Category: Health tips

What beautiful fall colours this year! 

As we watch the last of the leaves fall, I’m reminded that fall is the time to prepare our immune systems for the coming winter. This year, with COVID, RSV, and the usual increase in colds and flu, strengthening your immune system is more important than ever.

Prevention is Better than Treatment

First things first: not getting sick in the first place is the best game to play.

Not getting COVID at all—or handling it with a robust immune system—is easier than treating a difficult infection. It’s far better to not get a cold than it is to treat one with medications that can impact your liver, your brain, and your heart.

With rare exception, your body already knows how to build a strong immune system. It’s like having an incredibly skilled contractor—your job isn’t to build things; it’s to provide the tools and resources. That’s the number one way to support your immune system.

What does that mean? It means there are things YOU can do and things WE can do here at StoneTree that can make a difference.

1. What YOU Can Do

• Spend time outside. Movement is directly connected to your immune system. Movement helps take in air, transport blood and lymph, and keep you mentally healthy. Yes, it’s not always easy. But exercise is the single best magic bullet we know of for health.
• Eat real, whole foods. Ideally, foods you prepare at home if you can. The simplest nutrition hack in the world is to cook. If you can cook using ingredients, you will have a better diet than 80% of people. 
• Be social. Yes, colds, flu, COVID, and RSV are infectious. But being trapped inside alone is an awful tax on your mind and body. Be smart. Mask and isolate as needed. But don’t expect isolation and loneliness to make you healthy.

2. What WE Can Do

• Measure and track relevant lab results. It’s possible to assess your immune system. Things like your overall inflammation. Your heart health. Your vitamin D levels. A healthy body usually has a healthy immune response—we can help you find out where you’re at.
• Provide herbs and supplements. We have a lot of tools in the toolbox! Herbs like echinacea, oregano, andrographis, and vitamins and minerals like vitamin C, vitamin A, and zinc work to boost the immune system and kick out colds and flu.
• Administer IV support. Our seasonal IVs are a huge hit, and they’re here for you. Intravenous Vitamin C for viral infections or once a month as a preventative, as well as inhaled glutathione for coughs, are great tools!

To speak with your naturopath, book an IV treatment, order supplements, or find a doctor that fits you, book here!

The New Year is approaching! 

Hard to believe. It seems like just yesterday we were right here, kicking off 2020.

This year was an odd one, to be sure. But every year has one thing in common: it passes. The days keep on ticking by, and before you know it, you’ll be staring at another December. The only difference is that you’ll be a year older. It’s inescapable. 

But is that the only difference? It doesn’t have to be.

It’s time to make a decision. Next year you’ll be a year older—do you also want to be a year better? Or a year happier? A year healthier?

We think you can be.

But what you can’t do is the same thing you did this year, and expect next year to be different. To get different results, something needs to change. That’s where we come in. 

We know all about how hard it can be to make change. As naturopathic doctors, we often ask people to do things differently, and it’s not easy. But over thousands of patients and almost 20 years of doing this work, we know it’s more than possible.

Today, we’re kicking off a five-week series on habit change to prepare you for the upcoming year. Whether you want to change your diet or move your body more, or whether take control of your finances or perhaps finally write that book, the next few weeks will offer you the best advice we know for making changes that stick.

We’re going to tackle one specific strategy for habit change each week for the next four. But to kick things off, here are three things to embrace as you head into 2021.

1. Decide that your success this coming year is going to be about consistency, not quantity. Whether it’s eating better or saving more or exercising, the habit is what matters. Want to exercise more? We’d rather you reach the end of next year in love with your consistent, daily, never-miss, 15-minute walk than looking back at the handful of times you did 30 minutes before deciding you were just too busy. 

Better to save $100 a month every month than $500 once. Better to write 250 words a day all year (and finish that book!) than 2500 words one weekend. Sustainable, incremental change is the game, and the YOU of one year from now can win that game.

2. Become a student of change. We’re going to distill some great habit change research and resources for you, but that doesn’t mean you can’t build on that. Remember that what you focus on tends to change. So why not put your focus on some of our favourite habit change books? Each week we’ll recommend one of our faves. You don’t have to read them all, and you don’t have to read them all right away, but each one will help you learn. And each can help you stick to your new habits, or return to them if you stumble.

3. Ask yourself a big question. What does your future self need the most? Imagine yourself a year from now—what one new habit would you be most grateful for?

Happy New Year! Let’s make 2021 your best ever.

