Harness Your Cycle Superpowers!

My guests today are Audrey Sourroubille Arnold and Lucia Lukanova, both women's health coaches and also partners in a women's health app called The Flow.

A bit about the pair:

Audrey- Diagnosed with endometriosis  a few years ago.  She feels her former high pressure career contributed to her endometriosis diagnosis and overall burn-out. She switched careers into women's health.

Lucia- Working long hours doing big technology projects. She got burned out as well, and started to learn about hormones of stress and the menstrual cycle. She started to notice the subtle symptoms related to the phases of her cycle. She wanted an app to help her track her cycle, but didn’t find one, so she started to develop one, now out in several languages, called the Flow App.

Stages of the Cycle

Week One- Starts with day one of your cycle.   Cleanse time, from the inside out- want to be alone and peaceful.  Your verbal skills are lower, but is a 'wise stage.'  Energy is low and if you push you get cravings to create energy.

Paula Ratcliffe ran the Chicago marathon in world record time, and was on day 1 of her cycle.

In transition from period to the next stage (dynamic), is a good time to knock out your to-do list.

Week Two- Dynamic phase- energy is good, accomplish things, 'maiden' phase

Ovulation- femme fatale moment - phéromones are high, vocal chords have highest range, good time to ask for pay raise

Post-ovulation- a mini PMS is possible

Week Three- Reflexive phase- decide what to keep or give up, evaluate, very empathic, mother, femininity, caring, nurturing 

Week Four- Creative phase, Enchantress, represents Autumn season

Some resources we mention on the show:

Audrey's website

Miranda Gray's website

Jason Karp's book, Running for Women: Your Complete Guide for a Lifetime of Running

Video on How to Use the Flow App

Ultimately you will have to download the Flow App from the app store on your smartphone, but you can find more info on the Flow App here.

You can listen to the full interview below, but be sure to subscribe to the podcast to get an interview weekly!  Just got into your the podcast app on your smartphone and search, "Womens Wellness Radio."

Enjoying the show?  We'd really appreciate you taking a moment to rate and review us on iTunes.

A Healthy Dose of Productivity with Laura McClellan

This interview is not as geeky and not as medically-focused as most of our shows. Yet it was one of my very favorites, because I think the topic is so important.

Women these days are very stressed and overwhelmed (well, most of us) and that is affecting our health and happiness. 

Our guest Laura McClellan is the host of the podcast 'The Productive Woman,' a platform where she both shares her insights on productivity, and interview a range of women on how they deal with getting things done, meeting their own goals and needs, and managing family life on top of it.

What you'll learn in this episode is not how to shove more activities into your day, but rather how to be efficient, and also discerning.

“It’s possible to be really busy, but not be productive. It’s not just about doing more stuff, but the right stuff.”  Laura McClellan

Enjoy this one with Laura McClellan, and learn more about her and her show here.

For the complete notes and links mentioned on the show, follow the button below.

Listen to Interview

Get complete notes and links

Click Here to Get Notes and Links

Feel free to share your comments below.  And if you are not yet subscribed to Women's Wellness Radio, you can do so at iTunes or most podcast players.

Testing and Supporting Your Neurotransmitters with Cammi Balleck

I think you're going to like this episode!  Cammi Balleck really brings it with great information on women's health, focused on brain chemicals (neurotransmitters) and their relationship to our hormones.  

When our hormones ratios are off, our neurotransmitters will likely get affected. Cammi has worked exclusively with female health and hormones for 13 years, and has developed a testing strategy and treatment strategy that get her clients great results from anxiety, pain, food cravings and more.

Learn more at CammiBalleck.com.  You can download detailed notes and links below. Thanks! Bridgit

Listen to Episode

Download Notes

Click Here to Get Notes and Links

Feel free to share your comments below.  And if you are not yet subscribed to Women's Wellness Radio, you can do so at iTunes or most podcast players.

Five Fun Ways to Fix Your Adrenal Glands

Many people mistake the picture of health for a picture of deprivation. In fact, it’s quite the opposite.  We can enjoy good food, good friends, and lots of fun and pleasure while we enjoy good health as well!

Today we’re going to cover five fun ways to heal your adrenal glands.  The adrenal glands produce hormones for energy and stress-handling, and they take a beating in our culture of chronic stress.

