Understanding Blood Work

The physicians at Emerald City Clinic examine all aspects of your life including what is flowing thru your body to design therapeutic plans to optimize your health.   The “normal ranges” of the lab results are based on the average American and our ranges are based on optimizing your health which may not necessarily fall within that range. Your blood is divided into two basic components:

1. Blood cells or Solids

•  Red blood cells that carry oxygen
• White blood cells which is your immune system
• Platelets that are there to help with clotting

2. Serum or Fluids:  This carries everything else we examine.The CBC or complete blood count is how we examine the solids.  We do counts of the red cells, white cells and platelets. 

1.  White blood cells are for our immune system.  They are our troops and should run between 5000-6000.   Besides the overall number, there are different types.  We should have 60% neutrophils (which are our swat team), 30% lymphocytes (which is our artillery), <10% monocytes (which fight virus), <5% eosinophils (which fight parasites and airborne allergies) and finally basophils which should be below <4% and our an inflammatory marker.
2. Red blood cells should be somewhere between  3.8 and 4.2 million cells.  They carry our oxygen and should be a certain size and shape which your physician also looks at.
3. Platelets should run around 250 and are responsible for proper clotting.

In the fluids of the blood, also called serum, we have a plethora of things we can examine.  There are entire books written on what can be found in your blood.  I will attempt to give an overview of categories:1.  Enzymes:  Every organ has its own enzymatic system.  If those enzymes are too high it usually indicates cell death in that organ.  If it is too low, it usually means the organ is under functioning and therefore has no recycling of the cell structure.  Under this category we have the following organ systems that we routinely look at:

• Kidneys:  BUN (blood urea nitrogen), Creatinine, GFR (glomular filtration rate)
• Liver:  AST, ALT
• Bones:  Alk phos

2.Individual chemicals: Items that are truly not enzymes

• Sodium/Potassium:  this is a reflection of adrenal function and neurological function since all the nerves run on sodium/potassium pumps
• Chloride/CO2:  tells us about the pH of the system and the digestive track
• Bilirubin:   fat digestion

3.  Inflammatory markers:  These are values we are looking for to rate overall inflammation in the body.

• CRP:   this is mostly cardiovascular but can be elevated due to other issues
• Uric acid:  marker for gout which is an arthritic condition
• Homocysteine:  vascular inflammation
• GTT:  liver inflammation
• Ferritin:  when high it is a general inflammatory marker
• Sed rate:  a measurement of red blood cell damage and therefore general inflammatory marker
• HgA1c:  hemoglobin A 1C:  average sugar level 24 hours/day for 3 months

4.  Cholesterol:   Many years ago we talked about “good” cholesterol (meaning HDLs) and “bad” cholesterol (meaning LDLs).  What we have found out is that there are many types of LDLs, HDLs. They are fragments that all have different roles.  The important thing about cholesterol is that an appropriate balance is needed because all our hormones, immune system,  nervous systems and skin, to name a few things are made from these building blocks.5. Hormones: There are the messengers of the body and travel from one location to another to direct our bodies.  Most hormones have a storage unit and a biological active version that is more potent and shorter acting.  Most hormones also are in a bound form when they travel around the body but most be “free” of their protein bound to influence the body.  Most often we want more of the storage version then active version so that our hormonal savings accounts are not depleted.  There are many more hormones than I will address but these are the most common we examine

• Thyroid
  • TSH (thyroid stimulating hormone) directs the thyroid to produce its hormone
  • T3:  short liver, biologically active hormone for about 6 hours
  • T4:   storage unit and is around for 12-14 hoursThe Female and Male hormones are found in both sexes and are needed in different amounts in both sexes.  One hormone is the transportation hormone for all sex hormones.  It is SHBG (sex hormone binding globulin).  If this hormone is too high then the hormone can NOT be delivered, the trucks are too sticky
• Female hormones:
  • FSH (follicle stimulating hormone) and LH (luteinizing hormones):  these direct the production of our eggs
  • Estrongens:  There are three versions of estrogens.
  • Estriol:  E3  shortest acting, biological active and most protective
  • Estradiol:  E2,  longer acting and also protective
  • Estrone:  E1, longest acting and most associated with hormone directed diseases
  • Progesterone:  highest in the second half of menstrual cycle and needs to be in balance with the estrogens
• Male hormones:
  • Testosterone:  comes in both a bound version (total testosterone) and unbound version (free testosterone)DHEA:   This hormone is a precursor to the estrogens and testosterone and support of the adrenal glands.  It too comes in bound version  (DHEA) and unbound version (DHEA –SO4).
• Vitamin D:  I am not sure whether to put this in immune system,  inflammatory marker or in hormones.  But I believe vitamin D acts like a hormone.
• Cortisol:   I leave this to last as this is the number one complaint of my clients.  I am tired.  Cortisol, also called, adrenaline is the measurement of our base energy.

