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Dr. Darcie Juarez

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United States
East Portland, OR
Dr. Darcie Juarez

Have goals? Let's climb your learning curve together. Naturopathic medicine to get you on track to health and keep you there.

06/15/2022

If you don't give a plant what it needs, it can't thrive. For humans, it's much the same!
No matter what health issues you're dealing with, you will be better off 100% of the time if you get your basics covered.

1) Your brain needs you to sleep 🤷 Shorting sleep kills your cognitive function, scrambles your hormones, and throws off your metabolism. If you're waking up tired or feeling tired throughout the day, we need to fix that!

2) Every plant you eat is packed with vitamins, minerals, phytonutrients, and fiber that your body depends on to function. You don't need to chase down açai berries and mangosteen--your local produce section is chock full of nutrient-packed super foods.

3) Your body craves movement almost as much as it does food. Movement:
-> nourishes your joints, increases bone density, and strengthens muscles
-> keeps your bowels moving, helping you discard waste
-> conditions your cardiovascular system, keeping your heart strong and your blood vessels healthy
-> works out your nervous system, sharpening your senses of balance and proprioception
-> induces the neurotransmitters that make you feel content and pleased and satisfied.

In other words--movement is about whole-body health, not just burning calories.

4) Drink enough water that you don't feel thirsty and your p*e is pale yellow and transparent 😁

5) When you indulge in "sometimes" treats like sweets and alcohol: be intentional, enjoy them, and keep them in moderation.

6) Humans are social creatures and I'm a firm believer that nothing good comes from spending too much time cooped up in your own head. Connect with other people to shore up mental health ❤️

7) It's hard to feel happy and content if you don't find meaning in your life. Whether it's from work, family, service, community, learning, creating or cultivating, finding room for meaningful pursuits is a key to life satisfaction.

What do you think? How do you work the basics into your life? Did I miss anything? Comment below 👇 😊

Want help tackling the basics in your life? Visit my website to schedule a free discovery call ❤️

06/03/2022

Birth Class Summer Session 2022 is coming up soon!

Sign up for my 6 week class to prepare for your transition into parenthood ♥️ Sign Up Here: https://thefamilydocpdx.com/workshops

✔️ Hot tips for staying healthy in pregnancy
✔️ How labor works and what you may experience
✔️ Partners -- learn how to support your loved one during labor
✔️ Cultivate flexibility and resiliency for your birth
✔️Prep for your postpartum time with homework and practical tips

Questions? 👇Drop a comment to ask away!

05/17/2022

Allergy shots 💉 (subcutaneous immunotherapy, or SCIT) are used to reduce allergy symptoms by injecting small amounts of allergens into the skin, which desensitizes your immune system to the allergen over time. BUT going to the allergist’s office multiple times per week, not to mention the injections themselves, can be a real barrier to this therapy.

ENTER: Sublingual immunotherapy (SLIT)

The same preparations of allergens can also absorbed by the blood vessels under the tongue. Instead of getting a shot, you hold a liquid solution in your mouth and then swallow it. After an initial visit to ensure you don’t have a severe allergic reaction, this treatment can be taken at home instead of at a doctor’s office.

Ready to knock your seasonal allergies down a peg? Contact me to schedule a consult! Link in bio.

05/05/2022

It's easy for your doctor to say "warm soaks three times a day" but when you're talking about toddlers, that can be daunting 😵‍💫 Read below 👇for more info about warm soaks and what they're used for!

Here are some tips for making it work with your little one:
👉 Start with a clean coffee mug or something bigger if needed
👉 Add hot tap water and a couple pinches of Epsom salt (or other salt if you don't have any)
👉 Sit with your kid on your lap, a thick towel on their lap, and put on their favorite show
👉 Gently hold the infected part in the water for about ten minutes. It helps if you ask them to put their finger (or toes or elbow etc) in the water; they might be uncomfortable with the temp so follow their cues to know when it's cool enough.

Here's the why:
🦠One of the ways your body deals with infection (especially in the skin) is to wrap up the mess and move it to the surface to get rid of it. The infected area may start out red, painful, and swollen. The swelling consolidates into a bump. The bump goes from feeling like skin to feeling like it's full of fluid (...because...it is full of fluid...), and eventually opens up and drains.

