Posts

Enhancing Fertility with Nutrition

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Whole Food Based // Nutrient Dense // Anti-Inflammatory // Antioxidant Rich // Hormone Regulating // Blood Sugar Stabilizing

When it comes to fertility, pre-conception preparation and regulating your hormones, what you eat is absolutely the most important factor to prioritize.  A majority of fertility challenges can be overcome both safely and naturally.  Nutrition is the foundation of a healthy pregnancy.  Getting the proper nutrients needed, keeping your blood sugar stable, and reducing your toxic load can all be managed with proper nutrition.  It is also important to remember that ultimate goal is not just becoming pregnant, but having having a healthy baby and healthy mama as well.  Using food and specific nutrients before becoming pregnant will reduce the risk of birth defects and lead the way for a healthy pregnancy.  I always encourage both partners to get on board with this fertility nutrition plan.  It takes two to tango!

Fertility nutrition includes nutrient dense foods that are required for hormone production and communication, follicle growth, sperm health, healthy endometrial lining, fetal development, and much more.  It lays the foundation and provides the building blocks to provide life to a healthy child. Read more

Essential Nutrients for Thyroid Health

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For better or worse, the food we put into our bodies can be our greatest friend or our worst enemy.  Food has the ability to completely strengthen your physiology, enhance your vitality, raise your mental and emotional capacity, and ultimately upgrade your whole being. Underestimating the power of food has, in my opinion, been one of the greatest flaws in conventional medicine.  With Thyroid conditions on the rise, over 21 million prescriptions of thyroid medication is now written yearly, making Synthroid our country’s most prescribed drug.  It is not uncommon to be prescribed thyroid medication based on symptoms alone or just one lab marker and never once have a discussion about how to meet the nutritional needs of this complex endocrine gland.

While there are several variables that need to be addressed when evaluating thyroid conditions (environmental toxic exposure, chronic infections, unmanaged stress, gut health, etc.), the overall nutrient status of the patient is often overlooked.  It is important for all thyroid patients to emphasize key nutrients that might be lacking in their diet in order for their thyroid to have the building blocks it needs to function properly.  Now when it comes to the thyroid, there is no on-size-fits-all treatment.   But regardless of the severity or the side of the spectrum you fall on (hypo-hyper), everyone can benefit from building a strong nutritional foundation to keep your endocrine system stable.  Read more

The Test Your Doctor Isn’t Ordering, But Should Be.

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ORGANIC ACID TESTING (OAT)

This at-home urine analysis is one of the most clinically valuable laboratory diagnostics available today.  This little known test tells you everything you need to know about your cellular metabolism and is what I consider “the most bang for your buck”.  You can think of this test like an emissions test you run on your car.  The exhaust is examined to see how efficiently the engine is burning fuel.  Similarly, these “organic acids” in your urine reveal how efficiently several of your body systems are running.  Organic acids are byproducts resulting from the metabolic pathways, or chemical reactions, your body uses to transform food into energy, during growth, maintenance, and repair of body tissue.  This test looks at 46 organic acids to give a comprehensive snapshot of a patient’s overall health and how effectively metabolism is functioning.  Our state of metabolism determines our state of health and is the result of an interplay of our genetics, diet, lifestyle, toxic exposure, stress response, thoughts/emotions, and other environmental factors.  With this one sample we can gain insight into several different processes happening in the body and discover where any breakdowns may be occurring.  Read more

Immune Boosting Chicken Soup

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Winter is officially here!  Using food as medicine, what better way to boost your immune system this season than with a delicious nourishing soup!  At the fist sign of a cold (or if your family or co-workers has one) whip up the immune boosting soup before reaching for the cold medicine.  Soup made from whole chickens is rich in carnosine, which has been shown to inhibit damage from viruses in the body [1].  Both astragalus and shiitake mushrooms stimulate natural killer cells, whose job is to directly attack viruses and harmful bacteria. The ginger and chili flakes give the soup some heat to stimulate the sinuses to drain. Ginger is also a broad-spectrum antimicrobial and is an amazing anti-inflammatory herb.  Beyond this, doesn’t it just feel good to sip on a warm, brothy soup in the colder weather?

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Probiotics vs. Prebiotics

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A diverse gut microbiome is essential for all aspects of health including digestion, immune modulation, metabolic activity, and gene expression.  Thanks to the vast amount of research done by foundations such as the Human Microbiome Project, a deeper understanding of the symbiotic relationship between human health and the microbial world has been gained.  Additionally, new insights and ground has been broken into progressive functional therapies and treatments for conditions not limited to digestion alone. Read more

Dietary Guidelines For Optimal Health

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I have never been an advocate of “diets”.  The word itself can breed anxiety in many people and has the connotation of being difficult and unsustainable.  There is no single “diet” that is perfect for everyone.  Unique genetic makeups, metabolic individuality, and varying conditions and allergies are always considered when nutrition planning for patients.  Read more

We Live In A Toxic World

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Chronic fatigue, weight problems, sleeping disorders, mood swings, fuzzy thinking, recurrent headaches, body pains, skin conditions, asthma, allergies, hayfever….. Complaints not exclusive to the elderly or unfit, but now frequently experienced by almost everybody, even children! Read more

Crazy For Coconuts!

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If you were to travel the world to look for cultures who have a strong grasp on good health and longevity, people who are relatively free from the crippling effects of degenerative disease, I am sure you would be pleasantly surprised while visiting the South Pacific and studying those who have maintained their traditional native diet and steered clear of Western influence. Read more

Functional Nutrition: A New Perspective on Diet

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Failing to recognize and apply nutrition as a therapeutic and prevention-oriented modality would deprive patients of optimal care and maximum health benefit.  Therefore, using functional nutrition is an important aspect of our medical services.  The functional approach to nutrition implies that food contains molecular compounds that are necessary, designed to support life, and promote well-being and vitality.  Read more