Body Talk: Eyes, nails & tongue give health warning signs | News

GRAND RAPIDS (WZZM) - It's a technique that's been around for thousands of years and is now regaining popularity -- naturopathic medicine is the diagnosis of health conditions like diabetes, vitamin deficiency or even heart disease by simply looking at your eyes, fingernails, tongue or several other body parts.

"It's a way of looking at the outside of the body to see what's going on the inside," said Kathryn Doran-Fisher.

Doran-Fisher is certified in naturopathic medicine and, as the owner of Elder & Sage in Grand Rapids, she diagnoses clients with all types of health issues.

"A yellowness to the whites of the eye indicates the liver," she said. "A grey spot at the end of a blood vessel is a build up of yeast in the body. Underneath the eyes if we have bags [indicates] it's a kidney, or dark circles under the eyes can be food allergies or food intolerances."

Jen Helvie wanted to know what's causing her fatigue.

"I knew I was tired I knew that I was feeling kinda sluggish," said Helvie, who believes she's ready for a diagnosis.

Kathryn Doran-Fisher started with Helvie's hands. "Right away I do notice that there is some ridging more than just in the one thumb," said Doran-Fisher. "Those moons have to do with metabolism so when we have moons in all of our fingernails then that is associated with high metabolism.

"I'm going to look at your tongue. Here we have some cracking in the center of the tongue and that indicates digestion. So improving digestion is going to be an important thing for you."

Doran-Fisher went on to examine Helvie's eyes and in less than ten minutes has a diagnosis. Helvie had digestion problems, which caused a build-up of toxins in her blood and clogging her lymph nodes which is why she is so fatigued.

Doran-Fisher had the remedy. "We'll probably want to work with doing some blood cleansing with the lymphatic and with the skin," she told her client.

Doran-Fisher gathered herbs from the shelves of her apothecary and blended a personalized tea for Helvie to drink twice a day, reminding her that the process of getting her body healthy will take several months.