supplements Archives - Center for Holistic Medicine

Did you know toxins in your body are not only bad for your health but can also make you feel sluggish and tired, too?

Dr. Kelsie Lazzell, a naturopathic practitioner at the Center for Holistic Medicine, says when you have toxins in your body – caused by everything from preservatives and chemicals in your food to toxins in the air we breathe and water we drink – your body has to spend extra energy trying to rid those toxins from your major organs, making them less able to function properly.

“As we do spring cleaning in our houses, it’s a good time to do a spring cleaning in our bodies as well,” Lazzell explains. “Summer is a more active time, so we need to boost our energy levels. By detoxifying our organs, we can help optimize their function and support energy production.”

Dr. Jerry Gore, MD, clinical director of the Center for Holistic Medicine, says the easiest way to detoxify your organs on a regular basis is by maintaining a healthy lifestyle. “If you eat lots of vegetables, fruits, beans and grains that are high in fiber, stay normally hydrated, and walk or get exercise four to five times a week, you will have regular bowel movements and will be able to detox naturally,” he says.

But, if you’ve been eating a lot of processed foods, overeating, or staying indoors a lot, you may need to take additional steps to rid your body of the toxins that have built up over time.

Here are some easy lifestyle and supplement changes you can make to help detoxify each of your organs to help you get ready to tackle a new season:

Gut
Much of the toxins in our body come from what we eat – through pesticides put on plants, chemicals used as flavorings and preservatives and more. To detoxify your gut, make a commitment to eating only non-processed, fresh, organic foods. You also want to increase your fiber intake by getting lots of fruits, vegetables, beans and high-fiber grains.

One great way to detoxify your gut is by doing a one-day juice fast, which means not eating any food but instead only drinking juice made from vegetables. For example, a typical juice fast might include the juice from leafy green vegetables, carrots and cucumbers, meaning the fiber is taken out and left behind in the juicer. This is different from a smoothie, which has the vegetables blended up and contains all the fiber in it. A smoothie is easier to digest and promotes some cleansing, while a juice is an even more aggressive cleanse because there is no fiber to digest.

Supplements that help detoxify the gut liver (please consult your health care practitioner before taking any supplements):

Triphala – A combination of three plants native to India, triphala has been used in Ayurvedic medicine for more than 3,000 years to help cleanse the gut.
Charcoal – Helps trap toxins and chemicals in the gut to prevent them from being absorbed into the blood stream.

Liver
On a normal day, the liver’s main job is to help eliminate toxins from the body. “Everything that comes in has to be processed in our liver – heavy metals in our water or air, pesticides, chemicals in our food,” Dr. Lazzell says. That’s why when you are doing a detox, it’s important to support the liver as much as possible.

Dr. Lazzell says one way you can do this is by eating green, leafy vegetables such as kale, swiss chard, dandelion greens, endive, radicchio, and arugula, as well as foods that are high in sulfur, including onions, garlic and eggs.

She also suggests saturating a cloth with caster oil and applying it to your stomach for about an hour. “This will help support blood flow to your liver and lymphatic drainage away from your liver,” she says.

Also, Dr. Lazzell recommends avoiding alcohol, which uses up a lot of antioxidants in your liver and makes it more difficult for it to function properly.

Supplements that help detoxify the liver (please consult your health care practitioner before taking any supplements):

Milk Thistle – A supplement derived from the milk thistle plant that is often used to protect the liver against toxins.
Vital Defense – This combination of herbs from Nutriplex Formulas is designed to help detoxify the body and the liver, especially if you eat non-organic foods or foods with artificial ingredients.
Glutathione – An antioxidant that is produced naturally in cells or that can be taken as a supplement. Supports liver detoxification.
Chlorella – A type of algae that supports liver health and may reduce heavy metal toxicity in the liver.

Kidneys
Dr. Lazzell says if your kidneys are functioning normally, you should be urinating every three hours. If you’re not, you may need to increase your hydration. Remember, stay away from sugary drinks or anything with caffeine, which can dehydrate you.

Lymph Nodes
Your lymph nodes are part of your body’s built-in waste system — they filter lymph fluid, which contains liquid and waste from the body. You can help drain the lymph nodes by doing some form of movement every day. Or you can try skin brushing, an ancient Chinese medicine technique that involves using a dry, stiff brush to massage your body, which helps promote blood circulation and the drainage of your lymph nodes.

