Alternative Health Solutions in Minot offers natural health solutions including therapeutic lymphatic drainage, computerized analysis, personalized nutrition counseling and reiki healing. Natural health practitioner Debra Landers, owner of the store, has training as a holistic health practitioner, decongestive lymphatic technician, electro dermal screening tech; and works with Jenny Olwage, a reiki master, also certified in yoga instruction, Mongolian Koyashai massage and Korean hand massage.
"Our focus is on giving the body what it needs to heal itself," Landers said. "We don't treat or diagnose. Everything we do is natural. We try to bring the body back into a state of balance."
"What's important is the whole health of the person. I don't discredit doctors, I just think you've got to balance the body and have proper nutrition," she added.
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Katina Tengesdal/MDN - - Debra Landers, owner of Alternative Health Solutions, shows the LymphStar Pro Fusion machine.
Landers meets with customers and scans them using an Orion electro-dermal screening unit, a computer-based system meant to measure energy levels in various organs and organ systems. An individual's energy levels are measured through the machine via acupuncture points in the hands and feet.
The computer then registers the energy measurements as "balanced," "high" or "low." That information, Landers said, helps her determine which body systems are in need of balance and which supplements would help.
"We will scan different customers to find the product that's compatible with their body. It saves people money, they're not just grabbing stuff off a shelf and finding out what works through trial and error," Landers said.
The supplements, she said, help balance the body through nutrition, and are pure extracts derived from natural mineral, plant, or animal sources.
"Because our food today is so chemically processed, and the soil is deficient in nutrients, we're not getting all the nutrients we need from our diet," Landers said.
"I think a lot of people might think that they're just supplements, and they don't work," she said. "But it does work. As natural health practitioners, we know our supplements, we've studied them and we know what they do."
Landers said she has always been interested in nutrition and how it can help the body heal.
To learn more about homeopathy, she trained with Cory Carter, doctor of naturopathy, of Alt Med Services in Blackhawk, S.D.; and she's working toward a doctorate through Trinity College of Natural Health. When visiting a natural health practitioner, she said, individuals should be cautious and should check their practitioner's certifications to determine if they are credible.
In addition to nutrition supplements, Alternative Health Solutions offers the options of lymphatic de-congestive therapy, using the Lymphstar Pro Fusion and the Carter Technique of Lymphatic Drainage, which uses lights with vibration to break down congested lymph fluid.
"The lymph is the milky fluid in the body that carries toxins out of the body," Landers said. "When it's congested, it gets to be like cot- tage cheese and it's lumpy. Light therapy changes the consistency of congested lymph."
Other offerings at Alternative Health Solutions include the Cygnus Aqua Cleanse Detox Unit, which is an ionized water bath for the feet or hands; Touch for Health that involves acupressure, and Reiki Energy Balancing and Healing.