I’m a skeptic (believe it or not).  I’ve got a degree in biochemistry and molecular biophysics – that is to say, I’m not (as a general rule) satisfied to accept that something works if I can’t explain why it works.  So when I got to naturopathic school and I heard that extremely diluted substances (homeopathic medicines) could affect miraculous cures, I promptly placed the idea in my “skeptical box” and forgot about it.

And then I saw it work.  Over and over and over again.

I don’t expect you to believe me just because I say that, though – I wouldn’t believe me if I were you.  But bear with me for a minute while I describe the philosophy behind it.  This isn’t an explanation, it’s just a theory – but it helped me to get over the hurdle of thinking homeopathy was just “magic” to recognizing that a scientific explanation does exist, even if we can’t draw a neat little flow chart to explain how it works quite yet.

According to Newton’s Third Law of Motion, for every action there is an equal and opposite reaction.  As such, every medication will produce two effects: the first, temporary effect, and the secondary, lasting effect (which is always contrary to the first).  For example: the secondary, lasting effect of a stimulant is greater exhaustion.  Laxative abuse causes chronic constipation.  Pain killers cause rebound pain and require increasing doses.  The list could go on and on.  Living systems always seek homeostasis (or balance), which means they have to adapt to any interference we introduce into them.  This phenomenon is pretty well understood for traditional pharmaceuticals.

But instead of treating the primary effect, homeopathy attempts to use the secondary, lasting effect to the body’s advantage.  The word homeopathy literally means “same as the disease,” and it is based on the principle of “like cures like” – that is, the remedy given is the one that would produce, in a healthy patient, the same symptoms that the ill patient is currently experiencing.  But in order to prevent a severe exacerbation of those symptoms, the remedy given is extremely dilute, usually to the point where there are no actual molecules of the original substance left in the remedy.  By the time you put it in your mouth, it’s essentially just lactose pellets, or water, depending on the delivery method.  We call that “energetic medicine.”

I know.  Ridiculous, right?  The question I asked (and that I frequently hear) is, if the remedies are so dilute that there’s essentially nothing in them, then how do they work?  There do exist a very few research papers which demonstrate the increased efficacy of diluted and shaken solutions, such as “Thermodynamics of Extremely Diluted Aqueous Solutions” (Elia and Niccoli) and “The Structure of Liquid Water; Novel Insights from Materials Research; Potential Relevance to Homeopathy” (Roy et al).  These papers imply that water itself can take on different organizational structures, and perhaps this is the mechanism of energetic imprinting in homeopathy.  But the process may very well be quantum mechanical in nature – which (honestly) is an easy way to say, we don’t really know how it works.

Because we’re giving your body a “push” in the same direction it was already headed, three things can happen when you take a homeopathic remedy: you get better, you get worse and then you get better, or nothing happens.  If nothing happens, it most likely means the remedy chosen was incorrect (although occasionally it means that either your body isn’t strong enough to mount a response, or there’s an obstacle to cure.  Once we either strengthen your body or identify and remove the obstacle to cure, the exact same remedy may work beautifully).  If you get worse before you get better, we call that an “aggravation”, which just means that we “pushed” a little too hard.  The good news is, aggravations don’t last.  Most last only from a few hours to a few days, or occasionally even a few weeks, but patients always return to baseline at minimum.  Usually an aggravation is actually a good sign, though – it means we’ve chosen the right remedy, and once you return to baseline you will continue on to improvement after that.

The goal is that required treatments with a homeopathic medicine will be fewer and farther between until your health is restored.  In practice, however, this is usually only the case with acute conditions or with children.  For adults or more chronic cases, usually each remedy represents only a layer in the clinical picture.  We continue treating with a particular remedy as long as you react and react positively to the remedy.  Once you no longer react or once symptoms begin to change, it may become necessary to switch remedies.

I tend to use different therapeutic treatments depending on the case – I think of homeopathy most often with mental/emotional conditions because these respond so well and so quickly when the right remedy is selected, as well as physical conditions that clearly have a strong mental/emotional trigger.  I also use it frequently for stubborn skin conditions, or bizarre neurological patterns that don’t correspond to any traditional diagnosis.  I almost always combine it with a broader naturopathic protocol, but I have to say (rather grudgingly) that some of the fastest and most impressive cures I’ve ever seen have followed a well-chosen homeopathic remedy.

You can think I’m crazy if you want, and I’m okay with that.  But I dare you to try it.

Check out my website for articles on many specific conditions, and more information!

Dr Lauren Deville is board-certified to practice Naturopathic Medicine.  To receive her free e-book, “Ten Nutritional Supplements Everyone Should Have,” or to receive her monthly health and wellness newsletter, please sign up at www.drlaurendeville.com.  

Seems strange to lump these together, right?  The fact is, though, that both allergies and autoimmune diseases represent dysfunction of the immune system.

