 Human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) infection has affected the lives of many, eventually becoming a health issue that brought an ongoing stigma against those infected. The revolutionary discovery of HIV in the United States paved the way for its awareness, diagnosis, and management, thereby helping those with the condition prevent complications and opportunistic infections that can harm their well-being. Understanding HIVHuman immunodeficiency virus (HIV) is a type of retrovirus that was first discovered in Africa from primates, where it was thought to be transmitted to humans through direct contact with infected animal blood. Its destructive nature comes from its abilities to directly attack your immune system, thereby causing damage to the cells that are supposed to protect your body from harm.1 Particularly, HIV affects your CD4+ helper T cells, which are a type of white blood cells that help regulate your immune response and activate other immune cells to successfully fight off infections.1 Did you know? Your helper T cells also undergo self-destruction to prevent the virus from replicating and causing further damage to the body. The effects of this sacrifice, although effective in reducing viral replication, is short-lived and eventually puts you at risk of infections due to an impaired immune protection. How is HIV transmitted?HIV is primarily transmitted through sexual activity, where breaks or trauma in the mucosa exposes cells underneath it to seminal or vaginal fluids that contain the virus. Other forms of transmission include sharing injectables (or straws, dollar bills, or other devices for intranasal drug use), transfusion with blood and blood products infected with HIV, and exposure to potentially infectious body fluids, such as breastmilk or amniotic fluid from a mother (who is not undergoing treatment and still considered infectious) to her fetus. It is important to remember that HIV cannot be transmitted through saliva, tears, sweat, or even discharges from your nose, unless these secretions are visibly bloody! This means that it is safe to interact with, hug, hold hands, comfort, and exchange other forms of non-sexual contact with a person who is HIV-positive. Allopathic OptionsHIV infection is primarily managed with antiretroviral drugs, such as zidovudine, with specific type and dose depending on your unique case. Although unable to completely clear the infection, antiretroviral therapy can effectively suppress viral activity by attacking different stages of the virus’ development and replication. This has paved the way for people with HIV to live longer and help prevent them from transmitting the disease to other people. Presently, anti-retroviral drugs also help prevent HIV infection when taken before or after sexual acts or exposure to blood and fluids infected with HIV.1 Presently, pre-exposure prophylaxis (PREP) is readily available to prevent HIV infection in people belonging to high-risk groups, such as various healthcare teams working with HIV-positive patients, community care workers, bisexuals, transgenders, gays, and people engaging in occupational intercourse (sex workers).5 In people with high risks of acquiring HIV due to sexual practices, including their partners in the treatment regimen is important. One of the most pressing concerns behind the use of antiretroviral drugs is non-compliance that may be attributed to the number of tablets that should be taken everyday, as well as the wide array of side effects and adverse reactions, such as vomiting, diarrhea, abdominal pain, fever, rash, fatigue, and even mouth sores or blisters, all of which can affect your daily activities. This is one vital part where naturopathic care can help! At Natural Path to Wellness, we will help you explore holistic, natural options that can effectively reduce unwanted side effects from medication use and nurture your quality of life throughout your treatment regimen at the same time. The Naturopathic ApproachNaturopathic care aims to nurture optimal well-being through helping you address and prevent chronic inflammation and immune activation. Our goal is to ultimately treat the whole person and not just focus on your current disease. Promoting Gut Health HIV infection can impair the abilities of your gut mucosa to protect the body against harm from food and environmental particles that enter the body through your gastrointestinal tract. This is because the infection primarily damages your CD4+ Helper T cells, which are heavily responsible in initiating your body’s protective mechanisms against foreign invaders. Chronic infection and inflammation can also cause damage to cells that regulate the normal composition of your gut microbiota, which eventually triggers and sustains a never-ending cycle of inflammation.2 To prevent this cycle from happening, probiotics and prebiotics can be incorporated into your daily regimen. Probiotic and prebiotic supplementation can help prevent inflammation and improve the composition of your gut microbiota, thereby preventing gut dysbiosis. Nutrient Supplementation HIV infection cannot only exhaust your body’s immune response, but also trigger a heavy amount of stress that can eventually deplete your body’s nutrients and cause potential deficiencies that can affect your overall healthy state. Additionally, problems with your gastrointestinal mucosa can lead to malabsorption of essential vitamins and minerals that eventually causes or exacerbates nutrient deficiencies. Antioxidants normally produced in the body to protect it from oxidative damage are also depleted during the course of HIV infection. Supplementing your diet with essential vitamins and minerals, such as zinc, magnesium, and selenium can help promote your overall health and nurture your body’s natural abilities to produce antioxidants. Botanical Medicine Herbal medications are effective natural remedies that can help support your immune system and improve the efficacy of your treatment regimen.
