Yes! Being on prescription medication doesn’t mean you can’t also use natural medicine. In fact, I can help guide you in ways that increase the effectiveness of your prescription therapies while reducing the risk of side effects. By taking an integrative approach to health, you get the best of both conventional and natural medicine — wellness that’s optimized through the judicious use of carefully selected prescription drugs, combined with evidence-based natural therapies.
Why This Matters More Than You Might Think
Prescription medications carry real risks, and they’re more common than most people realize. Adverse drug events send more than 1.5 million people to the emergency room in the U.S. every year, and nearly 500,000 of those visits result in hospitalization. Preventable adverse events in hospitals alone are linked to as many as 98,000 deaths annually. None of this means medication isn’t valuable — it often is, and sometimes lifesaving — but it’s exactly why thoughtful, individualized support alongside your prescriptions matters.
Naturopathic medicine can also help reduce withdrawal effects when coming off certain medications, including those used for anxiety, depression, heartburn, and insomnia. Research on antidepressant discontinuation specifically shows that most people don’t experience severe withdrawal, though symptoms like dizziness are common in the first couple of weeks after stopping. Regardless of severity, it’s essential to talk with your prescribing doctor before changing anything — certain medications need to be tapered slowly to minimize withdrawal symptoms, and your prescribing doctor should always know if you’ve stopped or are considering stopping a medication.
Depression: Where an Integrative Approach Really Shines
Depression is one of the most commonly diagnosed conditions today, and conventional medicine often has surprisingly little to offer beyond prescription medication. These medications aren’t always effective, and they can be genuinely difficult to come off of. Depression itself is complex and multifaceted, yet it’s frequently treated with a single-dimension, expensive approach. Normal mood shifts or grief tied to life circumstances often get labeled as depression too, which contributes to over-diagnosis.
Prescription medication can be beneficial, even lifesaving, but treating illness — especially mental illness — really calls for addressing the whole person: mind, body, and spirit together. Unfortunately, conventional treatment alone remains the default for a lot of patients, often due to gaps in provider knowledge, a profit-driven medical system, and simply not having the time required to build a truly individualized plan. I treat each patient as an individual, and that specialization is what maximizes benefit while minimizing risk and side effects.
What an Integrative Plan Can Include
An integrative approach can include targeted nutrients, amino acids, enzymes, and lifestyle changes tailored to your specific needs, symptoms, and medications. Conventional labs — thyroid panels, anemia testing, nutrient status — remain important tools for guiding that plan.
Neurotransmitter testing, which looks at serotonin, dopamine, histamine, GABA, glutamine, and epinephrine, is another valuable tool for understanding your individual needs. It’s surprisingly common for similar symptoms to have very different underlying causes. Neurotransmitters play a major role in immune and adrenal function, and when they’re out of balance, the effects can ripple through your whole system. Signs of neurotransmitter imbalance include fatigue, anxiety, depression, insomnia, inattention, lack of focus, and weight changes.
Adrenal testing for cortisol levels is another way I tailor treatment to your specific needs. Your adrenal glands secrete stress hormones that can fall out of balance from chronic stress, poor diet, and other environmental factors. Testing tells me exactly what your cortisol needs — whether it needs to come up or down, and at what time of day treatment makes the most sense. Signs of adrenal fatigue include anxiety, weight gain, insomnia, and fatigue.
Let’s Talk About Your Medications
Bring your prescription medications into the conversation with me. Don’t be afraid to explore ways to reduce your reliance on them, and let’s build an integrated plan that genuinely optimizes your health and wellness.
— Dr. Faith Christensen
Sources: CDC — Medication Safety Data, US Emergency Department Visits for Outpatient Adverse Drug Events, Incidence and Nature of Antidepressant Discontinuation Symptoms: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis