Laura Koniver, MD's Blog

My Top 10 Ways To Keep Grounding Outside As Colder Weather Moves In

 

 

As we move towards the cooler months of fall and winter, my inbox always gets overflowed with folks asking me how to keep grounding comfortably outside as the weather turns cold… and even bitterly cold.

It’s so important to get outside, even in the darkness of winter, to keep you sleeping deeply at night and — as I wrote about here — thinking more clearly during the day.

Thankfully, there are tons of fabulous options to stay warm while still grounding outside.  And I’ve thoroughly tested them all for you — personally confirming that these grounding options work well and truly ground you by verifying them with a grounding test meter on many different outdoor surfaces.

Let’s get started!

 

My 10 favorite ways to stay grounded even when it is cold:

 

 

1. Wear Grounding Boots:  Vivobarefoot

 

Out of the entire market of grounding footwear, these are the three companies that I have found provide the most reliable grounding, plus are made in an eco-ethical way.  First up: Vivobarefoot.

With a conductive outsole and a conductive leather footbed, these grounding boost are the perfect way to stay warm and cozy outside in cold weather while still staying connected to the earth.  They are even water resistant in case you get caught in a fall rain shower or a winter sleet storm.   Available in both men’s sizes and women’s sizes, check them out here.

 

 

2. Wear Grounding Loafers: Raum

 

Ethically made, individually hand crafted leather shoes that are minimalist in design and come in closed toe slip on designs as well as closed toe lace up loafers for both men and women.  How gorgeous are these?

I particularly appreciate that these shoes are hand sewn, because most shoes on the market are simply glued or cemented together, not hand stitched. So your feet mold into the leather over time to create an amazing level of comfort that brings you back into alignment with how your foot feels and functions best.

If you are looking for a slip on shoe that is minimalist in design (read: a non-cushioned footbed that allows feet to stay in their natural alignment ) and you want the largest selection of colors, then you want Raum shoes.

 

 

3. Wear Grounding Sneakers:  Groundz

 

Cute cute cute cute cute!!!  Groundz uses sustainably sourced and eco-friendly leather, water based and nontoxic vegetable dyes (very impressive) and a copper plug that is so comfortable I literally can not feel it. It’s so comfortable I had to check and double check that I was actually grounded in them and yep, I am, every time!

Groundz offers beautiful slip on grounding loafers and grounding sandals as well as their grounding sneakers, so when patients are looking for grounding sneakers with a secure cushioned footbed, Groundz is the website I send them to.

 

 

 

4. Add Grounding Stickers To Shoes You Already Own:

 

I can’t think of much more eco-friendly than to continue to use shoes you already own. And if you love them, and they support your foot function best, why not convert your favorite pair of sneakers, running shoes, hiking shoes, or even sports cleats into grounding shoes? A grounding shoe sticker is the way to go.

These grounding shoe stickers are so easy to use — stick them to shoes you already own and forget them! Get access to all of the benefits of grounding outdoors while being able to wear your favorite footwear and your favorite orthotic inserts too.

The sticker is fully conductive and runs the grounding energy from the earth beneath you up and around your shoe and into the sole of your shoe where your feet are. By touching the sticker, you bypass the rubber sole entirely and are basically standing barefoot on the ground, conductively speaking.

I can’t even feel these stickers on my shoes. Find them here.

 

 

5. Wear Grounding Socks:

 

If you wear any of the grounding shoes above, or have put a grounding sticker on shoes you already own, you’ll be grounded the moment you slip your bare foot into the shoe and stand outside on the earth.

But what if you like to wear socks?

Almost every sock manufactured on this planet will block the grounding flow from the grounded shoe (or grounded shoe sticker) because almost all socks have synthetic, non-conductive fibers, elastic, polyester, etc… or are too thick to allow grounding contact.

But it’s truly no problem to wear a sock with a grounding shoe or grounding shoe sticker, you just have to make sure it is a conductive sock. Luckily there are tons of beautiful socks made with conductive materials that will ground you instantly. I’ve got three styles for you to consider:

an athletic grounding crew sock: thick, plush, absorbent, ankle length a thinner grounding dress sock: thinner, sleek, comfortable, crew length… great for work or dress!and a grounding toe sock for those that like to make sure their feet keep a natural spacing, for optimal alignment.  Perfect for those that sleep grounded in bed (like on an organic grounding bed topper) but they want to wear socks to stay toasty warm… with these socks you can slip them on to keep your feet and still sleep right on top of your grounding bed surface with no interference — in fact, the socks will help insure your are grounded by encasing your entire foot in a grounding fabric!

In each of these pictures on their product pages, I am personally modeling the sock for you, and have thoroughly tested their conductivity with a grounding test meter. Each sock utilizes silver fibers throughout the entire sock, every inch of it, so the entire sock is conductive from top to bottom.

By wearing a conductive sock with your grounding footwear, your entire sock will instantly encase your entire foot and ankle immediately in grounding energy, which will then powerfully ground your entire body from head to toe.

 

 

6. Wear Grounding Gloves:

 

My next tip is to switch your focus from grounding through your feet to grounding through your hands.  It literally only takes one fingertip touching a grounded surface outside (like a metal signpost, an evergreen pine needle, a rock, the sidewalk, brick, pavers, etc…) and it is infinitely easier to wash your hands when you come back inside than it is to wash off your feet and put shoes back on, plus you can even keep pocket warmers in your pocket and switch hands back and forth as you extend the amount of time you can spend comfortably outside, staying bundled up in your winter coat and winter boots!

Want more protection from the elements in winter?  Here are my favorite solutions:

The first option is to wear fingerless gloves that keep your hands toasty warm but your fingertips available to directly touch the earth, like these lovely all natural wool fingerless gloves I’m wearing in the picture above — they are USA made and waiting for you right here.

 

 

The second option is to wear silver fiber conductive gloves that cover all exposed skin, protecting you from the elements while still allowing grounding to conduct right through to your hands. Find those right here.

 

 

The third option — my favorite by far — is to layer the two!  Put your conductive silver gloves on, then slip the fingerless wool gloves on top so you have a double layer of warmth while allowing grounding through your fingertips comfortably all winter long, no skin exposure necessary. Wool fingerless gloves keep the palms, wrists and base of the fingers extra insulated, while allowing the conductive layer over the fingertips to touch the earth and directly allow the healing flow of grounding to ground your body from head to toe.  I have them together as a set for you right here.

 

 

7. Hold Onto A Grounding Walking Stick 

 

The other creative way to ground through your hands while staying bundled up and warm is to simply hold onto a conductive grounding hiking stick!

The one I’m showing you above is handmade by a master carpenter right here in the USA using solid wood and pure copper to create a conductive pathway from the ground all the way up to your hands!  Have him make yours to carry you through all the season without ever taking your shoes off, by ordering one right here. 

A walking stick is a great option for those with mobility issues to use year round, not just in the winter.  Not only does grounding through your hands keep your feet protected from frostbite in the winter, in summertime it is just as fabulous at protecting you from hazards like fire ants, burning hot surfaces, broken glass and more.

Check these grounded walking sticks out right here.  Each hiking stick is a custom hand crafted, unique work of art that you will use for many years to come.

