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Natural Health News

Reduce excess sugar

Sugar is sweet in many senses of the word sweet. It sweetens the flavour of everything you put it in and plays an important role in many of the treats we love the most. Sugar has been there at our birthdays, holidays and other special events. Sugar has even been there when we’re grieving. The purpose of this article is not to convince you to stop enjoying sugar when it’s appropriate. The purpose is to highlight the top reasons excess sugar is a problem because if you address excess sugar consumption there’s a good chance you may feel some great benefits.


1.  Excess Sugar Steals Your Energy

Excess sugar steals your energy by giving you a temporary burst of false energy and then leaving you alone later only to crash. The mechanism is as follows. When you eat excess sugar it gets absorbed rapidly into the bloodstream. When blood sugar is elevated you experience a temporary high of both physical and emotional energy. High blood sugar (within limits) feels good. In fact, high blood sugar can often feel great. However, in order to utilize the sugar just consumed the pancreas must make insulin. The more excessive your sugar consumption, the more insulin required. Also, the more often you eat excessive sugar, the more insulin surges will be required. As insulin does its job with sugar metabolism you start to lose your sugar buzz. Insulin pulls sugar into the cells of the body and reduce blood sugar below where it was before the excess sugar. This is why you get an energy buzz followed by a crash. The more often you do this the deeper the energy crashes and fatigue become.


2.  Excess Sugar Causes Weight Gain and Fat Deposition

Excess sugar causes weight gain and fat deposition by at least two main mechanisms. First of all, excess sugar spikes insulin levels. Insulin is a type of growth hormone. When insulin is high your body is automatically in fat deposition mode. This means it’s impossible to burn fat and lose weight with excess insulin. Secondly, excess sugar that is not burned for energy is stored as fat. The old myth was that fat consumption lead to fat deposition in the body. While this is partially true, the real equation is that excess sugar leads to fat deposition. This is because fat is our natural storage container for excess energy we consumed from sugar and carbohydrates.


3.  Excess Sugar is Bad For Your Brain and Nervous System

Excess sugar is bad for your brain and nervous system and is a key contributing factor in causing or worsening many people’s health concerns. Symptoms like headaches, ADHD, ADD, anxiety, depression, panic attacks, brain fog, non-Parkinson’s tremors, and many more neurological disorders may be affected by excess sugar consumption. These symptoms are affected by sugar in many potential ways including the mechanisms already mentioned above. Another mechanism not mentioned is damage caused by products called glycosylated end products. These are harmful by-products produced as a result of excess blood sugar. They are a significant problem for people with pre-diabetes and diabetes but they also can exacerbate other symptoms. One of the main problems with glycosylated end products is that they damage arteries, veins, and nerves. This is why diabetics are at a high risk of vascular disease and nerve damage.



Enjoy sugar in moderation as a treat. Avoid daily excess sugar consumption. You may not realize the negative effects of excess sugar until you address it and reduce your sugar consumption for a few weeks. However, you may be surprised to see some of your symptoms improve simply by avoiding excess sugar.


If you have any questions about a naturopathic approach to health and wellness please contact Dr. Barlow at 250-448-5610.


Improve your ability to heal



1.  Support Your Immune System



2.  Anti-inflammatories



3.  The Building Blocks



4.  Circulation




The thyroid test?

More and more new patients are coming into my office seeking advice on what they think may be a problem with their thyroid gland. In most cases, their intuition is correct; they do indeed have a concern with their thyroid. However, a very common phrase I’ll hear from them is, “They say my thyroid is fine because I’ve had the thyroid test and nothing showed up.” This test they are referring to is the TSH test, which is more of a screen for the thyroid as opposed to a definitive test. There really is no such thing as a thyroid test that tells you if your thyroid is working. In this week’s article, we will discuss how the thyroid gland can be evaluated with more thorough and accurate testing.

In my opinion, thyroid symptoms are very meaningful regardless of what any single test says. All doctors are trained to take all the information from several sources and put it together with the patient’s individual characteristics to make a proper assessment. Unfortunately, this does not happen as well as it should in the conventional system in part because there is an over-reliance on the TSH test. I’ve had dozens and dozens of patients in the past year with thyroid symptoms only to be told their thyroid gland is fine because the TSH is normal. In many of these cases, I ordered a full thyroid panel of tests and discovered the contrary.


Thyroid Panel

There are at least four individual tests that should be performed in order to thoroughly assess the thyroid gland. These include TSH, free T4, free T3, and Thyroperoxidase.