I have put on our website my naturopathic normal for these values.  Remember the interpretation of labs is really an art and science and this just scratches the surface.  But the more we educate our clients the better they can manage their health and advocate for themselves.By Dr. Molly Niedermeyer 

Bringing Back the Castor Oil Pack

Castor oil has been used for thousands of years throughout many cultures.  Some reports show it being used as far back as 4000BC by the Greeks and India has a rich history of using it in their traditional ayurvedic medical practices.  Medicinally it has been most commonly used as a strong laxative but it has also been touted for its strong anti-inflammatory and analgesic action topically as well as its antimicrobial effect.  Surprisingly, the castor bean, if eaten whole, can be fatal due to a poisonous lectin component called ricin.  When the oil is pressed out of the bean, the toxic ricin is left behind so ingestion of the oil is not toxic, but its purgative (laxative) action is nothing to mess around with without the instruction of a health care professional.  The castor pack, on the other hand, is a different story.  The anti-inflammatory and analgesic effects of castor oil make it an easy at home treatment for many aches and pains.  Here’s a quick rundown of the best way to get relief from castor oil:

1. Smear the oil over the affected area.
2. Cover with old flannel that you’ve dedicated to the cause (castor oil stains are forever.)
3. Put a heat source over top of the flannel.
4. Lay back and relax for 30-60 minutes to let the heat drive the oil in.

Some of the most common topical uses of castor oil include muscle and joint aches and pains, gas and bloating, gall bladder colic, and menstrual cramps.  It can also be beneficial as a gentle detoxification when placed over the liver.  The liver is the main processing system of the body and helps to eliminate toxins from the blood, if the liver is congested (overloading leading to back up) it cannot do its job as effectively.  Castor oil packs over the liver help relieve this congestion so the body is better able to detox.  Castor oil is inexpensive (a little goes a long way) and available for purchase at most health food and supplement stores as well as here at Emerald City Clinic.  For more detailed instructions, check out our castor oil pack hand out here on our website ---> http://www.emeraldcityclinic.com/educational/pdfs/castor.pdfBy Jenna Jorgensen, ND

Providing Quality Care

Often patients question the need for follow up visits particularly in this day and age of easy online access to lab results that many clinics offer. We historically have not offered this service for a simple reason. We find that it does not generate quality patient care.There are many elements that go into a personal visit with our physicians that may not be immediately apparent. First of all, you are not “just another patient” to us. We strive to have a deep understanding of what has brought you to your current health state and what is needed to restore health and balance. So when we sit down with you to review labs we have a context that we are interpreting your labs from that is much broader than most providers offer as we look at the whole person. We are not just thinking of your health from the symptom that you presented with but all of you, body, mind and spirit.One of the principals of Naturopathic medicine is that of Docere, doctor as teacher. Teaching clients about their health and ways to improve it is core to our medicine. It has been our experience that when you sit with a client and review labs that understanding helps motivate clients to make changes. There is that “Ah ha” moment that allow the shift in behavior or lifestyle. The other benefit is that it often elicits further personal or family medical history that is important to overall care. So we will continue to advocate for that personal one to one relationship we have with clients.  Teaching clients and treating the whole person is our work and our passion.By Paris Preston, ND

Your Friendly Fever

I’ve written before about why fevers are a good thing.  As a reminder, they both stimulate our immune system and often slow down if not directly kill infectious organisms.  Fevers aren’t comfortable, but they are useful and even important.  In fact, before we had antibiotics that were effective against syphilis, syphilis patients were sometimes infected with malaria because the high fevers associated with malaria would kill syphilis and malaria was safer than syphilis!By suppressing a fever with aspirin or ibuprofen or Tylenol, you’re not allowing the body to go through the course of its normal immune response.  This also means that the immune system might not go through all the normal steps to effectively stop itself after the infection is clear.  The result can be a less efficient immune response or potentially even increased autoimmunity or allergies.  Our bodies have an incredible design.  Enzymes that perform different functions are temperature sensitive.  Most of our day to day enzymes function best around 98.6 degrees Fahrenheit.  Immune enzymes function better at higher temperatures.  Chronically low temperatures can mean chronically in-efficient enzyme function in almost every organ system.How we manage a fever can have profound implications for how quickly we recover from an acute illness as well as how our bodies deal with more chronic complaints.  I think of fever as a period of clearing and detoxification.  Physiologically, the body actually shuts down digestion during a fever and instead begins to break down muscle to use as fuel.  The liver becomes activated to process all of the breakdown and the immune molecules flowing through the body.Because digestion is shut down, eating during a fever can lead to increased toxicity and can push your body to process more than it should.  It can cause toxic undigested food to build up in the digestive tract, which can further stress the liver.  It can also pull essential resources away from fighting the infection and toward trying to deal with the food.  While hydration is vital during a fever, I do not recommend eating.Rather than eating, consider drinking water, nettle tea, other herbal teas, vegetable broth, or very dilute juice.  If energy is very low, you might drink something like coconut water, which will provide some glucose and great electrolytes without giving the body much to break down and process.  Typically, you’d want to fast and give complete rest until the fever has been gone for at least 24 hours.  When reintroducing foods, start with broths or blended vegetable soup for the first day and then return to solid foods following your appetite afterwards.There are a few dangers to fever.  A temperature that is too high can cause organ damage, but this typically won’t occur below 107 degrees Fahrenheit.  What is far more likely is dehydration since fluids evaporate so much faster from a hotter person.  Dehydration can then cause the person to run hotter than they otherwise would, because it’s harder for the body to cool itself naturally.  Febrile seizures can occur in children and the risk is higher in a dehydrated child.  While febrile seizures typically have no lasting side effects, they can be dangerous if they go on for a long time, if the child falls and hits his or her head.  They are also scary for parents to watch!Knowing what is normal and where the line of safety is when you haven’t navigated a fever this way can sometimes feel a little scary.  It’s a good idea to call your doctor and let them know what is going on so they can help you manage.  Your naturopath can help you assess if hydration is adequate or if the fever is getting too high.  We typically recommend that you call us before the fever hits a dangerous stage so we can reduce your anxiety and help you know how to keep the fever in a safe and useful range.  In an infant under 3 months, if the temp reaches 101 call right away.  For children 3 months to 13 years, call if the fever has been over 102 for more than 48 hours.  Adults don’t tend to spike fevers quite as high, so you may want to call with a temp over 101.5 for more than 48 hours.  Remember that fevers will often go up by a degree in the evening, so a relatively high fever in the morning can become an intense fever later in the day.  We’re always here to help you manage the fever safely, so even if you’re not sure about a lower fever, we’d prefer that you call than worry.   Naturopathic care also has many supportive measures that can help the fever feel less uncomfortable without suppressing it.  These include particular herbs, homeopathy, or use of hydrotherapy.By Erin Westaway, ND

What is visceral manipulation?

