NORTH BEND – Following this year’s household spring cleaning, Valley residents might want to head down to Alpine Naturopathic Rejuvenation Center & Spa for a whole body spring cleansing.

In fact, it’s many of the items in our homes – carpet, paint, varnish – that contribute to the toxins in our bodies. Humans accumulate and store toxins from the food they eat, the environment they live in and particles in the air from new home construction. The overload from all of this may be the very thing that is contributing to chronic disease in our society, said Dr. Suzanne Sykurski, who opened the clinic last month.

Luckily, there’s a pleasant way to detox at Alpine Naturopathic Rejuvenation Center & Spa located at 358 East North Bend Way. The Valley’s newest and most comprehensive naturopathic medical clinic offers detox and intensive whole body cleansing, mercury and lead removal, colonics and detoxification massage along with the more traditional paths to well-being such as exercise programs, nutrition, weight-loss plans, counseling and a full range of spa treatments.

Stepping inside the historic home that houses the clinic, one is immediately relaxed with the subtle scent of natural oils wafting through the air, the sounds of a trickling water fountain and the light, earthen tones spread throughout the clinic’s interior.

Each of the homey treatment rooms feature Pacific Northwest themes. In the infrared sauna room, patients can sweat out impurities at mild temperatures – 140 degrees and lower in the tradition of Japanese saunas. Certain wavelengths of light and energy are admitted to the skin to allow for detoxification.

In the steam sauna room, the same detox-through-sweat therapy is available by sitting in a sauna cabinet that allows the head to stick out so the patient can breath the “room” air. This is a safer option for heart patients, who would otherwise be aggravated by breathing in the heat.

Meanwhile, over in the spa room, a whole range of pampering spa services await in a calming room with muted light. Sykurski, who used to work at the Salish Lodge and Spa, offers heated stone massage, aromatherapy massage, therapeutic massage, relaxation massage, Dead Sea and salt body polish, hand and foot pampering and mud and herbal wraps.

With just one glimpse of Sykurski’s résumé, you know you’re in good hands at Alpine Naturopathic Rejuvenation Center & Spa. The East Coast native has a bachelor’s degree in chemistry from the University of Delaware and a master’s degree in chemistry and bio-chemistry from the University of Maryland. She has worked as a nutrition consultant, herbalist, personal trainer, chemist (for the Food and Drug Administration) and was even a major in the Army Reserve who served in Germany for three of her 14 years in the service.

Sykurski, a Snoqualmie resident, left her job as a forensic toxicologist with the U.S. Department of Defense to attend Bastyr Medical School in 1998 in Seattle. The school has the most prestigious naturopathic medical school in the world and licenses graduates like Sykurski to be primary care doctors.

“We are trained in the same basic sciences and have basically the same medical training,” she said. “The difference is that we [naturopathic doctors] don’t have hospitals in train in. Our clinic hours and patient care experience is gained at the Bastyr Center for Natural Health.”

Another difference between Sykurski’s clinic and other naturopathic centers is that she doesn’t sell supplements. She has arrangements with local pharmacies and Nature’s Marketplace in North Bend to refer patients there.

“What makes us unique is our practice of assessing patients and determining the best course of treatment with the least amount of intervention,” Sykurski said.

Sykurski said one of her larger goals in the Valley is to build bridges. “I think it would be great to see integrated care here with doctors and naturopaths working together. My belief is that the best care for a patient is a combination of both.”

Sykurski’s most popular service right now is colonics. The practice cleans out the bowels or lower intestines, allowing the gall bladder, liver and lymphatic system to release toxins. Sykurski has seen acne clear up, severe constipation reversed and even hives clear with colonics.

Though the world is not as pure as it was decades ago, Sykurski does not condone living in fear of germs and toxins.

“The world we live in is not clean, but we can’t live in a bubble. It’s a balancing act, finding a way to co-exist with the world while living as healthily as we can,” Sykurski said.

Last month the state Senate passed a bill to increase the scope of naturopathic medical practice to allow intravenous therapy, injections and minor skin surgical procedures. Naturopaths can also write prescriptions and make surgical, MRI and X-ray referrals.

Sykurski also offers craniosacral therapy, a gentle, hands-on method of evaluating and improving the functioning of the craniosacral system – a body system comprised of the membranes and cerebrospinal fluid that surround and protect the spinal cord.

* Alpine Naturopathic Rejuvenation Center & Spa will hold its grand opening at 5:30 p.m. on Wednesday, June 15. From now through July 1, Dr. Sykurski’s clinic is offering a 20-percent discount on any spa service including colonic and saunas to all Valley residents.

For more information, call the Alpine Naturopathic Rejuvenation Center & Spa at (425) 888-1439.