JACKSONVILLE, Fla. – Blood work, screenings and check-ins with your doctor are all recommended to maintain a healthy body. But some health professionals believe it takes more than just a family doctor to live abundantly.
Acupuncturist Juliann Abecassis started with a dream to go to medical school, she became a nursing assistant but then something derailed her.
“I really want to get to the root of healing and help people get down to the bottom of what’s going on and get them off meds and help them restore and live a healthy life,” Abecassis said.
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Abecassis started researching traditional Chinese medicine. According to the National Institutes of Health, it dates back at least 3,000 years and focuses on balancing the body.
Abecassis is now a practitioner and owns Balanced Healing of Jacksonville. She said there’s a waitlist with 500 people all looking for a nontraditional way to feel better.
“I think our stress levels are astronomical. The body is not designed to withstand chronic stress, stress should only be acute,” Abecassis said.
She targets stress and other symptoms through acupuncture with needles the size of a strand of hair. Chinese medicine practitioners believe there are more than 2,000 acupuncture points in the body connected by pathways or meridians and that disruption of the energy flow can cause disease.
“Chinese medication and acupuncture are an entire system of medicine that’s developed based on observation. It was all based on whether it could achieve a result, and could that result be replicated over and over,” Abecassis said.
She believes people need to acknowledge and treat their entire body.
At Balanced Healing of Jacksonville, there’s an infrared sauna that safely mimics the sun.
“Red light is really good at reducing inflammation, for immune system for energy production, it’s good for mood,” Abecassis said.
She also said you can see similar results just by spending time outdoors. Abecassis believes it requires thinking and doing things differently, but it starts with you.
“It can feel like another job and for most people, that’s the last thing that they need is another job. So, they just rely on their provider, their doctor to tell them when they’re healthy, and when they’re not. But the reality is, your doctor sees, you know, maybe 30 people a day, and they can’t watch out for you, the way you could watch out for yourself,” Abecassis said.
This type of care is not inexpensive but there are some things she believes you can ask your doctor to get the ball rolling to feel better.
- Check your Vitamin D levels
- See if the medications you take are depleting other nutrients
- Check for Vitamin B 12 deficiencies
There’s a company called Life Extension, it’s based out of Florida, Abecassis said it’s dedicated to health education and maximizing the availability of health resources to individuals. Anyone can set up a consultation for free to have someone evaluate their labs and make recommendations that they can take back to their doctor.
For more information, you can call 800-226-2370 and talk with a wellness specialist.