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Helfgott Blog: Exploring Natural Medicine

“Poverty and Human Developmentâ€: The Social Responsibility of the Naturopathic Physician

Posted: 05 Nov 2007 03:26 PM CST

An excerpt from an editorial written for the Journal of Alternative and Complementary Medicine by Dr. Kim Tippens, ND, L.Ac., and Connelly, M.A.

There is little doubt that poverty and health are closely linked. According to the Center for Disease Control, poor adults in the United States – defined as persons whose family incomes are below the Census Bureau’s poverty threshold - had higher levels of heart disease, respiratory conditions, diabetes, pain, depression, and anxiety than non-poor adults [1]. A World Health Organization/World Bank study describes the link between ill health and poverty as “inextricable,†explaining that illness can perpetuate poverty, and poverty can put people at greater risk of illness or injury [2]. As primary care providers, doctors are important allies in the fight against poverty, a welcome role for an overwhelming majority of practitioners [3]. We posit that naturopathic physicians (NDs) and other natural medical practitioners have a valuable role to play in public health and are in an ideal position to practice pro-poor* health care, due to their holistic orientation towards health and emphasis on preventive care. The natural medicine professions can work as a whole towards offering health care to the medically underserved, aiding patients with health care system navigation, and serving as advocates to improve policies that disproportionately affect those of lower socio-economic status. While this article focuses on NDs, the suggestions can also be expanded to other practitioners whose scope of medical practice is holistic in nature.

As primary care physicians, NDs are on the front lines of the health care field and may be the first or only health practitioners some patients see. Thus, they are in a position to impact multiple aspects of their patients’ lives. The emphasis on prevention and lifestyle enhancement makes the practice of naturopathic medicine inherently social, requiring close consideration of the interactions between body, mind, and environment and an understanding of how health and social conditions are interrelated. When it comes to the poor and medically underserved, the underlying source of disease is not limited to the individual but can involve deeply embedded social and economic realities that subvert optimal health. Naturopathic medicine’s holistic view of wellness can and should be broadened to address these social determinants of health, which falls in line with the naturopathic principal of identifying and treating the underlying causes of illness. To heal the whole person, physicians must take into account that powerful social inequities make it difficult to access and pay for medical care, and can harm one’s health.

The causes of disparities in health are complex and deeply entangled. Many of our most pressing public health issues, such as cancer mortality, diabetes and obesity, heart disease, and environmental degradation, have a disproportionate affect on the poor [6-9]. Faced with these and other obstacles, low-income patients may not have the same opportunities for wellness as those with higher incomes. As physicians, NDs can help patients overcome these obstacles in multiple ways. NDs can offer sliding scale or low-cost care to the medically underserved, can help their patients understand their choices in the health care system, and can become advocates for better nutrition, environmental, and education policies.

See cited references and the full text article here.

* Pro-poor health is defined by the World Health Organization as an approach “that gives priority to promoting, protecting and improving the health of the poor. It includes the provision of quality public health and personal care services, with equitable financing mechanisms. It goes beyond the health sector to encompass policies in areas that affect the health of the poor disproportionately, such as education, nutrition, water, and sanitation. Finally, it is concerned with global action on the effects of trade in health services, intellectual property rights, and the funding of health research as they impact on the health of the poor in developing countries.â€

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Helfgott Blog: Exploring Natural Medicine

Local and sustainable food in hospitals

Posted: 19 Feb 2008 07:17 PM CST

Ensuring that you are consuming safe and nutritious food goes way beyond what is listed on the nutrition label. How food is grown, its quality, and freshness is just as important (if not more) than the carbohydrate, fat, and protein content in food. As a registered dietitian, I am often frustrated by how many medical professionals overlook these key elements to health. It is about time that we start offering fresh, nutritious and organic foods in healthcare institutions, including hospitals, because these organizations are supposed to support our health and encourage healing.

I am very excited to hear that hospital food directors across the country are starting to incorporate “green†food purchasing in their food service operations. One food service director at Swedish Covenant Hospital on Chicago’s North Side, , is running an almost 100 percent organic and local kitchen. The Urban and Environmental Policy Institute, member of Healthcare Without Harm, is working to improve food offering in hospitals through out the nation by getting food service directors to buy local organic produce, rBGH-free milk and antibiotic-free meat products. They are also working to get hospitals to offer farmers’ markets on hospital grounds. Kaiser Permanente, a non-profit hospital system, is now sponsoring over 23 farmers markets through out Oregon, California, Washington, and Hawaii. I suggest you check out the websites listed above to see how you can impact what food is being offered at your local hospital.