Adrenal function can go awry in three phases:

1. Hyperfunction- You are producing a lot of cortisol and may feel like you have a lot of of energy.  However you may have trouble relaxing, may be gaining mid-section weight, and may have lost interest/focus for sex.

2. Dysregulation- Your adrenals are fatiguing, and your energy is varied.  You may be tired in the mid-afternoon, and relaying on caffeine and sugar for a lift.  You might be getting sick too often.  You may feel like you only have energy late at night.

3. Exhaustion- Your adrenals don’t have a lot to give.  You may get diagnosed with chronic fatigue syndrome or hypothyroidism.  You may just feel like a shadow of your once energetic self.

There are causes of stress beyond the obvious ones (traffic jams, deadlines, fights), that include things like environmental toxicants, internal parasites and food sensitivities.  

But today we are going to focus on ways to calm and restore your body, that you’ll also enjoy!  These tips support you, whichever phase of adrenal dysregulation you may be experiencing. 

1.  Have unstructured time. 

Is your day planned out and packed from morning to bedtime?  This is very tiring on your system!  Give yourself some time to just wander, relax and do whatever you choose.  If your day is really packed, you may have to actually schedule this time.  

2.  Get out in nature. 

Getting outdoors can shift your perspective away from your worries, and help you see the bigger picture.  This can be a true camping trip, sunbathing in a park, or just walking around your neighborhood.  The fresh air, vitamin D and phytochemicals emitted from plants will all help balance your cortisol. (1) (2)

3.  Vacation. 

With smartphones, laptops and ever-present wifi, many people are working seven days and week.  Taking a long weekend or, better yet, a whole week or month to really unplug and explore is super restorative.  When is your next vacation?!

4.  Read.

Reading, preferably on an old-fashioned paper book without the blue light of a screen, has been studied to be very effective for relaxation.  I also encourage reading fiction, or whatever subjects really ‘takes you away.’  Your body will appreciate this break! (3)

5.  Sleep. 

Sleep is the most restorative thing we do.  It’s so important that it takes up a third of our day!  There is an old saying that every hour of sleep before midnight is worth two hours.  This may be because we produce more human growth hormone when we sleep when it turns dark, instead of staying up. (4) So, especially while you are healing adrenal dysregulation, it’s important to get to bed before 10 PM.  

You may find that you ramp up if you stay up after 10.  This does not mean that you are a nocturnal creature.  It means your circadian rhythm and cortisol rhythm is off.  So you really need to try to get it back on track.  That may mean working with a practitioner, but for starters, avoid sugar and alcohol at night, and end screen time by 8 PM.  

You will find that you feel much better the next day when you are asleep by 10.  The human growth hormone we produce when we sleep repairs our bodies and gives us energy. (5)  Human growth hormone is what we produce more of when we are young, so getting good sleep is like a little fountain of youth every night.  

Please incorporate these five fun cures for your adrenals, and you just might find you want to keep these habits around!

For more information on healthy lifestyle for women, take our free Hidden Hormone Health Stressors quiz!

Contributed by Bridgit Danner, LAc, FDNP

Sources:

1. http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2793346/

2. http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/20074458

3. http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/health/news/5070874/Reading-can-help-reduce-stress.html

4. http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/3720426

5.  http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/12797841

The Effects of Long-Term Birth Control Use with Andrea Thorpe

The birth control pill is an easy-to-use, affordable way to avoid pregnancy.  But are there any risks?  

Many women do have symptoms, such as loss of sex drive or weight gain, but beyond that, most women don't know much about the health-related side effects.

In this interview, Andrea Thorpe, LAc opens the lid on the topic of the possible effects of long-term birth control use.  Many women are on birth control pills for 10-15 years, and the long-term effects are something to be considered:

• Synthetic estrogen dysregulates the thyroid

• Birth control pill casues nutrient depletion

• Hormone receptor site have a downregulated response

• Toxic burden on the system of long-term medication use

• Toxic/ inflammed state and nutrient depletion affects the gut and immune system

• Autoimmune disease Hashimoto's thyroiditis then becomes a possiblity

• Ovulation and fertility are often delayed after birth control use

Andrea also covers some of the healing options such as:

• How acupuncture benefits the system

• Why Andrea prefers foods over supplements

• When it's time to see a functional medicine practitioner

Andrea is an amazing practitioner, and if you can see her in the LA area, I highly recommend her. Her clinic:  http://lotuscenter.com/

Are you subscribed to the show yet?  You can get our weekly expert interviews delivered to your smartphone through iTunes or most Android podcast players.  Please search 'womens wellness radio' and get subscribed!  

