I’m always amazed how some people react when I mention acupuncture or chiropractic care.

These and other modalities have been around for hundreds or even thousands of years.

Yet taking a synthetic drug that was recently developed to treat the latest disease seems completely viable and doesn’t concern us at all?

We aren’t worried about the side effects, in spite of the fact that this form of “treatment” is still in it’s infancy when compared to some of the older “alternatives.”

So, why are we so afraid of these alternatives? Simple. We’ve been taught that we should be.

I truly believe that it is the conditioning of our society to believe that taking prescription drugs is how we get better from disease, illness or pain!

Now, I’m not suggesting that there isn’t a time and a place for certain medications, but the way we have come to depend on them and the amount in which they are consumed is, at least to me, disturbing.

If there is a crisis or trauma in which immediate medical attention and intervention is necessary, then by all means, I understand the use of certain life-saving procedures and drugs. However, we treat every cold as a reason to take an antibiotic half of the time!

Furthermore, we as a society, are prescribed medications for high blood pressure, diabetes, acid reflux, headaches, back pain…and the list goes on.

The truth is that many of these symptoms and diseases can be corrected/treated by a change in our lifestyle and a more natural holistic approach.  Often times these problems can also be helped by modalities that have been around for generations that don’t carry the potentially harmful side effects of prescription drugs.

I’m not a doctor and I’m not trying to come across as one. For those of you that know me, you know that I am passionate about sharing alternatives…in all areas of life. Unfortunately, the sad truth is things like massage and acupuncture which have been around for thousands of years are considered “alternatives” in western medicine.

This is probably one of the most frustrating things for me to swallow. I remember when I was getting fairly regular tension headaches and I was concerned so I went to the doctor. He basically prescribed me “prescription strength” ibuproren.

That was it.

After taking that among other OTC drugs for some time, I decided I didn’t want to be dependent on taking pills on a regular basis. So, I decided to seek out “alternatives”, like acupuncture for example. In addition, I assessed certain things about my lifestyle.

Wow.

No more headaches…seriously.

You see, we are led to believe that headaches are “normal” just because they are “common.” Not true. Something is causing your headaches and that root cause must be addressed. Taking OTC pills and prescriptions doesn’t address your headaches, it just alleviates the pain at the time of your headache.

The problem is ultimately still there and it is definitely not a result of an Advil or Tylenol deficiency!

Many things can cause headaches like dehydration, poor diet, lack of protein, your body being out of balance or many other things. I always recommend consulting a Naturopathic Doctor to address your concerns and determine a good course of action to take.

My personal experience with acupuncture, as well as staying hydrated and not allowing myself to get to that point of being “past the point of hunger” has helped me tremendously. I almost never get headaches, whereas I was having them regularly at one time just a few years ago.

Having headaches is just an example. My point is it is best to implement more natural approaches into our life to prevent headaches, colds, etc…rather that reacting to these things with prescription drugs.

We are all logical people and we all have the ability to think for ourselves and do our own research and due diligence. Just because we do not spend years in medical school does not mean we don’t understand our body and how it functions. If we listen to our bodies, it’s amazing how much we can learn and understand.

We need to start questioning every time we are handed a prescription for every ailment or symptom under the sun. We need to become advocates for ourselves and our own health because ultimately nobody cares about your health and well-being more than you do! We have to live in our bodies, so it is important that we understand, at least on some level, how they work.

We go to the doctor’s office when we are sick, so why don’t we focus on doing things to prevent illness and keep ourselves healthy, active and out of the doctor’s office! Of course I’m not implying that we can control everything that happens to us…some things are simply out of our control, but let’s try to control the things we can.

Let’s make positive changes and demand better health for ourselves and our loved ones so that we are not continually being poisoned by so many unnecessary drugs!

Let’s focus on being proactive, and prevent illness, rather than reacting to it.

Now, don’t get me wrong…I enjoy some “bad” foods and splurge sometimes when I’m eating, but for the most part, I eat to nourish myself and feel good. I feel like somewhere along the way this has gotten lost in our society.

