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The Power of Functional Medicine

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The power of functional medicine is not only to help reduce symptoms. It is also for long term prevention and ultimate healing.

Functional Medicine is not only for the chronically ill or those with chronic mysterious symptoms.

The power of functional medicine can be harnessed for high achievers who  want improvement. Perhaps they want to achieve a personal best in their sport or optimal brain function to get that promotion at work. Maybe they want to be their very best self with their family and friends.

Today I’m going to share with you how to find the right Functional Medicine Practitioner. Are they practising the five foundational aspects of functional medicine?

The first powerful foundation of functional medicine is taking a thorough history.

Conventional medicine always does a thorough medical history. However, Functional Medicine takes it one step further. We look at environmental exposures, toxins. Stresses and traumas you’ve had in your life. Even genetics. Using all of this information, we look at how multiple factors caused the manifestation of your symptoms.

The second powerful foundation of functional medicine is functional testing.

Conventional medicine tests levels. For example hormone levels, iron, white and red blood cells or liver enzymes. Functional Medicine takes it a step further. We look at why those levels are off. Looking at our body’s ability to absorb, lack of stomach enzymes, imbalance in the microbiome, bacteria and even parasites. Any or all of those things could be the root cause.

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The third powerful foundation of functional medicine is a personalized approach. 

The order and timing of this protocol is specific for you as an individual.

Some people are very sensitive to change and some people are not. Constant communication and feedback that we get from you will help us support you along the way.

I see many people with the same symptoms and different root causes and vice versa, the same root cause with different symptoms. That is why it’s so important to have a personalized approach. Supervision throughout all of your protocols is vital to make sure it’s working for you. 

The fourth powerful foundation of functional medicine is mindset mastery.

Change is hard. It’s not about willpower, let that guilt go. In order for behaviour change to happen, it needs to happen on a physiological level. The most powerful and effective way to change physiology is through a shift in mindset.

Changing our mindset changes our biochemistry and our physiology. That creates long lasting behaviour change. It is one way that functional medicine is so different, because long term behaviour change has a huge impact on our ultimate long term health.

The last and most powerful foundation of functional medicine is the relationship between the doctor and the patient.

Feel seen. Feel heard. The true power of functional medicine is in its’ ability to inspire patients to be an active participant in their healing journey. If you’re seeing a specialist and are working with a holistic practitioner but still feel like there’s something in the middle missing, functional medicine is for you

Next Steps

If you enjoyed this content, please…

  • Join my Mythbusting Motherhood Group full of health inspired Supermoms on a similar journey to more vitality & fulfillment.
  • If you are interested to know how I can help you or a loved one, schedule a discovery call.
  • To help you inspire radical health change in your life and the lives of your loved ones, I have created a special guide: It contains tips about how to ditch the outdated Supermom mindset, how to build an awesome support system, and the daily habits that are the building blocks of good health. Simply click here to download the guide!

If you want other Supermoms just like you to be able to access this information, this knowledge, make sure to use the share buttons below to share it with someone that means the most to you.

The Uncomfortable Truth about Gluten and Your Health

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The number one piece of information that I give before anyone starts working with me is the uncomfortable truth about gluten and your health. Yes, it is time to eliminate gluten. 

The most commonly associated symptoms with gluten sensitivity are gastrointestinal. These symptoms include constipation and diarrhea, gas and bloating, nausea and vomiting. But what you may not know is that more than 50% of gluten sensitivity symptoms are not gastrointestinal. These symptoms look like headaches, brain fog, joint pain, gait, issues like ataxia, neuropathy is an inflammation of nerves, even depression and anxiety.

The other thing that makes it so complicated is that people can have a delayed reaction to gluten. This can mean that it may take almost 72 hours for you to have a response. This is why it’s so difficult to ascertain whether you have a sensitivity to gluten or not.

Even if you don’t have any of these symptoms. It’s time for you to awaken to the uncomfortable truth about gluten and your health.

Gluten causes intestinal permeability in all humans.

Intestinal permeability, also known as leaky gut, is when the cells of the gut lining start to get holes in them. These cells are there to protect you from the outside world and when they start to separate the consequence of this is leaky gut. Once we start to get particles into our bloodstream from our gastrointestinal tract that we don’t want there, this results in increased inflammation in the body.

Gluten directly impacts the lining of the gut through the production of a protein called Zonulin. This protein directly causes leaky gut! Some people can heal that gut permeability quicker than others. However, those that can’t heal as quickly are the ones that suffer from symptoms of gluten sensitivity.

Have you heard of non celiac gluten sensitivity?

