by Dr. Talia Marcheggiani, ND | May 24, 2015 | Art, Balance, Canadian College of Naturopathic Medicine, Creativity, Education, Exercise, Family, Finding yourself, Happiness, Healing Stories, Health, Ideal You, Letting Go, Listening, Medicine, Meditation, Mental Health, Mind Body Medicine, Mindfulness, Motivation, Patience, Personal, Psychology, Relationships, Self-care, Self-reflection, Stress
According to James Altucher, author and entrepreneur, it is possible to reinvent yourself in 5 years. In his book, The Power of No, he tells us how to reinvent our lives by first saying a big, fat No to all the things that don’t serve us—toxic friendships and relationships, stagnant 9-5’s, harmful behaviours, negative thought patterns and, well, just things we simply don’t want to do—in order to free up our lives for greater happiness, abundance and creativity.
It is now the end of May. For me, May has been a month of reinvention. For the past 10 years it has been the month of closing and good-byes, specifically the end of the school year. The Canadian College of Naturopathic Medicine class of 2015 has graduated, as I did last year. Last week my Facebook feed was infiltrated with pictures of flowers, long black gowns and tearfully heartfelt thank-yous to the friends and family that got my colleagues through their gruelling 4 years of naturopathic medical education. Last year that was me—I remember the black gowns, the face-ache from smiling, drinking a little too much at grad formal and winning an award (“Most Likely to Write a Best Seller”—complete with misspelling of “bestseller”) while eating Portuguese chicken at my house afterwards with my friend F and his family. This year, one year later, I watch these events from afar. May 2014 offered new beginnings and chance for reinvention. I was dating, enjoying the sunshine, looking forward to a trip to India, looking forward to beginning a practice as a naturopathic doctor. Mostly, last May was about the death of one life—that of a naturopathic student—and the birth of a new one: a complete reinvention.
This year the rest of my life stretches before me like one long expansive road. My career is underway. My dating life is stagnant. The next steps are more like small evolutions rather than massive, monumental milestones. I most likely will not don a black gown again, but I can reinvent myself by following the 20 steps below. I can always check back into these practices when I’m feeling stuck, alone or afraid. When life is not going my way, there is always a chance to begin a reinvention of some sort. And, I remind myself, my current reinvention is likely well underway. Since I graduated last May, I have been in the process of reinventing: just 4 more years left until I complete my obligatory 5. While 4 years sounds like a long time, I know from experience that 4-year cycles turn over within the blink of an eye.
What stage are you on in your own personal reinvention? Wherever you are, follow these steps to reinvent yourself:
1) Say no. Say no to all the things that you don’t want to do. Say no to things that cause you harm: emotional harm, mental harm, physical harm, loss of time, loss of money, loss of sleep. We need to say no first before we can free up the time and energy to say yes to the things that we actually want. In fact, say “no” to all the things you aren’t saying “F#$% YES!” to. Read this article for more information.
2) Re-examine your relationships. Who doesn’t make you feel good? Who makes you doubt yourself? Who do you feel will reject you if you act like your true self around them? Gracefully begin to distance yourself from these relationships. You might feel lonely for some time, but loneliness is sometimes a good thing.
3) Clear out your junk. Get rid of everything you don’t use, don’t like and don’t need. Marie Kondo, in the Life-changing Magic of Tidying Up, tells us to donate, trade, sell or dispose of everything we own that doesn’t bring us joy. I think that that is a wonderful litmus test to decide what we should be holding on to. Personally, one thing that did not bring me joy was an awful old desk in my room. It was uncomfortable and ugly. I replaced it with a free desk someone I knew was throwing away. I also donated 7 garbage bags of things: books, clothes and keepsakes from when I was a child. Since then, I feel like my room has been infused with a little bit more joy. Remove all your joyless items from your life and observe how your energy changes.
4) Sit in silence. This could be meditation, staring at the wall, chanting or simply breathing. Do it with eyes closed or open. I start at 20 minutes of meditation—a meditation teacher I had told me to always use a timer to increase self-discipline—and work up to 30 some days and an hour on really good days. Start with 5 minutes. Sitting in silence helps to quiet the mind and bring us back to the present. You’ll be amazed at what you discover when you sit in silence. Read some books on meditation or take a meditation course for specific techniques, but simply sitting in silence can offer amazing benefits as well.
5) Explore the topics that interested you as a child. When I got back into painting in 2008, after getting a science degree when I’d always been interested in the art, my life changed a little bit. I started a blog in 2011; it happens to be the one you’re reading now. Get back into whatever you were passionate about as a child, even if it’s just a cartoon you used to watch.
6) Start a gratitude jar. Once a day write down something that you are grateful for—use as much detail as possible—and toss it in a jar or shoebox. When you’re feeling low, open up the jar and read the messages you’ve left yourself. I also tried a similar exercise with things I wanted to manifest or achieve. A few months later I read my entries and realized I’d achieved every single one. It’s amazing what kind of energy glass jars can attract.
7) Read. According to James Altucher, you need to read 500 books on a given topic in order to become an expert on something. You have 5 years to reinvent yourself, so start your reading now. Read one book and then, from that book, read another. It’s interesting where reading trails can lead us. I read one book, which mentions another book, read that book and then end up in a new world I never knew existed. I personally feel a little anxious when I don’t have a book beside my bed, but if you’re new to reading, start small. There are two books that I’ve already mentioned in this blog post; start from either of them and then go from there. The next on my list is The Artist’s Way, by Julia Cameron, which was mentioned in The Power of No. Who knows where that one will lead me.
8) Get 8-9 hours of sleep a night.
9) Eat your vegetables, especially leafy greens. Avoid sugar, moderate alcohol and caffeine. Eat healthy protein and healthy fats (if you don’t know what those are, welcome to my blog! browse more of my articles on healthy eating or book an appointment with a naturopathic doctor like me!—shameless self promo).
10) Exercise. Enjoy some movement every day.
11) Exercise your idea muscle. According to James Altucher, creativity is a muscle that we need to exercise lest it atrophies, like any other muscle. He recommends getting a journal and writing 10-20 ideas in it every day. They don’t have to be good ideas, just any ideas. Removing the filter of self-judgement is important for allowing creativity to flourish. We need to strengthen that muscle.
12) Get some psychotherapy. Start dealing with childhood wounds and meeting your inner critic. Address your erroneous beliefs about yourself, the world and the past. Contact me to learn where to get quality psychotherapy in Toronto at an affordable price.
