the entire femur bone is twisted from above, then the tracking of the knee joint will be affected. Compression and friction result. Arthritic changes are the outcome. Often calcium salts will build up and you both feel and hear the grinding within the knee joint. The same elements of compression and friction are what erode the hip joint’s function resulting in pain and loss of motion in either the knee or the hip.

    Sadly, women have almost double the number of knee replacements and slightly more hip replacements than men. This is usually explained by the fact that the female pelvis is wider to allow for childbirth, thus they have more of an angle between the two ends of the femur bone by the time they reach childbearing maturity.

    Nature simply has not been fair. It serves its purposes by selecting for physical traits that maximize its species ability to survive and thrive. 

    Early detection of hip or knee degeneration is essential. If you have a “hitch in your get a long” or pain while walking, you need to seek treatment and/or orthopedic evaluation.

    Please see Dr. Ashley Hoyt or myself. If we are unable to to assist you then we will refer you to a physician we trust.

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    Dale G. Alexander Ph.D. L.M.T. has had a Clinical Massage Therapy practice in Key West, Fla. for 35 years now. In 1983 he was hit head-on by a drunken driver along the 18 mile stretch going south toward Key Largo at Jewfish Creek Bridge. Among many injuries, his right hip was shattered. Very soon after rehabilitating his injuries, clients began showing up in increasing numbers that had varying stages of hip, knee, and shoulder degeneration. Dale invites anyone who has a chronic problem with any of these joints to call him for a free consultation. You may access his published articles on this subject at www.massagetoday.com. Click on columnists, then on his name. And, visit his website, www.dale-alexander.com to review his extensive training history and to appreciate the broader scope of the people he has helped.

     

    If you have questions about how acupuncture can help heal your injuries, book an appointment with Dr. Ashley Hoyt today.

  • Zen and the Art of Spearfishing

    Zen and the Art of Spearfishing

    spearfishing ashley hoyt

     

    By Dr. Ashley Hoyt, as published in Island Jane Magazine, Feb. 2015

    The ocean is a great mystery to many people. While we are familiar with it, its life, its culture and its dynamics are still so foreign.

    My experience is very different. Mine is of a warm, flowing world full of living creatures as conscious and curious as the rest of us.

    Through experience I learned that the way to capture a fish is to be calm, serene and focused. Any sudden movement, even a flash of sudden emotion, could send a signal to creatures for yards in all directions.

    Success in spearfishing requires finding peace. When I enter the water I seek that peace, I get comfortable in the waters, my mind grows quiet and I simply observe. As I dive there’s no sign of distress to alert the environment. The calmer I am, the longer I can remain submerged. My body relaxed and mind clear, my sole focus is my aim. I look where to shoot. Then, I get the fish.

    I remember the hunters back in my Missouri home. I’d see the bubba boys gathered around the gas station with dead deer strapped to their trucks, swapping stories from the wilderness. When I became a spearfisher in Key West it finally made sense. This is not fishing – it is hunting.

    Spearfishing becomes a meditative art of remaining calm and collected with singular focus. Just as hunters immerse themselves in the woods, I commune with an element not my own. I become subservient to the ocean.

    I remember a particular occasion when a barracuda joined me on the hunt. As it approached it began to swim parallel to me. I realized by its demeanor that it saw me as a fellow hunter.  If an ocean predator approaches at a perpendicular angle they indicate that they view the target as a threat or even prey. But by coming alongside me it told me that I was an ally, a fellow predator and was willing to cede its hunting ground.

    This is the zen of spearfishing. Peace brings success, and calm yields respect. We become just another fish in the wide ocean.