You may have heard of celiac disease, but what you may not know is that non celiac gluten sensitivity is four times more common. It doesn’t matter if you don’t have celiac because gluten causes inflammation in all humans.

The only way to know if it’s affecting your day to day health is through an elimination. I recommend 30 days of eliminating gluten, 100%. One of two things will happen. Either your symptoms will lessen, and you’ll start to feel better. Or you won’t notice too much of a change, but upon reintroducing gluten, you’ll start to have symptoms that you didn’t know were there.

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Either way, gluten is inflammatory to all people.

Gluten sets off your body’s alarm signals. When you ingest gluten, a cascade of inflammatory particles starts to be released by your body . Your body sees gluten as a dangerous stranger. This induces pro inflammatory cytokines, which are chemicals that damage our own cells. 

Gluten causes gut dysbiosis.

This is an imbalance between the good and bad bacteria in the gut, abundant good bacteria is required to run the biochemistry of life. Gluten ingestion causes detrimental changes to the gut flora and this can predispose you to gut infections. When biohacking your health, the most impactful thing that you can do through your diet is to remove gluten.

Next Steps

If you enjoyed this content, please…

  • Join my Mythbusting Motherhood Group full of health inspired Supermoms on a similar journey to more vitality & fulfillment.
  • If you are interested to know how I can help you or a loved one, schedule a discovery call.
  • To help you inspire radical health change in your life and the lives of your loved ones, I have created a special guide: It contains tips about how to ditch the outdated Supermom mindset, how to build an awesome support system, and the daily habits that are the building blocks of good health. Simply click here to download the guide!

If you want other Supermoms just like you to be able to access this information, this knowledge, make sure to use the share buttons below to share it with someone that means the most to you.

5 Strategies to Decrease Inflammation

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Many people with chronic health challenges, such as thyroid conditions, irritable bowel and autoimmunity, frequently ask me what they can do to start healing. Based on actions you can take from the comfort of home, I want to share with you my top 5 strategies to decrease inflammation. 

In my practice I see so many people suffering with mysterious symptoms such as brain fog, low libido, low energy, and painful bloating.

What you may not know is that the common driver of all these complaints is chronic inflammation.

Today I’m going to share with you my top 5 strategies to decrease inflammation and finally start healing.

My first strategy is a whole foods diet.

This means avoiding packaged and processed foods and decreasing sugar. This includes fruits and vegetables, nuts and seeds, good quality proteins, and healthy fats.

My second strategy to decrease inflammation is to get outside.

Enjoying some fresh air and exercise as well as getting some vitamin D can dramatically decrease inflammation in the body.

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My third strategy is fasting.

Most people can safely fast between 13 and 16 hours a day. This means eating your last meal and then waiting 13 to 16 hours before you eat your next meal the following day.

My fourth strategy to decreasing inflammation is getting a good night’s sleep.

I recommend consistently getting eight hours of sleep between the hours of 10pm and 6am to decrease inflammation.

My final strategy to decrease inflammation in the body is weight loss.

Even as little as five pounds of weight loss will dramatically decrease the inflammation in your body.

These are my top diet and lifestyle strategies that I use with my patients to decrease inflammation.

I encourage you to give them a try.

Next Steps

If you enjoyed this content, please…

  • Join my Mythbusting Motherhood Group full of health inspired Supermoms on a similar journey to more vitality & fulfillment.
  • If you are interested to know how I can help you or a loved one, schedule a discovery call.
  • To help you inspire radical health change in your life and the lives of your loved ones, I have created a special guide: It contains tips about how to ditch the outdated Supermom mindset, how to build an awesome support system, and the daily habits that are the building blocks of good health. Simply click here to download the guide!

If you want other Supermoms just like you to be able to access this information, this knowledge, make sure to use the share buttons below to share it with someone that means the most to you.

Why A One-Size Fits All Diet Almost Never Works

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One person’s medicine is another person’s poison. What worked for one person may not work for you. Each of us are unique and this is why a one-size fits all diet almost never works!

We need to have metabolic flexibility. We should be able to eat different types of food in different combinations and feel good.

Have you been eating the same way for a long time? Do you have lack of energy, indigestion, low energy and mood dysregulation? It’s possible that you’re eating the wrong diet for what you personally need.

These are the diets I commonly see in my office and why these one-size fits all diets almost never work.

Let’s talk about ketogenic or high fat low carb diets.

These diets consist of 70 to 75% of caloric intake from fats, 20 to 25% from proteins and 5% from carbohydrates.

This type of approach works well for dementia, cognitive decline and brain injuries as well as for people suffering from cancer and other chronic illnesses.

