Alternative medicine: What works for you?

Local practitioners provide herbs, hyperbaric therapy, detox and colonics

Rob Hawley and his sister Tina Hahn created Taos Herb Company in Taos in 1981 with a vision of creating effective herbal products made from locally sourced medicinal herbs.

“While there are many useful and effective alternative therapies available, the single most import aspect of caring for oneself is being well informed about the nature of your health condition and how the many different products and systems may affect your condition.

The key is to be well informed about the therapies and medications you are considering using as well as keeping your health care providers in the loop so that they are fully aware of what you are doing in addition to their guidance,” Rob Hawley said.

Taos County includes a wide range of doctors who specialize in alternative medicine including; naturopaths, osteopaths, herbalists, homeopaths, acupuncturists, chiropractors and specialists in Chinese and oriental medicine. Hawley provides a list of practitioners in his shop. Also, see page 52.

Along, with Hawley, meet two locals who implore us to take a new look at how we treat ourselves.

Rebecca Harder opened the Taos Hyperbaric and Colonics Center in Taos in 2018 and has been in the field since 2003. She is a nationally board certified colon hydro therapist with full credentials in all treatments offered.

“We provide hyperbaric oxygen using state of the art equipment. We use a low pressure chamber. I thought that I would be working with altitude sickness — for tourists, but that is not the case. Most of my clients have had traumatic brain injuries or are recovering from strokes or respiratory issues,” Harder said.

Enter herbalist Cinnamon Bird of Cinnamon’s Botanicals.

Bird added, “I believe in plant and natural medicine, I do as much as I can naturally. I ask people lots of questions such as if they do have a physician and are taking medications. I feel strongly about certain herbs and what I know the outcome will be.”

Hawley, Harder and Bird offer viable options for what Bird says “what ails you.”

From Bird’s point-of-view: “I ask people what is going on in their gut and in their life. I lean towards holistic all the

way. When you come in, I have a lot of dried plants and you can make your own teas. I have done the tincture form. I also have topicals,” Bird said.

Harder offers both colonics and hydrotherapy. Barder cites the practices of renowned Dr. Max Gerson that have led her own career and treatment modalities.

Harder explains the benefits of the hyperbaric treatment.

“The concept is that you are flooding the body with oxygen. We squeeze the oxygen into the liquid plasma of the blood which is why is has so many positive benefits,” Harder said.

And Barder’s colonics treatment is very much about detox.

“We use purified filtered water. We use an FDA registered medical device for colon hydrotherapy. This works for anybody who needs to detox,” Barder said.

Taos Herb has aided people for decades. Bird is very much about plants and the benefit that they can have in our lives. Harder has worked with a range of individuals including cancer patients.

Each, along with the wide range of local alternative experts are worth a closer look.

taosherb.com taoshyperbaric.com cinnamonsbotanicals.com gerson.org