"Visceral manipulation" sounds mildly daunting, but in reality it is a gentle manual therapy technique that can be quite helpful to many people.  Viscera is fancy terminology for the internal organs such as the stomach, liver, intestines, lungs, heart, uterus, and bladder, so "visceral manipulation" is simply adjusting the location and movement of those organs so they can function optimally. Just like larger muscles, they can get "knots" or restrictions in their movements that inhibit optimal functioning.  Practitioners trained in visceral manipulation are trained to find where these restrictions are and to release them in a gentle manner so that the organs can return to a relaxed state. An example of a common restriction is a hiatal hernia in which a small portion of the stomach slips up into the esophagus, this commonly causes heartburn and reflux symptoms and is remedied by pulling the stomach back down using visceral manipulation techniques. Other common complaints that are good candidates for visceral manipulation include menstrual cramping, liver and gallbladder congestion, cramping of the diaphragm, constipation, diarrhea, nausea, gas/bloating, disbiosis, and asthma. What to check this therapy out for yourself?  Schedule a 30 minute Visceral Intro Session with Dr. Jenna Jorgensen, for $44 ($24 for Full Circle patients) at more than 50% discount!  Dr. Jenna has trained for 3 years in the technique of visceral manipulation along with other physical techniques that truly make her practice unique. 

What Is That You're Eating?

Many of my patients often tell me they feel confused about what to eat.  This is a complicated question based on the individual patient, but I have a couple of recommendations that are across the board and apply to just about everyone.

1. Eat a diet that is based on whole foods.  Technically a whole food is a food that isn’t processed and has no parts removed.  OK, so you’re going to chop and cook your food – that’s fine.  But eat food!  Start with as close to the whole food as possible and avoid packaged foods.  Shop around the perimeter of the grocery store.
2. Eat less sugar.  By sugar I mean anything containing sweeteners (sugar, agave, honey, brown rice syrup, maltodextrin, fructose, corn syrup, high fructose corn syrup, maltose, malt, fruit juice sweetener, evaporated cane juice, etc.)  Generally if you’re eating a whole foods diet, this will happen naturally.  Baking and sauces is where we tend to add sugar if we’re cooking at home, so watch out for this.  If you’re buying any premade food assume that it is sweetened unless you read the ingredients and see otherwise. This is true even if you’re at a restaurant and even if you’re shopping at the local natural foods co-op or Whole Foods.  When I ask my patients to really break the sugar habit, meaning I ask them to read ingredients on everything they consume, typically they are shocked by the amount of sugar in everything.  I cannot emphasize enough the degree to which sugar intake is implicated in almost every chronic illness on the rise in this country.  That list includes (and is not even remotely limited to): cancer, diabetes, heart disease, digestive complaints, hormonal imbalance, anxiety, insomnia, fatty liver disease, depression, and arthritis.
3. Stop eating chemicals!  Maybe you’re thinking:  “I’m reading a blog by a naturopath about what to eat; of course I wouldn’t eat chemicals!”  Maybe that’s true.  Take this challenge: go home and look in your pantry.  Pull out anything that has an ingredient that you don’t really know what it means.   This includes the statement “natural flavors” and “artificial flavors”.  Ever wondered what those terms mean?  So do I.  Unfortunately they are so vague, I can’t even tell you.  What I can tell you is that a typical flavor includes around 100 ingredients and about 80-90% of those ingredients are synthetic chemicals that companies are not required to report.  One known ingredient even in “natural flavors” is propylene glycol, which is no longer allowed in pet food due to the fact that it causes anemia in cats.  I think I’d rather leave it out of my food as well.  The fact is that we really don’t know what a lot of food additives and preservatives do.  We often discover later that some of them contribute to cancer and other illnesses.  My general rule is stick with eating things that humans have been eating safely for thousands of years and avoid chemicals and additives with unknown or harmful impacts on the body.

Measles Vaccine Scare

I have been getting lots of emails and questions about whether my clients made good decision not to immunize their children and rather to reconsider their decision in the light of the Disney measles outbreak.  I support you in re-examining your decisions but my medical advise generally speaking is that the risk of live vaccines, with preservatives and chemicals in them, outweigh the risk of the possibility of catching the disease.  A healthy immune system is designed to withstand these immunological insults and actually have been designed to be stimulated an improved by these child hood diseases if caught at a young age.  Minimally, a good immune system is the best defense against any illness along with frequent hand washing.This media frenzy and medical scare tactics are convenient for the dominant medical model to continue to pressure families into immunization decisions.  It is true that of all the childhood diseases we immunize for, the measles is one of the riskiest diseases to get.  Unfortunately, there is no way to get the measles vaccine solo without the others as well. Opening up a conversation individually about your choices,  your children's individual health and immune status is legitimate but should not be done over emails if you have concerns.  The best approach is to analyze individual risks and benefits of either immunizing or not as well as some of the alternative energetic approaches we can also engage in once you make an appointment with your Emerald City Clinic physician.By Dr. Molly Niedermeyer, ND

Bone Broth to Keep you Healthy During the Winter!

