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Dietary Analysis
We will evaluate your diet in a number of ways. While it is
possible to recommend a "healthy diet", in fact every bodymind is unique
and requires different foods. We've all heard the saying "One man's
meat is another man's poison." In naturopathic medicine, this is
literally true. A food that is healthy and life-giving for one person
can be the cause of crippling symptoms in another.
We will analyze your diet for:
- Overall nutrient intake
- Balance of macronutrients (Fats, Carbohydrates, Protein, Fiber, Water)
- Food sensitivities: individual idiosyncratic reactions to foods that are a major cause of disease and health problems. An example familiar to many people is lactose intolerance (in fact a person can be sensitive to dairy yet able to tolerate lactose.)
We employ the only truly accurate and scientific method for evaluation of food sensitivities: elimination and reintroduction. Pseudoscientific methods like bioelectronic devices (Vega, Enterro) and blood and skin testing (IgG and IgE, respectively) are all unverified, unverifiable, and likely to be inaccurate.
- Weight Loss/Blood sugar balance: Low-carb diets are all the rage lately. Ten years ago, many nutritionally oriented practitioners recommended a low-fat diet for everyone. In truth, different people have different body types that thrive on different diets. You wouldn't feed grass to a lion and you wouldn't feed meat to a deer.
We will help you determine what works best for you.
Dietary Coaching
It's simply not that easy for most of us to make dietary changes,
especially the kinds of dietary changes that will result in a true shift
in our state of health. With so much conflicting advice out there about
what constitutes a healthy diet; the difficulty in actually carrying out
a given dietary regimen; the time constraints most of us have in our
lives; and the emotional issues surrounding food and eating, it is no
wonder we have trouble with health or weight loss diets. We will coach you
through your dietary changes, giving you specific advice, specific meal and
snack suggestions, at the same time placing the impetus squarely on you to take
charge of your own health. Many times a busy M.D. tells a patient "you need to
eat healthier" or "lose weight" without any specific guidance, and seemingly
without much understanding of how difficult diet changes can be, and how some
people don't seem to lose weight no matter what they do. We take a caring, hands-on
approach to help you meet your goals.
Nutritional Supplementation
Have you noticed how many different nutrient supplements are available
to you these days? Have you wondered whether to take B vitamins and
Selenium separately, or whether you should get them in a multivitamin?
Have you been tempted to take CoQ10 and Pycnogenol and Colostrum and
Astragalus and alpha-Lipoic Acid and a dozen other "cutting edge"
nutrients that get written up in the alternative medicine press? Have
you wondered if there is a difference in quality between the supplement
and vitamin pills you get from a warehouse store, a drugstore, a
healthfood store, and your next door neighbour who just started selling
a line of vitamins? Are you concerned that you should be taking
Calcium, but wonder if there's any difference between Caltrate and Tums,
and whether Vitamin D and Magnesium are important?
With all the conflicting information about supplements in the media - I
haven't even mentioned the anti-supplement "scientific articles" that
the mainstream press is so eager to pick up on - it helps to have an
expert to turn to. We can help you understand which nutrient
supplements are worth taking, which you shouldn't waste your money on,
and which will help YOU the most.
We use nutritional supplementation in accordance with
naturopathic philosophy - meaning
we
use it to help your body heal itself, and to help you treat the cause
of the problem. Supplements recommended by a health food store, a
pharmacy, a medical doctor, or anyone who is not trained in naturopathic
philosophy are much less likely to serve this same function.
We carry specialized supplements from companies that sell only
to health professionals and licensed pharmacists. The companies that
make these supplements hold themselves to higher standards of purity,
and make their products in small batches under carefully controlled
conditions rather than in a large scale, industrial-type process.
Herbal Medicine
Herbs have been used as medicine for as long as people have been on
earth. (Maybe longer - domestic and wild animals have been observed
selectively eating certain plants when they have certain health
conditions. Many of these plants have subsequently been verified to
have anti-disease activity.) In fact, many of our modern drugs are
actually isolates of one active ingredient from among the many chemicals
in a given plant. One advantage of herbs over drugs is that they tend
to have balancing effects. This means an herb with stimulatory
properties often have properties that are inhibitory or calming, so that
the stimulatory effect of the plant is held in check. These
complementary properties are lost when isolated pharmaceuticals target a
single biochemical mechanism in the body. Whereas drugs frequently
cause the system to go out of balance (often known as "side effects")
herbs help the system to return to balance.
We use herbal medicine from Western and Chinese herbal
traditions. The products we carry are of the highest purity and
quality, and prepared in small batches under carefully supervised
conditions.
Amino Acid Neurotransmitter Therapy
Research on brain chemistry has revealed that chemicals called
neurotransmitters (NTs) are directly responsible for mood, behavior,
focus, concentration, pain perception, energy level, sexual desire, and
even digestive function. Drugs like Prozac, Zoloft, Xanax, Welbutrin,
and Ritalin all attempt to influence NTs. But amino acids, the natural
building blocks of both proteins and NTs, do something pharmaceuticals
cannot: they increase NT levels in the brain, and they help create a
proper balance of NTs. Drugs, on the other hand, tend to deplete and
imbalance NTs (because they target a single NT, rather than overall NT
balance.)
Because NTs are so crucial to regulation of mind and body, NT amino acid
therapy can help a wide variety of different conditions. A partial list
of these symptoms follows:
- ADD / ADHD
- Addictions (alcohol, drugs, etc)
- Anorexia Nervosa
- Anxiety, Social Anxiety
- Autism / Autistic spectrum
- Binge Eating
- Bipolar Disease
- Chronic fatigue syndrome
- Colitis/Inflammatory Bowel Dz
- Decreased libido
- Depression
- Eating disorders (anorexia, bulimia)
- Fatigue
- Fibromyalgia
- Headaches (chronic)
- Improves effectiveness of anxiety and depression medications
- Insomnia
- Irritability, Hostility, Agitation
- Irritable bowel syndrome
- Migraine headaches
- Obesity, Excess Weight
- Obsessive-compulsive behaviors
- Panic attacks
- Parkinson's Disease
- Post-traumatic stress disorder
- Premenstrual syndrome (PMS)
- Sexual desire (decreased libido)
- Sexual dysfunction
- Stress (Physical or Emotional)
- Weight loss and eating disorders
This treatment is called "Neurotransmitter Therapy" because it balances
the very chemicals your brain and nerve cells use to communicate with
one another. When your nervous system does not function properly, your
body and your brain do not function properly - it is that simple. NT
therapy corrects the chemistry of the brain and nervous system, the
master computer of the body. NT therapy has been used successfully in
thousands of people; is based on solid, published scientific evidence;
is completely safe and natural; and does not interfere with medication -
in fact, it frequently allows medication to work better. Many patients
are able to reduce or eliminate medication, especially when they combine
NT therapy with a naturopathic approach to health.
To read more about this topic, click here.
Supplement Review and Analysis
Many people take supplements without being certain that they are
appropriate, or the best for their individual situation. We can
help you understand which nutrient supplements are worth taking, which
you shouldn't waste your money on, and which will help YOU the most.
After going over your medical history, We will have you bring in
your supplements, go through them one by one, and explain what you do
and don't need, and suggest other strategies that might advance your
health further.
