With osteopathy, acupuncture, massage, romiromi, hypnotherapy, red light therapy and infrared sauna as well as a Studio offering Pilates, Yoga and Tai chi classes, this hub has everything you need to stay strong, healthy and resilient.
Verve chatted to Rachel from the Waitakere Health Hub to find out more about their expansive offering and their new infrared saunas and red-light therapy treatments.
As a multidisciplinary wellness clinic with so much on offer, how does someone determine where to start or what treatment/programme is most appropriate for them?
Most people start coming to our clinic due to injury or pain. Due to being ACC registered many people start with osteopathy, acupuncture or romiromi. These modalities will do an extensive examination structurally and physically as well as looking at the body holistically.
Other clients come to us specifically for infrared sauna or exercise classes to support their recovery, healing or overall health and wellbeing.
How do your staff work together to ensure your clients are receiving holistic treatment, and each treatment on offer is not working in isolation?
We take an extensive medical history and during our examination we might find a client isn’t sleeping well, or their digestion is not optimal. This might be contributing to recurrent strains or injuries and impacting healing. In this case as well as manual therapy, Chinese medicine and acupuncture would be recommended. if there are postural imbalances Pilates or Yoga might be recommended, and tai chi can improve movement issues.
Red Light Therapy is wonderful to support all healing and boosts mood – think of how you feel with sunlight on your face or back – there is a reason it makes us feel great. Stress impacts many systems in the body especially digestion. Infrared sauna is a wonderful way to sweat away the stress of the day, while also improving energy, mood, detoxification and more. We work collectively around what the client needs.
What does it mean for someone to “take ownership of their own health”?
This concept is why we added the Studio, infrared sauna and red light therapy to our offerings. Where manual therapy will help, if people are not changing their habits, or postural imbalances, we are just constantly treating their pain. Taking ownership of your health is working towards healing current challenges but also preventing future illness and chronic conditions, this is preventative medicine and the direction medicine is going. We give people the tools to live their best lives.
What is your most popular movement offering (Pilates, Yoga, Barre etc) and why do you think this is?
They are all so varied. At the moment I think our Springforme classes, these are similar to reformer pilates but are wall mounted for space optimisation. The springs give you a resisted work out as well as support.
Our BARRE classes are a hard work out and focuses on hip alignment and core strength, and Yoga is powerful for strength, flexibility and mental calmness. Our Tai chi classes have a loyal following and promote effective movement.
What has the response been to the opening of the new infrared sauna and red light therapy room?
Great, as we have the only infrared sauna and red light therapy in West Auckland and many people are looking to use these on a regular basis. These are feel-good treatments that are so incredibly beneficial for overall health and mental wellbeing.
Not only is it time to sit and have some time for yourself away from the hustle and bustle of life; the infrared heat causes reactions in the body that are similar to moderate exercise, increasing circulation and enabling detoxification. You get the endorphins of a good sweat and it feels great.
What is the difference between infrared sauna and red light therapy?
The infrared sauna is more effective than the normal hot rock saunas, due to the infrared heat penetrating the body directly. The raising of the body’s temperature causes a mild positive stress that causes hormesis (good stress) in the body, this slight stress encourages your body to heal. The heat and sweat causes detoxification, vasodilation enhancing blood flow to tissues and helping promote healthy blood pressure. Your skin feels amazing after all the pores have been opened and is great for your immunity and energy as well it being very relaxing.
The red light therapy uses red and near-infrared light (NIR) to gently warm the body. The light penetrates the skin and supports your mitochondria (the energy producing parts of our cells) to increase the production of energy, which can then be used for all processes in the body. It aids collagen production to promote health skin, and when penetrating deeper tissue enables muscle relaxation, circulation and recovery.
What benefits have you noticed for yourself since using red light therapy and sauna treatments?
The thing I noticed the most is when I use these treatments post exercise, I have no delayed onset muscle soreness (DOMS). I do 10 minutes in front of the red light then have a 30 minute sauna and I come out feeling amazing. I stretch in the sauna and after the cold shower following my skin feels fantastic.
Kate my colleague uses both red light therapy and infrared sauna for chronic health conditions and she has noticed more energy more resilience and improved mood.
What would you say to someone who has never tried infrared sauna or red light therapy treatments before?
I would say give it a go you will love it. It is wonderful to do something for yourself in your day. The effects are cumulative so with repetitive treatments you start feeling even better. Everyone can benefit from weekly infrared sauna and regular red light therapy and a cold shower or cold plunge afterwards intensifies the effects. Experts say having 2 hours of heat in a week and 10 minutes of cold is very beneficial.
Studies have shown infrared sauna to reduce the risk of chronic disease, aid athletic performance, support injury healing, aid detoxification (and in todays world we are surrounded by toxins), support brain health, increase energy production, reduce chronic pain and increase mood.
Check out more on these studies in my colleague Kates blog
https://www.insidematters.co.nz/post/how-does-infrared-sauna-and-rlt-actually-work
How often/how many times per week would you recommend these treatments?
I like to go in 2-3x per week, but I know this isn’t realistic for everyone in their busy weeks. But even once a week you will notice a positive difference.
Studies have shown in Finland that people who sauna 2 times a week are 24% less likely to die of all causes (excluding accidents) than people who don’t sauna. And if you sauna 4 or more times per week your likelihood of living a longer and healthier life increases significantly. This includes reducing your likelihood of dying from a heart attack.
How do these treatments work alongside osteopath, massage or acupuncture?
I often recommend an infrared sauna after acupuncture treatment if my client needs to sweat and my treatment protocol has been to open the pores. This can be if they have fluid accumulation (edema) or swelling, or if they are coming in to loose weight.
Also, the red light therapy can be a lovely adjunct therapy after manual therapy to calm the tissues and settle everything back down.
So what is next for the health hub?
We have some exciting things coming along. We have breathwork classes joining the studio.
And we are about to start a drop-in pain clinic. This uses Battlefield acupuncture which was designed by the US army to reduce pain. It puts small needles into 5 points in the ears and is very successful. Due to the style of treatment this can be in a community clinic setting so we can offer this for a cheaper price and will be running 3 times a week.
We also have an addiction programme starting soon with auricular acupuncture, ear seeds and hypnotherapy. All really exciting work.
We are also just running now our first intake of our personalised health coaching. This uses an epigenetic model to tailor health advice to people individually.
What do you like best about what you are doing?
The people I work with and the people we are helping. It is a rewarding work environment.
https://www.waitakerehealthhub.co.nz/
