naturopathic-medicine-scottsdale

Scottsdale Holistic Medicine Wellness Blog

Listening to Your Body’s Signs

Our bodies are constantly giving us messages. Our healing work is to listen. In the book Heal your Headache, neurologist Dr. David Buccholz speaks about the threshold theory of headache. According to this theory, you add enough triggers, including food, sleep deprivation or stress, and your body hits the threshold of having a headache. I have seen the threshold theory apply to many different illnesses including IBS, autoimmune flares, allergies, asthma, and GERD amongst others. If we listen along the way when we are getting out of balance, there is much that can be prevented.  

“My migraines are a sign that I’m doing too much,” a patient told me years ago. I have witnessed many times that if you don’t stop when your body asks, your body will stop for you with some kind of illness.  

How can we start listening?  First by paying attention.  In our overly scheduled culture, this can    be difficult to do. The late poet John O’ Donohue says that “stress is a perverted relationship to time.”  Slowing down, taking time off to be in nature and rest may heal that stress state.    

From a Chinese medicine perspective, an energetic imbalance occurs before it manifests as a tissue pathology. For example, a person with a weak pulse, pale tongue and fatigue is showing signs of blood deficiency before an actual Western diagnosis of anemia occurs. By seeing a Chinese medicine practitioner, it may be possible to treat the blood deficiency through nutrition and herbs before it has progressed to actual anemia diagnosable in blood work.  

It is also important to listen to foods. Food reactions can manifest as different kinds of physiological responses. With a food allergy, your immune system is reacting to a food. An IgE reaction is immediate and may present as asthma, anaphylaxis, eczema or hives. An IgG reaction is delayed and may take 2 to 3 days to show up as a symptom. The IgG reactions can be difficult to pinpoint and identifying them with testing can be helpful. With a food intolerance, your body lacks the ability to digest a food. For example, people with lactose intolerance are missing lactase, the enzyme needed to digest it. Those with gluten intolerance have celiac disease and have to avoid gluten altogether, or there may be many nutritional deficiencies and other symptoms. With a food sensitivity such as a headache trigger your body is having a response, often to what are called vasoactive amines, substances that impact blood vessel activity. Other sensitivities occur when the body has a response in someway, but it is not necessarily immune-mediated or an intolerance.  

Through years of counseling many patients, I have seen that people can also react to toxic people, situations and environments. Our environment has become increasingly toxic. Environmental medicine discusses how some people are the present day canaries in the coal mine.  Coal miners would historically send in a canary to assess the toxicity of the mine. If the bird died or collapsed, it was a sign that the mine was not safe to enter. Environmentally sensitive people are our culture’s canaries in the coal mine telling us when our environment is too toxic for health.  

As far as toxic people and situations, we are sadly in an increasingly hostile society.  Listening to how our bodies feel around someone or a situation may give us signs about how safe you are before your conscious mind knows. Do you contract around someone or feel at ease? Do you feel at peace?  Are you drained or uplifted? In the book When the Body Says No, Dr. Gabor Maté explores the field of psychoneuroimmunology, how our psyche is inextricably connected to our nervous system and immune system.

I encourage you to listen to your bodies.  Ultimately, your body houses your soul which the accomplished writer and senior Jungian psychoanalyst says, “the soul is the most endangered species on the planet.” Listening to your body can help you take care of your soul, body, mind and emotions.

My Journey with Lupus

“Your bone marrow suppression is benign,” my primary care physician said after a hematologist gave me the diagnosis. “How can bone marrow suppression be benign?” I thought.  

In another instance, my PCP said, “I don’t know what kind of tropical illness you got,” when I returned from a Caribbean vacation. Different markers were off in blood work. I could hardly get out of bed for a month. She looked baffled and although well-intentioned, was not helpful at all. I learned later that lupus and other autoimmune disorders can flare with intense sun.  

When the rheumatologist who diagnosed me with lupus and I looked back on my health journey, we realized I probably had it since I was a teenager. It wasn’t diagnosed until 45. What I learned is that autoimmune disorders often run together and part of the picture was figuring out my thyroid and autoimmune Hashimoto’s as well.

Having been premed for conventional medicine in undergrad, I knew at a young age that I was not finding answers in the conventional medical system. In fact, I felt worse from many medications. 

