Lara Adler is a Certified Holistic Health Coach and an Environmental Toxins Expert, and, let me tell you something, this girl knows her toxins. Many of us know a thing or two about toxins, but Lara knows everything!
Today we talk about the influence of toxins on fertility and our growing babies. Because developing fetuses are so much more susceptible to the mal-effects of toxins, and because the effects can last a lifetime, it is important that we learn how to protect them as much as is possible.
However this episode is helpful for anyone who is curious about toxins and how to reduce them.
Tired of having that same old argument with your uncle Ron, with him saying that there is no reason to be worried about RoundUp and food coloring and the like? Now you have some ammunition!
In this episode, we'll learn:
To learn more about Lara, visit her site here. Lara specializes in teaching practitioners, but will be expanding her offerings to the public over time.
Having been in the fertility field a while myself, I really appreciate Dr. Aumatma's lighthearted, compassionate, and inquisitive attitude about fertility. It is all too easy to get discouraged, melodramatic, etc, and she does none of that.
Trying to get pregnant, and not initially succeeding, is incredibly stressful. To have someone on your team who is a bright light of hope can be a game changer.
Dr. Aumatma is a naturopathic physician, and her approach to fertility includes the following:
She will, as the case demands, run tests on:
As our endocrine systems are so sensitive to toxins, and there are so dang many of them out there, detoxification can be vital.
Get nutrients into the body and healing with homeopathics are some of her techniques.
Releasing past traumas and re-learning to be a receptive female again in this man's world are examples of what she can help.
Dr. Aumatma offered a free gift to our community, which is a "How Fertile Am I?" quiz that she will personally review.
If you are needing a little sunshine in your fertility shadow, you've got to listen to this interview below!
Are you subscribed to our podcast yet? Come on and get in with us (:
I really enjoyed interviewing Dr. Kim D'Eramo. For one thing, she is incredibly lively and fun. For another, it's exciting to think that we have way more ability than we realize to heal ourselves.
She had a career as an emergency room physician, but meanwhile, since her teenage years and her own experience with anxiety, she was learning about how to harness the power of her own thoughts. Over time, her friends would send their friends with anxiety to Kim to learn about this mind-body stuff that she does.
She practices, among other things, emotional freedom technique, also known as tapping.
She no longer works in the ER, but has dedicated herself to mind-body medicine, and established the American Institute of Mind-Body Medicine, where she teaches both physicians and individuals how to heal with these simple tools of which we all have access.
So many of my female clients over the years have complained of anxiety. Some men too, but more often women. So I looked it up, and here is what the Anxiety and Depression Association of America had to say about it:
From the time a girl reaches puberty until about the age of 50, she is twice as likely to have an anxiety disorder as a man. Anxiety disorders also occur earlier in women than in men.
Women are also more likely to have multiple psychiatric disorders during their lifetime than men. The most common to co-occur with anxiety is depression.
Differences in brain chemistry may account for at least part of these differences. The brain system involved in the fight-or-flight response is activated more readily in women and stays activated longer than men, partly as a result of the action of estrogen and progesterone.
The neurotransmitter serotonin may also play a role in responsiveness to stress and anxiety. Some evidence suggests that the female brain does not process serotonin as quickly as the male brain. Recent research has found that women are more sensitive to low levels of corticotropin-releasing factor (CRF), a hormone that organizes stress responses in mammals, making them twice as vulnerable as men to stress-related disorders.
Dr. Kim is offering a series of free videos right now where you can get techniques to use right away to deal with anxiety. Click HERE to access these videos. What do you have to lose?!
Dr. Jennifer Mercier is a triple threat: naturopath, massage therapist and midwife. I kind of fall in love with her work on the episode, as you'll hear!
It was Jennifer's own experience with stage 4 endometriosis, coupled with her medical training, that helped her develop the Mercier Therapy.
Mercier Therapy is her own system of abdominal therapy that works with the ligaments and organs to move them into alignment with the goals of restoring function and /or reducing pain.
