Sound Integrative Health Blog

One of my favorite all-time herbs is Urtica Dioica known as Nettle. I was introduced to this herb why doing a trail run in Marin County, Northern California when I turned a corner too fast and was stung by one of its infamous needles. Little did I know that this plant who I was "cursing" was one natures best medicines . When I started my training as a Naturopathic Medicine student, one of my mentors, the late Dr. Bill Mitchell talked about Nettle root extensively. He stated it has some of the best antihistamine properties of all the plants because it is rich in plant sterols, fatty acids, and lignans which basically act like a fire extinguisher for inflammation especially with seasonal allergies. If you suffer from grass or tree allergies, try some Nettle root tea from Traditional Medicinals. Or stop by Herban Wellness in Kirkland and ask for a tea to be made up. Enjoy a cup in the morning and again in the evening and let me know if you see a reduction in your allergy symp...

Nutrition is highly individualized and often a philosophical debate among friends and family. What's important with nutrition is to find your right approach that your body responds to.  One of the more recent, yet ancient, approaches is a return to the Paleolithic Diet which mimics the diet of the hunter/gather society.  There are many different subtypes of the paleolithic diet but the commonality is elimination of grains and most sugar from the diet.  The diet emphasizes ample non-starchy vegetable intake, mild-moderate fruit intake, moderate to high animal protein intake , and mild/moderate healthy fat intake. Mark Sissom who wrote Primal Blueprint is one of the leaders behind the movement toward a paleolithic diet and he publishes a blog called Mark's Daily Apple. Sissom state that this approach when combined with short duration intense cardiovascular exercise and strength training reduces the likelihood of developing the triad of obesity, diabetes, and some risk fa...

Ms. Liad Auslander is a pre-med student at Rutgers University in New Brunswick, NJ. majoring in Applied Kinesiology and minoring in Psychology. Her hobbies include music and dance. She will be spending this summer in the Seattle area to be with her family and intern with me. Since a young age, she has always had a keen passion for medicine, and was offered the privilege to continue working towards her goals with us. She is looking forward to working with the clinic for the summer! Liad will be likely at our clinic on Tuesdays and Thursdays for a portion of the day. She will be shadowing me and helping with various functions of the clinic visit. Docere (Doctor as Teacher) is a key principle of Naturopathic Medicine and I welcome the opportunity to help Liad learn and grow. As well I am sure I will learn from her. Please join me in making her feel comfortable. As always with interns we will ask your permission for them to be in the visit with us. You always have the right to o...

I share some seasonal allergy tips here today on my podcast

Using patterns of the Lactulose Hydrogen Breath Test to Make Decisions regarding antibiotic therapy in IBS with Small Intestinal Bacterial Overgrowth Small Intestinal Bacterial Overgrowth (SIBO) is an increasingly diagnosed pathophysiologic process that involves normal bacterial flora of the colon being irregularly and excessively translocated to the small intestine. In additions some will acquire SIBO by breakdown in mechanisms that normally clear bacteria from the small intestine such as the migrating motor complex. Once this bacteria has set up in the small intestine it can cause bowel transit dysregulation (diarrhea, constipation, or both), bloating, excess wind, and abdominal discomfort. Many top researchers feel it might be the underlying component of Irritable Bowel Syndrome. It is diagnosed by clinical symptoms combined with the Lactulose Hydrogen Breath Test (LHBT) which measures the production of Methane and Hydrogen case being emitted from the small intestine after ...

Back in 2007 when I named my practice "Sound Integrative Health" I was choosing the name on a conceptual basis rather than a functional basis. Now, after 10 years of existence I have a clearer idea of what it actually means to be an integrative practice. And, guess what? It has less to do with the fact that I give natural treatments and sometimes western treatments, and more to do with what it means to integrate my patients care between multiple providers.  Chronic disease often leads to many cul de sacs; not necessarily dead ends. A cul de sac, being a node where we land on some answers but not necessarily the complete answer. Example: If one has Rheumatoid Arthritis and finds an excellent Rheumatologist with a warm bedside manner and therapeutic drug regimens. However this Rheumatologist falls short on knowing about other ways to manage the disease through diet, lifestyle, herbal treatments, cam therapies, and so on. So what happens? The patient finds another pro...

Predictive risk of Small Intestinal Bacterial Overgrowth (SIBO) in large cohort retrospective study . A total of 1809 patients who tested positive for SIBO using a Lactulose Hydrogen Breath test ( Brechmann, Sperlbaum, & Schmeigel, 2017 ) . The study looked at which pathophysiological exposures had the most predictive risk of SIBO. They used a statistic called odds ratio (OR) . An odds ratio (OR) is a measure of association between an exposure and an outcome. The OR represents the odds that an outcome will occur given a particular exposure, compared to the odds of the outcome occurring in the absence of that exposure .  For example you can see that being exposed to proton pump therapy makes you 1.4 times more likely than those non-exposed to proton pump therapy to develop SIBO.  This is a great study in that addresses the mechanisms that would lead to impaired clearance of bacteria from the small intestine and the subsequent development of SIBO.  ...