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Cooking for Hormone Balance Apr 30, 2017

Show notes

Really enjoyed this podcast with Magdalena Wszelaki, the founder of Hormones Balance.

Magdalena talked about the significant health crisis she went through as a result of a highly stressful career in advertising. A high profile and demanding lifestyle, stressful in every way! Mentally stressful, never in the same time zone, lack of sleep, hotel, and fast food on the run. This eventually ended in complete adrenal fatigue, autoimmune conditions, estrogen dominance, and even depression.

But she was able to heal herself and go into complete remission from her health issues through truly using "food as medicine". She adopted a number of key nutrition principles as well as her signature method of cooking for hormone balance.

In the interview she discusses:

Anchoring and her three-legged stool analogy about healing the gut and liver, and stabilizing sugar levels
The importance of an elimination diet (she lives gluten, dairy, and soy-free)
How eating the right foods is key to cooking for hormone balance
Her "day in the life of cooking for hormone balance"... This starts with warm water with a squeeze of lemon and apple cider vinegar, and includes a PFF breakfast (Protein, Fat, and Fiber)
Her weight loss secret!
Quick and easy five-minute lunch and dinner selections

I loved the discussion, which included her back story, coming from a communist country and living without the luxuries of life. Her family had to improvise, and she learned to improvise, too. Along with some of those stories she also shares with us the "roots" of her health problems, going back to her birth and early childhood.

I encourage you to watch or listen in...I think you'll enjoy it!

Oh...and after watching the video don't forget...Magdalena has a special gift for you... a free cooking workshop where you will learn much more about healing foods and preparing easy, nutritious and hormone balancing meals!

About Magdalena Wszelaki

Magdalena Wszelaki is the founder of Hormones Balance, a nutrition coaching practice. Her practice is dedicated to helping women rebalance their hormones with nutritional and lifestyle changes. She is a certified nutrition coach, speaker, educator, and a soon-to-be-published cookbook author. Her hormonal health journey encompassed grappling with Graves' and Hashimoto's Disease (autoimmune conditions causing thyroid failure), adrenal fatigue, depression, and estrogen dominance. Today she lives a symptoms-free awesome life and teaches women how to accomplish the same in her online programs and education.

Hormone to Gut Connection Mar 24, 2017

Show notes

I want to share a fabulous discussion that I had recently with Dr. Michael Ruscio about women's hormones and how gut bacteria can have such a tremendous effect on them!

He is a functional medicine practitioner with an emphasis in gut health. He also specializes in autoimmune, thyroid, and digestive disorders. He is a wealth of knowledge and provided many great insights.

Listen to our discussion on "The Hormone to Gut Connection"

Key points from our interview include:

Pylori - dangerous or protective?
Pylori and Hashimoto's thyroid autoimmunity connection
How Hashimoto's may be improved with H. Pylori treatment
Hormonal changes that affect the GI tract, and solutions such as the use of chasteberry for PMS
Melatonin disruption effects on Irritable Bowel Syndrome. Did you know melatonin, the hormone of sleep regulation, is anti-inflammatory and an anti-oxidant, too?
How Vitamin D improves IBS, and is the "great mediator"!
Stress and a causal decrease in protective GI bacteria
Benefits of exercise on gut bacteria - who knew? (Just like Goldilocks, too little and too much are not good).

Meet Dr. Michael Ruscio

Dr. Ruscio gives smart, busy people suffering from symptoms like daily bloating, constant fatigue, and unexplained weight gain, simple steps to start living a health, enjoyable life again, no matter how long they've been suffering.

He is a Functional Medicine Practitioner, a Doctor of Chiropractic, and is lead researcher in a current study on IBS. He is a working on Post-doctoral Functional Medicine study with educational bodies such as: The National College of Naturopathic Medicine, The Institute of Functional Medicine, The American Academy of Anti-Aging Medicine, Kalish Research, and Defeat Autism Now.

He has spoken at the SIBO Symposium Summit, Paleo FX, Ancestral Health Symposium, Sean Croxton's Digestion Sessions, as well as many other International conferences and top health podcasts.

You can find out more about his simple, evidence-based approach to healing chronic illness at www.drruscio.com.

Really enjoyed this podcast with Magdalena Wszelaki, the founder of Hormones Balance.

