Consumer Guide to Steamboat Bodyworks-Hormone Balancing

Cammi Balleck CTN
ANCB Board Certified Traditional Naturopath

The State of Colorado does not require licensing for traditional naturopaths, which are not the same as Naturopathic Doctors, which are required to be licensed through the State of Colorado Department of Regulatory Agencies. The differences between traditional naturopaths and Naturopathic Doctors are; education, knowledge, training, capability, and ethics.

Naturopathic Doctor education includes the requirement of a bachelor's degree in order to apply to a four-year Naturopathic program at an accredited Naturopathic School, which includes clinical training and patient care. The next step, successfully passing NPLEX, Naturopathic Physicians Licensing Examinations, is a prerequisite for applying for state licensure. The granting of a state license to qualified professionals means that license holders are required to follow the laws that govern their practice.

In contrast, traditional naturopaths have no education requirements, none, not even a GED requirement. Consequently, traditional naturopaths lack the education, knowledge, training, capability, and ethics that are necessary in any health care setting.

ANCB, American Naturopathic Certification Board, the only credential listed for this individual, is not much help. 

In fact, ANCB gives false certification based on false credentials. Their website says exam eligibility requires "a doctoral level degree for the exam in Traditional Naturopathy", but, "Practical experience, apprenticeships, and additional certifications are also considered..." What that means is that if a doctoral level degree is not available, any work-related experience, which does not need to be corroborated or checked, can be used to claim eligibility to take their exam. Because there are no other credentials listed for this individual it is assumed there is no doctoral level degree or any education qualifications that would allow the capability to provide some type of health care. ANCB does not indicate whether the doctoral level degree must come from an accredited source or may be accepted from non-accredited sources, like diploma mills or distance learning enterprises where degrees of any kind are handed out for little or no effort and a price.

Flimsy certification is not a good consideration for any health care issues, but that is only one consideration health care consumers should have for this listing. 

This is not health care.

This particular traditional naturopath offers to test urine or saliva samples, however, traditional naturopaths are not qualified or capable to gather or test urine or saliva samples. To get around this inconvenience, urine and saliva test kits are sent directly to the client, who gathers the sample on their own, then sends it off to a lab, not a local lab or even a real lab, but an enterprise that claims to be a lab, whose sole function is to always, ALWAYS, produce test results revealing an imbalance that can be treated with the very supplements that the fake lab sells to the traditional naturopath, who then sells them to the client, with additional markup. Once a consumer has been convinced they have an imbalance that can be treated with supplements, further tests are always, yes always, recommended to determine progress and additional supplements, and it is interesting to note that optimum balance may have to be maintained indefinitely or for the rest of the client's life, with supplements, but it isn't about client's health: it is about generating income for the traditional naturopath and the fake lab. In reality, these fake labs are not medical testing facilities, and are not even brick-and-mortar enterprises, existing only in the internet, designed to create profit by the sale of supplements through an arrangement with a shady alternative health practitioner. These fake labs do no testing whatsoever. The samples are simply thrown out and phony results are processed to the client in order to shorten the time it takes to get the client to part with their money.

Hormone and Neurotransmitter Balancing and Testing?

It is irresponsible to suggest to "Find out where all your hormones are..." from saliva and urine testing. Hormone levels naturally fluctuate and are normally tested with blood samples, which means, in order to get an accurate assay, several blood tests would have to be taken over the course of a set period of time. This presents a problem for unskilled traditional naturopaths and consumers who have to collect their own samples, which is why easier-to-obtain saliva and urine samples are promoted. But, in real health care, saliva tests are generally not used to test hormone levels because the reliability can be compromised by rapid fluctuations in saliva, normal degradation, and sample collection, storage, and shipping conditions. Further, there are no published ranges of what would be considered normal hormone levels in saliva. Some hormones can be measured in urine samples, but cannot be used to determine "possible imbalance".

Neurotransmitter levels, which might be considered to be able to be tested because they are chemical messengers in the body, have their own normal actions that a saliva or urine test would be inadequate to discern and therefore would not be reliable; diffusion, degradation or deactivation, and reuptake. Furthermore, the neurotransmitter system depends on where the receptors are located, such as connecting motor nerves to muscles, or in the brain or spinal column, many are produced and activated only in the intestine, making it impossible to get an accurate and complete assay of neurotransmitter levels from saliva and urine samples.

