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Small Changes Big Shifts Podcast

I was recently interviewed by Dr. Michelle Robin on the Small Changes Big Shifts podcast. We discuss what small steps we can make today for big shifts in our physical, mental, and emotional health. 

I share my advice on the importance of building a community in a comfortable environment, the difference between episodic depression and chronic depression plus specific wellness tips for expecting and new mothers.

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Originally published in Well + Good

These days, we go into a stress response too readily, and one of the things that puts the body into a stress response is a blood sugar crash. So many of us are walking around hangry, and if you really start to track your anxiety and panic symptoms, they’re usually around the time when you’re going through a blood sugar crash.

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Listen to the GOOP Podcast

I was honored to sit down with GOOP and be featured on the goopPodcast to discuss what our anxiety is telling us.

We’re just not taught these days to feel our feelings. Symptoms such as anxiety and depression, hormone and gut issues are our really beautiful, brilliant body’s way of communicating to us. To communicate back, I focus on food, sleep, stress, and other lifestyle changes.

I meet patients where they are; I work with people who are on antidepressants and who are tapering off of SSRIs. My most important work is not fixing a problem but helping to hold space for the full human experience.

GOOP Podcast

We have a national eating disorder. Perhaps this is because we’re inundated with mixed messages about nutrition, and we’ve lost all connection to traditional food culture. Here’s the only compass you need:

1. Eat Real Food
2. Avoid Fake Food
3. Listen to what your body is telling you it needs. If it says it needs pizza or candy, that’s a drug craving. If it’s telling you it needs fruit/mashed potatoes/red meat/salad/chicken skin/egg yolk/etc., then that is probably a genuine need; full speed ahead.

The mindbodygreen Podcast

Health all-stars Melissa Hartwig Urban, Rich Roll, Dr. Molly Maloof and I sat down at this year’s mbgRevitalize with their founder + co-CEO, Jason Wachob to debate this topic. Tune into the mbg Podcast to dive deeper into this dialogue on when psychedelics expand consciousness—and when they do more harm than good.

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We get so focused on which probiotic to take, whether to take a prebiotic, which herbal antimicrobials to use to treat your SIBO, that we sometimes forget the most important medicine for healing your gut is REST. And the thing that probably damages gut health the most is CHRONIC STRESS.

Need to be convinced by science? When you’re in fight or flight mode, your digestion is compromised. This is your body’s way of triaging– move the blood away from the gut toward your muscles so you can more effectively run from the tiger. Your digestion will resume once you make it to safety. Great, except these days we’re running from the tiger 24/7. Our digestion never properly comes back online.

Meanwhile, the relaxation state of your nervous system is when your digestion is flowing. Relaxation is also when your body does housekeeping and heals injuries, like a damaged gut. Even if you just take 2 minutes to do a breathing exercise right now instead of scrolling Instagram, that would give your gut a 2-minute window to do some healing. Try it out!

Originally published in Well + Good

There is a direct and powerful relationship between stress and gut health. Stress compromises the health of our digestive tract in a variety of ways.

Learn the gut-health bonuses of staying stress-free.

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