Green Tea Conversations
Choosing to Heal Naturally with Melissa Cathcart
March 28, 2021
Meet Melissa Cathcart of Dynamic Functional Healing in Minneapolis, MN, an expert in acupuncture and natural healing. Cathcart talks about her journey and explains concepts like visceral manipulation and pelvic floor rehabilitation, and how alternative healing methods can be used to treat various health conditions. Learn how she combines acupuncture, natural therapy, and rehab as a great alternative to mainstream treatment – both as a treatment and a preventative therapy. To find out more and schedule an appointment, visit DynamicFunctionalHealing.com.

Choosing to Heal Naturally with Melissa Cathcart



[00:00:09.960] - Candi Broeffle, Guest

Good morning and welcome to Green Tea Conversation, the radio show that delves into the pages of Natural Awakenings magazine and bring it to the local experts who share their progressive ideas and the latest information and insights needed so you can lead your best life.
 

[00:00:25.290] - Candi Broeffle, Guest

I'm your host Candi Broeffle, publisher of the Twin Cities edition of Natural Awakenings magazine, and I am honored to bring these experts to you today in our studio. We welcome Melissa Cathcart of Dynamic Functional Healing in Minneapolis. Welcome to the show, Melissa!
 

[00:00:41.970] - Melissa Cathcart, Guest

Thank you, Candi. Thank you so much for having me.
 

[00:00:45.210] - Candi Broeffle, Guest

Well, we're very glad to have you with us today. And I always like to ask people to go ahead and introduce themselves, kind of share with us what your journey is, what it was that brought you into natural health.
 

[00:00:59.160] - Melissa Cathcart, Guest

So my interest in acupuncture in general probably goes back to a time when I was about 12 years old. I was interested in anatomy and physiology, but I was also interested in absolutely everything Chinese, and in college, I took international relations for my major and there were five or seven different pathways.
 

[00:01:24.780] 

You could choose to complete that degree. And I chose East Asia and took Chinese as my language. I still don't understand that I would end up becoming an acupuncturist, but my first exposure to acupuncture was in China when I had food poisoning and I used herbal medicine there as well. When I came back and graduated, I found that I didn't really know what to do with my degree. I kept going by the storefront on Chicago Avenue. That was the old acupuncture school years ago, and I stopped and just happened to be passing by during an open house and spoke to the people running the school.
 

[00:02:10.560] 

And they said it was a three-year program. And I thought, "Oh, God, I am not ready to sign up for a three-year program. It's too much." But the next year, I was riding by on my motorcycle and I stopped. It happened to be another open house. And they said, "Well, now it's a four-year program." And I said, "Oh God! Sign me up before it gets any longer." So that was the beginning of my acupuncture training.
 

[00:02:37.800] 

And when I when I first graduated, I was a general practitioner, although I knew that I had an interest in the abdomen and pelvic floor because I had a number of years working as a home birth midwife previously.
 

[00:02:54.570] - Candi Broeffle, Guest

Oh, interesting.
 

[00:02:56.460] - Melissa Cathcart, Guest

But I was in acupuncture school from ninety five to two thousand.
 

[00:03:03.120] - Candi Broeffle, Guest

OK, so was that actually after you had already been a midwife?
 

[00:03:07.350] - Melissa Cathcart, Guest

Correct. And then started that.
 

[00:03:10.080] - Candi Broeffle, Guest

So when did you start your business?
 

[00:03:12.330] - Melissa Cathcart, Guest

In 2001. It took me a number of years to realize that I wanted to introduce the manual therapies into my practice. And in 2003, I started studying three different manual therapies all at the same time. Carol, Dr. Carol Phillips, biodynamic therapy, which is a combination of Cranial Sacral Therapy and Myofascial and I knew people who had been taking her courses and she came highly, highly recommended. I signed up for her courses. I also signed up for and started learning visceral manipulation.
 

[00:03:54.840] 

And I went into it really excited and not knowing anything about what it was. But I just knew the name sounded so fascinating and I wanted to be able to touch those organs.
 

[00:04:09.510] - Candi Broeffle, Guest

So I think we're going to have to expand on this a little bit because I don't know what visceral manipulation is.
 

