Superfoods And The Process of Tonification

When seeing patients for their intitial evalution my goal is to build a strong foundation, identify obstacles to health and bring balance. A strong foundation is created by a process of tonification. To tonify means to conserve or increase available energy, just the opposite of the more familiar - detoxification, the process of forcing the body to eliminate toxins via expansion of energy. Common side effects of doing a cleanse or a detox, like fatigue, malaise, and light-headedness occur precisely because of a deficiency in energy and need for tonification.

On a biochemical level, tonification is achieved by maximizing consumption of nutrient-dense and calorie-sparse foods. These foods have rightfully earned the name superfoods. How do they tonify? Well, superfoods contain nutrients that are cofactors in biochemical energy production pathways in the body. A body that is deficient in nutrients will be deficient in energy.

Here's my menu of superfoods:

Pumpkins (kabucha is my favorite)

Berries 

Nuts and seeds (beware of chemically treated and pasteurized almonds)

Green leafy vegetables

Sea vegetables
Cruciferous vegetables (cauliflower, broccoli, brussel sprouts, purple cabbage)

Wild cold water fish (salmon, sardines)

Fruit oils (olive, avocado)

Pasture raised organic eggs
Spices (turmeric, ginger, cinnamon)
Teas (green tea)
Mushrooms (shitake, maitake.... even white button mushrooms help to prevent cancer)
Gee or clarified butter, home-made raw milk butter, coconut oil
Sprouted foods

What's on your superfoods menu?

How do you resolve to feel in 2013?

Happy New Year! I wanted to start the first blog post of 2013 with new year's resolutions. But just today, I was reminded that most resolutions do not work because they evoke negative feelings like guilt and shame. Experience and science tell us that it's a collosal waste of time to start the year with a resolution to lose 10lbs.

Instead of asking "what do you want to do this year?", let's ask ourselves "how do you want to feel?"  Experience tells us that we all want to feel joy, pleasure, and freedom! And studies show that we are motivated by pleasure. When rephrasing your new year's resolutions from actions to feelings, you may then decide to make lifestyle choices that are in line with those feeling. In practical terms you may resolve to feel stronger, energetic and more fit. To maximize these feelings you might make healthier dietary choices, go to sleep earlier, increase physical activity, and establish a relationship with a wholistic healthcare provider. 

So how do you resolve to feel in 2013?

Chantix, Pfizer's Anti-smoking Medicine Is Linked To Heart Attacks and Strokes

Did you know that Pfizer's smoking-cessation treatment Chantix (varenicline) "produced a higher rate of heart attacks or strokes in patients using the treatment than those who didn't take the product?"  In it's Safety Communication, released yesterday, the FDA is informing the public that patients who received the smoking cessation drug Chantix (varenicline) had a higher occurrence of major adverse cardiovascular events like heart attacks and stroke than was observed in patients placebo.

Is Chantix the only quit-smoking solution? Of course not! Here are some natural tips to help you quit smoking:

Tell at least 10 people that you are quitting smoking and avoid situations that you associate with smoking!

Write down all the things you will no longer have to put up with as a non-smoker. Your list might start with these:

• Ruining clothes with cigarette burns
• Sit in the smoking section or outside
• Accelerated skin aging ie wrinkles
• Breath hard when climbing up the stairs
• Have common colds turn into bronchitis
• Increased risk for heart disease

Realize that 40 million Americans have quit and so can you! Last year President Barack Obama after 30 years quit smoking. Here are some other celebrities who have quit smoking.

Celebrate quitting smoking! Buy yourself yoga or pilates classes with the money you are saving to reward your self in a positive way!

Allergies be gone! morning smoothie recipe

Ingredients:

Anti-inflammatory antioxidants:

•

• 1 cup of frozen organic berries (blueberries, blackberries, raspberries, cherries, currants, cranberries and strawberries)
• 2000 mg of vitamin C powder

Fluid to keep mucus membranes and tissues hydrated:

•

• 1 cup of unsweetened almond milk, rice milk, coconut or hazelnut milk or water

Source of anti-inflammatory easily digestible protein:

•

• 1-2 tablespoons or scoops protein powder (undenatured whey, rice or hemp)

Essential fatty acids to educate the body’s immune system to be more tolerant and less reactive:

•

• 1-2 Tbsp of fish, cod liver or flax oil
• 2 teaspoons ground flax seeds
• 1 tablespoon almond, pumpkin seed, cashew, or sunflower seed butter
• 1/4 -1/2 of an avocado

Source of minerals, and trace elements:

•

• 1 teaspoon spirulina, powdered greens or chlorella

Directions:

Blend until smooth adjusting nut milk as needed

Enjoy every morning before, during and after allergies season

My Alma mater - University of Bridgeport!