 

 

8.  Or Make Your Own DIY Grounded Walking Stick:

 

If you want to make your own grounding hiking stick, you can grab a DIY kit right here and transform any cane, stick (or even a simple wooden broom handle!) into a conductive walking stick that will ground you from head to toe without you ever needing to touch the earth directly.

I demonstrate how to use my DIY kit to make your own grounded walking stick in the second half of the video above, starting at the 5:40 min mark.

By the way… this homemade DIY Grounding Stick Kit is the perfect stocking stuffer for your loved ones!!!  The tape and crampon, plus instructions come bundled in an organic cotton tote, no need to even wrap it!

 

 

9. Ground Through Your Pajamas all night:

 

The perk of wearing shielding clothing to bed at night is that not only are you shielded from high frequency radiation, but these fabrics also allow you to lay on a grounded surface (like an organic grounded bed topper or an organic grounding bed roll, both waiting for you right here) and ground right through them!

Perfect for folks who want to be grounded in bed all night long but who like to keep bundled up and warm with no exposed skin available to touch the grounding tool.

Find these options to wear to sleep to keep you grounded to your favorite grounding bed surface:

organic shielding organic T shirtsorganic shielding tank topsorganic shielding undies for men and womenshielding sweatpantsshielding hoodiesand grounding  socks (as we talked about in #5 above)

This is another perk of having the grounding socks we talked about above in suggestion #5.  Not only can you wear them with your grounding shoes to stay grounded outside, but if you like to sleep in socks to keep your feet warm in the winter, you can wear theses socks to bed and use them to ground while you sleep as well.

Slipping into bed and resting your feet on a grounding bed surface will allow you to ground right through your grounded pajamas or grounded socks all night long.

 

 

 

10. Sleep With A Grounding Hot Water Bottle:

 

For decades now, one of my ultimate go-to healing recommendations for patients is a hot water bottle, to avoid the artificial EMFs of electric blankets and heating pads but still enjoying the soothing benefits of heat.  By adding the element of grounding to this, with a grounding hot water bottle cozy, you combine the healing properties of heat with the health benefits of grounding (the most holistic supportive therapy that helps relax, repair, and soothe aches and pains from head-to-toe!)

So I have these custom, hand sewn, grounding hot water bottle cozy’s made just for you when you order it, so that you can sleep all night long, grounded in warmth and healing energy.  I can’t think of a better way to stay warm and grounded all winter long, and if you are thinking ahead to holiday gifts, this must be one of the most lovely, comforting, supportive healing gifts you can possibly give.

You just have to make sure you order them early, because I have these literally hand made just for you when you order it and it does take a few weeks. Order yours before it get’s too darn cold at night… you can find them right here.

 

 

To a healthy fall and winter full of grounding, even outside!

Yes, it is absolutely doable!

Grounding helps keep your immunity high, your inflammation low, reduces stress, deepens sleep, and boosts your mood, no matter what you are going through.  Sounds like the perfect winter healing plan.

Please share these resources with anyone who would like some tips on comfortable cold weather grounding.

Hopefully some of these ideas transformed what you think is possible about staying connected to the earth outside this fall and winter, like my eco-friendly idea of simply adding a grounding shoe sticker to any shoe you already own (perfect for a favorite pair of orthotic shoes you love, or if you simply want to be eco-friendly and not buy more pairs of shoes, as one of the best ways we can support our earth is reuse what we already have instead of consuming more!)

Or the idea of switching to grounding through your hands in the winter, with several different options to keep your hands warm but effectively grounded, like conductive gloves that layer with wool gloves to keep your hands nice and warm while touching grounded surfaces outside, grounding hiking sticks that conduct the earth’s energy right up to your hands while you stay bundled up in winter coats and boots, ways to keep warm while grounding like using a grounded hot water bottle, or slipping into shielding sweatpants and undies so you can be grounded while sleeping right on top of your grounded bed surfaces… and so much more.

From shoes to gloves to hiking sticks, there are tons of fun safe ways to connect to our planet and boost our health through grounding, no matter what the season.  Find all of these outdoor grounding solutions, and so much more, in my Eco-Ethical Grounding Boutique right here:

xoxoxo,Laura Koniver MD

The post My Top 10 Ways To Keep Grounding Outside As Colder Weather Moves In appeared first on Intuition Physician.

Can’t Stop Overthinking? 9 Easy Ways To Drop Into Your Body For Instant Relief

 

I’m writing this article after having the total pleasure of my adult daughter visiting for a night, in the morning we went out for breakfast and a pedicure before she had to leave — what a rare treat and I soaked up every second of it.

It wasn’t until we finished our meal and were heading over to give our feet some TLC (read here if you want a medical excuse to get a pedicure!) that I realized exactly why I soaked it up more than usual — I did not have my cell phone with me at all.

When I was done my pedicure I had about a 30 minute wait for my daughter to be finished.  If I had my cell phone on me, for sure I would have been going through emails, responding as many as possible, checking my Grounding Boutique inventory, even possibly watching a few TikTok’s for a laugh or two.

Instead, I sat there.

I breathed.

I looked around the room.

I noticed everyone, felt their moods, heard chatter in different areas of the room, saw folks coming and going, watched the technicians as they were working, and thought how lovely and random (or not) it seemed that about 25 different people were gathered in this one space at the same time, from all different parts of town, for all different reasons, some working, some relaxing, for me, the ultimate blessing of spending a morning with my stunning daughter before she left again.

I felt so much warmth and connection, even in a room full mostly with strangers, even without talking to any of them.  Just sitting there.

 

 

The one thing I can promise you, is I would not have had that unity experience and I would not have felt that surreal interconnected moment with people I never even spoke a word to, if I had been holding my cell phone.

It reminded me that sometimes all we need to do is put down our devices for an uncomfortably long period of time to be back in the present moment and let the other bullshit fall away.

If putting down your phone isn’t an option, or you already do that routinely and are looking for even more ways to shift back into the present moment, quickly, I’ve got you.  Here are:

9 Ways To Become Immediately Present In Your Body:

 

 

1. Go Outside

 

If you are feeling utterly overwhelmed, all you have to do is walk out your front door, step out of your office, or stop driving and step out of your car. To reconnect with nature is to reconnect with the bigger picture and instantly release pent up frustration, tension, anger, anxiety and fear.

Multiple studies, including this meta analysis (published 2022) looking at 24 different medical studies, found that going outside in a natural environment significantly improved psychological health over staying in an urban environment.This study published in 2016 found that just going outside just 30 minutes a week was enough to provide mental, physical and social health benefits.This meta-analysis published in 2021, found an “effective dose” of going outside was as little as 20 minutes, with significant benefits accumulating in as little 8 weeks time of routinely going outside.

Twenty minutes is great, but taking even one minute to surround yourself with the power of nature can instantly alleviate the false narrative you are telling yourself when you are indoors.  In fact, indoors is such an artifical environment — form the lighting, to the surfaces, even the temperature indoors is fake — it stresses the mind and creates separation between what is real and what isn’t.

I alway tell my kids — NEVER make a bid life decision indoors… NEVER. How you feel indoors is not real.  Ready to try it?  I made this super quick TikTok for you remind you to give this a try any time you are feeling overwhelmed:

How You Feel Indoors Is Not Real (YouTube)

 

How You Feel Indoors In Not Real (TikTok)

 

@laurakonivermd

Go outside to come back to yourself #laurakonivermd #intuitionphysician #grounding #earthing

♬ Relaxing Music – kucing tetangga

So the next time you are having a panic attack, or a pounding headache, a knot of worry grow in your stomach, or just feel indecisive… just go outside. Get out there. Don’t force anything, just start walking and let nature work its magic.

