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As many of you know, one of the most common things I prescribe are two foods, Liver and Bone Broth. As such I decided to write Blog posts about them.

Liver is one of the best foods anyone can eat. Historically it has been reserved for those with the most pressing nutritional needs such as pregnant women, the chronically ill and children. Since these early uses of liver it has been extensively researched by a number of amazing Nutritional practitioners, and knowledge on its uses and benefits expanded considerably.800px-Liver_with_onions_from_Poznan

Liver is an excellent source of B-vitamins, particularily B12 (difficult to obtain from other sources) Minerals, particularly iron, and a number of other nutrients in smaller amounts. Liver is said to be higher, gram per gram, in nutrients than any other food. Liver nutrients have the advantage of being comparatively easy to absorb as well, generally raising levels of Iron better than supplementation[i].

Furthermore, Naturopathic doctors have noticed over the years that regular consumption of liver, in addition to the nutritional effects, has a strongly fortifying effect on the liver as an organ, aiding in its detoxification, hormonal and metabolic efforts.

Normally I prescribe liver in the diet. However very few of my patients ended up doing it, as many people have a very strong dislike of liver. I now stock dehydrated liver as an alternative for those who wish to avoid eating liver.
I will soon write about Bone broth!

Take care of Yourselves!

[i] Rewashdeh et al. Pak J Biol Sci. 2009 Feb 15;12(4):367-72. http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/19579971

Image Source: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Liver_with_onions_from_Poznan.jpg

Ctenophores are so far almost completely unknown within Homeopathy, with only my own trituration proving existing. As such 332px-LightRefractsOf_comb-rows_of_ctenophore_Mertensia_ovuma proving of any Ctenophore would be a very useful addition to the Homeopathic materia medica. Since my trituration was of a Tenticulata, a proving of a member of the Nuda would be the best use of effort.

One interesting species of Ctenophores for proving would be Haeckelia rubra, a species which capture the cnidocytes of Ctenophores. Due to their unusual benthic and symbiotic lifestyle and wormlike bodies, members of the Platyctenida would also be excellent candidates for proving.

Image Credit: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:LightRefractsOf_comb-rows_of_ctenophore_Mertensia_ovum.jpg

Finally!!! The Insects are done. As such I have largely completed the suggested provings of the Lepidoptera. Hope you all enjoy!

While Lepidoptera are indeed the most extensively proven of all Hexapod classes, due to the unique relationship of Lepidoptera 416px-Lycaenidae_0001with the Plant Kingdom, we still have a significant underrepresentation of Lepidoptera species in the material medica. There are many orders of plants which have no hosting Lepidoptera species either potentised or proven. Provings of any Lepidoptera which hosts on one of these orders would be a wonderful addition to the material medica. A chart of Dictoiledon orders, based on Michal Yakir’s work is included below.

Magnolids Hamamelids Carophyllids Dillenids Rosids Asterids
Magnoliales

1 Species

Urticales

3 species

Carophyllales
None
Dillenales

None

Rosales

3 species

Solanales

2 species

Nymphales
None
Hamamelidales

Possibly one species

Polygonales

None

Theales

None

Fabales

4 species

Gentianales

1 species

Illiacles

None

Juglandales

1 Species

Plumbaginales

None

Sarracenales

None

Myrtales

None

Scrophulariales

1 species

Piperales

None

Myricales

1 Species

Malvales

None

Malpigiales

1 species

Rubiales

None

Laurales
1 Species
Fagales

3 species

Curcubitales

None

Euphorbiales

None

Lamiales

None

Aristolochiales

None

Primulales

None

Sapindales

1 species

Verbenales

None

Ranunculales

None

Ericales

None

Rhamnales

1 species

Dipsacales

2 species

Papaverales

None

Ebenales

None

Cornales

None

Campanulales

None

Salicales

1 Species

Santalales

None

Asterales

1 species

Capparales

3 species

Celestrales

None

Umbelliforales

2 species

As of yet, no Butterflies have been proven that host within the monocots, gymnosperms, or bryophytes. Within the monocots, amoung the Magnolids the Nymphales, Iliacles, Piperales, Aristolochiales, Ranunculales and Papaverales have no provings. Amoung the Hamamelids the Hamamelidales have only one tenuous proving. The Carophyllids have no provings whatsoever. Within the Dillenids the Dilleniales, Theales, Srraceniales, Malvales, Curcubitales, Primulales, Ericales and Ebenales all have no proven members. Within the Rosids noe species hosting upon the Myrtales, Euphorbiales, Cornales, Santalales or Celestrales are known. And within the Asterids no proven members host within the Gentianales, Rubiales, Lamiales, Verbenals or Campanulales are available.

