Nov 27

Key highlights of November’s Pain Seminar at New Leaf Natural Therapies were interesting…  Attendees were from different walks of life, with varying levels of pain and inflammatory conditions: gut pain, arthritis, fibromyalgia, exhaustion & chronic fatigue syndrome, rheumatoid arthritis, menstrual pain, insomnia, depression and anxiety…

When you put it all together pain, regardless of the type, comes from the same causes which were discussed:

  1. chronic nutritional deficiences such as magnesium, calcium, potassium and B vitamins
  2. inflammation
  3. acidity
  4. toxicity
  5. structural imbalances and
  6. stress… leading to the fight and flight response

Our clinical and scientific testing processes can measure these problems and then our naturopathic supplements and treatments can start to reverse these problems in the body.

Madonna Guy ND
Chief Clinician

Nov 25

We’re having a few small talks in November 2009, about pain drugs – getting off the pain drug merry-go-round!  Sounds like a familiar story for someone you know and love?  Or you maybe?  Without drugs life just isn’t worth living, but with the drugs it’s not much chop either??!!

Pain drug useage is so common, people don’t think twice about it.  Panadols are $2 for 24 tablets – how easy it is to get addicted to these drugs and what are they doing to our health?  An aspirin a day for the Over 50’s; so many people on blood thinners, blood pressure tablets, pain killers, many drugs which are seen to be as life-long habits.  One per day.  Easy.  Not that we’re saying get off your drugs, but there are other alternatives which many doctors and specialists simply don’t know about.

The problem with the body is that everytime we take a drug we are not just affecting the system we want to affect.  Blood thinners don’t just thin the blood, they thin the gut lining (often causing leaky-gut which we see easily in our live blood analysis) too.  Blood pressure tablets aim at slowing blood pressure, but it often causes side effects such as weight gain and exhaustion.  Pain drugs numb the pain but don’t fix the problem. 

What’s the solution?  Come along to our free talk on Wednesday morning or Thursday evening, meet Madonna & see what New Leaf Natural Therapies has to offer!

Everyone gets $150 bonus for attending – can you pass that up??

Madonna Guy ND

Chief Clinician at New Leaf

Apr 5

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!