Laughter Really Is The Best Medicine

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We already know that laughter makes us feel good. New findings suggest it might also make us feel well. Promising tidbits of research show that laughter stimulates a multitude of systems in the body, with both immediate and lasting effects. “The use of laughter is really helping to re-optimize and retune mechanisms in the body,” according to Lee S. Berk, DrPH, a professor and associate dean of research affairs in the School of Allied Health Professions at Loma Linda University. Laughter, he says, is a positive stress event for the body, similar to exercise or listening to music. And the benefits kick in regardless of the way you laugh, whether it’s a stifled giggle or cackle. Here’s what else you need to know about it:

1. It improves memory

Laughter’s effects start with the brain, where it does nothing short of altering your brain waves. Research shows that having a good laugh enhances an even higher frequency, gamma, which is associated with the highest levels of cognitive processing, including memory and recall.

2. It strengthens the immune system

Laughter undoes some of the damage wrought by a stressful lifestyle. During a negative stress event, the adrenal glands secrete cortisol, a hormone that helps put sugar in the muscles (so you can run faster). However, cortisol also suppresses the immune system. A person experiencing chronic stress is continually releasing cortisol and epinephrine, so the individual’s immune system fights all diseases, from colds to cancer, less effectively. Laughter may help bring the cortisol level back in line so the immune system can function well again.

3. It relieves pain
At the same time, it changes the cortisol levels, laughter stimulates the release of endorphins in the brain. You have probably heard of endorphins in the context of exercise, but laughter creates them, too. They are the body’s own morphine. Indeed, we have our own apothecary within us!

4. It makes us happy
You need only look to your personal observations to confirm laughter’s power here. Do you ever have a good laugh and say, “Wow I feel more stressed”? Happiness is a variable as important to your health as any other measured variable. Many diseases are caused or made worse by stress and depression; laughter may be the antidote.

5. It mimics light exercise (even though it doesn’t replace it).

While laughter utilizes some of the same mechanisms as light exercise, it’s no substitute for a workout. There is some caloric loss on laughter, but don’t base your weight-loss program around it.

The bottom line:
Laugh more until we have a good reason not to. Vibrant Health of Colorado prides itself in promoting a happy, vibrant life to our patients. We offer 15-minute complimentary consultations to new patients. Schedule with us today by calling 303-730-2229 or online here.

There’s New Talent in Town

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Vibrant Health of Colorado is pleased to welcome Shannon Goritz R.N., Master Injector, Laser Specialist, and Cosmetic Trainer to our talented team.

Shannon Goritz is originally from Canada and has been a Registered Nurse for 24 years. She has been practicing in the field of Cosmetic Nursing since 2006 where she originally started with a prominent Dermatologist in Canada. Shannon has been a clinical trainer for Cutera Lasers, PRP, Radiesse Injectables, and currently for Alma Lasers where she trains physicians and nurses across the USA.

Through her years of experience working within the cosmetic nursing industry, she has gained master certifications in Botox, Dysport, Xeomin, Juvéderm, Restylane, Radiesse, Scluptra, PRP and multiple laser platforms. Shannon honed her skills and developed a vast knowledge base which allows her to flourish within the medical aesthetics field.

Along with Shannon’s passion to teach, she believes in listening to the client’s desired outcomes, offering her knowledge and recommendations. Shannon believes client education, is the foundation in which to formulate personalized treatment plans that will achieve natural results based on individualized treatment goals.

Through ongoing education, consulting and frequent training with expert cosmetic professionals, she continues to perfect her aesthetic treatments with the most up to date trends and techniques. Shannon is passionate about her practice and believes in building a strong relationship to empower patients to look and feel their best. In her free time, she enjoys spending quality time with friends and family, hiking, cycling, being active and cooking at home.

The combination of Shannon’s extensive knowledge base, joy of teaching, and ability to engage with clients, create a unique experience based on individual treatment goals, to achieve natural results.

As an introductory offer you can receive the following specials:
• Prepay for 30 units of Botox, and get 10 units free
• Prepay for 60 units, and get 20 units for free
• BONUS: Complimentary PCA peel with Botox purchase
• Add a Juvéderm syringe and get $75 off the first syringe. $100 off 2nd syringe and get $125 off 3rd syringe

At Vibrant Health of Colorado, we strive to provide our clients and extraordinary experience maintaining quality service within a comfortable setting. Our mission is to achieve excellent results yielding a youthful and radiant glow. Schedule your appointment today or call us at 303-730-2229 and we will be happy to answer any questions.

