If you have ever come down with a cold or bruised a knee, chances are you’ve experienced inflammation. It’s our body’s acute response to injury.  But, chronic inflammation can wreak havoc on our bodies if gone unnoticed and untreated.

What Is Inflammation?

Inflammation occurs when the immune system protects the body from irritants and foreign substances. White blood cells work to defend us internally, which usually results in redness or swelling.

Acute Inflammation:

Acute inflammation is short-lived, and is usually resolved very quickly. A good example would be the body triggering a response to a cold or papercut; the body works swiftly to heal and repair any damage that is inflicted on itself.

Chronic Inflammation:

Chronic inflammation is an on-going form of inflammation, and is typically linked to more severe health conditions. Cancer, dementia, and diabetes are just a few conditions to which chronic inflammation can be traced. A study from Novant Presbyterian Internal Medicine shows that chronic inflammation can even lead to damaged tissue if not treated with urgency. 

What Are Some Causes?

There are a number of ways inflammation can occur, but research says these are the most common:

• An unbalanced diet full of fatty foods, excess carbs, and foods that are high in sugar content

• Drinking too much alcohol or frequent smoking

• Irregular sleep patterns

• Autoimmune disorders (Lupus, Psoriasis, Diabetes, etc.) 

• Experiencing Chronic Stress

• Untreated acute inflammation, which can turn chronic

• Scrapes or Strains

How Can You Tell If You Have It?

Symptoms of acute inflammation are easier to detect than chronic inflammation. These can include:

• Flushed Skin

• Pain/Tenderness

• Swelling

• Heat

• Fatigue

• Loss Of Function

Chronic Inflammation on the other hand, might have more painful symptoms that consist of:

• Recurring Fever

• Chest Pain

• Abdominal Pain 

• Mouth Sores

• Skin Rashes

• Stomach Pain, Cramps, Severe Bloating

• Mood Disorders, such as depression or anxiety

• Insomnia

 If you feel that you are experiencing high levels of pain, consult with a doctor.

Can You Reduce Inflammation?

Knowing how to treat your body after recognizing an issue is critical, especially when it comes to inflammation. Chronic inflammation might need to be assessed and remedied by a professional, but short-term inflammation is normally easier to manage.

Here are some ways to treat less severe cases of inflammation at home: 

• Watching what you drink- instead of grabbing a beer, opt for green or black tea. Studies show that both are great for reducing inflammation.

• Manage stress – This can achieved through meditation, journaling, or breathing exercises!

• Daily Physical Activity

• Incorporate anti-inflammatory foods into your diet – this includes greens, berries, whole grains, and healthy fats.

• Vitamins and Supplements – If you’re still not getting the nutrients you need through your diet, research from the University of Marburg shows supplements such as magnesium, turmeric, white willow bark, and vitamin B6, C, or D are great ways to strengthen the immune system and soothe any inflammation.

• Engage in hot or cold therapy for swelling. Cryotherapy is a great option.

Inflammation is a normal occurrence within the body, but can be very harmful if not given the right attention. Stay tuned for more on inflammation and its impact. 

Melissa Vance is no stranger to stress. But unlike many, she has found a way to achieve a peace that calms her and helps her manage the stresses of everyday life, motherhood, and entrepreneurship. Her secret? Salt. 1100 pounds of it.

“Sometimes, the most productive thing you can do, is RELAX.”

The Journey

Melissa had a busy, high stress corporate tech sales career. When she married and had kids, she switched gears abruptly to become a full-time stay at home mom, which was “stressful in a different way,” she says. With so many life changes, she began to experience pain, brain fog and depression. Her fast food diet with no exercise didn’t help. “I knew that I needed a change.” She shifted her mind set to include healthy food and exercise and felt so much better. Through her journey, she realized she could help others as well.