And many more! Nurturing Your Immune HealthThe health of your immune system is crucial for the overall health of your body, especially when you have HIV infection. Nurturing your immune system through supplementing your treatment regimen with essential vitamins and minerals, optimizing your gut health, and incorporating herbal medications that can help support your immune response are essential in achieving an undetectable viral load, preventing transmission to other people, and avoiding complications of an ineffective immune response, such as acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (AIDS). To learn more about how to begin your holistic health and wellness journey, talk to us today! Take note : it is best to consult with your healthcare provider first before exploring natural and alternative options for your optimal health to ensure that your treatment regimen is what is best and safe for you. Additionally, most herbs are contraindicated during pregnancy and in special populations, so talking with your healthcare provider can prevent you from experiencing unwanted effects associated with unregulated use. This article is for educational purposes only and is not intended as medical advice. Please consult your licensed naturopathic physician or other licensed healthcare provider before making changes to your medications or supplements.
Disclosures & Policies: This and other blog posts may contain affiliate links. Please view our disclosures page for more information. REFERENCES:
Menopause is an unavoidable part of living. As you age, your body undergoes different changes that signal another phase in your life. These changes may bring different feelings and experiences compared to your younger years. Aside from activating your menstrual periods, your hormones actually exert regular and protective properties that lessen your chances of developing health problems, such as cardiovascular diseases. Discovering the best practices that you can do during this wonderful phase in your life can help you walk through the aging process gracefully.
Understanding Menopause
Menopause occurs when women who menstruate do not experience periods for at least 12 months.1 This phase does not happen overnight. Menopause is actually a period of transition that happens for years, where your reproductive abilities start to change, and your ovaries stop producing eggs to be fertilized. This depletion in your reproductive abilities eventually triggers hormonal fluctuations and reduction, especially estrogen, as well as the loss of your normal menstrual cycle. Additionally, declining estrogen levels put postmenopausal women at risk of developing cardiovascular problems.
The Role of Estrogen
Estrogen is an essential hormone that is naturally produced in the body to help your body sexually develop. It exerts its effects on different organs, making it important in regulating your overall health and wellbeing. Specifically, estrogen nurtures your reproductive, bone, skin, and cardiovascular health. Estrogen helps increase your breast size during puberty and, during pregnancy, readies the breasts for the production of milk after pregnancy, a process called lactation.2 It keeps your vaginal lining supple during your reproductive years. Estrogen additionally prepares your body to carry and nurture another human being during pregnancy. Your bones are also being protected and made stronger by estrogen! Estrogen helps reduce the activity of osteoclasts, which are cells responsible in breaking down bone.2 Interestingly, estrogen helps balance out cholesterol levels in the blood, thereby protecting you against metabolic and heart problems.2
Symptoms of Menopause
As your body undergoes dramatic changes and your hormone levels decline, you may experience different sets of symptoms that will affect your everyday activities. These may include hot flashes (warm sensation or sweating that progresses into chills), palpitations, night sweats, and even anxiety. These are associated with low estrogen levels, which affect your brain’s abilities to regulate body temperature.1
The Naturopathic Approach
Rather than fighting off the effects of menopause, naturopathic care focuses on nurturing your body’s natural abilities to cope up with this major change. This is done through incorporating holistic practices that support your body’s optimal health, as well as supplementing estrogen levels safely and effectively.
