We wear masks to protect others from our exhaled droplets. These droplets may contain virus. It is a considerate gesture and quite helpful. But when the moisture of the droplet evaporates (relatively soon after being exhaled) the viral particles remain suspended in the air that we breathe and they are MUCH smaller than the holes in our masks. Some virus will get through as the masks are not sufficient protection for the wearer. What can we do to protect ourselves? Researchers at the University of North Carolina School of Medicine found that the Covid-19 virus first attaches to the nasal ..read more

Wanting to become pregnant, being pregnant and postpartum are all Pregnant Pauses, that we as women and as couples, experience in a myriad of different ways. Consider the length of time that these profound experiences span your lifetime. We’re not usually privy to our own mother’s Pregnant Pause but think back for a moment. Do you know the story of how your family interacted or the emotional circumstances surrounding your conception and birth? Most of us would draw a blank other than, ‘I think I was three weeks late’ or ‘I was premature.’ From the third trimester of pregnancy through ..read more

With one system carrying blood just beneath the other, the connection between skin and veins is an intimate one. The role of veins is to carry deoxygenated blood back up to the heart, usually against gravity. In leg veins, there are valves that open to allow the blood to flow one way: up. If the valves in the veins become damaged, some blood will flow back into the legs and “pool” there, resulting in a condition sometimes referred to as venous reflux. Venous (vein) congestion can limit the amount of nutrients that fresh blood can bring to the affected area ..read more

Have you ever thought about your birth experience and wondered what it was like? You were at your birth, but what do you remember about it? If there’s nothing coming up in your conscious mind right now, that’s perfectly normal but it doesn’t mean that you were unconscious before you were born. Quite the contrary, a pregnant mother shares every hormone that is expressed in her body with her unborn child, good or bad, as if they are one. The baby thinks of the mother’s body as its own body. This hormonal language informs the baby’s implicit memory with the ..read more

The simple answer is yes and with that comes the fallout of years of controversial arguments, evidence, advocate and patient abuse. I say abuse because as current times have proven, we all have opinions on what’s going on around us and those opinions, given with evidentiary proof or not, are threaded with experience, misdiagnosis and medical neglect. And yet, amid all that, some patients do get better, but it is not quick or without struggle. Patients suffering from Lyme and other tick-borne diseases have to fight for everything they have. From diagnosis to treatment to support, every patient ..read more

Much of the literature devoted to the benefits of using acupuncture to address symptoms associated with anxiety and mental health conditions focuses on the adult population. There is evidence showing that acupuncture can help ease discomfort in irritable bowel syndrome, calm racing thoughts, alleviate headaches and restore sleep. The pediatric population exhibits many of the same symptoms; tummy aches, headaches, difficulty sleeping. What is different about this group of patients is that there is less literature available on utilizing acupuncture to treat anxiety on children. What I have found ..read more

When we think of stress and anxiety, we seem to narrow the focus on it being an adult thing. Infants and children are just as prone to stress and anxiety as adults, however, the expression of that stress and anxiety looks different coming from children then it does from adults. With many years of life experience, adults have found various ways of coping with stress that better suit societal norms. Children, on the other hand, lack the constraints of the external world where exact expression of their feelings have not yet been compromised or oppressed. As a mom, I witness ..read more

Approximately 1 in 10 women of childbearing age in the United States have Polycystic Ovarian Syndrome, or PCOS. Understanding what is going on in the body, why it’s happening and how to make positive changes are key to reducing PCOS symptoms. The Female Menstrual Cycle As the name implies, Polycystic Ovarian Syndrome, or PCOS, is a condition in which one or both ovaries have many cysts. To understand why a cyst forms, you first need to understand the female menstrual cycle. At the start of each menstrual cycle your pituitary gland produces follicle-stimulating hormone (FSH). This hormone is me ..read more

Wouldn’t it be nice to know a universal self-help technique that brings you peace and calm naturally and has the flexibility of use anytime or anywhere? It’s here for you; Emotional Freedom Techniques (EFT) Tapping. The What? With stress, anxiety and fear swirling at the epicenter of our lives right now, we need a go-to source of peace and calm to get through our own personal hurdles. I’ve been introducing the innumerable benefits of EFT Tapping for the last eight years but never before has it become more important to inform you as readers how to use EFT Tapping for ..read more

A pitfall is a hidden danger or unsuspected difficulty. Often, we are blinded by trust or our desire to just feel better and so we are not really seeing how things are, until we look back. I am speaking from firsthand experience as I had no idea that the medical providers that I was trusting with my health had no idea what I was dealing with, let alone know how to properly treat it. If I had, I might not have lost all that time, all that money and all those dreams. What compounds this brokenness even further is all ..read more