Image Credit: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Lycaenidae_0001.jpg

Hi guys. As many of you know, I have had my share of online scuffles. Comes with the territory I suppose, being both a very social media active person, and someone who publicly espouses Homeopathy. Many of these are disputes over misrepresentations about Homeopathy or about Naturopathic medicine in General.

So recently this issue has come up again locally in Alberta. As many of you have read, two parents of a child who had died of Viral meningitis have been charged with Failure to provide the necessities of life. This case is tragic, and regardless of the outcome, this poor family has been devastated. From early reports it seemed that the couple sought the advice of a Naturopathic Doctor before going to emergency care. It was alleged that she sold them a tincture for viral meningitis, which obviously was ineffective.

However my interest in this case stems from the Media commentary. Many of us first found out about this case from Headlines over the past few days which touted something like “Crown alleges child died because couple took child to Naturopath instead of Medical Doctor”. This media line was taken up by many in the skeptical movement, and even resulted in an opinion piece published in the Calgary herald which suggested that Alberta should review its regulation of Naturopathic Doctors.

However, in the actual testimony during the trial, it came out that the Naturopathic Doctor in question referred them to take their child to emergency care immediately. The tincture was sold to a woman who entered the clinic the next day, whom the ND in question did not know was the mother of the child.

Now, this raises a good point against selling to people who are not your patients. The Profession in Alberta now does not allow this (This incident happened before regulation in 2012), but the overall media coverage of this incident has been extremely slanted. The ND, rather than making an appropriate referral and having a rather peripheral role in this case, was made central and used as an argument against the expanding scope and importance of NDs in Alberta.

What we seem to have here is a media and online community which is lying and waiting for a mistake from an ND to make thier argument about marginalizing Naturopathic medicine. Mistakes happen, individuals make bad calls, and the unforeseeable occurs, but overall NDs are incredibly safe and effective practitioners. A media push against us wont change that.

I would encourage all of my patients to speak up in favor of Naturopathic MEdicine when something like this occurs. You all, and your political awareness is the only thing that motivated regulation of Naturopathic Medicine in the first place, and is the only force holding media narratives like this to some kind of criticism.

Love to all of you!

Take care of yourselves.

Despite the claims of many, Homeopathy does have an overall positive evidence base, taking into account research methodology. But that research reveals some interesting characteristics.Here for instance is a newer research paper on this phenomenon, testing Apis, a homeopathic medicine on gene expression (http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4710123/). While the research is positive, the researchers are puzzled that an s shaped dose response curve is not visible.
 
Many have suggested that #Homeopathy, if correct, should display an s shaped dose response curve. This is a reasonable Dose_response_antagonist-1expectation, as most pharmacological (ie crude) substances when placed into a biological system show this kind of response.For an example of an s shaped dose response curve, see the diagram to the right:
 
Homeopathy however, while it has been demonstrated in multiple trials (such as the one below) in biological models it tends to show responses in a bell curve manner. Lower potencies cause a lower response of a given effect, medium 120px-Standard_deviation_diagram.svgpotencies cause a larger effect, and higher potencies cause no effect.For an example of a dose response curve, see the left:
This effect has been found across several experimental models (for another using basophils, please see http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/19945674) , and is consistent with clinical practice. Patients wont respond to too low potencies of a remedy, will respond to just the right potency and will aggravate or not respond to too high potencies. This trick is of course what is too high, too low and just right varies from patient to patient.
 

This phenomenon of bell curve responses seems to be a characteristic of Homeopathy in general. Homeopathy, if it works at all, does not work via traditional pharmacological models of the body. It is quite fascinating to me that those looking for evidence on Homeopathy’s efficacy seem to insist it fit into another model of biological activity that they have accepted, rather than exploring the laboratory evidence available which indicates another model of responsiveness entirely.

Image credits: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Standard_deviation_diagram.svg
Image credits: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Dose_response_antagonist.jpg

.

Hi Everyone I just updated my website to include a section on food sensitivity testing. Here it is!

As Dr. Otis Carol said “Health must at all times come from and be maintained by digested foods.  Naturopathic physicians understand this principle and use it to repair the damage done to organs, tissues and cells which have become depleted of the necessary constructive elements.  These necessary elements can come only from digested foods.  After a food is digested, it goes through the circulation to every organ, tissue and cell.  Remember, this process begins first with the digestion of food, and no drug yet offered can rectify damage done by failure of digestion.”