[00:04:16.110] - Melissa Cathcart, Guest

OK,
 

[00:04:17.700] - Candi Broeffle, Guest

and I think probably most of our listeners don't, so tell us a little bit about this.
 

[00:04:23.050] - Melissa Cathcart, Guest

Yeah. So visceral manipulation is sounds like a heavy word, but it's a very gentle technique in actually making contact, physical contact with the organs and seeing how they move on their ligaments, attachments, and ligaments for organs are double or triple-fold.
 

[00:04:46.830] 

So fashion and for an organ to function properly, it needs to move properly. So everything in our body is constantly moving, both in response to the natural rhythms of the heart, our breathing peristalsis, but also in response to our movement. And if something can't move properly, say it gets a snag or it gets an adhesion that can end up over time affecting its function. And so visceral manipulation is a very gentle technique of making contact with that organ and just gently seeing if you can get it to move.
 

[00:05:32.240] 

And if it if it has an adhesion or something that's preventing it from moving in one direction, then you encourage the movement in the opposite direction and in the direction of ease so that you're not fighting it. You're not trying to force anything. You're helping it to move in the direction it wants to so that hopefully on the revert it will take a greater swing and have a better movement.
 

[00:05:58.490] - Candi Broeffle, Guest

So give us an example of how you like a specific example, of how you might use this with someone on a particular organ.
 

[00:06:07.460] - Melissa Cathcart, Guest

So I've treated an alcoholic, a recovering alcoholic, who is terribly, terribly anxious over the condition of his liver, just really worried about the damage that he's done to his liver. And this was a technique and I could offer him that. And I did other techniques with him to abdominal massage, acupuncture. But this was a specific technique that I could offer him to not only treat his liver and try to get the best optimal functioning from it but also to give him an idea of what I felt his organ was doing.
 

[00:06:52.610] 

So he wanted immediate feedback. Is my organ moving? Does it are you feeling something with my organ? Does it feel OK? And in this way, I could relieve some of his anxiety by telling him what sort of movement I was feeling at that moment.
 

[00:07:10.640] - Candi Broeffle, Guest

I'm sorry. Is this something that you do from the outside of the body?
 

[00:07:14.840] - Melissa Cathcart, Guest

Yes. Yes. So I'm placing my hand over his liver and pressing him gently and then with the outline of the organ in my hand, then I'm just moving it gently. It's a very, very small movement. And then finding what what sort of recursion we get
 

[00:07:42.470] - Candi Broeffle, Guest

and say that there was a tag or a snade, as you said, that was kind of holding it. How long typically would it take in order to help treat that?
 

[00:07:54.270] - Melissa Cathcart, Guest

It's a very quick technique because, again, it's gentle and we don't want to force anything. So we only hold it for 30 seconds. You know what? We are trying it for three cycles, four cycles of movement. Again, the body has that natural rhythm that it's following. And so we just follow the organ through three or four of those natural cycles, not wanting to overwhelm the system.
 

[00:08:26.670] - Candi Broeffle, Guest

And so that's one of the manual techniques that you use along with myofascial and
 

[00:08:33.960] - Melissa Cathcart, Guest

cranial sacral.
 

[00:08:35.190] - Candi Broeffle, Guest

Cranial sacral
 

[00:08:36.330] - Melissa Cathcart, Guest

as part of the biodynamic therapy. And the third one was the tongue abdominal massage, which
 

[00:08:45.570] - Candi Broeffle, Guest

 What is that used for? 
 

[00:08:46.260] - Melissa Cathcart, Guest

Yeah, that is used for general health and for a lot of digestive and menstrual disorders. Really good for correcting menstruation and digestive issues. Most, if not most of our hormones and neurotransmitters are made in our gut. We always connect them with the brain.
 

[00:09:11.610] 

We always think of them as happening in the brain, but most of them are produced in the gut. And so to have our gut really functioning well can improve mood. It can improve digestion, improve cognitive abilities, and abdominal massage, much like it sounds, is massaging the abdomen and the organs contained within it. The benefits being much like a body massage. If you any time, you squeeze tissue and release you're hydrating that tissue, you are by revitalizing that tissue. And in most massages, many people, many massage therapists never address the abdomen.
 

