On February 1st, Sky Valley Healing Arts had it's Grand Opening and it was a wonderful success!  With over 50 people in attendance, all the practitioners were able to share their vision of how SVHA can help our community.  Introducing Songcroft Naturals skin and body care, jewelry, music, and art by Alicia Tromblay and Kristina Montgomery, SVHA is honored to have so many wonderful connections in Snohomish, WA.  Visit our Facebook page to see all the wonderful photos, and watch for upcoming classes, events, and free talks regarding the unique and life changing servies we offer!  

Again thank you to everyone, our Success is your Health!

SVHA GRAND OPENING!

 Just in time for National Nutrition Month, a landmark study published in the Lancet, found that 64% of ADHD diagnosed and medicated children benefited MORE from removing food allergies and sensitivities than taking drugs.  Simply put, diet is more effective than medicating children with ADHD.  Dr Lidy Pelsser of the ADHD Research Centre in the Netherlands found that many of the children who are diagnosed with ADHD actually have food hypersensitivities that are influencing their behaviors, and when a stricter, and healthier diet is imposed, these children become "normal".  With around 10% of US children being diagnosed with ADHD (which is an enormous percentage- anyone else shaking their head?), and over 3 million of those children on drugs such as Ritalin, Adderall, and other stimulant medications, there is no doubt ADHD diagnosis is big business. 

If your child is exhibiting symptoms such as hyperactivity, poor focus, temper tantrums, separation anxiety, or is one of the three million medicated children, this study proves that diet should be your first line of treatment.  Also, a majority of the ADHD/Autism spectrum children that I run biochemical tests on, have food allergies plus significant nutrient deficiencies such as low Vit D, B vitamins, Vit C, and minerals- all of which are essential for optimal cell function.

Nutritional biochemistry is the cornerstone of Naturopathic care, so if you are looking to improve your child's health and reduce their dependence on stimulant medications, I highly encourage you to seek out Naturopathic care and nutritional counseling.  Overall care is inexpensive and could not just transform your child, but your entire family.  Refer to my past blog to find out other ways to help your ADHD child without drugs.  The key is education, take control of your health, and you will transform the lives of generations that come after you!

Photo Gallery

Hello 2011, goodbye 2010! Now that I'm a mom, I gauge how fast my life is going by how fast my daughter is growing. This last weekend we celebrated her 2nd birthday, and I'm not quite sure where those two years went!

It's an exciting time for me and my naturopathic practice, so I wanted to share some of the new events that are shaping my life and business for 2011! As you can see, we have a new website! It's beautiful and relevant, and I'm excited about using this as a stage to promote what our clinic has to offer. Don't miss the Facebook page for our clinic, and yes, it seems that I will be tweeting, so follow me on Twitter and I'll do my best to share the newest health related topics! Notice my new column in each newsletter "DeStress is Best", as I share common, and not so common ways, to relieve stress and boost your brainpower and energy.

As always, my first love is NeuroCranial Restructuring. I can't spread the word enough about this amazing treatment that you may have experienced yourself! My favorite medium for sharing NCR is through presentations; sometimes the smallest of venues is the best. Recently, I did a presentation at Evolution Fitness in Redmond, WA, and I am scheduled to present March 2 at Beyond Medicine in Olympia, WA. If you want to share this with your friends and family, and would enjoy a presentation in your area, I'd be more than happy to set up a day and time!

My newest business promotion stems from my own story of the last year. After two years of being a new mom and running a practice in two states, my own health took a hit. In September my daughter brought home a cold from day care, which turned into walking pneumonia for me. I suppose after years of being run down (medical school, practice, mommy hood), this is what it took for me to stop making excuses and start making healthier decisions.

My close personal friend Nathan Detracy is the owner of Evolution Fitness (evolutionbellevue.com) in Bellevue, WA and he is a professional bodybuilder who has trained some of the biggest names in the local sport. He is not only an amazing "all natural" athlete; he's a successful entrepreneur with a heart of gold! He challenged me to do his program, and  I have transformed my health to say the least.

