Anxiety and Depression

Feeling down occasionally or feeling some anxiety from time to time is a normal part of fully engaging in life. After all, if we never do anything outside of our comfort zone we would never experience anxiety and we also wouldn’t be growing as an individual. Or if there were no people in our lives to love, there would also be no one to worry about.

For some however, anxiety and depression can be more than just normal responses to the good and bad stressors of normal life. If you feel like anxiety or depression is getting in the way of doing the things you love or taking the joy from your daily life, Naturopathic Medicine may be able to help.

Naturopathic Medicine takes a holistic approach to anxiety and depression.

Treatment typically includes dietary changes, herbs in the form of tinctures, capsules or teas, and nutritional supplements. IV treatments can also be helpful for those who are experiencing anxiety or depression due to a prolonged stressful experience or have other health concerns that can interfere with the absorption of nutrients.

Diet is not typically the primary cause of most mood disorders but it can play a part in making them worse. Low blood sugar, which is largely influenced by diet, can make a person feel jittery, impatient, anxious and light-headed. Diets low in healthy oils and fats have been shown to contribute to depression. Coffee and some artificial sweeteners have been shown to exacerbate some mood disorders. These are just some of the examples of how food can affect your mood.

There are many herbs and nutritional supplements that can help anxiety and depression.

Herbs and supplements are chosen on an individual basis. Some patients come in already taking a medication for mood such as an SSRI, SNRI or benzodiazepine. As a naturopathic doctor, Dr. Day is trained in how to formulate a treatment plan that incorporates herbs and medications in a safe way to minimize negative interactions.

IV therapy is a new and cutting-edge way to harness the benefits of natural supplements.

It involves the injection of sterile, compounded natural substances directly into a vein. After the initial minor poke of the needle, most people find the treatment to be relaxing. IV treatments can be extremely effective for patients who are experiencing fatigue after (or during) a prolonged stressful period in their lives. This is because the physiological response to stress can use up a lot of nutrients as well as having effects on your digestion that decrease the absorption of nutrients leaving you extremely depleted. Taking nutrients by IV can be a quick way to replenish depleted nutrients and get you feeling more energetic quickly.

Call our office at 403-782-4600 to set up your first appointment or book online. We’re never too busy to help you!

Learn more about IV Therapy Book an appointment

Headaches/Migraines

Headaches and migraines are two of the most debilitating conditions I see in my office. Even when patients are able to get out of bed and go through the motions of a normal day, headaches and migraines can zap their energy, make them irritable and decrease their productivity and generally take the joy out of their days.

Cause of Headaches and Migraines

Headaches and migraines can be caused by many things; foods, stress, hormones, and tight muscles to name a few. Naturopathic Medicine is a type of medicine that treats the whole person and can address most of these causes. While hormones, stress, & food triggers are effectively treated by diet and herbs/supplements, in my experience, tight muscles respond best to trigger point injections and perineural injection therapy.

A trigger point is an area of spasm and inflammation in a muscle.

Often there is a tender lump you can feel at the site. When pushed, this lump radiates pain to the surrounding area. The trapezius is a common site of trigger points that radiate into the head and cause headaches. The trapezius is a large kite-shaped muscle covering most of the upper back & posterior neck. It is a muscle that is often stressed and overstretched because of our posture.

Many of the activities we do in daily life bring our arms and shoulders forward. Sitting or standing in this position for large parts of the day creates tension in the trapezius. The upper part of the trapezius around the shoulder is also a place where many of us hold our stress. Stress & poor posture can, over time, create trigger points in the trapezius that contribute to chronic headaches or migraines.

Perineural Injection Therapy (PIT) consists of a series of small injections immediately under the skin targeting painful areas where the nerves are sensitive and inflamed. This treatment is generally well tolerated and does not cause discomfort after the treatment.

Call today to see if injections can help with your headache!

