Today was great: we had 4 varied calls come in on different topics. We started chatting about Thyroid Issues: we see so many sluggish thyroids here in our clinic. Medically, thyroid issues tend to be undiagnosed until it’s time for medication. This is actually a good thing, however people can feel pretty exhausted for many years before it’s actually found. The thyroid is involved in metabolism, when it slows down, it also slows down digestive function, liver function, ability to detoxify and, as most people know, is involved in weight control. Good naturopaths won’t just ask for you to get blood tests, they’ll take a look and know what’s ‘optimal’ for the thyroid, bring in your tests and we’ll take a look for you!
We also had calls about high and low levels of iron in the blood: high levels is generally known as hemachromatosis, the medical treatment is basically regular taking of blood. Naturopathically, we like to treat the liver and help it cope with the excess iron levels so that it doesn’t cause a problem. Low levels of iron in the blood can obviously cause chronic exhaustion, but is also linked with low blood pressure. Red blood cells with a low iron count are too small, they don’t drop off oxygen throughout your body effectively, therefore we’re also more likely to develop bugs regularly… A great supplement we use a lot for this is Hemagenics, which gives a whopping high dose of iron, in an easy to take form.
We also had a woman with a painful spleen. The spleen is like a big tonsil – it’s a lymphatic cleansing organ of the body, so detoxification processes will help: lymphatic drainage massage with Alison Honour, Bowen Technique with Jacqueline Dekoke or Madonna Guy; infrared saunas help to mobilise toxins and move blood and lymph throughout our bodies are just a few options to support cleansing the spleen. Save $$$ by grabbing a 10 pack of infrared saunas in our clinic.
There was a query again about live blood analysis (see separately under ‘our tests and equipment) and a question about pre-diabetes. It’s important with ‘pre-diabetes’ to start changing diet is a rather large way. See the article on ‘insulin resistance’ as this gives a huge amount of information.
Until next week,
Madonna Guy ND
New Leaf Natural Therapies