In the interview she discusses:

Anchoring and her three-legged stool analogy about healing the gut and liver, and stabilizing sugar levels
The importance of an elimination diet (she lives gluten, dairy, and soy-free)
How eating the right foods is key to cooking for hormone balance
Her "day in the life of cooking for hormone balance"... This starts with warm water with a squeeze of lemon and apple cider vinegar, and includes a PFF breakfast (Protein, Fat, and Fiber)
Her weight loss secret!
Quick and easy five-minute lunch and dinner selections

I encourage you to watch or listen in...I think you'll enjoy it!

About Magdalena Wszelaki

Dr Anna Cabeca talks to Robin Nielsen about PCOS, excess androgen and the symptoms that relate to it.

The Hormone Roller-Coaster Of Perimenopause Nov 29, 2016

Show notes

I had a great interview recently with Lara Briden. She spoke with me from Australia, where she is a naturopathic doctor with twenty years' experience in women's health. She is also the author of a truly interesting book, Period Repair Manual: Natural Treatment for Better Hormones and Better Periods.

We had a wide-ranging and candid talk about many important women's health topics, including the use of hormones during perimenopause. We also discussed how it is so true that women experiencing perimenopause often are doing so at the same time that their daughters are experiencing the challenge of starting their cycles! (yes, it's true!)

Lara had a good deal of insights relating to the use of birth control pills in teens as well as in perimenopause; and the consequences as well as precautions and alternatives.

Other topics included:

Estrogen fluctuations during perimenopause.
Why hormonal birth control is not a good option.
What is natural progesterone and why does it help?
The crucial difference between the real hormone progesterone and the progestins in birth control.
Is natural progesterone safe?
What other natural treatments are found to be helpful for perimenopause?
What are the effects of OCPs on the gut microbiome?

Lara Briden runs a hormone clinic in Sydney, Australia…and you can check out the first 2 chapters of her book for free, her gift to my community…just click here

Reclaim your Energy for the Holidays Nov 10, 2016

Show notes

Meet Dr. Carri Drzyzga on today's Couch Talk.

Just in time for the holidays! How do you fight back from FATIGUE and Reclaim your ENERGY?

Ah, the good, bad, ugly and beautiful about the holidays.

So much stress this time of year. So how do you go from feeling stressed to feeling blessed?

In my interview today on Couch Talk I spoke with Dr. Carri Drzyzga about the root causes of stress, how we can keep our "reserves" full over the holidays, and all about pyroluria, a social anxiety condition.

Dr. Carri discussed the root causes of stress as being:

· Mental, emotional, relational (separation or divorce being prime issues)

· Positive stresses (we do have many positive stresses, like proposing to our partner!)

· Physiological and internal stressors

· Infections, parasites, and mold toxicity

· Inflammatory foods and food sensitivities

· Blood sugar imbalances

And key fatigue factors include: anemia and thyroid problems, cortisol and blood sugar imbalances, vitamin deficiencies and chronic infections.

We need to practice filling our "reserves" for the holiday! We must find ways to create resilience that will carry us through the stressful holiday season, and we need to keep our oxytocin tank full!

· Gratitude journaling

· Meditation and exercise

· Framing our thoughts toward the positive. "I get to" versus "I have to"

We also discussed pyroluria, which is a social anxiety condition that makes people feel anxious or tense, and irritable; as well as feel a lot of inner worry. Have you heard of it? During the holidays, with all of the family gatherings and holiday parties, people with this condition clearly can suffer even more. Experts feel that pyroluria's emotional and physical symptoms are caused by deficiencies of vitamin B6 and zinc.

Dr. Carri spoke of her treatment plan, which is 50 mg zinc per day, and 100 mg of B6 (P5P) daily. Perhaps adding Evening Primrose Oil and Magnesium if no improvement is seen. You can download a questionnaire to help self-evaluate yourself for pyroluria. The questionnaire was developed by another good friend of mine, Trudy Scott.

(Trudy is a Certified Nutritionist and is the founder of www.everywomanover29.com, a thriving nutrition practice with a focus on food, mood and women's health)

Dr. Carri also reviewed key nutrients that can help support us through the holidays (and that we likely have in our medicine cabinet already):

· Zinc, B6 (P5P) 100 mg, Magnesium chelate

· SereneX (an herbal Xanax!)

