Natural Health Solutions

After posting some recommendations on casual shoes and sandals for healthy feet, a number of readers wrote in asking about supportive dress shoes.

For the past few months, with the help of a few good men and women in my extended family, I was able to assess about a dozen pairs of dress shoes that made it onto my research list. Read more »

When asked for advice on how to address any chronic health challenge, I like to remind my clients about the importance of getting deep, restful sleep. It's during restful sleep that your body produces hormones that are essential to healing (growth hormone, testosterone, and erythropoietin). These hormones work together with your self-healing mechanisms to restore every part of your health. Read more »

Conventional advice to take a thousand or more milligrams of synthetic calcium along with a few other micronutrients daily is woefully inadequate because it fails to take into account individual differences and the many facets of diet and lifestyle that affect skeletal health. Read more »

During my first few years of private practice, for most cases of jaw pain and dysfunction, I applied a carefully executed manual adjustment to the temporo-mandibular joint (TMJ), also known as the jaw joint, found in front of each ear. This is the protocol that I learned as an intern from a supervising clinician. Read more »

Hiatal hernia is a condition that produces one or more of the following symptoms:

• Pain/discomfort behind the breast bone (sternum), usually towards the bottom of the chest wall

• Difficulty swallowing - a feeling that an obstruction in the lower chest wall is making it hard for food to pass through to the stomach

• Heartburn

• Chronic burping

Before I share a great little tip on how to stop a sore throat from progressing into a week-long cold, please know that periodically experiencing a cold or the flu can actually be helpful to your health. If you have no idea why this is, please view the following popular article that I wrote on this topic:

What Most Doctors Won't Tell You About Colds and Flus

You just won't get this information on why colds and flus can help you stay healthy over the long run from medical textbooks and mainstream media - please consider sharing it with family and friends. Read more »

Over the weekend, I was at a park with our boys when I felt a colossal wave of pain hit one of the toes of my right foot. After scrambling to get my sandal off, I looked inside to find a bee that was curled up and unable to move.

Fortunately, I knew not to try to pluck the bee's stinger out with my fingers, and ended up feeling fine within a couple of hours. Read more »

Updated on February 6, 2009

For years, the standard protocol for treating a sprained ankle has been the R.I.C.E. method - Rest, Ice, Compression, and Elevation. While this protocol typically prevents further damage and allows for gradual healing of a sprained joint, sports medicine practitioners are finding that sprains tend to heal most effectively when the injured joint is exercised as soon as possible.

What follows are guidelines that I generally recommend when looking to fully recover as quickly as possible from a sprained ankle: Read more »

If you feel somewhat brittle and easily predisposed to suffering from strains and sprains, I encourage you to visit a health practitioner who provides myofascial release treatment.

Myofascial release, also called "skin rolling," is often provided along with other treatments like massage, stretching, and joint mobilisation and manipulation. The vast majority of registered massage therapists, chiropractors, naturopathic physicians, and osteopathic physicians have training with myofascial release. Read more »

Comfortable and supportive shoes or sandals can go a long way in protecting your feet, ankles, knees, hips, and spine from injury.

When you're without footwear and working indoors on hard flooring, I encourage you to consider using an anti-fatigue mat to provide all of your major weight-bearing joints with cushioned support. Here's one that we have by our kitchen sink: Read more »