[00:10:00.570] - Candi Broeffle, Guest

Hmm. Yeah, I was going to say I've had massage for years and I had never had anyone massage my abdomen until I went to a massage therapist who is from China. And I was like, so almost put off by it because because someone who is overweight, I didn't want anyone touching my stomach. But then when she when she would explain to me why it's important to do it, it just made so much more sense. And then and it really does help.
 

[00:10:35.040] - Candi Broeffle, Guest

It really does help on a number of different issues that you have.
 

[00:10:39.630] - Melissa Cathcart, Guest

It does take some getting used to because it is the most vulnerable part of our body and many of us don't even let our partners touch our tummies. But that's also what makes it one of the most powerful areas on our body for accessing emotions and for getting really deep in treatments.
 

[00:11:05.390] - Candi Broeffle, Guest

Isn't that interesting? I love that you said it is the most vulnerable part of our body, which is really interesting when you think about it, but it's true. I mean, it's not something that you're used to having anyone really, you know, touching your stomach, even your doctor now, even when you go to regular allopathic medicine.
 

[00:11:28.940] 
Well, we are going to head into a break right now. And when we come back, we're going to talk about another therapy that you provide called pelvic floor rehabilitation. And that's what we're going to come back in and discuss. So to learn more about the work Melissa does and to book an appointment, visit Dynamic Functional Healing or call 612-735-993 you're listening to Green Tea Conversation fun AM950 Radio Progressive Voice of Minnesota. And we will be right back.
 

[00:12:14.410] - Candi Broeffle, Guest
Welcome back to Green Tea Conversation, where we delve into the pages of Natural Awakenings magazine and talk to the professionals who share their expertise on natural health with you. I'm your host, Candi Broeffle. And today we're talking with Melissa Cathcart, owner of Dynamic Functional Healing in Minneapolis.
 

[00:12:32.470]
So, Melissa, just before the break, you were starting to tell us about some of the services that you offer. And one of the services that you offer is something that we haven't talked about yet on this on this show. And it's not something that I think is talked about a lot or very often in just with our with our girlfriends. So I really wanted to introduce our listeners to this, and that is pelvic floor rehabilitation. Give us an idea of how you got started with this, how you became interested in pelvic floor rehabilitation.
 

[00:13:08.990] - Melissa Cathcart, Guest
So I already had my background with the home birth midwifery I was delving in and I had the Chinese medicine and I was delving into all of these manual therapies when in 2006 I had a motorcycle accident. It was a freak accident. There was no one else involved.
 

[00:13:28.190]
I was actually at a safety training helps guide story there, but it was a small accident with big repercussions. The bike was fine. It needed a mirror and a lever. I had seven pelvic fractures, five broken ribs, a hemothorax, which means blood in my lungs. I have an AC separation and I had a number of vertebral processes that snapped. So I was completely broken up. And in the healing process, I understood as I was going through it, that this was something really amazing and special and that it was going to change my life.
 

[00:14:12.020] 
And I didn't know exactly how, but I knew that this was a really big deal for my life and in a positive way, I understood it to be positive as I was going through it. Well, nine months after the accident, I was completely healed off. I was back to work. I was functioning normally. I had gone through physical therapy. I was walking again. Nine months later, I started having emergency incontinence. And that's where you don't have any feeling that you need to go to the bathroom.
 

[00:14:47.000]
But usually, it's when you come home and you put your hand on your door handle, all of a sudden you cannot control and you get a massive full-body urge that you have to urinate and you can't make it to the bathroom. I had no idea about urge incontinence before experiencing it myself. And I found that my knowledge of Chinese medicine and midwifery left me with not enough tools to treat myself. I was finding the Chinese medicine to be inadequate.
 

[00:15:26.210] 
I was finding the midwifery texts had never even mentioned incontinence, which just blows my mind. Now, in the midwifery texts, they they teach how to catheterize someone after birth if needed, and they talk about kidney stones or bladder infections. But that's the extent of the urinary system in Chinese medicine. It's all about kidney and bladder, kidney stones and bladder infections. There's a little bit about incontinence, but it's really not talked about and we don't delve into to it in any depth.
 