There are two parts to your immune system, called “non-specific” (this responds right away to toxic exposure, bee stings, trauma, etc) and “specific” (which takes some time, but is more targeted against specific invaders).  Think of non-specific immunity like a sledge hammer, while specific immunity is more like a scalpel.  The sledge hammer is quick and dirty, and (as you might imagine) will cause a lot of inflammation even in surrounding healthy tissues.  The scalpel, on the other hand, won’t cause as much collateral damage, but it will have to be very carefully directed in order to do any good.

Because your specific immune system (the scalpel) needs careful direction, two kinds of cells are necessary: the T and B cells.

If I can mix my metaphors, think of the T cells as the managers and the B cells as the worker bees (no pun intended) – that is, the B cells actually produce antibodies against specific invaders, while the T cells tell the B cells what to do.

Now there are three types of substances (called antigens) that have the potential to provoke your specific immune system to make antibodies against them.  There are soluble antigens (these come from your diet and your environment), insoluble antigens (these come from microbes and pathogens), and self antigens (these come from your own cells).

Reactions against soluble antigens are called allergies.

Reactions against self antigens are called autoimmune diseases.

Reactions against insoluble antigens is normal immune function.

Those T and B cells that produce the wrong kinds of antibodies are supposed to be destroyed before they ever enter the bloodstream, but since some get out anyway, there’s a built in checks-and-balances system: the Regulatory T cells.

Fortunately, Regulatory T cells are produced in proportion to the number of rogue immune cells (mixing metaphors one more time: if you have more criminals, you need more cops).  But your gut can also produce Regulatory T cells under the right set of conditions.  In fact, 80% of your immune system is in your gut.  This makes sense, doesn’t it?  After all, your gut is your body’s first line of defense, since that’s where your organs first come in contact with the outside world.

So, with both allergic and also with autoimmune patients of almost any diagnosis, I usually start with the gut (and if I don’t start with it, I always address it at some point).  The goal is to a) produce more Regulatory T cells (more cops) to stop the antibodies against self or soluble antigens (criminals), and b) to increase the production of antibodies against insoluble antigens – the true foreign invaders.

Back to the sledgehammer (non-specific immunity): in the case of both autoimmune and allergic patients, although it’s the specific immunity that’s gone awry (the scalpel is targeting the wrong things), the sledgehammer tries to pick up the slack.  As a result, there’s always a lot of inflammation going on in these patients too.  My first approach is to identify and remove sources of inflammation, ensuring a good diet that’s chock-full of anti-inflammatory oils and antioxidants.  It’s of course very helpful to also reduce exposure (in the case of allergies) to decrease this inflammatory response when possible.  When exposure is unavoidable, we may try to build an immune tolerance instead, using very small but increasing exposure to the antigen (with oral allergy drops).  Some studies suggest that small but increasing exposures to self-antigens may have a similar tolerance-building effect in autoimmune conditions as well.

Want to know how to apply this to a protocol that’s right for you?  Check out my website for articles on many specific conditions, and more information!

Dr Lauren Deville is board-certified to practice Naturopathic Medicine.  To receive her free e-book, “Ten Nutritional Supplements Everyone Should Have,” or to receive her monthly health and wellness newsletter, please sign up at www.drlaurendeville.com.  

The main difference between conventional and naturopathic medicine is in the philosophy.

Traditional medicine views the body from a mechanistic point of view.  This means that each body system is separate, and sometimes things just go wrong.  The symptoms themselves constitute the disease in most cases, and the job of the physician is to make the symptoms go away.

Naturopathic medicine views the body from a vitalistic point of view.  This means that everything in the body is interconnected, and the body is designed to heal itself.  Symptoms are interpreted as adaptations necessary for survival – for instance, food poisoning leads to vomiting, diarrhea, or both (to get the bug out of the body).  A nasty virus leads the body to spike a fever in an attempt to kill off the virus before the virus destroys too many cells… and so on.

The naturopathic physician’s job is therefore to identify and remove the obstacles to cure, give the body what it needs to heal itself, and get out of the way. 

In naturopathic philosophy three things are necessary for health: the body must maintain its vitality so that it has the best chance to fight when it needs to; the blood and lymph must have the nutrients they need to perform their functions and to deliver to the body’s tissues; and the body must be free of toxins which might otherwise obstruct its ability to function properly.

Therefore, there are essentially three causes of illness:

1)      Lowered vitality.  This may be due to advancing age, but in our society it’s often due to overwork, night work, poor habits, toxic thoughts and emotions, excesses or overindulgence, overstimulation, drugs (be they pharmaceutical or recreational), or mechanical obstructions.

2)      Abnormal composition of blood and lymph.  This may be due to improper food selection, lack of the nutritional building blocks the body needs to perform its functions, and/or excessive waste in the bloodstream.

