Mental illness affects all Canadians at some point either through their own experience, or that of a family member, friend, or colleague. In any given year, 1 in 5 Canadians experience a mental illness. By the time Canadians reach 40 years of age, 1 in 2 have struggled with their mental health.

What is causing us to feel so unwell?

Although trauma, environmental factors, and genetics are important contributing factors to poor mental health, research has now changed! It is suggested that anxiety and depression are inflammatory events, and can be connected to things like your blood sugar and hormonal changes. These new findings are HUGE modifiable contributors!

When we are in good health, with enriching hobbies and interests, and a supportive community around us, we can usually cope with everyday stressors quite well. However, if we are challenged for prolonged periods of time, our brains can become overwhelmed and we can manifest symptoms of mental illness. Although signs and symptoms vary depending on the individual, a few common ones include:

• Changes in mood, such as feeling sad, nervous, irritable, or angry
• Decreased energy and increased day-time fatigue
• Brain fog and difficulty concentrating
• Lack of resiliency, and excessive worrying or fear about everyday situations
• Loss of interest or pleasure in activities that were once enjoyable
• Difficulty sleeping or sleeping too much
• Feelings of worthlessness or guilt
• Social withdrawal or isolation
• Physical symptoms such as changes in appetite or weight, digestive problems, acne/hives, headaches, and heart palpitations where other diagnoses have been ruled out

We know that certain life circumstances and changes can bring feelings of anxiety and depression, especially when we also have a lack of support and coping mechanisms. However, some researchers have found that having an internal stressor (such as a nutrient deficiency or gut dysfunction), causes your brain to create negative stories around the situations you’re currently in! This often leads to feelings of anxiety and depression because your body is sensing a stressor but it does not know what that stressor is.

This is why medications and therapy can be helpful for some individuals, and not useful for others. If you are being told those are the only options and your intuition is saying there is something else going on – there are other treatments for you and we can help you get those answers!

Did you know…?

The interconnection between mental health and physical health is now widely accepted as fact. What does this mean for you? Your mental health concerns are not “just in your head”. Research has shown that most of the time there is a physiological dysfunction present. We now know that this is not isolated to a psychological issue, but also a result of inflammation, nutrient deficiencies, hormonal imbalances, gut dysbiosis, environmental toxins, insulin resistance, and mitochondrial impairment. As you can see, mental illness is a complex issue and there are several factors contributing to the development of anxiety and depression.

You have the potential to be well and you should be excited about that potential! If you are ready to take back control of your health so you can start feeling like yourself again, we are here to support you and help you get the answers you have been searching for!

The Advanced Women’s Health
Mental Health Program

At AWH we realize that you are unique and therefore you need a plan that is customized to your individual needs. Our goal is to help you identify and understand the cause of your concerns, and treat them directly. We are committed to ensuring that you stop relying on temporary “band-aid approaches”! It is crucial that we build a foundation and fix any core issues that may be contributing to your mental health concerns, as this will lead to a long-term and sustainable solution. Therefore, we will assess and customize our 3 phase plan to address the contributing factors specific to you. We also work collaboratively with Medical Doctors, Nurse Practitioners, and other healthcare professionals to foster your healthcare team and to support those who are on medications. Your treatments should not be focused on one approach or the other, it is foundationally about you feeling at your best!

This program is offered both through telemedicine to all Ontario Residents, and in person at our Toronto and Mississauga clinics.

Phase 1 – Understand and Customize

In the first appointment you can expect that your Naturopathic Doctor (ND) will take time to get to know you as an individual and thoroughly inquire about your health concerns. We do not just investigate your psychological symptoms though – we take a holistic approach and look at thyroid function, digestion, hormonal health, and much more! We will also connect the dots about what is happening in your body so that you can better understand how we are going to fix it.

