Dr. Kathy Van Zeyl, ND - The Running Naturopath

06/03/2026

On today’s episode of “what do I do with my face?” we explore heat waves and shingles! ☀️ 🔥 🤕

It’s a quick episode cuz I’m a busy gal but:

Pic 1: Lemon balm!!! 🍋 🌿 Grateful I decided to grow this sweet lil baby in my countertop hydroponic kit cuz she’s an antiviral and I can just throw it down the hatch as needed 🐣

Pic 2: My essential summer survival virtual patient day ice foot bucket! 🪣 If you see me on zoom, this is what’s under the desk. Frozen ice bottles on repeat to keep this water chill cuz there’s no way I’m wearing compression socks for POTS when it’s spicy out 🌶️

05/25/2026

Q: Is there something on my face?! 🤔

A: Yes, the signs of a hard fought battle w shingles, a virus 🦠 re-emerged from back in my chicken pox days that crept up my trigeminal nerve last week… and gave me the worst shooting nerve pain in my life. ⚡️ 😣

Yet here I am! I’m on a train, bound for Toronto to attend my first meeting as a Council Member with the College of Naturopaths of Ontario (aka CoNO) 🚊 👩‍⚕️ 🍃.

I will be forever grateful to modern medicine for inventing antivirals and pain meds 🦠 💊 and to my naturopathic training, colleagues, amazing friends and a loooooooot of rest (and my beloved ice 🧊 migraine cap 🧢 !) for helping support my body through this ❤️💪❤️.

I’m not 💯 but feeling well enough to go, and sent a pic of my face this morning to a trusted friend and colleague to ask her if this face looks too scary/distracting to present itself at council 🫣 . Thankfully she gave me the thumbs up! 😅 She’s also been a wealth of knowledge, support, and gentle loving care through my crisis time, so a huge thank you to Dr. Maureen MacDonald, ND, for her wisdom, grounding, and being a voice of reason. I am truly grateful to have brilliant and wonderful friends, and I wish everybody could have a fabulous doctor like Maureen to confer with!!! ❤️🙏❤️

There are big important reasons I fought so hard to get better for this very trip, and perhaps the weight/stress I put on it in the leadup (combined with environmental stressors) pushed my nervous & immune system just a weeeee bit too far and allowed this atrocious virus to attack my face 🦠 😱 🤺.

I want better care for the people and the public who need it ❤️‍🩹. I am also one of those people needing care, but am fortunate to have the knowledge 🧠 and colleagues that I have 🙏.

We need policies and governance that create a structure to give us the best chance to help heal others ❤️. So maybe it’s a good thing for the organization heading the Naturopaths in Ontario to see we are also human, and fight our own battles to do this important work! Quite literally, they’re gonna see it cuz I have all these battle wounds on my face!!! 😂

Here’s to better days ahead & thx for your support ❤️‍🩹❤️❤️‍🩹

04/27/2026

Why hello there!!! 👋 You’re looking at the newest Council Member of the College of Naturopaths of Ontario! ❤️☺️❤️

Thank you to my colleagues for casting your votes and putting your trust in me to represent you! 🙏 It’s truly an honour and in spite of my occasional goofyness and super casual “what do I do with my hands?!” selfies, I take this very seriously 👩‍⚕️

This heart 🫀, this brain 🧠 and this spirit 🦄 have big dreams they want to see for better healthcare in Ontario. This role is in service of the public and I am doing it for all the people who desperately need help! I’m only one person and I recognize systems are slow moving, but I will give my all to foster access to care, collaboration with other HCP’s, and showing up for those who aren’t often represented as a voice at the table 🦓❤️🧡💛💚💙💜🖤🤍🤎👵

To my beloved patients, never fear! I am still here as your doc and after 16 years as your Naturopathic Doctor, I can’t see a day when I will ever want to give up that privilege!!! ❤️👩‍⚕️❤️

Everything I do, I do with heart and passion. So thank you again for giving me this opportunity and I will not take it for granted. ❤️🥰❤️

04/12/2026

Attention Ontario ND’s - CONO Council: last day to vote is tomorrow (Mon April 13th) by 3pm 🗳️

If you’ve already voted thank you! If you haven’t, here’s your reminder to dig up that email from CoNO on Mar 23rd and put in your ballot. Doesn’t need to be for me if I’m not your cup of tea, just a reminder in case you haven’t yet 😉 ✅

Photo of my sweet doggo Emily for attention ❤️. If her mom gets on council, she’ll also be weighing in on council decisions. Her values include loving and protecting all of her neighbours, accessible toys and walking routes, and helping dogs of all sizes and breeds shine!! ❤️❤️‍🩹❤️

02/08/2024

Clinician-associated trauma: 👩‍⚕️ 😣 🤦‍♀️

It’s a real thing. Many of my EDS patients have experienced this for decades, searching for someone who knows what’s going on while having their symptoms dismissed, ignored, or downplayed while they go untreated. This is so frequent that a number of docs working with the Ehlers Danlos Society got together and published a paper on it. So if you feel this, you are not alone!! 💙🤗💙