Yours in good health,

The StoneTree Team

Recommended reading: The Power of Habit by Charles Duhigg

UPDATE: We’ve finished the habit series. Here are the rest of the weeks!

• New You Week 2: Pick One Thing
• New You Week 3: Start Small
• New You Week 4: Habit Stacking
• New You Week 5: Anticipating Challenges

The immune system is a wonderful, complicated thing. It keeps us safe from infection, helps deal with toxins, cleans up aberrant cells that could lead to cancer, and helps us heal.

Not surprisingly, we’ve been fielding a lot of questions in the past week or two about how to strengthen and maintain this bodily wonder.

Here’s a little crash course in how the immune system protects you and how you can strengthen it. To simplify things, we’ve broken the system into four parts, with recommendations for supporting each one.

Defense 1: Physical Barriers
Your skin and mucous membranes are the first line of defense against potential invaders. If this barrier is strong and intact, bacteria and viruses have a far tougher time getting through.

How to support it: Wash your hands, get outside and breathe fresh, clean air to help keep the mucosa of your respiratory tract clean.

Defense 2: Chemical Barriers
Many of our physical barriers are coupled with chemical barriers. An excellent example is the hydrochloric acid of the stomach, which can kill many pathogens before they even have a chance to make it to the mucosa of your digestive tract.

How to support it: Eat a diet high in whole, plant-based foods. This will keep stomach acid levels well-balanced, and avoid the need for antacids that suppress this important barrier.

Defense 3: Your Innate Immune System
This part of the immune system is made of cells called monocytes, macrophages, neutrophils, and natural killer cells. These cells circulated constantly in the body, always on patrol for signs of trouble. When they find it, they initiate a process called phagocytosis, in which they envelop a pathogen and destroy it. If the invader is too much to deal with these patrol cells sound the alarm and engage the “big guns”.

How to support it: These cells move around in your blood and lymph, so moving your blood and lymph help them do their job! Daily exercise that gets these fluids moving is your best course of action.

Defense 4: Your Specific / Adaptive Immune System
This part of the immune system isn’t on patrol like the innate system, but instead is a highly specialized part that hangs out in your lymph nodes, always ready to respond when it is called upon.

The adaptive immune system is made up of T-cells and B-cells. Through a complicated process, these remarkable cells make antibodies to an invader that are always remembered; if you are exposed to the same infection again they can respond rapidly and get on top of things before the pathogen has a chance to make you sick. This is the part of the immune system that is stimulated by vaccines.

How to support it: Eat a diet rich in foods with high levels of antioxidants like vitamin C, vitamin A, Vitamin E, zinc and selenium. These nutrients are all critical for T-cell and B-cell function. Think fruits and veggies with lots of colour, and nuts and seeds.

Learning More
If you want to dig into this further, this video is much more detailed, but still easy to understand.

There are many supplements and herbal medicines that are also valuable in helping to support or boost your immune function, or to help it deal with a current infection. Talk to your naturopathic doctor to find out which ones might be right for you.

This is a common reason for visits to the clinic, but not one that people find easy to talk about. Part of our job is to make the conversation easier by helping patients understand that there are a lot of potential reasons for low libido. 

For men, the most common issues are: 

• Low testosterone
• Prescription medicines like anti-depressants
• Too little or too much exercise
• Alcohol and drug use
• Smoking
• Psychological issues like depression, stress, relationships problems

About 4 out of 10 men over age 45 have low testosterone. While testosterone replacement therapy remains somewhat controversial, it is a common solution to the problem. We prefer a different approach.

For women, the most common issues are:  

• Hormonal changes, especially during menopause, pregnancy & breastfeeding 
• Prescription medicines like anti-depressants 
• Too little or too much exercise
• Alcohol and drug use. 
• Fatigue/exhaustion from caring for young children or aging parents
• Mental health problems, such as anxiety or depression
• Stress, such as financial stress or work stress
• Poor body image and low self-esteem
• History of physical or sexual abuse, or previous negative sexual experiences
• Relationship issues like lack of connection, unresolved conflict, or trust issues
• Poor communication of sexual needs and preferences

As with men, our approach is multi-faceted and involves getting to the root of the problem.  

There are, however, some general recommendations that are helpful for everyone: 

1. Become an “oxytocin farmer.” You can increase your “love hormone” by connecting to your sweetie in particular, but also by connecting to others, too. We wrote about it here.
2. Get more sleep. Turn off the TV and go to bed earlier – just do it!  Feel more rested, and you’ll little feel more in the mood, too.
3. Get outside and exercise every day. It only takes 30 minutes and it will change EVERYTHING to do with your health, including sex drive.
4. Talk to a health professional who understands hormones and bio-identical hormone replacement therapy. These docs are really good at assessing how your hormones are out of balance and what to do about it!