The Trigger

Embracing the power of a healthy lifestyle, Melissa became a certified health coach through the Institute of Integrated Nutrition. Then came the power of mind, body and breath and 500 hours of training to become yoga instructor. People wanted to learn from her and her clientele grew. In connecting with her clients, they shared their problems, their traumas, and their lives with her. In true Melissa style, she took them on, each one. She internalized her clients’ stories, until something wasn’t right. She started to experience night terrors. She realized she was “suppressing her own trauma from years ago”. She thought she was being strong and brave to bury it and carry it, but she’ll be the first to tell you that “things have a way of catching up with you eventually.”

The Remedy

Melissa’s therapist recommended float therapy…said it would re-center her, let her body rest, and lower cortisol levels while tuning out the outside world. She hated it! She explains, “All I felt was agitation and uncomfortable being by myself, with myself.” The therapist had recommended at least 3 sessions, so she went back, a compliant, yet skeptical patient. At the end of the 2nd float, she felt a “little glimpse of peace”. After the 3rd float, she was hooked. “I was a new person, like I took a happy pill.”

The Salt Center Imagined

Float therapy changed Melissa’s life, and, while meditating, she imagined offering a place where she could help others do the same. Her vision fell into place and The Salt Center opened in August 2020. She wondered why she felt led to open in the middle of a pandemic (good question) but soon realized she was SUPPOSED to because people were suffering and needed a calming outlet that focused on mental, physical and spiritual health.

Wellness Services

The primary services offered at The Salt Center are related to salt and its therapeutic benefits. “Dry salt therapy is like a toothbrush for your lungs”, Melissa says. It’s a homeopathic remedy for allergies and sinus infections, and has other benefits, too. The NEW Salt Center pods boasts 1100 pounds of Epsom salt in 10 inches of body temperature water and removes all external stimuli as your body becomes one with the water. “Many clients say they don’t feel where the water stops and their body begins.” Regular floating sessions 60-90 minutes reboots your nervous system, gets you to a calm state quicker than meditation alone, eliminates pain, and lowers cortisol levels by 80% in one hour”. Wow!

Still have questions about salt or float therapy? Call Melissa at The Salt Center. She knows first hand the unique self care experience offered at The Salt Center to support your physical, mental and emotional well being. She would love to educate you on the benefits of float therapy, halotherapy (dry salt therapy), and how The Salt Center can help you incorporate more SALT in your life!

The Salt Center Experience:

Float Therapy

Dry Salt Room

Infrared Sauna

Massage

Ion Cleanse

Normatec Compression

Pick up a copy of Melissa’s book at The Salt Center or at Amazon. Learn how her depression led her toward uncovering the link between digestion and mood.

Resources:

The Salt Center

We knew from our first conversation with Lucy Jimenez and Ashley Griffing that FIRST Body and Wellness is MORE than just a med spa. Lucy and her husband, Dr. Arnaldo Jimenez, have seen thousands of patients at his Gastroenterology practice over the last 23 years, and heard the stories of their health and wellness journeys. They asked themselves, “How can we do more for them and for our community?” It was their desire to dig deeper to help people, and a chance introduction that led them to open FIRST Body and Wellness Center.

Interview with Lucy & Ashley

What makes FIRST Body and Wellness different?

Lucy:  First, the priority at FIRST Body and Wellness is the focus on your entire health and wellness, not just how you look. We feel that if we can help patients feel like the best version of themselves inside and out, their confidence and happiness will increase.

Second, Dr. Jimenez is actually involved in the practice, not just in name only.

Third, we speak Spanish for those more comfortable speaking that language.

What led you to open FIRST Body and Wellness?

Lucy:  Kismet, really! A chance meeting and conversation over dinner one evening led to an introduction to a representative from BTL, the manufacturer behind the revolutionary EMSCULPT technology. We offer the Emsculpt Neo, which melts fat and tones; Emsella, a treatment for incontinence and other issues; and Emtone for skin tightening. All of these products use cutting edge technology and produce amazing results. We knew we had to find a way to offer these technologies to our patients and community.

How did you come by the name, FIRST Body and Wellness?

Ashley:  We wanted a name that described our practice and our patient-first mentality so we chose the acronym for FIRST: Firm, Invigorate, Rejuvenate, Sculpt, Tone. This perfectly describes what we do for our patients and the results speak for themselves.

