| | | Preparation for Your Appointment |  |
- Food:
- Eating a lot of freshly-prepared protein (fish, meat, eggs, raw nuts) before your session is critical for you to get the best result from Tandem Point therapy. Have plenty of protein, ideally freshly-cooked ocean fish or other seafood, in the 24-hour period before an appointment. On the day of your appointment, eat a large breakfast including plenty of protein, ideally freshly-cooked ocean fish. However, do not eat within two hours of your appointment. Individuals with low blood pressure and/or low blood sugar should pay special attention to eating well throughout the day of an appointment.
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Water: - Please drink plenty of water the day before and the day of an appointment. The definition of plenty varies: one physician recommends that you take your body weight in pounds, divide by two, and consume that many ounces of water in a day. According to this formula, a 120-pound person would drink 60 ounces of water, or 7.5 cups, daily. Alcohol and caffeine are diuretics (they will work to eliminate water from your body) so if you consume alcohol or caffeine in the two days before an appointment, please drink extra water. Please continue to drink a lot of water after an appointment also. Please do not drink distilled water.
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- Soup Broth:
- Please bring two pints of soup broth to your appointment, as consumption of soup broth during session (instead of water) is associated with a clearly superior result in approximately 85% of clients, possibly due to protein and electrolytes in the soup broth. The Oriental Pearl, 215 East Kings Highway (five doors closer to Haddon Avenue than 225 East Kings Highway), will sell you chicken broth made in-house for $1 a pint plus tax or vegetarian miso broth for $1.25 a pint plus tax. These items are not on the menu. Please ask for broth, not soup; please purchase two pints, not one quart. The Oriental Pearl is not open for the 11 a.m. Sunday appointment but is open during all other Tandem Point appointment hours. The soup broth is always on the stove, so there is no need to phone an order in advance. If you will prepare your own soup, please bring it hot in a thermos if possible. Salt-free soup is associated with a relatively poor result; if your physician has placed you on a limited salt diet, please consult with your physician as to whether you could have soup broth during Tandem Point therapy.
- Vitamins:
- If you normally take vitamins, please remember to take vitamins on the day of an appointment. Bernard Filner, M.D., a Maryland physiatrist who studied with Janet Travell, M.D. and treats trigger points using her methods, requires his patients to take 2 grams (2000 milligrams) of timed release vitamin C per day for at least three days before their first visit (unless the patients have kidney stones). The timed release is important: Dr. Filner holds the opinion that 2 grams of timed release vitamin C is more useful to the body than 18 grams of regular vitamin C. In addition, he requires all his patients to start taking B-complex (50 milligram) vitamins, one pill daily, for six weeks, starting at least two weeks before the first appointment. In the B-complex vitamins, he requires the niacin to be in the form of niacinamide. Carol McMakin, D.C., an Oregon chiropractor who treats trigger points with microcurrent therapy (she presented this treatment strategy at the National Institutes of Health in April 2000), recommends that her patients to take complex low-dose anti-oxidant vitamins two hours before and immediately after a patient visit. For patients who do not have access to such vitamins, Dr. McMakin suggests an ordinary multi-vitamin two hours before and immediately after the patient visit.
- Exercise:
- Please do not engage in vigorous exercise on the day of an appointment.
- Medication:
- Do not stop any prescribed medication for an appointment. However, if you are choosing to take an over-the-counter anti-inflammatory drug such as aspirin, naproxen, acetaminophen, or ibuprofen, please avoid the use of such medication on the day of an appointment.
Alcohol: - Avoid the use of alcohol before an appointment.
Caffeine: - On the day of your appointment, please avoid or reduce the use of caffeine-containing products, such as coffee, black tea, and some sodas. Do not entirely eliminate caffeine from your diet if that will give you a headache.
- Sleep:
- Get plenty of sleep the night before an appointment.
Clothing:- Tandem Point therapy is done with the client dressed. Wear loose-fitting cotton clothing (not jeans) for Tandem Point therapy: loose cotton pants, sweatpants, or gym shorts, and a T-shirt. Corduroy or other ribbed clothing may hinder the work. You may bring a change of clothing to wear during or after your session. Clothing should be suitable for yoga class.
Jewelry: - You will be asked to remove your watch as well as all rings and other jewelry you wear to session. Therefore please avoid wearing jewelry to your appointment.
Electrolytes:- Women with very low blood pressure may benefit from consuming extra salt or an electrolyte complex before an appointment, especially if (a) they normally avoid salt, (b) they normally drink more than two quarts of water each day, and (c) they regularly engage in vigorous exercise that causes sweating.
| P.O. Box 1023, Haddonfield, NJ 08033 | | |