Many times when I have had conversations with fellow naturopathic doctors, chiropractors and acupuncturists, our stories are similar. It was our own health journeys which led us to follow a different path.

Hence, I took a leap of faith to study naturopathic medicine and Chinese medicine. When the rheumatologist finally diagnosed me, he said, “Laura, I think studying natural medicine saved your life.”

What I learned is that despite helping many people figure out complex chronic illnesses, when I am sick, it is difficult to think for myself. Lupus is called the great imitator because it can mimic so many different illnesses. In general, autoimmune disorders tend to have episodes of flares and remissions.

It took a second hematologist after seeing various specialties of doctors for decades to get the right testing.

Are you tired of incapacitating systemic lupus flares? Do you want to learn how to have more control over your health? Are you tired of feeling overwhelming fatigue?

Are you tired of being minimized by your doctors? Have you been told that you just have to buck it up and live with it when doctors are not finding anything wrong? Are pharmaceutical medicines having challenging side effects for you?

As a provider, I have learned that although my treatment approach is holistic, there is strength in a proper Western medicine diagnosis and medications at the right time.

Importance of Holistic Medicine: A Case Study

I would like to share a case with you that exemplifies why a holistic approach is important. In a specialized system of medicine, we still need general doctors who look at the whole picture and listen. My Cuban mother who lived in pre-Castro Cuba said many doctors relied on examination skills, history taking and intuition before advances in medicine were made.  

Years ago, I saw a ten-year-old who had chest pain and headaches. He had the full neurology workup with MRI and CT scan. In cardiology, he had a full cardiac workup with EKG.  

Upon taking a history, I learned that his headaches and chest pain were worse on days of PE classes. When I examined him, I saw that his breathing looked restricted. I asked the mother to go back to the pediatrician and have his lung capacity checked. His lung capacity was at 50% function! What he had was asthma, that was worse with exercise. His headaches were brought on from stress and lack of oxygen. This is a case that I have used to teach medical students about the importance of looking at the whole picture.

Navigating Menopause and Perimenopause

Middle aged woman contemplating navigating Menopause and Perimenopause

“Sometimes you have to ride the wave,” my doctor said while I was going through perimenopause.  

In my practice of over 20 years, I have seen various modalities help women ease their experience of “the change.”  

Symptoms can include weight gain, anxiety, insomnia, hot flashes and insomnia amongst others.  I remember a woman at the dog park sharing, “it’s not fair! Zits and wrinkles at the same time!”  

What are the solutions for ease, grace, health and balance?

These include acupuncture, herbs, lifestyle changes such as better sleep and diet modifications, exercise, and bio-identical hormones. What are bio-identical hormones? Bio-identical hormones are hormones that are closer to physiological dosing.  

Assessing what is right for you begins with a baseline of your current health, including family and personal history of osteoporosis, cardiovascular risk, cancer risk and your overall health. Various modalities can ease the menopausal transition and in my practice, that is a joint decision arrived at looking at the holistic picture of your health.  

In the book “The Second Half of Life” by wise woman and medical anthropologist Angeles Arrien, she says finding meaning for the remaining half of our lives can help find meaning and a revitalization of purpose.  

Sometimes there is a letting go… a marriage that did not work, a career change, a need to embrace the empty nest with meaning…

A circle of support will help you through this time….  

If you are in need of health support to navigate menopause and the fluctuations in hormones that precede it, please don’t hesitate to call Scottsdale Holistic Medicine at 928-862-2914 to schedule a consultation.

Acupuncture and Grief

Acupuncture and Grief

“Grief is the hardest work we do on earth” a therapist told me years ago.

Saturday I received the call most of us dread.  My mother had just died.  For several days, I cried, woke up in the middle of the night with an aching chest.

Yesterday, four days later, I received acupuncture for the first time.  While it did not take the grief away by any means, it lightened the intensity.  My heart felt some spaciousness, I slept through the night for the first time since hearing the news.  I felt calmer and more peaceful today when the waves of sadness came.

If you have recently had a loss of any kind, I encourage you to consider acupuncture as part of your healing and coping.  Secreting endorphins from the brain and helping to restore some peace to your system, and helping with sleep can make all the difference in allowing some grace in the process of healing acute loss and grief.

If you need support navigating through a loss, please don’t hesitate to call Scottsdale Holistic Medicine at (928) 862-2914.

