Nutmeg “Nuggets”
Taking Back Your Health Through Individualized, Wellness-Based Naturopathic Medicine By Frank Aieta, ND
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ne of the most basic human desires is health. Unfortunately, it is also one of the most elusive, confusing, and frustrating struggles. How do we sort out all of the conflicting information regarding health and wellness? Why has our current medical system failed to rectify many of the most popular health concerns plaguing Americans? Common symptoms like pain, fatigue, hormonal imbalances, and weight gain are considered “normal”, and more serious chronic conditions ranging from autoimmune diseases, metabolic syndrome, obesity, diabetes, cancer, cardiovascular disease and dementia are perceived as an inevitable result of aging. Sadly, this is reinforced by conventional medicine where patients often feel powerless in their own body and are unable to improve their state of wellbeing. “Taking Back Your Health Through Individualized, Wellness-Based Naturopathic Medicine” is my latest e-book written as a comprehensive solution to this dilemma. It combines 20 years of whole-person naturopathic medicine, herbal medicine, acupuncture, and clinical nutrition in a DIY approach designed to empower any person struggling with their state of health and looking to get to the root cause of why they are unwell. 8
Natural Nutmeg - March/April 2021
This eBook is not another trendy diet or wellness book. It takes individuality into consideration as opposed to the typical one-size-fits-all model of most diet and wellness plans. It provides resources for the reader to follow such as which lab tests to run, access to order your own labs without having to go through your doctor, how to interpret the lab results, and what to do based on the findings in order to restore function and promote true healing. If you’re dissatisfied with the standardized medical system and the lack of personalized care, it may be time to take your health back by trying something different. An excerpt from “Taking Back Your Health Through Individualized, Wellness-Based Naturopathic Medicine” illustrates how common this is and why the solution is a systematic, functionalbased tailored approach. “On a daily basis in my practice I see the frequent mismanagement of a patient’s health by the conventional, disease-based health care system. Patients come to me after seeing countless doctors from primary care to specialists, and the majority of the time they are offered a treatment that solely manages the symptoms of their chronic condition and fails to address the underlying cause.
Most of the chronic conditions that I see in my practice haven’t yet progressed to an overt disease or pathology but are rather a more functional problem. So, the next question is, “What is a functional problem?” A functional problem is when a patient’s body is essentially telling them that something is wrong through the expression of signs and symptoms. Many times, when a patient with a functional problem presents to their conventional doctor with their list of symptoms, the doctor may go on to examine them and then send them off for testing such as blood work or maybe some imaging. With a functional problem, oftentimes nothing remarkable will show up on these conventional tests, so the patient is simply offered a treatment that will alleviate or mask the symptom and they are sent on their way. Let’s use the condition known as irritable bowel syndrome (IBS) as an example. The patient may present to the doctor’s office with symptoms of digestive distress, maybe some gas and bloating combined with loose stools or constipation. The doctor may then refer this individual to a specialist (like a gastroenterologist) for further testing, such as a simple blood test or something more extensive like a colonoscopy, endoscopy or even a CT scan. If all these tests come back negative for any overt pathology like cancer or an inflammatory bowel disease, the investigation stops there, and the patient will then receive a treatment to solely treat their symptoms. In the case of irritable bowel syndrome, they may be told to take a fiber supplement, a stool softener, an anti-gas medication or some other drug to just deal with the symptoms. Let’s contrast this to my more individualized wellness-based approach. If it’s a more functional problem then I try to uncover the true etiology, which can be one or more of the following: a dietary shortcoming, nutrient deficiency, a hormonal or neurochemical imbalance, a food allergy, sensitivity or intolerance, a structural imbalance or an underlying hidden infection (viral, fungal or bacterial). In this book, I discuss some very simple dietary changes that can be made, basic lab tests that can be ordered by your conventional doctor, and natural dietary supplements that you can take based upon the lab findings.”
