When a vigorous woman in her 80’s was asked what her secret was she said “I haven’t been to a doctor in 20 years.” Take the case of a 70 something beekeeper who keeps very fit lifting thousands of pounds every day moving his bees and chopping and stacking and selling wood. He says “young people in their 20’s, they come to buy firewood. They have such big bellies and I have to load the wood onto their trucks because they can’t lift a thing!”

What about the “old fashioned” approach to health care practiced by a few physicians, who say “I can refer you to a specialist and you can have a lot more tests. Or you can just forget about it.” So these patients forget about mammograms, colonoscopies, PAP smears, stress tests, bone-density scans, skin screening following the motto: Don’t go looking for trouble and trouble won’t go looking for you. According to the above sceptical doctor the definition of a healthy person is someone who hasn’t been tested thoroughly enough.

This sceptical doctor has it partly right. His comments reflect the statistic that medical prescriptions account for the 4^th leading cause of death in North America and that you are better off without medical intervention. What he doesn’t realize is that naturopathic medicine provides the population with tools that not only extend life but improve the quality of life especially as you age.  From our perspective the earlier you know about osteopenia (weakening of the bones) or that colon polyp the sooner you can start on a good nutritional program to prevent the osteopenia from getting worse or, in the case of the polyp, from returning.

Recently I am seeing many patients return for a check up after many years of not seeing them. I am happy to say that most of them are still following my advice and maintaining a healthy program, thus experiencing no symptoms, have fewer colds and flus and are generally aging with more grace. Naturopathic physicians are the mechanics that can help your body reach a healthy 75 through a simple approach:

1. give yourself regular tune ups, this means doing a simple cleanse at least every 5000km or 6 months! Your liver, kidneys and bowels will love you for this.
2. make sure you are getting adequate cancer fighting antioxidants and this can be as easy as taking a greens drink everyday
3. make sure you are getting enough of the major 3: calcium and magnesium, B complex and essential fats through cod liver oil (because you need that vitamin D not found in Flaxoil….. remember?)
4. and last but not least keep your mind and your body active.

The “biology of hope” a well known scientific fact, is being studied at the University of Alberta and over 2000 journal articles have been written on the subject worldwide. “Hope” counsellors use traditional counselling techniques with a twist.  For example they might ask their clients the following questions:  “what is the very smallest thing that gives you hope? Or rate your hope on a scale of one to ten and ask what it would take to raise that score by one point?”  Answers to these questions and counselling sessions that encourage clients to hang onto slivers of hope can take a severely depressed person out of their shell over time.

Naturopathic physicians also give their patients this very important commodity. We give them the tools required to take their physical well being into their own hands and most are very ready to run with it. This is not what your typical doctor would have you do. So if you want to live well until 80 or older, take up beekeeping or wood chopping, roller blade and do yoga for as long as you can and turn off your TV. The biology of hope is in the life that is right in front of you.

Dr. Ingrid Pincott, naturopathic physician, has been practicing since 1985 and can be reached at 286-3655, www.DrPincott.com and is now in her new office 300-1170 Shopper’s Row. Come up and see us sometime!