Despite Seattle’s recent mild weather we are still in the winter season, which in many traditions is the ideal time for nourishing the body through diet. One of the simplest ways to do this is with bone broth. Bone broth has been prepared in cultures across the globe for centuries both in times of sickness (i.e. chicken noodle soup), and in health (supports hair, skin, bones, nails. GI tract, tendons, etc). Bone broth has gained a lot of attention recently as a new fad food with shops similar to coffee shops serving bone broth in New York. Bone broth is easy to make, tastes yummy, good on its own or used as a base for other cooking. See the Emerald City website’s handouts section for yummy bone broth ideas and recipes.

By Dr. Chad Borys, ND, LAc

How to Create Healthy Habits

In 2009, a study in the European Journal of Social Psycology, found that the average number of days it takes to incorporate a new habit into a daily routine is 66.  As I write, we are 12 days into the month of January, the most popular time for people to be challenging new habits.  In case you are needing some inspiration to keep working on a new healthy habit, go ahead and put a gold star on the calendar for Monday March 9th as this will be 66 days from January 1st.  Be persistent until then and you may just have yourself a new healthy habit!By Dr. Jenna Jorgensen, ND

Winter's Storage: A Chinese Medicine Perspective

As many of you know I grew up in Colorado, where even on the coldest, snowiest winter days you can still expect some sunshine. Needless to say, the adjustment to Seattle’s winters always comes as a shock to me. Seattle, with its two hundred plus cloudy days yearly, can be a challenging environment especially in the winter, with our long nights and short rainy days. However, Seattle is also the perfect environment to embody the spirit of winter and nourish your body and spirit.              From a Chinese medicine perspective, the seasons are a beacon for directing our daily lives; they inform us what to eat and how to live throughout the year to maintain health. Humans and nature are intimately intertwined and this relationship directs us not only in maintaining our health and preventing illness, but also into cultivating our inner mindset and character. In Chinese medicine, winter is the season of the kidneys, which is the organ of our root essence and constitution. It directs who we are, how we think, our immune system, and ultimately how we age and develop. In many respects the kidneys are the principle organ we need to protect and nourish throughout our lives. To start nourishing your kidneys this winter, I have outlined some tips below:

1. Rest: During winter, the cold drives our qi/energy deeper in order to conserve and store energy for the upcoming year. It is the time of year that we need to go to bed earlier and sleep in later. Seattle’s winters are perfect for this, as our lighting provides lots of natural cues for enabling plenty of sleep. Exhaustion at this time of year is more harmful than during any other season, and can impair the ability to fully function and be healthy the following summer. From a Chinese Medicine perspective, exhaustion at this time of year is a sign that you may have overdone it during the summer months, and now your body is having to work harder to recuperate the lost energy.
2. Inner reflection: Winter is the time to reflect and deepen our sense of self. It is the time of the year that we look inward and start to reintegrate our experiences and learnings from the past year. Consider starting a journal or cultivating a meditation practice as ways to promote inner reflection, and avoid turning on the television.
3. Pursue creative outlets: Find ways to prevent “cabin fever.” Read books and day dream, write poetry, paint, take dance lessons…the opportunities are endless in Seattle. As opposed to the summer when “yang” or the active energy in our lives peaks, winter is the peak time for “yin” energy, which is the imaginative and nursing aspect of our being. This is the time to let go of linear rigid ways of being and to invent or rediscover new possibilities.
4. Exercise daily: While rest is essential in the winter, we also need to guard against lethargy and stagnate energy with daily exercise. Consider looking on livingsocial.com or groupon.com for deals on exercise classes.
5. Diet: In the winter, cold air drives the body’s heat inward and food should be taken to support this. Spices likes cardamom, ginger, garlic, cumin, and cinnamon all help to support digestion and maintain body heat. On the other hand spicy foods, like curries and salsas, tend to be eaten in warmer climates to bring heat to the surface by inducing us to sweat and should be avoided. We also need to avoid cold foods (iced drinks, raw foods, salads, dairy, soy milk, juices), as they impair the digestive fires and create coldness in the body. A poor diet in winter creates extra work for the body by diverting energy to maintain the body’s warmth and ultimately can make us more susceptible to illness in the coming year. Think of thanksgiving dinner with its many warming foods (turkey, yams, stuffing, hot apple cider, etc); everything is cooked and spiced to help support the winter season. Also, consider salting food to taste and adding foods with higher mineral content to meals (seaweed, nettles), as salt is the flavor of winter and nourishes the adrenal glands.
6. Dress warmly: Cover the back of your neck with a scarf, and wear a hat and warm socks.