The overall program is called EVOLVE and consists of an exercise, diet, and supplemental program. EVOLVE isn't just about losing weight, or gaining muscle. It's about transforming your body into a metabolic powerhouse and ramping up your immune system, no matter your age, gender, or circumstance! I realized this is what I wanted to offer to patients, a way to really change their physical body, biochemistry, and mental outlook! NCR addresses so many areas, but with EVOLVE it's like adding the pieces of the puzzle that were missing!

Starting with an office, phone, or Skype (new!) visit, we can get you on your way to feeling amazing just like I have. It's taken accountability, focus, and determination on my side, but the results have been short of incredible, and I no longer use the excuses to stop my health recovery! If this sounds like something you could benefit from, visit my Naturopathic services page to see how we can help you EVOLVE! Stay tuned for future success stories in our new testimonials section.

My business stays alive by the generous referrals that many of you have sent me over the years, and I am grateful for your continued support! Please remember, for every new NCR patient you refer, I will give you $50 towards your next NCR session or Naturopathic appointment! Referring them to our website will also help your odds of getting that $50, as I know they will enjoy the wealth of information!

I leave you with a picture of me with Dr Mehmet Oz MD - a very strong proponent of alternative therapies, diet, exercise, and Naturopathic medicine. I had the great fortune to meet him this last summer where he was awarded an honorary Naturopathic degree along with his wife Lisa, from my alma mater Bastyr University. He's as kind and personable in "real" life as on TV, and it was amazing to meet such an inspiration in my field!

I look forward to helping you with your goals in 2011!

Health is Wealth -
Dr Hillary

Last week, President Obama held a Town Hall Meeting in my hometown of Bozeman, MT. What a big day for such a small town in Southern Montana, and for Friday, Bozeman was on the worldwide map. Most of these town hall meetings have been held in small town America, where many have been hard hit by the downturn in the economy. As a healthcare provider I have been listening to the debate from both the media, my colleagues, and my patients and I find it hard to find a place to land. I know the economy has affected me, but as a provider who does not bill insurance, I find the struggle of where to stand in this mess.

As one of the wealthiest but not healthiest nations, the US is in a nasty predicament. Obama himself has begun to call this "insurance reform", and that is exactly what it is. This is not about taking care of the health of this nation, it is about insuring everyone in this nation. Insurance does not provide that we will be taken care of, it does not provide that we will be healthier, and it surely does not provide for prevention. There are only a few states that even recognize insurance coverage for "alternative" practices, and with the strong AMA lobbyist backing, it's going to get even harder for us "alternative" practitioners under a government run insurance program. (I really dislike the word alternative, as it makes us look less important, but its the word most people relate to.) My association, AANP, fights for us, but compared to the AMA, we are a little fish in an ocean of sharks.

What many consumers do not understand is that insurance companies tell doctors what they can diagnose, what they can prescribe, and even how much they will pay them for a certain procedure. Costs explode when invasive and unneccessary tests are done for fear of liability, again creating a whole other game for insurers to rake doctors and patients over the coals. "Alternative" therapies are actually more cost effective, and over the long run would save the American taxpayer billions of dollars, so it is vital that doctors and consumers in this field speak out.

And this is what I feel is missing in the debate- true PREVENTION. That word has been thrown around over and over, and yes mammograms and colonoscopy's save lives, but what about teaching someone to grow a garden, and prepare the food, or how to exercise, or learn about effective and cheap homeopathic medicines, these small things can improve a life, not just detect a disease, and they save everyone money.

I also am part of the largest group that insurers discriminates against: women. Women are charged higher premiums because they use most of the healthcare, mainly related to pregnancy and childbirth. Even in this most essential of human functions, insurers decide where and how women give birth. For 12 years I paid $50 per month extra on my insurance premium for a maternity rider, of which I was under the impression would pay for a pregnancy and birth. After 12 years of paying, I was informed that I could not have my baby at home, or in the hospital unless I had an emergency C-section, they paid for up to $2000 of my prenatal care and then I was on my own. My entire care with a midwife for prenatal, birth, and 2 months postnatal cost me out of pocket $2700, the average C-section starts at $13,000. God forbid I had complications during pregnancy that forced me to have my daughter in the hospital without C-section, it would have been a financial nightmare. I also represent the majority middle class who makes too much to qualify for assistance, but too little to afford any over the top expense like a hospital birth. How is this scenario cost effective? It's not, and it's what is driving up costs and creating more unnecessary stress. I hope for a change that supports a person's right to chose their doctor, their treatments, and their health over the bottom line.

