Musings
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There are No Winners: Traditional Chinese Medicine and Burnout
Instead of asking, “Have I worked hard enough to deserve to rest?, I’ve started asking, ‘Have I rested enough to do my most loving and meaningful work?’. -Nicola Jane Hobbs Today we are experiencing an opportunity. An emotional unraveling. A mental health breakdown. We are bombarded in social media with…
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The Role of Confidence in Health, and How to Achieve It
Micheal Jordan may have character flaws, but self-doubt isn’t one of them. One of our children has started to develop the habit of negative self-talk. We’re not exactly certain from where this habit has begun to form: maybe it’s a normal part of teen behaviour, that “this sucks” attitude; maybe…
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Living to 100: the Mystery Solved!
Full disclosure: this isn’t the revelation of a scientific discovery. More me organizing my thoughts after having had a small epiphany of sorts. Over the years I’ve been asked the question: “How can I live to 100?” more than once (and once, “200”, by a particularly optimistic patient). The conversations…
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Everything You Need to Know About Light Therapy for Seasonal Affective Disorder (SAD)
The value of light therapy for treatment of Seasonal Affective Disorder (SAD) is well established1, 2, 3, but for those interested in pursuing this approach, the obstacles are the time to determine which product will be potentially most effective, and how to implement use to achieve a therapeutic effect. The purpose…
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SIBO (Small Intestine Bacterial Overgrowth) Breath Test
Is the SIBO breath test the right laboratory test for you? In our experience, many persons having digestive symptoms receive a diagnosis of irritable bowel syndrome (IBS), but no particular guidance in identifying possible causes, or options for treatment other than symptom management (e.g., laxatives). SIBO (Small Intestinal Bacterial Overgrowth) breath…
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Hangover Prevention – Because We’re There for You
It’s holiday party season, and with that, for many, holiday “over-drinking season” (that’s a discrete was of writing hangover). There are a number of factors that appear to contribute to the symptoms experienced in a hangover: inflammation, oxidative stress and alcohol-induced nutrient deficiency specifically, that suggest that certain natural medicines…
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To Flu Vaccine, or Not Flu Vaccine – 2018 Edition
The flu vaccine is “released” annually in October, and with it, begins our season of answering the question: “Should I get the flu vaccine?”. As naturopathic doctors, prescribing the flu vaccine, or advising against it lies outside out scope of practice. We can however help you to make an informed…
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Bowen Therapy – Addressing the Missing Piece in Pain Treatments
This post is the outcome of being asked repeatedly how Bowen Therapy works, either by patients skeptical of gentle pressure effectively reducing symptoms of chronic pain, or shocked by the fact that gentle pressure successfully relieved their chronic pain where more aggressive treatments did not. It draws primarily on a…
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Bowen Therapy – A Case Report of Successful Treatment of Migraine Headaches
I’m writing this post to share some research I stumbled across in the course of my day-to-day work, researching treatments for patients having range of health concerns, in this case migraine headaches. I won’t spend a lot of time here offering background into the nature of migraine headaches: if you…
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Vitamin C – More than you care to know about it!
Recently, a patient asked me about a specific vitamin C product, basically whether it was worth paying a premium for. In order to offer them the most accurate answer I could, I decided to confirm a few facts before replying, and ended up going down bit of a rabbit hole.…
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Spirituality in the Experience of Breast Cancer
Here’s something I wrote, for a class while I was a student at the Canadian College of Naturopathic Medicine (I don’t remember which class, but something women’s health- or oncology-related seems like a reasonable guess). Prayer came up recently, somehow, in an appointment of Du’s, and she asked me if…
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Why You Should Meditate
In a conversation with a patient yesterday, we discussed the ways in which a meditation practice may help him resolve his health concern. In the course of this discussion, I found myself referring to different articles I had read on the various benefits of meditation. It occurred to me, much…