A couple of drops of Lugol’s solution on a patient’s wrist can tell you a lot about how “hungry” someone is for iodine. If the Lugol’s stain disappears within a few hours, the patient probably needs iodine supplements.
Say the word “iodine” and most physicians automatically think, “thyroid.” But iodine is also essential for maintenance of healthy breast and ovarian tissue in women, and fostering optimal neurocognitive development in babies. It may even have a role in preventing or treating breast cancer. The problem is, many women are iodine deficient.
In it’s new position paper on treatment of IBS, the American College of Gastroenterology has formally recognized the value of certain probiotics. Natural medicine has much else to offer patients struggling with this difficult chronic condition.
Just a few years ago, MS had rendered Kathryn Simpson bed-ridden and in constant pain. Today, at 54 years old, she’s completely symptom-free, and highly active. Comprehensive hormone balancing therapies aimed at re-calibrating the endocrine system and reducing inflammation was the key, and it represents a new therapeutic approach to a disease most doctors deem hopeless.
Of all the nutrients, herbs and drugs used to treat patients with chronic fatigue and fibromyalgia, D-ribose is the singlemost effective because it corrects the core metabolic problem underlying these syndromes. D-ribose supplementation can have a profoundly positive effect in CFS/FM patients, especially women.
In the first head to head comparison of a botanical therapy versus a drug for management of menopausal symptoms, a standardized formulation of Black Cohosh was equally effective as tibolone, a drug widely used in Europe and Asia; the herbal formula had fewer adverse effects. Pycnogenol, an antioxidant and anti-inflammatory derived from the bark of French Maritime Pine trees, can reduce menopausal symptoms while improving women’s lipid profiles.
Breast thermography is safe, radiation-free, relatively inexpensive, and it can detect early and possibly reversible metabolic and vascular changes associated with later growth of breast cancer. Though underutilized in the US, it is poised for a resurgence.
New studies are showing that, like cardiovascular disease, osteoarthritis affects women differently than it does men. Women tend to have more severe pain, in more joints simultaneously, and the diseaes often has a far greater psychosocial impact. To better understand how joint disorders affect women and to identify strategies that can improve care, Holistic Primary Care is collaborating with Joyn, makers of the SheaFlex 70 joint health supplement, and Everydayhealth.com, one of the nation’s largest online health communities, on a first-of-its-kind survey of doctors and patients. We invite your participation!
Use of bioidentical hormones – estrogen, progesterone, and testosterone derived from plants such as soy or yam – has grown rapidly over the last decade. According to a new FDA rule, claims that bioidentical hormones are safer or more effective than conventional HRT are false and misleading. The issue has become one of the hottest women’s health controversies.
A wealth of studies in recent years have underscored the health threats posed by vitamin D deficiency. But considerable debate has raged over which form of the vitamin is the best for supplementation. Many clinicians believe that vitamin D3, derived from fish and other animal sources, is more potent than D2, the “vegetarian” form. But new data suggest that may not be true.
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