“Before seeing Dr. Day I was getting migraines 3 to 4 times a month, with them lasting up to 4 or 5 days. Since starting the trigger point injections 2 years ago I rarely get a migraine, only a few times a year during severe weather changes. Since the treatments I can live an active life with my family and participate in activities again without always being in a fog of pain. I would gladly recommend the injection therapies to anyone suffering with migraines.” ~ Tanya O

Call our office at 403-782-4600 to set up your first appointment or book online. We’re never too busy to help you!

Learn more about PIT Book online

Fatigue/Low Energy

Fatigue is one of the leading causes of visits to a doctor and one of the hardest conditions to treat from a medical model. This is because fatigue is a very non specific symptom that can be caused by many different medical conditions. Possible causes that should be ruled out include hypothyroidism, anemia (B12 or iron deficiency), depression, and infections such as mononucleosis or the flu. But all too often, all the blood tests come up normal.

Does this sound familiar?

It is frustrating to be repeatedly told you are healthy but feel anything but. This is where Naturopathic Medicine comes in. In naturopathic philosophy there is a big difference between being disease-free and healthy. Although Naturopathic Medicine is effective in treating many different disease states, many of the patients I see don’t have a diagnosable disease but are not as healthy and vital as they once were.

Our approach to treating fatigue is a combination of herbs, nutrition and IV Therapy treatments.

Adaptogenic herbs are the cornerstones of any naturopathic treatment of fatigue. Adaptogens are a class of herbs, which increase our resistance and recovery from the adverse effects of long-term stress. They are becoming the most important groups of herbs to combat the effects of our 21st century lifestyle. There are thousands of adaptogenic herbs available. Dr. Day will pick the right one for you based on your symptoms.

It is hard to feel healthy, vibrant and full of energy when you don’t eat a healthy, nutrient-packed diet.

On the flip side, it is hard to find the energy to prepare healthy, nutritious meals when you are constantly fatigued. Dr. Joanne Day’s approach to nutrition is not to give you a 20 page diet handout with foods you have never heard of and have no idea how to cook or incorporate into your meals. Instead, we focus on incremental changes starting with those that will make the biggest impact to your energy and overall vitality.

IV Therapy can be a powerful tool to combat fatigue.

IV therapy is a new and cutting-edge way to harness the benefits of natural supplements. It involves the injection of sterile, compounded natural substances including vitamins, mineral and/or herbs directly into the bloodstream. Many patients notice increased energy after just one or two treatments. For patients with more intense or prolonged fatigue more treatments may be needed for improvement of fatigue.

Most patients start with one treatment a week for 4 weeks. We decrease the frequency of treatments as your energy becomes more consistent.

Fatigue has become an epidemic, an all to common symptom of our busy lifestyles.

Fortunately, even when all the conventional blood tests are considered within normal limits, there is still hope. Your first step is to book a consult with Dr. Joanne Day, ND today to discuss your struggles with low energy.

Call our office at 403-782-4600 or book online to set up your first appointment. We’re never too busy to help you!

Learn more about IV Therapy Book an appointment

Cardiovascular Disease

Chelation is a safe, effective intravenous (IV) therapy that both removes heavy metals from the body and helps to restore healthier blood flow in areas of the body affected by atherosclerotic plaques.

The pathogenesis of cardiovascular disease involves toxic metals such as arsenic, lead, mercury, cadmium, as well as excess lead and calcium accumulation in the blood vessels. This creates the optimal environment for atherosclerotic plaques to develop.

The ultimate goal of chelation therapy is to restore the health of the arteries.

For some, this results in a decrease of angina symptoms, a decrease of shortness of breath, lowered blood pressure and/or normalized blood cholesterol.

Chelation can be administered in conjunction with conventional drug therapies for hypertension, high blood cholesterol, angina and diabetes. Diabetics especially benefit from chelations therapy. In a 10-year study (Trial to Assess Chelation Therapy) by the National Health Institute the over-all reduction in the study’s endpoints (stroke, all-cause death, reinfarction, hospitalization for angina and revascurilization procedures) was 18%. Diabetics also had positive reduction in endpoints including an astonishing 40% reduction in a subsequent MI & 40% reduction in total mortality.

