How Environmental Toxins Mess With Our Health

Mystery symptoms like brain fog, fatigue, and frequent headaches? Unable to lose weight no matter what you try? Skin issues? Bathroom problems? You might be struggling from toxic overload!

Diana Edwards is the founder and CEO of Optimally You and co-owner of Revolution Health and Wellness and Against the Grain Podcast with her husband, Dr. Chad Edwards. She is an expert on environmental toxins and their impact on our health.

In this episode, we learn about all the sneaky toxins we encounter day to day that impact our mental functioning, hormones, and so much more!

Key Topics:

Diana’s health journey, how every traditional treatment failed her until she learned how to treat the root
Common household/environmental toxins and their effect
How these toxins overload our body
The danger of commonly used cleaning supplies
Simple ways we can reduce our toxic load in cost effective ways
How to support detoxification pathways, especially if you have the MTHFR gene mutation
Why some people have a harder time detoxing than others
How you know if you are struggling with toxicity

To learn more about Diana, head to her website here.

This episode is sponsored by Forager Project, a company with 100% organic plant-based products like kefir, milk, yogurt, and sour cream. To learn more about Forager, head to: http://www.foragerproject.com/vote

It’s Not Just Your Thyroid

“If you have an unhealthy gut, you could be missing out on about 25% of your thyroid hormone.”

Reed Davis, Founder of Functional Diagnostic Nutrition, is a Board Certified Holistic Health Practitioner and Certified Nutritional Therapist. He is the founder of Functional Diagnostic Nutrition. Having experience with over 10,000 clients, he is known as one of the most experienced clinicians in the world.

In this episode (available here or on all major podcasting platforms), he explains why thyroid issues are symptoms of underlying issues that must be looked at as a whole.

I’ll be honest. Because thyroid issues are not my personal health concern or my coaching focus, I don’t know as much about it as I would like to. In this episode, Reed simplifies very complicated concepts in order to break down the root causes of thyroid problems and show that it is intricately connected with every other process in the body. I learned so much from this mind-blowing conversation, and I know you will too!

Key topics include:

Tests that determine thyroid issues
Symptoms of thyroid dysfunction
Causes of underactive thyroid
The role of TSH and the T4-T3 conversion
The role of toxicity, immune system, fight or flight
The gut health factor on thyroid
Why the most commonly prescribed medication may not be the best fit
How to be kind to your liver and what its function is in overall body health
How stress causes chaos in the body
Lifestyle medicine tools to support healing
How Functional Diagnostic Nutrition can work for you

To learn more about FDN and to enroll, click here.

This episode is sponsored by Forager Project, a family-owned company that creates organic, plant-based products. Forager wants to encourage everyone to exercise democracy and vote. Check it out here.

How to End Comparison and Release the Burden to Be Better

So often in the world of wellness, we find ourselves getting caught up in chasing optimal health yet finding out that there’s always a better goal, diet, plan, solution, etc.

Heather Creekmore is a body image expert, speaker, and the author of Compared to Who along with the newly published The Burden of Better.

In this episode we discuss her newest book, the inspiration behind it, and WHY we need to stop comparing and set aside the heavy burden of better. Download the episode here or listen wherever you get podcasts!

But that’s not all! Heather and I are excited to share that we are partnering together one last time in 2020 to bring you our 14 day ecourse, Re-Focus 2020! In this course, we tackle the topics of body image, wellness, spiritual health, nutrition, and so much more!

To learn more about Re-Focus 2020, and to sign up, click here.

Prove Yourself Wrong: How to Do Your Own Research and Fight for Your Health

In an era of information overload, it is hard to discern what is truth and what is biased. To be your own health advocate, it is important to be open to all sides, then form an assessment and make an evaluation. I dip my toes into some controversial waters to look at a different perspective in order to take a deeper look at the pre-conceived notions I have about medical research.