[00:16:04.520]
So it's really finding myself, not having the tools needed. And I was really not understanding why that happened because so I knew intuitively that so many people experience this problem. How is it possible to have a full system of medicine studied and not have studied this problem?
 

[00:16:25.430] - Candi Broeffle, Guest
Yes. And, you know, you and I had talked about this before the show, and it really is something I had never heard of until I was well into my 40s. And I had some girlfriends who were in their 50s and 60s or moving into their sixties who kind of started talking about this very quietly. I had worked in a place in there was actually think for women at one time who were all going through this at the same time. And I started asking them questions about it because I had never even heard of it.
 
[00:17:01.370] - Candi Broeffle, Guest
I take care of people for a living,
 

[00:17:03.620] - Candi Broeffle, Guest
right?
 
[00:17:04.190] - Candi Broeffle, Guest
I take people for a long time, for thirty years, and I didn't know about it. So. So this may have come on for you because of the accident, but what about other people? Is that typically what happens if there's been an accident or some kind of trauma?

[00:17:20.840] - Melissa Cathcart, Guest
It's all over the board. I'd say typically childbearing and and the mismanagement of childbearing by practitioners is a huge cause.
 

[00:17:35.900] - Melissa Cathcart, Guest

Disease processes, you know, Parkinson's and MS are often disease process that will have incontinence as a symptom. There can be nerve damage from any number of traumas. So a lot of different a lot of different things can contribute. I can't tell you the number of women who have come to me either as a practitioner or through my classes. That who have been told by physicians, medical doctors that they're aging and they just need to deal with it like this is normal for an aging woman.
 

[00:18:20.550] - Melissa Cathcart, Guest
And while there are certainly changes within the urinary system and that are normal to aging, and while hormonal changes will definitely affect the urinary system, it is by no means normal for an aging woman to be incontinent and should never be dismissed. Out of hand, it should always be taken seriously and treated. With the utmost care.
 

[00:18:54.030] - Candi Broeffle, Guest
And so one of the services that you offer at your clinic is actually the pelvic floor rehabilitation. We have about a minute and a half left before we have to go into break. But let's start by talking about what would people expect to happen when they come to you.
 

[00:19:14.400] - Melissa Cathcart, Guest
So I combine everything. I combine the acupuncture, the manual therapists and the rehab. And the rehab is the corrective exercise and home lifestyle homework or exercise homework that I send people home with. So it mimics physical therapy only with a wider variety of therapies. Actually, the pelvic floor rehab is a physical therapy subspecialty. So there are physical therapists who are specialists in pelvic floor work. I tend to get people who went through that and maybe got some results, but not what they wanted because I have a wider variety of services to offer.
 

[00:19:59.830]
So someone comes in, they dealth with, for pelvic floor rehab. They will have acupuncture unless they're afraid of needles. I can treat without needles, they will have manual therapies and then they'll be sent home having learned some exercises and some changes in lifestyle.
 

[00:20:19.810] - Candi Broeffle, Guest
So when we come back, we're going to go into a break now. But when we come back, let's talk a little bit more about that, about what those therapies might look like. Sounds good. All right. So for people who want to learn more about the work Melissa does and to book an appointment, visit dynamicfunctionalhealing.com or call 612-735-9993 to read the online version of Natural Awakenings magazine, visit naturaltwincities.com.
 

[00:20:48.250]
You can find a podcast of this show on AM950radio.com on Apple and Google podcasts. And anywhere you get your podcasts, you're listening to Green Tea Conversation on AM950 Radio Progressive Voice of Minnesota. And we will be right back.
 

[00:21:12.240] - Candi Broeffle, Guest
Welcome back to Green Tea Conversation, where we delve into the pages of Natural Awakenings magazine and talk to the professionals who share their expertise and natural health with you. I'm your host, Candi Broeffle. And today we're visiting with Melissa Cathcart, owner, and practitioner of Dynamic Functional Healing in Minneapolis.
 

