The Art & Practice Blog
Questions for the Pain
I can feel the general feeling of malaise and a focal ache in the side of my head. My mind slows and I feel that stupid sense of dullness overcome me. I am engulfed in a wave of sickness and pain; I am getting a migraine. Many of my patients suffer from chronic pain....
The Guatemalan Doctor
We take a chicken bus to the hospital in Sololá, Guatemala. The emergency room is simple: 5 beds in a row sheltered by curtains. The sanitation conditions are questionable. There are no respirators (patients are bagged manually, all through the night) or fancy medical...
The Art of Conversation
If you've ever participated in the medical system somewhere in the world, chances are there is a medical chart out there with your name on it. I have one in my hands now and I task myself with the job of getting to know it. It is based on a true story: a patient who...
Re-framing Stress to Live Longer
My second year of training to be a naturopathic doctor was horrific in many ways. It began with performance-based physical exams, which brought with them the crippling feeling of being a deer, stunned by a set of bright headlights, unable to act in the face of the...
The Definition of Health
Most people who come to see a naturopathic doctor are in some sort of state of dis-ease. That is, they are often exhibiting symptoms that indicate that their bodies have begun to offer up warning signs that something is off balance. After all, if they didn't have...
7 Treatments for Chronic Pain
Anywhere from 10% to 55% of the population suffers from chronic pain. It is one of the conundrums of conventional medicine because, once the initial trauma (i.e.: the broken bone, bruising or cut, etc.) is dealt with, there are not many options for managing it. Pain...
Some Notes on Cleansing
A month's worth of holiday excesses, combined with this wet, soggy weather can contribute to feelings of bloated, puffy lethargy. I feel that, at this time of year, everyone is shunning the scale and examining their side profiles in the mirror, lying down to button up...
Practices That Heal
Losses and pivotal life changes can make us feel as if our world of comforts and familiarity is crumbling away beneath us, leaving us with a sense of emptiness and shaken emotional instability. However awful these times may seem, they can also offer us the gift of...
On Love
“Perhaps it is true that we do not really exist until there is someone there to see us existing, we cannot properly speak until there is someone who can understand. What we are saying, in essence - we are not wholly alive until we are loved.” ― Alain de Botton, On...
5 Tips for Setting New Year’s Resolutions
New Year's Day has come and gone, meaning it's time for me to dust myself off, put away the wool blanket I've been camping out under with a good book, wash my coffee cup, change out of my pyjama pants and move from a state of "being" to "doing" again (just a bit more...
Acne Drug Linked to Deaths… but, it’s the naturopaths you gotta watch
How does naturopathic medicine treat acne? Well, it's quite simple, really. We turn our focus to the root cause of disease. Is there a hormonal component? Is lack of hygiene an issue? Are food sensitivities at play? Is an increased toxic load on the body resulting in...
6 Ways to De-Stress During the Holidays
It's been a long time since I've been able to slowly ease into the holidays and enjoy it like I did before entering university, decorating the Christmas tree, sipping cinnamon spiced lattes, listening to Christmas music, taking my time with Christmas shopping and...
Why Dr. Oz is Not a Naturopathic Doctor
When I hear the phrase, "So, Dr. Oz says..." in clinic, I feel like casting my eyes to the heavens and throwing up my arms. Hearing the successful cardiologist's name means I either need to explain why this particular person doesn't need to be on that particular...
Prevention is Not Just Screening: 6 Ways to Prevent Disease
Preventive medicine is a buzz-phrase that many medical professionals love to throw around. However, in the conventional medical system the term prevention is often used to apply to what should be known as screening. Tests such as PAP smears, mammograms and...
Carrot Ginger Muffins (gluten and dairy free)
These muffins make a great breakfast, snack or dessert. They contain delicious carrots, flax seeds and warming spices that go perfectly with a hot coffee or tea on a lazy, wintry morning. Gluten and dairy free. Carrot Ginger Muffins Ingredients: 3/4 cup oat flour 3/4...
Colombian Hogao Recipe
Now that the first snowflakes are blowing our way here in Canada, I am missing the warmth of South America even more. Since vegetables in Colombia, South America are often hard to come by in traditional dishes, I often find myself piling on the "hogao", a delicious...
Turkey Sausage, White Bean and Kale Soup
There is nothing like a bowl of warm soup, with steaming vegetables, to help nurse the body through cold weather and a stressful season. Save the salads and cold wraps for summer and protect your immune and digestive system by indulging in easy-to-digest warming...
9 Tips for Eating More Whole Foods
In North America, we are faced with a problem that is unique to our side of the world: over-abundance of food. We lack the traditional foundations of eating, most of us have spent our childhood in classrooms and in front of televisions, not helping our grandmothers...
A Homeopathic Remedy for Rob Ford
As many of you know, Toronto's mayor, Rob Ford, is in the spotlight again. It seems that the famous "Crack Video" that was reported on in May, 2013, does exist, as confirmed by Toronto Chief of Police Bill Blair, who confiscated it in the drug raid, Project Traveller,...
Why Would a Medical Student Read Ulysses?
Medicine is an art form; each chart is a blank canvas on which we document the interconnection between ourselves and our patient. Through medicine we allow patients to publish their own autobiographies, as we ghost-write it, pen to paper, in our medical charts....