Naturopathic Therapies offered at TruMed

How our Naturopaths treat a wide-range of conditions

Naturopathic doctors are trained in many therapies

We have four Naturopaths on staff with a diverse range of natural medicine training

TruMed clinic offers Naturopathic treatments for range of health concerns

Our Nurse Practitioner offers our patients a full array of Hormone Replacement Therapy

Orthomolecular Nutrition

Our Naturopathic Doctors use a ton of Orthomolecular Medicine to treat patients in our Edmonton practice.

Orthomolecular nutritional treatment is a fundamental part of practicing good functional medicine.

With Orthomolecular medicine we treat medical issues by providing the optimum molecular environment in body, especially the optimum concentrations of nutrients needed for optimal body function.

The optimum concentrations of particular nutrients may differ from the concentrations of those same nutrients that are normally present in the body. As such, our Naturopathic Doctors make use of a lot of high dose vitamin and mineral therapies.

At our Edmonton clinic, we not only do this orally but our Naturopaths also do Orthomolecular medicine intravenously with IV Vitamin Therapy. 

Why use Orthomolecular medicine?

Reason #1: Nutrient Deficient Foods

As we all know, our standard North American diet often contains large amounts of nutrient-depleted foods like refined sugar and white flour.

Furthermore, we've seen a decrease in the nutrient content of foods as well.

The bottom line is many people are consuming less nutrients than their ancestors did and we're deficient!

This translates into statistics such as 50% of the US population is suggested to be Magnesium deficient.

Magnesium is just a cofactor in about 300 enzymatic processes in the body. . .no big deal!!

So our Naturopathic Doctors take nutrient deficiencies in our Edmonton patients seriously and always consider nutrition as a fundamental part of Naturopathic treatment! 

Reason #2: Absorption issues

Nutrient malabsorption is of course seen in people with digestive tract issues like small intestinal bacterial overgrowth, low stomach acid, as well as diseases like Celiac, Crohn's and Ulcerative Colitis.

Basically, if you're experiencing any gut issues they can potentially interfere with your ability to absorb nutrients (from foods that are already low in nutrients).

Even worse is that there are hereditary absorption defects for some nutrients like folic acid, biotin, zinc, and magnesium.

As Naturopathic Doctors we try and connect what's occurring in your gut with what's happening around your body and treat accordingly.  

Reason #3: Drug Induced Nutrient Depletions

Common medications like proton pump inhibitors (for acid reflux) can further impair absorption of key nutrients like B12, Vitamin C, Iron, Calcium and Magnesium.

The lists of what common medications do to your nutrient levels are staggering.

ACE Inhibitors, numerous Antibiotics, Betablockers, Oral Contraceptives, Diuretics, Steroids, Statins and Metformin are all common drugs that cause nutrients issues.

Your Naturopath at TruMed will review your medications and will help you decide if they might be contributing to your issues!

An essential part of successful Naturopathic treatment is taking into consideration other treatments (like medications) that might be impacting your health!  

Functional Medicine

Functional medicine treatments let our Naturopathic Doctors look at the individual body systems and how they connect together to create health or disease.

Fundamentally, we look at disease by looking at the endpoints and understanding that there are multiple paths that have the same endpoint.

Whereas conventional medicine is always looking for a singular cause to a disease and dealing with the endpoint if fails to acknowledge that one disease can have numerous triggers.

For example, when our Naturopaths see MS patients at our Naturopathic Clinic, we know that all MS patients have the endpoint of immune system induced demyelination (loss of insulation around the nerves and subsequent neurological dysfunction).

Conventional medicine will avoid addressing what caused the immune system misbehaviour and focus on controlling or suppressing the immune system.

However, your Naturopathic Doctor using Functional Medicine treatments will understand that there are multiple causes to the immune system issues and try and address that by looking at your individual systems.

We'll dive into diet, gut function, toxicities and infections to understand why a given individual developed MS and how we can slow or stop that process for that person.