[00:21:31.410] 

So, Melissa, just before the break, you were explaining to us about a technique that you help in particular women with called pelvic floor rehabilitation. And you had kind of briefly mentioned that there are some exercises that you send people home with. So I'm hoping you can kind of give us an idea of what some of those exercises might look like.
 

[00:21:56.550] - Melissa Cathcart, Guest
When I first was interested in pelvic floor rehab, I had gone through physical therapy myself very successfully, and I wanted to have more offerings for my patients.
 

[00:22:13.110] - Melissa Cathcart, Guest
So I've studied for two and a half years, really hit the books, developed my own physical therapy library, and developed a practitioner course that I was a developed a nine-hour pre-conference workshop that I took to a national conference on midwifery out on the West Coast. But I thought, "You don't spend two and a half years to do something once." So I certified it with a number of different agencies and I offered continuing education classes to massage therapists, droolers, midwives, and acupuncturists here in the cities.
 

[00:22:55.940]
And then, I thought I really wanted to get the information to patients, so I condensed it down to a two-hour class and started teaching it throughout town at yoga centers, chiros centers, community education. Two hours was not enough, and now it's a three-hour class. Eventually, I ended up certifying  on corrective exercise and that became part of the class. And I'm constantly, constantly learning. So the class is constantly evolving. And I have learned breathing techniques and many, many things that I pass on to my patients.
 

[00:23:36.590]
So with the pelvic floor rehab, the exercise component is very slow, deliberate, and not a few repetitions of exercises. When people think of exercise, we usually think of building up strength, but with rehab, it's not about strength. It's about neuromuscular coordination. We want muscle groups to work together in ways that allow optimal functioning. And what can happen when there's a pelvic floor issue is that the larger muscles of the thighs and buttocks or the hips can tend to give too much information to the pelvic floor.
 
[00:24:26.330]
So there's always electrical information flowing back and forth between different muscle groups. And we want that to happen because that's the way they communicate, "OK, now I'm here in space. Now I'm doing this. I've moved over here." And so we want that communication to happen. But the thighs are so large that they can end up overwhelming the small muscles of the pelvic floor. And so these exercises are designed to reeducate the muscle groups to communicate in a way that's functional for them.
 
[00:25:03.700] - Candi Broeffle, Guest
Interesting, and I assume it is exercises that almost anyone could do.
 
[00:25:09.310] - Melissa Cathcart, Guest
Absolutely. And they and they can be designed there's ways of modulating them so that if someone has difficulty getting on the floor, well, we'll find one that can be done in a chair or if someone has difficulty raising their hips off the floor, well, let's let's work on this exercise in another way.
 

[00:25:34.360] - Candi Broeffle, Guest
So what you're doing is really it's something that people can look at if this has already happened. But it's also a preventative therapy,
 

[00:25:43.180] - Melissa Cathcart, Guest
correct. Yes.
 

[00:25:44.890] - Candi Broeffle, Guest
Ultimately you would like to do it as a preventative rather than a restore.
 

[00:25:49.030] - Melissa Cathcart, Guest
Absolutely.
 

[00:25:50.740] - Candi Broeffle, Guest
...that they could come to you with. It's really interesting because I know a couple of the women that I had said before, a few of them had gone through it at a place that I had worked with. A couple of them actually had to have surgery. And so, is that something that you see often?
 

[00:26:07.630] - Melissa Cathcart, Guest
So if if they're having surgery, I'm thinking that would be a prolapse.
 

[00:26:12.760] - Candi Broeffle, Guest
Yes.
 
[00:26:13.480] - Melissa Cathcart, Guest
Where they tacked up the bladder on the abdominal wall, maybe mismatch.
 
[00:26:18.490] - Candi Broeffle, Guest
Yes, correct.
 
[00:26:19.930] - Melissa Cathcart, Guest
Those those surgeries have been very popular with doctors over the last decade or two. One of my resources when I was doing I'm always doing research, but one of my original resources was a surgeon up in Canada who is a reconstructive bladder surgeon.
 
[00:26:44.080]
And she said she made her living on these bladder tax because they only last for three to five years. And if they are for every three to five years, they need to be redone. So eventually a number of them would find their way to her and she would find the ligament tear that caused the prolapse and she would reconstruct that. And that lasts forever in most patients. So if you can find, I don't know yet, a surgeon here, if anyone knows of one who does that, let me know.
 

