Start off Spring with Beautiful, Healthy Feet

Your feet…what would you do without them?

Most of us don’t think much about our feet, but we put them through a lot of stress. Over the course of our lives, we walk about 100,000 miles. That’s four times around the world! That stress and general aging adds challenges to our feet.

As our bodies age, our needs change. This is especially true when addressing the foot care needs of seniors. Circulation impairment, diminished eyesight, limited hand dexterity, compromised health issues, and increased demand on our feet all contribute to incorporating assistance in the care of our feet. Prevention of ulcers, skin, and nail pathologies are the main priority to good foot health.

People with diabetes are also encouraged to see a foot specialist. As a person with diabetes, you are more likely to have foot problems than the general population.  People with diabetes often suffer from loss of sensation in the feet due to nerve damage. Circulation is often impaired in the diabetic foot. These issues place the person with diabetes into a high risk category.

• Appropriate foot wear is a must.
• Daily foot examinations are recommended.
• Dry your feet well after bathing.
• Do not cut your own corns or callouses.
• Avoid hot water bottles or heating pads on your legs and feet.
• If you smoke, stop. Nicotine is a vasoconstrictor that narrows your blood vessels and in heeds blood circulation.

By taking a few minutes every day to take care of your feet you can prevent most foot complications.

Foot care services at the Quinte Naturopathic Centre include a relaxing foot soak, nail trimming, corn and callous management, heel care, and health teaching. This is completed by an aromatherapeutic foot massage.

Yours in good foot health,

Gretchen Grenke, RPN, foot care practitioner

Supplement Spotlight

Heel Detox Kit

The Detox-Kit® from Heel® accomplishes the complex undertaking that is detoxification, effectively and with little discomfort encountered. The Detox-Kit® is a carefully formulated combination of three homeopathic preparations that specifically target the body’s excretion systems. It will softly and gently stimulate the body’s natural process of elimination to cleanse itself of toxins. Contrary to the majority of detoxification programs on the market today, the Detox-Kit® reactivates the most important detoxification pathways of the body, to yield a thorough cleansing effect. The following natural bodily filtration systems are all solicited and supported:

• The liver (and biliary system): that breaks down and removes both ambient and stored toxins.
  The gastrointestinal tract: that carries toxins from the liver and removes waste materials from digested food.
  The kidneys: that filter harmful chemicals from the blood and then removes them through the urinary system.
  The lymphatic system: for detoxification to work adequately, this system must be functioning at its peak and be free of miscellaneous debris.

The particular strength of the Detox-Kit® lies in its ability to stimulate drainage and elimination from the very organs that are naturally designed to do so. Of course, the above applies mostly for mild cases of toxicity. For deeper detoxification, in cases of moderate to severe toxicity, other more comprehensive and powerful medications may be required or added in to the detoxification protocol. But these should be determined on a case-by-case basis.

To sum up, health management and even health preservation in certain compromised states, is certainly achievable through the proper cleansing and detoxification techniques and the administration of carefully chosen therapeutics.

Indications: Stimulation of detoxification via the lymphatic, gastrointestinal, hepatic, biliary, and renal excretion pathways.

Allergies and chronic diseases are always accompanied by an impaired immune system. Proper functioning of the immune system can be negatively influenced by metabolic disorders, pollution (i.e. by air or amalgam), an unbalanced diet, or increasing age. The body’s excretion pathways may be able to counteract these negative influences for a time, but become overcharged by long-term exposure. This leads to a build-up of toxic substances throughout the body with far-reaching consequences.

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If you have any questions regarding the detox kit or would like to make an appointment for detoxification, please contact us using the form on this site (contact page) or by calling 613-966-9660.

Detoxify!

Detoxification is a term that is increasing in popularity along with public use of natural and alternative therapies. Most people assume that this term is new, but in reality the concepts of detoxification and internal cleansing have been used for centuries. In particular, naturopathic doctors who have been licensed in Ontario since the 1920s have looked at the ability to detoxify as a major indication of a person’s level of health. Many cultures and religions use fasting as their primary method of detoxification.

According to naturopathic doctor Michelle Durkin, detoxification is an important aspect of improving health, especially in today’s environment. We are continuously exposed to toxic compounds in the air we breathe, the water we drink, the food we ingest, the medications we take, and the emotions we suppress. Other problems include exposure to food additives, solvents, pesticides, herbicides and other toxic chemicals that can give rise to a wide range of symptoms.