Whether it’s just a few deep breaths as you sit on a patch of grass, taking a walk through a local park, or standing outside at night looking up at the stars… reconnecting with the wonder of being a human being standing on a rock that spirals through space and seeing the earth for the vast support network it is can’t help but lift your spirits for the better.

 

2.  Turn Your Face Towards The Sun

 

It’s important to get sunlight every single day. If you are going outside daily (see tip #1, above) this will be a win-win situation!  Sunlight actually prolongs life span, in a dose dependent way… meaning more time in the sun = longer life span.

I blog about the medical studies on this for you right here.

Get indirect sun exposure whenever possible, for at least 10 minutes or more daily, ideally in non-peak hours (before 10 AM or after 4 PM) by:

sitting on a porch, balcony or front door stoop every morning and every eveningeating picnic lunches outside mid-dayobserving which of the windows in your home or work space are sunny and at what time of the day there is a sunbeam and sitting in those precious light rays while drinking your morning coffee, your evening tea, while working on your computer  or while reading a good book, etc…going on an early morning walk before the world wakes up around yougoing on an after dinner walk each evening, to release stress from the day and help boost digestioneven going for a drive if you have a car — roll the windows down and enjoy!

Go outside, stand on the earth, and turn your face towards the sun.  Close your eyes and breathe.  Welcome back to you:

The Sky Is Yes (TikTok)

 

@laurakonivermd

Go outside to instantly de-stress. #laurakonivermd #intuitionphysician #grounding #earthing #holidaystress

♬ Relaxing Music for Stress Relief. Calm Music for Meditation, Sleep, Relax, Healing Therapy, Spa – Susi Nurhindayantini

If you can’t get any sunlight where you live, or because of mobility issues, you might want to consider a light box.

Light therapy is very uplifting, and has been found to be an effective treatment for depression, anxiety, fibromyalgia… heck it even boosts libido that’s how much better it can make you feel… you can read an article I wrote about that right here, and find the light box I recommend most right here.

 

 

3. Eat A Snack Mindfully

 

While you are outside getting grounded and/or getting some light exposure, try taking a small snack outside with you.  Combining a sensation (in this case — taste!  Flavor!) drops you right out of your mind and into your body… immediately.  Just like closing your eyes and listening to sounds (more on that in #6, below) shifts you instantly into the now, so does any sensory experience.  You can leverage this with the power of a small snack or a meal eaten mindfully.

Why does food always taste better at a picnic?

Why does your morning coffee seem so much more satisfying when you take it outside to your front doorstep?

That’s because taking care of your body in any way — eating, drinking, breathing, listening, seeing, walking, etc — mindfully brings you into the present moment, especially when done outside.

Instead of eating while you are multitasking at your desk, driving, working on your computer, or shoving bits in your mouth while doing chores (or is that just me?) take a moment to have the same meal, outside.  Literally 5 or 10 minutes will change your entire mind-frame and relax and ground your body from head to toe.

In addition to bringing you to the present moment, eating grounded will have a profound impact on your entire digestive tract — from your esophagus to your colon and everything in between! — while meanwhile directly impacting your ability to feel full and satiated, even enhancing absorption by decreasing inflammation, which also helps with recovery after a meal.

Have 10 minutes right now?  Grab a drink and a snack (or your next meal) and come get grounded with me:

10 Minute Grounded Mindful Eating Practice (YouTube)

 

From every single angle, eating grounded helps: putting you more deeply in touch with your hunger and satiation, helping you digest and absorb your nutrients better, boosting your metabolism and keeping weight gain at bay, even decreasing discomfort after eating.

Even if you eat completely organic, fresh, raw, dairy-free, gluten-free, best-diet-in-the-world you can easily still have irritable bowel issues, or indigestion, or bloating, or pain. That’s because you can’t fully resolve bowel inflammation without being grounded.

Today I’d like to invite you to give it a try to see (and more importantly, feel) the difference in your digestion when you are eating grounded.  If you are going to eat food for a few minutes anyway at some point today, you might as well make that a time of healing and support by doing it outside, grounded.

 

4. Move

 

The feeling of worry and stress and anxiety is often the stress of energy that is accumulating in the body without release. I know I personally feel this as a ball of pressure right in my solar plexus, but it’s different for everyone.

Irritability, crying, headaches, diarrhea, nausea, tension, muscle stiffness, decreased or increased appetite, weight loss or gain, insomnia… often these all represent energy that just needs to be released to make room for the natural healing process and health/hope to return.

The easiest thing you can do to invite movement into your body and get your energy flowing again is just go on a walk.  Even just walking once around the block, or up and down a flight of steps, can make a world of difference. Here are other ideas you can do even inside your house to get a little movement into your body, helping you drop out of your head-space and into your heart-space immediately:

Easy Ways To Bring More Movement Into Your Daily Routine. Even In Winter, Even At Home.

Need to go deeper than just a walk or a few stretches?

Here is a list of ideas for deeper bodywork that will help release stuck emotions and stress that builds up in your body over time:

Bowen Therapy (I blog about this here: Why Your Fascia Is Your Best Friend + 3 Ways To Support It For A Lifetime)YogaGuided Meditations (like this one for fall: Grounding Fall Meditation)Self Massage — foot, neck, scalp and hand massages are all massages you can do on your own body to release tensionConsider deep tissue massage by a therapist for more profound reliefHeat (grounding hot water bottles are the best!) over tense areasWater (in the form of showers or baths, as well as increasing hydration by drinking lots of water!)OrgasmAcupunctureQigongTai chiReikiPhysical therapy

 

5. Take A Deep Breath

 

In medicine, we know it only takes three deep breaths to significantly support your vagal nerve tone, which helps modulate your autonomic nervous system. Meaning your heart rate, respiratory rate, blood pressure and brain all get calmed and centered and soothed… and pain actually significantly decreases as well.

The best part about a deep breath?  You can only notice it if you are in the present moment.  The minute you forget you are breathing likely signifies you are in your head, ruminating about the past or worrying about the future.

Take 3 deep breaths gives your mind a mini-break and immediately focus on the present moment, getting you out of worry and fear. If you would like to incorporate mantra work into your breathing, here are some ideas for you…

breathing in: I am lovablebreathing out: I am lovedorbreathing in: I am safebreathing out: I am taken care of by Godorbreathing in: I am protectedbreathing out: I am healing

 

Want to do it right along with me?  Watch this video and lets take a few deep breaths together, right now, and you can feel how much more present you are in your body — it’s like night and day:

Reduce Your Overwhelm In 3 Breaths, Right Now With Me

 

Take 5 Deep Breaths With Me (YouTube)

 

Did you know deep breathing actually nourishes your brain?

Deep breathing actually does more than center and relax you, it actually helps provide increased nutrition to your brain and boosted removal of toxic metabolic waste — because medical studies show that deep abdominal breathing actually increases movement in the cerebrospinal fluid that bathes your brain. So taking a couple intentional deep breaths actually means you have conscious control over your brain’s environment, brining more oxygen and nutrients to it!