Proper digestion of foods is the prerequisite to all health. Without good digestion the body cannot obtain the fuel it needs in order to maintain its own biochemical processes and continue it’s functioning. If digestion is poor, toxins can also be created by the bacterial flora of our gut, adding to our already high toxic burden.800px-Vegetarian_diet

One of the great insights in Wholistic Medicine of the 20th century was the concept that certain people could not digest certain foods properly. Furthermore, while some foods were universally poorly tolerated, it was observed that many people were adversely affected by foods which others were perfectly fine with, or maybe even found beneficial.

Finding effective and reproducible means to determine which foods are harmful to an individual is the great puzzle which has emerged from these findings. The gold standard for this has been the Elimination diet. However this diet is quite restrictive and can be challenging to maintain for long enough to fully determine the intolerance. Hence other methods have been developed

Dr. Otis G Carrol devised the first system for clinically determining food intolerances in his Carrol food intolerance test. This test has the longest history of usage, and has amassed a very strong clinical history of usage. Other clinicians have devised blood tests which test the amount of immunoglobulins which react to particular foods. These tests however can be quite costly, and cannot identify reactions to foods that occur without antibodies (and yes these do occur).

After searching through a number of methods of testing foods, I eventually selected the Radial Artery Food Test as the best. It is extremely cost effective, can be preformed in office,  generates immediate results, and detects all manner of sensitivities, rather than simply those which generate antibodies. As well it is also billable to insurance, as this is an in office procedure rather than a laboratory explanation.

This test is preformed by exposing the body to a sample of a number of foods. The reaction of the body, in the form of the pulse, is measured during the exposure. It is fast, simple and effective, and I have experienced great success in its use so far.

For more information, or to book in for an appointment, please do Contact us.

Image Credit: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Food#/media/File:Vegetarian_diet.jpg

 .

A Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays to all of you, my dear patients and friends.

I am incredibly grateful that you all have shared your health and struggles with me. I know how much of a leap of trust this is, and I will ever endeavor to be worthy of that trust.

It really is my calling and my great joy to help you all in the return to health, and the furthering of your path upon life.

My gratitude to all of you for allowing me the privilege of coming into your lives to do so!

Please do let one of my favorite Christmas songs convey my love (though hopefully I am a little less than scroogelike):

.

Hi Everyone.

So I had a conversation with a friend of mine recently about healthcare. Many Canadians have a deep hope that somehow there is a simple administrative fix for the many problems ailing public medicine in Canada.

I disagree unfortunately. As wonderful and noble an institution as Public Healthcare is, I cannot see an easy fix to the problems afflicting it, and I do not see it as being viable in the long term under the current circumstances.

The reason is simply the governing Philosophy that the vast majority of medical practitioners have nowadays. The vast majority of medical practitioners treat the body as if it was a very complex machine, rather than as a self regulating and self organized system.

The consequences of this philosophy are quite vast. Rather than seeing the actions of the body as an attempt to stabilize itself, they are seen as malfunctions, and usually suppressed. Naturopathic medicine has for centuries seen the suppression of acute symptoms as creating chronic disease. Recently research has begun to confirm this. Recently research has shown that consumption of acetaminophen in pregnancy seems to increase the risk of both Asthma and Autism. As well, other acute infectious disease, such as measles and mumps seem to offer many protective effects on, for instance, the development of Cardiovascular disease later in life. Undoubtedly, many other instances of this phenomenon exist.

Almost all the treatment received by individuals in Canada suppresses the bodies’ healing responses. Over time this will create, according to Naturopathic Theory and an increasing body of research, a high burden of Chronic disease. As long as this way of treatment dominates in public healthcare, chronic disease will continue to increase, leading to increased costs and the many problems in healthcare we see today.

I have maintained the solution to this problem is the adoption of Naturopathic philosophy, and Naturopathic Doctors into Healthcare. Through modalities such as Homeopathy, Acupuncture and Hydrotherapy, we can easily and safely treat acute disease, helping the body to accomplish the resolution of its problems, and reduce the burden of Chronic disease..

Hi Everyone. Some thoughts have been occurring to me lately.

Reading through the case studies and writings of the older Naturopathic Doctors and our predecessors, one notices how much wonderful efficacy they had with some very simple modalities. Homeopaths reported successful treatments of very advanced cancers and Infectious diseases. Hydrotherapists reported success with most diseases, Naturopathic Doctors reported great success with chronic illness.

Nowadays our success with similar methods are considerably less. People generally require longer courses of therapy, and more precise targeted interventions before displaying the kind of responsiveness that we previously observed. Why would this be?

