Hello and Welcome to Lake City Naturopathic Care,

A teenage patient asked us once, “So what is different about coming to you guys over my “regular doctor.” I used my stock answer (which usually gets a laugh in teenagers, no small feat), “The main difference is that we use bigger needles on our patients.”  

But all jokes aside, we felt this was a very good and reasonable question and one that deserves a well thought out answer.  What does make us different from a conventional western doctor, or even from another alternative practitioner’s office?  The answer is important, mostly because you are putting your trust in us with your most precious commodity, your health.  But also, it is something that we would like our patients to understand our thought process and why we make some of the recommendations we do.  We would also like you to understand why we are different so that when you tell others about our clinic, you can tell them why we are different.

An ancient Chinese medical text described three types of doctors, and while this was written thousands of years ago, we think it is still pertinent today.  The first kind of doctor merely cured your disease.  While this sounds good, this was considered the least of the doctors.  The second type of doctor was an expert in diagnosing disease both when it was symptomatic, but also right before in order to prevent it and was seen as  better than the first.  The last type of doctor was however the most skilled and respected.  He or she was able to keep his or her patients so healthy that they never manifested illness in the first place.  This third type of doctor was able to remove the underlying predisposition to illness.

This third category is what we see as our ultimate job.  While curing illness when it is present is a good thing, if the original cause of the illness is not addressed, another illness either similar or sometimes very different will often come up.  One of the defining principles of naturopathic medicine is to identify and treat the cause of illness.  This is one of the reasons we spend so much time with our patients, trying to identify what is really going on.  We are very interested in what was happening before you got sick – perhaps a physical trauma, the death of a loved one, an infectious disease, or perhaps a falling out with a friend.  Physical symptoms are your body’s way of saying something is out of balance.  Your body uses symptoms to try to restore health.  Often the body, being the remarkable organism that it is, is able to restore health perfectly on its own.  In these cases we try to support the body’s own healing processes and let the body do its own thing.  Other times, the body is unable to return to a place of health and an unhealthy pattern of symptoms becomes set in place, leading to what we call chronic illness.

Western medicine is good at the first type of healing.  Removing the symptoms of an illness makes a patient feel better and often the patient is pleased.  But there is potentially a problem here.  Most of the treatments of allopathic medicine, and potentially many of the therapies used in alternative medicine as well, work by suppressing the symptoms of illness.  More often than not, the underlying cause of why the symptom was there in the first place is not addressed.  Unfortunately, the body is still ill and the body will present new symptoms in an attempt to fix the underlying problem.  Often, the later diseases that show up are worse than the original symptom being treated.  We see evidence for this in our elderly patients who are on increasing amounts of medication to control ever increasing new symptoms.

But is this what true health is about?  Relying on pills and surgeries to allow people to just get by is not the ultimate goal of healing.  Ideally, we would like to see all our patients thrive in all aspects of their life – physically, emotionally, professionally, in their relationships, and in their spiritual lives.  It is only then that someone is truly healthy.  This ultimate goal is reflected in our purpose statement:

Our purpose is to get people well so that they can become the person that they were intended to be.  By feeling better physically, emotionally, and spiritually, our patients are more able to find and fulfill their own purpose here on earth.

We are also not naïve.  There is a time and a place for all medical treatments.  When a situation is life-threatening or causing severe disruption of quality of life, we are supportive of conventional therapies.  Often, we have had to convince a patient who was completely distrustful of the conventional medical system that a referral to a specialist is the best choice or that a medication or surgery might by the best option at this point. At the same time, we are willing to work with this patient to find ways to help so that they can achieve the highest possible outcome from the treatment and attempt to find good long term alternatives.  There are other times when an illness is incurable and the best we can hope for is improved quality of life.  There are definitely tools we have that can help in these cases as well.

So we hope this explains some of our thought process on health and illness.  The next question we inevitably get is, “Yes, but what do you do exactly?”  This again is a relevant question, because, for better or worse, there is a lot of variation in how each naturopathic physician practices.  In our 4-5 years of naturopathic medical education, we get exposed to a lot of healing modalities – nutrition, herbal medicine, hands-on physical medicine, counseling, etc.  Each practitioner tends to gravitate toward those healing treatments that they are most interested in.  We are trained as generalists, but then we all tend to specialize.  For us, the two healing modalities that we saw as having the greatest potential for deep healing (Type 3 doctoring from the earlier story) were homeopathy (Dr Jeremiah) and craniosacral therapy (Dr Julia).  We definitely use other tools such as nutritional changes, hormone balancing, herbs and others to help with current concerns (type 1 doctor role) and for prevention and lowering risk factors like cholesterol, blood pressure, etc (type 2 doctor role).  But in our experience homeopathy and craniosacral therapy have the ability to truly remove the predisposition to illness long term, in addition to helping with current concerns and short term prevention.  Since most people are unfamiliar with these two types of treatment, we will discuss them each briefly.

 

Homeopathy

 

Homeopathy is its own separate system of medicine that has been around for nearly 200 years.  It was developed in Germany by Dr Samuel Hahnemann.  This brilliant doctor made the observation that when a substance in nature given in large quantities to a healthy person caused a set of symptoms, if given to an ill person in very small quantities would cause healing of those same symptoms.  This observation forms the basis of the medicine: “like cures like.”  In a homeopathic intake, we look at all the symptoms a person has, focusing on mental and emotional symptoms and personal characteristics (such as warm-blooded/cold-blooded, food preferences, weather preferences, and others) along with the current physical symptoms in order to find the one homeopathic medicine that most closely matches the total symptom picture.  Homeopathic medicines are made from almost any natural substance and there are currently over 3000 known homeopathic medicines.  We commonly use around 150 different ones, so it takes a little bit of investigation to match a patient’s symptoms with the right medicine.