I go into the science of that and how grounding might play a factor into increasing those health benefits in this medical review article I published in the American Journal of Neurology Research in 2023, you can read that right here:

Cerebrospinal Fluid & Brain Health: Optimized By Grounding

Koniver, Laura. Cerebrospinal Fluid and Brain Health: Optimized By Grounding. American J Neurol Res. 2023; 2(1):1-4.

If you’d rather hear me talk about it than read it, here is a video I recorded for you:

 

 

 

And if you prefer TikTok, here is an abbreviated version from TikTok… I would love to have you follow me on TikTok here!

 

6. Listen To Music

 

Just like taste (#3, above) which can only be tasted in the now, sounds can only be heard to in the now — so listening to a song you really love, one that uplifts you and makes you smile, even sing — the easiest way I know to be immediately present in the current moment.

My kids will tell you that if I am really grumpy, all we have to do is hop in the car and turn on the radio and within a few songs, all of a sudden I don’t feel so hopeless. In fact, I feel optimistic and grateful and filled with the same sense of wonder and possibility that I feel when I spend time in nature.

The power of music to wash through you and lift you is amazing.

This is how powerful music is: if you play music that holds special meaning to a patient experiencing memory loss, they can recover context and depth and recognition in the form of long term memory recall while the music is being played. (watch this fascinating trailer for Alive Insideto see this happen!)

Playing music that is personally relevant to a patient has been shown to:

increase communication skillsincrease long term recallincrease activity level and energy levelincrease social function and engagementdecrease high blood pressureimprove moodreduce pain levelsenhance sleep

So if you are feeling stressed or depressed, especially if you can not leave your current surroundings to a new change of scenery, slip on some music and allow it to sweep through your soul and lift you higher.

Music is an invaluable tool for self-soothing and decreasing anxiety and depression rates. So play music out loud and use it to connect with everyone in your family — seniors through the youngest children — everyone can benefit!  Take turns playing your favorite music, having a family dance battle, or creating playlists for different times of the day.

 

7. Connect To Your Favorite Human

 

Touch is another sensation you can only feel in the now… so take advantage of that by leaning on a loved one to help you break out of your overwhelm and drop back into the present moment.

Touch from loved ones is so important that it even helps provide anesthesia to pain… that’s how much physical closeness helps.  A medical study (published in 2018 in the Proceedings Of The National Academy of Sciences) showed that simply holding hands provided significant analgesia during pain.

Physical touch calms brain activity during distress, which helps explain why it reduces the brain’s perception of pain, a study (published in 2006 in Psychological Science) found. In this study, brain activity was measured via a functional MRI while partners held hands with their spouse — hand holding significantly reduced level of brain activity during painful stimuli.

Another study, published in 2019 in Pain Management Nursing, found that simply massaging a patient’s hand reduced pain and provided longer pain free intervals in critically ill patients in a surgical intensive care unit.

Physical touch even has the power to calm your heart rate and respiratory rate, as well as lower blood pressure. A study published in 2017 in Scientific Reports found when evaluating patients who had a pain event while being monitored via an ECG… patients holding their partners hands had significant analgesia which resulted in lowered blood pressure, lowered heart rate response, and a lowered respiratory rate.

physical touch has the power to reduce painphysical touch has the power to prolong pain free intervals (even in critically ill patients)physical touch has the power to calm brain activity during distressphysical touch has the power to lower heart rate and blood pressurephysical touch has the power to calm respiratory rate

Want more details on how contact with loved ones helps boost your health and tips on how to do it?  Read this blog post here:

8 Ways To Boost Your Health By Boosting Connection

Meanwhile leverage the power of touch by connecting to you favorite human and drop from you mind space into your sensory awareness… feeling the warmth, comfort and sensation of touch and welcome back to the current moment.

 

8.  Connect To Your Favorite Animal

 

It’s not just the touch of a human being that brings comfort and relief — do you have a beloved pet?

I absolutely did, a once-in-a-lifetime pup, unfortunately she passed away a few years ago and I still miss her – painfully so — every single day.  And there is a reason why: our heart fields were attuned to one another for 17 years.  As I wrote about in this blog post here: The Health Benefits Of Having A Pet, pets actually boost health and longevity, much like connecting to your favorite human.

From boosted cardiac health and improved survival rates after heart attack to improved outcomes in cancer treatment, your life is absolutely enhanced by your fur baby and that special connection you share.  In fact, studies have found that animals can decrease stress in our bodies after literally only 5 minutes (and not only that, but they decrease stress more effectively than other activities, such as coloring or taking a break to relax!). For example one study, published in the Academy of Emergency Medicine in 2020 found that spending 5 minutes with a dog was able to significantly lower participants cortisol levels.

From walking your dog to playing with your cat to letting your guinea pig or bird out of his or her cage for a little play time, pets provide us precious time bonding with a heart energy field that absolutely loves you unconditionally.  To help leverage the power of connection with your fur baby to get you out of your overwhelm and into the present moment, just connect with them through one of your senses, which is what pull you back into the current moment:

watch them with your eyestake a few deep breaths smelling their scentrun your hands down their back as you pet them, feeling exactly what their fur feels like right here and right now,let them sit on your lap and feel their weight anchor youor even take a nap with them and let their energy sync to yours…

…you can only truly enjoy your pet in the present moment.  They are the sweetest little reminders that pull you back into the present moment, so use them as a touchstone often.

9.  Play

 

Play is not only a relief and a fun way to bring joy into your life, it is actually therapy. Play time is therapeutic time, point blank. Child psychologists use this healing tool often, because play is a child’s way to express and release any inner turmoil or fears that the child doesn’t even consciously know they have.

But it isn’t only therapeutic for children, it’s therapeutic for adults too.

In fact, I would argue that engaging in some form of play daily is one of the best things you can do to safeguard your physical health. And like other tips that involve your senses, you can only enjoy playing if you are actually present for it.  From physical play (whether through dance, playing a sport like golf tennis or bowling, painting, playing a musical instrument, bird watching, hiking, you name it!) to mental play (such as crossword puzzles, chess, sudoku, reading and discussing books, watching plays, learning a new language, etc…) many studies have proven there are mental and physical health benefits from time spent in play.

Play and Optimal WelfarePlay and Adult CreativityPlay in AdulthoodCurrent perspectives on the biological study of play: signs of progressThe relationship between playfulness and coping in preschool childrenUsing play and playwork with teenage parents and their childrenThe importance of play in promoting strong bondsPlaying to learn

Whether it is dusting off an old pair of rollerblades, or heading outside for a game of catch with your dog, to crafting or creating something, learning or playing an instrument, dancing to your favorite music, trying a new recipe in the kitchen, heading outside to watch the sunset, blowing bubbles in your living room, singing songs around a campfire, going on a walk, playing a pick up game at a park with friends, playing card games with your family, doing a jigsaw puzzle all week long, riding a bike, laying down to look up at cloud shapes in the daytime or twinkling stars at night, writing poems, learning how to sew, creating a scrapbook, practicing photography, and on and on and on…

…know that time you devote to playing is every bit as healthy for you (& let’s face it, probably even more healthy) than the time you spend in serious mode, tackling things like chores, work, emails, and catching up on the news.  And the best part about it is that the time you spend playing will be time you are present in the current moment.  At the end of the day, the time you spend working or stressing or in overwhelm will probably feel like a blur, and the time you spent enjoying play will be time you spent actually in your body, enjoying the current moment.