Erynn Kay

A Warm Welcome from Erynn Kay, Primary Care Provider

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Hello, Vibrant Health of Colorado Community!

I wanted to take a moment to introduce myself to you. My name is Erynn Kay, and I’m a Physician Assistant at Vibrant Health of Colorado in Denver, Colorado offering primary care services. I am so excited and happy to have joined the Vibrant Health team! The owners of Vibrant wanted to be able to offer a “one-stop-shop” for patients, and as such, we are proud to provide primary care services, women’s health, hormone health, and functional medicine services to our patients.

A little background on me: I’ve worked as a Physician Assistant since graduating in 2009. My first four years out of school were spent working at a wonderful Internal Medicine and Pediatrics clinic in Goodyear, AZ. Our clientele ranged from newborn babies to centenarians. The clinic was located right across the street from a large retirement village, and my love for the geriatric population was born. I also learned I enjoyed a complex case, which internal medicine often brought. Though I loved this job, I started learning more about nutrition on my own, as I was experiencing some major health challenges.
I became very drawn to the Paleo (or ancestral) diet for myself and started seeing amazing results when recommending this type of dietary change to patients. It made sense to me that humans were built to eat foods provided by nature, not processed food from a box, and that disease would be the end result if we didn’t do better at counseling our patients on diet and lifestyle modifications. I didn’t just want to manage disease anymore, I wanted to help prevent it.

This desire brought me to a nutrition conference in the spring of 2013 which led me to my next job in Littleton, CO, as the conference is where I met my future boss. This office was a family practice with a focus on low-carb nutrition for weight loss and health gain. Over the next 7 years here, I was really able to spread my wings in functional medicine, working with a patient population that was very interested in nutrition. I pursued additional training through the Nutritional Therapy Association, becoming a Nutritional Therapy Practitioner in 2018. I then received further training through Restorative Wellness Solutions which has taught me how to interpret the highest quality functional labs available- definitely not the kind of information we learned in PA school! I am so thankful that I had the opportunity to work in this office, as it completely changed the way I practice, but when I heard about a new exciting opportunity in the fall of 2019, I was too excited to pass it up!

Vibrant Health of Colorado was reborn last year under new ownership as a women’s health and hormone specialty office. A good friend of mine, Deanna Woodroffe, happens to be one of the awesome owners of the clinic, and once she and I realized that our philosophies of using nutrition, herbal supplements such as SHAPE REclaimed, and bioidentical hormones over conventional therapies were aligned, it made good sense to pair up to be able to provide expanded primary care and functional medicine services to her existing patients.

The entire team here is devoted to helping our patients find the root cause of their illnesses so that they can live the most healthy, vibrant lives possible, and it’s so exciting to be a part of that! I especially love seeing patients with autoimmune disease, gastrointestinal issues, and metabolic illness, because there are countless alternative options to conventional care that can greatly reduce or even eliminate the chronic and often debilitating symptoms associated with these types of conditions Seeing someone markedly improve after years of suffering makes it fun to come to work every day! And though this is what I’m most passionate about, I realize that medications and conventional medicine have their place. I still very much enjoy the routine aspects of primary care services: treating acute illnesses and injuries, medication management, routine physicals, reviewing test results, and educating and empowering my patients along the way.

I look forward to being able to meet and work with all of you and help in any way I can. Thank you for the warm welcome to Vibrant Health of Colorado! Call us today at 303-730-2229 or visit our website at www.vibranthealthofcolorado.com to learn more about the practice, or click here to schedule a consultation.

Spread Knowledge, Not Germs: The War Against Coronavirus

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We are in uncharted territory. COVID-19 has disrupted the entire world, and it is affecting all of us, in every aspect of our lives. This virus has declared war on us, and we seem to be frozen in our tracks. It’s time to turn the tide. It’s time for us to attack this virus. Unlike us, this virus possesses no brain, no heart, nor common sense. Let’s use our brain, heart and common sense and beat this virus quickly.