Nature Cure Cook Book

At a local library book sale, I came across Nature Cure Cook Book, penned in 1918 by Henry Lindlahr, MD, one of the pioneers of the Nature Cure movement and of Naturopathic Medicine. In fact, Dr. Lindlahr's Philosophy of Natural Therapeutics is a required text in the first semester of naturopathic education.

Before delving into specific remedies, Lindlahr warns that "even the most wholesome foods, in the best possible combination, cannot be properly digested and assimilated if the digestive organs are in a sluggish, atrophic condition. In such cases these organs must be made alive and active through natural methods of treatment." This remains one of the most fundamental principles in naturopathic medicine.

The Nature Cure Cook Book divides all food elements into five categories: starches (St), sugars (S), fats/oils (F), proteins (P), and minerals (M). Each recipe denotes which food elements it contains. This type of notation enables the patient to remain on the prescribed diet. For example, the patient who is prescribed a low-carb diet will know to exclude recipes that have starches and sugars and go straight to the Dandelion and Orange Salad recipe which contains minerals, fat, and protein.

Nature Cure Cook Book: Dandelion and Orange Salad (M,F,P)

Wash the dandelion leaves in very cold water to make them crist; cut into shreds with scissors; peel and chip sweet oranges in proportions of 1 orange to each cup of shredded dandelion.

For a dressing, rub the salad bowl with a garlic, cut a stalk of leek into fine rings, add a little salt, a dash of cayenne pepper, and add 2 tablespoons olive oil. Stir well, add the orange and dandelion, toss together with a wooden fork and spoon. Cover with sliced hard-boiled eggs. This salad should be served as soon as mixed.

Review of research on exercise and fitness

Everyone knows that exercise is good for you. We've been told that by our teachers, parents, magazines, and the media. In this post, I would like to take a look at what science and research has to tell us. 

Research shows that exercise has been proven over and over again to improve alertness, attention and motivation. Aerobic exercise, like jogging, biking and swimming, has been shown to increase neurotransmitters, improve communication between brain cells and spur the developement of new brain cells. Does anyone know of any drug that can spur the developement of new brain cells? I sure don't. Anaerobic skill-based exercise like, tennis, basketball and dancing, improves synaptic connections in parts of the brain. Once improved, these connections can be recruited by other areas of the brain for thinking. This explains why children that play piano have an easier time learning math. 

What we are not hearing from our teachers, parents, magazines and the media is that exercise improves learning and brain function by growing new brain cells and improving communication between existing brain cells. Why not? There is no financial gains to be made from exercise, the way there would be from a drug.

In addition, exercise:

o

• Lowers heart disease risk
• Reduces blood pressure
• Increases strength of ligaments and tendons
• Reduces stress and helps relieve depression
• Improves sleep
• Reduces risk of cancer (colon, prostate and breast)
• Enhances physical appearance
• Improves self esteem
• Strengthens bones, reducing risk of osteoporosis
• Increases energy
  

I am off to Runyon Canyon to build new brain cells! What are you doing today to improve your brain function???

Naturopathic Doctors Call For Real Health Care Reform

Naturopathic Medicine Supporters Advocate For realth Care System Based On Wellness, Disease Prevention, And Natural Medicine

 

"More than 100 naturopathic doctors and supporters will descend on Capitol Hill Monday, May 4, to advocate for an overhaul of the nation’s health care system. Advocates from across the country will ask their Members of Congress to support H.Con.Res.58, a resolution that would transform the health care system from one that manages disease to one rooted in prevention, health promotion, and wellness.

 

“The health care system must address the underlying factors that lead to chronic disease,” says Karen Howard, Executive Director of the American Association of Naturopathic Physicians. “Nearly forty percent of all U.S. deaths are from heart disease, and more than two thirds of Americans are overweight. Clearly, the current system doesn’t do enough to prevent these costly health conditions. We need to move past this broken model and create a system that focuses on overall health, wellness, and enabling the body’s natural healing process.”

 

Naturopathic medicine is based on the belief that the human body has an innate healing ability. Naturopathic doctors teach their patients to use lifestyle changes and cutting-edge natural therapies to enhance the body’s ability to ward off and combat disease. Naturopathic doctors craft comprehensive treatment plans that blend the best of modern medical science and traditional natural medical approaches to not only treat disease, but also to restore health.

