Nutritional Medicine

No holistic clinic would be complete without the benefits of nutritional medicine. Nutrients, whether they are in the forms of vitamins and minerals, herbs, amino acids, essential fatty acids, or hormones, can help calm inflammation, reduce pain, increase energy, speed healing from injuries, reduce allergic reactions, and help with our mental attitude. And these are just the tip of the iceberg. Nutritional medicine is so powerful and needed by our patients that we include it in our treatment protocols.

We evaluate each patient for nutrient deficiencies and nutrients that may be needed to stimulate healing. Many patients benefit from general nutritional support such as from a multi-vitamin. We have many different multiple-vitamin formulas, with or without iron, with or without copper, citrate or picolinate bound minerals, and formulas for women, men and children. It is important that we find which formula is best for each person and we customize a nutritional formula for you. We often start with a multiple vitamin.

Sometimes people may benefit from certain levels of individual nutrients such as individual vitamins, minerals, amino acids, essential fatty acids, hormones, or combination formulas for specific disease conditions. We screen each patient for the need for individual nutrients. We often find that patients may benefit from a certain nutrient but only in a certain form. That is why we carry calcium in three different formulas- calcium citrate, calcium citramate, and calcium aspartate. We carry zinc in the forms of zinc picolinate, zinc citrate, and zinc carbonate. There are many more examples of minerals or vitamins that come in different forms. Because each person is unique it is important to screen each person for exactly what is best for him or her. Many patients come into our clinic and may already be taking a multiple vitamin and other nutrients. I ask these patients if they are feeling better from taking them or if they feel as good as they want and they usually answer "no." I then explain to them that most vitamin companies and manufacturers put so much junk into the pills along with the vitamins and minerals that it completely makes the good stuff ineffective! Many patients bring in multiple grocery bags of vitamins and nutritional products that they are taking or were taking. We screen through these products and invariably we find that each person's body is rejecting most of the products and not utilizing them well. Out of 20 products a patient is taking I may recommend to continue with 2! So on average patients may be taking 90% ineffective nutrition and wasting 90% of their money. Unfortunately, some products may make a patient feel worse.

This is a huge benefit to patients when I guide them through the mass of nutrition that they have. After our consultation they have an idea of what is really helping them and what is not. We then screen each patient for what may be needed that they are not getting yet. When patients come to see me they realize that they are not spending more money on nutrition, they are finally spending money on nutrition that works. We save money for each patient by focusing their money and time on only really effective products.

I mainly use Thorne Nutritional Products for pharmacists and licenced doctors. These products are designed for doctors that treat chemically sensitive patients who cannot absorb nutrition well or who are allergic to many of the unnecessary products added. Thorne nutrition has increased my results with patients noticeably. My patients get better faster when using Thorne products than when using products from other reputable nutritional companies. Because Thorne products are absorbed extremely well and are hypoallergenic I have fantastic results with chemically sensitive patients, patients with autoimmune problems, patients with allergies, athletes needing high levels of absorbable nutrition, sick patients who need easily absorbable nutrition for healing, and the average person also. Many people don't realize that a pill won't necessarily give you its nutrition into your cells. The pill needs to be digestible, the contents need to be absorbable, and the extra ingredients need to be non-toxic. Many of these conditions are not met with the majority of vitamins and minerals out there!

Since I am a professional evaluator of nutrition I have personal experience with my own health, my patients health, and recommendations from other doctors for Thorn products. For those interested they can go to the Thorne website at www.thorne.com. I use their nutritional products exclusively. I use some herbal products from Eclectic Institute who make many herbal formulas for fighting infections. Also, another fine company. You can visit their web page at www.eclecticherb.com.

Everyone knows that you will die if you do not have enough water. Does everyone know that you will die if you do not have enough zinc? Enough magnesium? Enough molybdenum? Enough essential fatty acids or amino acids? I think on some level we all realize that we will die if we do not have enough of these micronutrients. Most people do not think about the grey area of nutrition between having enough nutrients to feel great and not enough nutrients to live. This grey area is where all of my patients are! They are not dead yet. And yet they do not feel wonderful. Certain nutrients are in low levels in their bodies and we need to increase these levels. It is as simple as that.

Some patients may have a genetic need for higher levels of certain nutrients than the average person. Some patients may have a need for high levels of certain nutrients to repair tissues. Some patients may not be getting enough nutrition from their diets. Some patients may be exercising or using up nutrients faster than the normal person. Some patients may have all four of these needs at once! So it is imperative that we use nutrition, that the nutrition be absorbable, and that the nutrition is the right type needed by your individual body! We strive to do this for each patient that we treat. Please feel free to call with questions.