About
Gloria Moreira, Dipl. Ac., A.P.
Gloria Moreira is a Florida State Licensed and NCCAOM Board Certified Acupuncture Physician holding a Master's in Traditional Chinese Medicine. She has completed extensive post-graduate studies in the treatment of infertility, endocrine disorders, women´s gynecological issues, herbal medicine, and functional nutrition. She has also successfully treated a wide range of health conditions such as muscular and joint pain, digestive disease, migraines, addictions, eating disorders and varied stress related disorders (anxiety, deppression, etc...).
"Illness is the body's
way of letting us know that we need to make changes in our lives. An
appropriate management of illness requires an integral approach towards
mind, body, and spirit, which will ultimately lead to healing."
She has been trained in hypnosis, creative visualization,
guided imagery and integrates these with
Traditional Chinese Medicine and
Functional Medicine
Gloria Moreira, Dipl. Ac., A.P. believes in educating and empowering the general public with knowledge and to this effect has had multiple participations in television, radio, and print media. Her most recent appearance was on CNN Newsmakers in South Florida. She teaches courses on complementary healthcare at Miami Dade Community College. (Link to current course offerings at MDC Kendall Campus).
Functional medicine
is a field of medicine that employs assessment and intervention to
improve physiological, emotional/cognitive, and physical function. In
this context, function is the "kind of action or activity proper to a
person, thing, or institution."(1) Functional medicine is science-based
health care that demands a systematic, patient-centered approach to
understanding the underlying web of physiological factors and effects
that influence health and the progression of disease. It incorporates
the functional principles that exist in many conventional and
alternative practices but focuses, as a special core competence, on the
principles of molecular medicine and modern nutritional biochemistry
with an emphasis on clinical application.
1. The Random House Dictionary of the English Language. New York: Random
House, Inc; 1969.
Traditional Chinese medicine: The current name for an ancient system of health care from China. Traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) is based on a concept of balanced qi (pronounced "chee"), or vital energy, that is believed to flow throughout the body. Qi is proposed to regulate a person's spiritual, emotional, mental, and physical balance and to be influenced by the opposing forces of yin (negative energy) and yang (positive energy). Disease is proposed to result from the flow of qi being disrupted and yin and yang becoming imbalanced. Among the components of TCM are herbal and nutritional therapy, restorative physical exercises, meditation, acupuncture, and remedial massage.
Health as a Positive Vitality—Not Merely the Absence of Disease
Today medicine is at a crossroads. Although medicine has successfully
contributed to the evolution of the science of disease diagnosis and
treatment during the past four decades, it has not been as successful in
promoting healthy aging. A majority of the aging baby boomer population
expects that they will never retire and will continue to engage in
multiple activities, travel the world, be physically active, meet
exciting new challenges, and be available as catalysts for social change
as they grow into their 70s and 80s. This is not a health as the absence
of disease model, but rather health as a positive, achievable vitality
model.
Fries (Stanford University Medical School researcher in the processes of
aging) explains that much of the loss of function associated with
disease among older individuals is a consequence of the progressive loss
of "organ reserve." When we are young, there is a reserve of organ
function beyond that which is necessary for the baseline requirements of
most organ systems. As we age, however, we lose organ reserve; stresses
that we could have once accommodated now exceed our resilience, which
results in health crises. Fries emphasizes that organ reserve is related
to biological age. As we lose organ reserve, our biological age
increases, making us more susceptible to disease. We can modify how
quickly we lose organ reserve and undergo biological aging through
changes in lifestyle, environment, and nutrition. It is now recognized
that 75 percent of our health and life expectancy after age 40 is
modifiable on the basis of such choices. (14),(15)