The American Association of Naturopathic Physicians’ 2005 convention was fantastic! My talk want very well. I spoke to a packed house and I learned a lot in conversing with my colleagues.
Below I have noted some interesting things I learned during the conference:
This is just a sampling of the wonderful things that I learned- I look forward to sharing them with you!
Candace McNaughton, ND
Acidic Stress
Acidic stress is the term for a state of long term, mild acidity of the body. Since our bodies do what ever they can to keep the blood at its proper pH, a slight acidic state takes a lot of work to maintain. This means that we leach calcium from our bones, protein from our muscles, and work our kidneys overtime. Usually, eating lots of vegetables and limiting red meat can manage acidic stress. If that doesn’t work, we can take supplements to help.
How do I know if I’m acidic?
If you eat a lot of meat, or drink lots of soda, coffee, or alcohol and not enough water, you could be acidic. Other causes of acidity include toxic exposure, poor digestion, even aging. If you experience brittle bones, a loss of muscle mass, kidney stones, or heart disease, acidic stress may have contributed to this. Measuring saliva or urine pH is not a very acurate way to tell, because numbers vary by the hour, and remember, the body will do what ever it can to keep the fluids at their proper pH. There are blood tests which can tell us about pH balance and help to diagnose acidic stress.
For more information, see my article:
Acidic Stress
There is a lot of debate out there about water, and the best way to get a good source. Some say you should buy spring or distilled water, or filter it at home. Some people say that it makes no difference if you drink from the tap!
Tap water is free of microbes, but contains many toxic chemicals, including chlorine, which is very toxic to the body. It is especially important to avoid chemicals if you have cancer or other chronic diseases like Parkinson’s or Alzheimer disease.
It’s my understanding that the Pur filter is the best pitcher-style filter. It gets out chlorine, spores, and most of the chemicals from tap water. I have also heard that the best overall filter is the MultiPure (different company). They have a model which sits on the sink or fits under it.
I would say that at the minimum, any filter that gets out chlorine is necessary.
I think about the processing chemicals and pesticides in the water, and wonder what these filters can get out. The materials for MultiPure address this.
There has been some discussion that distilled water is by definition as pure as you can get. I have heard that none of the small chemicals from the source water can be present in distilled water by virtue of the distillation process. I am not sure that I am convinced of that. MultiPure says that the chemicals can recondense back into the distilled water. Also, because distilled water has no minerals, it may leach minerals out of your body- bone and tooth problems have been reported.
Here are some links for further information:
http://www.purwater.com/yourwater/contaminants.shtml
http://www.purwater.com
http://www.multipure.com
This page compares available methods, with a bias toward MultiPure:
http://www.multipure.com/product_comparison1.htm
Whatever you choose, drink water every day! 64 ounces is an average recommendation. To help you remember, keep a water bottle with you. Some people find that having a straw encourages them to drink more. Others like bubbly or flavored water.
If you have kidney problems, 64 ounces per day may be too much for you.
In Health,
Dr. McNaughton
Fish oil is a great way to reduce inflammation, which is present to some degree in all of our bodies. It can help with pain, heart health, skin health, and brain functioning. With the high demand, they are very fresh and don’t taste bad like “grandma’s” cod liver oil. They even come in flavors!
Unfortunately, all fish in the world contains some amount of heavy metals and toxins. Good fish oil companies will filter out the heavy metals and toxins. They should have a very clear statement on their label about this. “Purity tested” and “Pharmaceutical grade” are NOT enough. There is no standard for “pharmaceutical grade” when it comes to fish oil, so that statement has no specific meaning. You also want to see a statement like “free of heavy metals, PCB’s, and dioxin” or “molecularly distilled”.
There is another major issue. The process of removing heavy metals and toxins from the oils is a relatively high heat process. They do what they can to keep the heat down, but it still can damage the oil. This is because all oils are very sensitive to heat, light, air, and moisture- they will become damaged (oxidize). These fats can actually do damage to tissues in your body. The big dirty secret of the fish oil industry is that most fish oils are MOSTLY oxidized. Yuck! My favorite company has a final step in their production. They remove any oxidized fats at the end. I don’t know of any other company that does that.
Lastly, you should keep your fish oil in the fridge after opening.
To summarize:
Enjoy!
I am happy to announce that I will be presenting a paper at the American Association of Naturopathic Physicians annual convention on August 25th. This paper is on the connections between inflammation and acidosis in disease, which I have been researching for some time now.
I will be out of town between August 23 and 31. If you need to make an appointment or anticipate supplement refills, please let me know during the week of the 15th through 19th.
I am pleased to announce that I will once again appear on the TV show Being In Seattle Tuesday August 16th between 2 and 3 PM.
This show is also available on the web. You should have a faster connection than dial-up to view the show in real time. Just go to http://www.scantv.org/ and click on the link that says “SCAN on the web”. The direct address is http://168.156.127.9/scanlive
I will be talking about naturopathic medicine. I will talk about the profession, what education is involved, what naturopaths do, referrals, insurance, and fielding questions from Rosemary.
I will be sharing the hour with other guests and I do not know exactly which segment I will be in.
I hope that you can join me for this live show and your comments are welcome.
Tuesday, August 16
Naturopathic Medicine
2:00-3:00 pm
Being in Seattle, with Rosemary Broccoli
Scan TV, on cable channel 77 or 29 in King County and some parts of Southern Snohomish County.
And live online at http://www.scantv.org/