By Dr. Chad Borys, ND, LAc

Naturopathic Doctors 101

“You’re a Na-tur-ro…what?”  This is not an uncommon phase to be heard by a Naturopathic Physician, even here in Seattle where there is a good concentration of Naturopathic Doctors (NDs). Even patients of NDs are often unaware of the plethora of therapies and services NDs are trained in.  Naturopathic Doctors attend one of 5 accredited universities in the United States, the two largest being Bastyr University in Seattle, WA and the National College of Natural Medicine in Portland, OR.  These doctorate level programs are a minimum of 4 years long with a competitive option for another 1-3 years of residency. Naturopathic medical school curriculum contains the same basic sciences of conventional medical school (anatomy, physiology, biochemistry, pathology, pharmacology, etc…) as well as additional classes in naturopathic-specific therapies.  Examples of these Naturopathic-specific therapies include: nutritional therapies, counseling, botanical medicine, homeopathy, and physical medicine.  This education prepares graduates of accredited programs to enter the medical profession as primary care physicians after passing the Naturopathic licensing board exams (NPLEX).   There are 17 states (and counting) that provide licensure for NDs currently in the United States.  Each of those states governs a different scope of practice for NDs practicing within their state lines.  For example, the state of Washington has a rather comprehensive scope of practice, NDs are licensed as primary care providers with prescribing rights for the majority of common pharmaceuticals and have coverage by most insurances in the state.  So how does a Naturopathic Doctor practice?Naturopathic doctors follow the same general model as Medical doctors, with extra assessments and therapies incorporated.  The process looks something like this:

1. Obtain a detailed history of the patient’s current and past medical issues.
2. Perform appropriate physical exam to aid in diagnosis
3. Order any necessary labs or imaging
4. Determine biomedical assessment and Naturopathic assessment
5. Decide upon proper Naturopathic and conventional treatment options for the individual patient.
6. Provide efficient follow up

Some special considerations that NDs add to medical assessment include:

• General Lifestyle (diet, hydration, exercise, sleep)
• Nutritional stress
• Chemical and environmental stress
• Elimination channels and detoxification processes
• Hormonal stress
• Mental, emotional, and spiritual health
• Structural stress

What does this look like at Emerald City Clinic?Emerald City Clinic is a shining example of a Naturopathic primary care practice.  Our services include:

• Annual exams (both male and female)
• Chronic disease management
• Acute disease management (for established patients)
• Minor surgical procedures (wart removal, skin tag removal, cervical dysplasia treatments)
• Well child exams
• Pediatric care
• Prenatal care
• Standard laboratory assessment
• IV therapies (nutritional and rehydration)
• Acupuncture
• Manual therapies such as Naturopathic manipulations, craniosacral, and visceral manipulation
• PIP claims (for established patients)
• Biofeedback and counseling
• Weight management
• Stress management
• Detoxification therapies and environmental medicine
• Heavy metal toxicity assessment and management
• Immune system assessment and autoimmune management
• Digestive health assessment and management

While this provides a good idea of what our physicians can address, the best way to find out how we can help you specifically, is to come in for a visit. Also, be sure to keep us in mind when you’re making your New Year’s resolutions, here are some ideas for how our physicians can assist you in the New Year:

• Support and direction in your weight management goals: why are those extra pounds sticking around for you, specifically?
• Baseline health assessments: when was the last time you had routine bloodwork and a physical exam?
• Nutritional counseling: how to eat healthy in the New Year and prepare for spring detox.
• Elimination diet and anti-inflammatory diet guidance: what food sensitivities are causing inflammation in your body?
• Manual therapy: Are aches and pains preventing you from starting on a regular exercise regime?

By Dr. Jenna Jorgensen, ND

Holiday Stress Relievers

Stress is neither good nor bad, it just is.   The stress we put on our bones allows them to remain strong.  Emotional stress allows us to learn adaptive strategies.  Often it is our attitudes and ability to “let go” that mitigate any resulting harmful effects. When we are stressed it causes our cortisol or adrenaline to rise.  This in turns causes vasoconstriction of the peripheral blood system so that all the blood on the “outside” of our bodies goes to the deep places such as the survival part of the brain, the heart and lungs, and the quads and gluts so we can run from danger.  In turn the reduced blood flow to the periphery causes a myriad of symptoms including short term memory loss, alopecia or loss of hair, headaches, blurred vision, temperature regulation problems, and digestive problems; just to name a few.Stress also causes insomnia as we are not supposed to sleep through danger.  Eventually we wear out and end up with depression, hypoglycemia, and lack of motivation.  So, how to minimize the effects of stress? Here are some “simple” things you can do:Physically you must keep your sugar levels stable.  This means eat protein every 3-4 hours and have plenty of vegetables.   Stay hydrated so your blood vessels are relaxed.Walk it off whenever you start to feel overwhelmed; step away from the stress and go outside.   There are therapists that have couples wear pulse meters and when their heart rate gets over 100 beats per minute (bpm) in some upsetting situation they terminate the session and have people “walk it off.”  The reason for this is that when your heart rate is over 100 bpm, then your cerebral cortex, where we process logically, is NOT functioning and you are in your limbic system, which is all emotional survival.  Not a good place to think critically.  So it is important to “walk it off” and leave the stressful situation until you have calmed yourself.  Aerobic exercise with concurrent sweating also helps metabolize stress hormones.  If you exercise regularly you have prepared your blood vessels to handle emotional stressors. An exercise routine is a good investment in managing stress in addition to all the other health benefits found in exercise.Sleep helps with stress, but 65% of all Americans lose sleep over stress.  It is a viscous cycle because a lack of sleep raises stress hormones, which in turn raise blood pressure and blood sugar.  Some simple things to try are having a bedtime routine (good sleep hygiene), no TV or computer screens but instead dim lighting, soft music, reading.  The bedroom should be cool, dark, quiet and comfortable. If you have trouble sleeping for more than 3 nights in a row it is time to consult your Emerald City Clinic physician.Do not add fuel to the stressful fire.  Unhealthy habits such as alcohol, sugar, caffeine, cigarettes and overeating add to the overall stress to the body.Spend time with happy people as it really fills us with oxytocin, a hormone that relaxes us.   Laughter and hugs relax us and relax our blood vessels lowering blood pressure and stress hormones.Make choices that do not feel like obligations and “should” but spend time with people that improve your feeling of self worth.    Recently I spent time with my daughter, Brittany who is in her PhD program for Counseling, Psychology.  She and I were discussing that she prefers the wellness model for mental health; much like a Naturopathic perspective of focusing on optimal health.  With that in mind she had me take a test that focuses on your emotional strengths.  I would like to share that website.  It is www.viacharacter.org and you can register for free, after you fill it in you can watch the YouTube piece on “strength of character” that explains your outcome.  I think during this holiday season we should focus on what we do well and share it.  Wishing you all a peaceful, love-filled holiday season.Dr. Molly Niedermeyer, ND

Getting Sick: A Step In The Right Direction

Why You Don’t Want To Suppress Your Next Cold or FluIt’s likely that you’ll get a cold or flu this year at some point.  How you choose to deal with it may actually be more important for your long term health than you realize.  As a naturopath, I think about these acute illnesses a little differently than you’re used to and I find it’s helpful for my patients to understand my thought process.  Hopefully this will help you take a new perspective on this year’s cold or flu.The body is smart.  This is the principle from which I operate.  When we get acutely ill, often this is the body’s attempt to get rid of something harmful.  The mucous produced in a respiratory infection helps to clear out infectious organisms (if we let it).  When we have food poisoning, diarrhea helps to clear out the organism.  When we sweat during a fever, we decrease our inflammation. Getting an occasional acute illness and then clearing it in a short period of time tells us that the immune system is capable of responding and is doing its job.  When I have patients who do not get acutely ill at all for several years, I begin to be concerned that they may not be releasing things from their body and may be building up inflammatory toxins, which can lead to more chronic illness.  I also wonder if the immune system is working effectively in these patients, which you need it to do in order to prevent long term issues like cancer.Don’t get me wrong, I don’t want my patients to be excessively ill or to be sick frequently or for long periods of time.  I just want to know that the body is getting rid of things every so often, responding appropriately, and recovering efficiently.  Ideally, my patients would have no more than 1 cold or flu/year and no less than 1 fever every 3 years.Finally, it forces you to slow down.  Let’s face it; many of you will only pause when you’re sick.  Often getting sick is your body’s way of telling you that something needs to shift.  Maybe it’s just that you need a break for a few days or it may be that there is a larger pattern in life that needs to be changed.Why Fevers Are Useful:A Fever is the body’s way of stimulating the immune system.  Many parts of the immune system are temperature activated.  Immune activity tends to be greater at higher temperatures.  Conversely, many bacteria and viruses do not replicate as quickly at higher temperatures.  By creating a fever, the body is able to stimulate its own defenses and slow down the infectious organism  in order to fight the infection more effectively.  By allowing the fever to run its course, you actually allow your body to fight the infection faster!  Many of the aches and pains we feel during a fever are actually caused by our own immune activity, not the infectious organism itself.  When we suppress the fever with Tylenol, Advil, Motrin, or Aspirin, we’re actually interfering with our immune system’s ability to fight.  Fevers are uncomfortable it’s true, but they do have a purpose. Decongestants:As I explained earlier, mucous is part of your body’s way of protecting mucous membranes and getting irritants out of the body.  When you take an over the counter decongestant that dries up mucous, yes you can breathe more easily for a few hours, but you are interfering with your body’s attempt to do its job.  In a way, it is keeping the infectious agent or the allergen in the body.  Many over the counter decongestants are also stimulants.  While this makes you feel like you’re more energetic, it ends up causing many people to ignore their symptoms instead of resting.  This means your immune energy is diverted to other things and you can end up both more tired and sick for longer than you might have without the decongestant.Antibiotics:There is a time and a place for the use of antibiotics, but that time is much less often than most people realize.  In this country, even according to most conventional medical specialists, antibiotics are prescribed far too frequently.  Often they are prescribed when there is no specific evidence of a bacterial infection.  They do not work against viral infections.  The more we use them, the more resistant bacteria become and the less effective they are when they are really necessary to save lives.  They also kill the good bacteria that you need in your digestive tract to support normal digestion, production of essential nutrients, immune system function, and nervous system balance, among other things.  Killing the bacteria in the digestive tract can have far reaching health impacts for years to come and is associated with many chronic illnesses.When You Get Sick

1. Instead of suppressing a fever (as long as it isn’t too high), let it be.  If it needs to be lowered a bit so that you can be comfortable enough to sleep, try chamomile ginger tea, which will help you release some of the heat without suppressing the system overall.
2. If you don’t have a fever at all, try the warming sock treatment, which can be found on our website.  This is used to increase body temperature and thereby stimulate immune response.  Do not use it when someone already has a fever, as it can raise the temperature higher than we would like.
3. Avoid sugar, alcohol, and coffee, which can interfere with immune function.
4. Hydrate well.  This is especially important if you have a fever and are sweating.
5. Eat soup!  Home-made soups can be immune stimulating and can help to replace electrolytes lost during sweating with a fever.  A home electrolyte broth can be made by boiling equal parts carrots, celery, potato, and onion in water.  If you eat meat, a bone broth with those veggies in it is even better.
6. Avoid dairy when congested.
7. Rest!  Really.  Many people try and push through being sick.  This not only exposes others to your illness, but takes energy away from your immune system and makes it harder for it to do its job.  Your body doesn’t really care what you were supposed to do that day.  You still need rest.
8. Specific herbs and vitamins can help to stimulate immune function, break up and move mucous to get it out, and kill infectious organisms without disrupting your good bacteria.  Homeopathy can also be very supportive.  Your naturopath can help you figure out which formulas are best suited for your individual health.

When To Call Your Doctor:

1. You’ve been sick for more than 3 days and you’re not getting better.
2. Adults with a fever over 101.5, children with a fever over 102 (this isn’t necessarily a problem, but it’s helpful to get the doctor involved before it becomes a problem).
3. A cough or sore throat that is interfering with breathing and/or sleep.
4. A fever with a rash and/or joint pain.
5. You are lethargic.
6. You are concerned or not improving and just need someone to provide more specific advice and make sure there is nothing else wrong.

Dr. Erin Westaway, ND

Free Health Clinic at Key Arena this week!

Seattle/King County will be offering a giant free health clinic in Key Arena at Seattle Center from October 23^rd through the 26th. This is a four-day volunteer driven clinic that provides a full range of dental, vision and medical care to unserved populations in the region. This is not only an opportunity to address acute issues such as dental infections and the need for eye glasses, but also to provide medical screening exams. The free clinic plans to service over a thousand patients daily. If you or your loved ones have been delaying medical care for financial reasons this is a great opportunity. Please check out their website at http://seattlecenter.org/skcclinic/.Dr. Chad Borys

Free Self-Breast Exams!

As many of you may know our Commander in Chief here at Emerald City Clinic, Dr. Molly Niedermeyer, is a breast cancer survivor so this topic is near and dear to us.  Dr. Molly discovered her own cancer while doing a routine self-breast exam within months of a normal mammogram.  This is not necessarily an unusual story, which brings up the importance of self-breast exams.  Many medical doctors are no longer recommending self-breast exams; however we have seen them save lives. The most common reasons women don’t do them are that they don’t know how or they are afraid of what they may feel because they don’t know what normal is. Most women know that they are supposed to be looking for lumps, but become scared because breasts are often lumpy even when they are healthy.  A good solution to this is teaching women how to properly do a self-breast exam and to familiarize them with their own breast tissue and what normal lumps and breast changes feel like. So, in honor of breast cancer awareness month, we are offering:

Free 15 minute self-breast exam consultations on Wednesdays for the month of October!

These consultations will include training on how to do a thorough self-breast exam as well as help you familiarize with your own tissues.  No treatment or medical advice will be given during these free consultations.  Please call our front desk to schedule with Dr. Jenna Jorgensen at 206-781-2206.

Jenna Jorgensen, ND

The Naturopathic Model of Chronic Illness

Normal health is interfered with by a disturbing factor which the body then responds to (ex. inflammation, fever, etc.)  The disturbing factor can be emotional, physical or spiritual AND the response can also be manifested on those different planes as well.  Chronic illness arises when any or all of the following factors occur:1. The disturbing factor persists (ex. bad lifestyle habits such as poor diet, sleep, bad relationship) which continues to burden the body cumulatively.2.  The body's natural reactive mechanism is blocked or suppressed, usually by drugs, which interferes with the capacity of the body to process and remove its disturbances.3.  The vitality of the system is insufficient or has become too overwhelmed to mount a significant and sufficient healing reaction.As these factors persist the body slides into a chronic, weakened state.  The body is ALWAYS making the wisest choice each moment given the information and resources it has.  Ultimately as this condition persists the body becomes ulcerated or scarred.  (Once again these could be emotional and spiritual scars as well).  Reversal of this situation is rarely accomplished by medicating the pathological state which often mitigates or controls the situation but does not result in true healing.  Hence the Naturopathic approach which is a philosophy of looking at this as a process and analyzing and reducing the disturbing factors, supporting the body in its healing process and rebuilding the vitality.

Naturopathic Philosphy Revisted

I am team teaching the first year Naturopathic physicians philosophy class this year.  I am on vacation reading texts that I never read because they were not in the curriculum at the time I graduated.  I am having a great time taking a fresh look at the philosophical basis of Naturopathic medicine and thought many of my clients would enjoy the journey with me, so I thought I would make a few blog entries as I make this journey.Historically, in 1940  30% of all states had licensed Naturopathic physicians,  a number of colleges, and 3000 actively practicing NDs.  By 1957, the year I was born, there was only one Naturopathic medical school left, 8 states that were licensed (6 by 1979) and 175 licensed NDs.  The decline was caused by an internal strife in the Naturopathic profession about the philosophy of including or NOT including the new arising mechanistic/reductionist approach by the then "new kid on the block" of allopathic or medical doctors. There was a lot of mistrust by many in the Naturopathic profession to the role of science and research and its application to medicine. The other component to the decline of Naturopathic medicine was the discovery of effective antibiotics which elevated the standard medical profession to a dominant and unquestioned stature by the culture that turned to mechanistic science as unquestioned authority. It was not until the 1970’s and 80's that people started to question this culture as chronic illness arose, destruction of the health of our environment, etc. that lead people back to a more holistic/systems approach to health and well-being. Just for your information, there are now 5 Naturopathic colleges in the United States, over 5000 NDs, and 20 states licensed at this time. Stay tuned for more info.BTW I consider myself a member of the new ND profession that has one foot firmly planted in Naturopathic medicine and one foot planted in allopathic medicine and I shift weight accordingly, using the best of both worlds.  Dr. Bastyr always said "do what works.- Dr. Molly Niedermeyer

As we move through each day, we’re constantly responding to our environment (both internal and external).  When these responses become patterns, we can take them out of context in ways that don’t always serve us.  For example, if I twist my body to avoid being hit by something coming at my head, this is initially a very useful response.  If that twist becomes a subtle pattern that I’m not aware of and hold onto over time, it can cause pain or could continue to trigger the fear response related to that moment.  There are many other examples of unconscious patterns that we carry in the body and often they can interfere with our health and our ability to be truly present in each moment as a new experience.  Biofeedback, body work, meditation, and working with the breath are all tools that can help us become aware of and break these patterns.  Several of my patients have found quite profound shifting of patterns leading to significant healing through the Grinberg Method.  Personally, I have found it to be quite useful in my own healing process.  Grinberg practitioners work with you through the body in a hands-on way to help you become aware of the patterns getting in your way and to learn tools to break those patterns.  It is a learning process, not an instant fix, but it can be incredibly rewarding.There are a couple of Grinberg Method practitioners coming to visit us from Germany this month.  They have been coming a few times per year and I always look forward to their time here, both for myself and my patients.  If you are interested in breaking out of a cycle, decreasing your pain, or gaining more self-awareness and emotional freedom, I recommend giving it a try.  I recommend starting with at least three sessions to be able to give yourself a sense of the work as a process rather than a one-time event.  For more info, please contact Barbara Droubay directly at barbinberlin@hotmail.com, and visit our facebook page for dates and times https://www.facebook.com/emeraldcityclinic.

DHEA and Your Health

DHEA is my hands-down favorite hormone our bodies produce. In recent years I've been learning more and more of the widespread effects it has on not just hormone regulation but mood, energy, muscle strength and memory.

DHEA is primarily produced in your adrenal glands alongside cortisol, but it's also produced in your brain and gonads (Ovaries, testes). I like to think of DHEA and cortisol's side kick, there to help buffer the negative side effects that stress hormones have on your body.

Physiologically, DHEA turns into testosterone  (to help you fight the bear) and in times of plenty will produce estrogens (allowing for reproduction). It's a very smart hormone pathway. the more stressed you are the more testosterone you will make to fight, but when your adrenal glands crash you will be unable to make enough estrogens to replicate. Inherent genius in our physiology every time!

I check DHEA and DHEA-S on routine panels to assess not only how tired you may be but also for prevention.  If your testosterone and estrogens are about to tank, declining DHEA may be the reason. Adrenal support, relaxation techniques, healthy diet with cholesterol (YES, eggs, fish, meat and dairy contain healthy cholesterol which helps you make DHEA and all your other steroidal hormones), and sometimes supplemental DHEA can really turn someone's declining energy and mood around!

And lastly, there's great research on diminishing ovarian reserves being stimulated by large doses of DHEA in the aging reproductive female, allowing for successful pregnancies into the late 30's and beyond.

By Dr. Rachel Erickson, ND

Keeping Bones Healthy and Strong as We Age

Have you ever pictured your body without bones? Bones are incredibly important and much like a building with reinforced concrete they allow us to stand upright and support the latticework of our inner workings. Without bones, likely you would just collapse into a heap of skin and organs.  Additionally, bones are also a reservoir of minerals for the body to use. They continuously lend out minerals to the rest of the body and then replace them when we eat and stores are plentiful. This allows bones to repair themselves when injured, or build stronger bones when stressed by physical activity. It also allows the many cellular processes that depend on calcium for proper functioning to draw from the bone storage pools when needed.This process of building and tearing down bone is called remodeling and happens regularly throughout our lives. Initially, as a growing child, this process involves more building than remodeling. Then somewhere around the age of 30, the body reaches its peak bone mass, which the body will hopefully maintain at a fairly constant level throughout our lives. In females, bone mass tends to decline much more quickly at the onset of menopause. At this point, the rate of bone loss is out pacing bone building due to hormonal shifts in the body. This is a critical time for the body because if it is not monitored properly the bones can become too fragile and porous, possibly contributing to the formation of fractures. This process of bones becoming weaker and brittle is called osteoporosis. This process also occurs in males but often at a much more gradual pace.At Emerald City Clinic, we utilize several tools to help minimize osteoporosis including encouraging a proper diet and exercise routine, proper bone density monitoring, and proper supplementation.When discussing bone health, we are most concerned with weight-bearing exercise, which is any activity where the body must bear its own weight. Weight-bearing exercise is paramount for healthy bones because it stresses your bones to work against gravity and to maintain or even improve their strength. That said, before starting an exercise routine please discuss this with your Emerald City physician, as exercise recommendation vary depending on your bone and cardiovascular health.Dietary-wise, foods that provide good sources of calcium include leafy greens, like kale and spinach, whole grains, nuts and seeds, legumes, fish, and organic dairy products. The leafy greens also have the added benefit of providing vitamin K which also plays a vital role in keeping bones healthy.  In addition, we also recommend proper vitamin D supplementation, which especially in the northwest is critical due to our lack of sun exposure. Vitamin D is important because it plays a role in helping your intestines to absorb dietary calcium.For more information, please look over our Osteoporosis handout in the handouts section of our website and discuss specific recommendations and concerns with your Emerald City physician.