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Dr. Shannon Ferguson, ND

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Calgary, AB
Dr. Shannon Ferguson, ND

Dr. Shannon Ferguson is a naturopathic doctor and registered massage therapist in NW Calgary, AB. She focuses in fertility and musculoskeletal issues.

I'm a naturopathic doctor and registered massage therapist practicing in NW Calgary at Country Hills Massage Therapy. My number one passion is fertility and hormones. The apple doesn't fall far from the tree, so take care of your tree! Quality of life is intricately connected to your health, and prevention is always better than reaction. The best way to achieve this is to have a health care team you trust and that is working together. I hope to be a part of your health care team, and help you achieve your health goals and improve your quality of life!

07/27/2023

Inflammation is a really frustrating term to me because it’s oversimplifying a very complex process. Like with most things, adequately treating inflammation relies on fully understanding what’s actually happening.

This is still oversimplifying it, but oxidative stress (very reactive molecules) come into contact with tissues causing damage. Anything that causes damage will start the same cascade though, so infection and mechanical damage count too! The immune system senses this damage and sends white blood cells (particularly neutrophils and monocytes) to fix it. Then what is supposed to happen is these white blood cells create their own anti-inflammatory chemicals or cytokines that create something called resolvins which resolve the inflammation and clean it up.

But sometimes this doesn’t happen, and you can get stuck on the right half of this graphic. The white blood cells die before they finish their job and create more oxidative stress, or inflammatory cytokines, which create more white blood cell infiltration and damage. A vicious circle begins.

Our job is to identify which part of this pathway needs help, and it’s usually the white blood cells that are key! Another important part of this is impacting the initators of this process, or what started the initial damage.

A more detailed explanation of this process can be found on my website in the blog titled “What IS inflammation?”.

Do you have chronic inflammation? Let me know below!

- this post is meant for educational purposes only. It does not represent a medial diagnoses or a prescription. For more information on the information in this post or on your health and treatment plans, please contact your health care practitioner or medical professional.

References
CD4 T cells: Fates, functions, and faults. Blood. 2008 Sep 1;112(5):1557-69, Zhu J, Paul WE

01/03/2023

It’s such a popular thing to talk about new year new me, but notoriously these changes rarely last a month. So what’s the problem? It’s not like there isn’t a desire to change.

It’s the expectations around what change looks like. Big change comes with lots of tiny little changes over a long period of time. And some days won’t look “perfect”, because you have to live!

Real change is slow and hard to notice day to day. But it builds, and that is powerful. And every day is a new opportunity, it doesn’t matter the day!

- this post is meant for educational purposes only. It does not represent a medial diagnoses or a prescription. For more information on the information in this post or on your health and treatment plans, please contact your health care practitioner or medical professional.

10/21/2022

BKCa channels have been found in cranial arteries, and on the trigeminal nerve pain pathway, and has been found to affect CGRP and other chemicals associated with migraines.

One study found that administering BKCa channel openers induced migraine pathophysiology as well as the symptoms of a migraine.

The next step is for science to start looking at potential ways to affect this ion channel and see if it can be used as a way to prevent migraines!

Not going to lie, I’m super excited to see where this line of research goes!

- this post is meant for educational purposes only. It does not represent a medial diagnoses or a prescription. For more information on the information in this post or on your health and treatment plans, please contact your health care practitioner or medical professional.

References
PMID: 36028922
PMID: 32060729

10/05/2022

Self

We are well into migraine season! September and October are some of the highest months of migraines, and also the pre-cursor to chinook season.
 What are you doing to support your migraines?

- this post is meant for educational purposes only. It does not represent a medial diagnoses or a prescription. For more information on the information in this post or on your health and treatment plans, please contact your health care practitioner or medical professional.

09/07/2022

Pain is a really multifaceted problem, and it’s so much more than “take this anti-inflammatory” (although that helps a lot sometimes).

It’s important to keep in mind that things that help overall health ALSO help improve pain. Veggies, strength training, laughing with friends and sleep ALL help improve pain outcomes.

This new study shows that really well, people with chronic spinal pain who had short sleeps and reported symptoms of insomnia had worse pain outcomes, and their pain improved if their sleep time and insomnia did. This study also showed that people with sleep issues of a decade or more where much more likely to experience recurrent spinal pain.