First, one reason why a one-size fits all keto diet almost never works. The ketogenic diet is not recommended for anyone with a genetic predisposition that inhibits them from breaking down saturated fats and using them properly. In this case, keto could increase your cholesterol markers and lead to heart disease.

Second, if you have a gallbladder dysfunction or don’t have a gallbladder, eating a high fat diet will not be good for you personally. This means you have a decreased ability to break down fats. Fats that aren’t broken down can cause inflammation in the body. If you’ve been following me, inflammation is at the root of all chronic health conditions.

If you’re feeling moody, irritable or have a lack of clarity and brain fog, these are signs that you have been keto for too long. This generally happens for women. In this case, you might want to cycle in and out of keto. This means adding some nice complex carbohydrates to your diet  from time to time to avoid getting stuck with these symptoms.

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A vegan diet isn’t for everybody.

Vegan eat no animal products whatsoever. Most integrative healthcare practitioners agree that more plants are better for everybody.  Being vegan means eating lots of plants, avoiding processed food and supplementing appropriately. The vegan diet can be healthy for some when done correctly.

If you’re a vegan and you’re not eating plants or getting adequate protein, you are not healthy.

For instance, I often see vegans who eat a lot of processed and boxed foods or foods that resemble animal protein. However, they are not getting the adequate amount of vegetables, fruits and protein.

A healthy vegan diet consists of lots of plants, veggies and fruits, healthy fats and adequate amounts of protein. In addition, you’ll have to supplement with B12 and omega-3’s. B12 is crucial for proper nerve and brain function. It’s not a nutrient you can go without. After that, adequate amounts of protein are vitally important for building immune cells, neurotransmitters as well as healing tissues. 

Are you are vegan and experiencing brain fog, indigestion, bloating, anxiety and depression? This may not be the right diet for you and most importantly, your biochemistry.

Have you been doing a low FODMAP diet for a long period of time and it’s no longer working for you?

Let’s talk about why this one-size fits all diet almost never works. The low FODMAP diet was developed to help manage the symptoms of irritable bowel disease or syndrome.

In other words, it’s a great place to start to relieve symptoms. However, it was only designed to be used for two to six weeks.

Following a low FODMAP diet for a long time ends up starving your microbiome. You have to feed your microbes in order for them to grow.

How do you know if you’ve been doing low fodmap for too long? Often women will start to have hormonal issues involving their menstrual cycle, or with their mood.  Symptoms may include low energy or feeling generally unwell.

If this is you, start today by introducing some fermentable carbohydrates. Add some sweet potato or squash and a low sugar fruit to see how you feel.

In conclusion, if you stop eating a low fodmap diet and the symptoms that you had come back, it’s time to work with a gut health expert. It is important that you understand what is the root cause of your issues so that you can properly reintroduce foods to your diet.

Next Steps

If you enjoyed this content, please…

  • Join my Mythbusting Motherhood Group full of health inspired Supermoms on a similar journey to more vitality & fulfillment.
  • If you are interested to know how I can help you or a loved one, schedule a discovery call.
  • To help you inspire radical health change in your life and the lives of your loved ones, I have created a special guide: It contains tips about how to ditch the outdated Supermom mindset, how to build an awesome support system, and the daily habits that are the building blocks of good health. Simply click here to download the guide!

If you want other Supermoms just like you to be able to access this information, this knowledge, make sure to use the share buttons below to share it with someone that means the most to you.

The Free Health Testing You Don’t Know About

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There is free health testing you can do, daily that will give you important insight when assessing your health.

Regardless if you’re dealing with a chronic health condition or trying to optimize your health. This free health testing is looking at your stool. For those of you who don’t know what stool is, it’s your poop.

Many people know that checking your stool is vital to understanding your digestive health. For those of us who are familiar with gut health, we know to check the consistency shape and size of stool.

For those of you who don’t know, the Bristol stool chart is a tool used to compare the shapes and sizes of stools. You can look at the Bristol stool chart to see where you lie and begin to optimize your health from there. We always aim for snake like stools. I always tell my patients “if you’re not looking at your poops everyday, start today.”

If your stools are little pellets or  liquid, there’s a problem with your digestion. This may lead to a long term problem with your health. If you’re not familiar with the Bristol stool chart, we’ll attach a link HERE. Aside from the Bristol stool chart, there are other ‘free home testing’ indicators that can give you deeper gut health insight.

The first way to delve deeper into assessing your gut health is to look at the colour of your stool.

