Monthly Archives: November 2013
Nutritional counseling can be extremely beneficial to your overall health. It can help you with a healthier lifestyle, advice to build up your immune system and generally just help you feel better.
Why is nutrition important?
Poor nutrition has a lot of side effects. You can feel tired all the time. You can have weight issues and digestion problems. Eating poorly can cause migraines, other types of headaches and high blood pressure. By having nutritional counseling you can change all that. You can get help with identifying the foods causing the issues. Eating the right foods can improve your overall health and let you live longer. A Naturopath doctor can help you with these new life choices.
What is nutritional counseling?
Nutritional counseling is counseling which helps you to achieve health goals and maintain them. Learning about nutrition and how it affects your body will help keep you healthy. By making an appointment with a Naturopath doctor, you will have taken the first step. In nutritional counseling, the doctor will get to the root of the problem as well as your concerns. A personalized chart of information will be made to fit your lifestyle and needs. There will be a discussion about what you are eating and where to change the foods you consume. You will learn the best foods which help to increase your energy levels as well as making you feel better. If weight loss is an issue, there will be help for that too.
What are the benefits of nutritional counseling?
The benefits of nutritional counseling are many. You will have increased energy because of a healthier lifestyle and correct food choices. You will sleep better and have an increased ability to concentrate. Your immune system will be strengthened. There will also be a lesser chance of diseases and disorders showing up. Also by improving your overall health, your doctor may be able to lower the strength of any prescription drugs you are on. By eating healthier you can experience weight loss and fat loss which will lower your cholesterol levels and blood pressure.
If you want to feel better and have more energy, schedule an appointment for nutritional counseling with your Naturopath doctor or family physician today.
It’s that time again, cold and flu season has come again.
If you think it’s a cold, and hope to skip that office visit, these are my suggestions for a speedier recovery. All suggestions, as well as a few more, are available at the office.
- Bio-vegetarian: At the first sign of a cold or sinus infection, take 2 capsules every hour during the waking hours for the first day and then take 5 doses the following day until you are well plus 3 days. These capsules are large and don’t taste great. They are absolutely contraindicated if you are pregnant or may be pregnant. If at the highest dose you developed a headache with a stiff neck, stop for that day
- If capsules are not an option for you, and you suspect you have a virus/cold then Elderberry Syrup is another option. This option is great for children too as it tastes nice. Elderberry doses for adults at 1/2 tsp 5 times per day, again take until you are feeling well plus 3 days. I often combine this with short term, high doses of Vitamin A and Vitamin D.
- Cough treatments depend on the type of cough. In the office we carry Herbal Cough Elixir by Wise Woman Herbal for a Dry cough (1/2 tsp up to 6 times per day). I suggest Khella compound for spastic coughs; the cough where you can’t quit coughing and it hurts (60 drops up to 4 times per day).
- My preferred homeopathic formula for colds and flues is Engystol by Heel. For an adult take 1 tablet every hour up to 12 times per day.
- Use the warming socks treatment for a good night sleep and to assist the fever.
- We also offer the standard Meyers IV and our Super Immune IV’s. These are 30 minute IV protocols that provide 25,000 mg of Vitamin C plus B vitamins and electrolytes. The Super-immune has added extracts of an anti-viral derived from Licorice Root.
If you are using any of the above, and not getting better, then you need to see a doctor.
Call 623.251.5518 to schedule an appointment with Dr. Jen immediately if:
- have a fever of 103F or more
- feel too ill to drink adequately
- have any of the signs of dehydration
- are still feverish after 72 hours
- have difficulty awakening, confusion or delirium
- have rash with fever
- have a stiff neck
- have difficulty breathing
- have a sore throat lasting more than 7 days
Prevention is best, wash your hands, get enough sleep, avoid sugar and eat your fruits and vegetables.
Best of health!
-Dr. Jen
Eating fermented foods is not something new in natural medicine. This is because people discovered long ago that fermenting organically grown food not only preserved certain foods naturally but maintained their health. Now fermentation actually works by using lactic acid bacteria to produce fermentation which when eaten breaks down the carbohydrates, proteins and fats in the food before it is consumed. Being one of the natural remedies for maintaining a healthy digestive system, it’s also one of the easiest to introduce into your daily food intake.
Why Probiotics?
For healthy eating, information about probiotics and other types of natural medicine can be taught to you by a Naturopath Doctor. This type of doctor practices homeopathic medicine and herbal medicine and can give you nutritional counseling. This is good to do because a person’s digestive system has a certain amount of microflora when we are born. The bacteria grow and develop as long as a balanced diet is eaten. With nutrition counseling, you will be taught the healthy way to eat such as consuming organic raw fruits and vegetables, probiotic foods, fermented and cultured foods so that the healthy bacteria grow instead of being destroyed. To help this happen, a Naturopath Doctor can give you a list of fermented foods to add to your diet which you can choose from to help solve your intestinal issues.
The doctor will also discuss with you any issues you may be having such as ways to support your immune to help defeat bacterial infection. The doctor can use natural remedies to help your body to increase its ability to heal itself.
Are fermented foods really helpful?
There are quite a few people who believe Homeopathic medicine and Botanical Medicine is only for health nuts or people who are into the New Age movement. This isn’t so. Natural medicine has been around for a long time and using fermentation in food has been around just as long. By the public becoming germaphobes though, the natural enzymes in our systems have been reduced. But since some bacteria are healthy to have in the body, consuming organically grown foods which have been fermented will encourage the growth of helpful enzymes, bacteria and yeasts so your body has a healthy microflora.
Homeopath treatments and natural medicine are very real and valid methods to treat illnesses. Probiotics and eating fermented foods are just two of those methods in these categories which can be used. With nutritional counseling by a Naturopath Doctor, feeling better soon is within your grasp.
When talking to a Naturopath Doctor, it will be stressed that natural is always better. In homeopathic and in naturopathic medicine, the belief is the closer to the source of nature, the better you will feel. This is also true of why you should juice with organic ingredients whenever possible.
Why organic?
Organically grown fruit and vegetables are not genetically modified or altered. Strong chemicals and harmful pesticides are also not used when growing organic food. What this means, is that the fruit and vegetables are as close to naturally grown as possible. Also, by using organically grown ingredients for juicing, there are more vitamins and nutrients to increase your overall health. Since organic juicing has such a high level of antioxidants, it will also help to rid your body of toxins and harmful impurities. Another plus to juicing is it can help with weight loss while still keeping you healthy.
Juicing is one of the natural remedies used to help raise energy levels too. When you drink juice made with organic ingredients, 95% of what is needed in vitamin and enzymes are supplied. Also so by drinking juice, the concentration of minerals, vitamins, and enzymes go directly into your bloodstream. This gives your digestive system a rest, yet the nutritional benefits are still there.
More good points
Using juicing as a natural medicine can promote strengthened immunity; help develop strong bones while reducing your chances of heart disease, stroke and can even cut down the risk of cancer. It has been proven that vitamins and mineral which are plant based are absorbed into the body more easily. Think of it this way, when you are drinking freshly pressed juice you gain the living enzymes plus essential minerals, natural antibiotics, and antioxidants it contains. It would be as if you were drinking a living vitamin as part of your natural medicine.
A smart thing to do is to have nutritional counseling by a Naturopath Doctor before starting a juicing program. Since your body requires all the food groups for proper nourishment, juicing alone can have side effects. You need to give your body what it requires to stay both healthy and strong so counseling is always advisable.