NutraWomen Wednesday: Elizabeth Rice, ND, Southwest College of Naturopathic Medicine

12-Jan-2022 - Last updated on 12-Jan-2022 at 18:17 GMT

Elizabeth Rice, ND, is an Associate Professor and Department Chair of Homeopathy and Pharmacology at the Southwest College of Naturopathic Medicine. Rice has completed two residencies, one in general medicine, and a second year in homeopathy. She has been in practice for 10 years and has experienced everything from working within a large group practice, owning her own private clinic, and now working as an assistant professor at SCNM.

Some areas of focus that are important to Rice are depression, anxiety, and postpartum disorders, which often are a result of shifts in the levels of female hormones that can cause temporary mood changes.

“I have this strong belief that the body can inherently heal itself and it has the power and the ability to heal, sometimes it just needs a little push in the right direction or it needs the right conditions set up in order to do what it should do. And I find that's true for a lot of hormonal disorders. If any of these women listening have had a baby, we've all experienced those weeks after having a child where your hormones are running amok and your mind is going and sometimes the thoughts aren't even really coherent, and then you pull in the lack of sleep alongside it, and it can be a really, really challenging time for a lot of women,” said Rice.

“One of the reasons that I really love homeopathy is it is so safe and it is so gentle. There's going to be no harm to mom, there is going to be no harm to the milk supply, no harm to the infant or the baby and we can make adjustments in these severe symptoms of mood. I see lots of depression. I see lots of anxiety in the postpartum phase as well as also, with premenstrual dysphoric disorder, which is like PMS on steroids, or even during menopause when we've seen these hormonal shifts in women, they can be really, really dramatic in terms of the symptoms that they produce. And so using homeopathy is very gentle, very safe, and yet very effective,” she added.

Rice also said one of the things she enjoys most about homeopathy is that there is no one-size-fits-all approach, everything is tailored to the individual based on their specific needs.