For women, it can help us have a smoother cycle, recover from surgeries, improve our fertility and heal trauma.
I find so many have strange sensations in their abdomens that they worry about. And many have complications form C section or even a natural birth, and feel there are no options to heal. Still other have unexplained infertility, that can potentially respond to a new approach.
Jennifer works locally in St. Charles, IL, but also trains practitioners in other states and countries. That means if this type of work speaks to you, you may be able to fidn a practitioner in your area. And if you are practitioner, training is available.
To learn more about your host, Bridgit Danner, please visit us at bridgitdanner.com.
We are hosting a free Recipe Party Jan 9 -31. See new blog post to join!
You can almost guess by her name that Zlata Sushchik has an interesting story. Immigrating from Russia to Alaska as a teen, and new to the English language, she stumbled into a saving grace when a friend convinced her to join a bodybuilding competition.
She went on the win many titles, and learned a lot about nutrition, fitness and motivation along the way. She now runs an online coaching business called SexyFit which has helped many women lose weight and feel great in a healthy way.
You can also check out her podcast, where I was a guest on episode #30.
I consider myself a half-way fit person, but I know very little about the best ways to work out in comparison to Zlata. She shares in this interview a comparison of different work out methods, and some advanced ways to approach your gym work out.
She also shares her views on food, which include not being too rigid, eating whole foods, and avoiding scammy weight loss products. She has also learned that in order to really get fit and lose weight, you need to identify your 'big why' to keep yourself motivated.
Having burned out her adrenals in the early years of her competition days, she had to cut back on exercise a lot to recover. So she is well versed in meeting women where they are, and choosing the right exercise for each stage.
I really enjoyed this interview with Zlata, and I know you will too!
For more about your host, Bridgit Danner, please see bridgitdanner.com.
In this fun interview, I talk with Dr. Lauren Noel, aka Dr. Lo, of Shine Natural Medicine in Solana Beach, CA on how to use a primal lifestyle and diet to boost libido.
In our busy modern lives, stress can inhibit our hormone production. Learn how the attributes of a primal / ancestral lifestyle can be brought into your life, and increase your natural sex drive.
Here's a preview:
Here are some of Lauren's favorite aphrodisiac foods:
You can find out more about Dr. Lo at drlaurennoel.com and pick up her free Tired but Wired ebook. You can also look find her popular podcast, the Dr. Lo Radio Show, on iTunes or other podcast players.
To find out more about your host, Bridgit Danner, please see bridgitdanner.com. She offers a free Hidden Health Stressors quiz for women there.
Holly Morello is a mother of three boys, a Nutritional Therapy Practitioner and a certified GAPS diet practitioner. She is also a project manager for author and health coach Diane San Filippo.
As she tried to help her youngest son's health through nutrition, she began to blame herself when outcomes were not as good as expected. She struggled with how much her family got involved, with public eating settings, and with isolating herself.
She comes clean on this episode about all she went through, and how she came out on the other side.
She also shares how simply being on a wrong type of diet (a low-fat diet) contributed to the lack of results for her son's health.
In the end she re-connected with her family, her kids actually chose to get on board with dietary changes (more in the healthy fats/ whole foods camp), and her kids' health improved.
She now has a much healthier attitude about food and family and has "ditched the perfectionism."
If you are a parent struggling with how to feed your kids, or being hard on yourself because of your kids' health, please listen in and you won't feel alone.
Learn more about Holly's services at NourishingExcellence.com.
Style: Informational
Dr. Anh Nguyen always wanted to be a pharmacist, and enjoyed many aspects of the work. But she realized people were just getting on more and more medications, and were never really coming off of them.
She was curious about how she could help people come off medications safely, and how to use food as medicine instead.
This led her to study health coaching and functional medicine. She also got interested in bodybuilding and started to train for competitions. Meanwhile she was dealing with illness in her family, which led to her own compromised health.
She shares some of her learnings with us on this interview. Here's what we talk about:
and much more.