Was this episode helpful for you?  We would be most thankful to have you write us a review on iTunes as well.  Thanks!

How to Raise Your Vibrational Energy with Caroline Shearer

Did you feel you were intuitive as child, but shut that down as an adult?  Do you get caught up in self-judgement or negative thinking?  Have you stopped to think how negative thinking, gossip, unhealthy eating or a guarded approach to life might be affecting the outcomes of your life?

The concept of vibrational energy, shared with us today by author Caroline Shearer, is 'like attracts like.'  If we are treating ourselves poorly, and thinking about life in a small way, that is what we attract and manifest.  If we are open and positive, we tend to attract more opportunities and happy synchronicities. 

Caroline does not claim this will result in a challenge-free life!  But she believes that these challenges can be easier or repeated less often when we meet them with a high vibration.

Caroline is the author of Raise Your Vibration: Tips and Tools for a High-Frequency Life, as well as several other books.  She is also a publisher who founded Absolute Love Publishing.

Beyond theory, she gives some practical tips for raising your vibration, such as:

Mind- Yes to meditation-focusing on white light, No to gossip, worry, negative self-talk.

Body- Eat Non-GMO, organic, fresh food, bless your food. Use sea salt baths-clears energy that you picked up; use 1 cup of sea salt.

Spirit/Soul- Project love- for example to everyone you pass on the walking trail. "Project love and it comes back. Even if you can’t see it, you can feel it."

Learn more about Caroline's other books and her publishing company and their other titles here.

If you are not subscribed to our podcast yet, why not?!  You can subscribe here on iTunes, and you can search 'Women's Wellness Radio' on most any podcast player.  If you have never subscribed to a podcast before, here's is a how-to video I made.

Thanks!  Bridgit

Cooking Up Love for Your Thyroid with Chef and Health Coach Andrea Beaman

Andrea Beaman did not always eat so well.  Microwave dinners and toaster pizzas were on the menu.  Eventually she was diagnosed with Hashimoto’s thyroiditis.  

Also her dear mom had breast cancer that had spread, and she was given not long to live.  In looking for solutions for her mom, she turned to whole foods and healthy mindset.  

Andrea later went on to be on the first season of Top Chef, after being encouraged by one of her cooking students.  Andrea did not own a TV, and had no idea what she was getting into, so it turned into quite an adventure!

Some of Andrea's many get quotes:

"Autoimmunity can be healed."

"Don’t wait till you’re in the grave to make a change."

"Cooking at home and feeding others is so valuable."

On pesticides..."the difference between the bug and us is size."

"This century is about thyroid.  50 years of women not eating fat, not getting minerals carried by fat got us here."

 "I value the doctors. If I go outside and get hit by a bus, please take me to the doctor, don't take me to the health food store."

"Fad diets are always missing some food group."

Vegans- Get adrenal exhaustion.

Paleo- Missing starches needed for microbiome, which backs up liver. Starches feed the mitochondria.

Nourishing Thyroid Health is Andrea's online educational program on the thyroid.  Learn about:

• Preparing foods

• How the endocrine system works

• Environmental toxicants

• How to heal the digestive system

• How to heal the adrenals

• The emotional and spiritual aspect of thyroid health

Includes:

• Guest expert modules

• Live coaching calls

Please check out the program here: https://tinyurl.com/thyroid123

Andrea's Top Five Take-aways:

1. Eat clean- get toxins out

2. Support your energetic body with exercise of some sort, inc. tai chi, yoga

3. Destress- set boundaries

4. Get some sun- get outdoors

5. You’re worth it!

Andrea and I also recorded a short video on youtube that is super fun.  You can access it below, for your own mini-cooking lesson with Andrea.

The two books that inspired Andrea in those early days are:

Physician Heal Thyself by Hugh Faulkner

The Biology of Belief by Bruce Lipton

Listen below.

If you enjoyed this episode, please support us by rating and reviewing us on iTunes!

You can also get subscribed to this weekly show on iTunes and many Android podcast players.

Depression and Your Brain on Nature with Evan Brand

We are pleased to have Evan Brand of Not Just Paleo on the podcast.  Evan is a great educator, and he embraces a 'no BS' approach to health care.  

In college, he got sick and depressed, but learned about nutrition, omega 3 oils, vitamin D and more to improve his health.  He also dropped out of business school (where he wasn't happy) and went to work on park land.  This dedicated time in nature was very therapeutic for him.

Evan shares that plants emit compounds that benefit our immune system, and how communing with nature lowers and manages our stress.  He teaches about the neurotransmitters that shape our moods, how we self medicate with food and drink, and how we can break those habits.  He also shares the testing method he uses to observe neurotransmitter activity.

There are lots of other great nuggets in here, such as how Facebook can affect our mood, and how we can get addicted to the rush of modern pleasures, at the expense of our natural mood regulation.

You can hear our interview right away on the audio player below, and you can also subscribe on iTunes or most podcast players by searching Women's Wellness Radio.

Resources:  

Evan's Podcast, and he highlights episode #44 with Dr. Albert Mensah

Evan's YouTube video on nature and how it benefits us

National Geographic article on benefits of nature and integrating in nature to urban folks

The Mood Cure by Julia Ross

The Diet Cure by Julia Ross

Evan's website, Not Just Paleo, and free consult offer

Evan also appears on our summit, Hormones: A Women's Wellness Summit.

Why You Should Work Out with Women, with Nikki Warren

Nikki (far left) and her sisters!

I really fell for Nikki Warren of Kaia Fit, and I think you will too!  Though she runs a busy business with 58 locations, she is grounded, present and grateful.

Hear how she went from being a pregnant teen, to having her boyfriend die suddenly, to having an infant son with serious health challenges...to kick-ass mom, wife, athlete and business owner!

Nikki has 4 sisters, and definitely believes in the idea of sisterhood.  The gym she founded with her husband, which now has other business partners, is exclusively for women.

Learn:

• Why she thinks working out with other women is important

• How we can do a quick work-out at home 

• What 'functional movement' is

• How we can take first steps to working out

• Why she thinks variety is important in our workouts

• How she trains groups of women for triathlons though I Kan Tri

Nikki and I recorded a short YouTube exercise video here. (She exercises, I just watch!)

Find out more about Kaia Fit here.

Nikki and her sisters at their group blog, Frank 5 Sisters.

Listen below or, better yet, subscribe to us on your podcast player.  Search 'womens wellness radio,' subscribe, and get a new interview every week!

Have you signed up for Hormones: A Women's Wellness Summit yet???  Well, it's time! Event happens free, online April 11-18, 2016.  

Hormones: A Women's Wellness Summit- Registration is Now Open!

We are super excited to announce that our pretty registration page is now open for YOU to sign up!

Join Here

Just a few of our 35 features speakers!

We are so proud of this event, and can't wait to share it with you!  But you don't really have to wait, because you'll get three video interviews with three reference guides right away!  

REGISTER FOR THE SUMMIT

We are also looking for good folks to spread the word about the summit. You can do that as:

A 'professional' (aka- you have an email newsletter and you're in the health field)

Become a Summit Affiliate

 

An individual (aka- you just love us and want more women to be healthy)

Join Our 'Street Team' Here

Thank you so much for your support, and we'll see you on the summit!

Questions?  Hit me up here.  

Love, Bridgit

How to Honor Your Baby's Microbiome

A Little Story about Healthy Babies...

When I was practicing acupuncture more, I saw a lot of ladies at the end of their pregnancy, who wanted support in preparing for labor.  These ladies were brand new to me, and I'd always ask what supplements they were taking, and what foods they were eating.

I would often cringe to hear that they weren't consuming probiotics, and recommend that these moms-to-be consume probiotics foods and supplements. We know now that baby is exposed to bacteria from the birth canal/anus or the bacteria floating around in the surgery room, if C section delivery (link).  

But also the bacterial environment of the mother affects baby's health in utero (link).  Taking it a step further, your microbiome health will affect your ability to conceive and carry to term. 

Even if you never plan to have kids, our microbiome supports so much of hormone regulation, it's important to every woman.

So what can you do to honor your microbiome, and your baby's microbiome?  

