Acupuncture for Hot Flashes and Other Menopause Complaints

There are two types of menopause transitions that I typically see. For some women, it’s relatively smooth sailing. For others, it’s a frenzy of heat, sweating, irritability, insomnia, mood swings and feeling completely fed up. For some, these symptoms only last a year or two. Others feel like they’ve been dealing with these symptoms for years after their period stopped.

I like using acupuncture as a tool to help women with these symptoms. Several studies have shown that acupuncture makes hot flashes less intense and less frequent. Some studies show that even after you stop acupuncture, the benefits continue.  

You may be wondering, if acupuncture helps women, why isn’t every perimenopausal and menopausal woman doing it? It seems like some women benefit a lot from acupuncture, and some don’t benefit as much.

One study found that one group of women noticed an 85% reduction of hot flashes. A larger group of women (about half) notice a 50% reduction of hot flashes. And then there was a group of women who only noticed a 10% reduction of hot flashes initially but this later went up to 23%.

This same study tried to figure out why there was such a wide variety of responses to the acupuncture. It concluded that women who benefited from acupuncture for hot flashes had sessions more often. They had roughly 8-9 sessions within the first 8 weeks. The study also found that women with more severe hot flashes tended to respond better to acupuncture.

So, more sessions increases your chance of success. Also, I like to increase the odds of success by adding certain herbal remedies, nutritional supplements, diet and lifestyle changes to the treatment plan.

Acupuncture also does a good job of improving other symptoms beyond hot flashes that go hand in hand with perimenopause and menopause like depression, anxiety, irritability, insomnia and pain. As a naturopathic doctor who focuses on mental health, that’s always exciting to see!

You don’t have to suffer through your menopause. You have far better things to do than worrying about your next hot flash or bout of anxiety. Get the support you need to thrive during this transition.

Heal Anxiety by Healing Your Gut?

The way we look at mental health is changing, slowly but surely. We’re used to seeing something like anxiety being handled with a prescription for anxiety medication and no further investigation (except maybe a quick test for thyroid function and anemia status). Anxiety medication can be incredibly valuable for so many people. And sometimes further investigations don’t yield any results. But it’s still important that we consider and rule out factors that could be contributing to anxiety. As a mental health focused naturopathic doctor, this is my mission.

Your gut health can impact your mental health. If you’re skeptical, I’ll tell you now that this concept is no longer in the realm of fringe science or pseudoscience. There’s an abundance of research behind it. It’s hard to ignore the patterns that we’re seeing. Many people with gut disorders like IBS, IBD, GERD and h. pylori also experience anxiety. Stress and anxiety can certainly do strange things to your gut. But the relationship goes the other way as well. Gut disorders can upset your mental health. And I mean above and beyond the anxiety that comes with worrying about your gut struggles.

The nervous system that governs your gut (the enteric nervous system) is deeply connected to other aspects of your nervous system. Fascinating discoveries are being made about how gut health impacts brain and mental health. Inflammation in the gut has been correlated with inflammation in the rest of the nervous system including the brain. The type of bacteria in the gut may be able to alter behaviour according to some studies. Good gut bacteria has been shown to reduce stress and anxiety by altering neurotransmitter and hormone activity. Research on the role that nutrition plays in gut health and therefore mental health is also yielding promising findings.

Poor gut health is just one of many underlying causes to consider in anxiety cases. Sifting through and treating the possible underlying causes of your anxiety is my definition of holistic medicine. It takes effort, it takes time and it takes some real detective work but every patient with anxiety deserves this quality of care.

How Thyroid Antibodies Affect Your Mood

Figuring out the causes of your anxiety and depression can be frustrating. Anti-anxiety and anti-depressant medications and supplements certainly have an important role to play in relieving mood symptoms. But I’m always disappointment when I see that the treatment plan usually stops there. We should be doing a much better job at uncovering and treating potential contributing factors to anxiety and depression. The health of your thyroid is one such factor.   

If your thyroid is overactive or underactive it can contribute to depression and anxiety. Pretty much all health care providers are aware of this so if you complain about your mood or anxiety levels, there’s a good chance your TSH and T4 (maybe T3) will be tested. If these come back normal, your thyroid is crossed off the list as a cause of concern.