13) Expand your social circle. If you find that after following step 2 your social circle has gotten smaller, start to find ways to expand it. My favourite way to reinvent my social interactions, and thus begin to reinvent my life, is to look up a meetup.com group and start attending. If you’re not sure about a meet-up group you’ve attended, give it 2 more tries before deciding not to go back. In 3 tries, you’ve either made new friends and connections or decided that the energies of the group aren’t right for you. Online dating is another cool place to start meeting people outside your social sphere and getting over social anxieties.
14) Establish a self-care routine. What would someone who loved themselves do every day? Try to do at least some of those things every day. It could be going for a 15-minute walk before doing the dishes. It could be doing the dishes rather than leaving a messy kitchen for your more tired future self. Think about what things will make you feel good and then do them. Most of the time this involves bubble baths—light some candles while you’re at it. Read this article on self-care to learn more.
15) Write a Have-Done List. Instead of writing a list of things you have to do today—your standard To-Do List—write a list of things you’ve done at the end of every day. This fills people with a sense of accomplishment from looking at everything they’ve done. It definitely beats the stress and anxiety of looking at the list of things that must get done looming before them.
16) Treat other people as if it were their last days on earth. We’ve all been told to “live each day on Earth as if it were your last.” But what if you lived as if each day on Earth were everyone else’s last? You’d probably treat them a little more nicely, be open with them, be honest with them and not gossip or speak badly about them. You might appreciate them more. The idea is James’, not mine, but I like it. I think it’s a good rule for how to treat people.
17) Pay attention to what you’re jealous of and what you despise in others. The things we are jealous of in others are often our disowned selves. If I’m jealous of my friend’s Broadway debut I’m probably disowning a creative, eccentric and artistic side of myself that it’s time I give love and attention to. The things we’re bothered by in others often represent our shadow sides, the negative things we disown in ourselves. I used to tell myself the story that my ex-boyfriend was selfish; he took care of his needs first. However, maybe I just needed to start taking care of my own needs or come to terms with my own tendencies towards selfishness. Our negative emotions in relation to others can provide us with amazing tools of enlightenment and prime us well for our own personal reinventions.
18) Let go of the things that were not meant for you. Past relationships, missed opportunities, potential patients that never call back, “perfect” apartments, etc. Say good-bye to the things you don’t get. They’re for somebody else. These things are on their own journeys, as you are on yours. If you miss one taxi, know that there are other, probably better, ones following it. So, rather than wasting time chasing after the missed taxi, meditate on the street corner until the next one comes along.
19) Listen. Ask questions. Show curiosity. When someone finishes speaking to you, take a breath and count to 2 before responding. It’s amazing how your relationships change when engaging in the simple act of listening. I love the Motivational Interviewing technique of reflective listening. In reflective listening, we repeat back the other’s words while adding something new that we think they might have meant, looking for the meaning between the person’s—your friend’s, patient’s or client’s—words. I find that this has helped the person I’m speaking with feel truly listened to. If I get the meaning wrong, it gives the other person a chance to correct me and thereby ensure that we’re really communicating and understanding each other. This one simple tool—reflective listening—has transformed my naturopathic practice and interviewing skills.
20) Be patient. Personally, I’m terrible at this. But, like you, I’ll try working on the other 19 steps while I wait for the next stage of reinvention to take hold. I’ve ordered my next book from the library. See you all in 4 years.
by Dr. Talia Marcheggiani, ND | Apr 21, 2015 | Botanical Medicine, cancer, Detoxification, Diet, Endocrinology, Fertility, Food, Health, Mental Health, Nutrition, Skin health, Weight Loss, Women's health
Estrogen is the dominant female hormone. It is actually a group of hormones, called the estrogens, that are responsible for the development of female secondary sex characteristics: the development of breast tissue and the proliferation of the uterine lining. Estrogen helps prepare the body for ovulation. Not all estrogens are created equal, however. Some estrogens are associated with an increased risk of certain female cancers, such as breast cancer.
Excess estrogen, especially in the form of these so-called “bad” estrogens, seems to be a common theme among women in North America. Stress, caffeine intake, synthetic estrogens in birth control pills and hormone replacement therapy and xeno-estrogens from cleaning products, plastics and cosmetics are among some of the causes of excess levels of estrogen in the body. Because of these environmental factors, many women suffer from something called “Estrogen Dominance”.
Symptoms of estrogen dominance include stubborn weight gain, anxiety, premenstrual symptoms of breast tenderness, acne, irritability, fatigue and brain fog. Estrogen dominance can contribute to worsening of health conditions such as infertility, fibrocystic breasts, repeated miscarriages, uterine fibroids and endometriosis as well as increase the risk of developing certain cancers.
Estrogen detoxification can be done effectively through a healthy diet that aims at improving estrogen clearance in the liver and regulation of the action of estrogen at cell receptors. By following this diet, patients can experience an improvement in hormonal health conditions, clearer skin and weight loss.
This diet is adapted from Dr. Joseph Collins RN, ND at yourhormones.com.
Cruciferous vegetables: Vegetables from the cabbage family, such as cabbage itself, cauliflower, broccoli, brussel sprouts, kale, bok choy, spinach, collard greens and other leafy greens are rich in a nutrient called indole-3-carbinol, or I3C. I3C gets converted to diindolymethane (DIM) in the body, which is responsible for clearance of excess estrogens in the liver. Consume a minimum of 3-4 servings of these vegetables per week.
Rosemary: Rosemary, when added to meats as a seasoning enhances the formation of good estrogens (the ones less likely to cause cancer or health concerns). Rosemary has the added benefit of antioxidant activity. It also enhances memory and mood and helps with thyroid function, improving weight loss, metabolism and energy levels.
Flaxseed: 2-4 tablespoons per day of ground flaxseed promotes healthy estrogen metabolism. The seed contains lignans, which help clear excess estrogens from the body. Flax also contains phytoestrogens, which control how much estrogen can bind to estrogen receptors. This means it can decrease excess estrogen activity or increase deficient estrogen activity, making it an effective remedy for a variety of female health complaints. Flax is rich in healthy omega-3 fats and contains fibre, making it an important remedy for treating inflammation and constipation. Flaxseed is digested and absorbed when ground, and best stored in the fridge as the oils in the seed quickly go rancid at room temperature.
Salmon and other fatty fish: Salmon and other fatty fish contain EPA, an omega-3 fatty acid, is an important anti-inflammatory oil. It has been shown to be effective in treating inflammatory conditions, cardiovascular disease and mental health conditions, such as depression, anxiety and ADHD. It helps increase the formation of “good” estrogens in the body. Enjoy 2-3 servings of fatty fish per week, or supplement with a quality fish oil.
Isoflavones: Isoflavones, such as those found in soy, are antioxidants effective at increasing good estrogens in the body. Since soy is often heavily processed, using herbs such as Trifolium pratense, Pueraria montana and Pueraria lobata either in teas, capsules or tinctures, will help provide an adequate dose of isoflavones.
