Acupuncture by Fernando Bernall, DOM, Ap » Medicine

Celestial Stem Qi Gong Workshop in St. Augustine

Fernando Bernall, DOM — Mon, 30 Apr 2012 09:30:04 +0000

On May 19-20, 2012 – I will be offering a two-day workshop in Saint Augustine, on the ancient system of Qi Gong known as Tian Kan or Celestial Stem. The system consists of 24 short postures that will, with practice, strengthen the spine while giving it pliability and overall rejuvenation.

More information can be found at: CelestialStem.com Or at the venue hosting the workshop at: Swimming Dragon School of Kung Fu and Tai Chi Chuan. Or call the school at: 904-827-9897.

Space is limited so register today!

Acupuncture Treatments Enhanced by Qi Gong and Tai Chi

Fernando Bernall, DOM — Sat, 21 Apr 2012 10:16:38 +0000

In my acupuncture practice here in Saint Augustine, I have come to notice that patients who also study Qi Gong, Tai Chi, and/or Kung Fu in my school, tend to heal faster from complaints including digestive, muscular, emotional, lack of energy, and poor sleep to name just a few.

While the idea of including exercise through physical therapy as part of rehab from surgery is not new, the concept of including esoteric disciplines such as Qi Gong for non-traumatic complains is gaining wide popularity within practitioners willing to think outside the box.

In an effort to offer a holistic protocol to my patients, I have developed a treatment program that I call Acu-Sthenics™. The program offers the patient ten therapeutic sessions that includes acupuncture, bodywork, and movement therapy in the form of one or more modalities such as Qi Gong, calisthenics, Tai Chi, or kettlebells. The choice of which method to use is based on the patient’s condition, age, gender and the chief complaint for which treatment is being given.

Call our office to see if Acu-Sthenics™ is for you at: 904-827-9897 or drop by our clinic at: 900 Anastasia Blvd. Suite C here in St. Augustine.

Treatment of Ingrown toenail [blog video]

Fernando Bernall, DOM — Mon, 16 Jan 2012 02:13:57 +0000

in this video I’ll be sharing with you an old method to treat early stages of an ingrown toenail that I learned as a young boy in my native Colombia. Please understand that this was totally improvised and filmed right on the spot. in actual clinical practice, the treatment is done with better tools.

The Three Environments

Fernando Bernall, DOM — Fri, 13 Jan 2012 12:03:17 +0000

I base my entire practice on the idea that the human body wants to gravitate towards a state of good health. Male, female, rich, poor, black, white. It makes no difference. Good health is the heritage for all mankind.

If the above is true, then how come there are so many people sick? I don’t know. No doubt some folks have just been dealt a bad deck of cards. I know that does not sound good in light of my opening statement. What else can I say?

Qigong, Acupuncture, Herbal Medicine and Bodywork in the Treatment of Fibromyalgia

Fernando Bernall, DOM — Sat, 24 Dec 2011 02:24:17 +0000

What is FM?

Fibromyalgia (FM), is a term used in medicine to identify the collective symptoms that millions of people have complained about, and describe as generalized pain within the muscle tissues accompanied by chronic fatigue. It is the second most common diagnosis made in rheumatology clinics.

In this article, I will present some of my own experience treating FM with Chinese medicine including Qigong, acupuncture and bodywork. I will also share my own hypothesis of the cause of Fibromyalgia.

The Four Methods: A Common Ground between Personal Training and Acupuncture

Fernando Bernall, DOM — Thu, 14 Jul 2011 16:48:27 +0000

Personal training is similar to the practice of Acupuncture in that both systems, to be effective, employ four methods to gather information in order to offer solutions specific to the client. Each individual must be treated in accordance to the information gathered through looking, asking, listening and palpating at the time of the first and every following training or treatment session.

Corporate Pain = Corporal Anguish

Fernando Bernall, DOM — Thu, 15 Apr 2010 12:20:25 +0000

The lessons to be learned in life are often taught through avenues never traveled. As a physician of acupuncture, I often treat pain experienced by my patients from their work environment. Most often, these patients sit on a desk for hours at a time in conditions less than suitable for their body type. Also, the more »

Swimming Dragon: For Boomers’ Healthy Spine

Fernando Bernall, DOM — Mon, 07 Dec 2009 02:40:38 +0000

Swimming Dragon is perhaps one of my favorite sets I teach to my Baby Boomer Clients to help keep the spine in a healthy condition. Not only is the vertebral column exercised, but the joints of the knees, ankles, hips, elbows, wrists and shoulders, along with the neck, receive a mild and invigorating workout.

