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  • 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
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      • Adrenal Hormone Testing
    • Services & Fees
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Publications On Natural Health

13/7/2022

Gut Health and Hormonal Imbalance: How Your Microbiome is Influencing Your Hormones

 1372022  GUT HEALTH AND HORMONAL IMBALANCE Toronto



We all know chronic stress, improper diet, infections, and medications like antibiotics can all create poor gut health, but did you know your gut health may also be impacting your hormones? The reason for this starts with our gut microbiome (aka the collection of bacteria in the gastrointestinal tract), and maintaining a healthy microbiome is essential to hormonal health, as the two are closely intertwined. 





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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. 


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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

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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? 
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24/10/2019 1 Comment

Autoimmunity – What is it and Why Is It Increasing?

Picture
     Autoimmunity is an umbrella term for a number of medical condition with one common problem: the immune system. In autoimmunity, the body’s immune system mistakenly identifies healthy cells as invaders, and attacks them. This disease can present in various forms, and can affect any part of the body. For some, autoimmunity can disrupt hormone production, as in Hashimoto’s or Graves. In other people, it can present as symptom of inflammation, fatigue, and pain. Some people even experience neurological changes, as in cases of MS.
     And while autoimmunity is not news to modern medicine, the increased number of reported cases per year is. It poses the questions -  why are incidence reports on the rise, what, if anything, is causing its increase, and is there anything we can do about it?


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1 Comment

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). 


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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.


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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.


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15/9/2018

How to Make your Own Bone Broth Soup

Bone Broth Soup Recipe
Bone broth is a rich source of nutrients. It contains protein, cartilage, gelatin, and minerals, especially calcium. It’s easy for our body to digest, tastes delicious and fills a home with an aroma of goodness while cooking. Bone broth is inherently calming, consoling, and restorative to our energy and spirit. The gelatin in bone broth also has been shown to have numerous benefits on the cartilage in our joints, the integrity of our gut membrane, the detoxification of our livers, and the health of our skin!
​
BASIC BONE BROTH MAKING
  1. Bones - poultry, fish, shellfish, beef or lamb
    - cooked bones from a previous meal, with or without skin or meat
    - raw bones, with or without skin and meat (can be browned first for flavour)
    ​- use a whole carcass or just parts (good choices include feet, ribs, necks and knuckles)
  2. Water - cold
    enough to just cover the bones or 2 cups water per 1 pound bones
  3. Vinegar - any kind
    a splash (1-2 tablespoons), or substitute lemon juice for vinegar
  4. Vegetables (optional) – skins, ends and tops or entire veggie
    traditional choices include celery, carrots, onions, garlic and parsley, but any will do


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20/7/2018

Suffer from Chronic GI Problems? Biofilms May be to Blame

Biofilm SIBO
       If you suffer from chronic GI or nasal/respiratory problems, but have been unable to get a proper diagnosis; or if you have tried antibiotics and antimicrobials to treat your irritable bowel syndrome (IBS), inflammatory bowel disease (IBD), other chronic gut/respiratory problems with little success, it may be helpful to know what a biofilm is and why it may be at the root of your problems.
​        Its estimated that a staggering 23000 people die from antibiotic resistance infections every year, and the number is increasing. If your previous attempts at getting diagnosed or treating an existing GI condition haven’t been effective, it may be time to consider alternative treatment options to disrupt the biofilms living within you.


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DR. COURTNEY HOLMBERG, ND

Platinum Health and Wellness
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​© 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

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