Chelation is often administered one to two times a week for a minimum of 20 to 30 treatments.

Most treatment plans for cardiovascular disease involve IV treatments of both EDTA and phosphatidylcholine (also know as Plaquex). Traditionally treatments of EDTA have been adminstered over 3 hours, however newer forms of EDTA can now be administered in just one hour. Phosphatidylcholine is a natural substance which is administered through a 90 minute IV treatment.

When comparing the cost of chelation to long-term drug therapy and time off work for surgery, chelation is extremely cost effective.

Call our office at 403-782-4600 or book online to set up your first appointment. We’re never too busy to help you!

Learn more about IV Therapy Book an appointment

Hormone Imbalances

Hormones are chemical messengers in the body that are created by endocrine glands such as the thyroid, adrenals and ovaries or testes. Addressing hormone imbalances can help you address symptoms such as fatigue, irritability, palpitations, anxiety, depression, insomnia, weight gain, infertility, low libido and menstrual irregularities.

As a Naturopathic Doctor, the most common hormone imbalances Dr. Day helps patients with are adrenal, thyroid and sex hormones (estrogen, progesterone & testosterone).

Adrenal imbalances are usually the result of chronic stress.

Our adrenal glands, which sit on top of our kidneys produce adrenaline and cortisol in response to stress. This response is a good thing. The extra cortisol and adrenaline help us deal with the stress by increasing blood flow to the muscles, making our reflexes more acute, shutting down our digestion, and making us more alert. This can be helpful if we need to do things like study for a test, drive on a slippery road or take care of a sick relative. Also, some people don’t realize that even good stressors such as having a baby, getting married, or frequent travel can put a high demand on the adrenal glands.

When this stress response goes on for extended periods of time, the adrenal glands become overloaded and are unable to keep up. This condition is sometimes called adrenal fatigue. Some common symptoms of adrenal fatigue include daytime sleepiness, insomnia at night, anxiety or irritability. Fortunately, there are many herbs that can treat adrenal fatigue caused by stress. IV Therapy is also another effective way to nourish and recharge the adrenals.

The thyroid gland is also very sensitive to stress.

Stress can suppress the production of TSH (thyroid stimulating hormone) and interfere with the conversion of T4 to T3 (the active form). Other factors that interfere with thyroid function are: nutritional deficiencies such as insufficient selenium or iodine in the diet; electromagnetic radiation pollution (cellphones, electrical appliances); and certain medications. It is important to address thyroid dysfunction in its early stages because once the thyroid looses its ability to produce thyroid hormones, it is very hard to get this functioning back.

An imbalance of estrogen and progesterone can have a huge impact on your weight, sleep, mood and fertility.

Many lifestyle choices and things in our environment can contribute to these imbalances. Also, impaired gut health and liver function can have a huge impact. Thankfully Naturopathic Medicine has many tools to help our body heal & rebalance our hormones.

Book your initial consult via phone at 403-782-4600 or book online to determine if hormonal imbalances are affecting your quality of life.

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Osteoarthritis

Is joint pain keeping you up at night?

Are you cutting back on activities because of joint pain? Osteoarthritis (OA) is one of the most common causes of chronic joint pain. It can interfere with your life by causing pain with activities, decreasing range of motion because of swelling and stiffness of joints, and pain that interrupts sleep. OA results from degeneration of cartilage in synovial joints (most commonly knees, fingers, shoulders, and facet joints in the spine).

Cartilage is a firm, rubbery tissue that provides cushion for the bones of joints, and allows the bones to glide over one another. If the cartilage breaks down, the cushion disappears and the bones eventually rub against each other. The disappearance of cartilage is only one of the causes of pain in osteoarthritis. Osteoarthritis can cause other dysfunctions in a joint including excess inflammation, tight muscles around the joint, inflamed ligaments and bone spurs.

Fortunately, there are non-surgical, non-pharmaceutical treatments that have been proven in clinical trials to help decrease the pain and discomfort of osteoarthritis and get you back doing the things you love to do.