What colour should your stool be? Between brown, yellow and green is considered normal. If you see that you have clay or light colour stools, this is an indication that digestion is off. Oftentimes, it’s an indicator of gallbladder dysfunction and/or digestive enzyme problems.

When you see red or dark colour stools, this could be a serious problem. Certain foods cause red stool. Eating beets or licorice could be the reason that your stool is red. This only applies if you have eaten these foods in the last day or two. Otherwise, this could be an indicator of bleeding somewhere in the gastrointestinal tract. It needs to be checked out by your doctor as soon as possible.

Other free health testing that you can do to assess your gut health, is to look for undigested particles in your stool.

If there are green leafy pieces or chunks of food, one of two things could be happening.

The first reason is because you’re not chewing enough. Chewing is so vitally important. If you’re racing through your meals without chewing, you will most likely see undigested pieces of food in your stool.

The second reason is because you may not have enough enzymes, or sufficient stomach acid to turn those enzymes on, to help break down your food. This is incredibly important to know. You could be eating the most beautiful, healthy, organic whole foods that are plant-based, without absorbing any nutrients. All because your body doesn’t have the ability to produce the enzymes. If this is the case, you should seek the help of a professional to figure out why you’re not digesting your food.

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Another way to assess your gut health for free is to see if your poop is sinking or floating. Which one is normal?

Your stool should be sinking to the bottom. If you see a little bit of a floaty stool, you may have had too much fiber or fat that day. Like when the fruit is fresh and you decide to eat a whole bowl of cherries. The next day you might have a floating stool. However, if your stool is floating regularly, this could indicate something more serious.

Your stool may be floating because you’re eating too much fat. It could also be that you’re not able to properly digest fat. For anyone who has recently begun a higher fat diet, you may be eating too much fat at once. This means your body isn’t able to produce the enzyme lipase to break down that fat, quick enough. If this is the case, ease off and slowly introduce the amount of fat.

The most obvious free health testing out there is called the smell test.

Either you or your family members know when a bowel movement is really smelly. Stool is normally smelly but when it’s particularly putrid, for example when everyone needs to evacuate the room, that could indicate digestive issues and more.

Your gut microbes, both the healthy and unhealthy ones, feed on the food you give it. An imbalance of the good and bad bacteria in your gut could create an inability to break down your food properly. When food isn’t broken down it can putrefy and that ends up coming out really smelly.

Often my patients will have a hard time digesting protein. This is either because they don’t have enough stomach acid or they don’t have enough of the protease enzyme to break it down. That protein will putrefy on its way through the digestive tract. That ends up being very smelly as well.

Another reason you are having a smelly poop is after eating a lot of processed food or food that your body is having a very hard breaking down. Often times you will notice that you’ve been out and you’ve been somewhere eating a lot of things that you don’t normally eat.

You may not only have a really smelly poop, but you may have really smelly gas. These are all signs from our body that something is off. If you or one of your family members passes the smelly smelly poop test, you want to look deeper into figuring out what is the root cause of the problem.

Next Steps

If you enjoyed this content, please…

  • Join my Mythbusting Motherhood Group full of health inspired Supermoms on a similar journey to more vitality & fulfillment.
  • If you are interested to know how I can help you or a loved one, schedule a discovery call.
  • To help you inspire radical health change in your life and the lives of your loved ones, I have created a special guide: It contains tips about how to ditch the outdated Supermom mindset, how to build an awesome support system, and the daily habits that are the building blocks of good health. Simply click here to download the guide!

If you want other Supermoms just like you to be able to access this information, this knowledge, make sure to use the share buttons below to share it with someone that means the most to you.

Promising therapies for Alzheimer’s

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Have you or someone you love recently been diagnosed with Alzheimer’s disease?

If so, you’ve probably been told that there’s nothing that you can do.

Luckily, there are promising new therapies for Alzheimer’s that work and they’re free! Today I’m going to be sharing three of those with you.

Let’s talk about sleep therapy for Alzheimer’s.

Everybody knows that getting a good night’s sleep is important. For people with Alzheimer’s disease that have a buildup of beta amyloid plaques in the brain, it’s even more important.

Sleep deprivation increases the body’s production of these toxic plaques. This impairs brain function.

The most common place for these toxic plaques to form are in the areas of the brain that help with sleep cycles. Therefore, it becomes a vicious cycle. There is a buildup of plaques from sleep deprivation, those plaques in turn affect quality of sleep, and hence goes the vicious cycle.

The other way that sleep deprivation increases this toxic buildup is because we detoxify when we sleep. The brain shrinks 20% to 30%, while you’re sleeping. As it shrinks, it cleans itself out with the glymphatic system. This system is the garbagemen of the brain. They come and clear out all the beta amyloid plaque, dead cells and pollution.