Need help remembering what brings your inner child out? Read through these different “Play Personalities” below to help you discover — or re-discover — what activities might bring you joy:

Make Time To Play Today, If You Are Stuck, Here’s How To Figure Out Your Play Style A painting I created to remind myself to stop and breathe — prints available here.

I hope some of these tips inspire you to drop out of over-thinking mode back into the present moment — and many of these ideas take only a few minutes: eating a snack, stepping outside, facing the sun, deep breathing, listening to a song, snuggling your pet.

And some are even better if you can take 10 minutes or more — and if it’s for your mental wellbeing, yes you absolutely must take 10 minutes to prioritize that, which you can do by: connecting to a loved one, going on a walk, taking time to do something playful.

Pick one to do today and pick another one to do tomorrow.  Try to do a few of these this week and see which becomes your new go-to.

Offered with much love…xoxox,Laura Konver MD

The post Can’t Stop Overthinking? 9 Easy Ways To Drop Into Your Body For Instant Relief appeared first on Intuition Physician.

A Simple Grounding Fall Meditation You Can Do Right Now To Release Pain & Stress

 

 

I’ve long been a fan of the health benefits of meditation, so I was really excited when a new medical study confirmed that mindfulness meditation significantly reduces pain, and does so in a totally unique neuropathway that is completely separate from any pain relief that is found through the placebo effect.

Turns out, meditation modifies pain brain patterns to help break you out of repetitive pain signals.

  I talk about that in this TikTok for you here: 

 

Pain Signals In The Brain Decrease During Meditation:

 

…and you can also read that study for yourself right here.

So today I want to walk you through a quick 6 minute fall healing mediation, so that if you are feeling any discomfort or pain in your body, we can reduce that, together.

Not only does meditation modify those pain signals to help you feel better, it also boosts serotonin, dopamine and GABA — essential neurotransmitters in the brain that help you feel your best.

Now for the good part… want even deeper benefits?   Add grounding.

 

 

Grounding decreases inflammation which is part of why your neurotransmitter levels are disrupted in the first place.  Inflammatory cytokines cross the blood brain barrier and decrease neurotransmitter production, decrease neuroplasticity, and increase neuroinflammation which depresses mood.

Grounding helps reverse that, by decreasing inflammation, boosting neurotransmitter levels, and naturally boosting mood.  I’ve published several articles on how grounding helps support better brain function that you can read here:

Grounding And CognitionCerebrospinal Fluid and Brain Health: Optimized By GroundingNeurological Pathways Supported By Grounding

If you want to see for yourself how your brain immediate shifts its brain wave patterns into a more relaxed and focused brain state (perfect to help deepen and facilitate a mediative state!) watch this video I made on YouTube for you here.

I used an at home brain wave monitor to help show you:

Grounding Shifts Brain Wave Patterns:

 

Brain Stress Decreases While Grounding (YouTube)

Today, just give me 6 minutes and let’s combine meditation with grounding so that you are getting a few consecutive minutes of benefit from both… as grounding and meditation are synergistic.

6 minutes is plenty long enough for grounding to provide whole body benefits… reducing your muscle tension, decreasing muscle soreness, relaxing your brain waves to make meditation easier and more therapeutic, reducing over all markers of brain stress, and boosting your vagal tone to your entire digestive tract too, which soothes the knot in your stomach and releases heartburn, indigestion, irritable bowel symptoms, and so much more.

 

 

Just click the button below and give me 6 minutes to help you feel instantly better:

 

 

 

https://intuition-physician.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/03/Fall.mp3

 

 

Easy ways to enjoy this fall meditation outside while grounding include:

Find the most beautiful fall colors on one of your favorite trees outside and sit underneath it to do this meditationTake a warm cup of apple cider or tea outside and drink it slowly while listening to this meditation.Feel the earth ease your discomfort: rate pain from 1–10, do this meditation grounded outside, and re-rateFeel the earth lift your mood: rate your mood 1–10, do this meditation grounded outside, and re-rateDo your yoga or physical therapy stretches outside immediately following the meditationFind and walk a local labyrinth barefoot as you listen to this meditationNo nearby labyrinth?  No problem.  Do a simple walking meditation on any path or sidewalk stretch — walk barefoot up and back along a small sidewalk segment, back and forth across a set of pavers, up and down a brick walkway, across a slate, stone or cement patio, etc…Make a nice fall fire in a firepit — one you may have access to or even renting an inexpensive campsite nearby for the day or night — sit outside by the fire and run through this meditation. Bonus to make a simple meal over the fire afterwards and eat it mindfully like I show you right here! 

Ready to try it?  I’ve got you.

Get grounded, get comfortable and let’s do this summer sunshine meditation together.

Here we go… My Fall Grounding Meditation:

 

https://intuition-physician.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/03/Fall.mp3

This meditation comes directly from my book The Earth Prescription, available in 4 languages right here, I’ll sign it for you!

Enjoy using meditation for a quick reboot, to break out of pain cycles and release stress from your brain.  And deepen those benefits by doing it grounded.

Ahhh… doesn’t that feel better? 

It’s amazing what taking just a few minutes to nurture your brain can do to help you feel head-to-toe, instant and profound benefits.

xoxoxo,Laura Koniver MD

The post A Simple Grounding Fall Meditation You Can Do Right Now To Release Pain & Stress appeared first on Intuition Physician.

Your Essential Fall Health Checklist: Doing Just One Of These Will Dramatically Help

 

The fall Equinox is today!

Enjoy the 24 hours where our day and night lengths are perfectly balanced, and then gah… we start sloping into longer nights and shorter days.  And for so many of us, including me, that means a dip in our mood.

Fortunately, there are lots of great things to do to get prepared as the seasons change. Of course there are things like pulling out your sweaters and boots and knitting a scarf and putting out a bird feeder for winter birds and planting a winter garden and getting the fireplace cleaned that you might look forward to this fall.

But one thing that I get every year, and absolutely never look forward to, is a drop in my energy level and mood as the days get shorter.

So today I want to share with you today my annual fall post with a collection of 12 important, personal things that I do to prepare my body now for a smooth transition through fall and into winter.

Run through these questions and ask yourself if you are ready for fall…

12 Fall Health Questions To Ask Yourself:

 

 

1. Do you have a way to stay grounded, even as it gets colder?

 

As I went over in this absolutely critical blog post on grounding to maintain your circadian rhythm right here, connecting to the earth each day, particularly around transitions such as the equinoxes and the solstices, allows your body to be oriented to the season and more seamlessly adjust to it.

The time spent grounding to the earth will refresh your body and soul. This one daily practice is probably the single best thing you can start right now to smooth your fall transition.  So make your plan now for how you can still get outside and soak in the fresh air, sunlight, and healing earth energy even as the temperature falls.  Getting outside in even the cloudy grey days for a mid-day walk is better than staying inside even under the brightest artificial lights.