[00:27:21.460]
But what I what I do with those patients is particularly prolapse, is that I teach them how to breathe. I teach a particular breathing technique. It's not an exercise. It's not like it is an exercise. It's not something that you're going to be doing throughout your day as you...it's not like I'm teaching you how to breathe through your day. It's actually an exercise that you use to even out the pelvic pressure.
 

[00:27:54.850]
So we all have pressure inside our bodies. I tell my patients, "If you were to slice open your tummy, your organs would come out not because of gravity, but the pressure inside you is so much higher than the pressure outside of us. And once we get past that, you factor of that, then there's the curiosity of, "Well, why is that and how does that work?" Well, as we're going through our day, the pressure is always changing depending on the demand.
 

[00:28:24.970]
So some things we do through our day demands more internal pressure than other things. And if we have a task at hand that's too hard for us, one way that we can garner added strength that we don't really have is to hold our breath. And if we do that over time, it increases the internal thoracal pelvic pressure. And if that continues to to increase over time, eventually that pressure will have to leak out somewhere. And that's when people tend to get the hernias and the prolapses.
 

[00:29:06.360]
And as women, we're more prone to the prolapses because of the vaginal
 

[00:29:11.980] - Candi Broeffle, Guest
opening,
 

[00:29:12.730] - Melissa Cathcart, Guest
vaginal opening in the pelvic floor.
 

[00:29:14.920] - Candi Broeffle, Guest
It always astonishes me even more so for some reason, 2020 has all been about the breath. And I think we're really moving into a time when we understand, when we begin to understand how important our breathing is.
 

[00:29:32.620] - Candi Broeffle, Guest
Yes, that's probably kind of out there a little bit thinking about. But, you know, you look at COVID, you look at the fires that have taken place. You look at George Floyd in the murder.
 

[00:29:48.160] - Melissa Cathcart, Guest
Yes.
 

[00:29:48.970] - Candi Broeffle, Guest
Him. And, you know, I can't breathe all of this and
 

[00:29:53.050] - Melissa Cathcart, Guest
with my high anxiety. Thank you, Candi. You're just making some wonderful connections and with the higher anxiety of our times now, it's very easy for people to get into the shallow breathing, which accompanies anxiety,
 

[00:30:10.410] - Candi Broeffle, Guest
which we go for decades.
 

[00:30:12.570] - Melissa Cathcart, Guest
Yes.
 

[00:30:13.010] - Candi Broeffle, Guest
For decades, we've gone into this space of shallow breathing.
 

[00:30:17.730] - Melissa Cathcart, Guest
Correct. And it's very over time, especially long term, that can't not it cannot not affect. So it will affect our internal pressures over time. And for people who end up having to low of an internal pressure, those people are actually more susceptible to discriminations because their spine is not properly supported.
 

[00:30:44.970]
And those of us who have the higher internal pressures, we're more susceptible to the hernias and the prolapse is so both. But there is a sweet range. There's there's a sweet range within which we would hopefully keep that pressure. And this breathing exercise that's taught by the Postural Restoration Institute helps to keep our internal pressure within that sweet range.
 

[00:31:14.850] - Candi Broeffle, Guest
And that is something that you teach then at the clinic as well.
 

[00:31:18.540] - Melissa Cathcart, Guest
Yes. And on occasion, I teach it as a workshop or community education class. So be on the lookout for that.
 

[00:31:28.020] - Candi Broeffle, Guest
Yes, I know. Just before before we get started here today, you were saying that there are some classes that you've done in person that you haven't done for the last several almost 18 months.
 

[00:31:40.760] - Melissa Cathcart, Guest
Yeah,
 

[00:31:41.280] - Candi Broeffle, Guest
probably. And one of those is the bladder and pelvic floor class.
 

[00:31:46.680] - Melissa Cathcart, Guest
Yes. I have a three-hour class called bladder and pelvic floor health. It is always evolving as my knowledge and skills evolve. The purpose of the class is to teach people how to maintain their own health throughout their life cycle as best they can to maintain the health of their children or grandchildren as best they can, and to let them know what sorts of interventions or help is out there, not only my own but in in the physical therapy world, in the medical world.
 

