Mood, Memory & Immunity
That ‘gut feeling’ is your second brain! Our nervous system is closely connected to digestion. There is significant amounts of neural tissue found in the gut. In fact, 80% of neurotransmitters are produced in digestive system. The evidence supporting the gut-brain connection is established. Mood, memory & immunity all rely on the gut.
CBD for Gut & Brain Health
The endocabbinoid system (ECS) is comprised of receptors, neurotransmitters, and metabolic enzymes that help maintain homeostasis. The ECS has beneficial effects on digestion and immune function. Cannabidiol (CBD) activates the ECS to reduce intestinal permeability,...
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Do You Have Serotonin Deficiency?
Which nutrients are needed? Serotonin regulates many of our neurotransmitters. It acts like the conductor of a orchestra. Serotonin deficiency can occur when there isn't enough tryptophan, the amino acid that helps build it. Enough iron is needed to turn tryptophan...
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Increase Neuroplasticity with Velcro
Our brains are built to learn, adapt & grow for our entire lives. Research on neuroplasticity has opened the field of human potential and healing exponentially in recent years. Some say that understanding how the brain can change is one of the most important...
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Orgasms for Health & Humanity
Women's Health, Human Rights & Orgasms Years ago a patient asked me, in a sincere way, how she could have more orgasms. At the time, I worked in a busy community clinic. I didn't have time to answer her question but it stayed with me. Yesterday a patient told me...
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Are EMFs Dangerous?
Electromagnetic frequencies (EMFs) are about intensify on the small island where I live. Residents of Salt Spring spoke up against the proposed 5G cell tower set to go up in our little town. There are pockets on this island where cell phones don't work. Many people...
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Electrolytes & other Nutrients for Keto
If you are experiencing symptoms on a ketogenic diet then it may be solved by increasing your electrolyte intake. As the body begins to burn fat instead of glucose for energy there can be rapid water loss. With this we can also lose a lot of salt and minerals. Our...
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7 Tips for Seasonal Depression (SADD)
Seasonal Affective Disorder is Real Millions of people experience the winter blues. This type of depression is known as SADD. There are several interventions that can help and even reverse SADD. Winter is an excellent time to get extra support either from a...
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Depression & Allergies? Boost Methylation
Optimizing methylation can help with depression, allergies and asthma. A recent meta analysis showed "consistently lower methylation levels observed at all associated loci across childhood from age 4 to 16 years in participants with asthma." The findings of this...
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Neuroplasticity & the Brain
Our brains adapt to early life experiences by creating imprints. We have many imprints both positive and negative that become part of how we see the world. The interesting part is our brains can change. The brain's ability to reorganize and form new neural...
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Glycine or Collagen?
Glycine is the Amino Acid that Gives Without knowing it, glycine is helping your body every day with muscle repair, cognitive function, metabolic health, and immunity. This amino acid assists in breaking down glycogen, fat and other nutrients to be used as energy at...
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The Psychology of Your Gut
Have You Heard of Psychobiotics? The microbes in our gut have far reaching psychological effects. In 2013 there was a ground breaking study proving that depressed mice were positively affected by a strain specific probiotic. Around the same...
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Heart Health 101
Suppressing symptoms with pharmaceuticals to treat high blood pressure or cholesterol means missing the investigation as to why these are high in the first place. We know that blood sugar issues and metabolic syndrome contribute to heart disease. In fact there...
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Five Key Habits for your Brain and Cognitive Function
Brain health is influenced by many factors and we know there are a few habits that support long term function. The inflammatory cytokine model of depression shows the influence diet has on cognitive function. Omega 6 oils are linked to depression and are...
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CBD is Changing The Game
CBD (cannabinoid) is a natural, safe, and effective. Its affect includes reducing inflammation, pain and seizures. There is evidence that it may inhibit cancer growth. It certainly helps with nausea and other side-effects of chemotherapy including loss of appetite. ...