Here is what you want to do — if you only do one thing on this list, make it this: go outside and stand barefoot on the earth or a sidewalk or brick or slate (or as it gets colder, keep shoes on and simply hold a leaf on a tree or a pine needle in your hands in the dark of winter) and stand facing the rising sun.  Even if it is literally only for 30 seconds.  If it can be for 5 minutes, even better

On your way to your car to get to work — stop and do it.If you have kids, do it with them as you wait for the school bus.If you can take out a cup of hot coffee or tea and drink it connected to the earth while facing the sun, do that.

You 100% will notice not only your entire day going better, but you will absolutely notice sleeping better that night… and over time, your mood, metabolism, energy level and more will get a boost that fuels you even in through the darkest parts of winter.

Even if the sun appears not to shine, your pineal gland senses the light in the environment and needs this pick-me-up to function best this fall and winter.

What if you can’t reliably get outside each morning?

 

 

If you truly can’t get outside to ground first thing each morning, then what you want to do is set up a morning grounding station where you are in front of a window that faces the morning sun, and you are grounded indoors:

Curled up on a chair, holding a organic grounded hot water bottle to your tummy as you eat your breakfast each morning.Or taking a few deep breaths and drink hot tea with feet resting an organic grounding mat in front of the window.Or doing your morning stretches in front of the window on an organic grounding yoga mat.Or snuggled up journaling, reading or even returning emails (yuck) and multitasking under an organic grounding throw blankets by the window. 

 

Create your fall and winter healing space by selecting a window you can spend a few minutes in front of each morning, and browse eco-ethically hand crafted all natural grounding tools that you can add to your space and this year your body will feel better than it’s ever felt during the winter, you’ll have more energy each day and you will sleep better each night just for adding this 5 minute healing practice to the start of your day.

If you can do that, you don’t even need to read through the rest of this list, as all the other tips come secondary to this one healing combo of morning light and grounding.

 

2. Do you make enough serotonin naturally?

 

Less daylight can mean a palpable drop in the mood boosting neurotransmitter serotonin.  If you happen to be serotonin depleted, the winter blues are more likely to hit you harder than other people.

You can address this in two ways:

One, by taking supplements that help boost your natural serotonin levels. If you get a mild case of winter blues, you likely don’t need to take prescription medications for that. Instead, you can make sure that your body is getting all it needs nutritionally in order to make its own, healthy levels of serotonin.

To do that, it needs a building block called 5-HTP. A precursor to serotonin (the positive, mood enhancing neurotransmitter that most antidepressants are targeting, in the hopes to elevate brain levels) 5HTP is a nutritional supplement that makes sure your body is getting what it needs to make serotonin as efficiently as possible.

Do not supplement with 5HTP if you are already on serotonin boosting medications — like an SSRI or SNRI antidepressant.  But if you feed your body what it needs (most of us don’t get enough of this precursor as it is) and you don’t already take any medications for depression, you can naturally boost the serotonin you’ll need to keep your spirits up as the light fades.

I have 5HTP and several other supplements that have been shown to support seasonal affective disorder in my Seasonal Mood Support Protocol right here.

 

The second way to help prevent the winter blues and boost serotonin without taking a supplement, is through light therapy. Light Therapy is medially studied to not only prevent and treat the winter blues, but it actually treats all forms of depression (and even treats fibromyalgia!).

This is a great solution if you already take anti-depressants and want to add on an additional mood boost as well as a good circadian rhythm routine, as it can complement any medications or treatments you are already on for depression without any contraindications.

My very fav, compact, therapeutic light box is clinically effective and is waiting for you right here.

 

 

 

3.  Do you have a silver barrier cloth to open doors with?

 

It’s no secret that communicable illnesses increase during the fall back-to-school time and the cold wintertime when we are most likely to spend our days indoors.  By hand washing frequently, you can decrease the amount of pathogens you pick up and transmit to yourself.But what about when we can’t wash our hands?  I am not a fan of hand sanitizers, and you can read an article I wrote for you here on why. Instead, I prefer a physical barrier between my hands and commonly used surfaces, such as door knobs and key pads.So I carry a silver handkerchief and I actually clip it to my purse so I always have it on me when I step out the door.  You can do the same for your backpack, brief case, an extra one to keep in your glove box, and another one to slip easily into your pocket.  You can check them out here.

There have been many medical studies over the years that show the antimicrobial properties of silver, like these:

Application of Silver for the Prevention of Infection in Healthcare Workers  History of the Medical Use of SilverAntimicrobial activities of silver dressingsA review of the antibacterial effects of silverSilver nanoparticles as antimicrobial agentAntiviral activity of silver against H1N1 influenza A virusColloidal silver and its antimicrobial effect on Staphylococcus aureusNanosilver particles in medical applicationsSilver nanoparticles: therapeutic applicationsMode of antiviral action of silver nanoparticles against HIV-1Efficient and quick inactivation of SARS coronavirus and other microbesSliver fabric lowers zeta potential and eradicates coronavirus infectivity upon contact. So we can use the natural antibacterial properties of silver to keep a healthy barrier between us and commonly used surfaces during the cold and flu season — simply hold it in your hand to open doors, push shopping carts, wipe down your phone, wipe down your hands — I like to wrap mine around my finger before pushing buttons on the keypads at stores, ATMs, gas stations and more.

Watch this video on YouTube to see how I use my silver cloth countless times every single day:

If you prefer TikTok, you can watch the same video right here:

If you’d like to use one too, you can find these silver barrier cloths right here.  Of course, you can also have other personal care items made with silver, to boost their antimicrobial properties too.  Things like silver fabric face masks to wear over your nose and mouth if needed, silver gloves to wear on your hands, a silver infinity scarf to have at the ready when you go out and about, even silver socks, t-shirts, and underwear if you want!

 

 

4. Are you sleeping enough?

 

This winter, please please allow yourself to re-connect to the natural rhythm of the earth and sleep longer when nights are longer.  It’s really important to use winter as a time of repair — this is a time to go inward, deeply reset your health, focus on good sleep, good nutrition (like bone broth soups and stews) and emerge this coming spring in your best health yet.

In these days of bright artificial lights and TV channels that blast shows 24 hours a day and smartphones that beckon us around the clock, it feels like there isn’t much difference between the middle of the night and the middle of the day.  But there is. To your body, to your pineal gland, your hormones, your muscles, your brain… the difference between night and day is iron clad. You are meant to sleep at night, and you are meant to sleep longer in the fall and winter months.

Allow your body to get an extra hour of sleep each night during the winter… at least give it a try this week: vow to sleep an extra hour each night this week and see if your mood, energy level, eating habits, activity level and joy all get a boost!

One way to do this is to lower your EMF exposures in your bedroom at night, as EMFs have a direct effect on your brain — for more on that read this article I wrote for you here.  

How to decrease EMFs during sleep?  Start by following any of the tons of health tips on protecting yourself from EMFs that I wrote for you in here. And if you are going to scroll on your phone or watch TV at night, I highly suggest wearing blue light blocking glasses starting 2 hours before bedtime, if you absolutely need to be on a device to unwind.

Low in serotonin (tip #2, above)?  Then you are likely low in melatonin.  That’s why even if you feel tired and depressed with the winter blues, you still may struggle to sleep well.  This is because melatonin is actually made from serotonin… so folks who are low serotonin are generally low melatonin, and these levels dip in the winter because of the shorter days.