You can consume kombucha, raw sauerkraut or kimchi, or coconut yogurt.  You can eat a wide variety of vegetables to provide pre-biotic food to your microbiome. You can avoid foods that can irritate your gut such as processed grain, caffeine and sugar.  You can take a high-quality, broad-spectrum probiotic.  (Tip: the shelf stable ones are sometimes better than the dairy-based refridgerated ones.)

You can also attend this week's free Microbiome Summit, with over 30 free, expert interviews about our microbiome.  

I don't attend every summit out there, but I'm very curious about this area that we are just starting to grasp.  Very exciting stuff!

I want women to really get the importance of this area, and how we can nourish it, for our sake, and the sake of our healthy babies.  Join the free Microbiome Summit here.

Hugs and Health, Bridgit

Weight Loss Starts with Trust with Michelle Hastie Thompson

As a health practitioner and educator, I am very cautious about talking about weight loss. Though I know that many women struggle with weight, I don't like to emphasize the weight aspect of health, or encourage any sort of particular diet to lose weight.

There is one 'style' of weight loss advice I feel good about, and our guest today, Michelle Hastie Thompson, espouses that style, so she got to come on the show!

This style involves self-love and self-awareness.  I am not a proponent of if you have the right mindset, you can eat anything, but I am a proponent of making any changes to our health starts with a healthy mindset.

And this is the truest with weight loss.  If we feel badly about ourselves, and mistrustful of food and our bodies, can cannot have feel good about our weight no matter how much we weigh.

Join Michelle and me as we learn:

• Why trust is step one to losing weight

• How you can let go of the fear of weight gain

• Managing pregnancy weight gain and post-partum weight loss

• How to cultivate presence, with food and in life

• Learning to love yourself right now, not when you lose weight

• Learning to use your intuition about food

• How excess weight is a gift to learn life lessons

• How to move into 'ideal weight consciousness'

More about our guest:

Michelle Hastie Thompson is the author of The Weight Loss Shift: Be More, Weigh Less, available on Amazon.  She is also a mind -body health coach Total Body Health Solutions, and was trained at the Institute for the Psychology of Eating.

She speaks about the struggle with weight from her own experience of being obsessed with exercise and calorie counting, and gaining weight nonetheless.  After she got injured and was laid out on the couch doing nothing, she lost weight.  Confused and intrigued, she started to research.

More about your host:

Bridgit Danner is a women's health educator at Women's Wellness Collaborative, an online resource for education on hormones, and inspiration on healthy lifestyle.

Pick up here free interactive hormone stressor quiz here, and look at other resources available through Women's Wellness Collaborative.

Not subscribed?  We invite you to subscribe to our weekly show in iTunes or most podcast players.  You can support our show's success by writing us a review at iTunes.  Thanks!

Can We Treat Fibroids Naturally? with Dr. Allan Warshowsky

I was honored to interview Dr. Allan Warshowsky, author of Healing Fibroids: A Doctor’s Guide to a Natural Cure.  Dr. Allan is a pioneer in progressive and integrative care for women's health, doing it long before it was popular, and out of frustration that he couldn't get results for his patients with conventional care.

With his wife Priscilla, he now runs a small wellness practice in Rye, NY, and sees clients from all over the world.

Dr. Allan tells us that 30-70% of women get fibroids, and he estimates that 80% of fibroid surgeries could be avoided.

His approach includes:

• Reducing inflammation

• Restoring hormone imbalance

• Detoxification

• Gut repair

• Blood sugar balancing

• Caster oil packs or poke oil packs

• Creating connection to fibroids with massage, visualization 

• Moving into parasympathetic mode of nervous system with meditation, gratitude

• Dry skin brushing

• Breast massage

• Clearing chakra issues

• Elimination diet- including removing allergenic and GMO

"Being in the moment is the only time to heal and have joy."

Learn how to prevent fibroids, or if you are a good candidate to treat your fibroids naturally!

Listen below of subscribe 'Women's Wellness Radio' on your podcast player, for best health results!!

Resources:

doctorallan.com

American Board of Integrative Holistic Physicians

abihm.com

Holistic Care of Pregnancy and Babies with Laura Brayton, DC

Dr. Laura Brayton, DC is definitely an expert on holistic care for pregnancy and children, so I'm glad to have her on the podcast to answer some of the questions I commonly get from women.

