How to be Health-Empowered

It’s great to be health-conscious but since good health is something we strive for, for almost a whole century, it’s better to take it a couple steps further and be health-empowered! When you’re conscious about something, you are aware of it and it’s possible to make a choice about it. When you are empowered, you have full control over it and can make quality, lasting changes. 

Here's a list of steps you can take to become empowered over your health (click on Read More for the full blog)

1. Keep copies of your blood work and understand it
2. Know your family history
3. Ignorance isn’t bliss when it comes to your health, the earlier you find an issue, the easier it is to treat.
4. Seek professional healthcare, don’t peruse internet forums or medical websites to diagnose and treat yourself. 
5. Don’t be ashamed or embarassed of whatever condition you have.
6. Understand your condition. 
7. Be as open as you can about what’s going on, we have a lot to learn from each other. 
8. Be open-minded! 
9. Know correct doses for supplements
10. Read labels
11. Join health-empowering websites 
12. Keep your health records organized 
13. If you have a chronic health condition, keep a journal
14. Get a Doctor that you like and is open-minded 
15. Have a team of healthcare practitioners  looking after you.
16. Try avoiding the food you love for a month
17. Come see me! 

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1. Keep copies of your blood work and understand what it means

• You can use this blood work as a baseline to set goals for yourself 
• Make sure you actually look at your blood work, I’d say >50% of the blood work I receive, my patient was told it was normal but something is actually abnormal. 
• Reference ranges for blood work are basically set so 95% of the healthy population will fit within that range. This means a 30 year old is held under the same standards as a 90 year old. These reference ranges are relative according to many different variables.
• These reference ranges are therefore too broad, so some interpretation is needed in terms of taking the patient’s symptoms into consideration and seeing how close the numbers are to the minimum or maximum of the reference ranges
• Combining a patient’s symptom picture with their blood work is the best way to interpret labs. 
• Example 1: If someone is completely healthy and their ferritin (iron storage) is 40, 40 is a good level for them. If someone has restless leg syndrome, fatigue and hair loss and their ferritin is at 40, 40 might be too low for them and they may benefit from iron supplementation. 
• Example 2:  if the reference range for testosterone is 80-1266 and your testosterone is 1262 it won’t be flagged as abnormal so it might get missed depending on who looks at it. Looking at that number should tell you that it is high-“normal”, especially if you’re having symptoms of high testosterone such as mood swings, aggression, hair loss, etc… 
• In conclusion: bloodwork must be interpreted properly for it to matter at all. 

2. Know your family history

• It’s good to know what your genetics make you more susceptible to so you can actively prevent those conditions from happening.
• This being said, just because obesity is in your genes it doesn't mean you've got that gene so you’re going to be obese whether you like it or not. You have to look at what’s causing that condition. It could be other genetic issues related to hypothyroidism, gluten intolerance, insulin resistance, or it could be learned traits like eating as a coping mechanism or improper dietary habits. 
• One thing that sets centenarians (100 year olds) apart from people who life less than 100 years is they are very family-oriented. This could contribute to healthy aging because elders have been through certain conditions and know to look out for them in their youngn’s, leading to an earlier diagnosis.
• If you have cardiovascular issues in your family such as a relative who had heart attack, high cholesterol, high blood pressure, etc… you should get tested for all of those things as well. The same goes for several different conditions, including cancer. If a relative had colon cancer, you best be getting tested for colon cancer regularly especially once you hit 40 years old. If a relative had testicular cancer you could be more susceptible to other cancers such as breast cancer and melanoma. 
• Family history may not be a causative factor but it is a risk factor which can help us look into the future of your health and be the main source of prevention. 

