The holidays are here! Time to gather with friends and family, toast traditions, savor bountiful meals, swap gifts, share stories and be together. Just like the good old days. How happy are we? The more important question may be, how grateful are we? We made it through two seasons offoregoing traditions, avoiding gatherings, being alone,… Read more »
In September, I was honored to attend The Plantrician Project’s Plant-Based Nutrition Healthcare Conference. It was inspiring to be among so many practitioners from around the world stepping beyond conventional medicine to learn about incorporating nutrition and lifestyle into their practices. The goal of the annual event, now in its 10th year, is to educate… Read more »
I love this time of year! Especially in our desert where the weather has cooled and life seems amplified. Social opportunities abound as we move outdoors to bask in our perfect weather. It’s time to celebrate the season – and the reasons we live here. We celebrate much in this edition: ideas for happy, healthy… Read more »
Your doctor walks into the room with your test results. She looks concerned. The symptoms you’ve been worried about indicate a serious problem and she wants you to start a regimen immediately. You can’t think, your heart is racing and your first instinct is just to follow orders. On the contrary, consider this: your doctor… Read more »
You’re in pain and call your doctor’s office. They recommend you go to the nearest emergency room and hours later you receive a shot which controls the pain for some time. What if you could learn techniques to control your pain instantaneously without medication and the associated side effects? Hypnotherapy techniques can do just that:… Read more »
Saliva plays a huge role for oral health, yet remains one of the most neglected factors considered in overall health. You may ask, how does it affect my overall health? Saliva is an extracellular fluid carrying essential enzymes that aid in the break down of food particles in the first stages of digestion. It is… Read more »
Keep breathing. Sounds so simple, doesn’t it? And yet, so profound. Last summer we were blessed with the opportunity to spend six weeks in our travel trailer visiting family and friends in Washington State. In an RV park near Seattle, I noticed a gentleman sitting on a rock wall every morning as I walked our… Read more »
Sixty health academy students at Coachella Valley High School (CVHS) are piloting the launch of a Public Health Youth Corps for our region with the hope that many more students in academies across the valley will join next year. These students are part of a statewide Public Health Youth Corps, thanks to a partnership between… Read more »
The holidays are here, and we are all looking forward to a “normal” season after two years of pandemic. Holidays remind us of spending time with family, enjoying good food and being merry. But that isn’t always the case for everyone. This time of year, nearly 10% of Americans report seasonal affective disorder and many… Read more »
Does it seem like the advice on how and what to eat swings from one extreme to another? One perspective says avoid fat, the other says fat won’t hurt you. A headline warns about the dangers of red meat and another says you need more protein. Unfortunately, this confusing barrage is likely to continue, and… Read more »
Do you remember last holiday season? Did you get to January and swear that you were going to do things differently next year? Well, here we are… It has been a bumpy road over the last couple of years, and this may be the year that you do a little bit more…or after last year,… Read more »
Imagine if public parks had a water therapy feature where citizens could walk barefoot in cool water. If one could practice earthing as they traverse through water troughs lined with pebbles to stimulate the feet, it would encourage circulation. Imagine if hospitals in our country, as part of therapy for respiratory illness and rheumatic conditions,… Read more »
In traditional Chinese medicine (TCM), pulse diagnosis dates back thousands of years. It is a means of identifying and differentiating diseases by feeling pulses in the radial wrists. It is one of the four major assessments in TMC along with inspections (general observation of patient), auscultation (listening), olfaction (smelling) and questioning (obtaining medical history and… Read more »
“The greatest obstacle to discovery is not ignorance – it is the illusion of knowledge.” – Author and Historian Daniel J. Boorstin In recent months, I discovered an underlying notion that I need to be heard by my family. An old belief of not being heard nor valued by my mother and father was reawakened… Read more »
Discussions around muscle usually revolve around “fitness” level and not health. However, muscle is vital for survival and built and maintained by amino acids from protein, so nutrition and muscle maintenance are worth a discussion. Up until our mid-30s, hormones accelerate our growth. Yet as we age, we rely more on amino acids and require… Read more »
Sleep can be challenging at any age, but an estimated 40-70% of older adults have chronic sleep issues.1 Busy mind, fluctuating hormones, medical conditions, pain and stress may be to blame, and those suffering have usually tried an array of sleep aids, including me. My symptoms may sound familiar: night sweats, need to urinate, busy… Read more »
Have you ever stopped to think how much the composition of the human body and planet earth are the same? This realization gives deeper meaning to the phrase “you are what you eat.” Fruits and vegetables grown in earth’s bountiful soil are merely the method of delivering the many elements, minerals and microbes our bodies… Read more »
Naturopathic doctors are trained at four-year, post-graduate, accredited medical institutions. In addition to a standard medical curriculum, a naturopathic doctor (ND) is required to complete four years of training in holistic and nontoxic approaches to treatment with a strong emphasis on disease prevention, such as nutrition and lifestyle modifications and in-depth lab testing and diagnosis. … Read more »
It is the holiday season once again. How might visions of sugar plum fairies dancing in our dreams during a blinding snowstorm be a healthy omen? Are gifts beneath an evergreen tree covered in icicles a precognitive message? And, what could the colors red, blue and green mean in your dream? Dreams are often our… Read more »
A lipid panel has become a standard test in a health check-up. It measures total cholesterol, LDL lipoprotein, HDL lipoprotein and triglycerides. LDL is usually thought of as “bad” cholesterol and HDL is “good” cholesterol; triglycerides are circulating fat particles. Generally speaking, an abnormally high cholesterol is associated with heart attack and stroke. But let’s… Read more »