🦠Even though it's a little nasty, this process amazes me!

🛀 We can help it along with warm Epsom salt soaks. Something about the warmth of the water and the osmotic effects of the dissolved minerals encourages the final stages of abscess formation and draining. This is great, because it's a way to resolve a skin infection faster (so it doesn't spread) without carpet bombing your microbiome with oral antibiotics 👍

04/27/2022

A lot of us reach for pharmaceutical pain relievers like ibuprofen, naproxen, aspirin, and acetaminophen for our aches and pains. But like any drugs, these agents all come with potential harms and it’s nice to avoid them when possible. Here are five tools to address pain that don’t involve any medications:

1. Movement is nourishing for your musculoskeletal system and it’s the best treatment for aches and pains. The worst thing you can do for something painful (unless there’s significant damage) is immobilize it! Try moving the painful part in a way that’s different from how you usually use it.🤸

2. Heat application with a heating pad, hot water bottle, warm cloth, hot shower, or immersion in warm water 🛁

3. Menthol patches (like Salonpas) are a clean, easy topical treatment. I especially like them for the upper back and neck pain I get when I’m on the computer too long 😵

4. Topical magnesium as Epsom salt compresses, soaks, or topical magnesium oil. Our muscles use magnesium for both contraction and relaxation 💆

5. The mind game: what’s going on inside our heads (current mood, past experiences, facts we know, etc.) has a lot to do with how we experience pain. For example, if someone worries that back pain means there’s a serious problem, they can have a worse pain experience. Reassuring yourself that you’re safe and unbroken and finding effective distractions are good pain relief options. 🙂

03/04/2022

Spring must be nearly here, because I'm leaving the park with my pocket full of daisies from my daughter 😄🌸

One genus of daisies, Erigeron, has been used in herbal medicine as a styptic. Styptics stop bleeding. Midwives often carry a bottle of blended cinnamon and erigeron essential oils, which can be given if a woman is bleeding excessively after delivery.

Midwives also carry medications for this problem (also called postpartum hemorrhage): pictocin and misoprostol. These are fast-acting agents that encourage the uterus to clamp down firmly to stop bleeding. We also encourage moms to stay mentally present, introduce the baby to the breast, and firmly massage the mom''s belly to achieve the same goal.

By watching carefully for excessive bleeding after delivery and taking it seriously, midwives help keep mothers and babies safe. ❤️🤰👶

02/28/2022

Do you ever feel like it’s hard to find the middle ground?

🌧️If you’ve Googled anything about pregnancy, you’ve probably come across some nightmarish stories. I’m also guessing your family’s pregnancy stories aren’t about things going right; if they're like what I usually hear, they’re a mishmash of confusion, fear, pain, and medical violence. Don’t get me wrong, there is value to sharing these stories. But between you and me, I think we have a problem of transmitting our unresolved birth trauma down the line to our daughters.

☀️You might also run across a very different view of pregnancy and birth. I love seeing glossy, gold-tinged portraits of beautiful laboring women as much as the next midwife. These romantic images warm my heart and reflect how I think of pregnancy and birth. But on another level, they can feel like a lot of pressure for mommas—What if I’m not glossy and beautiful while having my baby?? What if it’s really hard? What if it doesn’t go the way I’m hoping?

❔So what is birth—is it a harrowing, life-threatening journey through the abyss? Or is it a breath of warm breeze on a sunny afternoon? It’s not really either of these images. It’s a profound physical and spiritual transformation that comes to each of us differently and proceeds on its own terms. While I can’t tell you what your journey will look like, I can help prepare you to ride the waves with the strength and flexibility to do what must be done.

