Ian Spohn, ND

One of the most difficult tasks in holistic healthcare, and often the least rewarding, is counseling patients or clients to make healthy lifestyle changes. While homeopathy and herbalism can direct the vital force towards natural healing, and nutritional supplements can provide essential factors lacking in the modern food supply or depleted by years of chronic …

Homeopathy is one of the best natural modalities for offering pain relief. There is very little in the world of herbal and nutritional supplementation that can provide rapid results while addressing the root cause, and conventional pharmaceuticals for pain like gabapentin and opiates are among those most people try hardest to avoid, being notoriously addictive …

Besides stress and poor diet, toxic exposures are probably the greatest contributor to modern disease. Among the many available detoxification therapies, homeopathic drainage remains popular as a way to gently stimulate the body’s own healing mechanisms and natural detoxification processes, especially because drainage remedies can be targeted to specific types of toxic exposure (like mold, …

Just as physical complaints can have underlying mental or emotional causes, many mental or emotional complaints can have underlying physical causes. Disentangling these complex relationships is among the primary strengths of holistic medicine, and when it comes to mood disorders, the experience of holistic practitioners has uncovered a wide array of physical imbalances which can …

When you think of gallbladder health – bile flow, fat digestion, painless digestion after heavy meals – do you also think of liver health? The importance of treating the liver is recognized in a number of diverse health conditions, given its central role in detoxification, and yet the liver is often overlooked when gallbladder symptoms …

There is no longer any debate about whether we are in an epidemic of loneliness, rather the arguments tend to focus on which group or subgroups are being hit hardest. The modern dwindling of opportunities for real social interaction, especially since 2019, is believed to be a major contributor to increasing mental health problems, including …

Remedy substances all found in our miasm blends and are the remedies most closely associated with their respective miasms in homeopathy. Sulphur (elemental sulfur) - main anti-psoric remedy Thuja occidentalis (western cedar leaves) - main anti-sycotic remedy Mercurius Vivus (liquid quicksilver) - main anti-syphilitic remedy In the 19th century, Samuel Hahnemann gained an enormous following …

Many functional digestive disturbances can be linked to dysbiosis, or an alteration of the normal and healthy composition of the gut’s microbiome. Probiotics are an effective way to support a healthy balance of the right bacteria in the gut, and while probiotics are integral to many holistic protocols for digestive health, it is also important …

Fluoride has been in the news recently, thanks to the long-continued efforts of the Fluoride Action Network. Due to scientific evidence provided and the persistent efforts of this group, a federal court has finally ruled fluoridated water to be a public health hazard, with previously deemed “optimal” levels now proven to lower IQs in children. …

Mother nature is often unfairly blamed when it comes to allergies, yet there are many logical problems with the notion that pollen, and not some deeper internal imbalance, is making one ill. While pollens, danders, molds, mites, and other allergens found naturally occurring can certainly trigger symptoms, that these agents could be the true cause …

We all recognize that the modern liver is frequently burdened by environmental toxins, and while we can all benefit from additional liver support, not everyone needs it and many conditions don’t seem to improve much from receiving it. While clinically significant liver disorders are often hard to miss, by the presence of symptoms like jaundice …

Most attempts at weight loss fail in the long-term, and this includes even those that are effective in the short-term. The problem lies in the fact that all successful dietary interventions for weight loss have the same element in common: a caloric deficit. Regardless of which “diet” is used, the foods to be included or …

December is a time often marked by holiday stress and respiratory illness. There is nothing worse than buckling down for a cold, dark month of financial constraint to complete every list and obligation, only to have the ensuing and much-deserved holiday plagued by a bad chest cold, completely ruining one’s chance to finally relax. Such …

Lymphagogue is one of the classic herbal indications and among the most prevalent to be found in traditional sources of herbal wisdom. Referring to an herb’s ability to move or stimulate the flow of lymph, the term lymphagogue describes many of the most useful herbs and is a common object of herbal formulas. The Energique® …

An inability to maintain healthy blood sugar has been rightly identified as the crux of most recent modern health problems, underlying metabolic syndrome, type II diabetes, and it is thought possibly even dementia and heart disease. In alternative medicine, there are a number of well-known approaches to support a healthy blood sugar level, such as …

It seems there is more and more research coming out on why you should not be taking any of the most popular herbal and dietary supplements. A very recent study that’s been gaining attention lately, published in JAMA1, warns that turmeric, green tea, ashwagandha, black cohosh, red yeast rice, and Garcinia cambogia are liver toxic, …

Many children and adults deal with attention deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), a condition affecting one’s focus, attention, and ability to perform cognitive tasks, with or without accompanying symptoms of restlessness and hyperactivity. The typical conventional treatment options are amphetamine-derived drugs which produce effects similar to methamphetamine and cocaine. Indeed, they are so effective for promoting short-term …

Ever since Ozempic was approved to treat type 2 diabetes, the “weight loss shot” and various other GLP-1 agonists have superseded most other weight loss strategies, despite their dangerous side effects and untoward cosmetic effects. Even in alternative health spaces, discussions are dominated by the search for “natural” GLP-1 agonists or targeted nutrition to support …

Nobody likes kidney stones, and unlike many lifestyle diseases that do not present with intense symptoms, the experience of kidney stones is often unpleasant enough to motivate lifestyle changes. Natural treatment modalities offer a number of options for treating kidney stones, and while many of these treatments can also serve as prevention, patients will often …

It makes sense intuitively that a healthy, nutrient-rich diet supports fertility. The process of growing a human from a single cell requires a vast supply of nutrients, and all human cultures including our own emphasize special nutrition for soon-to-be mothers. Whether it’s traditional cultures pushing them to eat raw liver and salmon roe, or modern …

Detoxification as a health strategy has become increasingly important since the 1960s, the decade following the post-war era’s “better living through science.” In that time, many armament and chemical factories, which had been producing substances for the purpose of killing humans, faced a need to pivot their businesses to peacetime, and the result was, to …

With so many herbal products on the market, it’s important to distinguish between different preparations and to select one whose strengths harmonize with one’s personal approach to healing. Within the practice of herbalism, there are widely varying dosing strategies that correspond to the many different ways an individual practitioner chooses to use herbs, and not …

Has a patient ever canceled a scheduled appointment with you due to an illness? It is ironic to consider deeming oneself too sick to see the doctor, but acute illness can be a cause of patient cancellations, especially if your practice is focused towards preventative medicine or holistic healthcare. We often stress the importance of …

Samuel Hahnemann conceptualized three homeopathic miasms, each corresponding to a chronic disease with an accompanied skin lesion that could be suppressed. He also posited Psora to be the original miasm, and claimed the other two chronic diseases in fact originated from it. According to Hahnemann’s theory, it was not even possible for an organism to …