Nutritional Prescriptions.

Last week I commented that I've been learning "life changing stuff" in my Clinical Nutrition class. I really have. I feel that this class (out of all my second year classes) has best equipped me with tools needed to treat real patients with real conditions. This class is also the most motivating in the sense that I end each class very empowered, proud to be studying naturopathic medicine, and more confident that I'll be able to (one day) change patients' lives.

Even though I am so excited about this course material, I oddly enough feel like I can't share what I am learning on my blog. We've learned a lot of treatment protocols and nutritional prescriptions that I don't feel comfortable highlighting on the blog for fear that someone might apply the material to themselves without the guidance of a health professional. Supplements (and even some foods) are powerful tools to be used to achieve wellness, but when used the wrong way or without support, they can also be very harmful. So sorry to leave you hanging, dear readers, but you'll have to wait until I am in practice to learn the amazingness of nutritional supplements and prescription foods.

Isn't it crazy that you can buy iron tablets and vitamin A drops at any old drug store or grocery store. These are not benign candy but are health-altering (for better or for worse) substances! After what I've been learning in my Nutrition, Botanical Medicine, Pharmacology, and Physiology classes, I'm surprised that some foods don't come with warning labels (I'm looking at you grapefruit and parsley... but there are many others seemingly healthy foods that in some cases are dangerous, and then there are the obvious health-harming foods that you can buy willy-nilly like MSG, hydrogenated margarine, cola, etc).

It's actually pretty crazy that most people don't realize the power that food, vitamins, and minerals, can have on the body. Eating 12 almonds a day really can't lower my bad cholesterol, but this plastic, little white pill sure can! How is that we can trust these foreign and synthetic drugs to cure us, yet be suspicious of the fruits of the Earth? Why do people look at me funny when I say that herbs can heal when the majority of pharmaceutical drugs are nothing more then replicas/synthetic versions of natural plants? It boggles my mind. What caused this shift and how can I reverse it?

By being a good Naturopathic Doctor, that's how. I dream of the day that I can help heal patients with nutritional prescriptions ("eat this, this, and this, all call me in the morning!") and maybe a supplement or two (how about some melatonin for that insomnia you've been battling as of late?). And once I help them, that hopefully these patients will begin to believe in the healing properties of nature.

Image source here.