When you’re not getting good quality sleep, you’re missing this crucial step in brain health.

My top three suggestions for improving sleep are:

  1. To get off screens two hours before you go to bed.
  2. Make yourself a cup of common tea like chamomile or nettle.
  3. Make sure to get yourself to sleep by 10 o’clock
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What you eat matters

You’ve probably been told that diet won’t impact your diagnosis, but food is medicine. Nourishing your brain is one of the most promising therapies for Alzheimer’s.

In Alzheimer’s disease, we see a buildup of toxic plaques and tangles in the brain. The American Journal of Geriatric Psychiatry completed a study that showed that the Mediterranean diet is one of the top lifestyle factors to prevent the buildup of these toxic plaques. The Mediterranean diet consists of foods, such as fatty fish, olives, olive oils, fresh fruits and vegetables. If you haven’t made any dietary changes, start with the Mediterranean diet.

One of the most promising therapies for Alzheimer’s is exercise.

Exercise has brain protective effects. In Alzheimer’s disease, we see the buildup of amyloid plaques and tangles in the brain. A UCLA study recently showed that a moderate amount of regular exercise helps to decrease the formation of these plaques.

This study consisted mostly of aerobic exercise such as walking, running and biking. New research that shows that HIIT training and short bursts of high intensity training can also have brain protective effects and help with brain growth. However, the bottom line is moving more and getting more exercise is going to help protect you from the deterioration of disease.

Next Steps

If you enjoyed this content, please…

  • Join my Mythbusting Motherhood Group full of health inspired Supermoms on a similar journey to more vitality & fulfillment.
  • If you are interested to know how I can help you or a loved one, schedule a discovery call.
  • To help you inspire radical health change in your life and the lives of your loved ones, I have created a special guide: It contains tips about how to ditch the outdated Supermom mindset, how to build an awesome support system, and the daily habits that are the building blocks of good health. Simply click here to download the guide!

If you want other Supermoms just like you to be able to access this information, this knowledge, make sure to use the share buttons below to share it with someone that means the most to you.

Alzheimers is more than genetics

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We often link an Alzheimer’s diagnosis with genetic predisposition. However, a diagnosis of Alzheimer’s is more than genetics!

Most people believe you have a high likelihood of Alzheimer’s disease if it runs in your family.

Now, we know that there are six separate classifications of Alzheimer’s disease. This disease doesn’t have one homogeneous root cause.

Understanding the root causes of Alzheimer’s gives us some clues about how to treat it. Genetic predisposition plays a role but Alzheimer’s is more than genetics.

Understanding the root cause of Alzheimer’s is important when creating a care plan. This vital information can help put your symptoms into remission and even reverse some of those symptoms.

Functional medicine practitioner’s are always looking for the root cause of dysfunction and disease. Knowing the type of Alzheimer’s readily points to treatment plans that are personalized to the specific type of dysfunction. 

Type one Alzheimer’s is called inflammatory or hot Alzheimer’s.

This type of Alzheimer’s is driven by inflammation. The major cell for inflammation in the body is called NF-kappa B. Increased production in NF-kappa B increases amyloid production and deposition in the brain. Why is this a direct link to Alzheimer’s disease? These amyloid plaques are what we see in the brains of Alzheimer’s patients. Decreasing this inflammation helps to stop the production of amyloid plaques. 

The second type of Alzheimer’s is called cold or a trophic Alzheimer’s.

This type of Alzheimer’s is driven by inadequate amount of nutrients, hormones and trophic factors. Trophic factors are the helper molecules that help develop neurons. These molecules also help maintain the connections between its neighbours.

The body needs vitamins and minerals, adequate amounts of hormones like estrogen, testosterone and progesterone as well as other trophic factors to maintain the 5 trillion connections between cells. All of these are supremely important in the growth, development and maintenance of brain cells. Therefore, not having enough of these nutrients, hormones or trophic factors, causes decreased brain function.

The third type of Alzheimer’s disease, type 1.5 is called glycolytic or sweet Alzheimer’s.

This type is driven by glucose and is caused by insulin sensitivity issues or high fasting glucose. Type 1.5 combines factors of type one and type two Alzheimer’s disease. The insulin resistance that doesn’t allow sugar to be put into the cells is similar to type one Alzheimers. In addition, it binds to certain proteins in the brain and this creates inflammation. 

It’s very much like the trophic type two Alzheimer’s because we’re not getting the nutrients to feed the cells. The glucose that our brain cells need to be fed and nourished, as well as to function, doesn’t get into the cells.