Activated folic acid: Folic acid is responsible for converting estrogen into a very healthy, methylated form that can decrease the risk of certain cancers. Many people are unable to convert folate into the active 5-methyltetrahydrofolate, which is essential for hormone metabolism, DNA synthesis, homocysteine metabolism and nervous system function (good mental health, memory and energy). Other B vitamins to supplement with are B6 and B12 as they help folic acid metabolism estrogen into their anti-cancer form. Folic acid is found in dark leafy greens, which also contain your daily doses of indole-3-carbinol.
If you are experiencing symptoms of estrogen dominance in the form of a female health complaint, book an appointment to learn what else you can do to experience healthy, happy, pain-free periods and look and feel your best. Contact me.
by Dr. Talia Marcheggiani, ND | Feb 16, 2015 | Culture, Emotions, Empathy, Gratitude, Love, Meditation, Mental Health, Mind Body Medicine, Mindfulness, Philosophy, Relationships, Self-care
I was in an emotional crisis. My partner and I were fighting. It was my fault and the anxiety I endured from the confrontation was compounded by a deep sense of guilt and shame. I felt powerless as I waited for him to reach out to me so we could fix the problem while at the same time dreading the future confrontation we’d have. I felt isolated. My nerves were shot.
I texted the problem to my friend, A, the psychotherapist, while sitting on the couch in my pyjamas. At the time I remember wanting to include others in my misery, so that people would ask me about it and tell me everything would be alright, that it happens to all of us—it wasn’t that bad—and that I’d get through this thing.
A tells me, “There is nothing you can do now but wait. Waiting takes courage. So, while you’re waiting, don’t forget to self care.”
Self-care: the illusive term we’d often hear tossed around in naturopathic medical school. The hyphenated compound noun referred to anything from applying castor oil packs to getting enough sleep. In my mind, it brings up images of spa-like indulgences: bubble baths, candles, a junky novel—guilty pleasures. True self-care, however, is far from simple self-indulgences. Audre Lorde owns the most powerful definition of self-care I’ve heard, which is this:
“Caring for myself is not self-indulgence, it is self-preservation. And that is an act of political warfare.”
Rather than being a commercial phenomenon—involving trips to the spa, chocolate binge-eating and shopping sprees—self-care is political. Self-care challenges the inequality and oppression of race, gender, class and sexual orientation in society, by providing us with a means to improve our strength and ensure our survival.
When I read Lorde’s quote, I think of my Italian grandmother Nonna. Barely sitting down to enjoy the dinner she had prepared, she dedicated herself to the service of her family’s well-being. Like many other women, especially Italian Catholic women from her generation, she had been taught that any care for herself was selfishness—a symbol of the highest level of vanity and self-obsession. Nonna, like other women of various colours, religions and socioeconomic statuses, was taught to live a life of self-sacrifice. Any attention paid to her own well-being was regarded as an indulgent after-thought. Women are denied a societal sense of self-worth, which is then paradoxically medicated by advertisers telling us to “treat ourselves” to expensive perks because we’ve “earned it”. We are taught not to love ourselves and then instructed how to remedy this lack of self-love with expensive gifts.
Self-care is about finding ways to cultivate and feel deserving of self-love.
True self-care is essential for moving us forward. Because it prioritizes the health and well-being of a person, it affirms self-worth. This has the power to challenge the oppressive forces of racism, misogyny, classism, homophobia and other prejudices. Self-care helps with trauma recovery. It helps heal.
Self-care builds resilience.
We commonly fall into the thought-trap of regarding self-care inaccessible to certain populations; we assume it requires time, money and energy that not all of us have. Katherine from “I Am Begging My Mother Not to Read This Blog” accurately expresses the sentiment with an ironic twist:
“Make time for yourself. After you’ve run that 5K, started a load of laundry, harvested your organic vegetable garden, run to the bank, paid the bills, dazzled everyone with recipes that are cost-effective, healthy, and delicious, thought of something witty and clever to share with your social networking site, caught up on current events and politics, and cleaned all of the house, that special hour set aside just for you is so critical to your well-being.”
While she certainly has a point, something essential is missed in the definition of self-care. Self-care isn’t about shutting out the sound of your screaming children while you pour yourself a martini and fill the tub with hot water. Self-care is about intention, balance, mindfulness, self-awareness and, above all self-love. It is about taking responsibility for one’s own health and well-being. It is about recognizing your physical, mental and emotional needs and ensuring that those needs are met. Self-care is about reducing stress levels. If a pile of dirty laundry is stressing you out, then mindfully washing those clothes while watching the stress leave your body is self-care.
Self-care is an attitude. You can wash your dirty laundry with the frenzy of a thousand cortisol molecules and your mind on the massive list of other things yet to get done, or you can savour the positive feelings of achievement that comes from checking an item off the to-do list. You can breathe the scent of fabric softener, feel the warmth of the clothes that are coming out of the dryer and acknowledge that you are caring for yourself by ensuring you have clean clothes to wear the next day. It’s perspective and intention that creates self-care. That being said, laundry doesn’t necessarily have to be your thing either.
I have a patient who works 6-day weeks. When I asked her what she does for self-care, she looked at me, puzzled. “You know, self-care—how do you take care of yourself?” I tried to clarify. There was still no dawning of realization on her face. I silently chided myself for asking such an insensitive question.
And yet, my patient was taking care of herself. She was drinking more water, eating more vegetables and exercising. She was coming to see a naturopathic doctor and investing in her health. She was doing plenty of self-care; she just didn’t know it.
The SCaR Foundation outlines the BACE method of self-care, which helps us draw awareness to the simple acts we can engage in to care for ourselves.
Body Care involves exercising regularly, eating healthy food, taking medications and herbal supplements as prescribed. It also encompasses getting up to stretch while sitting at a desk, drinking water, getting enough sleep.
Achievement consists of finishing the daily tasks you have on your to-do list, laundry among them. It also includes working towards goals, like studying for a test or doing your work.
Connecting with Others includes spending time with friends, family, or a pet. Social connection is one of the reasons why we’re alive. Being able to reach out to others for help is one of the strongest manifestations of courage and resilience.
Enjoyment encompasses hobbies, favourite pass-times and indulgences. What activities bring joy and happiness to your life?
Self-care should not be pre-determined. When it becomes someone else’s prescription, it is no longer self-care.
Self-care is not always pleasurable. Sometimes it can be quite uncomfortable, such as making the decision to change careers, end a relationship or get in shape. It can be transformative, such as standing up for yourself. Self-love is a revolutionary act and revolutions aren’t always won peacefully. However, learning to listen to the body allows us to determine which decisions are coming from a place of self-love and not anger, hatred or fear.