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Mold and other Biotoxin Illness
As you many of you know I've been going on meditation retreats for many years. Recently I was the health person on a retreat where mold illness was affecting three people. Another member of our community is literally debilitated from mold illness so it's quite...
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What about Anxiety?
The Gut-Brain Connection Infections and other imbalances in the gut result in an inflammatory response in the brain. The inflammatory cytokine theory is well established in the scientific literature and is being embraced as the number one cause of depression. But...
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Kids are at Risk
Given the trends that we see in the general population towards a sedentary lifestyle it's not surprising our kids are less active than ever before. What are the health implications exactly? What can we do to change this? Do It Yourself Kids pick up on everything so...
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Love Your Liver: Enjoy Looking & Feeling Your Best
Lifestyle Medicine Your Liver As it warms up its easier to get outside more and get moving. Discovering ways to stay active all year long is important for many reasons. Organ health is at the top of that list. Our livers do more for us than any other organ. Caring...
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What Happens When We Get Sick
Immunity, Iron & Infections Bacteria love iron so your body will remove it from the blood and store it in the liver. This is why its important to check if anemia is due to chronic disease, iron deficiency or another cause. White blood cells are produced to destroy...
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Protect Your Brain and Keep Your Memory
There are 44 million people currently experiencing alzheimers or dementia worldwide. There are a number of steps you can take no matter where you are in life to prevent and even reverse memory problems. Regulate blood sugar. Processed foods...
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Antidepressants That Work
Modulating your gut flora has far-reaching benefits for your emotional and cognitive health says a study published by Trends in Neuroscience. This study uses the term psychobiotics to describe how prebiotics and probiotics affect the brain. The central nervous...
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Do you have Candida? Or is it SIFO?
What's the Difference? Symptoms like chronic yeast infections, brain fog and sugar cravings can indicate dysbiosis or an imbalance in the gut microbiome. About 20 years ago candida albicans began receiving a lot of attention. Some said to cause a long list of...
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Get Your Appetite Back on Track with the Right Carbs
What makes us hungry? Carbs and the neuroregulation of appetite is getting a lot of press these days. As the epidemic of diabetes increases even young people are suffering the effects of obesity. The result is researchers are hell-bent on finding solutions. Our...
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What’s the cause of chronic sinusitis?
Chronic sinusitis is unbelievably common. This is a condition termed in the medical literature as chronic rhinosinusitis or CRS. My five year old son has some dry inflammation in his sinus cavity. When I've taken him to get it checked out conventional medicine offers...
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What is Methylation? Why is it so Darn Important?
A process that occurs in the body a billion times a second, is good to understand if you are interested in health. Poor methylation can affect the brain, the gut, and the liver. Methylation also repairs DNA, turns genes on and off, fights infection and gets rid of...
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Rewire the Brain to Break the Trauma Cycle
Trauma change our brains and can create a chronic stress response. When squeezed hard, any human will experience overwhelm. What’s interesting is how we uniquely respond to trauma. A moment that is overwhelming lives within us until there are resources to integrate...
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Do You Suffer From SIBO?
What is SIBO?In a healthy state, the small intestine has a low bacterial count. An overgrowth creates a condition called SIBO. Mild to severe digestive discomfort including gas, bloating and pain results. Bacteria is swept through the small intestine into the colon...
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Building a Healthy Gut Ecosystem
A key differences between the way our ancestors ate and our modern diet is how much fermentable fiber we consume. Fermentable fiber is found in processed or acellular carbohydrates. We all know that vegetables and fruits are important for health. But which ones and...
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Causes of Leaky Gut & How to Recover
People ask me as many questions about leaky gut as candida. Candida is just one of many microorganisms that can be causing problems. Candida received enough attention in the last 20 years that people associate any gut imbalance, overgrowth or infection with it. Leaky...
read moreGut-Brain Axis: Irritable Bowel & Stress
Due to the amount of neural tissue found in the digestive system many now refer to the gut as the second brain. Intuition, gut feeling and butterflies in the stomach all describe this. Ask anyone with irritable bowel and they will the confirm that stress is a...
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