Dr. Jim Meehan champions honest science deployed to create genuine health. He has advanced training and experience in ophthalmology, ocular inflammation and immunology, preventive medicine, addiction medicine, and endocrinology.

In this episode that aims to challenge listeners, Dr. Meehan flips the narrative and calls into question many of our beliefs about medical research and encourages us to prove ourselves wrong and dig into the research in order to fight for our health.

This episode may make some listeners uncomfortable. But if we TRULY want to become personal health advocates and find true health, we need to do some digging. It doesn’t mean we agree with everything on all sides, but it does mean being open to other outlooks about health.

Key Topics:

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Dark ages of medical research
Should we be allowed to do our own research?
How the studies can be biased
How to discern what is based on the true scientific method and what is “pseudoscience”
The two studies he submitted that were rejected for not fitting the narrative
The importance of trying to prove yourself wrong
How randomized controlled trials are used to determine effectiveness
How to look for research that isn’t biased
The research on wearing masks
How fear suppresses the immune system
Tips to build up a healthy immune system and take control of your health

To learn more about Dr. Meehan, head here.

How to Create Natural Neurotransmitter Balance for Mental Wellness

Are there alternatives to medication for mental illness? Is there a way to avoid all the long-term side effects? What other tools can we utilize to help balance our neurotransmitters naturally?

In this interview with Dr. Josh Friedman, we take a deep dive into neurotransmitters and how to optimize them for mental wellness, via food as well as amino acid supplementation.

Dr. Friedman has a doctorate in Psychology from New York University and did post-doctoral training in Psychoanalysis from the Training and Research Institute for Self Psychology (TRISP) in New York City. He also is certified as a Holistic Health Counselor from the Institute for Integrative Nutrition in New York and earned a Diploma of Comprehensive Nutrition (Dip.CN) from Huntington College of Health Sciences.

Download this episode wherever you get podcasts!

Key Topics include:

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– The importance of digesting protein to create the right neurotransmitters

– The struggle with treatment-resistant depression

– Why B12 is essential for mental health

– How enzymes aid in digesting protein in order to benefit our mental health

– Amino acid suggestions for low serotonin, low dopamine, and low endorphins

– And so much more!

Find more info on Dr. Friedman’s work click here.

Books mentioned in episode:

The Mood Cure by Julia Ross

The Anti-Anxiety Solution by Trudy Scott

Anatomy of an Epidemic by Robert Whitaker

Questionnaire for amino acids mentioned in the episode click here.

Nutritional Psychiatry: Your Brain on Food

“People don’t make the connection between how they eat and how they feel emotionally through the brain. They don’t realize there is a connection to food and the brain and emotional well-being.”

Dr. Uma Naidoo is a board certified psychiatrist, professional chef, and nutrition specialist. She is the director of Nutritional and Lifestyle Psychiatry at Massachusetts General Hospital and also on faculty at Harvard Medical School.

In this fascinating episode, we discuss her exciting new book, This Is Your Brain On Food, which I highly recommend. Listen to the entire episode and subscribe wherever you get podcasts or listen here.

Key topics of our conversation include:

Dr. Naidoo’s journey as a psychiatrist and professional chef
How what we eat affects our brain
The origin of the gut/brain connection
The rise of mental health concerns
Food to avoid for mental well-being
Inflammatory foods
Orthorexia and food obsession
How to add more diversity in your diet
The impact of caffeine and alcohol on mental health
So much more!

Learn more about Dr. Naidoo here.
Follow her on Instagram and Twitter at @drumanaidoo

Find her book on Amazon or your favorite bookstore. This book is so helpful and needs to be part of your mental health library!

3 Things Moms and Kids Need Every Day

With everything going on in the world, it’s easy to get overwhelmed. I recently sat down with my friend, fellow health coach, Melissa McGaughey, and we discussed how to simplify our daily needs into just THREE things we are focusing on for our continued health.

But we didn’t just stop with us and our needs. We expanded the conversation to include the top three things that our kids need every day. You can listen to the entire episode here.

