Naturopathic Tools for Your Mental Wellness

A root cause approach with you in mind

By Bluestone Naturopathic Medicine Services

Content provided by Dr. Jinda Chai – a licensed naturopathic physician

How would you describe naturopathic medicines to a random person?

Naturopathic medicine is a philosophy of how you utilize the tools you have in your toolbox.  We identify the root cause of your symptoms via a comprehensive analysis. We evaluate blood work, the details of your medical and pertinent personal history, and the physical exam findings.  We then determine the best plan of action to address the root cause. Finally, a robust combination of nutrition and lifestyle counseling, nutritional supplementation, botanical medicine, physical medicine, and/or medications is recommended.

What separates naturopathic medicine from conventional psychiatric medication? Do you combine both for treatment?

The separation lies in seeing the whole picture. In some cases, simply fixing a patient’s iron or B12 status can make a huge difference in their mood and energy levels.  For other patients, lower intervention neurotransmitter support in the form of amino acids and botanical medicines is enough to improve their mood versus pharmaceutical, depending on the severity of their psychiatric diagnosis.

What is your experience treating depression with naturopathic medicine? Can you give some tips for those you might be interested in starting this approach?

14.5 million US adults experienced a depressive episode in 2021 according to the NIH.  It is one of the most common conditions mental health conditions I support as a naturopathic doctor.  It is important to run labs to make sure that the body is balanced in regards to vitamins, minerals, hormones, etc.  Depending on severity of the depression, we will decide if a natural or pharmaceutical treatment is appropriate to improve mood while we are investigating the root cause via blood work analysis.

Tell us a success story a patient has had the naturopathic approach?

• My favorite story is a patient who struggled with addiction and depression, and had been in remission for several years.  She was placed on pharmaceutical medication during treatment and maintained this medication under her care with me.  We discovered iron deficiency via a lab called Ferritin, and started iron infusions.  After a series of iron infusions, she told me, “I feel like I may have never struggled with addiction or severe depression if I had known about these iron infusions”.  This story really shows how powerful addressing a mineral deficiency can be for a patient.  FYI Ferritin is not a commonly run lab in allopathic medicine, it is more of a functional lab test at this point.

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Additional information and interview by David A Morris, LCSW