My particular self-care story ended well. The very act of reaching out to a friend had already begun the process of self-caring (connection). After talking to A, I got up, changed out of my bathrobe, exercised, showered, and put on a homemade face mask of yogurt, honey and avocado (body care). I read fiction on the couch with a hot mug of cinnamon tea (enjoyment). I did yoga, meditated (body care) and went to a friend’s house for lunch, then another friend’s for dinner (connection). I took a course on a subject I love and met other healthcare practitioners while developing a new counselling skill (achievement). A part of me craved isolation, but I intuited that wouldn’t be a restorative act for me at that time and so I forced myself to move on with my activities, knowing that they would improve my positivity and resilience. In the end, because I took care of myself, I was able to face the situation from a place of strength and compassion for both me and my partner. Self-care helped me move past the shame and connect to the most powerful and loving version of myself.
That was my approach to self-care, because it was what I needed. At that time, I needed to feel healthy, strong and social. I needed to be reminded of who I was. Others in similar situations may decide that they need to grieve alone while watching When Harry Met Sally and devouring wine and popcorn, their faces stained with tears. Self-care is about knowing yourself and recognizing and honouring your needs.
Contrary to what we’ve been told, self-care isn’t selfish. It is the highest expression of connectedness. We can’t take care of others if we are not healthy. And we can’t be healthy without taking care of ourselves.
Self-Care Resources:
Methods-of-Self-Care : Free Ebook
Caring About Self-care : Article
Also, check out this Self-Care Journal, by Rachelle Abellar. It has sections for personal affirmations and action plans for when you’re feeling low. You can buy a copy at lulu.com.
by Dr. Talia Marcheggiani, ND | Feb 2, 2015 | Love, Mental Health, Naturopathic Philosophy, Relationships
My classmate, A, has a treatment plan for me. He wants me to exercise—not the light walks I’ve been doing, but intense cardio intervals and weight-lifting. He wants me to get more sleep and drink more water. When he gives me the instructions, I feel slightly disappointed; I could have prescribed this plan to myself. In fact, even in telling him the story about my fatigue, I had already predicted what he’d recommend. I could hear myself admitting to not getting enough sleep and to often forgetting to drink water. I just hadn’t thought consciously about those facts for a while. Life and self-deception had kind of gotten in the way.
In one way, because I had the answer in front of me, and in another way to please A, who I’d have to report back to the following week, I started to exercise. When I got home, I stopped telling myself that a short, light walk would be enough—I had to start sweating. I stopped kidding myself that five hours of sleep a night was enough and that watching TV on my laptop while lying in bed was a substitute for rest. I made the changes and I began to feel better.
I might have had the internal fortitude to do all of this on my own, but it was talking to someone I trusted that gave me the push I needed. I saw my issues and current lifestyle reflected in A’s eyes. The mirror he held up to me gave me the jolt required for me to start taking care of myself.
The healing relationship is something that is not often credited in mainstream medicine. I am taking a course in Motivational Interviewing (MI) in which we learn to tailor our patient interactions to inspire patients towards making healthy changes in their lives. MI helps people move past places of ambivalence because it acknowledges that, while patients have the power and authority to make changes, they also need the therapeutic relationship to start the first steps of change. We’re often told to share our goals with a friend. One reason for this is that we are held accountable. Another reason is that saying the words out loud helps solidify the need to make a change. Telling another person mirrors our needs, wants and ambitions back to us. Through the act of sharing we gain mutual support and are more likely to move forward with our goals.
When I ended a 5-year relationship and entered the dating scene in late winter of last year, I often joked to my friends that dating was “free therapy.” I had to push myself to leave my bubble of comfort and sit across from a stranger. I had to risk being evaluated by someone else. Dating showed me the need to take chances with my heart and express my feelings and vulnerability. I was confronted by my insecurities—feelings of unworthiness, worry that I wasn’t attractive enough and a deep-rooted fear of rejection and abandonment. I was forced to stare these fears down, acknowledge their existence and work to move past them. This experience helped me become a better person and a better doctor, improving the relationships I have with my patients and coworkers.
Relationships expose our wounds. After all, the human experience is formed in relationship. Even withdrawn introverts rely on others for their daily experiences. Hermits living in the woods are reliant on relationships, or lack thereof. Their identity, forged by their need to escape from others through the conscious rejection of relationships, still reflects their intersubjectivity. Our earliest relationships establish our deeply held beliefs about ourselves and the world. Everything we learn about ourselves is through relationships with other people.
I read this wonderful quote in an article recently,
“Our wounds were formed in-relationship and can only be healed in-relationship. No amount of meditation on a mountain can solve your mommy issues.”
Healing, whether physical, mental, emotional or spiritual, must be done through interpersonal connection. Relationships help expose our wounds while showing us what we can do to address them. While we ultimately heal ourselves, we intuit that the healing process needs the hands of another. Through my last relationship I’ve seen my insecurities held up in front of my face. The need for developing my sense of self-worth, self-love and self-acceptance began to cry out loudly, when reflected through the prism of the relationship I was in. When we’re alone it is easy to ignore these callings—there is no one beside us, challenging us to evolve, and it becomes easier to settle into our ways.
Self-work cannot be done alone.
Healing requires reflection, mirroring, empathy, storying, support and, sometimes, accountability. It requires more than just expertise, self-will and determination. When working on ourselves interpersonally, we are forced to see ourselves through the eyes of another human being and develop the darkest, hidden parts of ourselves, becoming whole.
Therefore, true healing cannot be done outside of relationship. We need someone to share and rewrite our stories with. In some cases, it can be a partner, family member or friend. In others, the ears, eyes and hands of a trusted professional can help you move to the next level of conscious healing and self-evolution.
In short, Googling your symptoms can’t heal you.
I love this quote from Julie Delpy’s character in the movie Before Sunrise:
“If there’s any kind of magic in this world it must be in the attempt of understanding someone sharing something. It’s almost impossible to succeed, really, but who cares? The answer must be in the attempt.”
Healing is in the attempt.
by Dr. Talia Marcheggiani, ND | Jan 12, 2015 | Family, Finding yourself, Healing Stories, Health, Letting Go, Love, Mental Health, Mindfulness, Philosophy, Poetry, Relationships, Self-care, Self-esteem, Self-reflection
I’m grateful for endings
that merge into new beginnings,
karmic cycles and their painful lessons
and excruciating yearly rituals that often end
in transformations.
I’m grateful for long late-night horizontal conversations
tiny loving gestures
unity
and the Universe announcing her timing
loud and clear.
For experience.
For strength and resilience
reflected
in the mirror.
For friends and family who linger
around the corner
ready to reemerge
when you call them.
