The Heartland Naturopathic Clinic Email Newsletter - September 2003  

The following is an issue our email newsletter with helpful information on staying well and our practices. They include articles on home care, natural healing, cured cases, commentary on current issues in the field of health care and medicine and other interesting and useful information. If you are interested in receiving this newsletter simply send your email address, name and a request asking to be added to our email address list to: Staff@HeartlandNaturopathic.com. 

CONTENTS
* Herbal Medicine Walk and Talk at City Sprouts September 10th
* Allergies are Here Again
* Eczema and the Baby
* Protect Your Access to Supplements

HERBAL MEDICINE WALK AND TALK AT CITY SPROUTS
City Sprouts of Omaha, an inner city non- profit community garden, will hold an herbal medicine walk and talk on September 10^th at 5 pm. Dr. Lorinda Sorensen, a naturopathic physician, licensed acupuncturist and City Sprouts volunteer will be the guide. The focus will be on plants growing in the garden as well as many beneficial plants commonly called weeds. Participants will learn horticulture requirements for several of the plants, the common medicinal uses, and potential drug and herb interactions. The talk will also include a tasting of several herbal teas, and a focus on simple and effective home remedies for colds and flu’s. There is a 5$ fee. City Sprouts is located at 40^th and Franklin streets. For more information call 402-391-6714.

ALLERGIES ARE HERE AGAIN
Have you feeling a little more tired and congested lately?  Are you experiencing a running nose, itchy eyes? Have you heard of a probable reason for it? The pollen count is sky high!

As the season changes into autumn the pollen counts for weeds, especially ragweed is high, at 11.3 out of 12.  Even people who may not normally experience allergy symptoms may be suffering. Here are some reminders for symptom free breathing.

* Keep windows and door shut, so wind blown allergens can’t get in.
* If you’ve been outside a lot undress out of you bedroom, leaving the clothes outside the room until they are cleaned.
* Wash your hair before going to bed; this will keep pollen from getting on your pillows.
* When driving avoid opening windows and keep the air conditioner on “recirculate.”

If you need more information on using herbal medicine for allergies please visit our website http://www.heartlandnaturopathic.com/ and click “E-Newsletter,” and then on the “May 2003” issue.

ECZEMA AND THE BABY
Michael was a five and a half-month-old baby boy who had been having rashes since 2 months old. He had had cradle cap on his head and eczema on his face, behind ears, under chin, behind knees and inside the elbows, plus his trunk and arms and legs. He was covered! He was scratching a lot and it was red, oozing and foul smelling under his chin and on his neck. Despite his problems he was a pretty happy baby but when the itching and scratching started his moods were much less fun. Dr. Bradley took his homeopathic case and prescribed a homeopathic remedy that matched the whole person. His mom called three weeks later to say he was much better within a few days of taking the remedy but the eczema was starting to return so we had her repeat the remedy.

We had to repeat the remedy once more, as the symptoms got better then worse again, but never as bad as originally. Because the remedy seemed to need to be repeated so often over that first 7 weeks we tried another homeopathic remedy for a few days but then he started really getting worse. Oops! That was clearly a mistake. So then we went to a higher potency of the original remedy and in the next 2 months only had to repeat it once. That finished up the job. No more rashes and a very happy ending for mom, dad and baby!

What is worth adding to this story is that a curative treatment like this leaves a baby (or anyone for that matter) healthier then he was before he got sick. Because he is healthier he is less likely to get sick with something else later in life. If mom had suppressed the eczema with hydrocortisone cream (the conventional treatment), the eczema may have gone away, but the baby would have been left more vulnerable to other diseases later in life. For example, homeopaths often see kids with asthma, who when curatively treated, have a temporary return of an old suppressed eczema rash as the asthma is healed. In other words, if their eczema had not been suppressed they would probably not have developed asthma.

Anytime symptoms are suppressed with drugs there is the possibility that a deeper more problematic disease will replace the suppressed disease. Our goal at the Heartland Naturopathic Clinic is to help each patient achieve the full return to health that they deserve. See our website (http://www.heartlandnaturopathic.com) for more discussion of our philosophy of health and disease and cure and suppression.


PROTECT YOUR ACCESS TO SUPPLEMENTS
Legislative Alert!
Ensure The Future Of The Dietary Supplement Health And Education Act

Senate bill 1538 is intended to fully implement and enforce the Dietary Supplement Health and Education Act (DSHEA). This bill will help protect your right to use and purchase supplements. Call and write your senators and congressman now.

The naturopathic professional community and its national organization, the American Association of Naturopathic Physicians, is committed to ensuring that we all maintain access to nutritional and dietary supplements. We believe that this is best achieved by the full implementation of DSHEA. 

DSHEA was originally passed in 1994 in order to protect people’s access to dietary supplements after a public outcry. The law was never fully implemented or funded so it has not been as effective as intended. Recent events regarding the safety of Ephedra have generated increased concerns regarding the safety and efficacy of dietary supplements. The few safety issues that have come up since the passage of DSHEA can be traced to this lack of funding and implementation. However, these legitimate concerns over safety are being used by the political forces who would like to curtail the public’s access to supplements and return the nation to the “good old days” when only medical doctors had unfettered access to remedies!

Senator Tom Harkin (D-IA) and Senator Orrin Hatch (R-UT), long-time supporters of natural medicine, have taken a proactive approach on this issue and introduced S. 1538. This is legislation to fully implement and enforce the original DSHEA by appropriating $205 million over the next five years, and by authorizing funds for the NIH to expand research and development of consumer information on dietary supplements from $20 million to $30 million per year. 

It is important that everyone voices their support of this legislation to their Congressman and Senators today.  Other forces in the Congress are at work to restrict consumer freedom.  For example, legislation (S. 722) has been introduced by Senator Dick Durbin (D-IL) that would impose impractical requirements on many safe supplements, and give the FDA absolute authority in determining safety of the product regardless of whether it was used under the conditions it was designed for. Anti-alternative medicine community and some people in government who want to restrict everyone but medical doctors’ access to supplements supports the passage of S. 722 and opposes the passage of S. 1538. Don’t let them take your freedom to access supplements away from you, like they tried to do back before 1994 and DSHEA.

Act Now!
Write, call, fax or email your Congressman and Senators today and request their support for S. 1538. Ask them to oppose S. 722 and let them know that passage of S. 1538 will fund the necessary research and oversight required to ensure consumer safety without restricting the current freedoms we all need to maintain and improve our health status. 

For contact information, go to http://thomas.loc.gov/ and at “Quick Links” click on the “Senate Directory” and “House Directory.” Accessing these directories will enable you to identify your legislators and obtain contact information. Inserting the bill number will take you directly to the legislation. 

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