3)      Accumulation of waste matter.  This may be due to lowered vitality, such that the body can’t eliminate toxins as well as it should, a poor diet leading to waste byproducts, drugs, or suppression of acute disease (more on this in a future article – it’s a big topic).  The presence of waste is what allows disease germs and parasites to thrive – in most cases the presence of bacteria, fungi, parasites or viruses are secondary, rather than the primary cause of illness!  (If your house is infested with rats, you could simply set out hundreds of rat traps, or you could clean it top to bottom and flood it with fresh air and sunshine, and the rats will flee.  Which do you think would be more effective in the long run?)

If these three are the causes of illness, then the naturopathic treatment principles for any condition must involve the same three!

1)      Improve the body’s vitality.  This means establishing a healthy regimen, including a strong spiritual connection, stress moderation, a healthy diet, appropriate exercise and rest, water, air, and sunshine.  This may also involve treatments such as like hydrotherapy, homeopathy, acupuncture, massage, chiropractic care, counseling, and more – again, depending on the patient.

2)      Build up the body fluids (blood and lymph) naturally.  This means eating real food – not processed crap, not sugar, not a standard American diet.  It also means drinking plenty of water – not soda, not (excessive) coffee or alcohol, not sugary juice concentrates… you get the idea.

3)      Promote elimination of waste and poisons.  This means avoiding future exposures, as well as getting rid of what you’ve already got.  The methods to do this may vary based on the vitality of the patient, but here is a good breakdown of possible options.

It may be necessary, in addition, to support weakened and damaged body systems so that the above treatment principles have their best chance to take effect.  This is the point at which specific disease conditions are addressed – and they may all be addressed in the same visit!  But it’s critical that we don’t neglect these treatment principles, because it’s the body that heals, not the doctor.  The doctor’s job is simply to give the body the best chance to do what it was designed to do.

Make sense?  Make an appointment and we’ll figure out how these principles best apply to you. 

Are there topics that you’d like me to cover in future articles?  Email me your suggestions!

Dr Lauren Deville is board-certified to practice Naturopathic Medicine.  To receive her free e-book, “Ten Nutritional Supplements Everyone Should Have,” or to receive her monthly health and wellness newsletter, please sign up at www.drlaurendeville.com.  

Menopausal symptoms are related to a dramatic decline of estrogen, progesterone, and testosterone.  These symptoms include:

• Hot flashes, usually worst during the first 1-2 years
• Night sweats
• Skin flushing
• Insomnia
• Low libido
• Forgetfulness
• Headaches
• Mood swings
• Urine leakage
• Vaginal dryness
• Joint aches and pains
• Palpitations (pounding/racing heart)

Traditional Treatment:  Many MDs are hesitant to prescribe synthetic hormones to curb menopausal symptoms.  This is why.

• Conjugated estrogen hormones such as Premarin are fraught with problems, including increased risk of breast cancer, heart attacks, stroke, and blood clots.  Because these risks are so significant, doctors recommend treatment for no more than five years.  (And by the way, risk of clot formation increases dramatically with cigarette smoke, which is true of women on estrogenic birth control pills as well.)
• Sometimes synthetic progesterone (progestin) may be prescribed along with synthetic estrogens in order to decrease the risk of endometrial cancer.
• Antidepressants may be used instead to control the effects of hormonal depletion.

Naturopathic Treatment:

There are a number of naturopathic tricks to decrease symptoms — but as usual, let’s start with the cause.  And no, it’s not quite as simple as pure hormonal decline.

Cause of Menopausal Symptoms:

It might surprise you to learn that menopausal symptoms are largely a western phenomenon – they’re far less common in less industrialized parts of the world.  There are several reasons for this.

First, our society is chronically stressed out, which often leads to adrenal fatigue (for more information about what this means physiologically, click here).  Your adrenal glands produce several hormones.  One of them is called DHEA, which is a precursor to other steroid hormones (such as estrogen and testosterone).  Women whose adrenal glands are functioning normally can compensate better for the ovaries when they stop producing hormones.  Those in adrenal fatigue, on the other hand, will have a rougher time of it.

Adrenal fatigue can also be exacerbated by poor dietary choices – there’s a clear connection between sugar cravings and low adrenal function, and menopausal symptoms worsen with high sugar diets.

Second, the industrialized world is full of chemicals.  In order to explain why that matters in this case, let me digress for a second:

There are primary and secondary organs of waste elimination.  If the primary organs of elimination, like the liver, get overwhelmed (by massive amounts of chemicals for instance), then the excess waste will try to escape via secondary routes – and this leads to symptoms.  One of the secondary routes of elimination for a woman is her period, which (from a philosophical standpoint) has a lot to do with why so many women in the US experience PMS.  Once you’re in menopause, those toxins can’t escape via that secondary route anymore – so the higher your toxin load is beforehand, the more symptoms you’ll experience in menopause.

So, what do we do?

