Q & A Part 1

You asked, and I answered!  Here are some of the questions that were sent in to me:





Q: Why is it so expensive to see a Naturopathic Doctor?

A: I can completely understand this question - seeing an ND, especially for the first time is not cheap.  It's definitely an investment in one's health.  A lot of how we view expenses, however, are based on our perceptions and how we compare them to each other.  In Canada, we receive 'free' healthcare (technically not free as funded by our taxes, but it feels that way - we see an MD and don't have to pay anything to them upfront).  What could be cheaper than free?

So, compared to conventional care, the price tag on naturopathic care seems pretty steep.  There are several things that can put this into perspective, however.  How much do you pay your hairstylist, mechanic, plumber?  How much do you spend on your car per year?  What about that morning coffee - it adds up!  Comparatively, naturopathic care is quite similar in terms of cost when comparing to these other services.  Don't you think you should invest a little more in your health?  By placing an importance on it now, you may be able to avoid sickness, chronic disease, and expensive prescription medication (that many people have to pay for on their own) and instead be strong, vital, and full of energy into your elder years.  It will pay off in the long run!





Q: Why do I get sick again soon after I've been on antibiotics?

A: The answer to this question has to do with all of the friendly bacteria that the antibiotics are killing off.  Many of us don't really realize it, but a huge percentage of our immune system actually resides in our gut and the friendly bacteria play an important role in keeping us healthy and our immune systems functioning well.  When they are killed off, we become vulnerable to other viruses and bacteria.  This is why taking probiotics both during an antibiotic treatment and afterwards is so important.  Discuss with your ND what an effective dose will be for you.

Furthermore, antibiotics are great in some instances and can and have saved lives, but they don't really fix the problem of why you got sick in the first place - why is your immune system not functioning as it should be?  Are you eating something (or lots of things) that are bogging you down and may not be agreeing with you?  Are you overly stressed?  Are you toxic?  Are you simply burned out?  All of these things can influence how often we get sick, and as antibiotics don't address any of these factors, you're going to continue to get sick until you do something that does address them.




Q: Why are NDs so 'gaga' over probiotics?  What's wrong with yogurt?

A: This is a great question, and one that I get all the time in practice.  Although yogurt has some probiotics in it, it doesn't have many, and what it had at the time of processing and production is probably mostly gone by the time it finds itself on your spoon.  CFU - colony-forming units is the standard unit used to measure the amount of bacteria present in a given food or product.  Yogurts won't give you this value, but it's low - in the millions.  Most probiotic supplements, however, are in the billions - I regularly prescribe probiotics from 8 billion CFU up to around 100 billion CFU and they are quite effective.  Some people can obtain some benefits from yogurt, but often the amount of bacteria is so small that the effects won't be huge, lasting, or be seen at all for someone who is in need of a larger dose.

Also, it should be pointed out that many many yogurts out there are not foods that you regularly want to consume.  Artificially sweetened - avoid at all costs.  Regularly sweetened - not as bad, but have you read how many GRAMS of sugar you're actually consuming, per one of those little yogurt cups?  It's not low!  The best yogurt to eat is a plain, unsweetened yogurt - not many people have actually tried this kind, being so accustomed to the sweetened types (even vanilla without any fruit is very sweetened).




Q: I've heard that NDs hate prescription medications and take their patients off of them.  Is this true?

A: Not true (at least for me, I can't speak for every ND).  It is true that we're not the biggest fans of prescription medications.  Often, they're not treating the cause of the health concern and can sometimes make things worse in the long run.  They can 'bog down' the body and stress the liver, and not many people want to be on a medication (or many medications) for life.  Having said that, there are times that they are needed and effective.  I would never suggest that someone stop a medication that is serving them well - first of all, that's not something that I can do as an ND (altering of a prescription should be done by the doctor who prescribed it), and secondly, that would just be bad health advice.

What I do see, and what more commonly happens in my office is that people become healthier, their bodies work better on their own, more optimally doing the function that the medication is helping them out with.  This can often be seen subjectively as well as objectively in lab or other diagnostic and radiological tests.  If I see this happening, I refer them back to their MD so that he/she can reassess whether the patient needs to be on that medication or not.  Often, the MD will decide to take the patient off of the medication if it's no longer needed (with continued monitoring, of course).

So, yes, people who see NDs do often end up stopping some medications eventually, but this is entirely up to the patient's MD and the patient - NDs are just catalysts in these instances, propelling the patients towards better health.  They're not the decision makers.