Joint mobility and strength training should always be practiced along side each other. This is particularly true for the older athletes whose joints are not as supple as they were in days gone by.

In this video, I share with you my current level of practice in this beautiful exercise.

Practiced for at least 20 minutes a day, Swimming Dragon can help in weight management. It has a profound effect on the main glands of the body including the gonads, thyroid, adrenals and it is an effective method for lymphatic flow.

The style of Swimming Dragon I practice, places emphasis on the Kidney meridian and the lower Dan Tien. The lowering of the body to a nearly squatting position pressurizes the lower abdomen stimulating the gonads. The stimulation to these glands nourishes the Kidney energy, promotes sexual vitality, strengthen the knees and revives the sacrum and pelvic floor…

The Fitness Professional: A Model in the Health care Field

Fernando Bernall, DOM — Mon, 07 Dec 2009 02:29:53 +0000

As a health care practitioner, I have found that a vital missing component in most medical practices that focus on pain management, is a fitness program that can be easily integrated within the physician’s current work model.While at first sight the inclusion of a fitness regime into a treatment plan may seem an easy process, the fact is that the task is faced with a myriad of barriers that both the physician and patient must address and overcome if success is to be achieved.

In this, part I of this series of posts, I will identify one of five items the physician must address within his/her practice in order to successfully include a fitness program within the treatment plan, and later, five obstacles the patients must remove from their thinking if healing is to be attained through exercise. First, the physician:

Education

Most physicians, including those who practice complimentary or integrative medicine, have received some instruction in exercise physiology. Sadly, the number of hours in this subject is very limited and the level of depth is shallow at best. This is also true for the subject of nutrition which according to the experts is as important as exercise physiology; the two are inseparable.

To further aggravate the issue, physician have very limited knowledge of exercise principles such as Gradual Progressive Overload, Periodization and Selective Adaptation to Imposed Demand (SAID), to name a few. Without this knowledge, a physician is incapable of writing an exercise prescription for his/her patient. The common solution is to outsource/refer the patient to the physical therapist.

While physical therapy plays a pivotal role in the rehabilitation of many muscle skeletal complaints related to pain, it is a profession that is sadly handicapped by a bureaucratic system within the insurance companies which dictates the number of visits and treatment modalities in the “rehab” process.

A growing trend in orthopedic practices is to have an in-house physical therapy department. While this is a step in the right direction in that the quality of treatment can be monitored and offers convenience to the patient, its shortcomings become evident when the treatment protocol is based on insurance coverage. As a side note, the inclusion of in-house rehab, has also caused many independent and free thinking physical therapists to close their practice due to a decrease in referrals.

A Possible Solution

The suggestion that a physician should return to school and become a fitness professional may seem laughable. But upon farther consideration, it is the best option available if he/she intends to provide patients who suffer with pain the service and education they need and deserve.

This does not mean that the physician must act the role of a personal trainer and meet the patient at the local gym at 5 am three times per week. What it means is that the physician will be able to demonstrate the exercise, explain to the patient in a layman’s term the anatomy and body mechanics needed for proper form and gradually guide the patient through various levels of sophistication or difficulty for that particular exercise.

The benefits of such interaction between doctor and patient cannot be overemphasized. Several things happen when the doctor takes the time to instruct the patient:

The doctor benefits physically from the demonstration. After all if the practitioner is unable to perform an exercise with good form and breathing pattern, how can the patient be expected to comply?
The physical demonstration of the exercise nourishes the rapport between the patient and the doctor. It is a stronger sign of commitment from the doctor than the simple act of giving the patient a cookie cutter sheet of exercises.
It makes the patient accountable.

In my next post, I will address the equipment and amount of space the doctor needs to teach the patient proper exercise technique..

p.s. Interestingly, today, after I finished writing this post, I found on the news the following report on pain management and exercise.