March 9, 2018

Understanding the Most Common Women’s Health Issues – An interview with Naturopathic Doctor, Dr. Nikka Kanani

Okay so I am beyond excited to share this post with you guys! I’ve been interviewing Nikka for a while now…. and the more I asked, the more questions I had! You guys, you’re gonna love her! This is the first post I’ll do with her, but definitely not the last. She gave me SO much info, I didn’t want any of it to get lost. So expect a couple more in the very near future.

Now let’s get right to it. Dr. Nikka Kanani is a Naturopathic Doctor in Orange County California who specializes in women’s health. She grew up with chronic health issues like eczema and migraines, and it wasn’t until her mom started getting into more integrative and alternative health care practices when she was a teenager, that she started to find long term relief. She always knew she wanted to be a doctor and join her passions for health and serving her community. When she found out about Naturopathic medicine, she instantly knew it was the perfect fit because she wanted to learn about natural medicine but still be trained in conventional standard of care and pharmaceuticals and have a medical license.

Women's Health: Interview with Dr. Nikka Kanani

“It really unites my respect for conventional western medicine and my appreciation of natural medicine!”

What about natural medicine do you find most fascinating? And are you finding there’s a path you think you’ll specialize in?
I think the most fascinating thing is how sometimes the most basic and small changes in someone’s lifestyle, for example their diet or even their mindset, can have such a profound impact on their health. In terms of a path, I’ve always been the most interested in anything to do with the skin, especially chronic things like acne and eczema. I would consider that to be my speciality. I also think it would be anything to do with women’s health.

What do you find are the most common reasons 20 something year old women come to you for? And for those in their 30’s. and 40’s.
So for 20 year olds, it’s a lot of girls coming in with chronic fatigue, anxiety, hormonal problems like PCOS, PMS, or irregular periods, and digestive complaints.
For women in their 30’s, thyroid issues are hands down the most common thing I see. It’s actually crazy how common it’s becoming! I get a lot patients with autoimmune disease in that age range also.
For women in their 40’s, it’s mostly thyroid complaints as well, and then so many women trying to navigate the transition into menopause. It’s a really difficult and uncomfortable time for so many women that age, so I try to help make that easier for them!

What are you finding are the most common causes for women in their 20’s to suffer from Fatigue, anxiety, and digestive complaints?
I would say that for women in their 20’s, I’ve found that underlying stress is probably the most common cause of fatigue, anxiety, and even the digestive complaints. Even weight gain which is also a big issue for patients in their 20’s! Stress affects your cortisol, which affects your insulin and therefor your blood sugar regulation. Your body also can’t properly digest when it’s constantly in a state of stress. Obviously, there are other causes for those complaints also. Some people just have neurotransmitter imbalances causing the anxiety, or an imbalance in their gut causing the digestive symptoms.

How would you go about treating a neurotransmitter imbalance? And how is that detected?
There are really great urine tests, so it’s really easy and quick for the patient! It tests the key neurotransmitters that can affect your mood like serotonin, GABA, dopamine, and epinephrine. It can be really valuable for patients with anxiety, depression, or other mood disorders, because it can show them that it’s not just in their head, and there’s a real root cause for what they are experiencing. It also gives us the ability to have a more targeted treatment protocol.

For women suffering from fatigue, anxiety, and digestive issues, what do you most commonly recommend? (Obviously assuming there are no other medical issues causing this)

As a Naturopathic doctor, we are taught to always find the root cause, so for something like fatigue, I ask a lot of questions and try to determine if it’s a sleep issue, hormone imbalance, could it be a blood sugar issue caused by dietary choices, or a stress and adrenal issue. I usually will always give some kind of adaptogenic formula. These herbs are great at helping your body’s natural response to stress and can also give you a natural boost of energy depending on the herbs. I also always work on sleep. We go through a sleep hygiene, and try to set regular sleep and wake up times. Then lastly, I always do a diet diary with the patient, where I have them write down the foods they eat as well as their energy levels throughout the day. That helps me see how what they are eating is affecting their energy, and then make dietary changes that way. Usually, it’s eating a protein filled breakfast with health fats, and slow burning carbs, and then eating small amounts of protein throughout the day.

For anxiety and digestive complaints, it’s the same process of asking a lot of questions, doing a diet diary, and often times ordering other functional lab tests. For anxiety, I do like to start with more mild therapies like calming herbs before diving deeper depending on the case. Then we will move to looking at the neurotransmitters and treating that way.

For digestive complaints, I use a gut protocol I learned through the Institute of Functional Medicine, called the 5 R’s.
1. remove stressors to the gut
2. replace things like enzymes
3. reinoculate with healthy bacteria,
4. repair the gut lining,
5.rebalance.

Every patient is so different, and I really treat each one individually, but this is a great way to approach treatment so make sure I address all the components of the gut!