So you guessed it — just as serotonin can dip in the winter, adding to the winter blues, your melatonin levels can dip too, wreaking havoc on your nightly rhythm. Even though the darkness makes you feel more tired and ready to turn in earlier, oddly enough you may find sleep elusive just when you crave it most.

While 5 HTP may helps boost daytime serotonin, at night you can take melatonin, as the sun sets, to boost your nighttime levels of melatonin. Taking melatonin in the fall when the days grow shorter (and you can combine this with using the light therapy box in the mornings and starting your day off with grounding, as we discussed above!) will help your body re-set to its natural circadian rhythm once winter peaks.

Sleeping well at night is an easy way to feel brighter during the day, beating those winter blues.  My favorite melatonin as well as tons of other suggestions on improving sleep are waiting for you right here in my Sleep Restore Protocol.

5. Do you need to detox?

 

Like I do every year when the earth begins to transition to cooler temps, leaves changing and shedding and the earth diving inwards for renewal, I have a natural urge to dive deeper and detox my own body, from the inside out. There are a million ways to do this… strict raw food diets and prolonged fasting and colonics and a ton of wonderful different ways to feel like you are entering fall by shedding the old and rebuilding a new you.

For me, I go with a very easy and very simple detox.  I’m literally aching to do my gentle 5 day detox again, like I do every fall… and this year I’m giving it to you my detox routine totally free as an instant download, right here.  

Take 5 days to reset your body for the fall.  The earth is getting cooler, the days are getting shorter, and our bodies are going inwards for a period of renewal.  So my Free Gentle Restart Detox, here I come.  It’s time.

 

 

 

6. Are your magnesium levels good (i.e. are you pooping enough? Are your muscles tense?)

 

Many of us are magnesium deficient and we don’t even know it.  Magnesium is absolutely essential to 300+ different biochemical reactions in our body, like muscle function, nerve function, maintaining healthy blood pressure, blood sugar levels and more.

Without enough magnesium, we can have muscle pain, irritability, insomnia, constipation and even heart arrhythmias.  So ask yourself… are your muscles tight?  Do you feel anxious or have trouble relaxing into sleep? Are you constipated?  If so, consider boosting your magnesium intake.

Magnesium is a natural muscle relaxant, so taking a magnesium supplement at night is one of my favorite recommendations for anyone with difficulty relaxing due to muscle tension or soreness, such as issues with tension headaches, fibromyalgia, grinding teeth at night, TMJ, etc….  so this is why I have magnesium supplementation included in my Sleep Restore Protocol. You can also soak in a nightly bath filled with magnesium rich Epsom salts, which will relax your muscles before bed and is a great treatment for restless leg syndrome, tooth grinding at night, and other issues with muscle tension such as fibromyalgia.

 

If you are constipated, I would recommend taking magnesium internally, not just topically through baths, because it will naturally help loosen your bowels. My favorite way to do this is to drink a magnesium drink before bedtime (I like to drink mine in hot water, sipping on it like a nightly tea!) to help relax your body, loosen your muscles, soften stools, deepen sleep, and create a lovely evening ritual all fall and all winter long. That’s why I have included a magnesium drink in my Sleep Restore protocol here too.

It’s normal for everything to slow down in the winter, so if your bowels are feeling full of rich and hearty winter meals and you are feeling dense inside, you can also up your water intake, take tons of healthy Omega 3 algae or flax seed oil, eat a prune a day and ground on the earth each day to help restore your daily digestive rhythms. But if that’s not enough, upping your magnesium intake will absolutely help!

 

7. Do you get enough Vitamin D?

 

Yes, you will get some Vit D when you go outside to get grounded each day… but most of us are deficient in Vit D even during the summer, so nearly ALL of us fall deficient in the winter. Not only is Vit D a powerful antioxidant, it prevents cancer, stroke, heart disease, boosts weight loss, decreases pain… you name it… we need it. Vitamin D needs to be emulsified for best absorption, which means if you are getting Vitamin D through a multivitamin that is a dry capsule or tablet or pill, it’s not getting well absorbed and you might find that your Vitamin D levels are not improving.

My favorite are Carlson’s Solar D Gems, found in my Seasonal Mood Support Protocol in my trusted online dispensary here.

I love these the most because they are in an emulsified liquid capsule, so time and time again, when a patient comes to me with Vit D levels that are low despite supplementation with other brands, when we switch to the Solar D Gems, the levels return to normal. Woot!

 

8. Are you drinking just as much water in the winter as you do in the summer?

 

Hopefully you’ve kept yourself well hydrated during the summer, when hot temperatures and sweating drive us to remember to drink water more than at any other time of the year. But in the cooler temps, ones in which you are shivering, not sweating… it’s more important than ever before to hydrate, hydrate, hydrate.

Dry heated air, dry cold outside air, wind chapping our lips, and no internal drive to remind us to drink leads to mid-winter dehydration, brain fog, and a sure-fire road to BLAH. You can get so dehydrated that you actually feel semi-nauseous all the time and a bit depressed.

Drink water and then drink some more… and start right now.  I’ve got lots of articles on tips to help you stay hydrated, you can start with this one right here: Do You Have Any Of These 10 Symptoms Of Silent Dehydration Right Now? What To Do If The Answer Is Yes

 

9. Are you allowing yourself gain a pound or two?

 

You might be an enlightened buddha thriving off the energy of the universe, but your body is an organic, human thing that is connected to the physical earth and responds to the rhythms of the seasons and needs nourishment. So every winter it is normal to slow down and allow a few extra pounds to sustain and warm you.

It is like-wise just as effortless and natural to lose several pounds in the spring as the world awakens and we are drawn to more physical labor such as preparing garden beds, trimming the lawn, spring cleaning our homes, and walking barefoot on the beach. If we don’t attach all the typical BS to our weight that we usually do, the few pounds that warm us in the winter will be shed without a second thought in the spring. This is the natural rhythm of the world all around you.  The first half of winter, while food is still plenty and days grow darker, are a time to allow yourself to find nourishment in foods and warmth under your blankets, eating more and sleeping longer.

In a few months, as the pantry empties out and the holiday parties are long gone, there will be a natural thinning time, a time when the days become noticeably longer and your thoughts turn to the fresh spring salads that will be popping up in your garden.  It is only when we attach a negative meaning to our weight that adds to the heaviness and permanency and bulk to it… and these pounds become a part of how we see ourselves forever. We get locked into battle with them and they fight to stay and add and grow, year after year after year.  As a result, most people tend to gain a few pounds a year (despite being locked in constant battle and fighting against it the entire time) and accrue this mass permanently, instead of easily gaining and losing a few pounds with the seasons. It just shows that fighting weight isn’t the way to go.