· Vitamin D 5000IU daily + K2 500u (Vitamin D Supreme)

· Astragalus

· Vitamin C 4000mg

Dr. Carri Drzyzga (Driz' ga) is a chiropractor and naturopathic doctor, host of the popular podcast "The Functional Medicine Radio Show", and author of the hit book, Reclaim Your Energy and Feel Normal Again! Fixing the Root Cause of Your Fatigue with Natural Treatments. Dr. Carri is creator of Entrepreneurial Fatigue: How to Fuel Your Brain & Body for Entrepreneurial Success. Her private practice is Functional Medicine Ontario located in Ottawa, Ontario.

You can purchase Dr. Carri's book here!

The Thyroid Connection Oct 19, 2016

Show notes

Today's Couch Talk guest is Amy Myers, M.D.

So delighted to get the opportunity to interview Amy Myers, M.D., author of, "The Thyroid Connection: Why You Feel Tired, Brain-Fogged, and Overweight – and How to Get Your Life Back".

Did you know that one in eight women suffer from thyroid dysfunction?

During our talk, Dr. Myers shares her own personal thyroid and autoimmune journey. She emphasizes the many vital differences between conventional approaches versus the integrative functional approach to therapy and healing. So interesting; and so important in discovering what is going on in your own body.

Dr. Myers feels the number one thing most people diagnosed with a thyroid dysfunction initially do is wrong. Simply taking medication alone is not the solution.

In contrast, she believes that an anti-inflammatory diet and lifestyle should be the initial steps to treatment; removing foods that are inflammatory as well as reducing toxicity exposures due to mold, household products, personal care products, systematic infections (such as Lyme disease) and even stress. Mold in particular causes tremendous toxicity and inflammation, including autoimmune issues.

Along with thyroid healing diet and lifestyle changes the immune system must also be treated. Why?

A vast number of identified thyroid issues are also autoimmune, such as with Hashimoto's and Graves' disease. Hashimoto's is the most common form of underactive thyroid. Graves' disease is one kind of autoimmune disease where your thyroid over-performs, known as hyperthyroidism.

In our discussion Dr. Myers talks about:

The 5 root causes of thyroid dysfunction
Why your gut and immune system health are important to thyroid function
How stool tests and other self-help checks are key to self-discovery
The effect of birth control pills on your thyroid. They can cause you to be hypothyroid, depressed, overweight, foggy and overweight
Peri-menopause and menopause thyroid issues
- Free versus bound hormone tests
- How estrogen dominance affects the binding thyroid hormone

Dr. Myers also shares some personal perspectives on "a day in her life"…and how you just never know what someone else is going through.

Enjoyed the talk immensely, please take a moment to listen in!

If you are interested in reading her book, The Thyroid Connection, get it here.

Amy Myers, MD is a renowned leader in Functional Medicine and New York Times Bestselling author ofThe Autoimmune Solution and The Thyroid Connection. She received her Doctorate in Medicine from LSU Health Sciences Center and spent 5 years working in emergency medicine before training with the Institute of Functional Medicine. She has helped thousands around the world recover from chronic illness through her dietary-based program, The Myers Way®, and she has created multiple programs, tools, and free resources to guide readers through her revolutionary approach to health.

Muse: The Brain Sensing Headband Sep 30, 2016

Show notes

On this Couch Talk podcast, join Dr. Anna and Ariel Garten, Neuroscientist, as they discuss the benefits of meditation and her company's tool, Muse™ – the brain sensing headband. Muse has helped thousands of people, including Olympic athletes, CEOs, musicians, and many more - including Dr. Anna - establish a meditation practice that incorporates real-time biofeedback.

Says Dr. Anna,"I wanted to share Muse with my community because I have always found meditation to be a challenge. Muse, however, has really helped me develop my meditation practice. This has allowed me to carry the benefits of meditation into my daily life. Using the Muse headband helps me gain better focus and presence (a benefit of meditation). It is also a wonderful way to decrease everyday anxiety and stress."

The headband is comfortable and there is an easy to follow tutorial to help you learn the essentials of focused attention meditation. Soundscapes include Beach, Rainforest, Desert and others. The app includes milestones and rewards to help keep you motivated, and there is data and graphs that help you measure your progress. Listen to the interview and learn about Ariel and Muse.

I am able to offer my community a 15% discount! Just use my special link here when you order. The discount is applied during checkout. If you go to their website choosemuse.com to look around, note that in order to get your discount you still need to click my special link before selecting your muse headband in your cart.