Although I appreciate that EDS is still a poorly understood condition and many doctors don’t know how to recognize the signs, diagnose or treat it... the outright dismissal and undermining of patients is associated with poor health outcomes, increased prevalence of cPTSD and degrades a patient’s trust in the healthcare system. Which is especially not good in times of emergencies!🚨

This should not happen. Your concerns are valid. I truly believe that doctors and healthcare practitioners go into this field to help patients. Many of them may not know what we’re talking about when we say we have chronic pain and that our joints are unstable & slipping out of place, even though we *look* fine. I hope in future more practitioners will stop, listen and think before they speak... because often there are concrete answers (i.e. EDS) to explain this phenomenon.

As someone who both lives with and treats hEDS, I know there is so much we can do to help hypermobile patients who are struggling just to get through their day. So although I’m in a mini-vent mode (I’m seeing so many patients this week who’ve experienced this!), I will always be here with open ears, an inquisitive mind, and will work my tail off to help you through this. There are some absolutely brilliant practitioners out there and I’ve spent years amassing a referral team of trusted partners. If your practitioner makes you feel worse than you did before you went in (i.e. gaslit), just hang in there and trust that there are other medically-trained professionals who can and want to help!

With love,
Dr. Kathy 💙🦓💙

02/08/2024

Clinician-associated trauma.

It's a real thing. Many of my EDS patients have experienced this for decades, searching for someone who knows what's going on while having their symptoms dismissed, ignored, or downplayed while they go untreated. This is so frequent that a number of docs working with the Ehlers Danlos Society got together and published a paper on it. So if you feel this, you are not alone!!

Although I appreciate that EDS is still a poorly understood condition and many doctors don't know how to recognize the signs, diagnose or treat it... the outright dismissal and undermining of patients is associated with poor health outcomes, increased prevalence of cPTSD and degrades a patient's trust in the healthcare system.

This should not happen. Your concerns are valid. I truly believe that doctors and healthcare practitioners go into this field to help patients. Many of them may not know what we're talking about when we say we have chronic pain and that our joints are unstable & slipping out of place, even though we *look* fine. I hope in future more practitioners will stop, listen and think before they speak... because often there are concrete answers (i.e. EDS) to explain this phenomenon.

As someone who both lives with and treats hEDS, I know there is so much we can do to help hypermobile patients who are struggling just to get through their day. So although I'm in a mini-vent mode (I'm seeing so many patients this week who've experienced this!), I will always be here with open ears, an inquisitive mind, and will work my tail off to help you through this. There are some absolutely brilliant practitioners out there and I've spent years amassing a referral team of trusted partners. If your practitioner makes you feel worse than you did before you went in (i.e. gaslit), just hang in there and trust that there are other medically-trained professionals who can and want to help!

With love,
Dr. Kathy

Patients with hypermobile Ehlers Danlos Syndrome often experience psychological distress resulting from the perceived hostility and disinterest of the…

06/02/2023

My hot weather “outside the box” POTS hack! 🥵

We’ve got a heat wave happening right now… pretty much everywhere!

Heat can be one of the most common and uncomfortable triggers for patients with POTS & orthostatic intolerance.

You may have orthostatic intolerance if:
- you get dizzy when you go from sitting to standing 😵‍💫
- your heart rate spikes randomly, even standing in line at the grocery store 🫀
- you’re always tired 😪
- you get brain fog regularly 😶‍🌫️
- you never feel hydrated 💦
- you also p*e constantly
- hot showers make you feel like you’re going to pass out 🚿 😵

Why?
🩸 we often have low blood volume. When it’s hot, your peripheral blood vessels dilate to diffuse heat, but this may take critical blood flow & oxygen away from your brain & core organs. So your brain makes you wanna lie down (or pass out) to get that blood flow back!
🩸 a taxed dysautonomic nervous system doesn’t always follow orders. If your nerves don’t tell your lower body blood vessels to constrict, you’ll get blood & fluid pooling in your lower body. Not getting back to your brain & heart means: 1) tachycardia (aka POTS) or 2) dizziness & (pre) syncope
🩸 gravity. Not our friends sometimes! When you sit to stand, 750mL of blood shifts into your lower body. Under the aforementioned conditions… it stays there.

Wearing compression socks 🧦 helps, but in the summer socks can feel awful. Which is why when working from home I have my ice foot bucket 🪣 under my desk and always keep frozen water bottles in my freezer 😉

Also:
- hydrate like heck! 2.5-3L/day, + more if you drink ☕️ or 🍻
- electrolytes! I always salt 🧂 my water, but take extra capsules to get my BP up above 100/60 (warning: don’t do this if yours is high!)
- move regularly. Muscle contractions (esp in legs 🦵) help with venous return

To all my fellow POTSies, keep cool, get hydrated & stay salty! 😎 💦🧂