Prolotherapy

Prolotherapy is also an injection therapy but instead of injecting a patient’s own blood into the knee we inject a solution of dextrose, procaine and B12. Prolotherapy stimulates the wound-healing cascade. The dextrose solution attracts growth factors to initiate tissue repair. Typically people need prolotherapy treatments monthly to combat and stay ahead of the degenerative process taking place in an osteoarthritic joint.

There are also several herbs, nutritional supplements and dietary changes that have been shown to help combat the pain and swelling of Osteoarthritis. These are prescribed on an individual basis.

Your first step in overcoming your pain and getting back your life is to make an appointment to discuss your options.

Call our office at 403-782-4600 or book online to set up your first appointment. We’re never too busy to help you!

Learn more about Prolotherapy Book online

Children’s Concerns

Building a strong foundation of health in childhood is one of Dr. Day’s biggest goals as a naturopathic doctor and parent. Many studies confirm that poor health in childhood (and in utero) is a strong predictor of cardiovascular disease, diabetes and some cancers later in life. Studies also confirm that even if teenagers and young adults stray from healthy living for a few years they usually come back to living and eating in ways they learned as children.

Children are some of our favourite patients.

Having three children of her own, Dr. Day can relate to their special health needs.

Dr. Joanne Day provides gentle and natural treatments for many children’s health concerns including:

  • Digestive Concerns – constipation and chronic loose stools
  • Skin conditions – eczema, warts, rashes
  • Immune concerns including chronic ear infections and frequent colds
  • Allergies – hay fever and seasonal allergies
  • Food sensitivities testing
  • Sleep problems
  • Newborn and baby concerns such as diaper rash, thrush, and colic

Treatments most commonly used with children include dietary changes, herbs, supplements and lifestyle changes.

Call our office at 403-782-4600 or book online to set up your first appointment. We’re never too busy to help you!

Call to book Book online

Immune Support

Our immune system is one of the first areas of the body to let us know when we are under stress or in a weakened state. Are you missing work or your hobbies because you catch every cold or flu that is going around? Or are you dealing with chronic uncomfortable infections such as UTIs or yeast infections? Sometimes, healthy eating and getting enough good quality sleep isn’t enough to keep those infections at bay.

Naturopathic Medicine has many tools to help strengthen your immune system. IV Treatments are a convenient way to boost your immune system and fight infections by supplying extra nutrients, including vitamin C and zinc, to help the immune system work more effectively.

Call our office at 403-782-4600 or book online to set up your first appointment. We’re never too busy to help you!

Learn more about IV Therapy Book an appointment

Rotator Cuff Injuries

The Role of Prolotherapy in Healing Rotator Cuff Injuries

The rotator cuff is a group of four muscles, with their associated tendons, that connect the arm to the shoulder. The shoulder joint is unique in that it is one of the most mobile joints in the body.

It is also one of the joints that is most susceptible to injury from overuse. Rotator cuff injuries are most common in people who engage in activities (jobs or hobbies) that involve repetitive motions. They are also more common as we age.

The pain of rotator cuff injuries usually starts as a sharp stabbing pain when performing certain motions with the arm. It can progress to a constant dull ache that can interrupt sleep, interfere with work, or stop you from taking part in your hobbies.

Chronic inflammation in the tendons of the rotator cuff can increase your chances of developing a tear in a tendon of the rotator cuff.

Prolotherapy are effective treatments for rotator cuff injuries from the early stages of inflammation and pain to severe tears.

During a Prolotherapy treatment, the affected tendons are injected with a dextrose solution that directly stimulates the growth of strong, healthy tissue. The dextrose creates a short duration of inflammation which stimulates a healing cascade bringing in growth factors to the area. These growth factors interact with fibroblasts that are also attracted to the area to synthesize precursors to mature collagen (important components of tendons).

In a 2016 double blind, placebo controlled study published in the Archives of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation, a group (n=73) of people with chronic shoulder pain, signs of rotator cuff injury and evidence of a tear as seen on ultrasound, were placed in two groups. Group 1 received prolotherapy and group 2 received placebo(injections of saline). Both groups received physical therapy. The group that received the prolotherapy treatments reported superior long-term pain improvements and patient satisfaction compared with saline injections.