Acupuncture and Ehler Danlos Syndrome Hypermobility Type

Acupuncture Therapy The frequent and common subluxations of living with hypermobility can be a source of chronic pain, depression and anxiety for Ehler Danlos Syndrome sufferers. Frustrated at yet another subluxation, EDS sufferers can get depressed or have anxiety responses to the unpredictability of the disorder. While physical therapy is what will help stabilize the joints longer-term, acupuncture can be a source of relief by decreasing pain severity, calming the body and easing depression and anxiety.

By helping to release endorphins from the brain, acupuncture can aid with depression, anxiety and pain levels. The relaxation response elicited by acupuncture can help relax hypertonic muscles. EDS patients also may have increased food sensitivities, POTS, mast cell activation and other symptoms that can be addressed with a holistic approach that includes naturopathic medicine.

It is challenging to live with a condition like Ehler Danlos Syndrome but setting up a team of supportive caregivers that includes physical therapy, acupuncture, a holistic doctor and a chiropractor or osteopath to help with acute subluxations can help make the journey easier.

If I can support you as a holistic doctor who does acupuncture, please call the clinic to set up an initial consultation.

Dr. Laura Rubiales at Scottsdale Holistic Medicine 928-862-2914

Trauma, Anxiety and Acupuncture

Anxiety is a condition of many multiple causes. A common cause and trigger of it is trauma. Trauma can leave the autonomic nervous system in sympathetic fight or flight which often results in anxiety states even if you don’t literally have to be running away from a predatory animal.

One of the differentiating questions to ask under an anxiety state set off by a trauma trigger is if this is a real stressor or perceived stressor. Perceived stressors can have the same impact on our physiology as real ones. In the book From Surviving to Thriving by Pete Walker, he gives permission for people suffering from complex PTSD to avoid triggering people and situations. Reflecting on this, he is giving permission for those in states of hyperarousal to find a sense of safety within and outside themselves.  The Buddhists call this loving kindness towards oneself.

Trauma can happen from many instances.

Some of these might include a car accident, an abusive relationship, bullying, an assault, a sudden death of a loved one, ongoing economic stress. In these instances of sudden shock or prolonged stress states, physiology can change and anxiety can become rampant. The peace that acupuncture as medicine can bring is helping to shift the body into the calm parasympathetic state. In that state, anxiety subsides, we can breathe more deeply, rest more peacefully, and function in the world from a state of ease instead of panic. I know many people are afraid of needles but if you suffer from anxiety, I encourage you to find a practitioner you feel safe with and see if acupuncture can help bring the peace with which you deserve to live.

If you would like to consult about how acupuncture and holistic medicine can help your anxiety, call Scottsdale Holistic Medicine at 928-862-2914.

Trauma can happen from many instances.

A blessing poem by John O’Donohue:

For Someone Awakening To The Trauma of His or Her Past

For everything under the sun there is a time.
This is the season of your awkward harvesting,
When the pain takes you where you would rather not go,

Through the white curtain of yesterdays to a place
You had forgotten you knew from the inside out;
And a time when that bitter tree was planted

That has grown always invisibly beside you
And whose branches your awakened hands
Now long to disentangle from your heart.

You are coming to see how your looking often darkened
When you should have felt safe enough to fall toward love,
How deep down your eyes were always owned by something

That faced them through a dark fester of thorns
Converting whoever came into a further figure of the wrong;
You could only see what touched you as already torn.

Now the act of seeing begins your work of mourning.
And your memory is ready to show you everything,
Having waited all these years for you to return and know.

Only you know where the casket of pain is interred.
You will have to scrape through all the layers of covering
And according to your readiness, everything will open.

May you be blessed with a wise and compassionate guide
Who can accompany you through the fear and grief
Until your heart has wept its way to your true self.

As your tears fall over that wounded place,
May they wash away your hurt and free your heart.
May your forgiveness still the hunger of the wound

So that for the first time you can walk away from that place,
Reunited with your banished heart, now healed and freed,
And feel the clear, free air bless your new face.”

From the Book:  To Bless the Space Between Us by John O’Donohue

My Mother’s Late Stage Alzheimer’s

My Mother’s Late Stage Alzheimer’sI have never seen longer dying timelines on earth than neurodegenerative disorders. You don’t see my mother’s face here because she is not able to give me her consent. At this point of her illness, she cannot walk or talk and needs round the clock care. Ongoing Alzheimer’s and dementias are often grueling long times of suffering for family members.