For cold winter winds that bring loss
and change
and propel us on.
For memories that needn’t be analyzed;
they’re simply gifts to cherish and remember.
The winter winds push us
on through the frigid night
into spring.
by Dr. Talia Marcheggiani, ND | Dec 8, 2014 | Diet, Health, Medicine, Mental Health, Nutrition, Stress, Vitamins, Weight Loss
One of my favourite vitamins, after B6, is vitamin B12! (Magnesium is my fav mineral). I have recently bought 1000 mcg and 5000 mcg bottles of injectable methylcobalamin for my clinic. The vitamin contains no preservatives or additives. $15 gets you a quick burst of energy in your deltoid muscle.
Here are 12 things you should know about this snazzy, red vitamin.
1) Vitamin B12 is a water soluble B vitamin. It is excreted through the kidneys.
2) It is found naturally in animal products (meat, eggs, fish, dairy). Vegans do not get this from their diets and need to supplement.
3) Excess amounts of B12 are stored in the liver for up to 10 years.
4) B12 deficiency can result in neurological symptoms such as neuropathy: numbness and tingling, depression, dizziness, anemia and fatigue. Suboptimal levels can result in fatigue.
5) B12 absorption can be impaired in the elderly, those who have had gastrointestinal surgery and those with low stomach acid. It requires intrinsic factor, excreted in the stomach to be absorbed in the intestine.
6) B12 is cobalamin. Supplements of B12 come in three main forms: cyanocobalamin, hydroxycobalamin and methylcobalamin.
7) Methylcobalamin is the active form of B12, which is easily absorbed and passes the blood brain barrier, making it an effective treatment for depression and mental fatigue. Cyanocobalamin must be converted to hydroxycobalamin, which is then converted to methylcobalamin. Many people have inadequate enzymes to convert cyano and hydroxycobalamin to the active form. Therefore, supplementing with methylcobalamin is the best option. It also helps support methylation, which our bodies need for detoxification and mental functioning, among a myriad of other biological pathways. Getting a dose of methylcobalamin is like a 2-for-1 deal: you get a bioavailable form of vitamin B12 AND a methyl donor. Who wouldn’t want to get in on that?
8) B12 levels of under about 200 umols/L of blood is termed a B12 deficiency, where neurological symptoms begin to appear. However, for health, naturopathic doctors prefer B12 levels to be at least above 600 umols/L of blood, ideally 1000. Symptoms are often used as the primary guiding force for B12 supplementation. Some genetic variations result in impaired absorption of B12, resulting in high blood levels, but low levels available to cells. Therefore, testing serum B12 is not a very reliable marker of B12 status in the body. Other markers such as homocysteine and methlymalonic acid can help tell more of the story, or you can choose to supplement and listen to your body, seeing how B12 injections make you feel. B12 is non-toxic and there is no known upper limit.
9) Injections of B12 can be used to treat depression, obesity, weight gain, fatigue, fibromyalgia, autoimmune disease, multiple sclerosis and dementia among other conditions. In most people, B12 injections provide a welcome energy boost. A series of shots of 5000 mcg of methylcobalamin is a powerful treatment for depression; B12 helps the body make serotonin, the happy neurotransmitter.
10) People taking Metformin (a glucose-lowering medication for type II diabetes) should supplement with B12 as this medication depletes the vitamin.
11) Vitamin B12 is required to make red blood cells. Deficiency can cause anemia.
12) B12 also keeps homocysteine low. High homocysteine is an independent risk factor for heart disease and can cause inflammation in the body.
Contact me to learn more about getting B12 injections and injecting some energy into your holiday season!
by Dr. Talia Marcheggiani, ND | Nov 22, 2014 | Detoxification, Evidence Based Medicine, Genetic testing, Medicine, Mental Health, Preventive Medicine
Rosalind Franklin: She might have been left out of the Nobel, but at least she gets the honoured spot as the featured image of this post. Lucky her. (Sorry, readers, just a little inside joke for the molecular biologists out there). Image source: wikipedia.org
“Do you find yourself easily able to bounce back from emotionally-charged situations?” Dr. Emily Fitzgerald, ND, asked while sitting across from me at her white desk. “The fact that this part of the gene is present and not deleted means that you are the ‘cool and collected’ type, the ‘Wolf of Wall Street’, if you will.” She went on, “We find here through our testing that most naturopathic doctors have the other version of this gene.”
Great, I thought, I was genetically unfit to practice naturopathic medicine; it was like something out of the movie GATTACA. I couldn’t help but feel let down by my genetic coding. I had always thought of myself as an empathetic and caring person and yet science was telling me the opposite. Wolf of Wall Street? Seriously? I hated the movie. In fact, I felt more at home sharing a collective vegan lunch with protesters occupying Wall Street than bidding on stock options. Surely this doctor must be mistaken. But alas, it wasn’t her fault. She was simply a messenger, reading out to me what was clearly spelt out in my nucleic acid.
Genes are funny things. We inherit one set from our mothers and another from our fathers. They don’t change throughout our lives and they are responsible for coding all of the proteins, enzymatic reactions and cellular structures that make up our beautiful bodies. However, I once read that interpreting the human body through genetic code is analogous to interpreting Shakespeare’s works by studying the alphabet; it’s not even a recipe, but a mere grocery list.
Dr. Mohammed, the CEO of YouNique Genomics, a Canadian lifestyle genomics company, will also assert that “genes aren’t everything.” Our environment has a lot to do with how they are expressed and this simple fact can explain why, despite the fact that I am missing part of the “emotional gene”, I am still able to regard my patients with positivity, appreciate literature and cry at sappy love stories.
Despite the Nature vs. Nuture debate, there is still a lot that can be garnered from looking at genetic coding. By studying my expression of SNPs (single nucleotide polymorphisms), or small variations in DNA, on only 14 of my 23,000 genes, Dr. Fitzgerald was able to tell me that I am a passionate person, I am capable of regulating my emotions when confronted with difficult situations, I can drink espressos after dinner without affecting my sleep and the Paleo Diet will only lead me to overeat. She told me how dopamine is metabolised in my brain, how my liver detoxifies and how my body digests cholesterol and lipids, giving me information about my long-term risk for heart disease. And she did all of this without looking at her crystal ball, not even once.
I previously associated genetic testing with detecting the risk for diseases such as early-onset Alzeimer’s or breast cancer. I had always thought that knowing one’s genetics was dis-empowering. After all, you’re born with your genetic code; what is the use of learning about something that you can’t change? It seemed to me as useful as tying yourself to a set of train tracks, powerless to stop yourself from being crushed under the freighter speeding towards you.