Lungs
“I don’t think we really realize much the smog and pollution in the air affects out body,” says Dr. Lazzell. She suggests using an air filter at home and investing in some air purifying plants for your home to keep your indoor air as clean as possible.

Dr. Gore also says it’s important to spend some time outside. “Get out in the fresh air or crack your window at night to let in fresh air,” says Dr. Gore. And you can try some cleansing breathing techniques as well.

Skin
Did you know that sweating is one of your body’s natural ways of getting rid of toxins? Try to work up a sweat by doing exercise or spend some time in a steam room or sauna to flush the toxins out of your system.

Remember, detoxing can affect everyone differently. If you already live a healthy lifestyle, you should be able to try all of these detox methods without any issue. If you have more unhealthy habits, you may experience some side effects from trying too many detox methods too quickly. So it’s a good idea to consult with your healthcare practitioner before attempting any detox method.

As a patient, or potential patient, at the Center for Holistic Medicine, you know your progress depends on a lifestyle aligned with your medical treatment. Our online apothecary store gives you access to the supplements your providers select specifically for you.

You can also order other supplements you may take, along with many products that enhance your lifestyle. However, when you see something you’d like to order that your doctor hasn’t ordered, be sure to check in with your Patient Advocate to make sure it does not interact with your medications or remedies.

To order a product through our online apothecary, all you need to do is click on one of the five different vendors that we work with. Once you register through their site, you can then search for the manufacturer of whatever product you need and you can have all of your items delivered right to your door!

In addition to supplements available in our office store, the online apothecary store also has personal products and many other medical-quality supplements available. Take some time and look through!

With fall coming, the first cold of the season usually isn’t far behind. But if you don’t want to be stuck coughing and sneezing, the best thing you can do is make sure your immune system is in tip-top shape.

While eating a diet full of fresh fruits and vegetables is important in maintaining a strong immune system, sometimes it’s hard to get all of the nutrients we need just from our food. That’s why taking supplements can help.

So we asked Shawn Burke, a new staff member at the Center for Holistic Medicine who is in charge of our apothecary for her thoughts on the best daily supplements to take to support your immune system.

Probiotic
Having the right balance of good and bad bacteria is essential in regulating your immune system and helping to fight off disease, Burke says. Unfortunately, the prevalence of antibiotics, medications, antibacterial soaps, high levels of stress and poor diet in our modern lifestyles kill off many of the good bacteria that we need.That’s why so many doctors now recommend that people take a daily probiotic — living microorganisms that live in your digestive tract — to promote the balance of good bacteria.You can get probiotics in some foods, such as fermented foods like sauerkraut, kimchi or kombucha and certain types of yogurts, or in a supplement in a capsule form.
Prebiotic
So you’ve heard of a probiotic, but what is a prebiotic? “They are actually the food that makes probiotics more effective,” Burke says. Think of it like this: Prebiotics are the food that probiotics eat.Some of the foods that your tiny organisms enjoy are raw almonds, sprouted nuts, artichoke, jicama, legumes, oats, and honey – all of which take a long time to digest and make their way into your small intestines where the probiotics feed on them. However, instead of eating these foods themselves, you can get prebiotic supplements, often in a powder or capsule form.
Vitamin C
You’ve probably heard that you should take vitamin C when you feel yourself coming down with a cold. But did you know why?Turns out that when your body is fighting inflammation or infection, immune cells pump more vitamin C to help the cells fight off the infection. Vitamin C also acts as an antioxidant, attacking free radicals, such as those from air pollution, secondhand smoke and ultraviolet light from the sun.As we age, our vitamin C levels decline, because we have more long-term exposure to free radicals, so it’s even more important to maintain high levels of vitamin C as we get older.According to the National Institute of Health, adult men should get 90 mg of vitamin C a day, while women should get 75 mg per day. However, some studies suggest older adults should get even more. For example, the Linus Pauling Institute at Oregon State University recommends adults over 50 should get up to 400 mg per day.

Vitamin C is present in lots of foods we eat, such as oranges, grapefruit, kiwi, strawberries, red and green peppers, tomatoes, and more. One orange, for example, has about 51 mg of vitamin C, while 1 cup of sliced strawberries has 97.6 mg. However, if you’re not eating a lot of raw fruits and veggies, it makes sense to take a vitamin C supplement as well.