At the end of this appointment you can expect to leave with:

• Basic diet and lifestyle recommendations
• Personalized herbal and nutraceutical supplement recommendations
• Where appropriate, in house testing for your adrenal health and gut health
• Lab test recommendations which may include a CBC with differentials, full thyroid panel (TSH, free T3, free T4, anti-TPO, anti-TG, reverse T3), insulin and glucose testing, gut bacterial testing, hormone testing, cholesterol testing, vitamin and nutrient testing, and inflammation investigations. We use both functional tests and standard blood tests to come to understand your health better.

After we receive the results of your testing, your ND will explain all of the findings. No blanket “normal” statements here! We want to ensure you understand what it all means. From that point we will further customize your supplements and tailor nutrition recommendations, lifestyle modifications, and other modalities to fit your specific needs.

Phase 2 – Tweak and Monitor

After thoroughly understanding what is contributing to your symptoms, we get to work! At this stage, it is very common for patients to already leave our office feeling better and on their path towards health. During Phase 2 we are also working on addressing concerns that contribute to health but have less clear (not less impactful!) connections. After we have begun to support the nervous system, we tackle residual symptoms while offering continuous support. When someone has experienced long-term anxiety and depression, it is common for many areas of health to be impacted. In this phase we will support the following areas, and of course anything else specific to your unique case.

• What are the most common concerns we work on in Phase 2?
• Overactive sympathetic nervous system
• Long-standing negative thought patterns
• Impaired coping mechanisms
• Inflammation
• Digestive concerns such as nausea, bloating, constipation, and loose stools
• Skin issues such as rashes and hives, and acne

Some or all of these concerns may have been taken care of by this phase, but any remaining issues are tackled head on!

Within 3-6 months after embarking on your plan, we will retest to ensure that you have improved from not only a symptom perspective, but using lab data as well. This allows us to make sure that you are improving as expected and making your way into Phase 3.

Phase 3 – Flourish and Maintain

Mental health is something that everyone needs to nurture continuously. This means that maintaining the tools we have practiced, a nourishing diet, and health-promoting lifestyle will be important to ensuring you are able to handle what’s thrown at you. But life happens, right? We all fall off and experience setbacks. It’s easy to get pulled back into old habits when you do not have continued support, so this phase helps to keep you on track – judgment free! For some this is regular acupuncture or manual therapies, a semi annual check-up, or kick-start community program. No matter what this looks like for you, we are here 100% of the way to offer continuous support through the highs and lows!

References

Clapp M, Aurora N, Herrera L, Bhatia M, Wilen E, Wakefield S. (2017). Gut Microbiota’s Effect on Mental Health: The Gut-Brain Axis. Clinics and Practice, 7(4):987.

Daniels TE, Olsen EM, Tyrka AR. (2020). Stress and Psychiatric Disorders: The Role of Mitochondria. Annual Review Clinical Psychology, 16:165-186.

Kleinridders A, Cai W, Cappellucci L, et al. (2015). Insulin resistance in brain alters dopamine turnover and causes behavioral disorders. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A, 112(11):3463-3468.

National Institute of Mental Health. (2022). Anxiety Disorders. U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, National Institutes of Health.

National Institute of Mental Health. (2022). Depression. U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, National Institutes of Health.

Patten et al. (2005). Long-term medical conditions and major depression: strength of association for specific conditions in the general population. Canadian Journal of Psychiatry, 50: 195-202.

Rao TS, Asha MR, Ramesh BN, Rao KS. (2008). Understanding nutrition, depression and mental illnesses. Indian J Psychiatry, 50(2):77-82.

Smetanin et al. (2011). The life and economic impact of major mental illnesses in Canada: 2011-2041. Prepared for the Mental Health Commission of Canada. Toronto: RiskAnalytica.

Yuan, N., Chen, Y., Xia, Y. et al. (2019). Inflammation-related biomarkers in major psychiatric disorders: a cross-disorder assessment of reproducibility and specificity in 43 meta-analyses. Transl Psychiatry, 9, 233.