We are such an advanced culture in so many ways, however we are such a “sick” society with new “diseases” and new synthetic drugs being developed all the time. We don’t eat well, don’t take care of our bodies, don’t nourish ourselves and then we go to the doctor because we “don’t feel well” and what happens? We get prescriptions for drugs or we get no answers and continue to feel bad.

How often do you have a conversation about your “diet” with your doctor and actually discuss the foods you eat and how they affect how you feel? Do you prepare your meals throughout the day or week based on good food choices or is it about grabbing something to eat so you don’t feel hungry?

Believe me, I think eating so that you don’t feel hungry is important, but I don’t think it is the most important part of meal planning. How many vegetables/fruits do you eat in a day? How much protein do you eat? Do you make meals prepared with whole foods that have been organically grown or do you make ready to eat packaged meals filled with preservatives?

I’m not writing this blog post to sound “preachy” at all, but rather to make you think about what you are putting in your body. I’ll be the first to admit that I don’t always make the right food choices, but I’m a lifelong student of nutrition and will always be looking to improve my eating habits. More importantly, I think about what I eat and I think about how it affects me and I recognize that there is a direct correlation to what I eat and how I feel.

So many of us go through week after week feeling tired, sluggish and foggy. Maybe you are suffering with headaches, abdominal pains, and so many of us don’t even stop to recognize that one of the first things to try in order to resolve these problems/symptoms is change the way we eat!

I know, I know… “there isn’t enough time”  to cook from scratch, or at least that is the most common attitude towards eating a better diet and making better food choices. Well, in my experience we make time for what is most important to us.

Eating well doesn’t take hours and hours of preparation and endless slaving over a stove…you can have a healthy meal prepared in less than 30 minutes if you want which is less time than it takes to watch a sitcom…heck put the tv in the kitchen and you can do both!!

Sorry if this came on a little strong, but I just wanted to get this off my chest…so many suffer so needlessly!

Feel free to leave comments with healthy meal suggestions or tips on how to spend less time in the kitchen while still eating well

What has happened over the last 50 to 100 years that has led us to this point where we need to label natural, sustainable food that hasn’t been treated with dangerous chemicals and pesticides and such as organic?

Shouldn’t that be the way we expect our food to be unless stated otherwise? It’s really amazing to think about what has happened to present day agriculture and our food supply.

Why and who has allowed this to happen and what can we do about it?

First of all, let’s take a step back for a moment and reflect…reflect on the fact that 150 years ago there weren’t big companies out there that controlled our food supply. There were farmers who produced good quality crops that our ancestors ate without worry about any effects from dangerous chemicals, pesticides or genetically modified foods.

Now, we have lost touch with our food supply, our land, nature and the true meaning of farming that we have to label food that isn’t “conventional” as “organic.” Conventional farming may include the use of pesticides, herbicides, antibiotics and growth hormones, all of which are dangerous to our well-being.

Just our common sense should tell us that ingesting synthetic chemicals used to kill bugs and weeds can’t be good for us. Do you have some type of ant or roach killer in your household? Would you spray it on your food and then eat it? I know, it might seem like an extreme example, but doesn’t it make you think for a minute?

We should all stop and think for a minute.

Why is something like organic farming, which is the way farming was done for centuries all of a sudden something out of the ordinary and different? Why have we allowed our food supply to become so corrupt?

Shouldn’t our food say “pesticide laden” apples instead of having to point out that they are “organic” apples for example. Or our meat and poultry…shouldn’t our meat say “treated with antibiotics and growth hormones and not allowed to graze” instead of “antibiotic free” , “free range”, “organic” or any other similar label.

I guess I’m just wondering if we are holding the right people accountable. We have allowed things to get so out of control that now if you want to be a “certified organic” farmer, it costs you more money and time to go through the process, which almost seems like they are being punished! Additionally conventional farming methods produce more crops for less money, which might sound good, but at what cost to our health and our planet?

So how can organic farmers compete?

Well, for starters, they can compete when we, the general public, begin to educate ourselves and take a little time to understand what we are putting in our bodies. They can compete when we choose organic products over conventional ones. Business is always about supply and demand, so let’s make the right decisions and when there is more demand for organic products, we will start to see more and more of them.