Dr. Anh hosts a popular weekly podcast called Food As Medicine that you can find on iTunes or through her website, Dranh.com.
I was her guest on episode 49, talking about Fertility After Age 35.
Thanks for checking out the show! If you're not yet subscribed, please take a moment to do so through your podcast player.
You are also welcome to get to know me better at my website, bridgitdanner.com.
Low thyroid symptoms are most commonly known to be weight gain, hair loss or cold hands and feet. Our guest expert today, Dr. Peter Kan, points out that brain symptoms such as brain fog, memory loss and balance issues could also be related to the state of the thyroid.
We also talk about how these 'brain farts' can be early stages of more serious brain disorders later in life, so it's important to address them.
"Thyroid physiology actually starts in the brain."
According to Dr. Kan, the brain needs: 1. fuel (oxygen and glucose) and 2. activation (which comes from movement.)
So the good news is that there is a lot we can do to improve brain health, such as:
We talk about some surprising things like:
Subscribe on iTunes or your Android podcast player so you get a new expert interview, free, in your hands (and ears) every week!
Dr. Peter Kan is a chiropractic functional neurologist running a clinic called Hope Integrative Wellness Center in Gilbert, Arizona. He shares many free health videos on his site, AskDrKan.com.
Have you joined our Podcast Fan Club yet? It's free, and you get private access to me and many of our expert guests.
Dr. Jessica Black, ND is an experienced clinician and accomplished author. Her first book, which started as a compilation of the recipe suggestions she was giving to her clients, became very popular. She has since written a second edition of The Anti-Inflammation Diet and Recipe Book, as well as a companion version, More Anti-Inflammation Diet Tips and Recipes.
She also co-authored a book about Living with Crohn's and Colitis, and is currently working on books about a blood sugar diet, and then pediatrics. Somehow in all this she manages to see patients at her clinics in Portland, OR, and McMinnville, OR, raise two daughters, and eat tons a vegetables along the way!
With her varied background, we bounce around a bit, talking about picky eaters and how she's developed a strong plan for controlling blood sugar in her clinic. But at the core of this conversation is the anti-inflammation diet.
This diet is so important because it prevents and treats so many diseases, from PCOS to joint pain to gastric distress. Yes, we know there are so many fad diets, but when my clients ask me what diet I promote, I usually say the anti-inflammation diet. It's safe, and treats the array of diseases caused by inflammation (much of which comes from inflammatory foods.)
Find out the tenets of the anti-inflammation diet at the player below. To get these interviews delivered right to your phone every week, be sure to search "Womens Wellness Radio" in your podcast player.
Has an anti-inflammation diet helped you? Join in the conversation in the comments field at our blog.
Today's guest, Hannah Ransom, is a Certified Fertility Awareness Educator in the sympto-thermal method.
Today we talk about:
Hannah specializes in this system of monitoring your basal body temperature, symptoms and cervical mucus mainly for birth control. I have used this type of cycle monitoring with my clients more for fertility. So we have a nice dual set of perspectives that we can share with you.
Many women are interested in natural birth control, but are nervous if it will work. Getting educated can really dispel these worries.
Still other women were on chemical birth control for years, and are now trying to get pregnant. It is time to get to know their cycles and learn their fertile windows, and this is a great jumpstart for some, and a way to fill in some knowledge gaps for others.
So if you are:
This is a great episode for you!
Find out more about Hannah at HolisticHormonalHealth.com.
Caitlin Weeks blogs at her site, grassfedgirl.com, and is the author of several cooking books, including the paperback cookbook, Mediterranean Paleo Cooking, she co-authored with her husband, Nabil Boumrar and Diane San Filippo.
Caitlin become a comfort food eater and a sugar and carb addict at a young age. She lost 80 pounds with Weight Watchers, but was eating processed foods and doing tons of cardio.
She later became a personal trainer, effectively making weight control a career choice, and got really into strength training. She continued to experiment with dieting, trying low-fat, then vegetarian.
