Are there any side-effects of natural therapies?  Having been in the industry for 20 years I have a lot of thoughts on this.  People respond in different ways to different therapies.

Imagine an elderly person, on many medications, who has her first massage in years: a gentle relaxation massage.  Imagine some of the muscle starting to release toxins - inflammatory hormones being released into the bloodstream, coupled with a lack of hydration since medications dehydrate the system so much!  Link that to a huge magnesium deficiency created by a lifetime of poor diet, excess tea and coffee and depletion via the medication and you end up with pain after a massage…  a side-effect???

There needs to be support for natural therapies for pensioners!  The only healthcare the elderly can often afford is medical drugs with it’s huge government assistance.  It’s devastating for us to speak to people every single day who cannot afford our services and yet they get unhealthier and unhealthier following a ‘medical lifestyle’!  This needs to be changed!

Madonna Guy ND

Chief Clinician at New Leaf

Our Fat-Loss Programme

We work with many weight loss challenges in our clinic, and insulin resistance is huge!  We have a machine that tells us on the spot how ‘insulin resistant’ someone is.  This is a pre-diabetic condition which medically doesn’t get picked up due to the fact that it’s NOT diabetes.  Medically (and there’s absolutely nothing wrong with this) they are always waiting for tests to be bad enough to 1. put us on medication; 2. send us to a specialist or 3. operate.

I tell my clients all the time ‘thank goodness they didn’t find anything!!’.  Insulin resistance means that the cells are not taking in insulin easily and/or the internal mechanism of the cell which deals with insulin isn’t working.

One of my clients yesterday has been exercising his butt off, changing his diet and weight hasn’t come off.  Yesterday his insulin resistance was huge (about 6x maximum level for ’safe’ insulin levels - no wonder his body isn’t losing weight.  The small amounts of carbohydrates he’s having (fruits, rice crackers, bread…hmmm, and cereals) are simply storing as fat.  His body can’t handle them at the moment.

By the way, insulin is a very inflammatory hormone when out of whack - it can be a major cause of obesity, heart disease, diabetes and pain.

Luckily we have some fabulous products which help reverse insulin resistance.

Madonna Guy ND

Chief Clinician at New Leaf

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Have you heard of SIBO??  Small Intestinal Bacterial Overgrowth???  It’s been found that 80% of people with Fibromyalgia and 100% of people with Chronic Fatigue Syndrome have SIBO.  It’s hard to detect medically and I find this statistic totally incredible.  It doesn’t surprise us at New Leaf since these clients generally require fairly big detoxification processes (gently and long-term).  The major filters of the body are nearly always exhausted (ph is too acidic, digestion not working, liver not filtering properly, and kidneys generally damaged…).  So get your gut checked out - it’s very easy to have candida, celiac, helicobacter & parasites checked for, and the process of ridding your body of these (NOT WITH DRUGS AS THIS CAUSES MORE ISSUES) will make a huge difference to your health, long term.

How to Get Rid of Stress - today I’ll give some Natural Pain Treatments that really work! Of course I say this with 15 years of naturopathic experience with a huge emphasis on nutrition and body work!

1.  Have you ever tried magnesium for stress and pain relief? There are many brands I find good (many are total rubbish - some simply are a waste of energy).  Why magnesium?  When we are stressed we chew up a huge number of minerals and vitamins at the speed of light.  We use heaps of magnesium, potassium and calcium, lots of B vitamins just for a start.  When our body is running on adrenalin, noradrenalin and cortisol we also can get quite acidic bodies (probably due to losing our minerals) which leads to chronic disease and chronic pain.  Our body used magnesium, calcium and potassium to help our bodies stay more alkaline, if we are deficient in magnesium and other minerals (like 70-80% of the human race) than our bodies slowly but surely start to be more and more acidic, which is linked to heart disease, cancers, arthritis and dementia!

Scary huh?  However, it’s easy to add magnesium.  I recommend a product called Metagenics Fibroplex or CardioX which both have an easy-to-absorb magnesium which gets into the cells pronto!  It makes us more alkaline, helps our nervous system heal faster, helps in reversing insulin resistance (a side-effects of long-term-stress) and much more!  It’s also excellent for Frozen Shoulder, Back and Shoulder Pain, Sciatic Pain and more.  It was originally developed for Fibromyalgia and it is fantastic for that long-term health problems! AND - if your body is magnesium deficient it can take up to 4 months at high doses to get enough into your system so that you’ve re-established levels in your muscles, bones, nerves and blood supply.

2.  Let’s briefly look at diet - the D word!!!  What does diet have to do with stress??  So Much!!!  Doctors really miss the boat here - there are connections with every hormonal  issue in our bodies… if we are not getting enough good fats (fish, avocados, LSA - linseed, sunflower and almonds) for essential fatty acids), green leafy vegetables for anti-oxidants and minerals, healthy organic and free-range meats, eggs and dairy products for protein, than we don’t have the ingredients to make our hormones.  If we eat too many carbohydrates - grains, starchy vegetables (potatoes, pumpkins, carrots - yes carrots!), sugars - natural and refined) than our body releases a lot more insulin, which increases adrenalin and cortisol (our stress hormones), makes us more acidic and throws our blood sugar levels into chaos.