☝️Sign up for my birth class! We talk about the miracle of bringing life into the world without the drama. You can expect to leave with actual tools to come through pregnancy, labor, and the postpartum feeling powerful and resilient, no matter what happens.

https://thefamilydocpdx.com/workshops

02/08/2022

Ah, the heel poke. Everyone hates the heel poke. ⁠
⁠
It's (usually) baby's first blood test and it has to be offered to all newborns and their parents as a screening test. Or, more accurately, *tests* plural. In the first day or two of life and again at two weeks, the baby's heel is poked with a lancet and several drops of blood are collected on filter paper. This paper is sent with the baby and mother's identifying information to the state public health lab, where they are analyzed. But why do we put babies (and for goodness' sake, their parents!) through all this?⁠
⁠
First we have to back up--what's a screening test? ⁠
☝️ It's a test that is really good at finding a particular problem; you might say it casts a wide net. You want a screening to catch almost everyone who has a problem (even if you end up with some false positives in the pool) rather than risking false negatives. ⁠
☝️ The problem it's looking for should be something that really matters; a condition that really makes a difference for someone. ⁠
☝️ A screening should also come hand-in-hand with a treatment; not much point looking for problems if you can't fix them. ⁠
⁠
The Newborn Metabolic Screening looks for metabolic problems that are life-threatening or life-altering, which can be effectively treated if caught early enough. An example is hypothyroidism: some babies are born not making enough thyroid hormone, and you can't really predict which babies they will be. If they continue through their first months without this crucial hormone, it will seriously impair their physical and cognitive development. It's imperative to find out ASAP if a baby has hypothyroidism. That's why it's on the NMS panel! ⁠
⁠
Many of these disease have to do with the way the baby's body breaks down nutrients, so some can only be identified after the baby has been digesting milk. That is the reason for the second heel poke at two weeks of life. ⁠
⁠
Each state has its own NMS panel. In Oregon, the panel looks for over **40** different diseases! It's amazing that they can do this with just four blood spots. ⁠
⁠

02/06/2022

Moroccan-spiced tofu is the flavor inspiration for lunch today. I wanted to get some dark green leafies in and I typically favor a soup or a simmer over a salad. This took me about an hour but most of that time was simmering the onions until silky 😋 Methods below. What's your favorite way to get your greens in?

🧅Saute one onion, sliced thin and lightly salted, in avocado oil until translucent.
🧄🍅Add four pressed cloves of garlic, 1 tsp ground cumin, and 1 tsp ground coriander. Stir briefly, then add one 28oz can diced tomatoes, plus one can-ful of water.
🍋I also added a teaspoon of a salt-persevered citrus paste I got from , which adds intense, delicious citrus flavor! A preserved lemon would add similar flavor and a quartered fresh lemon tossed in the sauce would do just fine.
🥘Simmer over med-low heat until onions soften, about 20 minutes.
🥬Meanwhile, rinse and stem a bunch of spinach. Chop the stems into 1" pieces and stir into tomatoes. Rough-chop leaves and add. I also had to add another 3/4c water. Simmer until spinach is well wilted.
🥜Stir in seasoned tofu or cooked beans and about 1 tsp salt.
At this point I found it a bit thin so I thickened the sauce with about 1 Tbsp flour. Done!
🍞I tried to serve with toasted bread but after blackening it on THREE SEPARATE TRIES under the broiler I gave up and toasted tortillas on the gas stove burner 😅

02/04/2022

You might be wondering how I can help *you* specifically. ⁠
⁠
As a family doctor, I’m a generalist—I see pretty much everyone. I’ve listed some common stories below, any of these ring a bell? ⁠
⁠
You’ve been tired as long as you can remember. ⁠
Your digestion gives you grief about every little thing. ⁠
Anxiety is cramping your style. ⁠
Your cholesterol and blood pressure are creeping up.⁠
That rash just keeps going. ⁠
It’s been a few months, and you’re not pregnant yet. ⁠
You don’t feel better, but your doctor has given up.⁠
⁠
Let’s find out what I can do to help you! Schedule a free 15-minute Meet-The-Doc through my website 👇

https://tinyurl.com/bookfamilydoc

⁠

Address

East Portland, OR

Opening Hours

Monday	10am - 5pm
Tuesday	10am - 5pm
Wednesday	9am - 5pm
Thursday	9am - 5pm
Friday	9am - 5pm

Website

http://DrDarcieJuarez.com/

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The Family Doc offers naturopathic primary care, group classes, and one-on-one phone consultations to support people as they navigate the changes life brings.

--> Need a doctor? Want to prevent problems before they happen? Have a problem that you need to address? Schedule a free medical consultation to see if we’re a good fit.

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