I’d love to hear your thoughts on this topic. However, please don’t leave comments like “Organic food is expensive” because to me, there is nothing constructive about that. I will agree that overall it tends to be more expensive…but so are 60″ TVs and going out for coffee everyday, which most of us don’t bat an eyelash at.

I think we all have to make decisions as to what our priorities are and what sacrifices we are willing to make.

Maybe one day things will be the way I believe they should be and products that are not “organic” will have to be labeled as such and organic products will just be the “norm”.

Until then, it’s our job to become advocates for ourselves and become educated about the food we are eating.

I wish you all nothing but good health and well-being

It was a Friday night in April of 2005 and I had gone out to dinner with some friends. When I got home, I was feeling a little bit of heartburn, a little more than what seemed normal, but I went to sleep figuring I would feel better in the morning.

I woke up in the middle of the night with a more intense heartburn, nausea and overall discomfort in my chest and abdomen. I hesitated for a minute, but then knew I had to wake up Chad to take me to the emergency room. We got up and headed over to the hospital, checked in and then waited to be seen.

The doctor who saw me gave me some anti-nausea medication and then decided to “run some tests.” I rested for awhile with Chad right by my side, waiting for some answers from the doctor. The doctor came back to see me and basically told me that he didn’t have an answer for me, that the tests didn’t show that anything was “wrong” and I should follow up with my primary care physician.

I followed up with my doctor within a few days and she decided to send me for yet some more tests. A few days later, my doctor’s office called me with my diagnosis…Gastroesophageal Reflux Disease, more commonly known as GERD. So I needed to make an appointment to go back in to see my doctor to find out the treatment plan.

Well, my doctor told me not to eat spicy food and that I should take a prescription called Protonix which would help control my heartburn. So I began taking the medication as directed and began feeling better, right?

Nope.

I felt consistent abdominal pain, nausea from time to time, headaches and just overall discomfort. Also, I felt anxious a lot of the time and couldn’t seem to just relax and enjoy my day to day life. My heartburn seemed controlled at best, but overall I felt terrible.

This went on for some time and continued on into 2006 while Chad and I were planning our wedding.  I spent many months not going out very much and feeling bad about staying in a lot, but I didn’t want to risk going out and then start feeling terrible out of nowhere (at least it seemed out of nowhere!)

I continued taking my medication and was expecting that I would be feeling better over time, but that was not the case. Finally, by the end of 2006 just a couple of months after our wedding, I decided to seek out some other options and look for some answers.

After all, just a couple of years before, I was very healthy and living a relatively normal life.  Now I was feeling terrible no matter what I ate or did, it seemed, and I was frustrated and not feeling any real relief from the medication. Not to mention, that I was 31 at the time (funny how I’m only 29 now ) and didn’t really want to be on “reflux medication” for the rest of my life!

This is the beginning of when things started to really change in my life. This is when I started to change. This is when I started to look for answers, become an advocate and take some responsibility and ownership over my health.

I decided to go see a Naturopathic Doctor for the first time and it was one of the best decisions I ever made. First of all, she was the first doctor to really spend time with me and really listen to what I was telling her and all of the symptoms I had been having. As she listened, she thought about the big picture.

Why was I having heartburn?

What was causing it?

Why was I having so much abdominal pain?

Why did it seem no matter what I ate I didn’t feel well?

Instead of just saying “You have reflux ‘disease’”, she explored  why I was having all of those symptoms and helped me to figure out what the underlying cause of those symptoms were. You see, my reflux was a symptom, not a “disease” as my conventional doctors led me to believe.

She had me tested for food allergies and what do you know…I’m allergic to soy! Well, I guess technically it’s more of an intolerance. I’m not going to die or have to be rushed to the hospital if I eat it, but after consuming it, I will not feel well at all…and after consuming it in unknown quantities for an extended period of time it’s going to cause me quite a bit of discomfort. For example, perhaps heartburn and abdominal pain among other things.

Sound familiar?

By the way, if you’re thinking “What’s soy in anyway?” then may I suggest you take a look at the ingredients of some products at your local grocery store! I was ingesting it day in and day out to the point where my body couldn’t handle it. It was like a toxin wreaking all sorts of havoc on my body thus causing the abdominal pain, heartburn, nausea and other symptoms I was experiencing.

