Shannon Feely, BSc, ND

Do you experience?

• sneezing
• running nose
• swelling of the nasal tissues
• itchy eyes and tearing
• nasal polyps
• swelling in the ear

These symptoms are all common in allergic rhinitis.  Hay fever is the common term for allergic rhinitis due to seasonal spread of pollens in the air, but the condition is not necessarily seasonal and can result from other irritants besides pollen.

If you wonder whether your symptoms could be due to pollen, one way to check is to see the pollen calendar on this link and determine if there is a pattern to your symptoms.  Do they seen to start around a particular season? If you do think pollen is the culprit, try Weleda’s Mixed Pollen 30 during the specific pollen seasons.

Other irritants can include: house dust, animal hair and dander, insects, fungus spores, moulds, feathers, powders, insecticides, chemicals, and foods such as diary (and others).

If you are in doubt about what may be the cause of your allergic rhinitis symptoms, Shannon will work with you to determine the root cause.  Lab tests and a thorough medical history are a great starting point.  A variety of treatments can help significantly and depend on the cause, but will include herbs, homeopathy, and nutrition.   Please feel welcome to contact Shannon if you would like further help in determining the cause of your allergy symptoms.  

Happy Spring!

DEPRESSION

Books:

• Malignant Sadness: The Anatomy of Depression by L. Wolpert
• Harriet Lerner, PhD PsychologyHas written a series of books on different topics: anger, fear, intimacy, and many others
• Mind Over Mood: Change How You Feel By Changing the Way You Think by Christine A Padesky, Dennis Greenberger
• Overcoming Depression by Paul Gilbert
• The Depression Workbook: A Guide for Living with Depression and Manic Depression by Mary Ellen Copeland, Matthew McKay

 Videos:

• TED Talks under the “What Makes Us Happy” Theme (One particularly interesting video is on Positive Psychology)

Books:

• Healing with Whole Foods:  Asian Traditions with Modern Nutrition by Paul Pitchford.  This is a book about using Traditional Chinese Medicine to choose the foods best suited to your health.

YOUTH

Websites:

• Battlefront is an incredible resource for young people who would like to become involved in making their community and the world a better place.

TRADITIONAL CHINESE MEDICINE

Books:

• The Web That Has No Weaver by Ted J. Kaptchuk.  This is a book about understanding the philosophy of Traditional Chinese Medicine.

This page will be updated continuously….

It is possible to have yummy gluten free bread….

275g Dove Farms Gluten Free Brown Bread Flour (Doves Farms and available at many health food stores)

125g quinoa flour 

2 TBS psyllium husk

1 TBS of xylitol (natural sugar substitute)

2 Tsp(heaped) dry yeast

1.5 Tsp salt

125g whole linseeds

125g sunflower seeds

2 eggs

1 egg white

300ml water

100ml rapeseed oil or coconut oil

10ml apple cider vinegar

Mix the dry ingredients together and mix the wet ingredients together. Combine both together in food processor for 3 min.  The final mixture will be quite loose (unlike regular bread dough).   Pour into greased bread tin.  Cover and leave to rise in a warm place for 1.5 hours.  Bake for 35 min at 180 C.  (To test if done, knock on bread and listen for hollow sound).   Allow to cool before serving.  Enjoy!

Nutritional Treatments

There are many effective treatments for gout and it may take a combination of these to eliminate it.  The first part of this article outlines tips for treating gout and the second part provides you with information about why gout happens.  Often making some basic diet changes is enough for many people to eliminate gout.   Some basic starting guidelines are:

• Eliminate alcohol intake
• Drink plenty of water
• Eat foods low in purines
• Maintain a healthy body weight
• Eat cherries
• Try key nutritional supplements, if needed

Water and Alcohol

Drink lots of fluids and eliminate alcohol.  Drinking plenty of water helps to dilute the uric acid in the blood and prevent the crystals from precipitating out from the blood.  Dilution of the urine also reduces the risk of kidney stones. Drink at approximately 2 L of water each day, depending on your size and activity levels.

Alcohol worsens gout in two ways.  It increases uric acid production by increasing the breakdown of purines. It also reduces uric acid excretion by increasing lactate production, which impairs kidney function. Many people never have a reoccurrence of gout once they eliminate alcohol.

Diet

Purines
A low purine diet can significantly decrease uric acid levels.  Foods with high purine levels should be take out of your diet completely. These include: many meats (kidney, liver, veal, turkey and venison), shellfish, yeast, sardines, mackerel, fish roes, mussels, scallops, and anchovies.  Intake of foods with moderate levels of purines should also be reduced. These include: dried legumes, spinach, asparagus, fish, poultry, and mushrooms.

Cherries
Cherries, blueberries, and other dark red-blue berries are rich sources of anthocyanidins and proanthocyanidins. Eating approximately one-half pound (225 grams or 1 can usually) of fresh or canned cherries per day has been shown to be very effective in lowering uric acid levels and preventing attacks of gout. The anthocyanidins give cherries and other fruits their deep red-blue color.  Cherries reduce uric acid levels because the specific anthocyanidins in them, may inhibit xanthine oxidase, an enzyme involved in the production of uric acid. This causes the body to make less uric acid. The anthocyanidins in cherries also block pain and inflammation and act as anti-oxidants.  You can use any type of cherry but choose darker cherries if buying fresh ones.

Key Supplements

Your genetic make-up, medical history, and environment, should all be taken into consideration when devising any treatment plan. If you are finding diet changes are not enough to eliminate gout for you, then you likely need a more comprehensive treatment plan that includes other therapies, including nutritional supplements.  For treating gout, I use a combination of diet changes, a few key nutritional supplements (for example: celery extract), herbs, hydrotherapy, and homeopathy, all based on my patients’ specific requirements and underlying imbalances in the body.

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An allergy is a hypersensitive reaction to a substance that is normally harmless.  Common allergens include pollen, animal dander, house dust, feathers, mites, chemicals and a variety of foods.  Different allergens can cause different symptoms.  Some will usually cause respiratory symptoms while others cause diverse symptoms such as headaches, fatigue, skin problems, fever, diarrhoea, stomach-aches, behavioural problems, and vomiting.  Many respiratory allergies arise in the spring and summer months, so this article will focus on naturopathic treatments for respiratory allergies.

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This flourless, eggless mousse cake is a real oddity in that it tastes both sweet and slightly savoury, and it seems to alternate flavours of chocolate and beetroot on the tongue. And it tastes great with whipped cream. It can be made vegan by using some of the really good sugar and dairy free chocolate available. If you can’t get really dark chocolate, then use the darkest you can find and add a few tablespoons of dark cocoa-it makes the cake that much richer.

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