[00:32:25.470] - Melissa Cathcart, Guest
What sorts of things are out there that might help you? So it's a huge amount of information. We do an exercise. I've developed a small exercise routine that I feel is fairly well-balanced for the various muscles that end up affecting the pelvic floor. I do teach the breathing technique in that class and it's just a wealth of information and empowerment. I think the one comment I hear most often when women are leaving the class is that they feel empowered.
 

[00:33:04.890]
And to be honest, I don't I have I've rarely closed off the class to men. So I have had a few men in the class, but primarily it attracts women.
 

[00:33:18.300] - Candi Broeffle, Guest
Well, I'm sure it'll be helpful for either/or. Yes, for both men and women. So for people who are interested in that, I'm going to suggest because right now you don't have anything scheduled yet because we're not getting together yet. But to keep an eye out in Natural Awakenings, we will definitely do a news brief on that. When you're ready to offer a class and let people know.
 

[00:33:44.190] - Melissa Cathcart, Guest
I'm so looking forward to it.
 

[00:33:47.510] - Candi Broeffle, Guest
Yes. Yes.
 

[00:33:48.540] - Melissa Cathcart, Guest
It's one of those classes that just feeds the soul, so I'm looking forward to it.
 

[00:33:53.130] - Candi Broeffle, Guest
Oh, that's awesome. And you can also learn about it when Melissa does schedule it, it will be on her website as well. So to learn more about the work that Melissa does and to book the appointment, visit dynamicfunctionalhealing.com or call 612-735-9993. You're listening to Green Tea Conversation on AM950, the Progressive Voice of Minnesota. And we will be back right now.
 

[00:34:31.330] - Candi Broeffle, Guest
Welcome back to Green Tea Conversation, I'm your host, Candi Broeffle, and today we're talking with Melissa Cathcart, owner, and practitioner at Dynamic Functional Healing in Minneapolis. So, Melissa, before the break, we have been talking about some of the different services that you offer. And before we have to end this interview, I really want to give you a chance to talk about something that you offer that is not something that a lot of people have also heard about. And that is the micro-needling and the nanosphere needling.
 

[00:35:05.650] - Melissa Cathcart, Guest
Yes, this is a recent endeavor for me just in the last year. And I initially became interested in it because I knew it could be used for Scars. And I'm always looking for more things to deal with scar tissue because one of the nasty things about scars is sometimes they don't get the message. They're wonderful and we need them, but sometimes they don't get the message to turn off and they can keep growing and send tendrils out to other organs or organelles and pull on them and tug in candy, can give people either pain or dysfunction.
 

[00:35:42.730]
So I'm always looking for new ways to deal with scars and scar tissue. And so I took a class, became even more fascinated with it. So micro and nano needling are typically used for cosmetics for evening out those wrinkles, for pumping up the tissues, for getting a more youthful look, but also used for scar tissue and also used for acne scarring. And it's the go-to treatment for hair loss. So it actually outperforms many studies to show this, that is, it outperforms Rogaine and the other more popular treatments.
 

[00:36:23.980]
What's wonderful about this therapy, too, is that the results last for five years. You really get a bang for your buck with this therapy.
 

[00:36:35.110] - Candi Broeffle, Guest
So tell us about it. What is it you say, Micro-Needling and nano needling but what are the...
 

[00:36:43.480] - Melissa Cathcart, Guest
So there is a device and there's a needle head that goes in the device for the micro-needling. It's 12 little needles that are long enough that they penetrate the skin into the dermis.
 

[00:36:55.780]
Now I say long enough, but there's still very tiny tiny needles. So they're just going in through the superficial skin. But that layer of skin responds very nicely to serum's and to the hyaluronic acid that will help to bring collagen and elastin to the area to plump up the skin. Hyaluronic acid can hold a thousand times its weight in fluid. So it will attract fluid to the area and keep the tissue plump and hydrated. The nano needling is an even smaller needle, and it only goes through the epidermis, it goes into the epidermis of the skin, so super, super superficial, but the same sorts of serums can be used with that treatment.
 

