In my experience, having clear, radiant skin is an inside job. We can slather our faces with the best topical treatments out there, but if there is hormonal imbalance, liver congestion, and/or gut inflammation brewing beneath the surface, those fancy creams can only get you but so far. If you are struggling with acne and sense that something about your diet and lifestyle is inflaming your skin and causing your breakouts, start with implementing some of the tips outlined in this post.
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Intermittent Fasting, aka IF. You've likely heard of it but may be thinking it's just another wellness fad. While it may seem that way, IF really it isn’t a fad at all. It is what our ancestors naturally did before electricity, refrigeration, food delivery and microwaves! They would naturally go periods of time without food and their digestive systems would get a nice long break from the energy-intensive process of digesting food. In our modern world, food is never scarce. Actually, quite the opposite - we've got access to food around the clock! Eating late into the evening and again first thing in the morning doesn't allow our digestion/detox systems to work on removing metabolic junk and toxins that build up in the body over time so health problems, like weight gain, insulin resistance, inflammation, increased oxidative stress, impaired cognitive function, accelerated aging, etc. can ensue. In this post, I've outlined everything you need to know about intermittent fasting - including why and how to do it if you decide it sounds right for you. I also discuss gender differences and how to make it work with your exercise routine.
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Let’s talk about hormones. Those über-important chemical messengers affect many aspects of our health and we wouldn’t be able to live without them. When our hormones are regulated, we feel great–stable mood, lots of natural energy, healthy weight, good sex drive and beautiful skin and hair. But when they get out of balance, it can cause many unpleasant symptoms and lead to health issues down the road. Some common signs of hormone imbalance are fatigue, weight gain, hair loss, brain fog, anxiety, sugar cravings and low libido. Any of these sound familiar? If so, click the button below for my top 10 tips for balancing your hormones using food as medicine.
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Incessant cravings and feeling like their weight is out of control are common health concerns that prompt clients to come to my office. Hormone imbalance/dysfunction is often at the root of these issues. Working together, the first thing we do is identify which hormones are out of whack and then take action to reset them. This post is all about the 7 key hormones that play a big role in regulating appetite and managing weight. I include a description of each hormone, clues that something may be amiss as well as simple steps to balance each one. I’ve also specified which lab tests can be useful to determine hormone imbalance or dysfunction. Lucky for us, even though there are a lot of hormones that impact weight, diet and lifestyle are super powerful ways to support your body’s hormonal communication system and get these hormones in balance! Check out the full post by clicking the button below.
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Things like ashwagandha, reishi, maca and are making their way into lattes and smoothies at the trendy health-food cafes. You may have heard of a few of these before but not totally sure what the deal is. Well, they are adaptogens -- plant medicines that protect our bodies from the harmful effects of stress while supporting overall health. Sounds pretty good, right? There are lots of different adaptogens, each with its own set of special skills. I wrote a comprehensive guide to the most popular adaptogens over on Hello Glow. You may find a few that really speak to you in which case you should give them a try! There is almost no downside and lots of upside to being better equip to handle all the stresses life throws your way!
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Mushrooms are a delicious food to incorporate into your healthy diet. While button, cremini, portobello and oyster mushrooms are all great, there are a group of medicinal mushrooms that go above and beyond in terms of health benefits. These mushroom superfoods do amazing things for your brain, hormones, energy, mood and immune system so it's no wonder they're starting to pop up in coffee, tea, smoothies, elixirs, chocolate, etc. To learn more about these six special fungi, click the button below to be taken to my blog post at Hello Glow.
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Sugar is almost impossible to avoid. It's in everything from fruit to yogurt to salad dressings. But there is a distinction to be made between the two forms sugar comes in. It's either naturally-occuring sugar, such as in fruits, starchy veggies, grains, and beans, or refined/added sugar which is hidden in the majority of packaged food products - juice, sports drinks, yogurt, cereal, salad dressings, etc.
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If you struggle finding comfort during your "lady holiday" (as I just recently heard it referred), perhaps try some of the below natural remedies which I learned from my Ayurvedic doctor in India, as well as through reading Maya Tiwari's book, Women’s Power to Heal Through Inner Medicine.
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Premenstrual syndrome is one of the most common ailments for women, affecting more than one third of the female population between the ages of 18 and 52. That’s a large percentage of us who are miserable…and perhaps making our family/boyfriends miserable...every month! To make this time easier on you and those around you, start slowing down and taking a little more rest in the days leading up to your cycle, eliminate stress and agitations and start doing more nurturing things for yourself that keep you feeling calm and happy.
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I came to Vaidyagrama for two primary reasons: 1. I wanted to see and experience the Ayurvedic panchakarma process first hand after studying it this past year, and 2. I wanted to get my menstrual cycle back (after 2 years of no period from being on oral contraceptives for so long) and heal my polycystic ovaries. I started the panchakarma process (diet, medicines, treatments, etc.) on January 5th and my period arrived on January 11th - a day full of gratitude, jumping for joy, and much, much relief! Over the past two years, I had been to more alternative healers than I could count on one hand on my quest to bring my cycle back naturally. As much as I tried to stay positive and keep experimenting with new methods with the hope that “this one has to work,” I always had in the back of my mind the gripping fear that something was seriously wrong and I was never going to be able to have children. I was diagnosed with polycystic ovaries which is a condition that can be no problem for some and cause infertility for others. There is no real “cure” in Western medicine; the focus is more on managing diet and lifestyle so that the hormone imbalance doesn’t worse and cause further complications. Since being diagnosed with this condition, I have talked to many different people and done much of my own reading / research in an effort to learn as much as I can to heal myself. Indirectly, I have become really interested in how women’s hormones and menstrual cycles get so out of whack and how we can naturally bring our system back into balance.
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I recently attended a seminar by Dr Sherrill Sellman who is a Naturopath and a doctor of Integrative Medicine. She is one of the leading voices in women's holistic health and wellness and travels the world lecturing on topics related to hormonal health. Dr Sellman is the author of Hormone Heresy: What Women MUST Know About Their Hormones and What Women MUST Know to Protect their Daughters from Breast Cancer.
Keen to gobble up any and all information regarding women's hormones, I was thrilled to hear that Dr Sellman was coming to Sydney and eagerly bought a ticket to attend her lecture titled 'Getting Hormones on Track.' She did a fantastically informative two hour talk on which I furiously took notes. (Old habits die hard!) Here is a bit of a recap of what I learned.
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