• Clean up your diet.  Specifically in this case, it’s important to avoid foods that overtax your adrenals, which include caffeine and sugar, and increase foods that encourage liver detoxification and waste elimination, including fiber, fruits and veggies.
• Exercise: sedentary women have significantly more hot flashes than those that are more active.  From the perspective of naturopathic theory, this makes sense – exercise increases circulation, which increases the rate of detoxification.
• Support your adrenals: and while we’re at it, we’ll make sure your thyroid is functioning optimally, since these two are linked.  If your adrenals are very low going into menopause, supporting them once you’re in “crisis mode” might not be enough, but we’ll support them anyway so they can compensate later on.
• Eliminate waste: we’ll want to make sure your organs of elimination are doing what they ought to – this includes your liver and bowels especially.
• Treat the symptoms: Once we’ve taken care of the cause, then we can pull out our naturopathic bag of tricks – including phytoestrogens, botanicals, hormone-balancing oils, supplements, natural sleep aids, and homeopathy.  From there we can graduate to bioidentical hormones if you’re really miserable – which, by the way, do not have anywhere close to the side effect and risk factor profiles of their synthetic counterparts.

Ready to curb those hot flashes?  Make an appointment today!

Are there topics that you’d like me to cover in future articles?  Email me your suggestions!

Dr Lauren Deville is board-certified to practice Naturopathic Medicine.  To receive her free e-book, “Ten Nutritional Supplements Everyone Should Have,” or to receive her monthly health and wellness newsletter, please sign up at www.drlaurendeville.com.  

Frequently my patients come in with a laundry list of chronic symptoms that they’ve been struggling with for a very long time.  The first question is always, which do we tackle first?  Sometimes the answer is obvious, but not uncommonly, the best place to start is to hit “the reset button,” as it were.

What does this mean?  Many chronic conditions all stem from the same root: inflammation.  This inflammation is often a result of living in a toxic world and eating a standard American diet high in the wrong kinds of essential fatty acids and full of processed chemicals.  Before healing really becomes possible, we’ve got to remove the obstacle to cure.

That’s why I have to have a good protocol for cleansing.  I use a particular line of medical foods because of the many years of solid research behind their products as well as the good results I have seen with my patients.  The ten day protocol I implement, using a combination of regular food and medical food, has been shown to help balance the two phases of detoxification in the liver (Phase 1 and Phase 2) such that toxic chemicals are rendered harmless and are excreted from the body rather than stored in the tissues.

In addition to the “fast,” your protocol may or may not include the following, depending on your particular needs:

1)      Supplements that may be necessary for you, especially if you tend towards hypoglycemia or constipation.  Fasting does not have to wreak havoc with your blood sugar, and it’s vitally important that your bowel movements are adequate in order to get rid of the toxins we’re trying to eliminate.  I may include specific supplements for liver, kidney, or colon elimination if that seems appropriate.  For many patients just this is enough.  But for others, we might have to get more aggressive with steps 2, 3, and 4.

2)      Far infrared sauna treatments.  Nature Medica is also a detox spa, and we have an infrared sauna in house that you can use along with your detoxification treatment.  This increases fat-burning, which is important because many toxins are fat-soluble.  These can be released via sauna treatments so that they can be eliminated.

3)      Constitutional hydrotherapy.  The application of hot and cold towels in succession causes a sort of “pumping” action in the blood vessels, delivering nutrients to and eliminating waste from the internal organs and the peripheral tissues at an increased rate.  This helps to mobilize the toxins released in the sauna, as well as through the cleanse itself.

4)      I may prescribe a series of colonics if you struggle with constipation, or just as a means of increasing the body’s elimination.  Even if your bowel movements are regular, colonics increase the release of bile so that the bile itself and the toxins bound to it don’t get recycled.  It’s a great way to get the most out of your cleanse.  Fortunately, Nature Medica has the capability to offer colonics in house.

Once the ten day protocol is over, we will determine whether a longer and more sustainable cleanse is necessary for your specific condition, or whether it’s time to move into the next phase of your healing.  Are you ready to hit the “reset button”?  Jump-start your health today!

Are there topics that you’d like me to cover in future articles?  Email me your suggestions!

Dr Lauren Deville is board-certified to practice Naturopathic Medicine.  To receive her free e-book, “Ten Nutritional Supplements Everyone Should Have,” or to receive her monthly health and wellness newsletter, please sign up at www.drlaurendeville.com.  

If you tuned in again after last week’s intro of all the “boring” stuff, congratulations, you’ve got the sticking power necessary to delay gratification!  That’s a very important ingredient in the process of beauty from the inside out.  As I said before, many skin conditions may clear up with just the previous recommendations, but your naturopathic doctor can provide a complete protocol for any lingering issues like stubborn acne, rosacea, eczema, psoriasis, sun damage, or other problem skin conditions.  That said, here are some good general rules to follow for basic skin care.