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Type three Alzheimer’s is called toxic or vile.

This type is driven by exposure to environmental toxins like mercury, toluene and mycotoxins. Mycotoxins are toxins that come from mold. For instance, there are mycotoxins that have been directly linkeed to Alzheimer’s disease.

Even though we’re all at risk for environmental toxins, those with a genetic predisposition have a higher risks. This is mostly because of impaired detoxification pathways. However, this type of Alzheimer’s is more than genetics. As it is said, genetics loads the gun but environment pulls the trigger.

Type four is called vascular or sometimes pale Alzheimer’s.

This type is driven by cardiovascular disease. When we have cardiovascular disease, we get less oxygen to certain parts of the brain. This causes brain dysfunction.

One of the earliest signs of Alzheimer’s disease is leakiness in the vasculature or the blood vessels in the brain. When you have a genetic predisposition and you have cardiovascular disease, you are more at risk for this type of Alzheimer’s.

Type five Alzheimer’s disease is called traumatic or dazed.

This type of Alzheimer’s comes from traumatic brain injury or head trauma. It could be from small, minor head injuries or mild concussions. Similarly, it could come from many repetitive injuries or from a significant head trauma.

When these traumatic injuries occur early in life, you significantly increase chances of Alzheimer’s. This trauma causes the brain to create  and deposit amyloid plaques into the areas where there has been inflammation or the brain has atrophied. We frequently see this amyloid tissue in Alzheimer’s patients.

This is why I caution parents to make sure that children who are playing contact sports are being careful and are being taken care of immediately. Although Alzheimer’s is more than genetics, micro traumas increase your risk of Alzheimer’s. This is especially true if you have a genetic predisposition.

Next Steps

If you enjoyed this content, please…

  • Join my Mythbusting Motherhood Group full of health inspired Supermoms on a similar journey to more vitality & fulfillment.
  • If you are interested to know how I can help you or a loved one, schedule a discovery call.
  • To help you inspire radical health change in your life and the lives of your loved ones, I have created a special guide: It contains tips about how to ditch the outdated Supermom mindset, how to build an awesome support system, and the daily habits that are the building blocks of good health. Simply click here to download the guide!

If you want other Supermoms just like you to be able to access this information, this knowledge, make sure to use the share buttons below to share it with someone that means the most to you.

A brain injury can destroy your gut

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Firstly, when we talk about brain injuries, we look at ways to heal the brain to fix the problem.

However, when you have a brain injury, it directly and immediately affects the gut!

As that gut function continues to be disrupted and deteriorates, it affects how much healing can happen in the brain. As a result we get a vicious cycle of brain and gut dysfunction. These gut functions affect how the brain works.

Getting treated for brain injury, often times includes physiotherapy and visual therapy. There is less computer time, less screen time and a lot of quiet time. This is meant to help the decrease inflammation in the brain. But if we don’t directly heal the gut dysfunction that has been caused by that brain injury and heal it, we’re never going to get better. That brain injury will be a long term problem.

Have you have been noticing that your gut symptoms are getting worse and worse? Maybe it is constipation? Maybe you have irritable bowel and you have a history of a previous brain injury, even a mild one? If so, this is important information for you.

intestinal permeability is one of the first things that happen in the vast majority of people with a brain injury.

After a brain injury, the tight junctions between the cells of your gut start to act dysfunctional and they open up.

This allows unwanted food particles, pathogens, other things that usually are kept inside the gut lumen into your bloodstream. Those particles then flow through your blood. They can also create a lot of issues. One of these issues being brain inflammation. This will impact your ability to heal the brain.

One of the biggest triggers of autoimmune disease is increased intestinal permeability. This is also known as leaky gut. Many research articles have come out showing that autoimmune diseases like Hashimotos (autoimmune disease of the thyroid) and multiple sclerosis, are linked to increased intestinal permeability. If autoimmunity runs in your family, you have a history of a brain injury and you’re starting to notice gut symptoms, it’s time to start working with a functional medicine expert to help you heal.

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The second way that a brain injury can destroy your gut is by affecting gut motility.

The gut has wave like motions called peristalsis that helps move food down in a certain amount of time, through a gastrointestinal tract. The contractile ability of this tissue can become dysfunctional with a brain injury.

This can cause one of two things:

Increased gut motility can result in diarrhea. The end result of that is malabsorption. If you’re not absorbing your food because it’s moving through your gut too fast, you wind up nutrient and mineral deficient.