Most people feel sore after their Prolotherapy treatment. This soreness can last for just a couple of hours to a couple days. However for most people the soreness is gone by the next day. As the tendonitis improves after subsequent treatments, the post-treatment discomfort is less and less.

The number of Prolotherapy treatments needed depends on the severity of the injury and the capacity of your body to mount a healing response.

Some people need only 2-3 prolotherapy treatments while others with long term injuries may need 15 or more treatments. The average number of prolotherapy treatments is 5-7.

Call our office at 403-782-4600 or book online to set up your first appointment. We’re never too busy to help you!

Learn more about Prolotherapy Book online

Digestive Concerns

Besides being uncomfortable or painful, digestive symptoms can be extremely inconvenient or even embarrassing. Bowel urgency, bloating and flatulence can interrupt work, errands and socializing. Thankfully, Naturopathic Medicine is a great tool to get your digestion working properly again.

Naturopathic doctors are frequently accused of being obsessed with patients’ bowels.

This is because digestion, like sleep, healthy emotions, and exercise, is one of the pillars of health. A healthy, nutrient-rich diet is important, but if you are not breaking down your food and absorbing the nutrients, all your efforts are for nothing.

Beyond nutrient deficiencies, poor digestion can also lead to other health concerns such as hormone imbalances (the bowels are an important route of elimination for excess hormones), anxiety/depression (there is a lot of fascinating new research linking gut health to emotional health), and immune system malfunction.

What can the digestive track tell us?

Digestive complaints are some of my favourite conditions to treat because most of the time, the digestive track is telling us, through your signs and symptoms, what is going wrong.

Conventional medicine is focused on detecting disease states such as celiac, crohn’s or ulcerative colitis. If none of these disease states can be found, a patient with troublesome digestive symptoms is told they have IBS or Irritable Bowel Syndrome.

From a Naturopathic Medicine perspective IBS can be broken down into many different subgroups depending on which function of the digestive track is not working correctly.

Is your body secreting too much or too little stomach acid?

Is the sphincter between your esophagus and stomach working properly?

Is your digestive bacteria balanced?

Is the lining of your digestive tract inflamed?

Are you producing enough bile acids?

These are just a few of the things that can go wrong in your GI tract and produce uncomfortable symptoms.

Sometimes what you are eating can cause or be a contributing factor to your digestive problems.

Usually you can determine if one or two foods are causing your symptoms but it can get more complicated if there are many foods causing digestive (or other) health concerns. We use either specialized testing or an elimination/reintroduction diet to help you determine the food triggers of your symptoms. We will determine at your appointment which is the best option for you.

Call our office at 403-782-4600 or book online to set up your first appointment. We’re never too busy to help you!

Call to book Book online

Low Back Pain – SI Joint Pain

Prolotherapy of SI Joint Pain

Most of us aren’t even aware we have a joint just above our buttocks called the Sacro-Iliac (or SI) joint. The SI joint is where the sacrum (the triangular bone that creates the bottom of our vertebral column) and our iliac bones (the two big wing-shaped bones that make up our pelvis). It is held together by a section of very strong ligaments.

Not much movement happens at the SI joint – most movement in that area of the body happens at the hip joint or the vertebral column. However, the SI joint must hold the weight of our entire upper body when we are sitting or standing which places a huge deal of stress on them.

The SI joint can become stressed and hyper mobile due to a number of factors.

Anything that alters the way you walk – pregnancy, legs that are different lengths, a sore knee or hip – can stress the ligaments at the SI joint. Lifting injuries and falling can also cause damage to the SI joint.

Hyper-mobility (increased movement) at the SI joint can be a source of chronic low back pain. Many people report a dull achy pain that can become sharp when performing certain twisting motions. Stiffness and pain after sitting for a period of time is also common.

Fortunately, Prolotherapy injections can help.

Prolotherapy uses Dextrose (a sugar solution) to recruit the immune system to the area to strengthen the joint.

