Fire destroyed the building.  Such a transformative force.  Time to move along.

My new practice address will be my home until further notice.

All visits for the months of January and February will need to be rescheduled; please call my cell number (patients will have it already) because the office phone is obviously out of commission.
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The EPA sets limits for pesticides, herbicides, fungicides and other chemicals on food, and those limits are not zero. There's no way you can avoid every toxin in or on commercial food, but it's worth some effort to minimize your exposures. Young people and children have the most to gain in terms of healthy life years.

Some contaminants are easier to remove than others. Strawberries are covered in little pores and it is impossible to get the pesticides off (out) of them, so it is important to buy those organic or choose another fruit. Apples are also hard to clean because they can have a coat of parrafin (to make them shiny) that seals in the pesticides. Potatoes may be less important to buy organic if you peel off a good layer and boil them too.  Boiling has been shown to remove or destroy some of the contaminants.

A review of the literature reveals that washing your veggies in tap water for 30 seconds actually removes most of the pesticides and fungicides. Unfortunately there are some that water does not remove, including chlorpyrifos (a nerve-gas pesticide) and vinclozolin (a fungicide). Thankfully these are removed by soaking in an acid solution, acetic acid being the most effective. Acetic acid is vinegar. The longer you soak your veggies the more of the chlorpyrifos is removed. My rule is to soak my cherries in a 5% vinegar solution for at least an hour.

Why do we care about chlorpyrifos? You may have heard about it in the news. It was originally developed as a nerve gas by the Nazis. Now it is used as a pesticide because it paralyzes insects. No surprise that it also wreaks havoc on the human nervous system. It was slated to be banned until Trump got elected. It's already banned for indoor use. Dow chemical (the maker of chlorpyrifos) donated a million bucks to Trump's inauguration fund to make sure that their profitable poison would remain legal. The EPA reversed course and this toxin will be sprayed on veggies and golf courses, in spite of the fact that it shrinks and deforms children's brains, lowers their IQs, and is linked to lung cancer and Parkinsons. Chlorpyrifos sticks to fruit even when it's rinsed in tap water.

For the foreseeable future we will need to work to avoid this toxin as best we can. This means seeking clean sources for our produce (gardens, farmer's markets, buying organic), washing it, peeling and boiling what can be peeled and boiled, and soaking plants that we eat with the skin on in a vinegar solution for at least an hour.

If you need a little good news to help wash off the sad feeling about all this poison, below are the kinds of food least likely to be contaminated. =-] Eat more of them.

​The photograph above is a wild ginger plant in the genus Asarum. I photographed it last week in the woods near my father's house. Don't eat it. We know this. Some plants are poison. Naturopaths know about aristolochic acid because it is part of our training in botanical medicine.

Medicine in the US today is as polarized as our politics, and just as full of talking points and bald faced lies. I find it infuriating and frustrating. Today I read a hit piece attacking naturopathic doctors. It claimed that we push herbs that contain aristolochic acid (AA). AA is a known carcinogen in the bladder and kidneys, and a new study suggests that it's causing a lot of liver cancer too. It really ticks me off when headlines say we push people to take poison. Not so. We are here to guard against such mistakes.

Chinese herbal products have often been found to contain toxins, and to be mis-labeled or not labeled at all. Herbs containing AA can be found in Chinese weight loss formulas, among other places Here in the good old US we may complain about the shady politics in the FDA, but at some level they really are trying to protect us. They're doing better than the Chinese authorities, far as I can tell.

There's been an incredible increase in the wealth of the Chinese middle class in the last 25 years. Suddenly people have jobs, cars, and disposable income. They are eating more sugar than they ever have before, and they are getting fat, even getting diabetes. The Chinese are looking more and more like US.

Combine their new obesity, disposable income, and good supply of poorly regulated herbal products, and you can understand why the Chinese are getting cancer from AA. Lots of other people in Asia, like the Taiwanese, are having the same problem.