 

“Today, our definition of ‘wellness’ is limited to drug screening, vaccinations, and other preventative strategies such as drug therapy,” continues Howard. “But we drastically undervalue how changing behavior can prevent disease. If the nation is to move past the current health care crisis, we must adopt a patient-centered health care model that will restore and maintain optimal health.”

 

Currently, 15 states, the District of Columbia, and the United States territories of Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands have licensing laws for naturopathic doctors. In these states, naturopathic doctors are required to graduate from a four-year, postgraduate naturopathic medical school and to pass an extensive postdoctoral board examination (NPLEX) in order to receive a license."

* * *

 

The American Association of Naturopathic Physicians is a professional association strives to make naturopathic medicine available to every American, and to increase recognition of naturopathic physicians as the identified authorities on natural medicine. Our members include accredited schools of naturopathy, students, physicians, and individual and corporate supporters, participating independently or though 40 state-level affiliate organizations. Learn more at www.naturopathic.org

 

Jenna Huntsberger

Marketing and Communications Specialist

American Association of Naturopathic Physicians

4435 Wisconsin Ave. NW, Suite 403

Washington, D.C. 20016

Phone: (202) 237-8150

Toll-Free: (866) 538-2267

Fax: (202) 237-8152

jenna.huntsberger@naturopathic.org

Naturopathic Medicine Series Airs on April 8th, 2009 on KOCE PBS

Naturopathic Medicine Series to Air April 8th, 2009
Program is the first to educate public on this powerful form of natural medicine

On April 8, 2009 the country's first series on naturopathic medicine will air on southern California's KOCE, the sixth-largest PBS station in the country. Produced by the award-winning American Health Journal in conjunction with the American Association of Naturopathic Physicians (AANP), the series will educate the public about the practices and philosophy of naturopathic medicine. 

"The public is hungry for a system of health care that is patient-centered, wellness focused, cost-effective, and which uses natural remedies without side effects," said Karen Howard, AANP's Executive Director. "Naturopathic medicine is what the public wants and needs. We're excited about this opportunity to educate the public about naturopathic medicine."

The program will cover a broad range of topics, including the training and education of naturopathic physicians, environmental health and cancer, naturopathic approaches to chronic disease, family medicine, preventing heart disease and diabetes, mental health, allergies, and chronic pain.   The six-part series (with a seventh "best of" episode) will begin airing April 8, 2009.

Naturopathic physicians combine the wisdom of nature with the rigors of modern science. Steeped in traditional healing methods, principles and practices, naturopathic medicine focuses on holistic, proactive prevention and comprehensive diagnosis and treatment. Naturopathic medicine embraces the medical oath "first do no harm." By using protocols that minimize the risk of harm, naturopathic physicians help facilitate the body's inherent ability to restore and maintain optimal health. It is the naturopathic physician's role to identify and remove barriers to good health by helping to create a healing internal and external environment. Currently, 15 states, the District of Columbia, and the United States territories of Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands have licensing laws for naturopathic doctors. In these states, naturopathic doctors are required to graduate from a four-year, postgraduate naturopathic medical school and to pass an extensive postdoctoral board examination (NPLEX) in order to receive a license.

A View on Naturopathy

Today's Naturopathic Insights guest contributor is Lena K. from Boston, MA with a policy statement on naturopathic medicine.

• Identifying the Problem

In the United States, people rely heavily on conventional medicine, often resulting in the overuse of prescription drugs. While therapeutic drug treatments may be both effective tools of healthcare as well as being cost effective, often replacing the need for costly surgical procedures, people’s increasing reliance on them suggests an unhealthy dependency. Moreover, consumer’s increasing demand for quick fixes is increasingly being met by doctors who are overburdened with a growing waiting room of patients. The trend is such that people no longer care about safe-guarding their own health as much as alleviating their symptoms. The current healthcare approach has therefore placed greater emphasis on a person’s symptoms and how best to eradicate them, than on the overall health and well-being of the person in question. First and foremost, this is a problem in the way people think about their own health and the kind of priorities they place on their healthcare services.

• Creating a Solution – The Vision of Naturopathy

“To transform the healthcare system from a disease management system to a comprehensive health program incorporating the principles of naturopathic medicine.”