Just the same way that things like sun damage can cause premature aging… are there things we can suffer from (anxiety, stress, etc) that kind of age our body? And if so, just like there’s botox on whatnot to fix lines, is there a way to “fix” or help our body recover from the effects of long term stressors?
Yes!! Any kind of stressor, whether it’s environmental or personal can contribute to aging. Stress triggers the immune system to activate and promotes inflammation! I think focusing on stress management as well as an anti-inflammatory lifestyle is the best way to reduce pre mature aging and improve longevity. I recommend consistent self care, as well as an anti-inflammatory diet. I love adding things like a high quality omega-3 supplement which is very anti-inflammatory, a probiotic, because a unhealthy gut micro flora has been linked to aging as well, and then some anti-inflammatory therapies like curcumin, the active form of turmeric.

Women's Health : Interview with naturopathic doctor, Dr Nikka Kanani

I then went on to ask Nikka for her recommendations for women who suffer from the most common causes she sees…. she gave us SO much info. Take notes.

ANXIETY

For anxiety, I think it’s really important that there is someone managing their care. Naturopathic doctor’s are great, because we can serve as counselors, so we incorporate that in with the medical consultations. I always highly recommend getting some one else on board like a therapist, to really handle the mental portion of it.

To figure out what is causing their anxiety, I do think that the urine neurotransmitter tests I was mentioning before can be helpful. Also, in some cases genetic testing, like 23 and me can help, if you have someone who can interpret the raw data that comes form the test, you can figure out if there are genetic mutations contributing. I recommend this for patients who will feel better once the cause is validated.So like everything else, I like to start with the least invasive treatment and then work my way up.

♥ I love starting with herbal blends that contain nerve and anxiolytic herbs.
♥ good vitamin B supplement which can be really helpful in regulating the stress response and improving anxiety.
♥ Two of my favorite herbs are lemon balm and passion flower.
♥ I love Scutellaria and Avena sativa. (I always have them in my pantry and I love steeping them over night and then drinking them as a cold infusion or iced tea throughout the next day. )
♥ If a patient doesn’t find relief there, I will add in some neurotransmitter and amino acid therapies. Usually it’s precursors and cofactors for the neurotransmitter GABA, which is your calm and relaxing or downer neurotransmitter. This can indulge things like L-Theanine.
♥ I always incorporate stress management tools, which can either be breathing techniques, meditation, or things like biofeedback depending on each patient.

ACNE

I could literally write a book of acne recommendations, especially because it’s something that I’ve personally struggled with for so many years. It’s such a personal thing for people, and it’s so multi-factorial. I thing the first thing is to find the root cause. I feel like I repeat that over and over, but it can be hormonal, diet related, stress related, hygiene related, and often times it’s a bit of each of those. There are a few general things that I recommend to almost anyone with acne, so I’ll talk about some of those.

♥ I usually always recommend a probiotic, because I think that gut health is so related to skin conditions. Your skin really is a window to what’s going on within.
♥ I also recommend a good omega-3 supplement for it’s anti-inflammatory benefits.
♥ Other beneficial vitamins and nutrients are vitamin A and zinc. I use vitamin A short term to kind of mimic the effects of Accutane, but I never tell people to do this on their own. Vitamin A can cause a lot of side effects like headaches and liver toxicity. Most importantly, you can’t take it if there’s the slightest chance you might be pregnant because of it’s effects on the fetus. I just wanted to mention this, so that anyone reading can talk to their doctors about it if they are interested.

I also really work on personal hygiene, so we go through her makeup, all of her skin care products, how often she wipes her phone, touches her face ,and washes her pillow cases. There’s so much!

ECZEMA

I’ve also had eczema since I was born, and I’m happy to say for the first time in my life I don’t have a single spot on my body! Natural medicine can be so powerful for eczema, it just takes a little bit longer because there isn’t a magic pill. Like acne, eczema can be caused by a number of different things, and often a combination. At it’s core, eczema is an inflammatory condition so my treatment protocol really focuses on decreasing inflammation.

♥ I usually put patients on an anti-inflammatory diet, and often have them do an elimination diet to start. For this we might do a food allergy panel, or just start by eliminating potential allergens in their diet.
♥ After about 1-2 months, we introduce each food individually every 4 days and monitor changes in their skin. During this time, I’m really working on healing their gut, because again it’s so connected to the skin!
♥ If I think their symptoms are allergic, I will often do an anti-histamine type protocol. Again, so many different routes to go depending on the cause and the patient!

Some basic things we do is again a probiotic and omega-3 for the same reasons I mentioned for acne. Omega-3’s also are really great for speeding healing and recovery of the skin barrier, which can be really beneficial for patients with eczema. I also go through lifestyle things that could be contributing like their hygiene products, detergents, household toxins and chemicals, and more.

I hope you took notes!

If you’re anything like me, you probably have a million questions that came to mind. So stay tuned for more from Nikka, and make sure you follow her blog! And of course on instagram!

XOXO