We've known about AA for a long time. The FDA issued a warning about it in 2001 which is when it came onto a lot of people's radar.

If you would like to know if an herbal formula or a supplement is safe to take, there is no one better to consult than a naturopath. We study on which herbs are useful and which are dangerous.

It is true that the vast majority of herbal products are not very well tested. You have to do the research to find out which ones are good, or ask a naturopath. Some companies have excellent quality assurance standards, and some do not. If you are going to take a product, you want to know if it contains what it says on the label. You also want to know that it does not contain anything toxic. Third party testing of products is expensive and most companies don't do it. If you buy the cheapest herbs you can get, you are probably choosing the ones that haven't been checked. Just so you know.

The people who are dedicated to the project of smearing alternative medicine don't know much about it, but that doesn't slow them down. It has become disgustingly normal, especially online, to just say whatever you want as if it were true, and keep saying it until the dimwitted come to believe you.

Don't let them brainwash you. Keep your wits sharp. Gather information and challenge your own assumptions. There is disinformation on all sides, and medicine is as rich a medium for BS as politics.

Just because something is natural does not make it safe.  Just because something is herbal does not make it dangerous. If you're going to experiment with herbs, do your research--or get some help from someone who has. And don't buy imported herbs online. Please.

Or maybe I'm just paranoid.  Any time there's a change in laws governing medicare, medicaid, or health insurance, I get suspicious.  Who is benefitting here?  The patients?  Maybe a little.  The doctors?  Only the ones who really milk the system for all it is worth.  The insurance companies?  Certainly, until and unless we finally send them packing and opt for single payer.  I've been heartened to hear Trump celebrating the single payer systems that exist in other nations.  Yes, it is cheaper than the shitshow we have going.

I find it disheartening that so many people who consider themselves skeptical are really not open-minded critical thinkers, they are kneejerk naysayers. In their view anything that doesn't already fit into their particular understanding of reality is obviously nonsense. In other words, they are unwilling or unable to learn. And when these skeptical individuals band together under the banner of reason or science, without having an ounce of either to back themselves up, the result is saddening and maddening.

Discourse with all concerned parties will result in the best outcome. When the subject is medicine, we are all concerned. It matters.

I understand thinking that all ND's must be homeopaths or whatever, but it isn't true.  There are rational and intelligent people practicing under this umbrella, and there are crystal-believing mumbo-jumbo talking MD's out there too.  I know.  I know these nonsense-accepting MD's exist because they  talk to me.  They assume that because I'm a naturopath I will agree.  

My point is that the letters after the name give no assurance that you will be treated rationally.  The amount of pill-shoving that goes on within conventional practice will be proven murderous someday.  Chemotherapy will be thought barbaric.

More on this later.  If you are already interested in expressing your support for wholistic and preventative medicine under the naturopathic umbrella, you can do so here:

http://www.naturopathic.org/lac#/57. 

THE CFI LETTER (CORRECTED AFTER ACCIDENTALLY ADDRESSING IT TO GOVERNOR SMITH):
Tell Governor Brown:
Don’t Endanger Oregon’s Health – VETO SB 856The Oregon Legislature has just made the terrible mistake of granting naturopathssweeping new powers to make life and death decisions for Oregonians. Unless vetoed by Gov. Kate Brown, Senate Bill 856 will give naturopaths the same authority as medical doctors (MDs) and osteopathic doctors (DOs) to make important medical and legal judgments for people’s lives, despite lacking the basic qualifications to do so.
Naturopathic “medical schools” are not part of the mainstream health care education system and students are taught pseudoscience like homeopathy and “detoxification.” Unlike MDs and DOs, naturopaths do not do residencies upon graduation, but go straight into practice. Most naturopathic grads have never practiced in a hospital or specialty clinic.
Yet SB 856 would give NDs the authority to make critical decisions on serious health matters, such as the authority to:

• Decide if seriously ill patients are eligible for hospice care, or make end-of-life decisions for terminally ill patients who are not competent to consent to treatment;
• Weigh in on whether mentally ill persons should be involuntarily committed and decide what treatment they should receive;
• Decide whether a child receives special education services or a veteran is disabled; 
• Make the call as to whether a food worker is putting the public at risk for contagious diseases;
• Be employed by the state to provide medical care to vulnerable populations, like prisoners, juvenile detainees and addicts;
• Order physical or chemical restraint, or psychotropic medication, for elderly and disabled persons.

