Clinical Nutrition
Wellness Through Holistic Nutrition Vancouver
Often overlooked as insignificant, diet and lifestyle play a foundational role in wellness and recovery from disease. For a Naturopathic Doctor, as with a holistic nutritionist, food is medicine and not overlooked. For us, clinical nutrition is placed at the heart of health. It is the targeted application of food to alter health: what we put into our bodies results in what we get out.
Vancouver Naturopaths have…
… 4 years of training in the use of clinical nutrition to treat disease and support optimal health. In addition to studying the scientific basis for dietary recommendations, Naturopathic Doctors also have a keen understanding of the biochemistry of nutrition in order to develop holistic nutrition protocols that support wellness, disease prevention, and recovery from chronic illness.
The most current research shows that proper nutrition is not only essential for your quality of life, but it can help correct imbalances in the body thereby supporting your health for the long-term. And the best part? Holistic nutrition Vancouver is 100% natural and the side effect is better health!
What is a Holistic Approach to Nutrition?
A foundational tenet of Naturopathic Medicine is to treat the whole person: tolle totum. From our lens, you need to be treated as an integrated whole to become truly well: body, mind and spirit.
At DCIM, our naturopaths in Vancouver understand that our relationship to food is at the core of our nutrition. Emotions, culture, family environments, and how we feel about ourselves (amongst other things), all shape our food relationship and the choices we then make. Thus, there is no “right” diet, but rather a diet that is “right for you”. When you work with a naturopath in Vancouver at Doctors’ Choice Integrative, nutrition protocols are designed uniquely and holistically for the whole of you: body, mind and spirit. We invite you to join us at the table – and together we’ll craft a meal experience that you are truly passionate about!
The Role of Digestive Health
in Clinical Nutrition
In our western medical model, we don’t tend to focus much on our digestive systems, despite their doing so much for us. Believe it or not, our digestive system contributes to every component of our health. And this is precisely why our Vancouver naturopaths take bowel health so seriously!
Expressed simply, our gastrointestinal system is home to a huge component of our microbiome – the collection of microorganisms that live in us and on us (and although surprising, there are many more of them, than there are cells of us!) These wee critters play an invaluable role in immune function, nutrient digestion / production / absorption, hormone pathways, mood balance, inflammation and oh so much more!
Over the past several years, research has exploded on the role of the microbiome in health and disease. Given this, a balanced gut microbiome is considered by our Naturopathic Doctors to be foundational to your overall well being. Thus, it is not long into a conversation with us, that we investigate the health of your digestive piping!
How can Clinical and
Holistic Nutrition in Vancouver
help me address my health concerns?
At our Vancouver Naturopathic Clinic, we provide an individualized treatment plan just for you. At its core, this involves crafting a clinical and holistic nutrition roadmap for you that is based upon your medical history, relevant diagnostic testing and your personal relationship with food.
Our naturopaths in Vancouver will identify potential dietary triggers that may be compromising your health or exacerbating current conditions. They will work alongside you to eliminate these triggers from your diet, while guiding you in adding delectably nutritious ingredients to your plate. As true foodies, our goal is to inspire you to create medicine meals you are as passionate about as we are!
Full disclosure: at Doctors’ Choice Integrative, we’ve all been there. We respect that nutritional changes are not always easy. And so we have some tools that can be added to support you in making these difficult shifts. These tools include:
- Digestive supports such as probiotics, digestive enzymes and / or fiber;
- Superfoods, like medicinal mushroom blends or antioxidants that can be easily mixed into a quick drink;
- Specific vitamins or minerals in supplemental form if you are deficient, or digestive absorption is an area of concern for you;
- Botanical medicines (another great source of nutrients!) in the form of teas or tinctures to support your overall nutritional profile;
- Homeopathic medicines or acupuncture to aid in the digestive and absorptive processes;
- An expertise in the interactions between pharmaceutical medications, dietary nutrients, nutraceutical supplementation and botanical medicines to ensure that your treatment plan is safe and healthful for you!
As Naturopathic Doctors in Vancouver, our tool kit for health is vast. And we are so grateful for this, because as different as each human is, so is their care and treatment plan with us.
What are the key benefits of
Holistic Nutrition Vancouver?
Working from the premise that food is medicine, eating the right diet for you is foundational to the work we do at our Vancouver Naturopathic Clinic. With their extensive training in clinical and holistic nutrition, combined with a deep understanding of pathophysiology and biochemistry, our Vancouver Naturopathic Doctors will help you to curate your plate so that meals become medicine. And when this happens, you are likely to experience a rapid and sustained improvement in your health. In fact, when our patients enjoy medicine meals regularly, they often report improvements in the following areas of their health:
- Decreased symptoms and in some cases, symptom resolution (for example: headaches, musculoskeletal pain, inflammation, skin disorders, mood imbalances, menstrual disturbances and more);
- Improvements in chronic illness such as heart disease and diabetes;
- A sustained reduction in environmental allergies and food sensitivities;
- Increased energy levels;
- Improved sleep patterns;
- Greater mental clarity and emotional stability (less mood swings or depression);
- Weight loss or maintenance of a healthy weight;
- Improved skin, hair and nails;
- Relief from menstrual disorders;
- Improved digestive function (including more comfortable and more regular bowel habits, as well as a decreased tendency towards diarrhea, constipation, gas, bloating, heartburn and reflux).