Q: It seems like natural treatments take a long time to see any effects whereas medical treatments have effects right away.  I can't deal with my symptoms anymore and can't wait that long for them to get better.  Why should I go the natural route instead of the conventional route?

A: Thank you for your question - this is one that I'm sure most everyone is thinking but not typically asked.  It's true, the conventional route may give you symptom relief - it's a quick fix.  It doesn't always work though - how often do you hear of people (or maybe have experienced this yourself) going back again and again to their doctor to get their prescription adjusted, or get new medications added to their current ones to address unwanted side effects of their first medication, or to get new medications when they need something stronger because their body isn't responding anymore.  This is all too common, and eventually, there are no more medications to add and conventional medicine literally runs out of options.  What do you do at that point?

Many people turn to alternative options.  What I recommend is for people to not wait until they get to that point.  Instead, seek out the alternatives first.  Yes, natural medicines take longer to work, but that's because they are treating the cause.  They're not a band-aid, quick-fix treatment.  They're working to re-balance and heal your body.  You have to remember, you didn't get this way overnight - it probably took years and years to develop whatever symptoms or health conditions you are currently experiencing.  You can't expect it all to go away in the blink of an eye.  If our bodies sucked, it would probably take just as many years of healing as you've had of disease to get you back to good health.  Luckily, our bodies are pretty awesome and are quite adept at self-healing as long as they're given the right tools and kept away from those things that are detrimental to them.  This is what naturopathic medicine is all about.  It aims to have lasting effects - a true cure!  It is harder work, but doesn't everything that's really worth it in life take hard work and determination?


That's it for now!  If you didn't see your question in this blog entry, look for it in Q & A Part 2.

Thanks again for sending in your questions.  I'd be happy to answer more - please send any others to corenaturopathics@gmail.com

So you've caught a cold...

What to do?

You have three options.


1. Don't do anything.  Let it run its course.

This is an okay option, but really, who wants to just be sick?  In our fast-paced, highly demanding culture, most of us don't have time to be sick.  We want to get better, and we want it now!  Also, this option can lead to bigger and "badder" things down the road - laryngitis, bronchitis, pneumonia...those are not good things to have, and they just require even more of our time.





2. Take some over-the counter cold medication.

This is the overwhelmingly common route.  Unfortunately, it's the worst out of the three.

My Asian Medicine professor back at CCNM always said, "Over the counter cold and flu medications lower your fever, dry up your nose, and stop your cough.  You just took away three of your body's natural defenses against cold and flu bugs."

And it's 100% true.

Let's take a look at  a common cold and flu product:

Nighttime formula INGREDIENTS

Active Ingredients (in each 15 ml tablespoon) (Purpose)

Acetaminophen 325 mg (Pain reliever/fever reducer)

Dextromethorphan HBr 15 mg (Cough suppressant)

Doxylamine succinate 6.25 mg (Antihistamine)

DAYtime formula INGREDIENTS

Active Ingredients (in each 15 ml tablespoon) (Purpose)

Acetaminophen 325 mg (Pain reliever/fever reducer)

Dextromethorphan HBr 10 mg (Cough suppressant)

Phenylephrine HCl 5 mg (Nasal decongestant)

Acetaminophen: analgesic (pain reliever) and antipyretic (fever reducer).  When we're sick, our bodies crank up the heat to kill the viruses and/or bacteria that are invading them.  Why do we want to turn this off?

Dextromethorphan: antitussive (cough suppressant).  We generally don't cough for no reason.  There's usually something irritating the lungs or the throat when we cough.  When we have a cold, that's usually mucous.  It's gross, but cough it up, you get better, cough goes away.  Don't cough it up, and it putrefies and often creates the perfect breeding ground for a secondary infection like bronchitis or pneumonia.

Doxylamine succinate: sedating antihistamine and belongs to a class of medications known as anticholinergics.  What these substances do is decrease mucous production in the nose and throat (which can actually make sore throats feel worse), dry the mouth, decrease sweating, urination, and bowel movements.  For a body that's trying to get rid of infected cells and the waste products of the immune system's attack on the virus/bacteria, this is pretty detrimental.  Furthermore, mucous in smaller amounts is a protective barrier for the body's "mucous membranes", hence the name.  Reduced urination can also increase the risk of urinary tract infections, especially in women - that's the last thing you want if you already have a cold!