• Wash your face twice at the end of the day – once to get the makeup off and once to clean the skin itself.  There are tons of products out there to choose from for all manner of skin types, and some of them are “clean” (i.e. they lack the chemicals listed here) — but in general, the fewer the ingredients, the better.  For that reason, I prefer to just use a mild soap (Dove is my favorite).
• Exfoliate daily with a delicate scrub to remove dead skin cells and stimulate blood flow to the surface.  Many store-bought exfoliants include fruit enzymes, which can help fight free radical damage, reducing age spots and fine lines.  If you don’t have an exfoliant on hand, try a tablespoon of sugar or oatmeal mixed with water, or grapefruit juice to get the benefits of fruit enzymes.  (If your skin is dry, be sure not to leave this recipe on too long, since grapefruit juice can be very astringent.)
• Moisturize, even if you have oily skin.

1. My favorite moisturizer is pure jojoba oil – it has no added ingredients, and it’s very close to the oil your skin naturally produces.  You can even use it on your hair for added shine – just make sure you start at the ends and work up, and use it sparingly.  You can get jojoba oil for under $10 at most health food stores.
2. Aging skin may benefit from a cream including Vitamin C – not only does topical Vitamin C function as an antioxidant, but it’s also necessary for the production of collagen, which is lost during the aging process.
3. Alpha hydroxy acids (AHA, including glycolic and lactic acids) are exfoliants that stimulate cell turnover, induce the production of collagen and elastin, and decrease the appearance of sun and age spots.  Make sure the product you choose contains AHA rather than beta hydroxy acids (BHA) which are less effective for anti-aging purposes.  However, beware that too much AHA can increase the skin’s sensitivity to the sun.  Choose a product with 5-8% AHA with a pH of 3-4; any more than this can damage the skin.

• Choose a zinc- or a titanium dioxide-based sunscreen.  Unlike many other sunscreens which rely on chemical means to block UV rays, these block the sun’s rays physically – overall a healthier choice.  Apply half an hour before going outside and then reapply every two hours.  (I hope it goes without saying that you need to read the ingredient list and make sure the sunscreen you choose is clean!)  Sunscreen is still one of the best choices you can make to protect your skin against aging.
• Makeup: even if it doesn’t clog pores, makeup is typically full of harsh chemicals, and years of makeup can exacerbate wrinkled skin.  I’m sure we all agree that less is more, but if you must wear makeup, the best choice I’ve found is mineral makeup.  Ingredients include mica, titanium dioxide, zinc, and iron oxides, and because of this, mineral makeup claims to actually be good for your skin.  I don’t know about that one way or the other, but at least it does not contain any harmful ingredients, nor does it contain any preservatives.

I’ve saved the most important tip for last, and that is this: beauty truly does come from the inside out.  Visualize the results you want to have.  Picture yourself with a slimmer, more toned physique, with clearer skin, with healthier hair – envision your best you.  Be realistic, but keep the image of what you want clear in your mind, and you will discover far more motivation than you previously thought possible.   And along the way, be kind to yourself!  Congratulate yourself for the improvements you have made, and be confident in the beauty you already have.  If you see yourself as beautiful, others will too.  Guaranteed.

Are there topics that you’d like me to cover in future articles?  Email me your suggestions!

Dr Lauren Deville is board-certified to practice Naturopathic Medicine.  To receive her free e-book, “Ten Nutritional Supplements Everyone Should Have,” or to receive her monthly health and wellness newsletter, please sign up at www.drlaurendeville.com.  

Beauty comes from the inside out… in more ways than one.  Sure, genetics are involved, but you’ve got a very large role to play in deciding which genes get expressed and which ones lay dormant!

Let’s start with your diet (and as a Naturopathic Medical Doctor, I always start there).  Every cell in your body has a life cycle, and when the old ones die, new ones are created.  The building blocks for those new cells come from your diet.  If you eat primarily synthetic, highly processed, chemically-laden foods, then not only will those chemicals wreak havoc on the inside (causing a whole host of chronic health conditions down the line), but they will eventually show up on the outside too, in the form of obesity, dull, lifeless, and wrinkled skin, blemishes, and dark circles around your eyes, to name just a few.  I’ve written a more comprehensive guide to eating healthy here, but below are a few basic tips on how to eat to look your best:

• Stay hydrated.  For most people, that means drinking half your body weight in ounces daily.  Lack of moisture is a major culprit in aging skin, dry hair, and poor cellular detoxification.
• Eat plenty of vegetables and fruits!  These are high in vitamins and minerals (the building blocks your skin and hair need to create healthy cells), and are high in antioxidants, which help to prevent free radical damage associated with sun exposure and aging.  They’re also are free of chemicals and preservatives, unlike processed foods (aside from pesticides used in farming – to avoid these, make sure you buy the Dirty Dozen organic).