Naturopaths are very limited in their scope of knowledge and treatments they can offer for any health issue. In the case of hormone or neurotransmitter imbalance, even if those conditions were real, the only hope naturopaths can offer is supplements, expensive supplements with no evidence they can affect hormone or neurotransmitter levels, let alone optimize  them.

"...we even test food intolerances."

Remarkable, for two reasons; there are no recognized food intolerance tests available because food intolerance is a condition limited to the digestive system, the symptoms of which pass when food passes through and out of the system, and there is no physiologic reason to test food intolerance from a saliva or urine sample.

"Great for depression, anxiety, mental focus, addictions, and low energy."

This claim seems to suggest that saliva and urine testing are great for these conditions and presumably that treatment would be equally great. This is misleading and disingenuous. Depression, anxiety, and addictions are serious health issues and people who are looking for real help will not get it from unskilled and unethical traditional naturopaths, nor will people with mental focus or low energy issues, both of which can be symptoms of potentially serious conditions. Lack of education, knowledge, training, capability, or ethics results in an extremely limited scope in which a traditional naturopath is unable to properly assess a condition, properly treat it, or recommend a client to a qualified professional health care provider.

The coupon this listing directs consumers to offers a free online visit, which adds to the obviously isolating, detached experience for the consumer that consists of an online visit, saliva and urine test kits sent by mail to the consumer, samples collected by the consumer and sent to an unknown enterprise, results from the tests sent to the consumer, emails to the consumer from the traditional naturopath recommending supplements, which can also be sent through the mail, all without the consumer ever seeing someone who can so much as check blood pressure, which, by the way, is a more serious and common health concern than something conjured up like hormone and neurotransmitter imbalance.

Less than optimal health care experience

Bogus testing, fake lab, phony results, false diagnoses, illegitimate treatment, and sham practitioner, adds up to fraudulent health care.

An added note about fraud

The coupon for this listing also offers a free copy of a book authored by this individual. On the front cover of the book, the letters PhD are placed after the name, the back cover reveals the same letters plus the proclamation, "leading Happy Hormone Doctor" and "a doctorate degree in naturopathic health."

However, there is no evidence to support this individual's claim to be a doctor. There is no license for this individual with the State of Colorado Department of Regulatory Agencies, either as a naturopathic doctor or a medical doctor.

In addition, there is no evidence to support this individual's claim to have obtained a PhD. A doctorate degree in naturopathic health is not offered nor recognized in the United States and there is no accreditation for that program or the colleges that offer it.

Education and degrees in the alternative health industry can be quite a bit different than traditional courses of education and degrees. For instance, there are online and distance learning enterprises, in the Unites States as well as outside the country, which, for a fee, will provide doctorate, bachelor, or master degrees for as little as a year or so of online study or distance learning, with no education pre-requisites. These types of enterprises are not accredited in the United States and, in addition to not requiring previous college experience, or even a GED, do not offer clinical training, residency, patient care training, or any other training that would be expected for careers in the health industry.

This leaves consumer's health and pocketbooks vulnerable to uneducated, unskilled, and unqualified individuals who claim fraudulent credentials.

It is worth it to take the time to verify credentials of anyone who promises any type of health care.



 

Barber and Cosmetology Consumer Guide

Barber and Cosmetology Consumer Guide

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Consumer Guide to Steamboat Bodyworks-Herbalism & Chinese Medicine

Kneading Hands Apothecary

The State of Colorado Department of Regulatory Agencies does not require licensing for this type of business. Herbs, or plants used for alleged medicinal purposes, are considered as supplements, loosely regulated under the jurisdiction of the FDA, Federal Drug Administration, which does not require proof of safety, effectiveness, or standardization of purity or dosage.

Herbalism is a form of alternative health and is not based on evidence using scientific method and in no case are herbalists capable, qualified, or allowed to provide diagnoses.

Consumers who consider herbs as a choice for health care need to look out for their own safety by researching herbs and potential side effects, adverse effects, cautions, and drug interactions and always should discuss all herbs they use or are thinking of using with their primary care doctor.

