Womens Health:
How can natural medicine relieve hormone imbalances?
Naturopathic medicine can support a womans health at all stages in her life from menarche through menopause.
Naturopathic doctors are primary caredoctors specializing in hormone imbalances
and bio-identical hormone replacement
Proper hormone balance through a womans life can prevent occurrences such as: PMS and other menstrual disorders, infertility, menopausal symptoms, osteoporosis, and cardiovascular disease. Naturopathic medicine uses natural treatments to support the body in production and detoxification of hormones in order to create a more balanced hormonal response. This can help to ease you through the many hormonal transitions in a womans lifetime. Our clinic specializes in keeping women healthy to allow for vital, happy, productive lives.
The naturopathic approach to womens health concerns includes dietary/lifestyle changes, homeopathy, intracellular detoxification, herbal medicine, nutrient therapy, and natural hormone replacement therapy. We also provide full laboratory testing from basic blood work to in depth hormonal panels in order to investigate the best possible treatment options for you. Our approach provides a powerful and effective combination of therapies which will encourage the body’s natural ability to heal itself. The therapies that we utilize are safe and have very few or no side effects, even for extremely sensitive individuals.
Dr. Destia Skinner, ND has advanced specialty training in the areas of childbirth, pregnancy, and gynecology. She is gifted in the support of a woman’s ever changing body.
Naturopathic Medicine provides effective solutions for the following:
Natural/Bio-Identical Hormone Replacement Therapy
Adjunctive Post-Partum Care
Pregnancy Support
PMS / Menstrual Disorders
Menopausal Symptoms
Fertility Concerns
Osteoporosis
Ovarian Cysts and Fibroids
Polycystic Ovarian Syndrome
Female Cancer Prevention
Cardiovascular Disease Prevention
Common Complaints of Pregnancy
Basic Ways to Promote Healthy Hormone Balance
Prevention
Natural medicine is effectivein supporting a woman’s
ever changing body
Regular aerobic and weight bearing exercise
Maintain a balanced body weight
Reduce your stress response and learn stress reduction techniques that work for you.
Eat a whole foods diet
Half your plate should vegetables and/or fruit at each meal.
Eat an abundance of essential fatty acids in your diet Dietary Recommendations
Reduce
Pesticides and hormones in the animal products that you consume (fish, beef, chicken, dairy)
Refined grains and flour
Sugar and table salt
Increase
Fruits and vegetables – Eat the rainbow of colors
Dietary fiber
Legumes and soy
Nuts and seeds (flax, pumpkin, sunflower, perilla)
Whole grains
Wild, cold water fish (salmon, mackerel, sardines, herring, halibut)
Increase your water intake
½ your body weight in pounds should equal the number of ounces to drink each day.
Water is important to every cell!
At birth, the body of a full-term baby is 78% water and this declines with age.
Every nook and cranny not filled by proteins, fats, carbohydrates, or bone components is filled with water.
The brain alone consists of 85% water, muscle tissue is 75%, fat tissue is 10%, and bone tissue is 22%.
All digestive and metabolic processes in your body need water.
Increase vegetables in your daily diet
Half your plate at lunch and dinner should be vegetables.
Important sources of bioflavinoids, nutrients and antioxidants to support your body. No multivitamin can replace the synergy of vegetables and fruit.
Research shows vegetables and fruit; increase immune function, lower heart disease risk and reduce cancer risk. This is not shown with multivitamins.
Increase good essential fatty acids in your diet
People with a diet high in EFA’s show lower risk of heart disease
Important in hormone production
Beneficial effects on bone density
Eat 4 oz. of wild, cold water fish, 4 capsules of fish oil (Carlson, Eskimo 3), or 1 tablespoon of flax oil or cod liver oil per day
We recommend that you do not eat fish over 3 times a week due to heavy metal toxicity and chemicals in our oceans
Eat only wild fish
Phytoestrogens
They are found in many foods including fennel, soy, nuts, seeds, apples, alfalfa, and whole grains.
Phytoestrogens are not hormones
A constituent in a plant which can bind weakly to estrogen receptors
They can have upregulating or down regulating effects, balancing and modulating effects
Phytoestrogens do not raise estrogen levels in the body since they are quickly broken down and eliminated
Why Soy?
Natural medicine is effectivein treating the symptoms
associated with menopause
Rich source of phytoestrogens and isoflavones (genestein, daidzein, and glycitein)
Decreases menopausal symptoms
Improves cholesterol levels, lowers blood pressure, decreases platelet aggregation,
Associated with decrease in cancer risk
Suppresses osteoclastic activity which prevents bone breakdown
Only 1 serving recommended per day- do not over consume soy products
Examples of one serving:
soy milk = 1 cup
tofu = 1/2 cup
tempeh = 1/2 cup
soy nuts = 1/4 cup
soy protein powder =1-2 scoops
Recommended as a whole food, not as a supplement – all components present and balanced
Non-GMO sources (non-genetically modified soy) – we are not sure how the body sees this material