Here are some cool things I learned on the episode:

• How the prejudge against natural medicine got started, and why it's shifting

• The best first foods for babies

• Know the signs that your baby isn't yet ready for solid food

• How adjustments are safe and beneficial for pregnancy and kids

• How your pregnancy adjustments also benefit your baby!

• How your unborn child can benefit from Nambudripad's Allergy Elimination Technique!

• Her favorite probiotic for kids under 2 (see below)

• How clean eating isn't enough for detoxification 

• Why tummy time and crawling cannot be skipped!

• Why you should get adjustments for a better birth experience and outcome

• How exactly your breastfeeding baby gets your probiotics

• How baby's saliva will adjust our breast milk content!

Resources:

Dr. Laura's site in Hoboken, New York

Also search her podcast in your podcast player, Well-Adjusted Mama

Site to find a pediatric specialized chiropractor

Klaire Labs Infant Probiotic Formula  

NAET  

Listen to the interview below, and get subscribed on your podcast player!

iTunes link

My Story with Bridgit Danner, LAc, FDNP

Well, this show is a little different.  It's just me talking about me, from before I was conceived to now.  I talk about how I was raised and how it shaped me.  I talk about some of my struggles in health and business, and how I've overcome them (mostly!)

My business mentor challenged me to show more of my personality and tell more of my story, so I figured this was a place to start!

I hope you can find some things in my story that are relatable or helpful for your life and health.  

And I sincerely appreciate you being a listener and member of our community.  If you are not yet subscribed to our newsletter, you can do so on the main page of our site.

You can also join our Podcast Fan Club, which is a private Facebook group where you can share thoughts and questions.

If you are a fan of the show, we'd love for you to share it with an iTunes review.  (You'll need to log in to iTunes to write it.)

Listen to the audio below, or get subscribed weekly on iTunes or most podcast players.

Hugs and Health, Bridgit

Hello, World!

Reducing Toxins for a Healthy Conception with Lara Adler

Lara Adler is a Certified Holistic Health Coach and an Environmental Toxins Expert, and, let me tell you something, this girl knows her toxins.  Many of us know a thing or two about toxins, but Lara knows everything!

Today we talk about the influence of toxins on fertility and our growing babies. Because developing fetuses are so much more susceptible to the mal-effects of toxins, and because the effects can last a lifetime, it is important that we learn how to protect them as much as is possible.

However this episode is helpful for anyone who is curious about toxins and how to reduce them.  

Tired of having that same old argument with your uncle Ron, with him saying that there is no reason to be worried about RoundUp and food coloring and the like? Now you have some ammunition!

In this episode, we'll learn:

• That indoor air quality can be 50-100 times worse than outdoors

• That some chemicals are neurotoxins, especially in developing baby

• The chemicals are linked to PCOS (leading cause of sub-fertility)

• The chemicals linked to fertility issues in men

• How birth defects on boy babies are on the rise

• That being pregnant detoxes chemicals out of mom and into baby

• That avoiding BPA is not enough and why

• And Lara's three best first steps to reduce your toxic load

To learn more about Lara, visit her site here.  Lara specializes in teaching practitioners, but will be expanding her offerings to the public over time.  

You can listen through the audio player below.  But the best way to get this and all our interviews, wherever you are, is to be subscribed to our podcast.

Overcoming Anxiety Without Medication with Dr. Kim D'Eramo

I really enjoyed interviewing Dr. Kim D'Eramo.  For one thing, she is incredibly lively and fun.  For another, it's exciting to think that we have way more ability than we realize to heal ourselves.

She had a career as an emergency room physician, but meanwhile, since her teenage years and her own experience with anxiety, she was learning about how to harness the power of her own thoughts.  Over time, her friends would send their friends with anxiety to Kim to learn about this mind-body stuff that she does.  

She practices, among other things, emotional freedom technique, also known as tapping.

She no longer works in the ER, but has dedicated herself to mind-body medicine, and established the American Institute of Mind-Body Medicine, where she teaches both physicians and individuals how to heal with these simple tools of which we all have access.

So many of my female clients over the years have complained of anxiety.  Some men too, but more often women.  So I looked it up, and here is what the Anxiety and Depression Association of America had to say about it:

From the time a girl reaches puberty until about the age of 50, she is twice as likely to have an anxiety disorder as a man. Anxiety disorders also occur earlier in women than in men.

