Meet the Master Manipulator: Your Thyroid
Your thyroid is a gland located behind your Adam’s apple. Its job is to produce thyroxine (T4) and triiodothyronine (T3) which are the hormones that control your metabolism. This process of transforming the food you eat into energy can result in (T)erminator-like symptoms where you begin to feel inhuman. Think of the story of the […]
Why Do I Feel So Good (Or Bad) During Pregnancy?
Pregnancy and Autoimmunity Many women with autoimmune diseases experience a lessening of symptoms during their pregnancy, only to relapse after the baby is born. Or, the opposite may happen, where autoimmune disease symptoms worsen during pregnancy. Maybe you have heard of this phenomenon or even experienced it yourself. As we continue to celebrate Mothers’ Day, […]
Keep it Fresh
As comes Spring, so comes the opportunity to reap the rewards of homegrown deliciousness. This time of year is known for awakening all of the human senses. What better time to feel at one with the green spaces around you? Spring is the ideal season to start gardening as it helps get your produce and […]
What is Sjögren’s Syndrome?
April is Sjögren’s awareness month, so we thought it would be a great time to shed some light on it. Sjögren’s (pronounced show-grens) syndrome is a common autoimmune condition where moisture-secreting glands are attacked. This usually happens first in the eyes and mouth, so dry eyes and mouth are the most common symptoms. Other symptoms […]
Still Can’t Smell or Taste After COVID?
The virus that shook the world has a few symptoms we all know, such as loss of taste and smell. And by now, most of us have heard of the term “long-COVID”, referring to recovered COVID-19 patients who have symptoms long after they test negative for the virus. Long-COVID symptoms include continued absence of smell […]
A Hair-Owing Dilemma
Baldness is the name given to the most common type of hair loss, androgenetic alopecia, genetically caused hair loss. Male pattern baldness typically occurs on the top and front of the head. Female pattern baldness occurs on the top, usually widening at the part. Genetics and stress can exacerbate hair loss, but too often our […]
Autoimmunity Is Rising- Have You Been Tested?
What are Antinuclear Antibodies? Antinuclear antibodies (ANAs) are antibodies (proteins that our body creates to fight infections) that are made to attack our own body, or “autoantibodies”. The prefix ‘auto-’ means ‘self’. So, autoantibodies are antibodies against the self, and an autoimmune disease occurs when someone’s immune system is attacking their body using autoantibodies. Examples […]
In with Black Cumin Seed Oil, Out with Inflammation
Also known as black caraway and referenced in many scriptural texts, black cumin is a flowering plant found throughout Southwest Asia, parts of the Mediterranean and Africa. This magical oil has a long history of use in diverse culinary and medicinal traditions. Black seed oil is extracted from N. sativa seeds, and has been used […]
How Does Autoimmunity Start?
There is a phrase in functional medicine by Mehmet Oz: “Your genetics load the gut; your lifestyle pulls the trigger.” Specifically, genetic risk for autoimmunity sets the stage, but our environment (lifestyle, diet, and mindset) can trigger a happy or tragic ending. There is much we can do to influence our genetics and health through […]
Autoimmune & Lasers: The future is now!
Low Level Laser Therapy and Your Thyroid – The Latest Research shows… By Ian Hollaman, DC, MSc, IFMCP Lasers, powerful beams of light that affect how our body functions whether it’s our eyes, our fat cells, and now research is showing our thyroid. In 2015, I wrote a blog about low level laser therapy and […]