Whenever I am talking to a patient and they tell me about some particular set of symptoms that suddenly came on, I always ask them “What changed around that time?”. Such a simple question and it’s amazing how often it can lead us to the cause, or at least a main contributing factor, of their…
One of the most common things I find in people who come to see me, is constipation. The allopathic medical community commonly defines constipation as having less than three bowel movements a week, but in the naturopathic community, we consider less than one bowel movement a day as constipation. I would take it even further and say…
In naturopathic medicine, we operate on the basic principle that the body has a natural tendency to move towards health. Disease happens when there is something that blocks that natural movement. That something could be diet, lifestyle, mental/emotional blocks, or any number of other things. My job as a naturopathic doctor is not to use…
Castor oil packs are one of my favorite medicines of all time. They are great for many different kinds of conditions & musculoskeletal pain including: back pain, joint pain, muscle tension (like doing it on the neck & shoulders for a tension headache), ganglion cysts, menstrual cramps, constipation (used topically over the belly) and for many other…
When your head feels like it’s about to explode with sinus congestion, there are a few simple things you can do to help clear things up. If you’re waking with a stuffy head, consider your sleeping situation. Is there mold along the edge of your bedroom windows? This is a really common problem (especially here in Seattle) and cleans…
So it’s the middle of winter (or April in Seattle), you’ve got the winter blahs, and it feels like the sun will never shine again. Besides buying a straightjacket or a ticket to Mexico, what else can be done to preserve (or recapture) your sanity? Therapeutic light boxes are available for purchase online (check out…
This is a picture nearly all of my patients see me draw, at one time or another. When you think about the human body in its simplest form, it really is just a tube, with the entrance at the top and the exit down below. I draw this picture to illustrate the idea that what happens on…
The First Installment The First Secret to Weight Loss is… stop focusing on it as your goal. If you own a scale, take it out and put it under the wheel of your car, and drive back and forth over it until it’s dead. Or maybe better yet, donate it somewhere so it doesn’t end…
