Low Dose Naltrexone (LDN) is one of the few allopathic medicines that seems to be rather popular in functional medicine circles.
I have heard of people taking it for interstitial cystitis and therefore wanted to investigate the why and how it could be used and whether its use makes sense for this condition.
Stress is a major trigger of digestive issues for me. When I talk to chronically ill people, and especially my clients with chronic bladder problems, stress is almost always one of the main triggers of their symptoms.
I’ve written about stress in the past, so I won’t go into great detail in today’s post. To briefly summarize it, stress is such an issue because our body’s stress response is not adapted to the type of constant stressors we are subjected to in our modern world.
Chronic stress can have a range of consequences, including: reduced digestive juices, reduced immunity, muscle tension, high blood pressure – the list goes on…
While we can’t always change the source of stress, we can support the body dealing with stress better with stress management techniques.
Are you chronically ill and have been told that it’s genetic and there’s nothing you can do? Do you, like most people, believe that your genes are your destiny and there is simply nothing we can do to change this?
While these beliefs still seem to be prevalent, research has shown that this is not strictly the case.
Sure, our genetic sequence cannot be changed but the truth is that gene expression can indeed be influenced by our environment, which includes the diet we eat and the lifestyle behaviours we engage in.
This knowledge gives hope that we do actually have some power over our genetic destiny.
I am a fan of functional medicine and have recently become a functional nutrition practitioner. Therefore, I believe it is important to discover the root causes of our health issues in order to help us determine an appropriate course of action.
Functional lab testing is one of the ways that can help us do this.
I often use a hair tissue mineral analysis (HTMA) test as a cheap way of getting an idea of my client’s main mineral levels in the body.
One pattern that I often see is a high calcium level, along with lowered magnesium (as well as potassium and boron). I personally also had this pattern.
Not everyone with this pattern has bladder issues, but I do believe that high calcium levels together with lowered magnesium might contribute to them.
Unrecognized sexually transmitted diseases (STDs) such as Chlamydia or Trichomonas Vaginalis may share similar symptoms to cystitis and could also be a co-factor in bladder problems.
Kimberly’s story is one example where a chlamydia infection played a role in worsening her bladder symptoms.
If you haven’t been tested for STDs but are suffering from bladder issues, it may be a good idea to get this checked out.
Welcome back to ‘Tried and Tested’, my series where I share my experience playing guinea pig with various ‘alternative’ health ‘treatments’.
This week I’m sharing my experience with the ‘Amazing Liver and Gallbladder Flush’. Sounds a bit whacky – well, in my experience it probably is!
The idea behind the flush is to release any stones that may be stuck in the gallbladder, thereby improving digestion and detoxification and leading to greater well-being.
But my own experience had nothing to do with well-being…
Many chronic lower urinary tract symptoms (LUTS) may actually be associated with undetected chronic infections [1]. Testing is still based on the assumption that the bladder is sterile (and it’s not!) – I have written about the problems with gold standard urine testing in the past.
Today I would like to give you a list of some alternatives to standard urine testing.
Hippocrates already said over 2000 years ago that ‘all disease begins in the gut’. Today, we’re understanding more and more how right he was.
For me personally, gut issues preceded the onset of chronic cystitis and interstitial cystitis. When my gut was at its worst, so was my bladder. I have no doubt that, similarly to many other conditions, the gut is implicated in bladder problems.
It’s been a very busy past 2 years: besides starting this Blog and working full-time I have also been studying to become a Nutritional Therapist with the goal of opening my own practice at some point.
I’m happy to announce that the hard work has paid off and that I can now call myself a Nutritional Therapist and am able to offer 1-on-1 consultations. I have been busy these past few weeks setting up my practice (so apologies for the lack of new posts!).
My own experience with chronic urinary problems, as well as the research I have done for this blog has inspired me to specialize in bladder health.