As a general rule of thumb, for a long and healthy life, we need to have approximately even amounts, per meal of:  Fats + Protein = Carbohydrates…  Sound easy??  If we need to lose weight, we need to use the Keto Diet see www.ketodiet.com.au

I have always known that depression, pain and aging were linked.  I found this article, which also confirms current medical opinion on the issue.

Depression, Pain, and Aging

Jordan F. Karp, M.D., and Charles F. Reynolds III, M.D.

The prevalence of persistent pain increases with age. Painful conditions such as fibromyalgia, chronic low back pain, osteoarthritis, and neuropathic pain are frequently comorbid with depression. When comorbid, these conditions slow the treatment of each other, worsen physical and psychological disability, and increase caregiving burden. Anatomic, neurochemical, and psychological similarities lead to high rates of comorbidity. Anxiety, disordered sleep, fatigue, and cognitive impairment are frequent “cotravelers” with depression and pain in late life; these conditions require vigilant screening and treatment. Psychiatrists should be familiar with current analgesic prescribing patterns and be able to effectively collaborate with primary care physicians and physical therapists to optimize treatment outcomes for patients with these complex problems.

Madonna’s comments:

I’m impressed that psychiatrists are aware and working with the combination of Depression and Pain, two of the problems we treat most in our clinic.  Obviously one could ask, is it the chicken or the egg - which came first, but it doesn’t really matter.  I regularly have clients in with pain problems and the only drug they’re taking from the doctor is an anti-depressant.  One side-effect is exhaustion, so it just adds to their depression and often the pain is still there anyway!  Another side-effect is often weight gain, since anti-depressants slow down the entire metabolism of the body and so we burn less calories so without any other changes to dietary intake, weight gain is exceptionally common.

People are often of the anti-depressant pain and depression merry-go-round for several years.  These conditions slowly worsen, extra drugs are added to the mix and other symptoms develop: insomnia, fatigue, digestive disorders, hormonal problems and liver issues are quite common.  Not to mention the toxic side effect of the drug cocktail that they now find themselves on…  aging badly is then inevitable! 

There are many nutrients, herbs and supplements that can help in such a massive way!  I’ll blog about this soon…   Natural Pain Treatment for Depression, Pain and Aging.

Madonna Guy ND

New Leaf Natural Therapies

Your Natural Health Care Specialists!

I have found it is 100% possible to get Immediate Pain Relief for Back and Shoulder Pain and Frozen Shoulder with Frequency Specific Microcurrent - I’ve been using Frequency Specific Microcurrent in our pain clinic now for some time, and am very impressed with how quickly and immediately long term (and acute) pain symptoms can be relieved.  We use 2 Frequency Specific Microcurrent machines simultaneously - which may be why we get such good results.  Back and shoulder pain is often eliminated or improved with only 1 hour of treatment, and is compared to about 5 hours worth or remedial massage therapy, which the body would of course, be unable to tolerate.  Back and shoulder pain issues such as calcification, tendonitis, ligament damage, tearing of the muscles can all be helped with Frequency Specific Microcurrent.  Calcification of the joints and arthritis can be reduced dramatically quite quickly so that long-term issues such as Frozen Shoulder can be eliminated.  One such client in his early 70’s had 1 treatment on his frozen shoulder - barely unable to lift his arm to shoulder height on the day he walked into our clinic, the next day popped in to hold his arm above his head to let us know how well he was doing.  Fantastic results!

A few weeks ago I did several massage treatments with some difficult clients (health issues, not personality issues) and as a consequence had throbbing pain down my right arm for 4 hours or so.  I used the Frequency Specific Microcurrent, for 80 minutes which completely resolved the pain and it has never returned.

I also have a massage therapist in my clinic who does deep remedial massage and uses the machine at the end of a big day to repair ligament and tendon problems before they become long-term health problems, which she has suffered from in the past.  We use the machine to help solve Emotional Pain as well - we have used it for grief, anger, tears and depression, hormonal issues, self-esteem issues and fear… all with fantastic results.  So try to find a local Frequency Specific Microcurrent Practitioner - preferably one who uses two machines simultaneously to save you time and money and get a healthy, Natural Pain Treatment today!!

We have had many other types of pain relieved with Frequency Specific Microcurrent, many cases of Immediate Pain Relief for Back and Shoulder Pain and Frozen Shoulder, Knee Problems, Spinal Cord Pain, Fibromyalgia etc etc etc

Madonna Guy ND

New Leaf Natural Therapies

Your Natural Health Care Specialists