Women have many reproductive stages throughout their lives and each stage brings its own set of challenges. A woman’s menstrual cycle is an indicator of her general health, so maintaining a healthy cycle is part of maintaining not only hormonal health, but also general health. Fertility, menarche (onset of the first menstrual cycle), and menopause are widely recognized in women’s health, but perimenopause deserves recognition, too. As a perimenopausal woman myself, I can tell you that … [Read more...] about Tackling Perimenopause
Amber Belt
How to Boost Your Immune System in Preparation for Cold, Flu Season
Didn’t fall arrive quickly this year? The weather is cooling off, we’re getting some fall rain and the leaves are changing. Beautiful! But, when fall arrives, it’s time to think more seriously about supporting your immune system through cold and flu season. During the past three years, there has been a lot more awareness and acceptance around natural ways to support healthy immune function. We have been seeing a lot of articles, videos and other information about the power of vitamin C, … [Read more...] about How to Boost Your Immune System in Preparation for Cold, Flu Season
Identifying the Top Five Supplements to Help Handle Stress
If there’s a consistent and persistent feeling that could be used to describe the collective emotional state across the past two-and-a-half years, it’s stress! We’re meant to experience stress in the short-term, but given the state of the world, stress often becomes a long-term issue. And this long-term issue comes with consequences to our health, such as weakened immune systems, hormone disruption, hypertension, depression, anxiety, obesity, hair loss, psoriasis, eczema, reflux and irritable … [Read more...] about Identifying the Top Five Supplements to Help Handle Stress
Eight Nutrients to Improve Mood, Energy, Immunity
I don’t know about you, but I am ready to have a relaxed and fun summer! The stress of the past two years has certainly been difficult for many of us, and chronic stress takes its toll on the body’s systems, changing our energy, mood and immune function. If you’ve been feeling anxious, depressed, fatigued or chronically under the weather, chronic stress may be playing a role. Specific vitamins and minerals can contribute to mood, energy and immune health. Sub-optimal levels of these nutrients … [Read more...] about Eight Nutrients to Improve Mood, Energy, Immunity
Tips to Recover from Stress, Feeling Overwhelmed
I think we can all wholeheartedly agree that the last two years have been quite stressful. I see a lot of patients feeling very overwhelmed because of the strain. They are having trouble bouncing back and feeling like their normal selves. The truth is that stress will always be present in our lives, but it’s how we respond to the stress that matters in terms of our physical, mental and emotional health. I’d like to provide some tips to help recover from a prolonged period of stress that have … [Read more...] about Tips to Recover from Stress, Feeling Overwhelmed
Spring Cleaning: A Different Take
When it comes to spring cleaning, most of us think of purging clutter from our homes or getting out in the garden to clean up and get ready for the growing season. But I’d like to present a different spin on spring cleaning. What if you used springtime as the time to clean up the clutter around your health? Let’s face it, most of us have at least one or two untidy health habits that weigh us down. Why not use the momentum of spring to clean up those habits? Here are five health habits … [Read more...] about Spring Cleaning: A Different Take
A Better Way to Look at Cholesterol
If you didn’t already know, February was Heart Health Month. I realize I’m a little late, but I wanted to bring you some tips about how to utilize cholesterol (lipid) testing to benefit your cardiovascular health. We’re going to go beyond the basic cholesterol panel, which doesn’t provide enough information to accurately assess our cardiovascular risk, which we generally think of as our risk for heart attack or stroke. We tend to think of the standard lipid panel as the supreme and … [Read more...] about A Better Way to Look at Cholesterol
How to Avoid Medical Gaslighting, Part Two
In January’s column, I wrote about medical gaslighting. That article covered what medical gaslighting is and who is likely to be most impacted by medical gaslighting. This month in Part 2 of this two-part services, I want to focus on practitioners and how to avoid medical gaslighting. How the Medical System Sets Up Practitioners to Fail I think that having to center a practice around insurance codes to justify labs, imaging and treatments benefits neither patient nor practitioner and it … [Read more...] about How to Avoid Medical Gaslighting, Part Two
Recognizing Medical Gaslighting
If you’re a patient, have you ever had the experience of your practitioner blowing off or minimizing your symptoms? Or, worse yet, has your practitioner made you feel like you’re crazy and couldn’t be possibly experiencing your own symptoms? As a practitioner who has treated chronic illness and pain for well over a decade, this does happen. It’s called medical gaslighting and I want to shine a light on it so that we can all recognize it. This is Part 1 of a two-part series. What is Medical … [Read more...] about Recognizing Medical Gaslighting
How the Gut-Brain Connection Impacts Mood
Have your ever heard the saying, ‘the gut is the second brain’? Have you ever wondered what it means when people say that? I’d like to answer that question and more today! First, the second brain is your enteric nervous system (ENS) and it consists of hundreds of millions of neurons, or nerve cells, that line your gastrointestinal tract from the esophagus to the rectum. The connection between the gut and the brain is becoming more and more recognized when it comes to our moods, such as anxiety … [Read more...] about How the Gut-Brain Connection Impacts Mood
