Dr. Mel Hopper Koppelman

01/04/2024

14 months of 24/7 hives, despite seeing 9 doctors, taking 3 prescription medications, 5 over the counters and bi-monthly injections.

After 17 days doing the Synthesis Health Signature Program, she is now off of all her hives meds and experiencing what it's like to have this under control for the first time in over a year.

Is this a typical result? Well, the Signature Program takes people with chronic health issues through a Step by Step process and hives happen to be commonly caused by things we address in the first step. Other issues have causes that are addressed later in the program.

But most importantly, had she not responded so well to the first things she tried, we'd know what to do next. So while I love it when this happens, we don't need to get lucky to help someone get better, even with very complex issues, as long as they're committed to working through a process.

01/03/2024

I hope your 2024 is off to an inspired start!

If you are looking to transform your health and stop running around in circles, dicking around with all the conflicting and confusing noise about what you should and should not be doing, I've got two opportunities to share with you, depending on who you are.

While my in person practice is full and not accepting new patients, I am accepting applications into my completely virtual group at Synthesis Health Lab. Applying to be a Guest is completely free (although time limited) and gives you a chance to ask me anything about your case, as well as be in a group with other current members.

And if you are a practitioner interested in learning how to incorporate lab testing and herbs into a Classical Chinese Medicine practice, how to confidently treat complex patients and how to overcome your own chronic health issues, we are now accepting applications into the Synthesis Health PRO Mentorship group. This is an over the shoulder look at the exact program I guide patients through with additional training in supportive lab testing, practical herbs and more.

If you're ready, give a 🌊 in the comments and I'll pass you the link to apply. Let's do this.

10/28/2021

Are you an acupuncturist or herbalist looking to improve your health with insights gained from lab testing and other modern approaches? I want to hear from you!

I know there is a large and increasing interest in learning about lab testing to gain additional insights about our patients in addition to what we understand from our observational skills. I also know there are a lot acupuncturists who are a bit stuck on their own health journey and want this testing run for themselves through the lens of the medicine we know and love, so that they can use their new health and knowledge to better help the people they serve.

I believe that acupuncturists and clinicians have particular needs when it comes to our own health support and we need our own healing space and community.

Taking some time to answer these questions (link in the comments, got you FB algorithm!) will help me put together something uniquely valuable for us. I have done sooooo much training in functional medicine labs. I have seen the good and the bad and trends come and go. I have run thousands of labs on my patients (and tons on myself!) and I am now humble and cynical enough to teach you what you need to know in order to extract maximum value while integrating this new knowledge into your Chinese medical roots, in order to strengthen it. Without getting lost in the weeds or succumbing to the new theory of the month . . .

Years ago, when I gave my first public talk on lab testing for acupuncturists at the British Acupuncture Council Conference back in 2015, I called this skill The 5th Pillar of Diagnosis.

This survey will ask some questions that take some time to answer. Please take your time with it and be thorough. The initial group will be kept very small so the more you can share about what you're looking for the more I can be certain that it'll a good fit and I can deliver on exactly what you need.

06/23/2021

The beautiful heart

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Many of us live under the medical myth that the heart is only a pump, an idea borne of an industrialised culture that views the body as a machine.

The heart however is so much more beautiful and fascinating than we ever could have imagined!

“Modern analysis of the heart has shown that in spite of the fact that the most powerful ventricle of the heart can shoot water six feet into the air, the amount of pressure actually needed to force the blood through the entire length of the body’s blood vessels would have to be able to lift a one hundred pound weight one mile high” - Stephen Buhner

So how does the blood move around the labyrinth-like vessels of our body?

It moves of its own accord.

You see, blood flow is not a simple stream like we once thought.

It is in fact composed of two streams, spiralling around each other much like the image of a DNA double helix, at the centre of which is a vacuum.

“Blood flow through living vessels is much more like a tornado than anything else: Such a vacuum is necessary for producing a vortex” - Stephen Buhner

How cool is that?

This spiral dance is not only found in the bloodstream, but also in the blood cell itself!

Blood cells in fact spin on their own individual axes of rotation. They are smaller spinning cells in a larger spinning vortex.

If your mind is not blown yet, let’s go back to the heart.

The heart itself has recently been discovered not to be a mass of muscle, but rather a ‘helicoidal myocardial band’ that has spiralled in upon itself, creating its unique shape and its separate chambers.

This is called the Helical Heart, and you can see doctors unravel it by searching ‘Helical Heart’ on Youtube.

Pair this with discoveries that the heart functions as an endocrine gland, has its own nervous system that makes and releases its own neurotransmitters, and emits an electromagnetic field that is far stronger than the brain’s, and we begin to move from the idea that the heart is simply a mechanical pump.

It is a spiralling organ of perception.

If that’s not beautiful, we don’t know what is.

❤️🌿

Incredible Art by Gabriel Keleman

~ Evidence-Based Research:

https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/16373590/
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/11807730/
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/24209915/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7712215/

~ Watch them un-ravel the Heart here:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MbOyozg_GTs&ab_channel=somanaut

06/10/2021

Today's Zenbit 😊

05/06/2021

Because sometimes the digital version just won't do 😊🤓 A birthday gift from my dad

05/03/2021

04/28/2021

I value your right to believe in 'the science' just like I value your right to believe in 'the Bible'. But let's not get confused: real science isn't a belief system or a conclusion, it's a method of inquiry and a set of processes to understand the natural world and always has multiple perspectives.

04/22/2021

What are the assumptions that bring you to the doctors office for help with your digestion, mood, or energy? Are they true?