Toronto Naturopathic Doctor
Book A Free Consult
  • HOME
  • ABOUT
  • SERVICES
    • Naturopathic Medicine
    • Digestive Health >
      • Constipation
      • Crohn's & Colitis
      • SIBO
      • Food Sensitivities
      • Gas & Bloating
      • Heartburn
      • Irritable Bowel Syndrome
      • Leaky Gut Syndrome
    • Hormonal Health >
      • Acne
      • Adrenal Fatigue
      • Bioidentical Hormone Replacement Therapy
      • Infertility & Miscarriage
      • Polycystic Ovarian Syndrome
      • Post Birth Control Syndrome
      • Thyroid Disorders
    • Diagnostic Testing >
      • SIBO Testing
      • Comprehensive Stool Analysis
      • Food Intolerance Testing
      • Female Hormone Testing
      • Male Hormone Testing
      • Adrenal Hormone Testing
    • Services & Fees
    • Virtual Care
  • BLOG
  • CONTACT
  • BOOK APPOINTMENT
  • Join Waitlist
  • HOME
  • ABOUT
  • SERVICES
    • Naturopathic Medicine
    • Digestive Health >
      • Constipation
      • Crohn's & Colitis
      • SIBO
      • Food Sensitivities
      • Gas & Bloating
      • Heartburn
      • Irritable Bowel Syndrome
      • Leaky Gut Syndrome
    • Hormonal Health >
      • Acne
      • Adrenal Fatigue
      • Bioidentical Hormone Replacement Therapy
      • Infertility & Miscarriage
      • Polycystic Ovarian Syndrome
      • Post Birth Control Syndrome
      • Thyroid Disorders
    • Diagnostic Testing >
      • SIBO Testing
      • Comprehensive Stool Analysis
      • Food Intolerance Testing
      • Female Hormone Testing
      • Male Hormone Testing
      • Adrenal Hormone Testing
    • Services & Fees
    • Virtual Care
  • BLOG
  • CONTACT
  • BOOK APPOINTMENT
  • Join Waitlist
Search by typing & pressing enter

YOUR CART

Publications On Natural Health

16/7/2021

Pre- vs Probiotics, and my most commonly asked questions

prebiotics probiotics
Can Pre- and Probiotics supplements actually improve gut health?
Research and my clinic experience say yes. Probiotics have been proven to be helpful in several conditions, such as irritable bowel, yeast infections, weaken immune function, and even weight loss. There is no ‘one-size-fits-all', so choosing the right probiotic can be a tricky task. You have to first ask yourself ‘what are you looking to achieve?’. If you’re looking to improve digestive health, such as gas, bloating and irregular stools, look for a probiotic that's rich in bifidobacteria, such as b. animalis and b. infantis. For repeat yeast infections and urogenital health, you’re better off with lactobacillus species, such as l. acidophilus, l. rhamnosus and l. reuteri. Furthermore, some probiotic strains are not seen in the human microbiome but have been shown to prevent traveller's diarrhea or antibiotic-associated diarrhea, such as s. boulardii. 


Read More

14/5/2020

Bee Products and Your Gut

AMAZING BENEFITS YOU MAY NOT ‘BEE’ AWARE OF

Honey bees, or apis mellifera, have been helping humans since the dawn of time. They’ve not only provided us with a long standing source of honey and wax, but have played an integral part in helping our agricultural growth and in sustaining our ecosystem. Honey has been a cornerstone to most pantry shelves as a natural food sweetener or agent to soothe a sore throat. But as it turns out, our little buzzing friends and the delicious liquid they provide us is even more helpful to our health than we once thought. Modern research has discovered many bee byproducts have proven benefits on everything from our gut microbiome to our immune system, and maybe even our fertility.

Honey Micriobiome

Read More

13/11/2019

Important Findings on the Gut-Brain Connection

​For decades, the gut and brain were looked at as two separate entities. What we now know is that this couldn’t be further from the truth. Modern research is discovering that mood hormones play a direct role in the mechanisms of digestion (challenging the thought, are they truly just ‘mood’ hormones), and even more interestingly, the microbiome. 
 
