Seasonal Allergies? Already?

By Dr. Samantha Brody, On April 5, 2012

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Every year around this time I get an influx of patients who are sick. Runny nose, cough, irritated eyes, full ears. And often enough it’s the same patients year after year. I get out my thermometer, stethoscope, peek in their ears and ask “Are you sure it’s not your allergies acting up?” “Oh, right! But isn’t it too early?” Some hop right on Claritin or Zyrtec and it’s a done deal. For others, this doesn’t work as well as they would like or there are too many bothersome side effects. And in some cases it doesn’t work at all. Most who seek care with me are willing to take a medication if it’s a last resort but would prefer to address things as much as possible on their own. Or at least with a lower dose or a less heavy hitting medication.

If you’re a regular reader you’ll notice that I tend not to write entries that suggest that you ‘do this’ or ‘do that’ to treat any given condition. That’s not about keeping secrets, it’s about doing my part to advocate for what we do best as naturopathic physicians. What makes our approach unique is that each person is treated with a slightly different approach, no matter what the “diagnosis.” In our office, anyway. We believe simply that there isn’t one test, drug, herb, nutritional approach or supplement that should be thrown at all patients.

So given that, there are four basic tenets to how I (we, that’s Dr Butler too) approach allergic patients. Though there are some things that are very patient specific there are also some things that anyone can do to help decrease symptoms.

1. Avoid exposure to your offending allergens. If you don’t know what they are, get tested. You don’t necessarily have to treat them the way the allergist wants you to, that’s your call, but knowing specifically what you’re allergic to may help you figure out how to at least decrease your exposure. Here are some other ways to decrease general allergen exposure.

  • Neti pot or other sinus irrigation. Please use distilled or boiled water or you may end up with a brain eating amoeba (ok that’s unlikely but it did happen once, somewhere, so better safe than sorry.)
  • Use air purifiers in as much of your home as you can. Non –negotiable in the bedroom.
  • Wash your hair before you go to bed, or rinse it at least. When you’ve been walking around all day you get pollen in your hair then roll your face around in it all night.
  • No “day clothes” in bed. Or even get out of outside clothes entirely when you get home if you have severe allergies.
  • If you suspect a dust mite allergy at all (via testing or waking with allergic symptoms.) Get barrier covers for your mattress, sheets AND comforter. If you use blankets, wash them weekly.
  • Don’t dry your clothes outside.
  • If working in the yard really irritates you see if you can pawn this off on another family member or source it out. Wear a mask if you need to.

2. Thin mucus.

  • Drink plenty of water.
  • Consider supplements that have this function. We call these mucolytics. There are a number out there and this is one of those places where it is really best to tailor prescribe.

3. Stabilize mast cells- the cells that release the chemicals that cause allergies into your bloodstream and local tissue.*

  • Vitamin C.
  • Quercetin and bioflavonoids.

4. Balance the immune system. This is the most complicated part of addressing allergies. Allergies are your immune system inappropriately overacting to a stimulus. Folks who suffer with allergies often get sick more often than their non-allergic peers because their bodies are so busy fighting off that crazy dangerous pollen they don’t have the resources to fight off a virus, or bacteria. Not to mention that viruses and bacteria find the dark damp milieu of the allergy sufferer’s respiratory tract the perfect environment for settling in and multiplying.  It’s a fine balance that we address with personalized nutritional recommendations (though for everyone, watch the sugar- it decreases immune function, and watch the dairy, it makes more mucus.)

* I’m working on a short video that explains the nuts and bolts of this process, so if you’re interested, sign up for our weekly newsletter. The plan is to give a weekly health tip, links to our new blog posts, and a running list of current important bits of health news!

12 Healthy Changes for 2012

By Dr. Samantha Brody, On January 1, 2012

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Is 2012 going to be the year you make sweeping lifestyle changes for a healthier you? Great! Find the support you need to identify your goals and make a path to get there. If that’s too much, think about small changes. They add up quickly if you can stick to them. Here are some ideas for the coming year. One a month? Pick 3 this year? Think about what your goals are and which of these will help you get to where you want to be.

