“What is food to one man may be fierce poison to another”– Lucretius circa 756BC

Happy Spring! The days are getting longer, the sun is shining and flowers are in bloom! With the changing of Winter into Spring comes the perfect time to do a little Spring Cleaning. Open those windows that have been shut all winter long, clean out the old and welcome in the new!

As a Naturopathic Doctor I have many treatment modalities at my finger tips such as acupuncture, nutritional counselling, therapeutic supplements, Bowen therapy or homeopathy.  But one of my favourite modalities has to be Herbal Medicine.  Plants have been used medicinally since the dawn of time and continue to play an important role in health today. 

It seems as though every other day there is a new study telling us that another vitamin, herb or supplement is dangerous for our health or just doesn’t work.  And without fail, over the next few weeks my patients come to me asking if they should stop taking their supplements.  There is no simple answer to this question because sometimes the research is valid, but more often than not, there are serious flaws not only in the research, but even more so in the way that the media has reported the new information.  Controversy sells!