You see, the Protonix that I was taking was only alleviating my heartburn at best, but it wasn’t curing anything or solving the underlying problem so that is why I wasn’t getting better. Once my Naturopathic Doctor helped me to find my soy allergy, and I was aware of it and able to change my diet and eliminate it from my diet, it was just a very short time before I was feeling much better.

Shortly after that, I stopped taking my medication and have never taken it since. Furthermore, I get heartburn about once every 3 months at most! I literally went from feeling terrible almost all of the time back to my old self with my active lifestyle.

I literally feel as though that experience not only saved me from the day to day discomfort that I was feeling then, but it has forever opened my eyes to wanting to understand my body and become an advocate for my own health. I strive everyday to improve my health and continue to learn on a daily basis.

I am sharing this experience with you so that you can understand why I am so passionate about holistic health, about learning and growing, and about sharing my knowledge and experiences with you so that you too can live a happier and healthier life.

Well, for those of you know that know us, you know that we are very passionate about living a holistic lifestyle and we are also very passionate about our “girls” Wynnie and Vega (yes, they are technically dogs). Therefore, it is only natural that we want the very best for them and we want them to have a healthy diet based on whole foods, not processed canned foods. We don’t eat canned or processed foods, so why would we feed them to our “girls”??

We have searched for a place to find products we feel good about for our girls and have found them at OnlyNaturalPet.com. You will find everything from flea and tick control to shampoos to supplements to pet food and more and you can feel good about the products you find there. We have also been very impressed with the customer service and how quick we get our orders.

We know there are so many products out there and it is overwhelming to know what to do to take care of ourselves properly half of the time, never mind our four-legged “kids.” This is why it has been such a great experience for us shopping at this site and we wanted to share our experience with you! We hope that you take a look at OnlyNaturalPet.com and find that you are as pleased as we have been

Please feel free to share your experience with OnlyNaturalPet.com in the comments so we can help others to make better and more informed decisions!

Spring is a time that many people love to dread. Most of us (especially those in colder climates) get tired of drab, dirty snow and begin to long for green leaves, blooming flowers, and warmer temperatures.

Unfortunately, the improved weather inevitably brings high pollen levels with it, which means a runny nose, watery eyes, sleepless nights and more sneezes than we care to count.

The worst part of hay fever however, isn’t the list of physical symptoms. The worst part is the disconnected, “foggy” feeling that leaves you feeling completely detached from the world around you.

Yuck.

I know these symptoms well, because for most of my life I had terrible springtime allergies, to the point where I would hate going outside, always being afraid I’d find a yellow film of pollen that had accumulated on the hood of my car, as if to taunt me. I, like so many others, desperately wanted to be “Claritin Clear.”

It wasn’t until this spring, when everyone around me seemed to be commenting on how awful the pollen was this year, or bumming Zyrtec off of one another that I fully realized that I was much better off than I usually was this time of year.

I remember noticing an improvement in my symptoms last year as well and passing it off as good luck… but two blissfully allergy free years in a row was just too much of a coincidence to ignore (not that I’m complaining!). My previously debilitating symptoms are now reduced to some mild sneezing and a slight tickle in my throat for 5 or ten minutes in the morning.

No more congestion, feeling like a zombie or having to alternate what side I sleep on every 15 minutes at night just to be able to breathe!

As thrilling as this change was, I couldn’t figure out what had brought it on. We had moved, but we were only a few minutes from our previous address, in the same town and honestly surrounded by more flowers and trees than we had been before, so that wasn’t it. I wasn’t taking a different allergy medication, heck I hadn’t really taken any medications since we…

…and then it hit me. I’d never been a big fan of unnecessary medication, and allergy season was one of the few times I was willing to compromise and pop a pill for relief, but even that had tapered off a couple of years ago, when Lynne and I made a shift to a diet of predominantly organic foods.

For the last two and a half years or so, Lynne and I have done our grocery shopping almost exclusively at Whole Foods, and at least 95% of the food we prepare at home is organic.

The more I thought about it, the more sense it made. There really is (to put it as simply as possible) a lot less crap in organic foods, and not processing the extra preservatives and chemical additives in all the food I ate made springtime a lot easier on my entire system.