Botanical Medicine
And many more! It is important to remember that many herbs are contraindicated when you have certain health risks. In discovering the best herbal remedies for your case and preferences, talking to your naturopathic doctors is essential. Nutrient Supplementation Estrogen decline during menopause will affect the integrity of your vaginal lining, making it thin and dry. This may not only cause painful sexual intercourse, but also increase your risks of developing infections in your vagina. To prevent this from affecting your sexual and immune health, supplementing your diet with vitamin D may be beneficial. Vitamin D and calcium supplements is also helpful in preventing osteoporosis (brittle bones) caused by reduced estrogen levels; your naturopathic doctor can help determine if you should supplement. The Key to Graceful Aging
Menopause is a natural phase in life that affects the overall well-being of people who menstruate. Although menopause can affect your physical and emotional well-being, it should not be considered a disease or medical disorder. The key to surviving and thriving in menopause is supporting your body as it goes through extreme changes in its effort to age gracefully. At Natural Path to Wellness, we will help you discover the best holistic strategies to help you in your journey through menopause and transition to another wonderful life phase. Talk to us today!
This article is for educational purposes only and is not intended as medical advice. Please consult your licensed naturopathic physician or other licensed healthcare provider before making changes to your medications or supplements. Disclosures & Policies: This and other blog posts may contain affiliate links. Please view our disclosures page for more information. REFERENCES:
Multiple sclerosis is an autoimmune condition that affects your central nervous system (a.k.a., the entirety of your brain), causing problems associated with vision, movement, thinking, and other regulatory processes that allow your body to function effectively everyday! The main problem that triggers the development of this debilitating disease is inflammation that attacks your central nervous system in what appears to be a form of autoimmune dysfunction. Multiple sclerosis is tricky in that its clinical course is extremely variable. It may initially cause mild, un-alarming symptoms that rapidly progress into an incapacitating disease that requires an extensive, holistic health plan targeting your lifestyle choices, maintenance supplements and medications, and whole body routines that nurture your brain and the functions it is responsible for everyday.
Understanding Multiple Sclerosis
The exact cause behind multiple sclerosis is yet to be discovered. However, its progression is severely affected by inflammation that causes demyelination of nerves (damage to the protective layer of myelin wrapped around the nerve to help deliver signals fast and accurately to organs and cells within the body) and neurodegeneration (a.k.a., destruction of the very cells that make up your nervous system). This inflammation begins when your T-helper cells, a specific type of white blood cell, become activated, causing them to attach to the lining of your central nervous system, cross the blood-brain barrier which filters out toxins from the blood and supplies the brain with nutrients, and attack the very cells they were supposed to protect, eventually causing damage and destruction.1 Different factors can affect the progression of multiple sclerosis, including environmental elements, genetic predisposition, infection, chemical or environmental toxin exposure, and immune dysfunction.
Signs and Symptoms
Multiple sclerosis may occur abruptly or insidiously. This means that people with multiple sclerosis may experience sudden bouts of severe symptoms, while others may have very mild symptoms to the point that they may not think of these as needing appropriate medical attention! Since your brain is responsible for regulating a wide variety of processes everyday, symptoms of multiple sclerosis generally depend on the location and severity of lesions within the brain. These may include vision problems or loss, vertigo, dizziness, impaired swallowing, difficulty speaking, weakness, tremors, tingling sensations, problems with urinating or having a bowel movement, and difficulty concentrating or recalling snippets of your past memories.1 These symptoms can be transient, waxing and waning over a period of days to months. Often, this is followed by a period with no symptoms at all, which can last months to years.
Allopathic Treatments
Multiple sclerosis is conventionally managed with disease modifying therapies (DMT) consisting of medications that can help decrease lesions and damage within the brain.1 Additionally, supportive management is also used to manage your unique symptoms. This includes the use of corticosteroids to reduce inflammation and discomfort. However, people with severe disease or those having neurodegenerative cases may not fully benefit from this therapeutic regimen.