TSH is a hormonal signal sent from the pituitary gland to the thyroid. The higher the number, the more the pituitary is working to get your thyroid to work. When the number increases it usually indicates a hypothyroid situation. One of the concerns with the TSH test is the range of acceptability. In BC it is considered normal to have a TSH from 0.1 to 5.0. However, many doctors consider a number above 2.5 to be suspicious and worthy of further evaluation, especially if the patient has hypothyroid symptoms.


Free T4

Free T4 is the hormone the thyroid gland makes in most abundance. It is an inactive hormone that floats in the blood until it binds to a receptor in or on a cell membrane. At this point the T4 converts to T3 and the thyroid hormone does its work in the cell. When T4 levels are normal the TSH levels should be normal as well. Unfortunately, this does not mean you will be without thyroid symptoms. If T4 is not converting to T3 properly a person can suffer from hypothyroid symptoms not because of their thyroid gland but because of poor conversion in the rest of the cells in the body.


Free T3

Free T3 is produced in the thyroid gland but represents the minority of thyroid hormone compared to T4. T3 is active and ready to stimulate metabolic activity. As mentioned above, T3 is created from T4 at the binding of receptors in a cell. It’s important to know your T3 levels if you have hypothyroid symptoms because if T3 is low, regardless of what the TSH and T4 levels are, consequences are likely to occur.



Thryoperoxidasae is an autoimmune marker for the thyroid. When this number is elevated it represents an attack from your own immune system on the thyroid. The most common autoimmune condition producing hypothyroid symptoms is Hashimoto’s thyroiditis. Autoimmune thyroid conditions are likely to result in some randomness with symptoms. This often brings normal periods of time mixed with episodes of fatigue, brain fog, weight gain, sluggish digestion, and loss of hair to name a few.


If you suspect your thyroid gland or thyroid hormones may be contributing to your health concerns I’d recommend you speak with a physician who can order a thorough thyroid evaluation in order to determine to proper diagnosis and treatment plan.


If you have any questions about the thyroid or would like to schedule a consultation with Dr. Barlow please contact his office at 250-448-5610.


Thick blood

It is well known in the general public that “thick blood” can lead to high blood pressure. Most people are familiar with the use of blood thinners like warfarin for this issue. In fact, many people have either first hand or with a loved one temporarily used blood thinners as part of a surgery or other medical procedure. However, most people don’t really know what “thick blood” is and how it can raise blood pressure.


What is Thick Blood?

Defining thick blood is and isn’t as simple as it sounds. Thick blood may be defined as blood that is more viscous due to various factors. However, for the most part, thick blood is a result of more clotting factors in the blood stream. This may make the blood slightly more viscous but the real issue is that it leads to more clotting in the arteries. The type of clotting I’m talking about here is the same clotting that could cause a stroke or heart attack. However, this type of clotting also happens all over our bodies every second of the day as part of our normal function. The problem with “thick blood” is that it puts us at a higher risk of developing high blood pressure and/or other cardiovascular disease over the long-term.


How Does Thick blood Raise Blood Pressure?

Thick blood raises blood pressure because of two main mechanisms. In the short run, when blood is more viscous it requires more pressure from the heart to push it throughout the arteries. Secondly and more important over the long run, thick blood causes inflammatory damage to the lining of the arteries, which leads to atherosclerosis and plaque formation. These mechanisms harden the arteries and reduce the space for blood to flow through.


What Causes Thick Blood?

Many of the causes of “thick blood” are aspects of our life that we can control like nutrition and blood sugar regulation. Many of these causes also lead to inflammation, which enhances the long term cardiovascular concern. The most common causes of include poor blood sugar regulation (pre-diabetes), diabetes, pro-inflammatory diets, smoking, and excess alcohol intake. There certainly appears to be genetic factors at play that may be separate to causes that we can control.


How Do You Treat Thick Blood?

The naturopathic treatment for “thick blood” focuses on identifying and treating the factors that contribute to making the blood thick in the first place. Instead of relying on blood thinners for long-term use, I try to make it possible for a patient not to need to depend on them. Most of this work involves identifying sources of inflammation in a patient’s diet and environment. When we need treatment for “thick blood” it is very important to recommend what is in the patient’s best interest. This may actually be a prescription for a blood thinner. However, there are other options we can consider if a prescription is not needed. The nutrients to consider include fish oil, wobenzyme, serrapeptidase, and curcumin to name a few.


If you have any questions or would like to schedule an appointment with Dr. Barlow please contact his office at 250-448-5610.

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