By Caitlin Rothermel You are probably outsourcing too many of your health care decisions, and your health plan is one of the biggest drivers of both the costs and choices you are and are not allowed to make. It’s no secret that the price of Affordable Care Act (ACA) health plans is increasingly untenable. It’s…
By Diana Diaz Have you ever turned down the music so that you can concentrate on the road? Closed your eyes so you can hear something better? From right where you are, take a moment and look around you. Mentally list five things you can see. Then, list four things you can hear. Three things you…
By Dr. Marli Parobek When we consider summer, our first thoughts may be the carefree vacations, time off school, relaxed schedules, and the beautiful Pacific Northwest sunshine. As any good PNW resident, we are also careful not to tell too many people about our marvelous summers, lest we be overrun with visitors. One topic worth…
This might seem like a charming local story: Vashon has a practitioner whose advanced studies in psychiatric nursing are a great benefit to Islanders. But the old saying, “if you want to change the world, start locally” could not be more applicable. Just recently, Dr. Marli Parobek APRN DNP FNP PMHNP, was recognized by her…
By Jane Valencia A few months ago, in a conversation between herbalist and frequent Loop writer, Kathy Abascal, and co-editor Caitlin Rothermel and myself, we spoke about the ability of plants to work on the entire spectrum of our health from the physical, psycho-emotional, to the spiritual. We speculated: if herbs can address dis-ease on…
By Leigh Siergiewicz Women tell me all the time they think their hormones are imbalanced; they are tired, have brain fog, digestive issues, hair-shedding that seems excessive, carbohydrate cravings, and poor sleep. These symptoms could be caused by many different things, and with a full evaluation we can identify the cause. Even if hormones are…
By Dr. Lisa Morse Digestive Distress is a common condition – it’s estimated that 10-15% of people suffer from irritable bowel syndrome (IBS). I’ll admit this isn’t a pretty topic to talk about – gas, bloating, constipation, abdominal pain, and diarrhea. But these symptoms are plaguing too many people, causing pain and discomfort, an inability…
By Caitlin Rothermel On Vashon, conversations about health happen everywhere, all the time, and go well beyond the typical topics of diagnoses and drugs. We discuss what we eat, where that food came from, how we move, and how we want to age and ultimately die. At a time when conventional healthcare can feel increasingly…
By Dr. Lisa Morse I remember it vividly: The day during my clinicals of naturopathic medicine that I realized how much thoughts and emotions affect our physical health. I was seeing a 70-year-old woman who had a full-body itchy rash. She was attached to the idea that candida was the cause. Upon questioning, it was…
By Jayne Simmons Everyone remembers the first time they met nettles in person. Sometimes, you were just trying to step off the trail for a moment, and nettles found you. Or if you are lucky, and you have a good mentor, you got to learn how to fold up the leaf and eat it without…