Oxytocin is both a hormone and a neurotransmitter, best known for its role in childbirth where it causes the uterus to contract in labour and promotes the movement of milk for breastfeeding.

But oxytocin’s role goes much further, and across genders. It also works in our nervous system to play an important role in bonding and relationships.

Here on Valentine’s Day, you might be getting a little extra dose–oxytocin is released by both men and women when we are in love!

But that’s not all. The little love hormone also helps:

• Reduce stress and anxiety
• Increase feelings of calmness and security.
• Increase feelings of contentment
• Reduce the release of cortisol, your body’s main stress hormone
• Reduce inflammation
• Accelerate healing
• Increase pain tolerance 
• Reduce withdrawal symptoms 
• Increase creativity 
• Increase social enjoyment. 
• Increase positive personality traits such as empathy, warmth, trust, and openness 

With such a great list of benefits, how do we get more of it? The best way to get more is to spread the love! Try some of these:

• Hug someone (but ask first)
• Tell someone you love and appreciate them
• Give a gift, surprise someone for no reason
• Share a meal
• Meditate while focusing on others
• Pet a dog
• Sing with others
• Consider supplements that affect oxytocin levels, like:  
  • Vitamin D. Oxytocin is directly activated by Vitamin D.  Deficiency of vitamin D is so common.  Another good reason to get tested and supplement accordingly. 
  • Vitamin C. Oxytocin synthesis is directly dependant on vitamin C. 
  • Magnesium. Critical for the function of the oxytocin receptor. This is the part of our cells that actually allow the hormone to work. 
  • The probiotic strain lactobacillus reuteri. Increases oxytocin levels in the brain. Another reason why an imbalance in your gut flora affects mood.  

Other hormones like estrogen and melatonin can affect oxytocin levels, too.  Working with a doctor that is skilled in bioidentical hormone therapy can help! For more information on hormones–and love–contact us anytime. 🙂

Have you seen our latest clinic chalkboard? It’s all about oxytocin–drop by and check it out!

The new year brings with it many resolutions to do better and one of the most common is to “exercise more”. 

Despite the thousands of people that set this intention, and then even go so far as to show up at the gym for the month of January, the success rate is remarkably low. The majority of people soon ditch the gym and go back to their old ways.

We recently recommended James Clear’s book Atomic Habits as a great tool for creating and sustaining lifestyle change. Well worth a read. And a new month is right around the corner–it’s a perfect time to reboot a fading habit, or start a new one!

Here are some or our favourite techniques for kickstarting change that lasts.

1. Start with Redefining Exercise

Let’s be real: exercise sounds kinda awful. It seems hard. Sweaty. Difficult. It sounds like expensive gear and weird clothes and machines that you don’t understand.

What if you think of it differently? What if your goal isn’t exercise, but simply to move more? Does that open your mind to different possibilities? To things that you like or don’t feel intimidated by?

2.  Start With Why

People don’t actually want to exercise more–at least at first. They want the effects of having exercised more. They want:

• A slimmer body 
• More energy 
• Better sleep 
• Better concentration 
• More calm and less stress
• Increased health

What are your reasons for wanting to exercise more? When you’re beginning to make change, this list can often be far more compelling than the exercise itself. Put this reason somewhere you can see it to remind yourself of the why.  

3. Start Small and Grow

How often have you said to yourself, I’m going to the gym for an hour a day, or, I’m going to walk 10,000 steps.

Invariably, life happens and your well-meaning but overly-ambitious goal is not met. You feel like a failure and your fears are confirmed: I’m just not the person who can get exercise into my life.  

What if you start small? What if you start ridiculously small?

What if you walked 100 extra steps? What if you did one push-up? What if you ate one vegetable?

It may not seem like much, but the consistency matters more than the quantity.

After all, at the end of the month, would you rather be the person who walked a little every day, or the person who set big goals but didn’t walk at all?

4. Start with Commitment

It you have to meet a friend at the gym, or you have made a plan with someone to go for a walk, there’s a much greater likelihood of things happening. Plus, you get to meet another basic need for health–connecting with others!

Commitment really works. What form works best for you?

• Social commitment: Tell a friend you’ll meet them.
• Scheduling commitment: Put your new habit in your calendar before anything else.
• Financial commitment: Pay in advance for a class, membership or trainer.