The Missing Puzzle Piece to Your Mental Health Struggles

More people are struggling with mental health issues than ever before, and more people are looking for lasting solutions by addressing the root cause through multiple modalities. Sanare Today is a revolutionary set of thirteen clinics that combines therapy, natural medicine, nutrition, and coaching to help people thrive.

Rachael Bevilacqua is the Vice President of Sanare Today. She has a master’s degree in clinical counseling from Philadelphia College of Osteopathic Medicine and is a personal trainer. Her passion for combining revolutionary therapy techniques, food, and movement comes from her experience as an athlete, coach, and clinician.

Dr. Kate Henry is the Director of Functional Medicine at Sanare. Kate’s study of nutrition, botanicals, and lifestyle medicine allows her to offer unique expertise and cutting-edge solutions for mental and physical health conditions including depression, anxiety, insomnia, ADHD, and more. She’s passionate about doing the medical detective work to help people find their root cause and become free of the things that are holding them back.

In this episode, we dive into the world of integrating mind-body methods to improve mental health for good. Download and listen here or find wherever you get podcasts.

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Keys to Creating Immune Resilience

Have you heard the phrase psychoneuroimmunoendocrinology? Well, you have now!

In this recent episode, I pick Dr. Aaron Hartman’s brain on the topic of long Covid and why creating a healthy immune system impacts everything else in our bodies! We discuss the unique interconnectedness in our bodies and the latest and greatest in health research.

Dr. Aaron Hartman is the founder of Richmond Integrative and Functional Medicine in Richmond, Virginia. He helps his patients identify leverage points in key areas of their lifestyle & health that harness their body’s remarkable power to heal and begin living the vibrant life they deserve. He has participated in over 60 clinical studies and has become the ‘go to’ doctor for difficult and hard cases in central Virginia – positively impacting his own daughter’s MS with his unique, integrative approach to health.

Download and listen here or find wherever you get podcasts!

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An Integrative Medicine Approach to Kids’ Anxiety

Dr. Alina Olteanu is the Found of Whole Child Texas in Frisco, Texas. She uses an integrative approach to pediatrics and relies on a variety of evidence-based tools to target the top medical issues in children today.

As anxiety rates in children continue to increase, Dr. Olteanu offers some powerful tools that all parents can implement. Download and listen to the episode here, or find wherever you get podcasts.

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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

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An Integrative Approach to Mental Health – Interview with Dr. Noshene Ranjbar

The field of psychiatry is changing as new discoveries about the brain are made. There are many pioneers using evidence-based medicine to seek out different treatments beyond traditional methods and prescription medication. While meds are definitely helpful for some and are one helpful tool in the toolbox, according to Dr. Ranjbar, “we are asking them to do what they were not made to do.”

Dr. Noshene Ranjbar is Harvard trained and board certified in General Psychiatry, Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, and Integrative Medicine. She serves as medical director of the Integrative Psychiatry Clinic at Banner – University of Arizona Medical Center in Tucson.

In this episode we discuss the changes in mental health approaches in the last 20 years, how integrative psychiatry is different, nervous system dysfunction, common underlying issues that impact mental wellness, as well as Dr Ranjbar’s work with refugee and American Indian communities.

Click here to listen on the show page or here on iTunes. Continue reading “An Integrative Approach to Mental Health – Interview with Dr. Noshene Ranjbar” →

The Mental Health Impact of COVID-19 – Interview with Psychiatrist Dr. Amelia Villagomez

I’m so thrilled to share that we have surpassed the ONE MILLION download mark on the Sparking Wholeness podcast! So what better way to celebrate than with an episode featuring an integrative psychiatrist who discusses the mental health impact of COVID-19!?

Dr. Amelia Villagomez is an integrative psychiatrist at Progressive Psychiatry in Fort Worth, Texas. She attended medical school at Texas A&M, completed her training in General Psychiatry at Yale, and did a fellowship in Child/Adolescent Psychiatry at Harvard. To further her education in holistic healing methods, she completed a fellowship for integrative medicine at The Arizona Center for Integrative Medicine and is certified in mind-body techniques. In this interview, Dr. Villagomez addresses the top mental health concerns during this pandemic and its aftermath.

Download the episode here or subscribe on iTunes here.

Topics addressed:

How children and adolescents may actually be seeing a decrease in mental health concerns during this time, which poses the question: is an international pandemic less stressful than going to school?
How the pandemic is forcing us to rethink current paradigms.
Managing uncertainties and expectations.
The increase in insomnia, its causes, and what to do about it.
How the abundance of information may be negatively impacting us, stages of disaster, and potential trauma resulting with the current season.
The importance of mindfulness and staying in the current moment with self compassion and self awareness.
Nutritional support for mental health and why your brain needs 7-9 different fruits and veggies a day.
Why the gut-brain connection is something we should all be talking about.
Why the concept of PLAY is so important for mental wellness and holistic health.

Continue reading “The Mental Health Impact of COVID-19 – Interview with Psychiatrist Dr. Amelia Villagomez” →