MONROE, CT — Pursuit of a healthy lifestyle could mean a proper diet, meditation and exercise; visiting a chiropractor for pain relief, or even taking CBD products when one’s endocannabinoid system is out of whack.
Joanne Fox, manager of Your CBD Store Monroe, invited two local professionals to participate in a Wellness Fair last Saturday, while celebrating the one year anniversary of the opening of her location at 574 Monroe Turnpike.
“I think it’s a fabulous opportunity for community members to support each other,” Fox said. “Our businesses are cohesive in treating health and wellness naturally.”
Joining Fox as a featured speaker were Dr. Jean N. Bassani, RN, DC, of Connecticut Back & Wellness Chiropractic, 755 Main St., Suite 1, and Tammy Kershaw, owner of A Wellness Life: Boutique, Fitness and Wellness Studio, 755 Main St., Building 1, Suite A.
At the event, Fox gave out free samples and gift bags.
First Selectman Ken Kellogg and Monroe Chamber of Commerce President Ray Giovanni also attended the event, which included a ribbon cutting ceremony for Your CBD Store Monroe’s anniversary.
Bailey Stewart, who owns the building, also attended the Wellness Fair to show his support.
Debora Cabral, owner of Terra Cafe, 150 Main St., donated a tray of food for the event and 574 Wines, which shares the Monroe Turnpike building with Your CBD Store Monroe, brought a spread of wine, cheese and crackers.
“I love it,” Kershaw said. “I love to collaborate. I think it’s great to support each other.”
SunMed products
Fox told guests how Your CBD Store is one of the leaders in the CBD industry. “We are the largest retailer,” she said of the business, which has over 600 locations and recently partnered with the Association of Professional Pickleballers.
“Our products are 100 percent certified USDA organic,” Fox said.
“We all have an endocannabinoid system, which regulates our mood, our sleep and our inflammation,” she explained.
Fox said our bodies naturally produce cannabinoids, but we can sometimes become deficient in them. Hemp-based CBD products are meant to put bodies back into homeostasis.
While hemp and marijuana are the same species, marijuana can make users high, while hemp does not. Hemp has a unique cannabinoid profile with less than 0.3 percent of tetrahydrocannabinol (THC-delta-9). However, one must be age 18 or older to buy hemp-based products in Connecticut.
Fox said CBD products are water soluble, in capsules, tinctures taken with a dropper under the tongue, in topical creams, topical sprays and candies such as gummies.
Among the things people use CBD products for are natural energy, sleep and beauty. Beauty products include skin moistening soaps and bath bombs.
“Topical cream is our number one selling product company-wide,” Fox said.
SunMed, which produces all of the products Your CBD Store carries, recently came out with a line of products to enhance the immune system with vitamins A and D. Hydrate, a new product, is jammed with electrolytes like sodium, chloride, magnesium, calcium, and potassium.
“Hydrate is great after a workout at the gym, or when coming in from doing yard work on a hot day like today,” Fox said. “You can squeeze immune Hydrate into water to replenish your body with all the wonderful things you need.”
Another popular product is TRIM.
In a 90-day clinical trial, Fox said people with a placebo gained, on average, six pounds. Those who took TRIM lost up to nine pounds, three inches off the waistline and three points in BMI, according to Fox.
Those who took TRIM and added exercise lost up to 18 pounds, up to six inches off their waistline and up to eight points off their BMI, she said.
In the clinical trial, Fox said those who took TRIM lowered their blood sugar, anxiety and inflammation. She mentioned a founding member of Your CBD Store, who lost 87 pounds in one year, and an employee who lost 50 pounds in six months taking the product.
Your CBD Store also carries products for pets.
“Any creature with a vertebrae has an endocannabinoid system and it helps them as well,” Fox said. “Pets do not do well with THC. There is no THC in our products. Our company is all about health and wellness, and that goes for animals as well as our people.”