My mind changed when I learned about functional genomic testing like the kind offered at YouNique. Functional, or lifestyle, genomics don’t predict disease risk but rather only test for genes whose expression can be affected by lifestyle. The test I received was called the SNaP Shot. It looks at 14 genes, including those that code for dopamine metabolism, liver detoxification, methylation pathways and cardiovascular health.
One of the noteworthy pieces of information I learned was that my detoxification pathways are like a leaky faucet with a clogged drain. The enzymes that run Phase I liver detoxification, which make many toxins more toxic, are over-expressed, meaning that they work better than the average person’s. However, I have less than optimal Phase II detoxification, which is responsible for neutralizing these toxins and allowing them to be safely eliminated from the body. This means that I need to start supporting my liver and increasing my production of glutathione, an important antioxidant. If I don’t do this? It’s written in my DNA, and perhaps that stars, that my risk of cancer from toxin exposure could be higher than normal. I bought a bottle of milk thistle the next day.
I also learned that my body has a 30% reduced ability to use folate, meaning that I need to increase my intake of this vitamin or else risk problems with inflammation, which has wide-spread affects. I also found out that I respond poorly to saturated fat intake: it makes me hungrier by stimulating ghrelin, the appetite hormone, and can lead to weight-gain if my diet is uncontrolled. This is relevant in the natural health world because the Paleo Diet involves eating a diet high in saturated fats to achieve the exact opposite aim: controlling hunger. Genetic testing is the future!
What was the immediate result of the information I received by donating a vial of blood and an hour’s consultation time to YouNique? I learned that I need to support my liver (hence the milk thistle) and increase my folate intake. The truth of my long-term disease risk is there, written in my genome, which won’t change, that much is true. What I hadn’t considered, however, is our power to rewrite the future, by using naturopathic medicine to work with the building blocks we inherit. Our genes will always be the same but what we learn about how they are expressed will continuously evolve. Genomic testing, as Dr. Mohammed pointed out, is a living and breathing test. With the same test results, our treatment plans can evolve as our knowledge in the area grows. The more science learns about how lifestyle affects our genes, the more we can work with what we’ve got.
To end off, Dr. Mohammed told me a story in which he was examining a rather unfavourable genetic report before meeting the patient it belonged to, a naturopathic practitioner. When the ND entered the room, Dr. Mohammed was taken aback. Surely this healthy, spry, attractive individual was not the same person whose genes indicated an increased risk of obesity, inflammation, toxic exposure and heart disease? However, this individual had chosen to “walk the talk”, as we say in the field, and live his life in a healthy and holistic way. And, by doing so, he was able to change the course of his own personal health history; a great novel whose prologue began being written moments after his conception but whose conclusion he will be able to co-write. Shakespeare was given the alphabet. We are given a crazy combination of four nucleotides. Shakespeare wrote Hamlet. Through lifestyle genomics, I’ve come to realize that what we write with the information we’re given just might be up to us.
To learn more about lifestyle genomic testing and how it can help you affect your own health, contact me.
by Dr. Talia Marcheggiani, ND | Nov 20, 2014 | Acupuncture, Balance, Beauty, Book, Chronic pain, Healing Stories, Listening, Mental Health, Mind Body Medicine, Mindfulness, Preventive Medicine, Psychology, Self-care, Self-esteem, Self-reflection, Weight Loss, Women's health
I am in my grade 12 photography class. I am 17 years old. I have my head on the desk in abject despair, as I succumb to the intense stress that was my last year of high school, where every academic move I made would dictate my future. I remember catching sight of my thighs nestled on the hard-backed plastic chair beneath the desk. And, although my struggles in that moment were seemingly unrelated to my body, I remember feeling a sense of satisfaction as I made a mental note of how the once-curvy lines of my thighs were straightening themselves out, flattening and loosening some of the fat that cushioned my thigh bones. From this satisfaction, I drew a sense of calm; I was losing weight, therefore things would be all right. The notion sounds ridiculous now but, at the time, I associated thinness with all the things I valued: friendship, love and even success. These things could only take place in someone inhabiting a thin body. I would, naturally have to complete the prerequisite of achieving “thinness” before I could have any of those things. This belief, rather than creating a connection between the rest of my life and my experience in my body, only served to fragment my bodily experience, as I tried to form my shape into the mould I thought it should inhabit.
Fast-forward more than 10 years later. There is a sale at a store I used to frequent as a teenager. Since all my jeans have the coordinated foresight to spring holes at the same time (between the thighs, naturally), I decide to go in and try on some pants. When I realize that I take a full two sizes smaller than the last time I ever slid this brand of jeans over my hips, my chest is filled with the same contented bubbling I experienced that afternoon in photography. The anxiety of my future – my career, my empty wallet and my relationship -relaxes. I walk out with two pairs.
I am wearing the jeans on the subway when I run into my former boss. She and I chat about the weather and the school and she tells me that her young daughters refuse to wear pants because “they encumber their knees at circle time.” We chuckle at the humor of the situation and my mind travels to my closely wrapped thighs, feels the snugness of denim surrounding them. For me, pants serve as a container for the flesh that threatens to spill out of them. I remember wondering when my definition of “comfort” evolved from the freedom of the body to expand, move and breathe to this feeling of secure confinement I experience inside my jeans. I doubt these pants would allow my knees to properly stretch themselves out and bend at circle time. Luckily, when you’re pushing 30, you get to sit in chairs while people tell you stories.
As a naturopathic doctor, I preoccupy myself with the relationship our bodies have with our environment and lifestyles: how do the products we use affect our hormones? How does the food we eat and the movement we engage in affect our internal terrain? How does our mindset prevent disease? What I often don’t ask is how the learned relationship one has with their body affects health. Does the way I view my lower body cause me to engage in behaviours that affect my health? How are my tight jeans impeding lymphatic flow? How do they affect my digestion? Does my sense of self-worth affect my blood sugar? The answer is it absolutely can, if my sense of self-worth causes me to ignore my body’s food cravings and hunger signals. The way we treat ourselves and imagine our own health stems from our relationships with our bodies, which in turn dictates our future health states.
Susie Orbach, a feminist psychotherapist and author, once wrote that female babies are breastfed for less time, and picked up and cuddled less than male babies. She goes on to describe how this early treatment of women, “characterized by emotional deprivation and feelings of unentitlement”, secures the female’s place as a second-class citizen in society. More than that it teaches women to disconnect with our bodies. If our needs are not met at an early age, we are led to believe that these needs are wrong. We are taught to ignore the smelling, farting, bleeding, overflowing, curving bodies we are born with and try to recreate a “false body” that is perfect and that begins to believe it is “comfortable” being squeezed and starved and stuffed into pointy-toed shoes. Or we simply develop the ability to de-identify with the discomfort. This mechanism can lead to injury or disease if we fail to truly listen to what our bodies are trying to alert us to. (Matthew Remski writes about this extensively in his amazing research project on yoga injuries called What Are We Actually Doing in Asana (WAWADIA). I’ve been devouring his articles this week).