The other way that gut motility can be dysfunctional is when it’s too slow. When your gut motility is slowed down, there is stagnation and inflammation in the bowels. Now we can’t detoxify properly. If you’ve had a brain injury, have you noticed that your bowels have changed ever since? You may have diarrhea or constipation or even combination of both. It’s time to start getting a treated and heal.

Did you know that the microvilli in your gut can shrivel and die immediately following a brain injury?

Research shows that the mucosa in the intestines, can be directly affected by a big brain injury. The microvilli are the components of the mucosa, the intestinal lining, that absorb all of your vitamins and minerals. These can atrophy and die following a brain injury. This can affect your long term nutrient and mineral absorption.

If you’re eating all of the right foods, lots of fruits and vegetables, good quality protein, but still you’re finding that you have B 12 deficiencies or you’re low in iron for no reason, your prior brain injury can be causing this issue. Long term vitamin and mineral deficiencies lead to chronic health conditions.

If you have a history of a brain injury, and are noticing these nutrient deficiencies, you have to address your gut health.

You must heal your gut in order to heal your brain.

Next Steps

If you enjoyed this content, please…

  • Join my Mythbusting Motherhood Group full of health inspired Supermoms on a similar journey to more vitality & fulfillment.
  • If you are interested to know how I can help you or a loved one, schedule a discovery call.
  • To help you inspire radical health change in your life and the lives of your loved ones, I have created a special guide: It contains tips about how to ditch the outdated Supermom mindset, how to build an awesome support system, and the daily habits that are the building blocks of good health. Simply click here to download the guide!

If you want other Supermoms just like you to be able to access this information, this knowledge, make sure to use the share buttons below to share it with someone that means the most to you.

3 Ways to Slow Cognitive Decline and Clear Brain Fog

Do you secretly fear that your forgetfulness and brain fog is linked to cognitive decline?

Many patients come into my office complaining of not being able to remember words, forgetting dates or misplacing their keys. These symptoms can happen 20 years before being diagnosed with cognitive decline.

Have you gone to your doctor and they’ve told you you’re just getting older? It is true. However, it is also possible that you are in the early stages of cognitive decline.

The first way to slow cognitive decline  and clear brain fog is with regulating blood sugar through intermittent fasting.

Making new brain cells is known as neurogenesis. The process of neurogenesis is insulin dependent. When blood sugar is balanced there is an adequate amount of insulin to make new brain cells. In other words, people with cognitive decline and brain fog have impaired neurogenesis.

A great way to regulate blood sugar is by intermittent fasting. You can start with a 12 hour fasting window. This looks like fasting at 8pm and eating again at 8am. If this feels good for you slowly work your way up to a 16 hour fasting window, one hour at a time. Patients often feel brain clarity when intermittent fasting and their brain fog goes away. If you need support implementing intermittent fasting, work with your healthcare provider.

The second way to slow cognitive decline and clear brain fog is brain fitness.

I’m talking about physical exercise. Exercise improves brain function by increasing mitogenesis. Mitochondria are small cells within each cell that produce energy and mitogenesis is the process of creating new mitochondria.

For instance, different kinds of exercise can produce mitochondria. Therefore, the more mitochondria you have, the more energy you have in your brain cells for all of these cognitive functions.

Exercises that improve brain health are high intensity training (for 10 to 15 minutes), explosive interval training and weight training. In addition, Tai Chi, Yoga and meditation have been linked to mitogenesis. Remember, physical exercise increases your mitochondria (your energy production cells), and your brain is full of them!

The third way to slow cognitive decline and clear brain fog is through a whole foods diet with healthy fats

Consuming a whole foods diet is vital for providing the vitamins and minerals needed for brain function.

The best healthy fats for brain health are Omega-3’s. These fats decrease inflammation and help with healing. In fact, your brain structure is partly made up of Omega-3’s. In other words, you require Omega-3’s to build your brain. Good sources of Omega-3’s include olives, olive oil, coconut, avocado, grass-fed beef and salmon. These are all wonderful foods that we can eat to help increase our brain function.

Let’s talk about the diets I typically encounter that negatively impact brain health. Those of us who are a little bit older were told that fats are inflammatory, they’re bad for you and can cause heart disease. However, a low fat diet is basically starving your brain. Getting the right amount of fats is vital to nourish and grow your brain.

The other thing I see is what I call ‘dirty keto’ diets. These are diets that are based on high fats but the wrong kinds of fats. This diet is mostly high in Omega-6 fats. Not only do these fats not help build a brain, they cause massive inflammation in the brain. This inflammation definitively contributes to cognitive decline, brain fog and poor brain function.