The burdens of busy schedules are a contributing factor to the poor planning of nutritious meals. Instead, most individuals will rely on fast food while on the run. These foods tend to be high in fat and sugar while low in nutritional value. This contributes to many health problems, including poor digestion, allergies, inflammations, chronic fatigue, blood sugar abnormalities, painful menstruation, PMS, headaches, autoimmune diseases, and chronic disease in general.

Detoxification is an important measure for improving health and eliminating chronic symptoms. The liver is a complex organ that plays a key role in most metabolic processes, especially in detoxification. It clears toxins from the body by neutralizing or transforming them through “phase 1? and “phase 2? detoxification reactions. It makes sense, then, that along with dietary changes that reduce the intake of toxins, nutritional supplements and botanical or homeopathic medicines are used to support liver function.

Sounds easy, right?  Not exactly!  Poor digestion, bowel sluggishness, and poor filtration/elimination of waste through the kidneys, respiratory tract, and skin all play a role in contributing to the toxicity of the body. Therefore, it is very important to have a detoxification program properly planned and supervised by a naturopathic doctor. 

Some symptoms that occur with Dysfunctional Liver Detoxification:

• More than 20 lbs overweight
• Stomach upset by greasy foods
• Nausea, sea/car/airplane motion sickness/history of morning sickness
• Dry skin, itchy feet and/or skin peels on the feet
• Headache over the eye
• Bitter taste in mouth, especially after meals
• If drinking alcohol, easily intoxicated/become sick if drinking wine
• Long-term use of prescription medications
• Sensitive to perfumes, cleaning solvents, exhaust, pesticides, tobacco smoke or diesel fumes
• Pain under right side of rib cage
• Hemorrhoids or varicose veins
• Bothered by aspartame
• Chronic fatigue or fibromyalgia

For more information contact: Michelle Durkin, ND, Quinte Naturopathic Centre, TEL: 966-9660, 173 Church St., Belleville, ON.

Bowenwork® for Detoxification

Bowenwork can be used for detoxification purposes specifically or in combination with the treatment of other issues that may be occurring in the body. Bowen moves stimulate lymphatic drainage since many moves are directly over or influence areas that have lymph glands. Specific procedures focusing particularly on lymphatic drainage are chest procedure, pelvic procedure, TMJ procedures, and kidney and respiratory procedures.

All Bowen moves stimulate the fascia or connective tissue around muscles and organs to function normally.  When fascia is hydrated and healthy it allows increased blood flow to the muscle, tendons, or organs, and removes toxins produced by the cells.

This can release toxins for the days following your Bowenwork® session and increased water intake and rest are recommended to support this detoxification process. Other cleansing methods prescribed by your naturopath can be enhanced by the use of Bowenwork® to provide a more complete detoxification process.

Detox Recipe

Coriander Chelation Pesto

Ingredients:

• 4 cloves of garlic
• 1/3 cup of Brazil nuts (selenium)
• 1/3 cup sunflower seeds (cysteine)
• 1/3 cup pumpkin seeds (zinc, magnesium)
• 2 cups packed fresh coriander (cilantro, Chinese parsley) (Vitamin A)
• 2/3 cup flaxseed oil
• 4 tbsp lemon juice (Vitamin C)
• 2 tsp dulse powder
• Bragg’s liquid amiros

Process the coriander and flaxseed oil in a blender until the coriander is chopped. Add the garlic, nuts, seeds, dulse, and lemon juice and mix until the mixture is finely blended into a paste. Add a squirt of Bragg’s to taste and blend again. Store this in dark glass jars if possible. It freezes well, so purchase coriander in season to fill enough jars to last through the year.

Coriander has been proven to chelate toxic metals from our bodies in a relatively short period of time.  Combined with the benefits of the other ingredients, this recipe is a powerful tissue cleanser. Two teaspoons of this pesto daily for three weeks is purportedly enough to increase the urinary excretion of mercury, lead, and aluminum, thus effectively eliminating these toxic metals from our bodies. We should consider doing this cleanse for about three weeks at least once a year. It is delicious on toast, potatoes, pizza, and pasta.