Question: As a doctor practicing integrative medicine, can you offer advice to natural product retailers about discussing health concerns with customers?

Answer: I consider natural product retailers to be the MASH unit of natural medicine—you not only serve a very important role, but in some cases, you serve an essential role and are the only form of health education an individual is accessing. It is a serious and hopefully rewarding responsibility, and there are several things I can advise natural product retailers about:
• Try to keep yourself informed and up-to-date on good, reliable, scientific information.
• Try to hook up your customers with licensed, educated practitioners in your area.
• Learn what few key questions you can ask for a given area. For example: if they say they have hot flashes, ask if they are also having trouble sleeping, are having mood changes and when there last period was. This can help you to prescribe not only a specific herb for their hot flashes, but help them with the underlying issue, which is likely menopause. You’re not only helping more women this way, but you’re also making a better sale.
• Know the limitations of self-care and store-based healthcare advice. If they come in reporting fatigue, you must realize there are many causes of fatigue—it’s not appropriate to assume that it is adrenal fatigue. Again, a few key questions might give you a good idea of what it is, then you can make your recommendation, but with the caveat that if they do not feel better in four to six weeks, they should go to a practitioner to be evaluated for their fatigue.

Question: What are the top issues retailers should know when addressing women’s health?

Answer: I would want retailers to stay well informed about women-onlyproblems such as menopause, PMS, vaginitis, menstrual cramps, fibrocysticbreast and breast cancer, but also common and important primary care issues in women such as fibromyalgia, hypothyroid, depression, osteoporosis, insomnia, high cholesterol, osteoarthritis and more.

Ingredients very relevant in women’s health I would stay very up-to-date about include black cohosh, maca, fish oils, chaste tree, folic acid, vitamin D and calcium.

Question: What would you say are the key messages retailers can take away from your book “The Women’s Encyclopedia of Natural Medicine”?

Answer: That there are many options, that there is more research in women’s health and natural medicine than one might think, and that there are safe, effective natural therapies to address women’s health problems most, but not all, of the time. It is also, then, important to know the implications of when to consider conventional medicine.

Question: Last year you led a trip to Canyon de Chelly, AZ, the holy land of Navajo people. What most interested you about this trip? What types of medicinal plants did you study and what is the “beauty way”?

Answer:I’ve just returned from another beautiful and moving trip to the canyon. The “beauty way” is essentially living in balance and in harmony with nature—mother earth and father sky, and all the plants, rocks, animals and forces in nature. This spiritual orientation, the traditional ways of the Navajo (Dine) people, the modern struggles of the Navajo (Dine) nation and the close friendships that I now have there, are what keeps me coming back to the canyon.

For me, using more plants of the high desert of North Eastern Arizona will take some time. We have recently studied the traditional uses of the Yucca, Juniper, Snakewood, Greasewood, red root, ephedra and many more.  

Question: What’s next for Dr. Hudson?

Answer: For the immediate future, I’m doing the early vegetable garden planting and preparing for the larger project of tilling, adding the composting and planting. I will continue my clinical work at A Woman’s Time, writing, speaking, educating and working through Vitanica to offer safe, effective natural therapies for women. VR