Naturopathic Source

Well, the first entry went so well that I thought I'd add another.

As I said in my last post, this blog is the first step towards a greater goal. And that goal is to provide quality, reliable information concerning your health and naturopathic/alternative medicine. Many times I have had patients bring me information they printed off a website or that someone (usually someone who was selling something) gave them. Often this information has been about a product that is being marketed as the "cure" to a certain condition. And almost everytime this information is only geared towards selling the product and not at educating the consumer. I have found that this information is often of poor quality as well.  I have also seen a lot of patients who, when they first come to see me as a new patient, bring in a big bag of all the supplements they are taking. They often tell me they were hoping that these supplements would help their condition (they may have read it in a book, or on a website) but they didn't. When I take a look at the supplements they are using, everytime I was able to tell that these supplements never would have worked. Many supplements are marketed for a whole slew of problems that they can "help". What these advertisments don't tell you is what is needed to really get the job done. And there are certain lifestyle and/or dietary changes as well as certain supplements that can safely be said to work for almost everyone with a certain condition. But there are many more changes/supplements that need to be geared specifically for each person and no amount of "recipe book supplementation" is going to change that. And that is why so many people have these big bags of supplements but do not feel any better. They (or their family members) then claim that naturopathic medicine does not work; the problem is actually that it is not being done right. By the way, I don't mean this as a criticism...I know that a lot of people are trying really hard and doing their best...but it's just not working because they do not have the correct information.

Something else that really bothers me is the food advertising industry. There is no best diet and there is no diet that is right for everyone, no matter what anyone tells you. We are all different and just as we all need different amounts of sleep, different amounts of social interaction and different amounts of physical activity, we all also need diets that are specific to our own body. Also, the word "diet" is incredibly misunderstood. "Diet" does not mean "weight-loss diet", it means "the food that you eat". A person who only eats fast-food has a fast-food diet, a person who eats high-protein has a high-protein diet and a person who eats mainly low-fat foods has a low-fat diet. I find that there are a lot of misconceptions as to what is and is not a healthy diet; I have had more than one patient tell me "I have a pretty healthy diet, I think." when in fact they are eating more unhealthy meals than healthy meals. Or in some cases it is not that they are eating too much unhealthy food, just that they are not eating enough healthy foods.

Well, I could write all evening, but I think I will end this post here by saying:

My goal is to be your source for naturopathic information and to provide quality information that you can trust.

TC

tinachristie.com