Maybe My Vitamin D is Low...

If you're reading this, you most likely will be coming in for a visit with me in the near future. Some patients have a long history of mental health disorders and treatments, some have been diagnosed recently, and some have never been diagnosed or treated but they know something is wrong and are looking for advice to feel better. Certain actions you take will make this process easier for you: - If you have used medications for mental health management, please bring a list of names, dosages and how long you used each medications for. - If you have your past records available, please bring those along, too! - Lab work reports are always welcome, especially if done within the last year; that way you don't have to be poked twice! - Think about why you chose or why you were referred to our clinic; what is it about your mental health that worries you? How would you put the way you feel into words? Do you have specific examples to bring up that are troublesome to ...

Short answer, quite a bit. When I was a kid, I remember watching a TV show depicting daily adventures of a 40 year old dad. He had gray hair and a gray mustache. Perhaps he had a lot on his mind that turned his hair gray but I'm under the impression that our society looks younger and younger nowadays. We feel younger, too. But we're not younger on the inside. Our organs know exactly how old we are! Adults above the age of 60 have less muscle, less blood flow to the liver and less kidney mass. Why is this important? Because liver and the kidneys metabolize and get rid of the drugs we take! If you've been drinking coffee your whole life, all day long, and had no trouble falling asleep, it may change as you get older. Suddenly, maximum concentration of caffeine increases from 15 minutes in a 20 year old, to almost two hours in an elderly person, so you keep drinking more because you don't feel the effects right away, as you used to. It also takes much longer for your ...

Last night I got home pretty late and felt like I had so much to do! Walk the dog, cook dinner, laundry and a quick vacuum, let me just check my email before going to bed. Once I was in bed, I had a pretty difficult time falling asleep. Shouldn't I be tired after this busy day? Or maybe something I was doing, or not doing, had an impact?   One of the complains I hear frequently from patients is difficulty falling asleep, difficulty maintaining sleep, or both. You would be surprised how many people have trouble with this! We live in such a fast paced society, we're exposed to light constantly, look at our phones and TV's and then, surprise, we can't fall asleep. There could be several reasons why folks have trouble with this. One of them is lack of proper sleep hygiene techniques. ("Sleep hygiene", such a silly expression, I didn't invent it, I swear!) This basically involves letting your body know it is time to sleep. So, what does your...

Welcome! If you have just become a patient at my practice, please familiarize yourself with the resources in the area, as outlined below. If you're unable to find information you are looking for, don't hesitate to call the clinic! If you find yourself in an emergent or urgent situation, call 911 or go to the ER. Pearl Health Clinic website http://www.pearlhealth.org/ If you are looking for additional services at our clinic, such as counseling, neurofeedback, case management, please check out this link: http://www.pearlhealth.org/ our-services/ Pearl Health Clinic offers phone based crisis counseling, call 208-346-7500 and choose such option. In case you would like to communicate with a counselor but don't feel like speaking with anyone and you are not in an emergency, you can text 741-741 for a text based conversation with a trained responder. Their website also contains resources for people struggling with eating disorders, abuse, LGBT issues and many others,...