At Los Gatos Chiropractic and Wellness Center we assess the whole individual, and a large part of how your body functions is what you eat. The basic building blocks for your cell structure and function comes from the nutrients in food. Foods also influence your level of inflammation in the body and sensitize you to pain or decrease your healing time. Many times our body may be processing food incompletely or our diet isn’t varied enough to get all the essential nutrients. By doing laboratory testing, we ensure that you receive the vitamins and minerals that you need in the proper amounts and avoid those that may be harming you.
Nutritional Counseling
Nutritional Counseling covers a wide range of assessments and philosophies regarding the quality of nutrition in a diet. This may include: clinical nutrition which emphasizes whole natural foods and nutritional supplements for health maintenance and treatment of specific disorders; food allergy counseling which helps individuals identify and eliminate those foods causing hypersensitivities, allergies and intolerances; and Western nutrition which teaches the scientific knowledge behind the nutritional function of foods as well as the daily nutritional requirements for optimal health.
Food Allergy Testing
About a third of people have food sensitivities to one or more foods. Often an elimination diet is used to determine which foods cause a reaction, but it can take many weeks to do an elimination diet carefully and properly. As an alternative to an elimination diet, blood work to determine food allergies can be used. They check for both an immediate reaction (food allergy), a delayed reaction (food intolerance) and a histamine reaction. Did you know that you can react to a food up to 72 hours after you eat it? Some of the symptoms of food allergies can include mood changes, behavior changes, weight gain, ‘brain fog’, respiratory problems, chronic sinus issues, stomach aches, constipation, diarrhea, skin changes, aches and pains, and even headaches. To learn more ask the doctor on your next visit.
General Health & Family
Our doctors treat acute and chronic injuries and illnesses for the entire family. We also provide preventive care for all ages. We use conservative care to address many common conditions that affect your family. Our doctors can evaluate and treat the symptoms of many common conditions such as colds, flu, ear infections. We are trained as portal-of-entry providers which means you do not need a referral and we can evaluate you and ensure that you get the right care for your illness, including referrals to specialists and imaging if necessary.
Herbal Medicine
The organic nature of botanicals (plant substances) makes them compatible with the body’s own chemistry and they can therefore be gently effective with few side effects. Unlike chemically-derived drugs that can only address a single problem, botanical medicines are able to address a variety of problems simultaneously. Many commercial drugs use compounds extracted originally from botanical medicines. Each of us is metabolically and biochemically unique, the nutrient requirements for one person may be different than the requirements for someone else. If you want to know more about your individual need for vitamins or you want to know how well your supplements are working for you ask for a complete vitamin analysis. To learn more go to www.spectracell.com, www.metametrix.com or www.gdx.net.
Heavy Metal and Other Environmental Toxicity Testing
Every day we are exposed chemicals and toxic metals. Most of us will never be aware we are even being exposed. Our soil, water supply and food may contain toxic metals and chemicals, such as mercury, lead, aluminum, food additives, pesticides, and hundreds of chemicals. Heavy metal toxicity and chemical exposure can lead to the accumulation of toxins in our tissues and organs causing nutritional deficiencies, hormonal imbalances, neurological disorders, and can even lead to autoimmune disorders, cancer, and other debilitating chronic conditions. We test for toxic metals, water quality and much more. For some of our environmental testing check out www.gdx.net for more information.
Homeopathy
Homeopathy is based on the theory of “like cures like.” It’s an alternative to the conventional use of medicine. It works on a subtle yet powerful electromagnetic level, gently acting to strengthen the body’s healing and immune response. Remedies are selected according to the patient’s entire body picture including not only symptoms, but emotional, lifestyle and mental states.
Hormone Testing
At Los Gatos Chiropractic and Wellness Center we can test stress hormones, female and male hormones, metabolic hormones, thyroid hormones, blood sugar regulating hormones and even sleep related hormones. Hormones are affected by genetics, environmental and lifestyle factors. These changes can lead to a variety of health conditions such as menstrual irregularities, infertility, peri-menopause, mood changes, memory changes, weight gain, diabetes, fatigue, insomnia, and even depression. We test hormones in blood, saliva and urine as we see appropriate for each individual person. Some of the hormones we test include cortisol, DHEA, progesterone, estrogen, testosterone, insulin, melatonin, thyroid hormones and thyroid antibodies. The labs we work with are www.questdiagnostic.com, www.meridianvalleylab.com, www.diagnostechs.com, www.gdx.net and www.neurorelief.com.
Parasite and Functional Digestive Testing and Comprehensive Stool Analysis
Cornerstones of good health include proper digestion of food, assimilation of nutrients; good gut flora and regular bowel movements, as well as maintaining a balance between good gut bacteria and bad bacteria, Candida (yeast) and parasites. If you are experiencing digestive issues such as diarrhea, constipation, bloating, indigestion, hemorrhoids, GERD/reflux, irritable bowel syndrome or excessive gas, you may need to consider additional testing. At Los Gatos Chiropractic and Wellness Center we often use testing to assess absorption of nutrients, to identify opportunistic pathogens (parasites, yeast, fungi and bacteria) and to monitor GI disorders. To learn more about testing your digestive health go to www.gdx.net.