Next Steps

If you enjoyed this content, please…

  • Join my Mythbusting Motherhood Group full of health inspired Supermoms on a similar journey to more vitality & fulfillment.
  • If you are interested to know how I can help you or a loved one, schedule a discovery call.
  • To help you inspire radical health change in your life and the lives of your loved ones, I have created a special guide: It contains tips about how to ditch the outdated Supermom mindset, how to build an awesome support system, and the daily habits that are the building blocks of good health. Simply click here to download the guide!

If you want other Supermoms just like you to be able to access this information, this knowledge, make sure to use the share buttons below to share it with someone that means the most to you.

The top 4 reasons you have brain fog

How do you know if you have brain fog?

Symptoms include anxiety, irritability, inability to remember names, inability to retrieve words, forgetfulness, low mood, difficulty sleeping and chronic headaches.

When you tell your doctor you have brain fog, you’re  often told you’re depressed or just getting older. Brain fog is a common symptom in so many chronic health conditions including thyroid issues, metabolic syndrome, high blood pressure and inflammation. Different autoimmune conditions also present with brain fog. It is so ubiquitous that I see this symptom in almost all of the patients that I see in my office.

The first reason you have brain fog is inadequate sleep

Sleep is important for restoration and so many functions in our body!

When you go to sleep, your body detoxifies from all of the chemicals and byproducts that you’ve ingested in the day. When we don’t get adequate sleep, our detoxification processes can be impaired. That can lead to inflammation in the body. In turn, this can lead to brain inflammation. It is this brain inflammation that is causing your brain fog.

Major detoxification in our body happens between 10pm and 2am in the morning. If you’re not getting adequate sleep and you’re not sleeping between these times, you’re not detoxifying.

The second way sleep is causing your brain fog, is because adequate REM and deep sleep is imperative when you are sleeping. Your body takes all the information that you learned in the day, consolidates it and files it away. When you get less sleep, it affects this process. This effects your ability to remember things and cognitive function decreases.

The second reason you have brain fog is because your hormones are out of whack.

Many people have thyroid conditions that are undiagnosed. When you have a thyroid condition, it can really affect how your brain works. In fact, brain fog is a common complaint I see in my patients. If you haven’t tested your thyroid, and your thyroid hormones are imbalanced, it will impact the way your brain works. Traditional testing for thyroid is not enough. What you want to make sure you do is complete a full thyroid panel. This complete panel will give you an idea of how your thyroid is functioning. This will let you know if an imbalance in your thyroid hormones is causing your brain fog.

The third reason you have brain fog, is because you’re being exposed to toxins in your environment.

There are so many toxins in our environment that we inhale throughout the day. As we inhale them, they can actually affect the way our brain functions and inflame it.  You could be exposed to mycotoxins (which are mold toxins) that you don’t see and you could be exposed to them for a long time.

There are also toxins in our environment and in our air. For example, you could live or work in an older building that has lead in the paint that is inflammatory. You could also work in an area where there are chemicals and pesticides that you’re inhaling. All of these hidden environmental triggers and mycotoxin triggers can lead to inflammation in your brain.

If you suspect that something in your environment is causing your brain fog, get it looked at! A mold inspector can come in and check to make sure that there aren’t any unseen molds in your house. This will make sure that you’re not being exposed to any pesticides or chemicals outside or inside your house.

The fourth reason that you have brain fog is your food intolerances.

So often in my practice I see people who have brain fog. When we uncover foods that are inflaming their gut, it goes away. There is a connection between the gut and the brain! When you’re eating  foods that your body is intolerant to, it creates inflammation in your gut.

The most common foods that I see that causes brain fog are dairy and gluten proteins. If you think that food intolerances are causing your brain fog, you can do an elimination diet for 4 weeks and take gluten and dairy out of your diet. If you’re not quite sure at the end of the four weeks, have some of that dairy and gluten. See how your brain feels. If these foods are causing your brain fog, you’ll notice it right away.

Next Steps

If you enjoyed this content, please…

  • Join my Mythbusting Motherhood Group full of health inspired Supermoms on a similar journey to more vitality & fulfillment.
  • If you are interested to know how I can help you or a loved one, schedule a discovery call.
  • To help you inspire radical health change in your life and the lives of your loved ones, I have created a special guide: It contains tips about how to ditch the outdated Supermom mindset, how to build an awesome support system, and the daily habits that are the building blocks of good health. Simply click here to download the guide!

If you want other Supermoms just like you to be able to access this information, this knowledge, make sure to use the share buttons below to share it with someone that means the most to you.