• To keep your skin healthy, you’ll want to get a good amount of foods high in beta carotene, which converts to Vitamin A (red, yellow, and orange veggies), Vitamin C (citrus fruits, bell peppers, broccoli), Vitamin E (nuts, seeds, avocados), and zinc (pumpkin seeds, soy beans, whole grains, peas, and mustard greens).
• Take your Omega 3’s and Omega 6’s.  The benefits of fish oil are myriad, but the bottom line is that everyone should be taking one).  If you’re a vegetarian, flax seed oil is a good alternative.  For many skin conditions, it’s also a good idea to add Gamma Linolenic Acid (GLA, including Borage Oil and/or Evening Primrose Oil, EPO).  As a bonus, EPO is also great for balancing hormones.
• Consider a good cleanse.  Toxins (from our diet and our chemically-laden environment) are designed to get out through our “primary escape routes”.  For solid waste, the major escape route is the gut.  But a long-term inflammatory diet can set you up for poor enzyme function and an imbalance in gut flora.  Poor digestive function can mean that food doesn’t get broken down properly, creating even more toxic accumulation that the already overworked liver then has to clean up.  The result?  Those toxins can’t get out through the primary escape route (the gut).  So instead they try to get out through the “fire escape”… which is often the skin.  There are a number of ways to cleanse, from water or juice fasting to medical foods to a homeopathic detoxification protocol called biotherapeutic drainage.  Your naturopathic doctor can guide you to the protocol that’s right for you.

Next, let’s talk about your lifestyle.  Your outward appearance will benefit from the same healthy choices that benefit the rest of you!

• Exercise.  Regular exercise helps to increase blood flow to the surface of the skin and hair, which delivers oxygen and nutrients, eliminates waste, gives a youthful glow, and of course firms and tones muscle.  (It’ll also make you feel better overall — and when you feel better, it shows.)
• Smoking.  In a word: Don’t.  Smoke is one of the nastiest pro-oxidants out there, meaning it increases cellular aging dramatically.  Incidentally smoking is also heavily linked to heart disease and stroke, Alzheimer’s Disease, a variety of cancers (including but not limited to lung), and quite a few other common chronic illnesses.
• Sleep.  Get more of it.  Your body repairs and restores itself while you’re resting at night.  You will minimize those bags under your eyes if you get enough rest, for one, and you’ll feel better and have more energy.  Chronic sleeplessness or abnormal sleep patterns have also been linked to cancer, heart disease, obesity, insulin resistance and diabetes.
• Stress.  This one’s a little more difficult to quantify, but think of it this way: when you’re stressed out, daily living requires more energy, calories, and nutrients than usual, and your body has to prioritize where to allocate its limited resources.  As a result, your skin suffers — just like the rest of you.  Here are some natural (and free!) tips on how to deal with stress.

Only after we take care of what you put into your body can we start to talk about the products you use on the outside.  But before we talk about what you should use, let’s talk about what you should avoid.  Like our food, toiletry items are chock-full of chemicals, some of which can be very toxic.

• Phthalates: used to make plastics soft and pliable, these are estrogenic chemicals, which are therefore linked to endocrine disruption and certain cancers.  As far as beauty products, they’re found in body lotions and deodorants… and by the way, they’re also found in any soft plastics you regularly use for food storage.  Replace soft plastic food storage containers with glass when you can, but above all, don’t put soft plastics in the microwave, since heating soft plastics increases the release of phthalates into your food.  Phthalates have been banned in Europe.
• Parabens (methyl, propyl, butyl, and ethyl): these are added to beauty products as preservatives, and are also linked with endocrine disruption and certain cancers.  They’re found in all kinds of beauty products, from hair styling gels to lotions to all kinds of makeup, and they’re usually last on the list of ingredients, so look carefully.  So far they’ve been banned in Japan and Sweden. 
• Anything ending in “-ethanolamine” (Diethanolamine, triethanolamine, etc): these are added as emulsifiers and foaming agents, and they are also endocrine disruptors and linked with certain cancers.  They’re found in shampoo, soap, hairspray, sunscreen, hair dye, and a variety of kinds of makeup.
• Propylene glycol: these are humectants (help to retain moisture), and they’re neurotoxins.  They are found in deodorants, body lotions and washes, conditioners, hair gel, creams, and lipsticks.  These have been banned in Europe.
• Sodium lauryl sulfate/sodium laureth sulfate: This is a suspected carcinogen, and has been linked to kidney and liver damage and a variety of skin and neurological conditions.  It can be found in toothpaste, shampoo, bath salts, body and shower gels, and it has been banned in Europe and Central America.

Many skin conditions may clear up with just the above recommendations.  Your naturopathic doctor can provide a complete protocol for any lingering issues like stubborn acne, rosacea, eczema, psoriasis, sun damage, or other problem skin conditions.