– Mission Statement, American Association of Naturopathic Physicians

It is the position of physicians who practice Naturopathic medicine that this attitude and outlook towards life and health must change in order to see the improved health and vitality of a people. While conventional medicine is important and its advances and benefits to mankind should not be underscored, natural medicine offers a new way of thinking about health. Naturopathic medicinal theory posits that in many non-emergency circumstances, man has the ability to heal himself. Furthermore, by providing the right circumstances and conditions, the body has the ability to perform at its best and fight off common disease and ailments. This outlook and lifestyle is the difference between being of average health and being in the best possible condition; the difference between feeling ok and feeling full of energy without having to drink a single cup of coffee.

In this manner, Naturopathic Medicine is not only a type of alternative medicine, but it is equally an alternative lifestyle. It stresses people taking responsibility for their own personal health by altering their lifestyle to make themselves healthier, instead of waiting for a doctor to determine how they should do so. Such lifestyle changes range from the minor, such as drinking less, to the more extreme, such as maintaining a diet of only organic foods. But ultimately, Naturopathy prescribes to the idea that in order to be healthy people should take better care of themselves by watching what they put into their bodies and how they treat their bodies.

Examples of conditions that should be improved to improve overall health include examining the types of foods that are eaten, specifically looking for any harmful contents, the overuse of drugs or other harmful substances, constant stress, lack of exercise, and overuse of pharmaceuticals to cover up ailments. Naturopathy also prescribes to the idea that natural substances and methods, such as vitamins and plant extracts with healing properties can effectively deal with internal ailments, while acupuncture and chiropractic services can manipulate the physical ailments of the body. Naturopathy is all encompassing in this sense, and quite literally examines the patient in his or her entirety rather than simply focusing on a localized complaint. Naturopathic physicians go about treating patients in the manner described above on the basis of the Guiding Principles of Naturopathic Medicine:

• First, do no harm

• The healing power of nature

• Identify and treat the causes

• Doctor as a teacher

• Treat the whole person

• Prevention

So not only is the aim to provide better conditions for health, but also to create better educated and more responsible consumers of healthcare services. This is a notable departure from the aims of conventional medicine, which often stresses particular issues and not a person’s overall health and knowledge. Yet people should know their bodies, and should have an understanding of how their ailments affect them in order to make more informed and effective decisions about the type of healthcare offered to them. People have a right to know what they are putting in their bodies, whether this applies to certain types of drugs or even the contents of their food.

Naturopathic Physicians are unique in their mandate to help people make lifestyle changes. They are able to identify how best to establish a new level of health for their patients by providing a comprehensive health analysis based on the Guiding Principles of Naturopathic Medicine. Naturopathic Physicians will continue to work towards shifting people’s understanding of health from one that simply alleviates symptoms to one that treats the entirety of the person.

Works Cited

American Association of Naturopathic Physicians. AANP 2006. Retrieved Feb. 3. 2009. http://www.naturopathic.org/viewbulletin.php?id=206.

Cold Care Soup

Just as the winter became spring, the weather turned cold and rainy. This morning, I woke up feeling chilly, achy and congested. Oh no, I have a cold! My mission for today is threefold:

1. Increase my body temperature

2. Remove obstacles to launching an effective immune response

3. Give my body all that it needs to get back into balance

I put on my winter wools (hat, scarf, socks) and snuggled under the down blanket. I am avoiding solid food, stress, and alcohol. And most importantly, I must rest, rest, rest!

To aid me with my recovery, I made an awesome broth that I named Cold Care Soup. It actually satisfies all three of my mission objectives. It helped me break a sweat, it is super light on the digestive track, and it helps my immune system.

Ingredients:

6 cups of filtered  water

1 whole medium onion peeled 

5 whole cloves of garlic, peeled

1 sprig of thyme 

1 lemon grass stick, cut into 3 inch pieces

2 inch section of fresh ginger root, peeled and sliced

ground black pepper

cayene powder

1 tablespoon of miso per serving

additional or substitute ingredients: (fresh oregano, fresh sage or any other fresh and pungent herb from your local farmer's market)

Directions:

1. Combine all ingredients except miso in a soup pot. Bring to boil. Lower the heat and cook for 20 minutes or until the onion is soft. You will smell the aroma and know when the broth is ready.

2.  Ladle the broth into a bowl or a mug taking care to leave the herbs and savories in the pot. Add 1 tablespoon of miso to each bowl or mug and mix well.

3.  Enjoy and feel better!

What is naturopathic medicine?

Naturopathic medicine is a distinct system of health. It is
distinguished from other systems of healthcare by the guiding
principles upon which its practice is based.

Guiding principles of naturopathic medicine:

First, do no harm.
Naturopathic doctors use the most natural methods to help patients
feel better. Patients do not experience unpleasant side effects.