Phenylephrine HCl: alpha1-adrenergic receptor agonist (used primarily as a decongestant).  This medication works by decreasing the blood flow to the blood vessels of the nose and sinuses, which leads to decreased mucosal swelling in the nose.  Again, you just need to think about why this symptom is happening in the first place to determine whether this medication is detrimental or not.  Plus, these decongestants are a prime example of everyone's favourite physics law: For every action there's a reaction.  Upon stopping this drug, many people experience rebound swelling of the nasal and sinus mucosa that can sometimes be worse than it was to begin with!

This post was only supposed to be about the pharmaceutical ingredients and their detrimental effects on healing from colds and flus, however, I can't not mention the "other stuff" that you're getting with these medications.  

Night Formula Inactive Ingredients

Soothing Cherry: acesulfame potassium, alcohol, citric acid, FD&C Blue No. 1, FD&C Red No. 40, flavor, high fructose corn syrup, polyethylene glycol, propylene glycol, purified water, saccharin sodium, sodium citrate

Day Formula Inactive Ingredients

Carboxymethylcellulose sodium, citric acid, disodium EDTA, FD&C Yellow No. 6, flavor, glycerin, propylene glycol, purified water, saccharin sodium, sodium benzoate, sodium chloride, sodium citrate, sorbitol, sucralose

Acesulfame potassium, saccharin sodium, sucralose: artificial sweeteners = poison

High fructose corn syrup: one of the worst forms of sugar you can consume and linked to virtually every chronic disease that is prevalent in Western society

FD&C Blue No. 1, FD&C Red No. 40, FD&C Yellow No. 6: toxic and linked to behavioural problems and hyperactivity in children.  Many are also banned in various countries

Polyethylene glycol: petroleum-based compound often contaminated with ethylene oxide and 1,4-dioxane (The International Agency for Research on Cancer classifies ethylene oxide as a known human carcinogen and 1,4-dioxane as a possible human carcinogen).

Propylene glycol: found in automatic brake and hydraulic fluid, industrial antifreeze, cosmetic products, stain removers, fabric softener, degreaser, adhesives, wallpaper stripper...you get the point, not something you really want to consume (even if it's in smaller concentrations).  The form used in cosmetics is known to be a skin irritant and can cause liver abnormalities and kidney damage.

Sodium benzoate: a preservative, known to be neurotoxic to aquatic animals and is toxic/lethal to humans in high doses, endocrine disruption and toxic to the liver at higher doses.  Most worrisome is when it combines with vitamin C (ascorbic acid) or citric acid (look above and you'll see citric acid in both the day and night formulations).  This combination creates benzene, a known carcinogen!

So, as you can see, even the "inactive" ingredients are trouble!  Definitely not something you want to ingest at any time, but especially not when you're fighting off a cold.

Finally, I'll get to your last option when you have a cold:

3. Take something natural!

If you're reading this article, I'm sure you've probably already come to this conclusion, too.  By taking something natural, you are treating the cause: the infection.  You're also working with the body, instead of against it.  You will most likely be sick for a shorter duration (or avoid getting sick altogether if you catch it early enough!) and drastically reduce your chances of developing any secondary infections like bronchitis or pneumonia.

You may be thinking, that's all fine and dandy, but what do I take?  You want to look for herbs with the following actions (adapted from Medical Herbalism by Hoffman):

Antimicrobial: help the body to destroy or resist pathogens, either by directly interacting with a pathogen or via the herb's interaction with the immune response.  These are useful in virtually all types of infections.  Herbs such as garlic, echinacea, and goldenseal fall into this category.

Anticatarrhal: these work by making mucous less viscous so that it's easier for the body to remove and are useful in ear, nose, and throat infections.  Herbs such as yarrow and goldenrod fall into this category.

Demulcent: rich in mucilage and can soothe and protect irritated or inflamed internal tissue.  These can be very soothing to sore throats due to infection or coughing, without adversely affecting the immune response.  Herbs such as marshmallow, slippery elm, and cornsilk fall into this category.

Expectorant: herbs that facilitate or accelerate the removal of bronchial secretions from the bronchi and trachea.  These don't stop the cough, they work with the body to make it work more efficiently!  There are expectorant herbs suited to dry, irritating coughs as well as those better suited to wet, productive coughs.  Herbs such as elecampane, sundew, horehound, and coltsfoot fall into this category.

As you can see, these actions are a lot more in line with nature and the body's natural immune response than the pharmaceuticals listed above.  If you feel a cold coming on or already have one, see your ND to send those bugs packing so you can get back to normal, quicker!

The information in this blog is designed for educational purposes only. It is not intended to be a substitute for informed medical advice or care. You should not use this information to diagnose or treat any health problems or illnesses without consulting your doctor. Please consult a doctor with any questions or concerns you might have.