If you’ve ever had a ‘gut-wrenching’ experience or felt ‘butterflies’ when stressed, you’re likely no stranger to the influences stress can have on the way our digestive tract feels. However, have you ever stopped to think about why this happens, and how? 
Picture

Read More

9/9/2019

You Are What You Host: Are Fecal Transplants the Way of the Future for Gut Health?

Gut Microbiome
​According to a new study presented by Dr. El-Salhy at the United European Gastroenterology week in Spain, fecal microbial transplants (FMT) may significantly improve the pain and distress caused by irritable bowel syndrome, if transplants come from what has been termed a 'super-donor'.
​
The double-blind, randomized control trial study found that 75-89% of recruits aged 18-75 receiving 30-60 g of endoscope administered feces into the duodenum donated same day from a human 'super donor' reported significant benefits in their overall IBS symptoms after 3 months, with no long term adverse effects (1). Slightly greater benefits were observed in the patients receiving higher dose transplants and/or repeat transplants (2). Furthermore, Dr. El-Salhy suggested that preliminary results show 90-95% of the patient who responded are still well 1 year later, and 50% are 'cured' (3). 


Read More

16/8/2019

3 Facts You Need to Know About Calories and Weight Loss

Calories weight loss
Calories in versus calories out was the de facto weight loss equation for decades. To lose weight, you simply reduce the number of calories consumed while increasing the number of calories used. However, the simple equation that we have adhered to as part of a healthy lifestyle may have actually been hindering our weight loss efforts. As our understanding of health and nutrition improves, so does what we know about the simple calorie equation – and this knowledge is changing the plate of the modern diet.

1. Not all calories are created equal.  
​
One reason why strictly counting calories can be an ineffective way to lose weight is that not all calories are good calories. While the energy content of calories is essentially the same in that they are an equal unit of energy, calories derived from whole foods are more effectively processed by the body than those found in processed foods. In other words, where a particular calorie comes from will have varying effects on hunger, hormones, and weight. 



Read More

21/5/2019

Supplementing Digestive Enzymes: when are they truly helpful?

Supplementing Digestive Enzymes
​The gnawing, unrelenting discomfort and bloating of indigestion. Most have felt it, whether brought on by spicy food, greasy meals, alcohol or just simply overeating. Or maybe its pain after eating. Food comes in, and the stomach begins to cramp, leaving you doubled over in pain.  The occasional occurrence will usually resolve on its own, but if it's becoming chronic, you’re likely frequenting the pharmacy shelf with little relief. So you head to the natural food aisle or health food store.

Digestive enzymes promise to fix everything from bloating to flatulence to heartburn relief. However, understanding how digestive enzymes work helps narrow down when to use them, and when to avoid wasting your dollars. 


Read More

17/4/2019

How Sleep Impacts Your Microbiome

How Sleep Impacts Your Microbiome
We all know that getting enough sleep is important. But how important? Sleep impacts our mental health, emotional health, and physical health. But with our busy lives and hectic schedules, it’s often easy to put a good night’s rest on the back burner.
 
Sometimes, even when we get into bed at a reasonable hour, we may not be able to fall asleep or stay asleep. However, recent research confirms continuous sleep deprivation can have more far-ranging consequences on health than we may have once realized, with negative impacts demonstrated on our intestinal microbiomes, immune system, insulin resistance and weight management, amongst a myriad of other health issues.


Read More

4/3/2019

A Thorough look at Intermittent Fasting and Calorie Restriction as a benefit to health

Intermittent Fasting Benefits - Courtney Holmberg, ND
Many health trends come and go, but one dietary trend that has seemed to endure the craze is intermittent fasting.
The primary reason intermittent fasting (IF) has remained so popular is because it offers flexibility to fit a busy schedule, and (while I don't typically advise mindlessly eat as long as your fasting) it doesn't ultimately demand restricted eating.