I have personally noticed that people having taken fewer courses of repressive medications tend to be far more responsive to Naturopathic interventions. Common use of anti-inflammatories, anti-allergy medications, and many other medications designed to suppress symptoms seems to obscure the bodies ability to heal itself. I’ve also noticed similar trends in people with very poor long term diets, multiple surgical interventions and those who live in psychologically repressive environments.

These factors tend to reduce the bodies vitality, and slowly prevent it from being able to have the curative responses it once did, making healing considerably more challenging.

Much of my practice in recent years has focused on overcoming these factors in my patients. I have not succeeded completely in being able to clear them, but I have had considerable success.

Most of my therapies do focus on either removing whatever stops people from reacting, or on stimulating thier vitality to react more powerfully. If this is something that interests you, Please do contact us.

 .

The Hexapods, despite having a wonderfully large number of proved remedies, still have a large number of Orders which are entirely unproven. A list of the orders with and without provings is given below in chart form.

 

Hexapod Class Classes with Proved Members Classes without proved members
Collembola None Entomobryomorpha

Poduromorpha

Symphypleona

Protura None All families unrepresented
Diplura None All families unrepresented
Apterygotes Thyansura Monura,

Archaeognatha

Paleoptera Emphemoptera
Odonata
Palaeodictyopteroidea
Neoptera
Exopterygotes Dermaptera

Orthoptera

Mantoidea

Caloneurodea

Titanoptera

Embioptera

Zoraptera

Phasmatodea,

Protorthoptera

Plecoptera

Grylloblattodea

Mantophasmatodea

Dictoptera Blattoidea

Mantodea

Isoptera

Phasmatodea

Notoptera

Paraneoptera Hemiptera

Phthiraptera

Psocoptera

Thysanoptera

Endopterygota Coleoptera

Hymenoptera

Neurotoptera, Megaloptera, Raphidioptera, Strepsiptera
Mecopterygota Siphonoptera

Diptera

Mecoptera

 

Amphismenoptera Lepidoptera Trichoptera

 

 

Thankfully most of the larger insect orders have proven members. However many major orders are still completely unproven. The Collembola, Protura and Diplura all remain unproven, with only a single proven remedy being available from the Apterygotes, and the Monura and the Archaeognatha being unreprepresnted. The Plaeoptera lack provings of the extinct Paleodictyopteroidea. The Exopterygotes lack provings of the Caloneurodea, Titanoptera, Embioptera, Zoraptera, Phasmatodea, Protorthoptera, Plecoptera, Grylloblattodea and the Mantophasmatodea. The Dictoptera lack provings of the Isoptera, Phasmatodea, and Notoptera. The Paraneoptera lack provings of the Psocoptera and Thyansoptera.

 

The Endopterygotes lack provings of the Neuroptera, Megaloptera, Raphidioptera and Strepsiptera. The Mecopterygotes lack provings of the Mecoptera, with Siphonoptera having only the most scanty information. The Amphismenoptera lack any provings of the Trichoptera.

Provings in any of these areas would go a considerable way towards advancing knowledge of the Hexapods as a whole.
In general terms a number of insects are particularily fascinating. I have listed a few of these below, along with descriptions .

The Tsetse fly, (Glossina species) is a fly which transmits trympanosomes which cause sleeping sickness, and are yet unpotentised and unproven. Given the close relationship of mosquitos and Malaria, a number of malarial infected mosquitoes should be potentised. If possible a female Anopheles mosquito infected with all malarial Plasmodium species should be procured and potentised as well as proven. Such a remedy is likely to have a profound curative effect, similar to that of the Deer Tick made by Alchemists apothecary, which was infected by four pathogens. Another Mosquito borne pathogen which would do well to have potentised is th West Nile Virus, currently spreading throughout North America. One fascinating species of insect to prove would be the Mad honey of the Himalayan cliff bee, Apis dorsata laboriosa. This honey is made from wild Rhodedendron flowers which impart it with relaxant, and at higher doses, hallucinogenic, emetic and muscle weakening properties, as well as causing heart irregularities[i].

 

The Human Bot fly, or Dermatobia honinis, would also be an excellent potential remedy, with its potential to cause subdermal infestations of Humans. As well the Oriental Rat flea, Xenopsylla cheopis, as the natural vector for plague, should also be potentised, ideally a specimen infected with Yersinia pestis. This pathogen, having caused so much death during the course of history, likely has a deep miasmatic imprint which will likely be extremely useful in treatment.

[i] Asher, C. Giant Bees make Psychedlic Honey. Dec 3 2014. Curious Meerkat. Online Document Accessed October 18th 2015. http://www.curiousmeerkat.co.uk/short/giant-bees-make-psychedelic-honey/.