But did you know that the health of your thyroid could be affecting your mood even if your thyroid hormone levels are normal? There is growing evidence that elevated thyroid antibodies can play a role in depression, anxiety, bipolar disorder and panic attacks even if thyroid hormone levels are normal. I’m starting to see a few more patients coming to me with thyroid antibody test results, but I’m still surprised that antibodies are not tested more often.

What are thyroid antibodies? Your thyroid is a gland in your neck that governs your metabolism and is in charge of a number of different functions. Thyroid antibodies form when your immune system accidentally decides to attack various components of your thyroid. This leads to inflammation and damage in your thyroid. Sure, this damage can cause abnormalities in your actual thyroid hormones - but not always. Just because your thyroid hormones are normal doesn’t mean we can ignore thyroid antibodies.

Testing thyroid antibodies involves a simple blood test and it’s relatively inexpensive. I run antibody tests for my patients all the time and the results help me to decide what treatments are worth while and what aren’t.

Anxiety and depression can have multiple different root causes. Sometimes the causes are obvious and sometimes they’re not. If you really feel ready to do a deep dive into the potential contributing factors to your mood symptoms, reach out to me and we can discuss options. You deserve to have a comprehensive, robust treatment plan for your mood symptoms.  

For a free list of foods linked to lower anxiety levels, click the link below.

How do I Know if my Hormones are Out of Balance?

Do you suspect that your hormones are off balance? Are you a little unsure if that’s actually true? How do you know if you’re feeling crummy because of hormones or if it’s just because of life situations?  

Symptoms of hormone imbalances are often super general so it’s easy to not suspect hormones as the culprit. Here are some common signs and symptoms that you can experience if your hormones are in need of some TLC:

• Fatigue

• Anxiety, depression, irritability and mood swings

• Hair loss or excess hair growth

• Weight gain or loss

• Oily or dry skin

• Insomnia

• Cravings

• PMS

• Irregular, painful, heavy or light periods

• Brain fog

• Breast tenderness and fibrocystic breasts

• Fibroids and ovarian cysts

• Hot flashes, night sweats or feeling cold all the time

• Acne

• Muscle aches

• Bloating, nausea and water retention

(Note - you don’t have to have all of these symptoms to have hormonal imbalances).

We can’t know for sure which hormones are out of balance without testing. We can make some educated guesses without tests but testing hormones gives us a clearer picture of what’s going on and therefore saves time and money wasted on trial and error. I encourage you to talk to your naturopathic doctor about your hormone testing options.

The good news is that in many cases it’s possible to re-balance hormones naturally without birth control pills or other medications. Given that I focus my practice on treating anxiety and depression, I’ve seen some wonderful improvements in mood as a result of crafting a solid hormone balancing plan for my patients.

If you want to know what steps would be involved in your own hormone balancing plan, click the book now button below to get your free 15-minute consultation.

Let’s scratch some of those symptoms off of your list!  

Does Your Bedtime Really Matter?

There are a lot of theories in the wellness industry about the optimal bedtime for adults. Some say that going to bed at 10 pm is optimal for cell repair and renewal. Some say that any sleep after midnight is only worth half the value of sleep before midnight.

I used to insist on going to bed at 10 pm every night but as life got busier, 11-11:30 pm became the new norm. But does that 1-1.5 hour delay really make a difference if I sleep in to make up for it? What does science have to say about this? Does bedtime matter, or should we only be concerned about the number of hours of sleep that we’re getting?

Our sleep happens in cycles. On paper, we should have around 4-5 cycles of sleep throughout the night that last 90 minutes each. Within a cycle, we shift between deeper and lighter sleep (non-REM and REM sleep) and then repeat the process in the next cycle, and the next, and so on until it’s time to wake up.

Many scientists agree that the earlier you go to bed, the more time is spent in the deeper phases of sleep during each sleep cycle. As your bed time gets later, you’re more likely to spend a larger chunk of your sleep cycles in a lighter sleep.

Sleeping late can affect memory, thinking, energy levels and other important health factors. Some doctors argue that going to bed no later than midnight is important to get that deeper quality of sleep we need in order to thrive during the day.