What is intermittent fasting, and how is it done?
Intermittent fasting is defined as diet regimen that cycles through a period of time in which the body is driven into a catabolic state through fasting, where no significant calorie intake occurs, met with periods of fed states where no calorie restriction occurs. The windows for fasting are typically around 16 hours, met with an 8 hour fed state.  



Read More

17/1/2019

The Gallbladder Hormone Connection (ladies, listen up!)

gallbladder dysfunction
​We typically don't give much thought to our gall bladder when we think about digestion, or hormones for that matter. While critical to more than just digesting fats, the importance of this tiny organ sitting tucked below our liver is often overlooked. Unless you’ve had gallstones or experienced some form of gallbladder disease, you might not even be aware of its function.

​
While originally thought to be a disorder brought on later in life by obesity and a high saturated fat diet, I’m seeing more and more young, thin and otherwise healthy women in my practice with disease of the gall bladder; from sludge to stones, to full cholecystectomy (removal) by the time they’re 30. This presents questions surrounding the variables causing gall disease and brings us back to their relationship to hormones.  



Read More

31/10/2018

Debunking Collagen, and why everyone’s supplementing it

Debunking Collagen
     One of the core principles of functional medicine is to nourish the body and ensure it is getting the appropriate balance of nutrients to stay healthy. Traditionally, this was achieved in a hunter-gather diet by eating colourful whole foods and by practicing “nose-to-tail” eating of meat, which included the consumption of skin, cartilage, marrow, tendons/ligaments, and other parts of the animal that are now typically discarded. Unfortunately, much of this practice has been lost as a result of prepared meats, microwaves, and canned soups over homemade stocks. As a result, our diets have become deprived of an important protein, known as collagen.

      There is a lot of noise in the health industry lately about collagen supplementation. The concept of supplementing collagen attempts to regain what we’ve lost from our primitive diet, but the question becomes if supplementation has any benefit.
​
Benefits of Collagen
I’ll admit that when I first heard about the trend of supplementing collagen, I wasn't on board. It made no sense to me. Collagen is a tissue found in our bodies made from amino acids, vitamin C, etc. So how could supplementingthe end product collagen benefit us? But as it turns out, research in mice shows that hydrolyzed collagen peptides (from gelatin) have a 95% absorption rate at 12 hours after intake, and it distributes in the body similar to that of raw amino acids, with the exception of cartilage (1). Collagen was seen to concentrate more than twice as high in cartilaginous tissue that raw amino acids (1), giving collagen some unique benefits. So, I jumped on the bandwagon.


Read More
<<Previous

    Subscribe for Updates

    Categories

    All Acne Adrenal Fatigue Allergies Amenorrhea Antiaging Anxiety Art Of Medicine Autoimmune Disorder Autoimmunity Calories And Health Constipation Cravings Dairy Free Depression Diabetes Digestion Digestive Health Fatigue FODMAP Diet Food Intolerances Genetics Gluten Free Gut Health Hair Fall Harmonal Issues Histamin Intolerance Hormonal Birth Control HORMONAL IMBALANCE Hormones IBS Immunity Infertility Inflammation Insulin Sensitivity Irritable Bowel Syndrome Ketogenic Diet Microbiome Natural Beauty Tips Naturopathic Nutrition Paleo Diet PCOS Pre-biotics Pregnancy Preventative Medicine Probiotics Probiotics For Histamine Intolerance Recipes SIBO Sleep Small Intestinal Bacterial Overgrowth Stress Thyroid Weight Management Wellness Wednesday

    RSS Feed

     Subscribe in a reader


DR. COURTNEY HOLMBERG, ND

Platinum Health and Wellness
​​955 Queen St W, Unit 111
Toronto, ON
M6J 3X5

​647-351-7282
​​

CONTACT US
Book Online

​© 2018 Courtney Holmberg ND. All rights reserved. Dr. Courtney Holmberg, ND does not endorse or have professional affiliation with any discussed supplement or lab companies. All material provided is for general education and may not be construed as medical advice. The information is not intended to assist in diagnosing to treating a medical condition. Legal & Medical Disclaimer, sitemap

Photo used under Creative Commons from ViaggioRoutard