Vitamin D
Like vitamin C, vitamin D is also key to proper immune system function. Vitamin D helps your immune system by reducing inflammatory proteins and increasing antimicrobial proteins, which fight off germs and viruses. In fact, according to the Harvard School of Public Health, having a vitamin D deficiency can lead to a host of chronic conditions, such as osteoporosis, heart disease, and some cancers, as well as infectious diseases, such as tuberculosis or the flu.The main way we absorb vitamin D is through sunlight (one of the reasons we typically get fewer colds in the summer than in the winter). In our modern lifestyle, however, we are typically inside for most of the day and also wear sunscreen when we’re outside, making it challenging for most adults to get enough vitamin D on their own.That’s why it’s recommended to take a daily vitamin D supplement. Currently, it’s recommended that adults under age 70 take 600 IUs of vitamin D a day, and those over age 70 take 800 IUs a day.
Mushroom blend
Mushrooms have been used in herbal medicine, especially in the Asian cultures, for thousands of years – and for good reason. Certain mushrooms have been found to be powerful anti-disease agents. For example, reishi mushrooms are said to be anti-inflammatory and can support people with compromised immune systems, such as people with HIV or those undergoing chemotherapy. Enoki and maitake mushroom fruitbodies can fight cancer and boost your immune system, and shitake mushrooms have antiviral and anticancer effects. However, because there are so many different types of mushrooms, the easiest way to get the most benefit from them is to take a mushroom supplement made from a variety of mushroom varieties. We sell a supplement called MyCommunity by Host Defense, which is made up of a blend of 17 mushroom species, all designed to bolster your cells against assaults and provide a unique combination of mushroom mycelium and fruitbodies to help balance the immune system in your gut.

Taking supplements has become a very popular way of treating illness naturally by giving our bodies the nutrients they need to function properly. But with so many supplements on the market today, it can be hard to know what they all treat and which ones are really worth taking.

To help you out, we’ve compiled a list of the top six supplements that almost everyone can take to improve their health. However, it’s still a good idea to check with a health care professional before taking any supplements to make sure you’re taking the right supplements at the right dosage.

Multivitamin
In theory, we should be able to get all of our nutrients from our diet. But in today’s society, where most of our food is either processed or washed and cleaned, we are missing many essential nutrients we used to get from the soil, so even the healthiest eaters might not be getting all of the nutrients they need. That’s why taking a good multivitamin every day is so important. Look for one that contains vitamin A, vitamin C, vitamin E, magnesium, calcium, and vitamins B1, B2, B6, and B12 – all of which can help boost your immune system and give you more energy during the day.
Fish Oil
Having a healthy heart is important, and taking a daily dose of fish oil is one of the easiest things you can do to protect it. Studies have shown that fish oil can lower blood pressure, reduce blood clotting, and decrease your chance of having a fatal heart attack. Plus, fish oil is a great source of Omega 3 fatty acids, which serve to decrease inflammation, boost your immune system, and can even have a positive effect on depression and mood.
Magnesium
Did you know that about 80 percent of adults suffer from a magnesium deficiency? Magnesium plays a critical role in many functions in the body, including nerve transmission, muscle contraction, energy production, bone and cell production and more. Taking a daily magnesium supplement can help with a variety of conditions including asthma, migraine headaches, muscle cramping, osteoporosis, heart disease, and can even help to calm your nerves and reduce anxiety.
Vitamin D3
Don’t want to catch a cold? Taking a daily dose of vitamin D3 can help. In a perfect world, we would get enough vitamin D by exposure to sunlight, but since we now spend most of our time indoors (with clothes on), it’s crucial that we get vitamin D from other sources. Vitamin D not only helps with the absorption of calcium and phosphorus into our blood stream, and a vitamin D deficiency can reduce your ability to heal from infections and can be a risk factor in developing an autoimmune disease.
Probiotics
You may think that bacteria is bad, but in your gut, bacteria is actually good. With all the antimicrobial soaps and cleaners and antibiotics we are exposed to, our digestive tract is often not getting the right kind of bacteria to keep it in balance. Probiotics are living microorganisms that promote good gut health, which can strengthen your immune system, improve digestion, reduce your chances of getting colds or the flu, and help cure irritable bowel disease. Try to get more probiotics in your diet by eating probiotic yogurt or kefir, or by adding a probiotic supplement.
Tumeric/Curcumin
When it comes to fighting inflammation, almost nothing does it better than turmeric. This common yellow spice contains curcumin, a phyto-chemical capable of inhibiting inflammation – which can lead to diseases such as heart disease, stroke, diabetes, headaches and chronic fatigue — and fighting cancer. It’s an especially great supplement to take if you suffer from any joint pain or arthritis.

Tag: supplements

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