Orbach goes on to theorize that the symptoms the body produces in a disease state just might be a cry for help; the body is attempting to insist on its existence, to demand to be heard. So what then are menstrual cramps? Are they simply a result of inflammation or a hormonal imbalance caused by lifestyle or are they attempts made by the body to cry out, “I am female! I am menstruating! I am in need of attention!”
I remember a patient I had who would deny herself life pleasures. Convinced she needed to lose weight, she would ignore her hunger signals, even proudly telling me that she would turn to her stomach and tell it to “shut up” when the grumbling became too loud. Her chief complaint was chronic pain. I wonder if her body’s pain was simply its way of telling her it existed. I wonder if she’d have found a way to sufficiently answer her stomach’s calling, the pain would have subsided. Perhaps by listening to the experience of our bodies we can start to properly take care of our health. We can start by wearing comfortable pants that don’t “encumber the knees”, moving naturally, embracing our sexual appetites, feeding ourselves the food we truly crave and answering the need for physical touch and rest.
In a society that tends to view the body as an object, a machine that sometimes gets jammed with inconveniences such as pain, menstrual issues and eczema, I wonder how our collective health would change if we began to experience the body as a tool for healing and self-growth – something inherently wise.
To share one last story, I remember sitting across from Teresa, our school counsellor, while I was still a naturopathic student. At the time I was deciding to break up with my then-boyfriend thereby ending a 5-year relationship. I told her I had never been clear on the difference between the fear and apprehension that came with seizing something good and the repulsed feeling of avoiding something bad. This has led me to make decisions in my life that weren’t necessarily right for me. She asked me to cultivate the two feelings and locate their positions in my body. “See if there is any difference,” She told me. As I tuned in I immediately noticed that fear was closer to my heart. It was higher up and it bore the faint pleasant glow of excitement behind its initial anxiety. Disgust was located lower down. It felt like a stomach ache, a sense of doom, of indigestion: a hard-to-digest truth. It was in this moment that I fully appreciated the body’s wisdom. The old adage “listen to your gut” began to ring true to me. My gut was sending me a message that was loud and clear, but it was up to me to listen to it.
So what are some exercises we can do to cultivate body awareness and re-inhabit our bodies?
– Practice regular body scan mediations, such as those prescribed by the Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction (MBSR) model taught by Jon Kabat-Zinn.
– Try Susie Orbach’s “Mirror Exercise” in her book Fat is a Feminist Issue or spend 3 minutes a day for 21 days staring at a body part that you have a hard time identifying with. By staring at the nose you’ve always felt was too big on a regular basis, you are able to incorporate it into your sense of self and accept it as something beautiful, in the way you would come to love the same nose on your grandfather, daughter or dear friend.
– Set a timer every hour while at work to remind yourself to tune in to your body and your breath. Notice your feet planted on the floor and move your awareness up through your feet to the top of your head. Ask yourself if there’s anything your body needs: are you thirsty, hungry, bored or lonely? Do you need to stand up and stretch? Do you need a hug?
– Get regular acupuncture or constitutional hydrotherapy to help the flow of Qi through the body.
– Finally, touch yourself. Practice ayurvedic self-massages or apply a natural moisturising lotion or oil before bed. Practice self-care in the form of hydrotherapy. Even placing the hands over the heart and breathing into that area will help to release oxytocin, a hormone responsible for love and bonding, creating feelings of calmness and attachment to the physical body.
by Dr. Talia Marcheggiani, ND | Oct 21, 2014 | Meditation, Mental Health, Mindfulness, Stress
Deadlines, electronic medical records, parking tickets, paper grading and the cost of rent in Toronto. What do these seemingly varied delights all have in common? They all contribute to complicating our lives and do nothing more than turn the drip-rate up on our cortisol lines. When we think of healthy living, our minds frequently turn to proper diet and exercise. We often forget that while our bodies are undergoing the latest juice cleanse and sweating away impurities, our poor brains may be stuck masticating super-sized portions of the same soggy, deep-fried thoughts.
Modern society always takes the blame for today’s health complaints but, after all, we wouldn’t be in this mess if it weren’t for the constant barrage of comparisons and to-do lists that haunt our daily realities. So, because I care deeply about the mental health of society, I have compiled an easy list of ways to simplify your life. Pour that carrot beet juice into your cerebral spinal fluid and give your brain a nice, cleansing wash.
1. Food and Drink
a. Turn off your TV. b. head to the grocery store. c. Once there, pick up a cart or basket, depending on your food volume needs. d. Sticking to the edges of the store, add in the vegetables and fruit you think: i. look tasty ii. are in season and iii. fit your budget. e. Next, hit the meat section. Buy some. (Legumes if you’re vegetarian) f. Buy eggs. g. In the middle of the store, pick up some herbs and spices, brown rice, quinoa, coconut milk, coconut oil and olive oil. h. Once you get home, look up the names of the things you bought on the internet. Google something like “recipe + beef + rice + spinach + tomato”. i. See what comes up. j. Consider purchasing a slow cooker or Dutch oven and let your food cook itself while you turn your TV back on. k. Ignore all TV commercials pertaining to food. j. Wine and water (tap).
2. Appearance
a. Find a pair of pants that fit you like a dream and allow you to sit, walk and ride a bicycle with ease. b. Buy a pair in every colour. c. Purchase the rest of your wardrobe at second-hand stores. d. Pair down your hair products to two things. e. Try to encompass your footwear needs with 3-5 pairs of shoes and boots. f. Use a BB cream – one with sunscreen. g. Use oil to wash it off your face at night. h. begin to learn to accept the nose/chin/butt/hair you were born with and find them beautiful in their own way.
3. Transportation
a. Walk everywhere. b. If you can’t walk, bike. c. If it’s too cold to walk/bike, take the subway/bus. d. If you live too far away to take public transport, walk or bike, then it’s time to move. e. Or buy a private helicopter.
4. Relationships
a. Choose a handful of people that mean a lot to you. b. Make an effort to see them and spend quality time with them. c. Tell them you love them often. d. Try to manage your expectations. e. Journal a list of the things you need from relationships. f. Try to use self-love to meet those needs. Meditation and journalling help with this. g. Online dating.
5. Social media
a. Determine how social media serves your life: Business promotion? Keeping in touch with your high school friends? Comparing children? Broadcasting your running routes? b. Log on, engage in these activities and then log off. c. Know when you’ve had enough.