With her busy schedule and low-fat, low-protein diet, she wasn't feeling great. That is when she discovered the Weston A. Price type diet through a nutritionist, and it is also when she found out she had Hashimoto's thyroiditis.
There is a happy ending to this story, but you'll have to listen to find out! Caitlin and I have a great conversation about her journey, plus about how she and her chef husband concocted the ideas and recipes for Mediterranean Paleo Cooking.
I think there is a lot of value in sharing our health stories as women. It is easy to feel alone in your health challenges, and easy to give up for lack of results. But with persistence and open-mindedness, as Caitlin demonstrates, you can truly find your sweet spot.
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You are invited to take our quiz, Discover Your Hidden Health Stressors, at bridgitdanner.com.
Have you heard about our Podcast Fan Club? Check it out here!
The Gut Bone's Connected to the Brain Bone...
In this interview with functional medicine expert Dr. Ritamarie Loscalzo, we talk about the rarely acknowledged gut-brain connection. With modern research, we are gaining a deeper understanding of how digestion and the gut micro-biome effects the brain, and common symptoms of mood disorder, and poor concentration.
You don't always connect that your:
...are coming from the foods you eat or the damage that has been done to your gut. When we get into habits of eating on the run, eating processed foods, eating gluten, etc, we may not notice a direct correlation between the meal and the brain symptom. But in fact the internal inflammatory response could be increasing every time you eat.
Dr. Ritamarie is like a walking encyclopedia of health knowledge, and she is very generous about sharing it. Here are some things we cover in the interview:
1. How are the gut and brain connected?
2. How do we make neurotransmitters and what do they do?
3. What can go wrong in the gut that leaves us not digesting and absorbing nutrients?
4. How do we come to have parasites and candida in the gut, and what damage do they do?
5. What are some of the worst habits/things we do to our guts?
6. What are a few reparative things we can start doing right away?
Dr. Ritamarie shared some helpful links both to help educate practitioners on this important relationship, and to give everyone more tools to nourish their own gut-brain axis.
Practitioner Gut-Brain Webinar
Dr. Ritamarie is offering a live training program in Austin, Texas this Oct 30- Nov.1, 2015. This will included high-level lectures on gut health and the brain from a variety of top experts. Learn more here.
Does what you eat matter for your mental health? According to Dr. Ann Childers, MD, it sure does.
Dr. Childers is a child and adult trained psychiatric physician with a passionate interest in regaining our physical and mental health through nutrition and sleep.
Dr. Childers was 'trying to eat right' when the low-fat craze was going on in the U.S. Despite her best efforts, she was getting increasingly dizzy and anxious, and had become pre-diabetic.
Since then she's adopted a ketogenic (high-fat, low-carb, moderate protein) diet, with great results for her own health. She also works with her pyschiatric clients to establish this diet, along with healthy sleep habits, for improved mental health.
We talk about her nutritional experiences, plus the new dietary guidelines for Amercians, in this episode. Dr. Childers is thrilled that the new guidelines, based on scientific evidence, are letting fats back into our diets, while limiting sugars.
Learn more about Dr. Childers, who blogs regularly and has a private practice in Lake Oswego, OR, here.
Learn more about yor host, Bridgit Danner, and pick up her free hormone guide, here.
Hormones are such a mystery! One month your cycle is behaving, the next month it's not. Why I love lab testing for hormones is that it reveals the cold, hard facts, and from there you can take the best action to get great results.
Our expert today is Ann Melin, who is a Clinical Nutritionist, a Clinical Master Herbalist, a yoga teacher, and a Functional Diagnostic Nutrition practitioner.
I invited her over to talk to us about DUTCH, or the Dried Urine Test of Comprehensive Hormones.
Here are some things we cover:
Ann also shares two really interesting case studies that help you see how the symptoms, tests and protocols come together.
You can find out more about Ann at her website. Ann offers a complimentary consult for prospective clients at this link.
Listen to my interview with Ann through the player below, and be sure to also get subscribed to our weekly interviews at iTunes or most podcast players.