We need to fight this virus everywhere we can and all together – both inside and outside of our bodies. We must slow its spread to better protect ourselves, our communities, our healthcare systems and, last but not least, our economy. We must be strong. And, we need to try everything we can – NOW.

We need to attack this virus in three ways:

1. Fight the Virus Outside of a Host
The virus may be living on surfaces around you, including your home or office. Now is the time for every one of us to unite as sanitizing soldiers, laser-focused on reducing or eliminating this virus on everything around us.

• Be a sanitizing soldier
Take precautions with everything you do and everywhere you go to kill the virus on surface areas. Carry disinfectant wipes or wash rags with you, and adopt the mindset to wipe down everything before and after you touch it. This also helps protect those who might encounter a space after you. A washcloth with soap and water, alcohol, Clorox, or any combination of these has been suggested to be effective.

• Wash your hands, often and even obsessively, with soap and water for at least 20 seconds.
If 100 million of us do these things, it’s possible that we could eliminate a large number of these viruses that still may be alive outside of a host. These solutions are not absolute or perfect, but they can reduce the number of cases. All of us are responsible for flattening the curve of the spread of this virus by these measures or any additional measures suggested by world health organizations.

2. Fight the Virus from the Inside Out
Once the virus enters the body, it will first hide and replicate. This can take days and it is likely that we are very contagious before we are even aware of any symptoms. An EARLY, AGGRESSIVE FIGHT against this virus or any other cold or flu virus is CRITICAL. We must throw everything and the kitchen sink at this immediately. The moment you have any symptoms associated with any cold, flu or COVID-19 (it really doesn’t matter), you need to act.

◦ Hydrate. Once again, drink plenty of fluids:
◦ Warm water
◦ Hot ginger tea with honey
◦ Warm broth soups with healthy ingredients
◦ Other warm liquids you prefer

This will help replenish nutrients and flush impurities from the body.

• Rest. Your body is stronger when it’s rested. It needs plenty of sleep so its systems can fight illness.
• Stay Active and move. Ensure you are remaining physically active to help boost your immune function.
• Don’t Panic. Panic will cause stress, which can break down your immune system.
• Stay home. If you’re ill, isolate yourself, schedule a virtual consult with us.
• Practice good nutrition habits: eat mostly whole, fresh foods, high in protein and micronutrients.
• Continue taking additional vitamins, micronutrients, and supplements to support immunity.

3. Precautions
From what we know thus far, we can have this virus for several days with no symptoms – and this is when you are highly contagious. Therefore, assume you have the virus and take all the actions mentioned above. Do it as a precautionary approach on a daily basis. Following the remedies above is healthy, may make you feel good and just might eliminate the virus before you would ever even know you had it. You just may have stopped it in its tracks.

Don’t be overwhelmed. Be aggressive. Be vigilant. Be committed. We will win the war against this virus. We have common sense. We have wisdom. We have heart, and we are resilient. Worldwide, we have amazing scientists. They will very soon map out exactly how we can better protect ourselves against this virus even before drugs or a vaccine are available. Until then, we have to try what we can, learn and share. Each person’s ability to have an impact on this is powerful. It’s not just what others do. Each of us has an important role to play.

Vibrant Health of Colorado is committed to doing all we can to provide the best care and information possible. if you have any questions, feel free to call the office at 303-730-2229. We also offer virtual consultations, call our office to schedule yours today.

woman reading on laptop

Out With the Old and In With the New!

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At Vibrant Health of Colorado we’ve always been committed to empowering our patients to live a vibrant life through the care we provide. And we decided it was time to update our logo and our website to reflect that commitment. We are very excited to announce the launch of our newly designed website. Visit us at vibranthealthofcolorado.com We wanted to make the new website faster, more user-friendly and informative.

As a healthcare leader in functional medicine and primary care, it’s important for us to make information regarding our practice, services and trends in the industry easily accessible for our current and prospective patients. Amongst the new features the site contains integrated social media buttons, meet our providers section, patient portal, and a blog to foster improved communication with our patients. We will be constantly updating our content with helpful information, and practice announcements.

Please have a look around the site and let us know your thoughts – and be sure to tell your friends and family about your experience with our practice.