What this study didn’t account for is how much pain affected sleep, but sleep has been well documented to affect how well we make collagen so it’s reasonable to expect that the relationship goes both ways!

There are also so many things you can do to improve your sleep quality and two of the most simple are work on going to bed earlier and avoid screens before bed.

How many hours do you sleep a night?

- this post is meant for educational purposes only. It does not represent a medial diagnoses or a prescription. For more information on the information in this post or on your health and treatment plans, please contact your health care practitioner or medical professional.

References
PMID: 35921718

06/07/2022

Migraine pathophysiology is one of my favourite things to research. If we understand the why, we are in a better position to figure out how to do something about it.

Research has shown that one of the steps of a migraine in the brain is that those brains are inefficient at breaking down glucose to make energy. This causes an increase in glucose hanging around, not enough energy molecules for cells to function, and increasing oxidative stress and inflammation. This causes activation of the trigeminal nerve and vascular activation, resulting in CGRP production and the cycle continues.

So if a person who experiences migraines can have more efficient energy production (i.e. better functioning mitochondria) then they should have less migraines! And that’s exactly what is shown in the research!

None of the supplements researched are perfect, and many of them work best in combination with other things. But the closer we get to why the better we have the how.

How many mitochondrial nutrients have you tried??

- this post is meant for educational purposes only. It does not represent a medial diagnoses or a prescription. For more information on the information in this post or on your health and treatment plans, please contact your health care practitioner or medical professional.

References
PMID: 35254637

05/06/2022

Migraines have been associated with gut health, and celiac disease has been associated with neurological symptoms. More and more studies are coming out relating migraine with celiac disease.

As shown above, those with celiac disease are more likely to have migraine. The relationship goes the other way as well, with 4.4% of migraine patients testing positive for celiac disease on blood test, vs. 0.4% of controls.

This data suggests that if you have migraines, it’s probably a good idea to at least get tested or try going gluten free. And if you have iron deficiency even though you eat meat, gut issues, or a family history of celiac disease or other autoimmune issues, then it’s an even better idea!

Keep in mind that ANY dietary trials but especially those involving gluten, require that food being gut out for at least 4 weeks. Your gut and the immune system in your gut need time to chill out and heal.

Have you tried eating gluten free?

- this post is meant for educational purposes only. It does not represent a medial diagnoses or a prescription. For more information on the information in this post or on your health and treatment plans, please contact your health care practitioner or medical professional.

04/05/2022

I love working out. SO much! I work out most days, and I love experimenting with different types of workouts to see how it affects me. I have preferences, don’t get me wrong! Any cardio that I do is very begrudging.

I think we need to redefine what a fit person is. For me, working out is a way to remain pain free and a path to having the best quality of life as an 80 year old as I can.

I don’t work out to look a certain way, or weigh a certain amount, or lift the most I can, or run the farthest I can, or lift or run more than someone else. Honestly if I never have a personal best ever again I’m totally ok with that. Because in my opinion I’m already fit because I am almost never in pain and I haven’t been injured in a very long time.

I think the definition of fitness needs to change, because fitness should be about health. And health cannot include pain, injury, or weight limitations. If you’re my patient or have followed me for a while, you know my opinions on weight. See my blog for more, I have at least 3 articles about weight and health! Additionally, if a menstruating person stops getting their period because of activity, that is also a red flag.

How do you define fitness? Are you going to change how you define it?

- this post is meant for educational purposes only. It does not represent a medial diagnoses or a prescription. For more information on the information in this post or on your health and treatment plans, please contact your health care practitioner or medical professional.

03/25/2022

Mitochondrial function and migraine have long been linked. Some of the classic naturopathic therapies (B vitamins, CoQ10, magnesium) have massive impacts on mitochondrial function, and it has been theorized that may be why they work.

This new study postulates that migraine may be a symptom of brain energy issues. MRI studies now support this theory. Additionally, it was found that 60% of people with a documented mitochondrial issue also had migraines. This is 3 times higher than the general population. Mitochondria are inherited from mothers, and most migraine sufferers have a mom with migraines if have a family member that also has migraines. The most common triggers for migraine (stress, sleep issues, estrogen fluctuations, fasting/skipping meals, and vigorous exercise) are all majorly deplete mitochondrial function.