It's a very patient-centered approach, looking at the whole person as an individual, not just a named disease with a set of symptoms that need to be dealt with.

To find the causes of concerns, your Naturopathic Doctor at TruMed will use cutting edge laboratory testing, suggest herbal medicines, supplements, hormones and other Naturopathic treatments and even refer for some medications as well as individualized diets and nutrient IV prescriptions.

Most importantly, our Naturopathic Doctors take the time to understand your unique needs in order to implement the best natural treatments.

Botanicals

Not surprisingly, our Naturopathic Doctors love to use herbal medicine and botanicals as treatments in our Edmonton patients. All of the Naturopaths at TruMed have some serious Botanical Medicine training.

Efficacy

Many herbal medicines have been evaluated in controlled trials to show therapeutic benefit that often mirrors their historical uses.

Naturopaths at TruMed will often suggest herbal treatments based off of effects seen in clinical trials.

For example, we often suggest herbal treatment of SIBO (small intestinal bacterial overgrowth) as herbals have been shown to be as effective as antibiotics for this condition (see the Clinical Trial here).

Another example, is the use of Rhodiola for mental health, numerous trials including one study in 2015 have shown Rhodiola effective for anxiety and stress.

The reality is that our Naturopaths can give solid evidence backed rationale to support many of our herbal recommendations. 

Standardization

Herbs are complex substances with up to hundreds of chemical constituents.

Many herbal products that our Naturopathic Doctors use are standardized to contain a specified amount of one or two constituents thought to be the active ingredients for the herb.

To come back to an example given earlier, our Rhodiola is always standardized: 3% rosavins and 1% salidroside.

We try and use standardized preparations when we can to ensure a consistent, clinically effective dose every time.

It allows our Naturopaths to consistently make the type of specific treatment recommendations you come to expect from a health professional. 

Safety

Although they are not completely free from the possibility of toxicity or adverse effects, it's clearly recognized that herbal medicine treatments are widely considered to be of lower risk compared with conventional drugs.

Our Naturopathic Doctors at TruMed have been using herbal medicines in Edmonton for over 13 years and have seen an extremely low incidence of adverse effects and side effects.

If side effects do occur from herbal medicines, the severity is usually low and short lived upon discontinuation. There are some traditionally toxic herbs in herbal medicine which our Naturopaths don't use at TruMed.

As mentioned, our Naturopathic Doctor typically recommend standardized herbs so that we can recommend specific safe amounts of herbal preparations.

Herb-drug interactions are possible but our Naturopathic Doctors use herbal-drug interaction checks to make sure that combinations we suggest are safe with your existing medications. 

We stick with well researched, well known western herbal medicines with established uses, indications and known adverse reactions.

In summary, we tend to use herbs as treatments because of a few main reasons: Efficacy, Safety & Standardization.

Supplements

We've already discussed Orthomolecular nutrition which touches on our use of Vitamins and Minerals as Naturopathic treatments.

So this area is really referring to when our Naturopaths suggest supplementation of natural extracts and derivatives such as anti-oxidants, biochemical intermediates and amino-acids as treatments for our patients.

The natural extracts are typically plant or food based and can include things like EGCG from Green Tea, Resveratrol from Grapes, Quercetin from red apples and red onions and Curcumin from Turmeric.

These natural derivatives are extremely versatile and have a diverse range of actions for a multitude of conditions.

They are always carefully measured and the preparations we suggest are standardized so that we can achieve precise dosing for numerous conditions. 

Other than herbal and food extracts, we also use biochemical intermediates as Naturopathic treatments in our patients. Some examples include: CoQ10, Alpha Lipoic Acid, Carnitine, Melatonin and NAD+ or NADH.

Our Naturopathic doctors use these intermediates as treatments to alter body biochemistry by adding in substrates used in various biochemical reactions in the body.

We can encourage various physiological pathways in the body by using the exact substrates your body needs to function properly.