Let me say however, it is my patients who give me most hope. They have chosen to take their health into consideration over what their insurance tells them is "covered". They have sought out help usually after every "coverable" drug, invasive, and unnecessary test has been run on them, only to be found that what really helps them is not covered by their health insurance. My patients teach me everyday that true health does not come from somewhere else, it comes from within.

Learn how to be a healthier human being, teach your neighbor how to do the same, and be an example that others would want to follow. Incentives should be given to those who prove that they have made better choices, and doctors should be able to care for their patients without being squeezed into a ten minute window and dictated to on how to diagnose their patients by insurance companies.

The debates are heated for a reason, people are scared of change, and even more scared of the government controlling that change. If you think insurance companies are powerful, wait until the government has the market, it should get very interesting. I just ask that you let your legislators know that you want true prevention care, and that "alternative" medicine creates health and wards off disease. This new change in our country will be hard, but true healing will ALWAYS be up to you, no matter who is insuring you.

Dr Robert Sapolsky is a professor of biology and neurology at Stanford University and has done research on Primates in Kenya. Growing up in NYC he dreamed of living with apes, and later did just that, living with baboons in Africa. There he began to study the stress responses of the baboons and thus its correlation to us humans. He wrote the first version of this book in 1994, a second in 1998, and now this version in 2004. (Science is constantly changing, and what we think we know is constantly changing).

I read it back in med school, but lately it has come back into my life as I've been researching the nervous system. The title is interesting and at first glance makes you wonder, what do zebra's have to do with this book? And why don't they get ulcers? Well it all boils done to stress, and how stress can save and/or kill us.

There are different types of stress, and they affect the body differently, whether you are a human or any other animal living on the planet. Most animals, the zebra for example, live in a peaceful state of wandering, eating, drinking etc without much worry. Once in a while though the zebra experiences moments of acute stress, like running from a hungry lion, where split second hormonal and neurological activities are essential for their ultimate survival. These nervous system functions are the same in humans, and under acute stress, we do what it called the "flight or fight" reaction. It used to be that people worried about dying from diseases such as Cholera, Polio, the Flu ( hmmm I guess they still are, but not to the extent that we used to see) However, in this day and age of tests, bills, deadlines, traffic, the list could go on, more people are living with CHRONIC stress and dying from stress related diseases, and thus the ulcers begin.

This book wraps up the many ways in which good and bad stress can affect our lives and bodies, but it also looks at the personality and HOW the mind can influence our perceptions and ultimately who CHRONIC stress will kill first. Did you know that if your mother was malnourished during her first trimester you have a higher risk of heart disease or obesity, and in the 2nd or 3rd trimester a greater chance of diabetes? Did you know that more people living in NYC die of heart attacks than anywhere else in America, or that high levels of stress hormone secretion is what kills salmon after their long journey to the spawning grounds? (of course taking away the nets, fisherman, eagles, bears) This book is FULL of interesting science, facts, and some fiction, and the author has a great sense of humor! (Definitely read the notations at the bottom of the marked pages, they can usually give you a good laugh!) The author endlessly refers to research but also gives some of his own experiential theories. (pg 200 his idea about Fibromyalgia and its potential correlation to high Substance P and some low stress hormones- interesting?) as well as some of his fellow scientists (pg 33, Dr Shelley Taylor of UCLA suggesting that "fight or flight" only applies to males, and that the female stress response is "tend and befriend" because of their higher oxytocin release during stress, a theory that could explain why women tend to be more social beings.)

This book is a great reference, as the author has it nicely divided into chapters like Pain and Stress, Depression and Stress, Personality, Temperance, and their Stress Related Consequences etc etc so it is easy to flip to the chapter that one is needing in any given moment. However I recommend reading the first 6 chapters, as they give a good rundown for those "laymen" who aren't up to speed on the neurophysiology (big word), biology, endocrinology (other big word) and so on- background it always good when learning about a new subject. It not only gives the lowdown on stress, but actually some things we can do to make the picture not so bleak- action vs reaction!

I highly recommend this book and any of Dr Sapolsky's other writings, refer to http://www.barclayagency.com/sapolsky_corporate.html for more info about this interesting man!