More info on my Naturopathic visit

I've had questions and comments on this post so I wanted to give some more information and an update on things. During the one hour + visit, the doctor said that nothing stuck out to her as far as the cause of the acne. But she did have some things that she wanted me to do to see if there were any changes. These things were mostly things she came up with for another issue I spoke to her about (irregular cycles). She said the two are linked so she is treating the cause of the irregular cycles to see how it affects the acne.

1. Take a good multivitamin (the ones you get from the natural grocery stores) in addition to extra Zinc, Vitamin C with Rosehips, Vitamin B Complex, and Vitamin E supplements.
2. Take Milk Thistle (a liver cleansing herb). Note - I had tried Burdock Root with a slightly negative side affect, so she recommended Milk Thistle instead.
3. Do a Castor Oil pack 1 to 3 times a week (DO NOT put castor oil in the washing machine).
4. Eat as many bitter greens as I can (liver cleansing).
5. Eat as many Omega Fatty Acids as possible (for skin).
6. Take Chaste Tree herb for hormone regulation (specifically for irregular cycles).

Because of all the traveling we've been doing, it's been a little difficult to do these things consistently.

One huge thing that I didn't mention before was that she requested a hormone test for me - a full panel. Now, I have been to three different doctors since we started trying to conceive a few years ago and while I was pregnant with Eliana - not to mention that I had extreme issues when I was in high school that should have warranted a hormone test - and NONE of these doctors ever so much a suggested a hormone test. They just prescribed birth control pills or Clomid. How crazy is that?!? The results came back and my hormones are way out of balance!

Here's the update. I've been doing these things as much as I can and there hasn't been too much change so far. The only thing that I could see an immediate result with is the Chaste Tree. I think it would take more than a month of half-doing what she prescribed, though, to see results. I go in for a follow up next Friday. I will be talking with her about my hormone test results during that visit.

Recycle your old clothing

My husband, Jimbo, recently purchased a new uniform wardrobe for work. All his old uniforms were getting too worn to wear to work, but everything is still very usable. He tossed everything into the trash!! What?! I rescued it all in hopes that I could find somewhere in the area collects old clothing for recycling. After a little research I found these two links that I wanted to share:

Recycling Worn Out Clothing (an article about recycling clothing)

Goodwill Clothes Recycling (a short video documenting what Goodwill does with unsold and unsellable donated clothing)

Enjoy and be green!

Homeopathic adventures

Ok, so Eliana is finally starting to play a little more independently throughout the day and I am starting to feel like I have some free time! So back to blogging.

I came across a card at Ellie's gym for a pediatrician that is board certified, but practices homeopathy in addition to conventional medicine. I was thrilled! I would so much rather go more natural in our medical treatments if I can. I scheduled a "meet the doctor" appointment to talk to her about the possibility of becoming a network provider for our insurance. She was awesome - and said it would be no problem. In the meantime, she told me I could email her with any treatment questions I have.

Several weeks ago, Eliana started showing signs of a cold or respiratory infection coming on. I emailed the doctor to find out what homeopathic remedies she suggested for this. Elderberry and Echinacea syrup and Rose Hips tea was her response. We followed the treatment and the symptoms never developed into anything worse, and they only lasted about three days.

This past week, she started showing signs of another cold coming on (and two of our friends that she had recently interacted with had gotten colds) so we started treatment again. Since we are going on vacation in a few days, I also started treatment. We've had mild-ish symptoms for a couple of days, but are not feeling nearly as bad as we did last year when we got colds. I'm a believer in natural treatments over treating the symptoms with chemical-filled cold medicine and pain relievers!

More about Echinacea
More about Elderberry

Those of you who know me well know that I have struggled with adult acne for several years. I have tried everything to treat it from store treatments to dermatologist prescriptions to Proactive to Murad to nothing. Nothing has worked - it's very frustrating and very embarrassing.

I decided to finally schedule an appointment with a Naturopathic doctor to see what she suggested. The appointment was very in depth and lasted for over an hour. She asked question after question about my medical history and my emotional state. She came up with a treatment plan that I am working on now. I know many are curious and tentative about visiting a doctor that practices homeopathic and naturopathic medicine, so I will let you know later what the treatments were and how they worked out.

Top produce to buy organic

I know, it's been so long since I last posted. Eliana and I took a two week Spring Break to Alabama that turned into four weeks!! It was so nice!! I wanted to post something great for Earth Day, but unfortunately I was traveling back home that day. I hope to make up for that over the next few weeks now that I am refreshed and ready to get into some blogging and other projects.

I hope everyone had a very green Earth Day! Did anyone make any new green-olutions that they'd like to share? I was disappointed that I couldn't be home to watch all the great "green" shows on Discovery and HGTV, but I did get them recorded so I could watch them later and share some tips with you.

I want to start with one tip that I find helpful when trying to eat organic. It gets so overwhelming when trying to find organic food products and produce. I often feel guilty for eating something that isn't organic... or worse, feeding it to Eliana! I was watching the Earth Day episode of Get Fresh with Sara Snow "Top Earth Tips." There was a doctor on there talking about the pesticides and fertilizers in non-organic produce being linked to cancer, ADHD, and other illnesses in adults and children. His wife had cancer and started eating organically and detoxed and got better!

The doctor suggested trying to eat organic whenever possible. At the very least, he gave a top 12 list that you should always eat organic:

1. Peaches
2. Strawberries
3. Apples
4. Spinach
5. Nectarines
6. Celery
7. Pears
8. Cherries
9. Potatoes
10. Bell Peppers
11. Raspberries
12. Grapes

You better believe we will be following this list in our household now. If it's not available organic, then we will just have to eat something else (which has been very hard this winter with grapes!!).