Another reason to avoid a late bedtime is the “second wind”. Do you ever notice that at a certain time in the night you go from feeling sleepy and ready for bed to feeling awake again? This is the second wind phenomenon and many people notice it around 10:30-11 pm, although the timing can be different for everyone. Our body’s internal clock seems to have a built-in wakefulness period in the night that causes this second wind. Going to bed around the second wind time can make it harder to fall asleep. Even ancient systems of medicine from different cultures recognize this phenomenon and recommend going to bed before it happens.

So we’ve established that going to bed earlier likely makes for a better quality of sleep. But can an earlier sleep actually help with cell renewal? The sleep hormone, melatonin, rises when the sun sets and it becomes dark outside. Melatonin is an antioxidant and has been shown to play an important role in DNA repair and other very important repair processes. The later into the night that you stay awake (especially if lights and screens are on), the more your melatonin levels are suppressed. This can potentially impact all of the repair processes melatonin is involved in.

Overall, it seems like science doesn’t point to an exact perfect bedtime. But most sources seem to agree that a late bedtime that’s closer to midnight or later is not ideal, even if you sleep in. If you’re feeling groggy in the morning, you might want to consider experimenting with an earlier bedtime to find what works for you. As for me, I’ve recently reinstated my 10 pm rule and I’m absolutely loving it.

Sleeping the right way for your body is a critical step in transforming your physical and mental health. Diet, stress management, digestion, exercise and lifestyle are other key pillars of health. I work on these areas with all of my patients. If you don’t feel your best right now, it’s worth getting expert help to get these core health factors in order so you can give your all to everyone and everything that’s important to you.

Could Coffee be Making You Anxious?

When I ask patients how they would feel if I suggested they reduce their coffee intake, I usually get one of two responses. Either they’ll say, “sure I’ll give it a try” or they’ll say something along the lines of “don’t you dare try to take away my coffee!”

I totally get that second response. I’ve come to love everything about coffee – the smell, the taste, the energy boost and that warm, cozy feeling it gives you that’s hard to mimic with other drinks. There’s even some evidence that coffee can improve low mood as well as other markers of health due to its antioxidant content as well as other beneficial properties.

However, in a subset of people, coffee can increase levels of anxiety. Those who are particularly sensitive can experience anxiety at lower amounts of coffee than less sensitive people. Younger people (like high school students) have been identified as a potentially sensitive group but adults can be sensitive as well.

Drinking large amounts of coffee has also been associated with anxiety. But the definition of what a “large amount” is doesn’t seem to be very solid in the research. On the flip side, some studies show no association between coffee intake and anxiety.

So how do I use this wish-washy information in my practice when I treat patients with anxiety? Basically, I have a conversation with them about the potential role coffee may play in their anxiety and we talk about doing a trial period of reducing coffee intake by whatever percentage they are comfortable with.

Many of my patients decide to reduce their coffee intake. True to the mixed study findings, some of my patients notice their anxiety improves with less coffee and others notice no difference.

One thing I don’t recommend is just assuming you’re one of those people who is not negatively impacted by coffee. You won’t know for sure unless you give it a try. Many of my patients were surprised to find that coffee negatively impacted their anxiety and stress levels more than they expected.

This blog post is definitely not a tirade against coffee. I love the drink and it really does seem to have health benefits. Coffee makes me anxious, but I’ve found that I can tolerate having it a couple times a week. Tea doesn’t have this impact on me, but I still try to not make it a daily thing.

Everyone will have their own coffee sweet spot that works for them. I encourage you to find yours. It’s just one of the many things I work on with my patients to help them get a better hold on their anxiety.  

How Acupuncture Reduces Anxiety and Improves Mood

You’ve heard about acupuncture before. You’ve seen it on TV and you know its origins are pretty ancient. You’ve heard it can help with aches and pains. But did you know acupuncture can help with anxiety and mood as well?

If you’re feeling held back from living your life happily because of your mood, I hear you. I hear it from my patients too when I first meet them. They don’t feel like themselves any more. Their relationships are strained. They can’t cope with work. All because of their anxiety or low mood.

Can acupuncture really provide an answer? In my experience, acupuncture is a powerful tool to add to a broader treatment plan for managing anxiety and mood. But a lot of people can’t quite wrap their heads around it. How does sticking needles in different parts of the body lead to a change in mood? How does it work?

