With the birth of our first child due in August, birthing issues are very much at the forefront of my mind these days. I would like to share some of the amazing information that I've come across that speaks to my innate knowledge as a woman of how childbirth should be. I have worked in a hospital for many years and been present at many hospital births. They are not a pleasant or spiritual experience. Birth is a completely natural process and one which our bodies are specifically designed for. Why then has it become a medical emergency requiring a team of doctors and nurses and monitors and blood tests and technology? All of this only contributes to the stress of the birth which increases adrenaline and slows and prolongs labour. I've seen horses, cows and cats all give birth with no assistance, no drugs, and what appears to be very little discomfort. Their offspring are on their feet and feeding on their own in no time. These animals are all mammals just like us, why should our births be so much more difficult, more dangerous and the birth so much more traumatic to our offspring?

I suggest you read, research, question and keep an open mind to all the possibilities when you are thinking about giving birth to your own babies. We all want the best of everything for our children, why not start with the best birth experience possible? Research shows that a home birth with a midwife is far safer and much better for all concerned, so much so that the World Health Organization is encouraging the United States to return to midwife supervised births. Check out the link below, also check out www. gentlebirth.org for lots more information on the facts and fallacies of childbirth.

Pamela Frank, BSc (Hons), Licensed Naturopathic Doctor
Forces of Nature Naturopathic Clinic
2443 1/2 Yonge St. Toronto ON Canada M4P 2E7
www.ForcesofNature.ca

href="http://gentlebirth.org/nwnm.org/Out_of_the_Womb.htm">Out of the Womb, into the Fire

Common Sense and Medicine

When it comes to health and common sense the two seem to be mutually exclusive. The very first rule of medicine is "first do no harm". Yet every prescription medication comes with a long list of "side effects" a nicer word for the problems you are going to have from taking this medicine. Despite all these negative effects, people continue to take these things, often combining three or more of them. Even though most prescriptions only work about 40-60% of the time and then most often by masking the underlying disease condtion, rather than addressing it. This "bandaid solution" (an oxymoron) dissuades people from pursuing more common sense, safer and more effective natural treatments such as a truly healthy diet, healthy lifestyle, herbs, vitamins, acupuncture and homeopathy.
Here's a quote:
"drug-related morbidity (illness) and mortality are common and are estimated to cost more than $136 billion per year" in the US. (American Family Physician, 1997, Nov 1:56(7):1781-8, 1791-2.)

Choose with common sense, choose safe and more effective.

Pamela Frank, BSc, Naturopathic Doctor
Forces of Nature Naturopathic Doctor
2443 1/2 Yonge St.
Toronto ON M4P 2E7
416.481.0222
www.ForcesofNature.ca

Don't Believe Everything You Read

Check out the source of the information, especially if the information pretains to health care issues and particularly if it is making derogatory allegations about natural medicine. Remember there are big bucks at stake for the pharmaceutical industry every time a single consumer turns his or her back on conventional drug treatment and chooses the healthier natural medicine route. It has become a mission for the drug cartel to discredit as many natural therapies as possible, even if it means rigging studies and disseminating misinformation. Take for instance a study on vitamin E, a viable alternative to cancer-causing statin drugs, that advises patients with heart disease to avoid vitamin E and other antioxidants. The study uses a low dose, synthetic vitamin E and then concludes that all vitamin E should be avoided. How about using natural, mixed tocopherols at a dose of at least 1200 IU per day like most naturopathic doctors recommend? And combine it with vitamin C since we know that the two work synergistically and how about also combining counselling patients on healthy diet and lifestyle changes. I challenge the pharmaceutical industry to conduct such a study and see what happens and publish the results. If there still is no benefit, then this is valuable information that we conscientious healthcare providers and consumers would welcome. Otherwise, we can do without your marketing propaganda discouraging people from seeking a viable alternative to your lucrative, cancer-causing statin drugs.