Think about it this way: if your body is constantly inundated with artificial flavors, dyes, partially hydrogenated oils, and other harmful ingredients, your entire system is going to be drained and out of balance.

The definition of an allergy is “an abnormal reaction of the body to a previously encountered allergen introduced by inhalation, ingestion, injection, or skin contact…” which basically means your body encounters something it views as a pathogen or threat (even if it isn’t) and responds accordingly.

This leads me to two conclusions. First off, why would your body react abnormally to a substance such as pollen? It stands to reason (especially after my recent experiences) that the introduction of various substances that don’t belong in your body (artificial ingredients in food for example) could disrupt the balance of your immune system, causing it to inaccurately perceive allergens as a threat.

Now, does this mean everyone who doesn’t eat a natural, healthy diet is going to have terrible allergies? No, but for those of use who are susceptible to hay fever, it probably doesn’t help!

The other thing to consider is that when our bodies are weakened due to infection, our immune system is obviously somewhat depleted, making us more susceptible to infection from other sources. Wearing your body down with foods full of various toxins is going to have an impact on your overall susceptibility to various issues, including allergens.

If your system is already worn out by constant exposure to the chemicals in your food, it’s likely to be that much more sensitive to a potential allergen such as pollen, where if you are limiting your exposure to harmful substances you will probably be less sensitive.

Now, not all allergies are the result of food, and eating more healthy, organic foods isn’t guaranteed to eliminate them all together, but it certainly hasn’t made mine any worse. Just some food for thought

Be sure to leave your thoughts and experiences in the comments regarding hay fever and any natural remedies you’ve had success with.

[disclaimer]health[/disclaimer]Indigestion and heartburn are something that should be infrequent problems (and for us they are, thankfully). Occasionally though, we are all susceptible to overindulgence at dinner, or a stressful day that leads to an upset stomach. Anyone who’s experienced it knows that when heartburn happens, it isn’t fun, but finding a fast, reliable and above all else healthy remedy isn’t always easy. Most people end up depending on a remedy like Tums or another over the counter supplement.

The problem with most of these “main stream” products is that they are usually full of unnatural ingredients that are doing plenty of damage behind the scenes while they alleviate your heartburn. We actually use a product called Stomach Balance from  a company called Aboca. Stomach Balance is a 100% organic supplement that does exactly what the name implies: balances the acid in your stomach to alleviate heartburn and indigestion.

Now, the big question is, “Why use a product like Stomach Balance when something like Tums is so much more readily available?” And the answer that jumps to my mind it “Why wouldn’t you?” Let’s break out the important differences by looking at the ingredients.

Stomach Balance Ingredients

• Calcium (as natural calcium carbonate from Limenstone)
• Sodium (as natural sodium carbonate from Nahcolite)
• Aloe
• Barley
• Licorice
• Chamomile
• Cane Sugar
• Sweet Mint Natural Flavor

Note: all of these ingredients are 100% organic.

Tums Ingredients

• Calcium Carbonate
• Sucrose
• Corn Starch
• Talc
• Mineral Oil
• Natural & Artificial Flavors
• Adipic Acid
• Sodium Polyphosphate
• Red 40 Lake
• Yellow 6 Lake
• FD&C Yellow 5 Lake (Tartrazine)
• Blue 1 Lake

Just at first glance, which one of those would YOU rather swallow? Here’s some more important notes… First off, the ingredient of “Natural & Artificial Flavors” is a pretty scary loophole in the ingredient labeling system. That term can cover hundreds of different ingredients, some of which are pretty scary if you take the time to look them up. Another thing to notice is how many artificial dyes are used.

A lot could be written about the different ingredients in both products, but Stomach Balance is by far more natural and less risky. If you are curious about any of the specific ingredients, just do a simple “what is” search in Google. Personally, we’d choose a product that is made of organic herbs over one with artificial chemicals, colors and flavors every single time.

We usually purchase Stomach Balance from our naturopathic doctor’s office, but we did find it online at Natruramart.com.

For us, Stomach Balance works great for the occasional heartburn or upset stomach… we obviously aren’t doctors or nutritionists, so this is all our opinion based on our personal experiences… you should do your own research before making any of your own decisions.