Overcoming pain
Dr. Bassani said Connecticut Back & Wellness Chiropractic treats patients with neck and back pain, as well as other types of pain.
“We are pain oriented,” she said. “We really want to get you out of pain. We want to do it as quickly as possible and then release you.”
Dr. Bassani said her practice then focuses on ensuring its patients get rehabilitation so their problem does not come back.
“We’ll recommend exercises and core stabilization,” she said. “We’ll refer you to Tammy (Kershaw), she’s across the hall from me. If you need even more rehab, she’s an expert in that.”
Connecticut Back & Wellness Chiropractic uses myofascial release, spinal manipulation, electrical muscle stem and a traditional musculoskeletal approach to pain.
“What’s special about us is we also have a spinal decompression machine,” Dr. Bassani said. “We’re able to actually decompress cervical discs and lumbar discs. I’ve been in practice for 30 years and we’ve had this machine for 10, so I can see the difference between having this machine and not.”
She said the machine gives the practice the opportunity to resolve issues before having to send its patients for surgery.
“Now, we can offer them this more conservative treatment and we can decompress the spine and the neck and the lower back — and I have to tell you it’s magical. It works about 90 percent of the time,” Dr. Bassani said.
“My objective is always to get the patient in and out in the least number of visits possible,” she said. “I want to make it so that you can get back to all your activities — your golf and your tennis, and picking up your kids — without a lot of chronic flare ups and lost time at work.”
In the last 10-to-15 years, the chiropractic field changed significantly, according to Dr. Bassani. “Everything is research and evidence based,” she said. “Nobody is rendering treatment based on a philosophy. You’re not using a technique if it isn’t researched out.”
During a question and answer period, Stewart asked Dr. Bassani if she treats arthritis.
“There’s a lot to be done for arthritis,” she said, adding how oftentimes her patients are simply vitamin D and magnesium deficient. She often recommends taking a lot of inflammatories, such as fish oil.
“People live with stuff and they don’t have to live with it,” Dr. Bassani said. “They really think, ‘I’m stuck with this. I’m old. I was a truck driver. I was this.’ No, everything is manageable. You can get some relief. Maybe if it’s not 100 percent relief, you can get 80 percent relief.”
A Wellness Life
Kershaw started A Wellness Life in 2008 and worked out of a “big box gym” in Newtown for eight years, before working out of her home when the gym closed.
“I had my whole studio in my home then found Dr. Bassani,” Kershaw said of being in the same building at 755 Main St.
“I believe that the body needs to heal from the inside out and most times it’s not from a medication,” Kershaw said. “Most times it might be a doctor, it might be some food adjustments, it might be mindfulness and meditation, it might be some exercise and it might be all of those things.”
Kershaw has been a certified trainer for over 25 years. She is also a licensed hair stylist. Her business has a one-chair-salon.
“Everybody comes in for different reasons,” she said. “Some people come in for anxiety, which has really been a lot lately. For the last three years, I’ve had a lot of people who just come in in fight or flight and can’t even breathe.”
Teaching people to breathe with a mask on and without a mask during a global pandemic is something Kershaw said she never thought she would do.
“I love personal training,” she said. “I’m a certified pilates instructor. I have the pilates apparatus in my studio.”
Kershaw said she sees a lot of Dr. Bassani’s patients on recommendations and gives them tools they can take with them, so they can move on and live a well life, not get sick and need a doctor for surgery.
“It’s about all of the things encompassing how you take care of your body, your mind and your soul,” she said.
Kershaw also hosts group fitness classes at her studio. “I do wear a lot of hats there,” she said. “I love doing what I do. I’ll do it until the day I die.”
“Tammy has so much knowledge about the spine,” Dr. Bassani said. “I trust her implicitly when I send my patents to her. She’s not just a personal trainer. She really has so much additional knowledge about spinal care and spinal rehabilitation that I have full faith and confidence that she’ll handle my patient beautifully.”