3. Ignorance is not bliss when it comes to your health. The earlier you find an issue, the easier it is to treat.

• So many people I talk to cringe at the thought of something being wrong with them. 
• There’s a good chance that if you catch something early enough, the treatment will be much easier and faster than if you were too find out due to serious symptoms driving you to the doctor. The longer you wait if you have a certain condition, the more radical the treatment will have to be to cure you of it. Waiting will also decrease the chances of the condition still being curable or reversible. The longer you live, the harder it is to break bad habits. 
• Example: A 60 year-old male finally goes to a doctor because he’s getting early signs of dementia. He’s put off going to the Doctor because he would rather not know if anything is wrong with him. He has stage 3 hypertension (high blood pressure). If he would have gone a couple of years ago when his blood pressure was starting to get high it would have been easy to reverse. Sometimes all it takes is avoiding coffee! Now since he avoided the Doctor for so long the high blood pressure has started to damage the capillaries in his kidneys and brain which is causing hemorrhages in these areas and leading to kidney disease and dementia. Once this damage occurs it’s irreversible. 
• The key reason to be on top of your health is to catch symptoms while they are still reversible.

4. Seek professional healthcare. Don’t peruse internet forums or medical websites to diagnose and treat yourself. You deserve better care than a Google search 

• Cyberchondria can cause more stress than the condition you actually have. 
• Clinical experience is key when it comes to figuring someone’s health out, for all you know you could be reading something from an elementary school assignment. 
• If you are unsure about something your Doctor says, just ask them. While I was shadowing an MD a couple years ago a patient came in all depressed because he thought he was going to die for the last couple of months. The doctor told him he had a lipoma and he thought she said lymphoma! If he would have just called to clarify instead of thinking he was bothering his Doctor he could have enjoyed those last couple months worry-free 

5. Don’t be ashamed or embarassed of whatever condition you have. The more you share, the more others will learn and you could bring the progress of a condition further than research can.

• In the medical field, some of the best work that has been done on certain conditions are from those who have been diagnosed with that condition. 
• When someone realizes they are not the only one going through what they’re going through it brings comfort. Reading other people’s stories and telling your story can be very cathartic.
• Support groups can be a very healing resource. 
• If you have been diagnosed with a certain condition try searching for that condition’s support group and participate in it. It’s so much easier now that everything is online now too because those people who could not bring themselves to physically go to a support group can participate as well. 

6. Understand your condition. A lack of knowledge commonly leads to fear and that fear can lead to anxiety which will worsen your quality of life and possibly make the condition even worse.

• When you fear something you tend to hide or flee from it. This is the opposite of how we should react to a condition. We have to face it and stay present with everyone around us for support. Isolation can cause illness so it makes perfect sense that isolation could make your existing condition even worse. Company and laughter can be very therapeutic!
• Ask your Doctor to explain your condition or provide literature for you to read up on it. 
• Autoimmune conditions like Multiple Sclerosis, Lupus, Hashimoto’s Thyroiditis, Myasthenia Gravis, etc… are prime examples of conditions which you need to understand. Fear and lack of knowledge regarding what it is or what to do about it will only make these conditions worse. 

7. Be as open as you can about what’s going on. We have a lot to learn from each other.

• If you’re that brave soul in the change-room who actually went to the Doctor because you were having problems peeing, let the others know what you’ve been through. You might be a role model to them and give them the courage to get checked out. 
• Example: It’s a common mindset to not get a colonoscopy because it is so invasive. If you talk to someone who’s had one before you’ll learn that it’s not so bad and maybe get the courage to go and make sure you don’t have any polyps or colon cancer. 

8. Be open-minded!

• There are many treatments out there with a scientific backing that is lacking but time after time they work in a clinical setting. This is why clinical experience is so important! 
• Some examples of these modalities are acupuncture, applied kinesiology, herbal medicine and homeopathy. I’ve personally witnessed drastic changes from all four of these modalities. 
• This ties back to #4, there are a lot of narrow minds and strong opinions on the internet. What if you’re that person with arthritis that never went to get acupuncture because someone on the internet said there’s no scientific proof and it’s just bogus medicine? You could have kept your stomach and liver healthy if you did acupuncture instead of depending on anti-inflammatories. 
• This being said, there are a lot of scams out there so make sure whatever you are doing is conducted professionally by a healthcare practitioner who is regulated under a regulatory board 