I’ll be fleshing all of these out on the blog over the coming year. Comment with your successes and ideas!

  1. Move your body. We have more than ample information now that proves that even increasing your movement by 30 minutes a day can have a profound effect on your health.
  2. Increase your vegetables. Eat 3-4 cups of low carb vegetables a day.  Make it at least a cup of dark leafy greens. Eat roasted veggies for snack. Have 2 servings of veggies with dinner. At least a cup per veggie. Try new recipes if you get bored.
  3. Get enough sleep. 8 hours is ideal. 7 is minimum. I need 9 and know many other folks who do as well. If you think you’re rested enough with 6 or 7, cut out coffee and see if you’re still ‘well rested.’
  4. Cut down on TV time. The average American watches over 4 hours a day of TV. Once we add screen time it can easily double or triple. We just finished a challenge of no TV for 6 months. It’s not as hard as you think.
  5. Drink more water. And green tea, it’s water with added benefits.
  6. Take vacations. Even if you can’t afford to get away, take a break from your day to day.
  7. Increase your fiber intake. Fiber is important for healthy digestion. And yes you should have a BM at least once a day.
  8. Eat 3 meals a day. Or more if you prefer smaller meals. Eating regularly leads to healthier eating as you don’t get famished and compromise what you know is a good choice.
  9. Plan ahead for meals. If you plan ahead you’re much less likely to grab junk. Period.
  10. Take time for yourself every day. Many of us spend the greater part of our lives taking care of others. It’s a good thing, in my opinion, but if you don’t take care of yourself then it’s too easy to burn out and either become resentful or simply too exhausted to manage.
  11. Stretch. Flexibility is an important part of good health. It prevents injury and helps you retain a sense of balance into your older years.
  12. Breathe. Every hour take 3 deep breaths. Set your phone alarm to go off every hour as a reminder.  You’ll be amazed at how this resets the tone of your day.

Vitamin D, the wonder vitamin?

By Dr. Samantha Brody, On May 11, 2010

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Vitamin D is hitting the news just about every day of late.

Sure it’s the ‘it’ vitamin right now, which automatically makes me suspicious, but the evidence is piling up that we may be causing ourselves immense harm by avoiding the sun.

Here is a sampling of just a few articles citing recent studies on vitamin D.

  1. Higher blood levels of vitamin D associated with improved mobility for seniors.
  2. Taking vitamin D supplements during pregnancy is not only safe for mother and baby, but also can prevent preterm labor/births and infections.
  3. Vitamin D deficiency leads to sharply increased risk of breast cancer spread.
  4. Low vitamin D may raise heart disease risk.
  5. Low vitamin D is associated with increased prevalence of type 2 diabetes, high blood sugar, insulin resistance, and metabolic syndrome.
  6. Lower vitamin D levels are associated with greater risk for upper respiratory infection (colds/flus.) This association is stronger in those with existing respiratory diseases such as asthma or COPD.

And this is just the tip of the iceberg.

In response to the latest news, some doctors are just putting all of their patients on ‘higher’ doses of vitamin D, 1000iu, 2000iu, but I don’t think that’s good enough. What I’ve found in my practice is that each person needs a different load of vitamin D to reach an ideal level (I shoot for 60-90 as a rule) and then a different amount to keep them at that level once they get there. Therefore, I recommend that everyone have a vitamin D test. Once we have results, I decide how much to supplement and we run follow up labs in 6 weeks to see if an ideal level has been reached. If all is well I keep the patient on approximately 1500-2000iu daily and then test again in another 3 months to make sure the patient is stable.

Note, please that as an ND I always supplement with vitamin D3, not prescription vitamin D2. Here is a study comparing D2 to D3.

I’m thinking about doing an upcoming post with FAQs about vitamin D.
Check back.