Naturopathic doctors (NDs) do not practice evidence-based medicine and offer the public a plethora of dubious diagnoses to be treated with a cornucopia of pseudoscientific remedies, including homeopathy, herbs and colonics. Studies show they do not even support vaccinations.
Oregon already gives NDs the most liberal scope of practice among the few states that license NDs. It allows them to practice as primary care physicians, even though their education and training is inferior to an MD and DO. It would be a mistake to put the public at further risk by giving NDs authority to make medical judgments they are not properly educated and trained to make.
With SB 856, the state would be effectively forcing substandard care upon vulnerable populations who don’t have the capacity to refuse. This bill must not be signed into law.
Tell Gov. Kate Brown to veto Senate Bill 856.

​Myth 4: You can’t get poison ivy/oak in the winter time.  Unfortunately, false.  You can get it any time of year.  Sure, the sappier the plant is, the more urushiol it will deliver on contact.  Late winter and early spring buds are particularly dangerous because they are bursting with sap and don’t have leaves yet.  After the leaves have fallen in the autumn it can definitely still cause the rash.  We recently confirmed this when at least two of us got the rash after returning home from an October Rogue trip.  Even in the wintertime it’s best to give the plant a wide berth, because what looks like a dry twig could cause days of misery if it were to happen to get in your pants.  Twigs of poison ivy have been seen sticking up out of the snow on backcountry ski trips.

Myth 5: Scratching does no harm.  Actually, the bad news is that scratching makes it worse.  First of all, you can spread the toxic oil around your body by scratching.  Second, scratching makes it itch more, because it releases more histamine.  Third, scratching will open pustules and cause wounds which can get infected with bacteria.  It’s best to leave the pustules alone as long as you can, draining them with a pin if they get in the way.  Cover them with a bandage to keep the thin skin from coming off until the wound has started healing from underneath.  If you’d rather put calamine on it that doesn’t hurt, and it does mark the area not to scratch.

Myth 6: You can get immune to it.  Actually it works the opposite way.  The more you are exposed to the toxin, the more sensitive you get.  You will get the rash faster if you’ve had it before.  There are those who say if you eat the first bud of new poison ivy leaf that you see in the spring, that you will be immune.  I doubt it, but people say it.  As far as I know the only way to remain insensitive to the toxin is to avoid contact with it.

Myth 7: Jewel weed will treat your poison ivy rash.  This is definitely false.  Someone actually did a study on this.   Jewel weed is a pretty orange-flowering plant that grows near water where you also will probably find poison ivy/oak, but it makes no difference in the course of the dermatitis caused by urushiol.  We love our folk remedies but this one is unfortunately just a nice story.

This may not seem like an urgent concern, but you don’t have to look far to read stories of people who’ve gotten the poison rash on their face or genitals, which could obviously be very bad.  There are also stories of people getting it in their lungs from breathing smoke from fires where it is burning.  Severe exposures or reactions do need medical attention.  Proper dosing and tapering is essential to manage the negative effects of corticosteroids, so please do not take them at home without seeking a doctor’s opinion.  Definitely tell the doctor if you’ve been out in the woods when you get a rash.  I have seen three cases so far of city doctors misdiagnosing a poison oak rash as shingles.  They are not the same, and you can help the doc get the treatment right by giving them a full and proper history of your rash.
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