Pamela Frank, BSc, ND
Forces of Nature Naturopathic Clinic
2443 1/2 Yonge St.
Toronto ON M4P 2E7
www.ForcesofNature.ca
PFrankND@ForcesofNature.ca

The Four Letter "F" Word - FATS
In a society obsessed by looks and thinness, we have near epidemic levels of obesity. What are we doing so wrong? The answer - just about everything. For one, we deprive our bodies of the essential fatty acids that we need so much for healthy nervous system function, healthy hormone production and healthy skin. The result - food cravings and overeating as our bodies try to fill the void, obesity, acne, inflammatory conditions, attention deficit disorders, depression - the list goes on and on. We need fats for healthy survival but we need to get rid of the fried foods and baked goods and eat more fish and raw nuts and seeds. Be careful if you are supplementing with EFA's as most are either heavily contaminated with PCB's, lead, mercury and other pollutants or they are rancid.

Pamela Frank, BSc, Naturopathic Doctor
Forces of Nature Naturopathic Clinic
2443 1/2 Yonge St.
Toronto ON M4P 2E7
416.481.0222
www.ForcesofNature.ca

Something Smells Fishy!
As usual we humans have taken a perfectly healthy source of protein and omega 3 fatty acids and destroyed it. The latest reports on farmed salmon say that it contains 2-5 times the level of PCB's of wild caught fish. Health Canada says it's still within the acceptable range, but those of us who would prefer to avoid PCB intake are advising people to eat farmed salmon less than once per month. This particularly applies to women of child bearing age since we have no idea what a safe or acceptable level of PCB exposure is for a developing fetus. Envision a scenario where one by one foods become on the contaminated list and are removed from our healthy food choices. What will be left? Already shark, swordfish and tuna have been given the thumbs down. How many more foods need to be restricted before we stop taking a dump in our own food bowl? We need to clean up our act NOW in order to preserve our food supply, our health, our unborn children's health and the health of our planet.

Pamela Frank, BSc, Naturpathic Doctor
Forces of Nature Naturopathic Clinic
2443 1/2 Yonge St.
Toronto ON M4P 2E7
416.481.0222

You Can't Have Your Bread and Eat it Too!
Bread, any way you slice, is just plain unhealthy! You can fool yourself into thinking that if you have a "whole wheat" bagel it is somehow healthy - it's not. Many "whole wheat" products list the main ingredient as enriched flour which means that the bulk of what went into it is plain old refined white flour. Even if a whole grain is listed as the main ingredient, we do not eat grains in their natural unprocessed state - meaning it is not a food source for us. Refining, grinding, bleaching, yeast, sugar and baking all go into making grains palatable. A truly healthy food should not need this much manipulation to make it edible.

Pamela Frank, BSc, Licensed Naturopathic Doctor
Forces of Nature Naturopathic Clinic
2443 1/2 Yonge St.
Toronto ON M4P 2E7
416.481.0222
www.ForcesofNature.ca

To Eat or Not to Eat – There is No Question!

Many of my patients with bowel problems will have been advised by someone else to eat more wheat bran. What?!! Take a handful of wheat bran some time and rub it around in your hand. Kind of rough and abrasive isn’t it? What do you suppose it would feel like to your digestive tract that is already irritated and inflamed if you are having bowel problems? If you really want this kind of effect why not just swallow some sandpaper, it’s about as tasty and will work just as well. Wheat bran is completely indigestible and will pass on through just as rough as it was when it went in. For this reason it often causes bloating, abdominal pain and flatulence – the very problems that you were concerned about in the first place! Those clever marketing guys at the wheat marketing board didn’t know what to do with all this leftover crap from refining wheat into flour, so they try to promote it as a healthy way to get fiber. This is all just so much spin and more often than not consuming wheat bran only causes more problems – iron deficiency, bloating, gas, susceptibility to parasite infections, and abdominal pain. “But where do I get fiber from?” the brainwashed unfortunates ask. From whole, raw fruits and vegetables where your body was intended to get it from – not from indigestible refuse from the refining process.

Copyright  2004
Pamela Frank, BSc (Hons), ND
Forces of Nature Naturopathic Clinic
2443 ½ Yonge St. Toronto ON Canada M4P 2E7
416.481.0222
www.ForcesofNature.ca