A Seasonal Newsletter from Naturopathic Health Care Drs. Amy Rothenberg & Paul Herscu MPH
Spring 2012
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115 Elm Street, Suite 210, Enfield, CT 06082 1.860.763.1225
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| Scheduling an Appointment |
We are currently accepting new patients. Please call us at 860.763.1225, Mon-Thurs to schedule an appointment
For more information about our clinic, click here.
Dr. Rothenberg is now also accepting new patient appointments via Skype.
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About Naturopathic Health Care
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Our Natural Medicine Roots by Dr. Amy Rothenberg
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A sure sign of spring for me is my inaugural long roller blade on the bike path near my home. From lengths of this bike path I have witnessed a pileated woodpecker nesting, great blue herons gliding over still water, piles of water snakes breeding and curious young beavers exploring pond-side thickets. I have also seen young families out for an adventure, riding toys, bicylists pulling toddlers along and older folks out for a slow stroll in the late afternoon. I love this path and on it I have done some of my best thinking, dreaming, reflecting & planning.
A few weeks back when I was about half way through my maiden voyage, I was taken aback by the great oak tree I have admired since my own children were small, laying down across the path, its massive root system exposed for all to admire. Standing perhaps 20 feet in the air, the root circumference was a testament to the hard work that tree had done over the course of its life. We had a freak storm this past autumn, many trees were in full leafed out form when a foot or so of wet snow fell on Halloween day. The weight such precipitation landed on every leave and branch was simply too much to bear; an enormous number of otherwise healthy limbs and in cases like this, whole trees were forced to surrender. This particular specimen with its generous canopy and seemingly perfectly placed branches had been a particular favorite of mine.
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One year I had been standing nearby, changing songs on my Walkman (that's how long ago it was!) when I saw a pair indigo buntings darting in & out of those branches. But this root ball! How intricate, delicate and broad the root structure was; how essential to the many years of life this tree had. Our own roots in natural medicine may not go back as far, but they do go wide and deep and they do inform all that we do in work with patients, and in our writing and teaching. Briefly here's what we believe:
- Supporting the healing power of nature; we believe in the body's innate ability to heal & the healing energy of foods, plants, light, & other natural substances.
- Identify and treat the root cause of illness whenever possible.
- Like all physicians, we aim for the classic tenet: First, do no harm. We look for low risk methods that have few to no side effects.
- Educate patients. We believe that knowledge is power; we work to educate patients about healthy eating habits, other healthy lifestyle changes as well as on how to decrease and manage stress. Whenever we can, we try to involve our patients and the parents of our patients in preventive measures & the use of at-home treatments.
- We believe that our health is determined by physical, mental, emotional, genetic, environmental, social and spiritual elements; we strive to treat the whole person.
- We strongly believe in the axiom "An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure." We work with patients to create specific healthy lifestyle plans that take into account personal risk factors, heredity and particular vulnerabilities to future illness.
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Health Advice: Allergies are Ruining My Life!
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We have more and more patients in our practice who are suffering with seasonal allergies for longer and longer periods of time. It's hard to know if global warming is impacting this or if the general state of people's immune systems is getting more and more out of balance for all kinds of other reasons. But from toddlers to school-aged kids, to grownups and the elderly, those runny noses, itchy eyes, headaches, fatigue, irritability, foggy thinking and skin symptoms are getting out of hand! Natural medicine approaches to the treatment of allergies can be effective and affordable. There are so many different common sense, nutritional supplement, herbal preparations and homeopathic remedies from the natural medicine cabinet that work, we thought we'd share a few.
Click here for some practical advice to help you get through the allergy season.
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Chicken Soup Recipe
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I spent much of the last 20+ years of raising a family doing the lion's share of cooking. I am not someone who was ever oriented to cookbooks or recipes. I kept wholesome foods in the cupboard, belonged to a community supported agriculture farm or grew things in my garden. I would look around and make food from whatever inspiration I drew from the ingredients on hand.
 An unexpected joy of the empty nest is the absence of urgency & constancy of everything related to food: shopping, planning, cooking & cleaning up-- all of which I poured myself into AND don't miss a bit! I always felt that I was modeling the importance of food, family time and how to nourish oneself to my kids. But now Paul & I will sometimes have eggs for dinner, or cheese and crackers and sliced mango for lunch and feel entirely liberated! I feel less pressure to prepare all the food for all the people all the time and with a bit of time and space opened up, intermittently, I am enjoying cooking all the more! On these pages I'd like to share some of our family's favorite recipes.
To start off, I am going right back to basics! Chicken soup!
Most every culture in the world has its bone broths, made from the animals available and cooked long for maximal nutrition. I think of chicken soup as one of the best healing foods we have. I make something along these lines several times a month, keep some frozen in case anyone around is sick and use the stock in other natural foods recipes. It's easy and tasty and can be doctored up to your liking with whatever vegetables are in season or whatever you can grow in your yard or in a pot on your windowsill. Click here for the full recipe.
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Featured Product: Real Pickles & other Fermented Foods
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We will feature one product, company or organization in each issue of FieldNotes that we support or encourage our patients to try! This time it's the company, REAL PICKLES which uses traditional pickling processes, as opposed to lots of vinegar and sugar, and makes a variety of wonderful and tasty products. Here is a link to their website. You can order online or find at many local (to New England) food stores.
There are many reasons why eating traditionally fermented foods are good for us. First of all, such foods can be easier to digest because they are partially broken down before ingested! Such foods also help us to create a proper balance of bacteria in the gut. So many ailments, from irritable bowel syndrome to constipation to allergies begin with issues in the gut. Many now believe that even emotional and cognitive challenges can be helped somewhat by addressing gut health.
Click here to read more about the benefits of fermented foods and do-it-yourself options.
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Thus ends our first issue of FieldNotes, hope you enjoyed! If you do not wish to receive it in the future, click on "SafeUnsubscribe" at the bottom. If you have a friend you'd like to share this with, click "Forward this email" below.
In health & vitality,
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Drs. Amy Rothenberg & Paul Herscu Naturopathic Health Care
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