Category: Naturopathic Medicine

The future for naturopathic medicine looks bright. While I don’t necessarily see anything dramatic happening, there are a number of factors that ensure a steady flow of patients for naturopathic doctors. In this post I'll discuss why a patient would choose a naturopathic doctor, the difference of naturopathic medicine vs. the traditional medical system, common myths, and the overall approach taken with naturopathic medicine. Who Chooses a Naturopathic Doctor? Patients seek naturopathic medicine for a number of reasons and they come from different ethnic, racial, political, and socioeconomic backgrounds. One thing they all share in common is the desire to find the cause of their problem and fix it rather than taking a prescription that just addresses the symptoms. These patients also tend to be the type of people that like solving problems as well as preventing them. One issue with our medical system here in the United States is that health care workers are overworked and in many cases underpaid. I recently spoke with a primary care doctor here in Colorado who sees between 30 and 40 patients per day. I do not know how anyone could stay fresh and excited about patient care with that type of patient...

Insomnia, defined as the inability to fall or stay asleep, can be so debilitating. It affects people to varying degrees with about ten percent of the population suffering from mild or acute insomnia. Short term insomnia, which is the inability to have quality sleep for a duration of 3 months or less, affects 20% of the population. Chronic insomnia occurs in about 10% of the population and is defined as at least 3 episodes a week for longer than 3 months. Sleep is a main pillar of our health and without consistent quality sleep our body and mind can become dysregulated. The impact that sleep has on the body is so significant, that sleep deprivation is used as a form of torture in some countries. In sleep studies on mice (poor little critters),  32 days of sleep deprivation caused death. For a healthy adult, a normal amount of sleep is between 7-9 hours per night. Insomnia in History Did you know that medical doctors back in the 1800’s were writing about insomnia? They wrote about the following types: Dyspeptic or that related to digestive problems and food Toxic type which was related to alcohol consumption Neurotic type related to the...

Is there a cure for COVID-19 (coronavirus)? Is vaccination the only answer? A few curious scientists asked themselves those questions and then performed extensive research looking for the answer. In an article published by the American Society for Microbiology; Microbiology: Antimicrobial Agents and Chemotherapy Screening, the authors researched treatments due to their concerns that the pace of drug development and registration for human use was not helping in winning the war against emerging infectious diseases. They screened a library of 348 FDA-approved drugs for anti-MERS-CoV activity in cell culture. MERS-CoV is the beta coronavirus that causes Middle East Respiratory Syndrome, or MERS. They identified four top compounds with the potential to treat the coronavirus: Chloroquine, Chlorpromazine, Loperamide, and Lopinavir. Each one was able to inhibit MERS-CoV replication as well inhibit the replication of SARS coronavirus and human coronavirus. Although their protective activity (alone or in combination) remains to be assessed in animal models, their findings may offer a starting point for treatment of patients infected with zoonotic coronaviruses like MERS-CoV. Although they may not necessarily reduce viral replication to very low levels, a moderate viral load reduction can create a window of time for a human to mount a protective immune...

When people think of liver disease they usually associate it with alcohol abuse or hepatitis. But there is another, much more prevalent factor at play, and it’s becoming increasingly worrisome as trends reveal the startling truth. Statistics clearly show that children and adults in the U.S. are getting heavier and this is only predicted to increase. Being overweight does not always come with risks to health, in fact, being underweight has its own set of health risks. However, being obese is associated with conditions that can lead to chronic illness and early death. In 2007/2008 33.8% of adults over 20 years old in the U.S. were estimated to be obese, and 5.7% were extremely obese. Last year, 2019 figures from the CDC found that 36.5% of U.S. adults age 20 and older and 17% of children and adolescents aged 2–19 years were obese. Obesity is associated with the following chronic health conditions: Heart disease High blood pressure Diabetes Cancer Gall bladder disease Osteoarthritis Gout Breathing issues, such as sleep apnea   Obesity and Non-alcoholic Fatty Liver Disease A disease associated with obesity that is sometimes overlooked is non-alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD). NAFLD is the build-up of fatty tissue in...

A Functional medicine doctor seeks to develop a treatment plan using natural remedies based upon the patient's history, elaborate ‘functional’ lab testing and evaluation. They may examine the genetic and epigenetic factors for each patient to develop an individualized therapeutic approach that addresses these underlying factors. Do I Need a Naturopathic Doctor if my Medical Doctor Offers Functional Medicine? Yes! A Naturopathic Doctor (ND) takes a deeper look at the overall health of the patient and takes the time to find the underlying cause of a disease. ND’s do not only look at lab values and then recommend supplements or foods. A ND will take into account the patient's current health history, past history, family history and genetics, as well as comprehensive dietary evaluation and lab test results. Naturopathic doctors are considered the experts in alternatives to prescription drugs. NDs know all of the contraindications and indications for combining alternative treatments and prescriptions. They seek to balance the whole person, not just the physical body, by taking time to spend with patients. The scope of practice for ND’s varies across the USA, so it may be necessary to employ an Medical Doctor (MD) for care that the ND cannot provide...