In the late 1800s/early 1900s, homeopathic medicine was widely used in the United States.  With the development of modern medicines, it largely fell out of favor as people were hopeful that modern medicine was going to cure all our ails.  As this promise has largely not come to fruition, homeopathy is experiencing a resurgence in our country along with Europe and Latin America where its use is much more widespread (the Queen of England retains a personal homeopathic physician).

Homeopathy works exceptionally well in helping resolve acute problems quickly and effectively, but its greatest potential lies in treating chronic illnesses.  As discussed earlier, often a chronic illness occurs when symptoms, that may have served a purpose at one point, remain long after they have stopped being helpful.  A properly administered homeopathic medicine can help the body reset and finally throw off these troublesome symptoms.  Interestingly, often after giving a homeopathic medicine, old symptoms that have not been seen in years come back.  This is a good sign, indicating that we are getting closer to the core of the problem.  We then need to treat these symptoms with other homeopathic medicines until a person is symptom free, like peeling away the layers of an onion.

Another pattern noticed by homeopathic practitioners is that certain diseases tend to run in families.  We each are born with a genetic predisposition to certain disease patterns and if the environment creates the breeding ground, illness will follow.  Through decades of experimentation, homeopaths have discovered that certain homeopathic medicines can remove some of this potential.  For example, some families struggle with skin problems, allergies, and fatigue while others may have recurrent respiratory problems and attention problems while still others may have depression, substance abuse, suicidality, and birth defects.  Each of these family patterns can be helped by a different class of homeopathic medicines, and as we each come from two different parents often we have combinations of family traits that need to be cleared out so that we can truly achieve optimal health.

Homeopathy is safe, gentle, and effective.  It can be used in pregnancy, nursing, and even in a newborn baby.  It works well in all age groups and we have found it to be one of the most powerful tools for treating illness.

 

Craniosacral Therapy

 

Craniosacral therapy (or CST) also, in our experience, allows for healing on a deep level.  CST has its roots in the osteopathic tradition in a technique called cranial osteopathy developed by an osteopathic doctor named William Sutherland, D.O. (1873-1954).  In the 1980s, John Upledger, D.O. expanded this system and began teaching courses in Craniosacral therapy to other health providers who were not necessarily osteopathic doctors.

CST works on the body’s craniosacral (CS) system, which consists of the membranes that form the meninges of the brain and their related structures, the spinal cord (down to the sacrum or tailbone), the bones of the skull, the cerebrospinal fluid and the structures that produce, contain, and resorb the cerebrospinal fluid.  The cornerstone of the CS system is the ability of the bones of the skull to move in relation to one another as the cerebrospinal fluid moves through the attached membranes.  The ebb and flow of fluid though the meninges of the brain creates a rhythm unique to the CS system and one that can be detected by the practitioner.  Problems develop when the rate, amplitude, or symmetry of this rhythm is disrupted whether from injuries, inflammation, scars, adhesions, or emotional trauma.

In addition to the skull and spinal cord, the CS system is connected with the fascia, a connective tissue sheath that surrounds all body parts.  Restrictions of the fascia anywhere in the body affect the rhythm of the CS system.  Restrictions can affect many body systems including the nervous system, musculoskeletal system, vascular system, endocrine systems, and others.  Because of these relationships, CS helps in most conditions.  In our experience, it is especially helpful for headaches, sinus problems, anxiety, stress, endocrine problems (hormone imbalances, thyroid problems, blood sugar problems, etc), muscle fatigue or soreness, depression, TMJ and other problems

A CST treatment involves lying on a table fully clothed in a darkened room.  The practitioner places their hands lightly on the parts of the body including the feet/ankles, head, low back, and/or abdomen.  Movement of the head periodically occurs to reach different bones of the skull.  The most common sensation experienced is deep relaxation.  Sometimes emotions will come up, which is normal and often part of the healing process.  Treatment runs from 20-45 minutes depending on what the body needs at the time.  It can be done on all age groups.

 

What to expect

 

We have found that the best patient outcomes come when both doctors in our clinic work with each patient.  Because of this, we have gone to a system where both doctors see a patient when they first come in (the exception being children, who mostly just work with Dr Jeremiah, unless CST is indicated).  You can expect to be here a minimum of 2 hours.  Dr Jeremiah takes a homeopathic intake as well as a complete medical history and any necessary physical exam.  He will usually prescribe a homeopathic medicine at this time and recommend any diet and lifestyle changes that would be helpful.  Next, Dr Julia works with you to assess any physiological weaknesses and do a craniosacral evaluation/treatment.  She may recommend some nutritional supplements to help with the healing process. 

We do use some herbal and nutritional supplements with patients during the healing process to support the body’s own ability to heal.  Over time, it is the hope that as a person heals they will no longer need to be taking lots of pills.  We often will still recommend a long-term protocol of a few whole food based nutrients to help support what is lacking in modern diets.

If you are truly interested in getting well, you can expect more than one visit.  If all you are interested in is the first type of doctor, the one who cures your illness, it is possible that your current symptoms may clear up after one visit.  But in order to allow us to be the type 2 and 3 doctor, we need to build a relationship and work over time to improve your health to the point where you no longer need us or any other doctor.   Because, even though I joked we had bigger needles to the teenage patient, in our experience, the sicker you get the bigger and more invasive the treatments become just to keep away symptoms.

Thank you for reading this and we look forward to working with you on your journey toward health,

Drs Jeremiah and Julia Stevens