6. Money
a. Find out how much money you make. b. Create a budget of how much your spend. c. Attempt to make a bigger than b. e. If b is bigger than a, try to make b smaller or a bigger. f. To make b smaller, see sections 1, 2 and 3. g. Consider that fact that making b as small as comfort allows could be the secret to simplicity and saving the world. h. Smile while paying taxes. i. If you have the means, donate time and/or money.
7. Breathing
a. Don’t forget to.
by Dr. Talia Marcheggiani, ND | Oct 4, 2014 | Chronic pain, Evidence Based Medicine, Medicine, Mental Health, Nutrition, Preventive Medicine
Dear Medical Doctor,
I am a naturopathic physician. On a Facebook page hosted by some peers in my profession, a young naturopathic doctor expressed distress at having her attempt to forge ties with one of her patients’ medical doctor thwarted. Needing her patient to obtain the diagnostic testing covered under provincial insurance only when ordered by a medical doctor, she wrote a letter to the patient’s MD, explaining the case, her assessment, the natural treatments that the patient was taking and her reasons for asking for diagnostic testing to be done. She expressed her hope to work collaboratively with this professional in order to provide better care for their mutual patient.
The response was less than ideal. The MD wrote a short, snappy letter, making clear his disinterest in “working collaboratively” with “alternative health practitioners”. He told her, bluntly, that he would not welcome further communications regarding their mutual patient.
Rookie mistake.
Whether a patient seeks consult from a naturopathic doctor or not, natural medicine is here to stay. The good news for medical doctors, however, is that naturopathic doctors can help make their lives easier and contribute significant benefits to patient management. Here are some reasons for working with naturopathic doctors:
1. Naturopathic doctors are highly trained.
NDs go through 4 years of undergraduate education, taking prerequisite courses in biochemistry, biology, psychology, physiology and chemistry. Naturopathic medical school consists of an additional 4 years of intense, full-time study that includes the completion of two licensing exams, one board exam, 3 clinical exams and a 12-month clinical internship working with patients in an out-patient setting. NDs are trained in medical diagnostics, physical exams and can perform procedures such as taking blood, injections, pelvic exams and prostate exams. With extra training NDs are being certified in IV therapies, minor surgery and pharmaceutical prescribing.
Naturopathic doctors speak the same language as medical doctors and our training and medical opinions can be trusted.
2. Patients that see naturopathic doctors in addition to medical doctors do better overall.
In a 2013 randomized clinical trial by the Canadian Medical Association Journal, it was found that high-risk patients decreased their risk of heart disease when using both naturopathic medicine and conventional treatments together rather than just conventional medicine alone. NDs have the time to teach patients how to make changes that benefit their long-term health. Adding a naturopathic doctor to your patient’s healthcare team can help decrease their risk of chronic diseases, such as cardiovascular disease, the leading cause of death among Canadians.
3. Naturopathic medicine decreases the burden on the healthcare system.
A colleague of mine practised as a registered nurse in Ontario for several years before deciding to begin studies at the Canadian College of Naturopathic Medicine and become licensed as a naturopathic doctor. When I asked her why she told me that she was tired of the “revolving door.” “The revolving door?” I asked, puzzled. She explained that, as a nurse she would often see the same patients time and time again – patients with diabetes who were having trouble managing their blood sugar and mental health patients, for instance – who would come into the emergency room, receive treatment and leave, only to return again after a short time. There was no one addressing the root cause of these patients’ ailments and, therefore, it was only a matter of time before they returned to the emergency room. Working with a naturopathic doctor helps patients take responsibility for their health, addresses the root cause of disease and assists patient in learning how to manage chronic disease more effectively, freeing up the emergency room for actual emergencies.
4. Naturopathic doctors address family physician shortages.
Many Canadians do not have a family doctor and many medical doctors are far too busy to take on new patients. Referring patients to be co-managed by a naturopathic doctor can reduce their need for doctors visits, reduce medical clinic wait-times and allow medical doctors to take on more patients on their rosters. Also, by focussing on lifestyle changes, finding the root cause of disease and anticipating health issues such as seasonal allergies, colds and flu or traveller’s diarrhea, NDs can help patients prevent disease. We can effectively take on the ailments that are not appropriately treated with pharmaceuticals (viral colds, for instance), freeing up time and space in medical clinics.
5. Naturopathic doctors can take on chronic, long-term cases.
Chronic acne, digestive concerns, musculoskeletal pain, fatigue and mental illness, cardiovascular disease, hormonal imbalances such as uterine fibroids, PMS, PCOS and endometriosis are all chronic conditions, difficult to treat with medications, that benefit hugely from lifestyle changes. Many patients who suffer from these conditions experience immense benefit when treated with gentle, natural therapies and lifestyle changes. Naturopathic doctors excel at treating chronic, long-standing conditions that are upsetting to patients but often aren’t “serious” enough to warrant conventional care or perhaps aren’t responding to conventional care.
6. There is someone managing drug-nutrient or drug-herb interactions.
It is estimated that more than 70% of Canadians have used a natural health product. That number is only increasing as the public recognizes the need for nutritional and herbal supplementation. However, interactions between natural remedies and medications are real. Naturopathic doctors are trained in pharmacology and are prepared to anticipate interactions and avoid products that have the potential to interfere with certain medications and medical procedures. Collaborating with an ND also means that there is a recorded history of all the natural products your patient is taking and your patient is far less likely to self-prescribe remedies that have the potential for harm.
7. NDs excel at providing stress relief.
“My doctor told me it’s just stress,” a family friend told me over dinner. No surprise. What can sound to some patients like a back-handed dismissal is actually a concrete truth; some sources estimate that 90% of physician visits are stress-related. Naturopathic doctors offer a wide range of therapies such as talk therapy, lifestyle counselling, homeopathy, acupuncture, botanical therapy and nutritional supplementation all of which are effective at helping reduce stress and improve the body’s response to stress. As a society we tend to focus on physical health and lifestyle and neglect the importance of mental health. Naturopathic doctors are well-positioned to offer that kind of care.
Dear medical doctor, we naturopathic doctors appreciate everything that you do. We would love the opportunity to work with you as part of a collaborative team for the benefit of our mutual patients. So please, no more of the above-mentioned letters.
In the words of Vanilla Ice, “Stop. Collaborate and Listen.” Your patients will thank you for it.
Sincerely,
Talia Marcheggiani, ND
According to James Altucher, author and entrepreneur, it is possible to reinvent yourself in 5 years. In his book, The Power of No, he tells us how to reinvent our lives by first saying a big, fat No to all the things that don’t serve us—toxic friendships and relationships, stagnant 9-5’s, harmful behaviours, negative thought patterns and, well, just things we simply don’t want to do—in order to free up our lives for greater happiness, abundance and creativity.