Stay tuned next week for natural topical skin care techniques to keep you looking your best!

Are there topics that you’d like me to cover in future articles?  Email me your suggestions!

Dr Lauren Deville is board-certified to practice Naturopathic Medicine.  To receive her free e-book, “Ten Nutritional Supplements Everyone Should Have,” or to receive her monthly health and wellness newsletter, please sign up at www.drlaurendeville.com.  

Anxiety is an adaptive response that signals potential danger.  As a physiologic adaptation, it can lead to better preparation to meet that danger, and can therefore lead to better decisions.

(For instance, as a student, anxiety over a difficult exam may cause you to study harder.)

Excessive anxiety, however, is maladaptive: in this case, anxiety is either out of proportion to the situation, or it may be present even in the absence of any sort of danger.

Traditional treatments for anxiety include classes of drugs like benzodiazepines (like Xanax and Ativan), SSRIs (Selective Serotonin Reuptake Inhibitors, like Paxil, Lexapro, Zoloft, and Prozac), and SNRIs (like Cymbalta).  These drugs mediate either neurotransmitters or neurotransmitter receptors in the brain.

Think of a neurotransmitter and its receptor as a lock and key, respectively.  Without the lock – the receptor – the key cannot perform its function.

These medications have their places and can be helpful, but they also have their share of side effects and cautions, as you probably know if you’ve been on them for any length of time.  SSRIs can significantly impact sleep, digestion, and sexual function.  Benzodiazepines are very addictive and can be dangerous in combination with other medications.  Some anti-anxiety medications can even increase the incidence of anxiety itself for certain patients.

The Naturopathic Approach:

First we will start by eliminating certain processed foods and additives from your diet that can worsen anxiety symptoms.  Then we will focus on rebalancing your neurotransmitters from the production side, rather than blocking their breakdown or stimulating their receptors.  (I use a similar approach in cases of depression.)

To increase production of some of the calming neurotransmitters, we focus on nutritional supplements that cross the blood brain barrier (BBB) in order to provide the necessary building blocks.  At the same time, we will provide the vitamin cofactors required by the biochemical pathways.

Certain botanicals can also be very effective in decreasing anxiety symptoms, and a well-chosen homeopathic remedy can work wonders if we choose the right one for you.

I also believe it’s critical to learn some self-help techniques in order to regulate your stress response.    Come in for a consultation, and together we will devise a strategy to help you regain a sense of balance in your life!

Are there topics that you’d like me to cover in future articles?  Email me your suggestions!

Dr Lauren Deville is board-certified to practice Naturopathic Medicine.  To receive her free e-book, “Ten Nutritional Supplements Everyone Should Have,” or to receive her monthly health and wellness newsletter, please sign up at www.drlaurendeville.com.  

Depression is the most common mood disorder in the US.  Medically it is treated most effectively with drugs in the classes of SSRIs (Selective Serotonin Reuptake Inhibitors), TCAs (Tricyclic Antidepressants), and occasionally MAOIs (Monoamine Oxidase Inhibitors).

Although these medications can work very well, if you’ve been on them for any length of time you probably know that there are some unpleasant side effects, including sleep disturbances, digestive disorders, sexual dysfunction, and occasionally even a worsening of depression or anxiety.

The Naturopathic Approach:

Naturopathically the first step is always to identify and eliminate the root cause if possible, and depression may result from a number of other conditions or situations.

1) Your cortisol levels may indicate whether adrenal fatigue plays a role.  The clinical picture can also heavily inform whether we need to treat your adrenals.

2) Hypothyroidism can sometimes result in depression as well, so we will need to rule this out if it seems like a solid clinical possibility.

3) Exercise is critically important!  If you choose one and only one (physical) therapy for your depression, this should be it.  Exercise increases endorphins, or “feel good” chemicals in your brain, and helps to stabilize cortisol (see #1), among other things.  It also helps you to look and feel better physically, which helps you to feel good mentally as well.

4) We will eliminate “natural” depressants from your diet, including (but not limited to) alcohol.  It’s also very important for you to have adequate nutritional support from your diet, since some depression can be caused (and it can certainly be worsened) by particular nutrient deficiencies.  Together we will select the most beneficial dietary alterations for you.

5) In some cases I test neurotransmitter levels in my patients who suffer with depression (or other neurological conditions).  That way I can prescribe the specific nutritional building blocks your body needs to create new mood-enhancing neurotransmitters, as opposed to the pharmaceutical approach of blocking the breakdown of existing neurotransmitters or stimulating neurotransmitter receptors.  This is generally a better choice, because pharmaceuticals may cause the body to compensate by producing fewer neurotransmitters or decreasing its number of available receptors, which creates dependency and perpetuates the problem.

6) Certain vitamins and supplements help to maintain healthy signal conduction in your brain.  (If you think of #5 as building the cars, this would correspond to maintaining the highway.)  There are certain botanicals and homeopathic remedies that can also be very effective for this.