The healing power of nature.
Naturopathic doctors recognize that the human body knows how to heal.
They assist the patient with the process.

Identify and treat the causes
Naturopathic doctors work to determine and address the underlying
cause of the patient's health concern. They do not believe in treating
symptoms.

Doctor as a teacher
Naturopathic doctors work to empower the patient to take
responsibility for their health. Patients become better informed
consumers of health care.

Treat the whole person
Naturopathic doctors use a holistic approach to remove the cause of
the patients illness.

Prevention
Naturopathic doctors believe that it is easier and cheaper to prevent
illness in the first place, than to attempt to treat, reverse or
correct it later.

Prevention

In the context of healthcare, when you hear the word "prevention," what is the first thing that comes to mind? A line in an advertisement for a medicine or a condition you saw on TV? Perhaps a test or a procedure you heard about at your doctor's office? Or maybe it's a clause, or lack thereof, in your health insurance policy?

What does prevention mean? Prevention is not a daily pill, or a diagnostic test, or a clause in a health insurance policy. The simple premise behind prevention is that it is easier and cheaper to prevent illness, pollution, mistakes, (fill in the blank) in the first place, than intervention, the attempt to treat, reverse or correct them later. 

Prevention has many applications. In the context of environment, reducing pollution at its source is the cornerstone of sustainable development. In the realm of conventional healthcare, prevention means keeping major or chronic illness from happening (e.g. removing a gallbladder to prevent chronic gallstones). 

From my naturopathic vantage point, keeping illness at bay may not be an adequate goal. Just as an absence of violence is not the same as peace, keeping illness at bay is not equivalent to creating wellness (e.g. working towards optimal gallbladder function to prevent chronic gallstones). 

As a naturopathic doctor, I define prevention as overall health promotion, and consider it as the most sensible cure. In fact, prevention is one of the defining tenants and guiding principles of naturopathic medicine. Naturopathic philosophy is based on six principles, rather than modalities (e.g. supplements/herbs/homeopathics) or methods (natural/drugless) used. 

The six guiding principles/defining tenants of naturopathic medicine are:

• first, do no harm
  
• the healing power of nature 
  
• treat the cause
  
• look at the whole person
  
• doctor as a teacher, and 
  
• prevention
  

Over the coming weeks, I plan on writing about each one of these tenants to help you to learn about what I do. 

I am eager to hear from you, my dear internerds and interneatsters! 

• What does prevention mean to you? 
  
• What preventative steps have you taken to maintain health and vibrancy?

Trust AND protect the healing power of nature

One of the guiding principles of naturopathic medicine is "the healing power of nature". When describing it, I used to say "TRUST the healing power of nature." Secretly something irked me about that statement - not because I don't subscribe to it (I really really really do).  I believe in the power of nature so much that I want to protect it, and ensure that everyone will have an opportunity to experience its wisdom. And so today, after some thought during my solo hike , I came up with a new version (TRUST AND PROTECT the healing power of nature!) and the reasoning behind it.

In Greening Your Business: the Hands on Guide to Creating a Successful and Sustainable Business, Daniel Sitarz alerts us that every environmental problem that we face to day as a society has its root cause in a conscious business decision. Owing to that fact that businesses are created and operated by people, I can take this statement further and say that every environmental problem we face today has its root cause in personal AND business decisions. An individual who doesn't recycle at home is not likely to set up a recycling business. An individual who drinks from plastic(yuck!) water bottles, is not likely to invest in a water purification system (mmmm!)for her office. People create businesses that are in line with their personal philosophy on environment.

To make the healing wisdom of nature available to everyone, we, as a society, need to safeguard it from air and water pollution, depletion of natural resources, loss of biodiversity, and use of toxic chemicals. We need to take responsibility for our health, our environment and our sustainability by aligning our personal AND business decisions with nature! 

Well how does one go about making permanent changes that are aligned with nature? A good start is to look at your daily water, energy usage and waste accumulation.

Water efficiency:

Can you wash and rinse dishes in batches by filling your kitchen sink with water?
Can you switch to a 2 flush toilet?

Energy efficiency:

Can you walk, bike or carpool to your destination? 
Can you shop local?
When leaving your home, can you turn off lights, shut down computers, and lower the thermostat?

Waste reduction:

Can you lead a waste-free life? 
Can you minimize your consumption of stuff that has tons of packaging and containers that are not recyclable?
Can you compost, recycle, reuse, donate?

What are some of the things that have helped you to protect nature? Do you have any further recommendations?