Dr. Mark and Dr. Chip's Healthy Blogs

What Causes High Blood Pressure?             There are many causes of high blood pressure. In the natural health world, we find this is very particular for the individual patient. Most of these problems come from bad diets that lend towards nutritional deficiencies, over eating refined carbohydrates which causes inflammation in the body-especially in the cardio vascular system, lifestyles that include high amounts of stress and anxiety, and even overuse of over-the-counter medications. Some sources will talk about genetics being a factor but we look at the science of epigenetics’ as a cause, again diet and lifestyle turning on certain genes.             The important factor to remember when treating high blood pressure is to get to the cause, not just treat it with a medication. Medications are great for short-term prevention of further problems like stroke, but do nothi...

15 Powerful Ways To Fight A Sugar Addiction   1.      Eliminate processed foods -Sugars are added to processed foods to enhance their flavor. Even the ones that you wouldn’t expect to be a sugar snack are often loaded with it. Make sure to read the labels and try to eliminate all processed and junk food from your diet.   2.      Eat regularly -If you wait too long in between meals your blood sugar drops and you are more likely to binge on sugary, fatty foods to satisfy your hunger. Opt for 3 healthy meals and 2 snacks or 5 smaller meals at regular time intervals. Choose fresh, whole foods high in protein and fiber like whole grains, seeds, nuts, fruit, and veggies.   3.      Fruit and Veggie Detox -When you feel up for it, do a whole food fruit and veggie detox. Eliminating all sugars for 5 to 10 days often decreases the need for sugar and will stop sugar cravings.   4. ...

Why am I so tired?             Tiredness can be interpreted many ways and is a symptom of the bodies underlying problems of energy production, or lack thereof.   In the natural healing world, we look to find the cause of that particular person’s tiredness or fatigue. There can be many causes and we work with the principal that anything can cause anything. It is so important to find the underlying cause as just using products to force the body to have more energy can actually cause more problems and deepen the condition and lead to worse disease processes.   We are always going to look at diet and lifestyle and try to improve those to reduce the stress that the body is under which gives the body more energy far living well. Several common causes of tiredness and fatigue that we see in our office would include an underactive thyroid, heavy metal toxicity, underlying infectious processes that the body can’t comple...

Quick Cleanse Program             At Natural Health, all of our nutrition patients are on a detox program that’s meant to work slowly over a longer timeframe to keep from having any unwanted symptoms or side effects that are uncomfortable for the patient. This is important for those who work all day and have plenty of other stresses in their lives and need no more. Normally if the patient is doing the normal diet recommendations we give, ie – a salad a day and as much vegetables as they can get, and not eating refined carbs, they will detox completely and easily. This hand out is for those folks that have “fallen off the wagon” for some reason, perhaps a bad weekend or a vacation, or just feeling blah, and want to clean the tube out and restart our dietary recommendations more closely.             Standard Process has a 21 day program called the Purification Program th...