The researchers said that migraines may be a “conserved and adaptive response that occurs in genetically predisposed individuals with a mismatch between the brain energy reserve and workload”.

Knowing these physiologic pathways for migraine are so important because if we understand why something happens we can treat it far more effectively. If your mother has migraines, or your triggers are things that interfere with mitochondrial function, you may want to investigate mitochondrial treatment with your migraines!

References PMID: 35273322

- this post is meant for educational purposes only. It does not represent a medial diagnoses or a prescription. For more information on the information in this post or on your health and treatment plans, please contact your health care practitioner or medical professional.

03/18/2022

I now have an instagram pain JUST for hormonal stuff! Check out more about endometriosis during this the month of it’s awareness

Migraines and endometriosis are both chronic pain conditions that can be affected by inflammation and estrogen. It’s been shown in research that women with endometriosis are more likely to have migraines than the rest of the population. Interestingly, women were more likely to be diagnosed with endometriosis first and migraine second. Women with migraines were also more likely than the rest of the population to experience pelvic pain. A more recent study found that women who have migraine are 5 times more likely to have both endometriosis and adenomyosis.

There are many theories on why this is. This could be common underlying root causes like inflammation, estrogen metabolism, and histamine issues. It could also be that in chronic pain the nerves become sensitized, and any pain becomes stronger and more frequent. In my opinion it’s a bit more the former than the latter, because I’ve seen patients with both get better with the same treatment.

Do you have both? What are your symptoms?

References PMID: 35140688
PMID: 22442736

- this post is meant for educational purposes only. It does not represent a medial diagnoses or a prescription. For more information on the information in this post or on your health and treatment plans, please contact your health care practitioner or medical professional.

03/14/2022

This was posted on my blog on my old website in 2018, and now that I've revamped my website (go check it out!) I'm reposting old blogs. This is one that I loved re-reading because these are still conversations I have with patients every day about weight.

Weight can be a really interesting data point when trying to figure out the puzzle of health, but my goal is my patients HEALTH not to reach a pre-determined weight. I think the associations between particular body types and health are not only inaccurate and not supported by literature, but potentially dangerous.

We need to separate the concept and weight with beauty and fitness! Doing healthy things will help you reach your healthy weight, but if you have to do unhealthy things to reach a certain weight, that weight isn't healthy for you!

Check my latest blog post to read more!

https://calgarynaturopathiccare.com/blog/weight-loss-the-big-picture

- this post is meant for educational purposes only. It does not represent a medial diagnoses or a prescription. For more information on the information in this post or on your health and treatment plans, please contact your health care practitioner or medical professional.

03/09/2022

The gut microbiome is very powerful! And we are learning more and more about it each day. We know the microbiome has a lot to do with neurological, immune, and hormonal health so it makes sense that it would impact pain as well. In particular, a poor microbiome can be a huge driver of inflammation.

This recent study found that people with chronic widespread pain has significantly less gut microbiome diversity than controls, suggesting an involvement of the gut microbiome. This study suggests that part of successful treatment for chronic widespread pain is to address the microbiome.

Low diversity of the microbiome has been associated with poor health outcomes before, especially with poor health of older adults. Inflammaging, a term referring to the aging process being driven by inflammation, is higher in those older adults with low diversity of their microbiome.

BASICALLY what I'm saying is, the gut may not be the aboslute root cause of your issue, but if it isn't functioning well it's defintiely involved!!

How is your gut health?

References PMID: 33331911
PMID: 30648974

- this post is meant for educational purposes only. It does not represent a medial diagnoses or a prescription. For more information on the information in this post or on your health and treatment plans, please contact your health care practitioner or medical professional.

Address

5149 Country Hills Boulevard, Unit 336
Calgary, AB
T3A5K8

Opening Hours

Monday	9am - 9pm
Tuesday	9am - 9pm
Wednesday	9am - 9pm
Thursday	9am - 9pm
Friday	9am - 9pm
Saturday	9am - 6pm
Sunday	9am - 6pm

Telephone

+14035472243

Website

http://calgarynaturopathiccare.com/

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