In Health,
Dr Samantha

Fish oil and PCBs. How Do You Trust Your Supplement Brand?

By Dr. Samantha Brody, On March 6, 2010

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Every time a new patient comes into the clinic I have ‘the supplement talk.’

Here’s the thing; no one is regulating the supplement industry. And it is indeed an industry, a big one at that. Does that mean that you can’t trust anything out there? No. It means that you need to be very careful about which supplements you buy. Just because something is expensive, doesn’t mean it is good. However, if something is very inexpensive (compared to other similar products) there is a pretty decent chance that it hasn’t been through stringent quality control. Why? Because it costs companies much more to test each batch of raw material that comes to their plants, and even more to test the final products.

So how do you know what is ok and what isn’t? As a physician, I work closely with a few companies that have stringent controls. But if you are just buying something at the store, don’t take the sales person’s word for it (they are usually trained by the companies directly), and don’t take the word of the product label either, do your own research. Here is what I recommend.

Call the company and ask the following questions regarding supplement “X”.

1. Do you manufacture it? If no, you need to speak directly to the manufacturer. Some companies just label supplements produced by another company.

2. Do you test all raw materials that come to your plant for ingredient, contamination, and potency (if applicable?)

3. Do you test the product for quality post manufacture? If yes, is it random testing, or batch testing? And, is it done in house or by an independent testing company. Fair warning here, I did some consulting for a mass market brand where they would ‘shop’ the product having a batch tested 3 or 4 times before someone came back with the answer they wanted.

4. If I read you the batch number of the supplement “X” in my hand, can you send me a certificate of analysis. If you don’t feel 100% confident with their answers, go to another brand.

Here is a link about a lawsuit being brought against a number of high profile companies that were found to have PCBs in their fish oil. And as if that is not bad enough, many of them had statements on the labels stating that the product was “screened for PCBs” or “treated to remove PCBs.”

One online resource, the subscription site Consumer Lab does do random spot checks of many supplements. What they are trying to do is very important but the potential problem here is that just because one batch looks good doesn’t mean the manufacturer won’t change their raw materials supplier at any time, or even that the raw materials supplier is providing consistency in product.

The take home? My advice is to only by supplements from companies that have stringent quality control of their product and manufacturing from start to finish.

Vitamin D and the flu.

By Dr. Samantha Brody, On October 30, 2009

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This just in from one of my vendors.

“Vitamin D has been in the news a great deal lately. Last year the Public Health Agency of Canada (PHAC) started a study investigating the role of vitamin D in severe seasonal influenza. With the recent outbreaks of swine flu, PHAC confirmed that it would be adapting this study to investigate the role of vitamin D in the protection against swine flu. PHAC will measure vitamin D levels in the blood of H1N1 patients and compare the blood levels with uninfected individuals. The rationale behind this study is based on earlier work in the 1940′s that indicated mice on diets low in vitamin D were more susceptible to experimental swine flu infection than those with adequate vitamin D levels (Young, et al., Vitamin D intake and susceptibility of mice to experimental swine influenza virus inf ection. Proc Soc Exp Biol Med. 1949 Dec;72(3):695-7.) How vitamin D might protect against influenza infection is not fully understood. However, research suggests that vitamin D may induce the production of antimicrobial substances in the body that may possess neutralizing activity against a variety of infectious agents including influenza virus.”

I run a 25-OH vitamin D on all of my patients. Although the “normal” range is 32-100, I personally prefer to see levels closer to 70 or 80, with 50 being bare minimum. Some physicians are just prescribing 2000 iu daily with the idea that everyone needs vitamin D but I’ve seen patients who are taking 5000 a day with levels of 30, and others taking 2000 a day with levels of 60 (for the record this is uncommon.) We tested our almost 3 year old and at the end of a long summer of days half naked in the sun with no sunscreen plus 1000 iu daily of vit D, and his blood level was only 32. It is best to get your levels checked.