Women are also more likely to have multiple psychiatric disorders during their lifetime than men. The most common to co-occur with anxiety is depression.

Differences in brain chemistry may account for at least part of these differences. The brain system involved in the fight-or-flight response is activated more readily in women and stays activated longer than men, partly as a result of the action of estrogen and progesterone.

The neurotransmitter serotonin may also play a role in responsiveness to stress and anxiety. Some evidence suggests that the female brain does not process serotonin as quickly as the male brain. Recent research has found that women are more sensitive to low levels of corticotropin-releasing factor (CRF), a hormone that organizes stress responses in mammals, making them twice as vulnerable as men to stress-related disorders.

Dr. Kim is offering a series of free videos right now where you can get techniques to use right away to deal with anxiety.  Click on the images below to access these videos.  What do you have to lose?!

If you have had successful with wrangling anxiety, please share your wisdom below!

Addressing Pelvic Pain and Infertility with Dr. Jennifer Mercier

Dr. Jennifer Mercier is a triple threat: naturopath, massage therapist and midwife.  I kind of fall in love with her work on the episode, as you'll hear!  

It was Jennifer's own experience with stage 4 endometriosis, coupled with her medical training, that helped her develop the Mercier Therapy.

Mercier Therapy is her own system of abdominal therapy that works with the ligaments and organs to move them into alignment with the goals of restoring function and /or reducing pain.

For women, it can help us have a smoother cycle, recover from surgeries, improve our fertility and heal trauma.

I find so many have strange sensations in their abdomens that they worry about. And many have complications form C section or even a natural birth, and feel there are no options to heal.  Still other have unexplained infertility, that can potentially respond to a new approach.

Jennifer works locally in St. Charles, IL, but also trains practitioners in other states and countries.  That means if this type of work speaks to you, you may be able to fidn a practitioner in your area.  And if you are practitioner, training is available.  

Her clinic

Her training program

Find a practitioner

The Mercier Movie

We are hosting a free Recipe Party Jan 9 -31, 2016. See new blog post to join!

Listen to the Interview

You can listen to the interview through the player below, but even better is to get subscribed to Women's Wellness Radio through your Apple or Android podcast player!

Join the January Recipe Party

This was a recipe for Chicken Tajine from Mediterranean Paleo that turned out so delicious.  

I was calling this a "Recipe Challenge," but realized that sounded too intimidating!  This is actually the least intimidating challenge...

How the Recipe Party Started

I love to cook but am bad about cracking a recipe book, or planning out what I need for recipes at the store.  I also have fantasies that I will compete on Masterchef someday, so I need to broaden my knowledge!!!

Anyway, at first I thought, "I'm going to cook one new recipe a day in January!" Then I realized that is pretty demanding, and it's hard to start right after the holidays.  So I softened it up a bit.

What is the Recipe Party

The Recipe Party is simply a way for us to get inspired in cooking new things by sharing with and supporting each other.  We will do this through our private Facebook group.  You will have to ask to join the group first since it's a private group.  

How the Recipe Party Works

Starting January 9, you can resolve to make as little or as many recipes as you want through January 30.  You can do literally only one new recipe if you want.  That might be enough for you with your schedule, or your cooking history!

You can use recipes from a website you like, from your Grandmother, or from some recipe books that are collecting dust on your shelves.

You can cook vegetarian, all desserts, or paleo.  It's up to you!

So as you can see, there are no rules at all in this recipe party.  

What to Do Next

Go to the Facebook group and ask to join.  Once I have clicked the approval, please come post an introduction of yourself.

Here's an example:

"Hi I'm Bridgit and I'm from Portland, OR.  The books I'm going to cook from are the Ketogenic Cookbook, Mediterranean Paleo and the Virgin cookbook.  I intend to cook 3 new recipes a week, probably 2 on the weekend and 2 during the week.  Looking forward to getting to know you, and trying some, new yummy foods!"

That's it!  From there you are welcome to share successful recipes, or complete failures.  This is not meant to be stressful, so don't beat yourself up if you don't cook as much as you planned.  

The reason I like short-term challenges (or parties) is that it rocks us out of our routine, and then maybe we realize some easy way to shop for recipes, or we start creating our own recipes, or joining in with neighbors to can fruit.  Things happen when we push ourselves in a new direction, and hopefully we can do it in a fun and supportive way.

See you on the group!  Bridgit