What services do you offer at FIRST Body and Wellness?

Ashley: We offer EmSculpt Neo, Emsella, and Emtone as well as IV Therapy, PRP, and the Allergan suite of products: Botox, Juvaderm, and Kybella. We now offer hydrafacials, too! Our injectables technician, is phenomenal and very well-trained.

What else would you like our readers to know?

Lucy: Our motto is Less is More! We seek to enhance your natural beauty so you look like yourself, not a frozen version of you. Our focus is to make you look better, feel better and be the best version of yourself so you are happy and confident.

FIRST Body and Wellness is now open in Milton! Stop by to welcome them to the neighborhood and make an appointment. It will be the FIRST step to a better you!

Resources:

FIRST Body and Wellness

BTL Suite of Products 

Allergan Suite of Products 

When Christy and Richard Roth opened their CBD store on Windward Parkway, little did they know the venture would prove to be generations in the making.

Christy and Richard Roth, owners of Canna Wellness, came by their passion to educate and share their knowledge of CBD products through different paths. When Richard received a cancer diagnosis in 2018, his cycle of pain and anxiety with the disease and its treatment was consuming, especially when he tried to sleep. When he tried a CBD tincture, he was amazed at what a difference it made and its impact in stopping the pain/anxiety cycle. Later, a friend of Christy’s gave her a tincture to try to help calm menstrual cramps. She’s never stopped taking it because she saw such a major improvement.

Christy attended a CBD store franchising meeting and she and Richard were all in. After opening the store, Richard’s mother sent him this photo of his great-grandmother, Ilah McClaran, in Shreve, Ohio circa 1920. Her husband was a physician and used properties from the marijuana plant to treat some of his patients. Look closely and you will see the crop behind Mrs. McClaran. Eventually, law enforcement burned the crop.

What makes the Roths the perfect owners of Canna Wellness (formerly the Hemp Farm Store) is that Christy is a molecular biologist! This cover shows them in front of the molecular structure of CBD. The Roths own a laboratory testing and processing facility, Shepard Health Lab. So, they understand the molecules of the products, the plants they come from, what makes them effective and what companies can be trusted for their products. You see, the CBD industry is not regulated by the FDAand there are brands that are not reputable, like those you see in gas stations.

Christy and Richard differentiate that CBD comes from industrialized hemp, and THC comes from the marijuana plant. CBD products are natural and have many wellness properties, but will not give you the ‘high’ that THC does. If you are looking for a product with THC, Georgia regulations state that CBD products must contain less than <0.3% THC. You can find those at Canna Wellness, too.

Benefits of CBD:

Now that you know that CBD is not the same as THC, and that it has an amazing array of benefits, you may be ready to try one of products at Canna Wellness.

Tinctures – Sublingual drops offered in different flavors that are usually taken every day like vitamins

Edibles – In gummy or pill form, these must be digested but last longer

Topicals – Includes salves, rollers, lotions, chapstick and bath bombs that are absorbed through the skin

Smokables – Inhaled products that last the least amount of time

• Canna Wellness products are sourced from only Certified Organic industrial hemp growers.

• All products are tested by an independent third party to verify integrity. Each product at Canna Wellness has a QR code linked to the Certificate of Verification.

• Christy and Richard insist that their staff be knowledgeable about the products and their benefits so they can confidently recommend the right products for their clients.

• Canna Wellness focuses on the overall wellness needs of each client as they want everyone to receive pleasant, knowledgeable advice to have a great experience both in store and with the products.

What’s next for Canna Wellness?

Christy and Richard have lots of plans to make Canna Wellness a “wellness destination”, including incorporating some of their own custom products. Right now, they focus on helping people learn about the benefits of CBD so more people can enjoy a healthy lifestyle and “experience the luxury of relaxation”.

Fast forward 100 years from the photo above…don’t you think Dr. and Mrs. McClaran would be proud? Give CBD a try at Canna Wellness.

By: Tracie Morse

North Atlanta FitLife

Resources:

Canna Wellness 

Shepard Health Lab