The Naturopathic Approach
Naturopathic care for multiple sclerosis aims to nurture optimal well-being through incorporating different strategies that target multiple aspects of your health.
Nutrient Supplementation
Lifestyle Changes Did you know? Healthcare providers in the past used to ban people with multiple sclerosis from exercising because they previously believed that higher body temperature and use of nerve fibers from exercise can worsen disease symptoms and affect the course of illness!2 This belief has been debunked as medicine learns more about the nature of multiple sclerosis. Presently, regular physical activity and exercise are known to be beneficial in improving cognitive function in people with multiple sclerosis.2 Regular exercise is also critical for helping to maintain function and mobility as you manage your condition. Your exercise routine may need to be optimized to help you maintain or improve your strength and activity levels while preventing increasing inflammation or over-fatiguing your muscles, but there is no need to give up enjoyable physical activities. Additionally, regular exercise can improve your heart health, metabolic functions, bone strength, mood, and blood sugar levels, thereby nurturing other aspects of your health! Stress Reduction Techniques Stress can worsen multiple sclerosis symptoms and increase your risks of having disease exacerbations, as this phenomenon creates more lesions in the brain.2 Hence, managing your stress levels through nurturing the connection between your mind and body can help prevent these consequences. Mind-body practices such as yoga, breathing exercises, and meditation can help reduce stress and promote relaxation. Take note: Talking to your healthcare provider before exploring different options for your health and changing your treatment regimen is essential. This is to ensure that the regimen you are taking is best for your optimal health. Additionally, this step helps prevent unwanted effects that may cause more harm than good to your body. Nurturing Your Brain Health
Multiple sclerosis can affect different processes within the body, causing unique sets of symptoms that can inevitably affect your day-to-day lives. This is why following a personalized and holistic approach that targets nutrition, supplementation, lifestyle changes, and medications (whether conventional or botanical) is important to achieve remission and nurture optimal well-being. At Natural Path to Wellness, we will help you in every step of this road to wellness. Talk to us today!
This article is for educational purposes only and is not intended as medical advice. Please consult your licensed naturopathic physician or other licensed healthcare provider before making changes to your medications or supplements. Disclosures & Policies: This and other blog posts may contain affiliate links. Please view our disclosures page for more information. REFERENCES:
The benefits of collagen for your body are a controversial topic in the medical industry, especially since the opinions of medical practitioners towards its efficacy has been divided for years. In understanding whether or not collagen is truly effective, we should first understand the different preparations of collagen, as well as how it is being absorbed and utilized by the cells in the body. For menopausal women who inevitably suffer from decreased skin elasticity and bone density, collagen can actually help prevent the rapid progression of these losses, making sure that you are able to age gracefully.
Understanding Collagen
Being one of the most important proteins in the body, collagen is formed from different types of amino acids, namely glycine, hydroxyproline, and proline, which are coiled into each other to create a very stable structure that helps form your body tissues together.1 Collagen can be found almost anywhere in the body, including your skin, bones, teeth, muscles, organs, and blood vessels. In fact, collagen can also be found in animals! This means that the wonders of collagen in maintaining structural integrity is not only limited to humans. In cases of collagen supplementation, we can get this essential protein from many sources!
The wonders of collagen in maintaining your body’s healthy state cannot be understated. Collagen not only helps in the development of your organs, but also repairs wounds and damaged tissues.1 Additionally, collagen plays a vital part in bone development and remodeling, which is a process that normally declines as you age. Did you know? Your body actually begins to lose collagen from 18-29 years old and eventually will lose around 1% per year after you reach 40 years old.1 By the time you reach 80 years old, your body’s collagen production decreases to up to 75% (of its own original production) compared to your younger peers! The Benefits of Collagen Supplementation
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Stress Reduction
Exposure to stressful events and environments can affect acid secretion in the stomach and cause unwanted irritation to the lining that eventually results in ulceration. Hence, your stress levels severely affect regulatory processes within the body! Identifying and reducing stressors with your naturopathic doctors not only help nurture balance within the body, but also challenges yourself to become more proactive and conscious in maintaining optimal health.