9. Know correct doses for supplements

• Please refer to my other blog about the risks of self-supplementation

10. Read labels

• If you understand labels, you’ll be able to actually nourish yourself rather than just eating because you're supposed to. 
• The less words you can’t understand, the better
• There are several cereals out there that claim they are high in fiber but when you actually look at them they have more sugar than fiber. Try to get >10g of fiber per serving in your cereal. 
• The next point is a good way of becoming more aware of the food you’re eating as well

11. Join a website like www.myfitnesspal.com to track your nutrition

• www.myfitnesspal.com and www.cronometer.com are great resources to be empowered with your nutrition. These sites can teach you a lot and be great guides for your health! 
• They also have great apps so you can track your nutrition intake throughout the day. 
• I get most of my patients who want to lose weight to use these resources and give me their login/password so I can take a look at what they are eating. Eventually we sit down and go over a week of their nutritional intake.
• This allows for subtle dietary changes so they can lose that attainable and sustainable 1lb per week which translates to a deficit of 3500 calories per week or 500 calories per day. Radical diets where people lose tons of weight quickly tend to not be sustainable or healthy. 

12. Keep your health records organized

• It’s a good idea to keep your hard copies in a filing cabinet and use a spreadsheet to track your blood work over the years. 
• Blood work is just a snapshot of what is going on in your body. If you have something to compare to, these tests will tell you more. 
• Example: If you track your TSH (Thyroid stimulating hormone) over time you’ll be able to see if it’s functioning properly or if you are on thyroid replacement medications, you’ll be able to see if they are effective. 

13. If you have a chronic condition keep a journal so you can identify triggers, what relieves it or aggravates it, evolution of symptoms, etc…

• Sometimes identifying triggers like certain foods, stress, plants, animals, etc… can aid in finding an actual diagnosis or be a strong aspect of your treatment. 
• There are some great apps out there like Pain Coach, myIBD, iHeadache, etc… that are condition specific. You can also write everything you possibly can down about your symptoms. This can be cathartic as well. 
• I ask my patients to bring as much information as they can to me. I love going through a thorough journal to try to spot patterns.  

14. Get a Doctor that you like, who is open-minded.

• I’ve had too many patients come in saying they don’t want to bother their Doctor or they tell me they don’t like their Doctor so they’re not going back. There are tons of awesome MD’s out there; you just have to find the right one. 
• Ask around to see who has had good experiences or go to www.ratemds.com , just remember there will be a negative bias since people who have had bad experiences are more likely to rate their Doctor compared to people who have had good or neutral experiences.  
• I have had a couple patients come in telling me their Doctor told them not to waste their time and money with Naturopathic Medicine. This goes back to fearing the unknown. If these patients listened to this advice they would still be struggling with whatever condition they had. Most MD’s who are educated about Naturopathic Medicine are very open to it, some even become ND’s! As time goes by, more and more MD’s are becoming open to Naturopathic Medicine. Just keep in mind only certain provinces and states are regulated right now (Ontario is one of them!). Click here for more information about which are regulated. 
• I do get referrals from some MD's and it is very refreshing! I think it's important that ND's work and communicate with MD's rather than allowing a gap in care and communication to occur. 

15. Have a team of healthcare practitioners looking after you.

• In my opinion having an MD, an ND, a chiropractor and a Registered Massage Therapist is the best combination to provide a holistic approach. We all offer different benefits to your health
• Hint: At my clinic we have an ND (Me), a chiropractor and an RMT

16. Try avoiding the food you love for a month

• It's common for the food you "can't live without", you're "addicted to" or think it's a "necessity" to be the primary suspect in whatever condition you are struggling with. Sometimes a trial elimination of foods like dairy, gluten, sugar, nightshades, citrus fruits, etc... work wonders for my patients. 
• You can't be health-empowered if something is ruling you. If you are addicted to sugar or gluten (which most people are), those foods are ruling you. You need to show those foods who is boss! 

17. Come see me ;)

• I’m a little biased on this one but I will make it my mission to help you gain empowerment over your health.

Thanks for reading! 
Please share your ideas about how to be health-empowered! 
If you have any questions or comments feel free to write below or contact me via the tab at the top of the page. 

Sincerely, 
Dr. Justin Gallant ND