The bottom line is that scientists are still trying to figure that out. There are numerous studies showing that acupuncture reduces anxiety and symptoms of depression but we’re still trying to figure out what is going on inside the body during and after a course of acupuncture treatments.

Here are some insights that we know so far:

• Brain MRI scans show that acupuncture is able to improve interactions between different parts of the brain in a way that improves mood

• Acupuncture seems to benefit parts of the brain that play a role in motivation and reward

• Acupuncture positively affects the activity of dopamine and GABA which are both brain chemicals that help keep you calm and happy

Essentially, acupuncture may be able to help the brain and nervous system function in a healthier way and this in turn helps with mood and anxiety levels. Acupuncture likely works in other ways that are not fully understood yet.

Another obstacle to acupuncture for some people is fear of pain. People are worried that it hurts. Most of my patients actually enjoy acupuncture and look forward to their sessions with me. After a couple sessions, my patients tell me that they feel more “balanced” and better able to cope with stress and anxiety. And the results last well after the session has ended.

Acupuncture really can take your treatment plan to the next level. It’s also covered under your naturopathic medicine benefits. If you have any questions about it, you’re welcome to book a free 15 minute phone call and we can chat more.

My Approach to Gluten

It’s a common cliché to think that naturopathic doctors put all their patients on a gluten free diet. The term gluten describes specific proteins in plants like wheat, rye and barley. Gluten gives foods made from these grains a unique texture that is hard to mimic. This is why gluten-free breads taste so different from the breads we’re used to.

I don’t believe everyone needs to be on a gluten free diet and I only recommend it when I think it’s necessary. I also don’t believe that only those with celiac disease need to consider reducing gluten intake. There is a growing body of research on non-celiac gluten sensitivity although this research is still controversial right now. Wheat and gluten sensitivities have been associated with skin conditions like eczema, irritable bowel syndrome, chronic pain and even mood disorders.  

I’ve seen a number of patients benefit from a trial of reducing gluten in their diet – even if they were already eating a healthy diet before. Personally, when I include gluten in my diet, I tend to get hives, seasonal allergies, my thyroid levels go out of whack, I get more fatigued, more “brain fog”, my mood suffers and I sometimes get mild joint pain. When I remove or even just reduce gluten, these symptoms all go away and I usually feel great.

It’s important to note that whenever I reduce my gluten, I try to avoid processed gluten free foods. A lot of these processed gluten free foods are not nutritionally valuable. I’ll have gluten free bread or gluten free treats here and there but for my staples, I prefer to stick to foods that are minimally processed and naturally gluten free like rice, sweet potato, quinoa, chickpeas, etc.

My latest gluten free stretch of time was 2017 - 2018. I was able to be almost gluten free for a big chunk of the year. I didn’t really miss it at all. However, towards the end of 2018, I started to feel deprived. As I mentioned in my article on intuitive eating, it’s really important to me that I eat healthy without feeling deprived. That’s why I decided to reintroduce gluten back into my life for now. I still try not to have it every day, but I am having it more than in 2017. The mild hives have returned, and I do feel a slight dip in my energy but I’m ok with temporarily paying this price so I can feel happy about my diet and less deprived. I know that in time I’ll be open to cutting gluten out again.

And that’s how it goes for me. I’m aware of my gluten intolerance and I fluctuate my level of gluten intake based on my motivation and sense of deprivation. My intolerance symptoms are mild enough that I can live with them when they come back. If they get more severe, then I might prefer to be more strict with my gluten avoidance.

The point is that the power is in my hands to use my awareness of my intolerance as I see fit. When I tell my patients that they may benefit from reducing certain foods in their diet, I will never sit there and judge them if they don’t follow my recommendations to a tee every single moment of their life. You have to know yourself and your relationship with food. You have to know what you’re willing to do and what you’re not ready for yet. I’ve had many patients tell me that they do want to change their diet but only to a certain extent. That’s ok. I will meet you where you’re at and we can change as much as you’re ready for and save the rest for another time.

My job is to arm you with the awareness of all the things that you can do to benefit your health. Your job is to communicate to me what you’re ready for and what you’re not ready for. Our job together is to use this information to build a plan that works for you on every level.