Key topics include:

Our favorite easy ways to include more whole foods into our daily diet
Why sunshine is the best way to “charge your battery”
The types of exercise we’re loving right now
Sleep hygiene and why it’s time to find some blue light blocking glasses
The importance of meditation and intentional breathing
Mindset and gratitude and the impact it makes on our whole body health

No matter where you are in your health journey, this episode will help inspire you to keep going and incorporate tiny habits to make a big impact.

For more on Melissa, head here.

What Do We Currently Know About Covid?

All we hear from the news media is wash your hands, wear a mask, social distance. Is that really a long term solution for supporting your immune system?

Dr. Chad Edwards is a former army surgeon and currently works as an Emergency Physician. He is the founder and director of Revolution Health and Wellness Clinic in Tulsa, Oklahoma. Here, he pays special attention to sports medicine and health and wellness as a preventive strategy to optimize health, minimize injury risk, and decrease disease. Viewing his patients through a holistic approach helps identify subtleties in their function that are beginning to show signs of dysregulation.

This interview is a very balanced and informative take on the current pandemic, what we currently know, and what we can do to support our immune function.

Key topics include:

His experience with Covid patients
What the current numbers of deaths and infections tell us, according to CDC data
The data on wearing masks
The issue of asymptomatic carriers
Common sense precautions to take
Practical steps to support immune health via gut health and supplementation
The magic of vitamin c and nitric oxide (and why you want to avoid mouthwash and proton pump inhibitors)
The importance of glutathione, n acetyl cysteine and nitric oxide
Should we run out to get the Covid vaccine?

For CDC data mentioned in the episode, click here.

For more information on Dr. Edwards and his work, click here.

Understanding the Mind/Body Connection on a Deeper Level

Matt Erb is a physiotherapist, senior faculty member with The Center for Mind Body Medicine, instructor at The Andrew Weil Center for Integrative Medicine, and the Founder of Embody Your Mind, which specializes in high quality writing, teaching, and consulting in integrative and mind-body medicine topics.

In this episode we discuss the powerful mind/body connection and why we need to be listening to how our bodies handle our stressors.

Key Topics:
– How he uses acceptance and commitment therapy (ACT)
– The principles of ACT
– Survival biology and the aversion response to pain or unpleasant sensations
– The importance of improving our relationship to things
– Biobehavioral patterns of seeking care and comfort and regulating our physiological state
– Understanding emotional eating
– How ACT can help us in our day to day? Who is this useful for?
– Mechanics of emotional eating, autonomic nervous system development
– Mind-body practices we all could incorporate right now

Continue reading “Understanding the Mind/Body Connection on a Deeper Level” →

Normalizing Mental Health Care with #SameHere

What do you do when your mental health is suffering and nothing you try helps? Are there options beyond the traditional treatment plans? Where can you find support?

#SameHere is an organization founded by Eric Kussin after he experienced 2 and a half years of suffering from a mental health crisis that briefly interrupted his career as a sports executive.

In this episode, you’ll learn Eric’s story in detail, and you’ll also hear from psychiatrist Dr. Andrew Pleener, who is the leader of the Same Here Psych Alliance and advocates for multiple healing modalities when it comes to psychiatry.

Listen here or listen and subscribe wherever you get your podcasts!

Key Topics:

Eric’s story and how he got to the root of his issues after digging through his trauma
How mental health is a continuum and the problem with using phrases like “stop the stigma”
The non-medication healing modalities that Same Here brings awareness to
The STARR exercises that improve mental fitness, as the “gym for the brain”
The importance of creating community support and awareness for mental health
Why you can’t use the same tool over and over to improve mental health – you need more!
Mental health treatment shouldn’t be a one size fits all plan.
The work Same Here is doing with schools and businesses
How you can get involved

To learn more, go to https://samehereglobal.org

Follow on Twitter: @samehere_global

Follow on Instagram: @samehere_global