Here's a link to one of their blogs, just remember to use your special link if you want to save 15%!

Meet Ariel Garten

Ariel Garten is the co-founder of InteraXon, the makers of Muse: The brain sensing headband.

Muse is an award-winning, easy-to-use brain fitness tool that helps you do more with your mind. Muse senses your brain activity like a heart monitor senses your heart and sends that information to your phone or tablet - giving you real-time feedback of what your brain is doing moment to moment.

Ariel studied neuroscience at the University of Toronto and worked in labs at Toronto's esteemed Krembil Neuroscience Centre researching Parkinson's disease and hippocampal neurogenesis. No mere science nerd, Ariel is a fashion designer whose clothing opened Toronto Fashion Week and sold across North America; and she has had her work displayed at the Art Gallery of Ontario.

Ariel was also trained as a psychotherapist and had her own private practice.

Her unique combination of art and science is integral to the design of Muse and to InteraXon's cutting edge approach to brain sensing technology. Ariel and Muse: the brain sensing headband is regularly lauded in global media, including CNN, Forbes, Popular Science, CNET, CNBC, VentureBeat, TechCrunch, Wall Street Journal Tech and many more, for creating what VentureBeat calls "the most important wearable of 2014".

Unleashing the Power of Your Brain; the Importance of Resilience in Surviving Trauma, Stress & Fear Aug 30, 2016

Show notes

I interviewed a good friend and a superstar of neuroscience, Dr. Srini Pillay. You absolutely must listen to this interview, just so excellent and fascinating. He has over 17 years of experience in brain imaging and has an international reputation as a human behavior expert with special emphasis on stress and anxiety.

Srini is a world renowned Harvard Psychiatrist, a brain expert and he is the award winning author of the excellent book, Life Unlocked: 7 Revolutionary Lessons to Overcome Fear. He is Assistant Clinical Professor of Psychiatry at Harvard Medical School and Invited Faculty at Harvard Business School.

Srini is also the founder and CEO of Neuro Business Group, voted one of the top twenty movers and shakers in leadership development in the world and is noted for his uncanny ability to translate complex brain science into usable tips.

He is wildly sought out by the media and has been featured on the Dr. Laura Bergman Show, on Oprah radio, Martha Stewart whole living, Elle, Cosmopolitan, Fox News, The New York Times, and numerous other media outlets.

Srini aims to help people understand how we can all unleash the power of our brains to live happier and more productive lives.

In our interview, Dr. Pillay talked about the importance of a person's resilience, as a key differentiator, when it comes to dealing with stress and thriving after a trauma. He uses a wonderful visual of a flashlight. The ability to consciously choose to shine your flashlight away from the stress, to shine it on a more positive outcome or feeling; that allows one to be resilient.

People who continue to shine their flashlight on the fear or anxiety, relive the experience. If the emotion is about a bad breakup, a person may be so fearful and anxious that they go from one relationship to another. Stress precipitates habit; it is called "repetition compulsion", and seen in PTSD victims.

So how does one increase their resilience? How does a person gain control over their flashlight?

Dr. Pillay gives us an overview as to how people can reduce their anxiety and deal with their fears and stresses. He reviews his "C.I.R.C.A." model which stands for: Chunking, Ignore the threatening narrative, Reality check, Control check, and Attentional shift.

All of these have significant research behind them and can help balance your anxiety. Dr. Pillay says that research has proven that anyone can train their brain to think and react differently.

So fascinating…the mind has a profound impact on our physiology. It can sabotage you, or help you heal.

The Impact of the Human Stress Response Aug 15, 2016

Show notes

Dr. Wingo is trained as a Ph.D. scientist and has done extensive research on a topic that I feel really touches just about everyone, and that topic is living with – and surviving the ill effects from – chronic stress.

In her studies Dr. Wingo initially focused on the physiological aspects of stress: what was going on at the genomic level, what was happening within the body's cells, tissue and organ functioning. She also focused on the nervous system, endocrine system and immune system's responses and interactions to the stressors and to each other. Along with the biology, she wanted to study the interactions of people with their environment and each other - the psychological aspects - that so often resulted in stress.

She also has looked extensively at how the consequences of all this stress affect our society, our economics and even our political system.

In 2014 she immigrated to Ecuador, a tiny country in South America. There, living in a very different society than the one she grew up in here in the US, she observed the extreme contrast in how people were faced with and affected by ongoing stressors in their environment and their lives.