Finally, I spend a good deal of time talking to my patients who struggle with depression, and together we devise techniques to help manage and improve daily symptoms.  Some may be as simple as stress management techniques,  but the importance of a good counselor in certain cases cannot be overstated.

Are there topics that you’d like me to cover in future articles?  Email me your suggestions!

Dr Lauren Deville is board-certified to practice Naturopathic Medicine.  To receive her free e-book, “Ten Nutritional Supplements Everyone Should Have,” or to receive her monthly health and wellness newsletter, please sign up at www.drlaurendeville.com.  

I doubt anybody needs me to go into detail about what acne is.  Unfortunately it strikes right when we’re most emotionally vulnerable (during adolescence), although some people struggle with it well into adulthood.  Even more unfortunate, resistant cases are notoriously difficult to treat, because root causes can be so diverse and multifaceted.

Causes:

Certain drugs can cause acne, including steroids and certain birth control pills, among others.  Hormone fluctuations are frequently the culprit as well, of course, hence the correlation with puberty.  Deficiency in essential fatty acids (like O3 and O6) can contribute too, as can food sensitivities.  (For more explanations, see Naturopathic Treatments, below.)

Traditional Treatments:

1)      Topical antibacterial medications such as benzoyl peroxide or salicylic acid work by killing the bacteria causing the pimple and drying out the infected pore.  These are available over the counter, or in prescription form for more severe cases.

2)      Oral and topical antibiotics may be moderately to very effective for some patients.

3)      If your acne that flares at that time of the month, certain birth control pills may offer relief.  Some doctors prescribe spironolactone instead.  Spironolactone is a diuretic (pill that makes you pee) with hormonal activity.

4)      For more severe cases, topical tretinoin and oral isotretinoin (Retin-A) are available as well.  Retin-A is pretty nasty as far as side effects go, though, and it’s so dangerous in pregnancy that menstruating women are required by law to have pregnancy tests regularly.  Your doctor will also need to monitor your liver pretty closely.

5)      Some cosmetic procedures can also yield great results for getting rid of acne scars – especially photodynamic therapy.

From a naturopathic perspective, many of these treatments are considered suppressive.  That means toxic waste products that were otherwise escaping through the skin instead get shoved deeper into the body and cause damage elsewhere.

That said, it’s a cost/benefit analysis – a lot of teens may think the suppression is worth it, as long as these treatments get rid of their acne (and certainly, emotional trauma isn’t good for your health either!)

But is there a better way?

Naturopathic Treatments:

Yep, there sure is.  And, for those who have exhausted the traditional treatments and still haven’t gotten relief, there are other avenues to try.

1)      Clean up your diet.  (I always start there.)  The SAD (Standard American Diet) is high in processed foods full of bad oils that throw off the O3/O6 ratio at best, and cause a lot of other problems long-term too.  At this stage we’ll also assess whether you’ve got any food sensitivities contributing to your acne and get rid of those.

2)      Clean up your gut and your liver.  It’s an open secret in the naturopathic world that the gut and the skin are intimately connected.  Toxins (from our diet and our chemically-laden environment) are designed to get out through our primary escape routes.  For solid waste, the major escape route is the gut.  But a long-term inflammatory diet can set you up for poor enzyme function and an imbalance in gut flora.  Poor digestive function can mean that food doesn’t get broken down properly, creating even more toxic accumulation that the already overworked liver then has to clean up.  The result?  Those toxins can’t get out through the primary escape route (the gut).  So instead they try to get out through the “fire escape”… which is often the skin.

3)      Balance your hormones.  There are several ways we might go about this.  Hormone balancing may be a larger or smaller issue depending on the patient, and it may be necessary to draw labs in some cases.  But often avoidance of dairy (or at least sticking to organic which doesn’t have added hormones), some easy home remedies and a few key botanical and nutritional supplements (lovingly referred to as “magic pills” by a few of my patients) will do the job nicely.

4)      Treat the symptoms.  Retin-A is actually an analog of Vitamin A, and so I often prescribe the nutritional version at very high doses, which is far less dangerous but still contraindicated in pregnancy and should only be done under the care of a health care professional.  Of course, we’ll also assess mineral status for some other important nutrients for skin repair, and there are an assortment of natural topical remedies that work well for some patients.  Finally, our clinic also offers LED light therapy, which has antibacterial properties and can work well in really stubborn cases.

Sick of layering on makeup or trying to hide your acne?  Ready to GET RID OF IT?  Make an appointment today!

Are there topics that you’d like me to cover in future articles?  Email me your suggestions!

Dr Lauren Deville is board-certified to practice Naturopathic Medicine.  To receive her free e-book, “Ten Nutritional Supplements Everyone Should Have,” or to receive her monthly health and wellness newsletter, please sign up at www.drlaurendeville.com.