Lastly, our Naturopathic Doctors make use of various amino acids, one of which we've already mentioned - Carnitine and of course there is considerable overlap between the two groups.

Some examples of the common amino acids we use: Cysteine (as N-Acetyl-Cysteine), Arginine, Taurine, Tryptophan or 5-Hydroxytryptophan, Tyrosine and Glutamine.

Once again we use amino acids as natural treatments to alter body biochemistry and provide additional substrate for production of hormones in some cases.

With any of the substances mentioned our Naturopathic Doctors are able to dose each and everyone of the substances mentioned precisely to affect many different clinical conditions.

The bottom line is that biochemical intermediates and amino acids are substances that our body already uses and are essential components of our inherited biochemistry which is a fundamental reason why these treatments can work so well. 

Dietary Changes 

Dietary changes can be an extremely impactful treatment for a range of conditions.

Although, dietary changes should be individualized for each patient, but certain basic principles apply to most of our patients.

Our Naturopaths of course always emphasize a wide variety of whole foods hopefully grown without the use of pesticides.

Unsurprisingly, a good diet generally includes lots of fresh fruits and vegetables. Animal foods such as game and other ruminants, fish, and poultry should be emphasized and hopefully wild caught or organic or free from antibiotics but we still need more specific personalization of diets for our patients. 

Specific dietary treatment strategies our Naturopaths commonly work with do provide some personalization: Low Carb, Ketogenic, Low FODMAP, Hypoallergenic, Low Oxalate, AIP, Low Lectin, Carnivore, Swank and Fasting/Intermittent fasting.

In our experience (and that of many others) hidden food allergy is one of the most common causes of a wide range of symptoms and health issues.

"According to one estimate, as much as 60% of the population suffers from undetected food allergy."

Our Naturopathic Doctors run a ton of Food Allergy & Food Sensitivity testing at our Edmonton office because it gets results!

Our Naturopaths have experienced successful resolution of many chronic health problems in our Edmonton patients that have often failed to respond to conventional treatments with Food Sensitivity or Food Allergy Testing. 

It could be argued that the the failure of medical doctors to acknowledge the importance of hidden food allergies and sensitivities is probably responsible for millions of less than optimal clinical outcomes.

Patients can be put on a food exclusion diet which has been the "gold standard" for detection of problematic foods but often find that our patients have issues with compliance with long term hypoallergenic diets.

Secondly, sometimes foods considered hypoallergenic can be found to be allergenic in some patients which is easily detected with testing.

So our Naturopaths usually elect for testing to treat most of our Edmonton patients if it's cost feasible as testing can be costly. 

At our clinic our Naturopathic Doctors are most commonly running either Food Allergy or Food Sensitivity Testing in our Edmonton patients.

IV Therapy

The Naturopathic Doctors at TruMed love IV Therapy treatments.

We've seen more rapid and dramatic results in our Edmonton patients with treatments of IV nutrients than with any other available treatment modality.

What makes IV Therapy so kick ass? Lots of reasons!

Intravenous Vitamin and Mineral treatments can achieve blood concentrations that are simply not possible with oral administration.

Blood concentrations attained through IV administration allow certain nutrients to exert pharmacological effects (effects that are beyond their standard roles in body bio-chemistry like a direct anti-viral effect exerted by Vitamin C).

Some nutrients are present at much higher concentrations in cells than in serum and an active-transport system that continually pumps a given nutrient into cells (against the concentration gradient which naturally would exist the cell from an area of high concentration to low concentration - the serum). 

Intravenous administration of nutrients, can provide a situation where uptake of nutrients (via active transport) occurs against a smaller concentration gradient (less of a difference between extracellular and intracellular nutrient levels).

With IV Therapy our Naturopathic Doctors can provide precise treatment with key nutrients needed for body biochemistry which in many instances also exert unique pharmacologic effects because of the high doses achieved with IV Therapy.

We've seen outstanding results in many patients for energy and mood and cognitive function with simple administration of a spread of B Vitamins and a few key minerals.

