Category: <span>Blog</span>

Blog By Julie Lachman 0 Comments

Headaches: Over the Counter vs. Herbs

Instant relief but a long term issue.

Did you know that many women with headaches and migraines take Excedrin® migraine, which may help them somewhat?

What they don’t realize is that it might not be the Excedrin® that is helping them at all.

It might be the caffeine!

Caffeine actually supports a female hormone known as progesterone, and many women with headaches may actually have a female hormone imbalance. Does this mean you should go out and start using progesterone cream if you have migraines? Not necessarily.

With the best Naturopathic clinic, you can make more of the hormones you need, in just the right doses for you!

Did you know that people have been using herbs to treat migraines and headaches for hundreds of years?

In fact, there is a very popular herb called feverfew, which is found in many herbal headache and migraine products. There’s actually quite a bit of research on this herb and its use in headache and migraine!

It’s generally combined with other supportive nutrients, like B vitamins and magnesium. Together with these nutrients, feverfew is a superb herb to use for headaches and migraines

Naturopathic medicine provides individuals with options that are geared towards addressing the long term versus the instantaneous. Headache and migraine solutions are within your grasp. 

Blog • • • • • By Julie Lachman 0 Comments

Headaches and Hormones?

Hormones and Headaches

Are your headaches related to your hormones?

Women are more likely to have headaches and migraines than men. And, women with irregular cycles are even more likely to have headaches and migraines.

Hormones play a huge role in headache and migraine. You yourself may have found that birth control pills gave you headaches or migraines, or perhaps relieved them.

You may have found that you didn’t have any headaches or migraines when pregnant. What does this mean for you now?

It means that having balanced hormones should reduce the likelihood of headaches or migraines!

In fact, I haven’t seen a woman with a balanced cycle (if she’s of that age, of course) who had a headache or migraine.

Headaches and migraines are more common in women. In fact, the average migraine patient is a 40 year-old woman.

Some women report that before their period they get a headache or migraine. Or, it might be that they get it the first day or their menses. Sometimes it might be at ovulation.

If your cycle is irregular, you may not even have timed headaches or migraines to your cycle. But, it’s very likely that there is a relationship.

 

There are number of naturopathic treatments that doctor’s use to help patients with headaches and migraines. We offer a number of different and effective options in our office. Find out more here.

Blog By Julie Lachman 0 Comments

We Hate Headaches

Are headaches the worst? Yes!

If you’re reading this, you have probably suffered with unnecessary headaches. Maybe they have been going on for what seems like forever. Maybe they prevent you from completing your daily tasks. It may be surprising to learn that there are actually causes of headaches and migraines, and once you learn what causes your headache or migraine, it’s much easier to resolve and prevent them!

That’s right, there are actually underlying factors that are leading to headaches or migraines. Even if your headache goes away with a pill, the underlying factors remain. That’s why it’s really important to work with someone who can help you uncover YOUR underlying causes of headaches, so you can feel better!

How do headaches or migraines affect you? Are you more likely to not do your normal tasks around the house or at work? Or can you do them but don’t enjoy them as much? Do you need to be in a dark room? Do you tell your spouse to leave you alone? You  might do one or all of these things! Headaches and migraines can take the best you out of you! Getting a handle on headaches and migraines can actually give you tools so that you don’t have to suffer. With Naturopathic care, you should find that you actually have something to do or take that not only should help you relieve the current symptoms, but that has as its goal actually improving your health. When you are healthier you won’t be suffering. 

Prior to receiving treatment, patients would note how headaches would keep them from doing this that they normally love to do. Whether that is going out with friends or playing with their children, they would be unable to do so because of how bad their headaches were. This is NOT OK. With effective and natural treatment, our patients have been able to reclaim their lives!

Blog • • • • By Julie Lachman 0 Comments

Factors in autoimmune disease—IBD (Crohn’s and Colitis)

Is there a link between autoimmune diseases and IBD?

Naturopathic doctors take a holistic look at your Crohn’s disease (CD) or Ulcerative Colitis (UC) when helping patients with IBD. Naturopathic doctors are experts in holistic medicine, and are trained to treat the root cause of your abdominal pain, gas, diarrhea, or even fistula. As you may know, there is a lot of inflammation in IBD, and that is why many gastroenterologists treat IBD with anti-inflammatory drugs. But the drugs don’t treat the cause of the inflammation, which is an altered immune system. A healthy body doesn’t attack itself and cause inflammation. That wouldn’t be normal! So why is the digestive tract being attacked by the immune system in IBD (Crohn’s and Colitis)?

The first factor is an abnormal hormone system. How is the hormone system related to IBD and how can we use this knowledge to treat IBD?

Did you know that IBD has a peak age of onset from age 14 to age 24? Guess what happens in boys and girls around age 14? You guessed it, puberty! Puberty should not cause IBD, and in most people it doesn’t cause IBD, of course. Only if there is a problem with hormones will there be a problem in the body. But, any condition that starts around puberty probably has a hormonal component and has to be addressed in any treatment of IBD (UC or Crohn’s Disease).

Instead of addressing this underlying cause, most patients receive a prescription for a medication that merely covers up the symptoms of their disorder. If there is a way that you can find relief from a disease naturally, why wouldn’t you want to try it?

Naturopathic medicine encompasses a number of different techniques. Read about some of the services our office offers.

Blog IBS Irritable Bowel • • • • • By Julie Lachman 0 Comments

Irritable Bowel Disease (IBD) and you

Is drug free relief from IBD possible?

If you suffer with Irritable Bowel Disease (IBD) chronic diarrhea, rectal bleeding, abdominal pain are all too familiar and unwelcome. IBD includes Crohn’s disease and Ulcerative Colitis (UC). You know where all the bathrooms are in the businesses and homes you frequent. You may have gas and bloating, and feel generally sick. Treatments for IBD can also lead to other problems.

One drug commonly used to treat IBD is called 5-ASA.  This drug lowers inflammation in your body, and inflammation is causing the diarrhea and other symptoms. It does not regulate the inflammation to get you better, but temporarily lowers it while you take it. Unfortunately there are many side effects to this drug, including lowered sperm count in men, nutrient absorption problems (which, of course, leads to any number of other health issues), and can cause severe liver problems.

If you are taking this strong drug you know you need to take a vitamin called folate (folic acid) with this drug to prevent at least one deficiency. Unfortunately, 40% of people can’t use folate from a standard vitamin, and need a special kind of folate called methylfolate, which you can easily order online or find at a pharmacy. Even if you take a drug and it seems to help with your symptoms, it will never really get rid of the IBS because it doesn’t treat the cause. If you want to get rid of your IBS once and for all, you have to heal it from the inside. The drug is there to control the symptom, and that’s great if it works, but instead of asking, ‘What drug do I take for IBS?’, we can ask, ‘Why do I have IBS?’. 

Naturopathic doctors are experts in holistic medicine. IBD can dictate your life. Don’t let it.

Read on for more in the next post.