A study in 2010 compared prolotherapy injections and steroid injections for SI joint pain. Each group received injections (either prolotherapy or steroids) every 2 weeks for a maximum of 3 injections. Patients were assessed at 2 weeks and 15 months after the start of treatment. At 2 weeks there was no difference in pain for both groups.

However, after 15 months, the number of people who had a greater than 50% reduction in pain in the prolotherapy group was 59% versus only 10% in the steroid group. Wow, great results from the prolotherapy group and patients received a maximum of only 3 injections (some only received 1 injection). And lasting results as well – after 15 months the treatment was still effective.

Call today 403-782-4600 or book online to set up your first appointment. We’re never too busy to help you!

Learn more about Prolotherapy Book online

Tendonitis

For many people tendonitis develops out of nowhere. One day you have no pain, the next you feel a sharp pain in your elbow (or shoulder, or wrist, or knee). The pain can progress from a sharp pain when you do certain movements, to a dull ache all day and all night.

Tendonitis is the inflammation of a tendon, the thick cord that attaches muscles to bone.

Although it can be caused by a sudden injury, it is more likely to develop from repetitive motions over time. A contributing cause of tendonitis is also muscle imbalances and poor posture. Inflammation is the body’s attempt to heal an injury. Much of the time the body does its job and we never feel that pain again.

However, if the inflammatory reaction isn’t big enough to heal the injury, the body gets stuck in a chronic inflammatory pattern. For you, this feels like months or years of chronic pain. If a tendon is inflamed over an extended period of time, it is more likely to rupture or tear.

Prolotherapy is also an effective treatment of tendonitis.

During a Prolotherapy treatment, the affected tendons are injected with a dextrose solution that directly stimulates the growth of strong, healthy tissue. The dextrose creates a short duration of inflammation which stimulates a healing cascade bringing in growth factors to the area. These growth factors interact with fibroblasts that are also attracted to the area to synthesize precursors to mature collagen (important components of tendons).

Most people feel some soreness after their treatment.

This soreness can last for just a couple of hours to a couple days; however for most people the soreness is gone by the next day. As the tendonitis improves after subsequent treatments, the post-treatment discomfort is less and less.

The number of treatments needed depends on the severity of the injury and the capacity of your body to mount a healing response.

Some people need only 2-3 prolotherapy while others with long term injuries may need 15 or more treatments. The average number of prolotherapy treatments is 5-7.

Dr. Joanne Day provides Naturopathic Medicine and Regenerative Injection Therapy for tendonitis at Healing Hands in Lacombe, Alberta.

Learn more about Prolotherapy Book online

Cancellation Policy

Our clinic has a 24-hour cancellation policy. If you are unable to make your scheduled appointment time and do not provide the required notice, we will charge you the full price of your appointment, if we are not able to fill the appointment. If we are able to refill the appointment, there is no charge. In the event that you have an emergency or are sick, please let us know so we can treat your specific situation.

​This policy is necessary for our clinic to continue to serve our clients and ensure our therapists have a feasible career. During clinic hours please call to cancel appointments. If you need to cancel an appointment after hours, please call us and leave a message.

Direct Billing
If you’re not sure whether you’re eligible to participate in direct billing for chiropractic services, naturopathic services or massage therapy, speak with your benefit provider for assistance; pre-authorization requirements may apply. Please note, we require a credit card on file for all bookings.

4910A 51 Avenue, Lacombe, Alberta T4L 2K3
Phone: 403-782-4600
healinghandsintegrativemed@gmail.com

Reception Hours
Monday: 10am – 7:30pm
Tuesday: 10am – 6pm
Wednesday: 9am – 5pm
Thursday: 9am – 3pm
Friday: 10am – 3pm

Weekends: closed
Stat holidays: closed

Massage Therapy Hours
Monday: 10am – 8pm
Tuesday: 10am – 8pm
Wednesday: 9am – 5pm
Thursday: 9am – 8pm
Friday: 10am – 3pm

Weekends: by appointment only
Stat holidays: closed

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