We are also able to give nutritional extracts already mentioned like Curcumin or Quercetin at our Edmonton clinic as well as numerous amino acids like carnitine, taurine and tryptophan.

Our Naturopaths can also give endogenously produced anti-oxidants such as Alpha Lipoic Acid and everyone's favorite Glutathione.

Effects with IV Therapy treatment are rapid: we can see effects within minutes in some patients and most commonly within 24 hours.

We have a ton of experience with IV Therapy treatments: we've administered over 13 000 IV treatments (and counting).

Many of our IV Therapy treatments have mechanistic synergy with Hyperbaric Oxygen Therapy. 

Hyperbaric Oxygen Therapy

Our Naturopaths added Hyperbaric Chambers to our Edmonton office in 2020: two state-of-the-art Hyperbaric Monoplace Chambers with full body 100% oxygen pressurization.

With pressures provided by hospital grade Hyperbaric Chambers, we can increase the oxygen in the plasma up to 15x their normal levels and dramatically increase the oxygen content in tissues and even areas and wounds that have poor blood supply. 

Hyperbaric treatment has a range of amazing physiological effects.

For instance, with regards to injury, the increased oxygen supply meets the increased oxygen needs of a healing wound and hyperbaric pressurization increases collagen and new blood vessel formation.

Hyperbaric oxygen can improve the function of neurons rendered inactive by hypoxia (low oxygen) in brain injury.

Hyperbaric pressurization can offset the Warburg effect in cancer cells and can potentially be used as an adjunct in the metabolic treatment of cancer which our Naturopaths use in alternative cancer care. 

If you want a detailed dive into Hyperbaric Oxygen Therapy visit: hyperbarictreatment.ca

Hyperbaric Oxygen is synergistic with IV NAD+, IV Vitamin C and the IV Vitamin Drips our Naturopathic doctors offer at our Edmonton office. 

Prolotherapy

Our clinic started offering Edmonton Prolotherapy -"Prolo" in 2022 for pain management.

Prolotherapy is an in-office injection that helps rehabilitate damaged structures - ligaments, tendons and cartilaginous tissues that are often the cause for chronic joint pain.

Prolotherapy - is where a dextrose based solution is injected into an affected tissue or joint.

The dextrose causes local irritation and mild inflammation which then stimulates blood flow and consequent tissue healing is thought to occur after.

Commonly used for: knee, toe, elbow and finger arthritis as well as "overuse" tendon issues such as tennis elbow, rotator cuff and achilles tendinopathy.

Prolotherapy is also effective in plantar fasciitis and hip adductor tendon issues. 

Treatment with prolotherapy typically consists of injections one to six weeks apart over several months.

Prolotherapy is a true Naturopathic therapy in that it stimulates the body's inherent healing processes.

Hormone & Testosterone Replacement

TruMed proudly offers Edmonton  Bioidentical Hormone Replacement Therapy (BHRT) & Testosterone Replacement Therapy (TRT)

Hormone levels tend of change and decline with age until their production sharply drops (andropause and menopause) which can then result in a range of "low hormone" symptoms.

Symptoms may include fatigue, loss of libido, hot flashes, weight gain, muscle loss as well as altered memory and mood.

Bioidentical Hormone Replacement Therapy allows for restoration of hormones to their more "youthful levels." 

Bioidentical hormones refers to sex hormones, such as Estrogen and Progesterone that have the same chemical and molecular structure hormones produced in the body. 

We also work with a wide array of Thyroid Replacement options.

In our experience, Bioidentical Hormone & Testosterone Replacement can be an absolute "game changer" for issues such as menopause or fatigue.

Melisse Smith, our Nurse Practitioner, offers the BHRT options and TRT at TruMed.

We began offering this to make sure our Edmonton patients have all available hormone modulating options for a completely comprehensive alternative approach to patient care.

Before Hormone Replacement - we always run comprehensive hormone testing to make sure you are a candidate for this treatment.