Here are two excellent web resources:

http://nccam.nih.gov/health/herbsataglance.htm

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_herbs_with_known_adverse_effects 

From

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Herbalism

A number of herbs are thought to be likely to cause adverse effects.[27] Furthermore, "adulteration, inappropriate formulation, or lack of understanding of plant and drug interactions have led to adverse reactions that are sometimes life threatening or lethal.[28]" Proper double-blind clinical trials are needed to determine the safety and efficacy of each plant before they can be recommended for medical use.[29] Although many consumers believe that herbal medicines are safe because they are "natural", herbal medicines and synthetic drugs may interact, causing toxicity to the patient. Herbal remedies can also be dangerously contaminated, and herbal medicines without established efficacy, may unknowingly be used to replace medicines that do have corroborated efficacy.[30]

Standardization of purity and dosage is not mandated in the United States, but even products made to the same specification may differ as a result of biochemical variations within a species of plant.[31] Plants have chemical defense mechanisms against predators that can have adverse or lethal effects on humans. Examples of highly toxic herbs include poison hemlock and nightshade.[32] They are not marketed to the public as herbs, because the risks are well known, partly due to a long and colorful history in Europe, associated with "sorcery", "magic" and intrigue.[33] Although not frequent, adverse reactions have been reported for herbs in widespread use.[34] On occasion serious untoward outcomes have been linked to herb consumption. A case of major potassium depletion has been attributed to chronic licorice ingestion.,[35] and consequently professional herbalists avoid the use of licorice where they recognize that this may be a risk. Black cohosh has been implicated in a case of liver failure.[36] Few studies are available on the safety of herbs for pregnant women,[37][38] and one study found that use of complementary and alternative medicines are associated with a 30% lower ongoing pregnancy and live birth rate during fertility treatment.[39] Examples of herbal treatments with likely cause-effect relationships with adverse events include aconite, which is often a legally restricted herb, ayurvedic remedies, broom, chaparral, Chinese herb mixtures, comfrey, herbs containing certain flavonoids, germander, guar gum, liquorice root, and pennyroyal.[40] Examples of herbs where a high degree of confidence of a risk long term adverse effects can be asserted include ginseng, which is unpopular among herbalists for this reason, the endangered herb goldenseal, milk thistle, senna, against which herbalists generally advise and rarely use, aloe vera juice, buckthorn bark and berry, cascara sagrada bark, saw palmetto, valerian, kava, which is banned in the European Union, St. John's wort, Khat, Betel nut, the restricted herb Ephedra, and Guarana.[28]

There is also concern with respect to the numerous well-established interactions of herbs and drugs.[28] In consultation with a physician, usage of herbal remedies should be clarified, as some herbal remedies have the potential to cause adverse drug interactions when used in combination with various prescription and over-the-counter pharmaceuticals, just as a patient should inform an herbalist of their consumption of orthodox prescription and other medication.

For example, dangerously low blood pressure may result from the combination of an herbal remedy that lowers blood pressure together with prescription medicine that has the same effect. Some herbs may amplify the effects of anticoagulants.[41] Certain herbs as well as common fruit interfere with cytochrome P450, an enzyme critical to much drug metabolism.[42]

A 2013 study published in the journal BMC Medicine found that one-third of herbal supplements sampled contained no trace of the herb listed on the label. The study found products adulterated with filler including allergens such as soy, wheat, and black walnut. One bottle labeled as St. John's Wort was found to actually contain Alexandrian senna, a laxative.[43]

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Tim Trumble, Dipl. OM

The State of Colorado Department of Regulatory Agencies does not require licensing for Chinese herbs.

Dipl. OM stands for Diplomate of Oriental Medicine, which is a certification by the NCCAOM, National Certification Commission for Acupuncture and Oriental Medicine, however, Tim Trumble's name does not appear in the NCCAOM practitioner database or its registry, so this individual's use of this credential appears illegitimate.

It is best to avoid practitioners whose credentials cannot be verified.


"Examples of herbal treatments with likely cause-effect relationships with adverse events include…Chinese herb mixtures…”

Ernst, E (1998). "Harmless Herbs? A Review of the Recent Literature" (PDF). The American Journal of Medicine 104 (2): 170–8. doi:10.1016/S0002-9343(97)00397-5. PMID 9528737. Retrieved 27 December 2010.