Ridgefield man opens alternative medicine shop
RIDGEFIELD — Kacey James, 24, searched long and hard to find alternative treatments for his autoimmune issues and after countless doctor visits, he is bringing a couple of new treatments to others in Ridgefield at his new store, HealthX.
“I realized there was nothing back home like this and it just seemed totally crazy that there wasn’t. I just want to give people access to holistic and alternative approaches before turning to the more Western approach with medication and things like that,” he said.
James’ illness caused him problems with his skin, sleep, energy and hormones. It wasn’t until he exhausted all local options and came across functional physicians in California that he found a few helpful methods.
Functional medicine is the practice of identifying the root cause of an illness, its triggers and using therapeutic practices to help alleviate symptoms, according to the Cleveland Clinic.
James combined unconventional therapies such as cryotherapy and photobiomodulation — commonly known as red light therapy — with healthy eating and an active lifestyle to address his autoimmune issues. He said the combination yielded “incredible results” for him when nothing else was working.
Now similar treatments are available at 415 Main St. in Ridgefield. The shop opened Saturday.
James’ shop offers a full-body cryotherapy chamber, compression therapy and a red-light therapy booth among other amenities.
Unlike holistic medicine, which takes a multi-dimensional approach to balance the mind and body, these therapies — cryotherapy and photobiomodulation — often fall under the heading of non-Western practices.
Cryotherapy, similar to cold immersion, uses near-freezing temperatures to stimulate the body. A person will often enter an enclosed chamber and expose the body to liquid nitrogen in subzero temperatures.
Western Connecticut State University Institute for Holistic Health Studies Director Christel Autuori said cryotherapy stimulates the body into “fight or flight mode” to release stress hormones and some endorphins to simulate balance.
“Our bodies really have the ability to heal themselves if we give it time and support. The Western-medicine approach is more than a quick fix and we are a very impatient society and we want quick fixes, so many people are not patient enough to allow the body to do its thing on its own,” Autuori said.
Autuori said she hasn’t come across much research regarding therapies such as cryotherapy and photobiomodulation, but they may have some benefits via stimulation. She recommends consulting a medical professional before deciding to engage in any alternative therapies.
“Certainly looking at those practices in conjunction with conventional Western-medical approaches will give you an integrative approach, which would give you the best of western medicine and nonWestern modalities,” Autuori said. “And that’s what I think would really be optimal for any situation.”