[00:37:50.780]
And the device is isolating these needles into the tissue at 18000 RPM.
 

[00:37:57.890] - Candi Broeffle, Guest
So how do you use that with the hair loss?
 

[00:38:01.400] - Melissa Cathcart, Guest
The hair loss of micro-needling? Because you have to get deep enough, enough into the dermis to stimulate the hair follicles. Hair follicles are in the dermis of the skin. So it's literally taking this this device and using it across the scalp.
 

[00:38:20.650] - Candi Broeffle, Guest
And do you use serum's with that as well?
 

[00:38:23.950] - Melissa Cathcart, Guest
not with the hair loss.
 

[00:38:26.150] - Candi Broeffle, Guest
OK, so tell us about the serums that you use for the different treatments that you do.
 

[00:38:34.000] - Melissa Cathcart, Guest
So the big gun is the app STEM, and that's an extract of a Swiss apple that was determined to actually interact with and support human cells. I believe they found this by accident. But this the apple stem cells affect human cells. And I'm going to I know I'm going to do a terrible job of my German here, but the apple is the Villers Lorber.
 

[00:39:07.210]
So I want to repeat that. It's a rare Swiss apple. And somehow they happened to figure this out that that it interacted with and supported human cells. So that's my big gun. And then I have about six other serums that have been shown to target either elastin or collagen. Some are better on thinner tissues, some to fight kidney changing. So these are all Chinese herbs. And then I have one serum. I have some serum that I made up myself with Chinese herbs. So I send people home with those after the therapy.
 

[00:39:49.600]
One is a facial serum. One is specifically for the acne. And then I have a hair restoration serum. So well, with the hair restoration, we don't use a serum during the treatment. I send them home with a serum that they can use post-treatment.
 

[00:40:04.780] - Candi Broeffle, Guest
Oh, that is so interesting. So when you say that the that the needling can be done for acne scarring, is it used to treat acne or just after this, that makes sense.
 

[00:40:18.580] - Melissa Cathcart, Guest
So it's a little bit tricky. Technically, it's not used to treat an active acne, however, because in Chinese medicine, when you're needling, that's releasing potentially releasing heat and because the serum, the acne serum releases heat, I can treat acne around the edges of the active area because that makes. Am I explaining that? Well, so I can go in the areas where there's acne, but I can go around those areas and those serums and the needles should effectively release the heat that's causing the acne. And by heat, I'm talking about heat with a big H. Chinese medical heat, not like regular heat.
 

[00:41:10.270] - Candi Broeffle, Guest
So people can also go to your website and you have quite a few before and after photos on your website that show.
 

[00:41:18.940] - Melissa Cathcart, Guest
Yes.
 

[00:41:19.480] - Candi Broeffle, Guest
The results of the needling. That's very interesting. So I highly recommend people do that. The other thing, we only have a few seconds left, but I want you to kind of tell people a little bit about a new online program that you're working on that you hope to be able to introduce us to very soon called the online sleep clinic.
 

[00:41:39.460] - Melissa Cathcart, Guest
Yes, I have been studying sleep with a physical therapy platform. I'm learning to assess and treat sleep. I'm trained on the Pittsburgh Scale and Sleep Diaries, and I'm hoping to come up with a short but effective program whereby people can send in their their questionnaire and their sleep diary to have it evaluated by me and have maybe a four- or six-week program where I give a brief presentation and maybe sleep hygiene or sleep efficiency or sleep drive. So it's still formulating it.
 

[00:42:21.070]
But I'm wanting to have something that is short and effective, affordable, where people can can improve their sleep because sleep is the foundation of health.
 

[00:42:34.710] - Candi Broeffle, Guest
So important to our health in something that we so many of us lack. So thank you for taking that on and we look forward to learning about it when you have it. Ready to go. Thank you for being with us today, Melissa. We really appreciate it. And for people who want to learn more about what Melissa does and to book an appointment with her, visit dynamicfunctionalhealing.com you have been listening to Green Tea Conversation on AM950, the Progressive Voice of Minnesota.
 

[00:43:02.860]
And I am wishing for you a lovely day!