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Helfgott Blog: Exploring Natural Medicine

We Want YOU to to Think About Food

Posted: 14 Feb 2008 01:44 PM CST

Food. Food is a big one. We all need it, we all eat it, and we all have our opinions about it. I love talking about food. Here’s some information about how you can begin eat locally and support your health and your community.

Food and diet is a big topic in naturopathic and Chinese medicine. That old phrase ‘we are what we eat’ is the truth. My family has always been committed to eating organic food as much as possible. To me, organic food is a no-brainer. I simply do not want to ingest chemicals in any way, if I can help it. Now, I am not perfect. I love a box of Red Vines at the movies, and there are plenty of ways to eat sugar and still eat organic. Until recently, however, I have not always been really aware of eating locally. I always just thought that if it was organic, then it must be good.

There is another layer to this discussion, and that is the idea of eating locally. This means to eat food that is grown organically by local farms; starting with food that is grown in the same country, better yet, the same state, or food that has been grown and raised in your own garden. One of the reasons for this is to take into account how far and how much gas it took to get that food to your kitchen table. The fuel costs to drive food everywhere is astronomical. If that banana (which I really like to have in my smoothies in the morning) comes from somewhere tropical, then it had to be driven to me from somewhere far away from Portland. From somewhere I would love to be as we enter into February in the Pacific Northwest. Avocados are a big one as well. Those do not grow here in Portland in February either.

I was really excited to read Barbara Kingsolver’s book Animal, Vegetable, Miracle about how her family took on a food challenge: to live a year in which they vowed to only consume food raised in their own neighborhood, grown by themselves, or otherwise learned to live without it. All along the way, their 19 year-old daughter gives little vignettes with food planning menus and recipes, while also talking about her experience with the project. As the book cover says:

“Their good humored search yields surprising discoveries about turkey sex-life and overly zealous zucchini plants, en route to a food culture that’s better for the neighborhood and also better for the tableâ€.

This book made me further examine my own relationship with food, in an amazingly simple way. What types of food are growing right now that I can eat? Growing my own food gives me so much pleasure. It also makes me more in touch with the seasons. I am aware of the seasons in the way the flowers and trees change. However, being able to buy anything at any time of year, despite growing my own food garden, I was still quite ignorant to the food growing seasons. Bananas in winter? No problem.

Now, back to those avocados: do I really need to eat them in the winter? They have definitely had to travel a long way to get to Portland, Oregon in the winter. Even though they are organic, they have still costs a lot of money to ship them up here. Can I get my monounsaturated fats and B-vitamins elsewhere? I know that those blueberries are not growing in my backyard so where did they come from? Is there a company making flour closer to me then where this one comes from?

Now I ask myself: “how far did this have to come to get to my table?†The goal is: the closer it came from, the better.

Farmer’s market’s are popping up all over this country, so there is no excuse for people not to get in their cars, or better yet, get on their bike, or ride the bus and go to one (click here to learn more about farmer’s markets in your neck of the woods). The food is local, the people are growing it, so the money is going right back into the pockets of the people who grew it. Eating locally is cheaper as well. The cost of transportation is huge, and only getting bigger with increase gas prices. Thus, things can cost less if they are less expensive to get to your table.

Winter is hard for food choices; there is not as much variety. As I mention before, I am not perfect. I still buy bananas for my smoothies. I try to buy them a lot less, and also be grateful and aware that they have come so far for me to enjoy them. I also try to keep my out of season foods intake to a minimum and keep in balance with eating foods that are readily available this time of year. In other words, I eating all the root veggies and collard greens, I can get my hands on.

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To learn some more about local farmers and co-ops, take a look at these successful organizations and checkout how they have interlaced themselves into the community. If you’re into vegetable gardening, perhaps with the help of others, your fruit stand could feed others! Organize and revolutionize the way we work with food!

The Genesee Valley Organic Community Supported Agriculture

New Seasons Market

People’s Co-Op

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