Botanical Medicine
- Marshmallow root (Althaea officinalis). Marshmallow root contains healing properties that help coat the lining of your esophagus and stomach, thereby forming a barrier that protects your gastric wall from acid and damage.1
- Licorice (Radix glycyrrhizae). Licorice can be a safer and effective alternative to bismuth, which is the drug of choice that helps protect your stomach from destructive acid and pepsin secretions by acting as a barrier while enhancing mucus secretion at the same time.1 Licorice root can increase your blood pressure so, as always, be sure to talk to your healthcare provider before making any changes to your health regimen.
- Slippery elm (Ulmus rubra). Aside from its wonders in healing sore throat, slippery elm helps nurture the protective barrier of the stomach by stimulating mucus production, thereby coating irritated or ulcered lining.2 This wonderful plant can also help improve your bowel habits and reduce problems with constipation.1
L-glutamine Supplementation
As the most abundant amino acid that helps maintain regulatory processes in the body, L-glutamine supports the optimal functioning of your gastrointestinal tract. Glutamine helps regulate the production of inflammatory markers and proliferation of white blood cells, thereby nurturing your defenses against infection and irritation.3 Supplementing your diet with L-glutamine also helps meet the metabolic demands of the body during metabolic stress, such as peptic ulcer disease.3
Nurturing Your Gastric Health
The role that your stomach plays is not only limited to breaking down food particles for absorption. It also helps secrete enzymes that help regulate the processes within your gastrointestinal tract. With food particles that may contain toxins and pathogens entering the stomach everyday, keeping your stomach strong and healthy is important to nurture innate protective factors that safeguard it from infections and ulcerations.
Do you want to learn how? Take the Natural Path to Wellness today!
Do you want to learn how? Take the Natural Path to Wellness today!
This article is for educational purposes only and is not intended as medical advice. Please consult your licensed naturopathic physician or other licensed healthcare provider before making changes to your medications or supplements.
Disclosures & Policies: This and other blog posts may contain affiliate links. Please view our disclosures page for more information.
REFERENCES:
- Mohiuddin AK. Alternative Treatments for Minor GI Ailments [retracted in: Innov Pharm. 2020 Feb 25;11(1). doi: 10.24926/iip.v11i1.3940]. Innov Pharm. 2019;10(3):10.24926/iip.v10i3.1659. Published 2019 Jul 5. doi:10.24926/iip.v10i3.1659
- Slippery Elm. In: LiverTox: Clinical and Research Information on Drug-Induced Liver Injury. Bethesda (MD): National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases; January 5, 2024.
- Perna S, Alalwan TA, Alaali Z, et al. The Role of Glutamine in the Complex Interaction between Gut Microbiota and Health: A Narrative Review. Int J Mol Sci. 2019;20(20):5232. Published 2019 Oct 22. doi:10.3390/ijms20205232
- Malik TF, Gnanapandithan K, Singh K. Peptic Ulcer Disease. In: StatPearls. Treasure Island (FL): StatPearls Publishing; June 5, 2023.
THE BLOG AT NATURAL PATH TO WELLNESS
AuthorS
Natural Path to Wellness values community education and welcomes contributions from writers with a background in Naturopathic Medicine, natural health and wellness, herbalism, homeopathy, Nature Cure, and more.
Medical Reviewer:
Marney Johnson, ND, MSCI-TS is a Naturopathic Doctor and Naturopathic Medicine Advisor with a background in allopathic (standard American medicine) medical research, Dr. Johnson, is uniquely qualified to evaluate current scientific research and offer insight to help you make sense of how you can integrate natural medicine into your health plan. She is passionate about the roles of Nutrition, Lifestyle, and Nature in health and constantly seeks new ways to make these accessible through food as medicine, encouraging new, healthy habits, and promoting interaction with Nature in its many forms.
Disclosures & Policies: This and other blog posts may contain affiliate links. Please view our disclosures page for more information.
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