She wrote her book, "The Impact of the Human Stress Response: The Biological Origins and Solutions to Human Stress."

Today we will be talking about what causes stress; what is actually happening throughout our body when we are "stressed out"? And why some people are more successful than others in adapting to stress.

We talk about:

How your brain's frontal lobe is your primary stress response organ
How low levels of stress can be overcome by manipulating your environment
What happens to your hormones and brain during lengthier periods of stress, when cortisol is high for a long time and your body starts to shut down parts of the frontal lobe
How the impact to the frontal lobe impacts the ability to control one's emotion and memory
The role of oxytocin in enabling your body to deal with stress
Why your stress response is essential to helping you adapt to a changing environment
PTSD's impacts and how one can put a cohesive narrative together to heal

Many of you know that I have suffered from PTSD due to a tragic family loss many years ago so much of what Dr. Wingo and I discussed was very familiar and personal to me!

Listen in on the informative interview!

Thyroid Health May 19, 2016

Show notes

Dr. Alan Christianson is a dear friend and is an Arizona-based Naturopathic Physician who helps people overcome adrenal and thyroid disorders and achieve lasting fat loss. He authored the New York Times bestselling, Adrenal Reset Diet and The Complete Idiot's Guide to Thyroid Disease. Dr. Christianson is the founding physician behind Integrative Health and more information on him can be found at www.drchristianson.com

Dr. Christianson has been in practice for over 2 decades, and has seen so many patients who struggle with excess weight, low energy, poor sleep, digestion problems and a variety of other health-related symptoms…all due to irregularities with their Thyroid. And in many of these cases, the issues are easy to correct! Yet thousands of people go without the proper treatment due to inaccurate diagnosis, expensive healthcare costs or even simple geography.

In my interview with Dr. Christianson we explore:

· How common Thyroid Disease really is

· What the most common symptoms are

· What the main causes are

· Why do women get Thyroid Disease more than men?

· How can someone know if they have Thyroid Disease?

· Can Thyroid Disease be difficult to diagnose? (and Why?)

· Is Iodine good or bad for the thyroid?

· Are there particular foods that can help the thyroid?

· How much recovery is truly possible?

He is so determined to help the thousands out there who can't make it to see him individually that he is holding a 30-minute training session on Thyroid Disease that I hope you will consider joining. It is completely free.

You can register for his free webinar by clicking here: https://uo178.isrefer.com/go/TRPW7/cabecahealth/

The webinar is May 25th at 5:00 Pacific. Once you register you will receive an email confirmation with access into. Don't miss this 30-minute training!

And enjoy my interview with him as well!

Why Indoors Living & Cell Phones Can Both Be Bad For Your Health Mar 15, 2016

Show notes

As always, Dr. Kruse shocked me during our talk about his latest scientific research! We discussed topics far and wide, including:

Bluelight toxicity - It's in our homes and it's impacting our hormones and energy levels!
Sunglasses - Why they are a problem to your health!
Flouride water - Why not to drink it, and how it impacts your body's cell's ability to make energy!
Why water is medicine.
Why Dr. Kruse says that, "Cell phones are child abuse"!
Why indoor living is a cause of auto-immune disease.

I met Dr. Kruse in 2011, in fact, I actually sought him out after hearing about his research. He speaks his mind, and when we had him as a speaker during season 3 of the Sexy Younger You! global telesummits, people were fascinated with what he had to say.

He was one of the first to biohack how to protect one's own energy levels and recharge it for optimal health.

Dr. Kruse is a respected neurosurgeon and CEO of Optimized Life, a health and wellness company dedicated to helping patients avoid the healthcare burdens we typically encounter as we age. He resides in Gulf South close to New Orleans with his family.

He created the Epi-Paleo prescription which emphasizes 5 key concepts that go against conventional thinking.

The timing of when you eat is more important than what you eat,
Snacking or eating "small meals" every 2-3 hours as commonly advocated by conventional medicine all but guarantees life-long obesity,
Anyone can lose massive amounts of weight without ever counting a calorie,
Rigorous cardio exercises (like long distance running or chronic cardio routines) leads to stem cell reduction and shaves years off the end of your life, and
Eating fats conventional medicine told us to shun is ideal for Optimal Health.

Hold onto your seats for this couch talk! Wild ride!

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