I think a lot about my mother’s risk factors, not only to prevent them for my patients but for myself. She had a lot of untreated trauma, hence my acute interest in treating trauma early. As a Cuban refugee who left in 1960, my mother was ill fortuned to encounter another Communist revolution in Nicaragua. This left my parents to start over in 1979 in their late forty’s. Trauma, left untreated, is an injury to the brain that can lead to neurodegeneration.

As I remember, my mother’s diet was healthy except for too many carbs. Aside from trauma, her biggest risk factor I can see was lack of movement. Exercise as I remember for her was a chore, not a joy. Thus, I encourage patients to find their movement of joy for themselves. One of my mother’s best friends, credits her health in late 80’s to the beautiful golden retriever who got her walking. I love movement and am thankful for the movement my precious Luca brings me…

If you would like to schedule a consultation regarding Alzheimer’s prevention, please call me at 928-862-2914.

Book: The End of Alzheimer’s by Dale Bredesen, MD

Patience in the Chronic Illness Process

Perhaps you think you have come so far along in your healing process and then there you are right back where you started: an autoimmune flare, a bout of depression, an intense migraine headache, fatigue that makes it difficult to get out of bed, a relapse of PTSD or a recurrent cancer diagnosis…

Great patience is required here. It is our ego that thinks how it is now is how it will always be. Because you are in the place where you started does not necessarily mean you will stay there as long as you did before. Focus on the factors you can control… What you eat, think, who you surround yourself with…

Find an ally who can help you hold the light when you can’t. Surround yourself with people who love you unconditionally. Nurture activities that bring you joy and a sense of peace each day. Create a beautiful resting place for you to nurture your body at night. Track your dreams. See where your soul is leading you.

Please be patient with yourself. Surrendering to rest and the process of peace may turn things around in ways you never saw foreseeable. Control what you can control. Surrender the rest. Take care of yourself. Disconnect from toxic situations and people. Find ways to soothe and calm your nervous system such as yoga, meditation and time in nature. Spend time with the true friends of your heart. Write down your dreams and reflect on any messages they may be giving you.

Patience can be very challenging to practice. What I have seen from working with chronically ill people time and time again is that true healing is slow and requires great patience and persistence.

Medicine for the Highly Sensitive Person

One of the reasons I studied naturopathic and Chinese medicine is that I had many side effects to medications.  I was premed in undergrad and overly prescribed antibiotics for cough variant asthma that was getting misdiagnosed as bronchitis.  My body was spiraling out of balance and I thought, “there has to be a better way.”  One thing led to another and here I am, encouraging a holistic approach to treatment and emphasizing proper diagnosis.

What I have learned from myself and many patients is that people with highly sensitive nervous systems do very well with proper nutrition, sleep, and modalities that relax the nervous system.  Often, they may be especially sensitive to medications and can benefit from “alternative” (I prefer the word holistic) approaches that encompass the mind/body connection.

In the field of psychoneuroimmunology, our nervous system is intricately connected with our immune system and psychological services.

How do you know if you have a sensitive nervous system?

  • Are you sensitive to stimulation, sounds, smells, energy, crowds?
  • Do you get headaches, anxiety, drained easily from various situations?
  • Are you sensitive to toxic people?
  • Does your environment affect you?
  • Is less more when it comes to therapeutic interventions?
  • Are you prone to migraine headaches?
  • Are you highly empathetic to other people’s feelings?

So what can you do as a highly sensitive person to ensure that you have optimal health?

  • Have basic screening blood tests to make sure your nutritional status and basic health needs are met.  Supplement accordingly.
  • Eat a whole foods unprocessed foods diet that suits you and your individual needs.
  • Rest enough.
  • Move in a way that is sustainable for you.
  • Treat underlying blockages and imbalances from a Chinese medicine/acupuncture perspective.
  • Listen to your body.  This may sound trite but knowing what you need at different times is very important.

There is an ancient Chinese saying about the qi or energy of the body that says, “you never step into the same river twice.”  Our needs and vitality are always changing and it is best to respond our needs in the moment.

If you are a highly sensitive person and feel like you need help navigating your health, I would be happy to work with you.