If we dropped all our mental baggage around this rhythm, a rhythm of ebb and flow, of nourishment and lean times, of seasons, we would not gain weight year after year after year, instead we would gain and release. It’s only our society that fears weight gain that makes it almost *impossible* to drop the pounds without thinking twice about it late winter and early spring. Now is not the time to allow our culture’s baggage to taint what should be a natural time of celebration, stocking up, and preparing for the winter ahead. If you welcome this seasonal change with gratitude, you will be healthier for it.  For more guidance on dropping your resistance to a seasonal weight gain, you might want to start with this article I wrote for you on how having a few extra pounds can offer a survival advantage:

Yet Another Study Showing That Overweight Is Healthier Than Underweight

Focusing on what you do eat (as opposed to restricting food) is a great approach in winter.  You can arm yourself with some knowledge on the best party foods to reach for at holiday events, as well as ways to work with your own unique food cravings, in this article I wrote for you here:

The Healthiest Party Foods To Eat + Navigating Your Specific Food Cravings  

 

10. Are you getting enough Omega 3 fatty acids from plant based sources?

 

I’ve already blogged a bit about how Omega 3’s can:

effectively treat ADHDsave your brain from atrophying (and decrease your dementia risk!)stabilize your mood so much that it can literally prevent psychosishelp relieve constipationdecrease prostate cancer riskprevent a fatal heart attack.and even cut your risk of diabetic retinopathy in half!

Winter means everything from a permanent brain fog to dry tight skin. Omega 3 fatty acids support brain function, digestion, circulation and skin… all things that we need help with in the winter.

I’ve been asked about a recent study that suggesting fish oil may not be a good thing for those with cardiovascular disease (you can read that here) but please note that this is because it specifically studied fish oil — which of course the vast majority of fish oil supplements on the market are full of heavy metals and other contaminants that counterbalance the benefit of the Omega 3 fatty acids.

Omega 3 fatty acids are the most commonly prescribed supplements on the planet, for good reason, and yes these healthy fats are good even for your cardiovascular system.  The key is that it is the Omega 3 fatty acid levels in the bloodstream that is cardio-protective, and contaminated fish oil supplements that are not.

Studies that include plant based sources of Omega 3 Fatty Acids find benefit, for example, the meta analysis looking at data that included plant sources of Omega 3s in over 45,000 participants in 16 different countries: Australia, Costa Rica, Finland, France, Germany, Ireland, Israel, Italy, Norway, Russia, Singapore, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, the United Kingdom, and the United States, in both men and women (63% male, 37% female) and all ages (18 to 97) found that Omega 3 fatty acids correlated to a significantly lower risk of death from a cardiovascular event, and the results were shown to be dose dependent, meaning that every standard-deviation increase in levels of DPA, EPA, DHA and ALA (all Omega 3 fatty acids) lowered the risk of a death from a heart attack in a dose dependent fashion. These findings compliment earlier studies that show that Omega 3 fatty acids stabilize heart membranes and reduce the risk of ventricular fibrillation.

Ideally, the best way to boost your Omega 3s is to include lots of dietary Omega 3 fatty acid sources in the food you eat, from plant based sources like seaweed, walnuts, flaxseed, olive oil and coconut oils.  And if you do take Omega 3 supplements that are made from fish oil, unless your fish oil is pharmacy grade, exceptionally pure, and routinely rigorously tested for contaminants, then my recommendation is to switch to algae oil or flax seed oil supplements to get your Omega 3s.

That’s why I have my favorite algae omega 3 supplement listed in my Seasonal Mood Support Protocol right here.

 

11. Is your skin prepared for the winter ahead?

 

Winter can be a tough time for anybody’s skin… painfully dry hands and cracked heels galore (ouch!). Dry heated air dehydrates and cracks your vulnerable skin while you are inside staying warm, and combine that with whipping cold winds that chaff skin when you are outside and winter is just no fun on your skin, especially if you suffer from chronic skin conditions such as psoriasis, eczema or other forms of dermatitis.

Drinking twice as much water as usual will absolutely help from the inside out… but if you have specific trouble spots you might want a topical barrier cream to apply directly on a daily basis for protection.  And luckily, if you like the barrier protection of petroleum jelly but don’t want petroleum by-products anywhere near your body, it’s super easy to make your own!

So today I want to share with you the recipe I whip up each winter to use on our poor cracked hands and feet.

Homemade (Un)Petroleum Jelly.

1/4 cup Beeswax Pellets 1 cup Olive Oil

Melt together over very low heat in a saucepan or double broiler… once well combined, pour into a jar or recycled container and allow to cool for 30 minutes. I keep a jar by my bedside and by my kitchen sink to us on my winter cracked hands and heels.

 

12. Are you feeling burnt out?

 

Fall is the perfect time to turn inwards, nurture your adrenal glands, boost your internal energy reserves, and emerge this spring feeling better than you may have felt in many many years.  It’s okay to take these upcoming months slower, to tend to our inner needs more, and to make sure we are getting lots and lots of sleep. It’s not only okay, it’s what we are *supposed* to be doing.

It’s like Mother Nature hand carved these months out for you to repair your adrenal glands and nurture your energy reserves so you can emerge this spring feeling triumphantly energetic!  Repairing your adrenal glands is actually the easiest to do in the fall and winter.

It’s easier to sleep longer with the days getting shorter, easier to prepare and eat warm foods like soup, roasts, stews, etc… rich with fat, protein and salt (all absolutely crucial when repairing your adrenals) and easier to cocoon in and nurture your body, with less exertion and more repair.

Emerge this spring feeling better than you have felt in many many years!  Ready to eat lighter, sleep stronger, lose weight, move your body more. To help, I am sharing my Adrenal Repair Book with you for free, right here.  In it I have tons of uplifting, actionable things you can do right now to address adrenal fatigue.

A nice combo to do is start with my free 5 day detox plan and then move on to the free adrenal repair book immediately following the detox — this is an amazing way to head into the winter months feeling your absolute best, with several weeks of absolutely free holistic health support from me:

Free 5 Day Detox Plan — download it hereFree Adrenal Repair eBook — download it here

 

Let’s get you feeling better than ever… and enjoying this cooler weather and the beautiful fall colors that surround us.

I’ll be here for you all the way through it!

xoxo,Laura Koniver MD

The post Your Essential Fall Health Checklist: Doing Just One Of These Will Dramatically Help appeared first on Intuition Physician.

The Many Grounding Benefits That Build Over Time: A Complete Review

 

 

I get asked all the time if there is any time too short to get grounded….  to that I say no.

Grounding is as instantaneous as flipping on a light switch. When you turn on a light, the entire room is illuminated — that’s what happens when one cell in your body becomes grounded: your entire body is grounded. Because your body is instantly grounded at first contact, there is really no time too little for grounding.  Muscles instantaneously decrease in tension, the brain immediately shifts into more healing brainwave patterns, and our autonomic nervous system gets immediate support.  So I never want you to miss an opportunity to be grounded just because it’s might only be for 30 seconds while you stop at a street crossing, or lean against a tree while you take a break on a hike, or pull a weed from your garden.

I get asked all the time if there is any amount of time too long to get grounded… to that I also say no.

Until we invented plastics just over a hundred years ago, and just like it is natural for all plants and animals living on this earth, it’s a natural thing to be grounded 24/7.  The body starts functioning optimally as all of our organ systems get supported better, and we shift out of fight-and-flight into rest-and-digest mode.  There is no amount of time too long to spend in an optimal healing state.  So just as no time is too short (you are grounded in less than a millisecond) you stay grounded as long as you have contact with the earth outside or an indoor grounding tool, even if hours and hours have gone by.

 

 

So today I created a list of medical studies you can directly read in the medical literature for more details on what the immediate benefits of grounding is, and how the build over time.  These are not all the studies on grounding there are — it’s a select few that highlight some of the important benefits of grounding and I put them in order of how long each study had the participants grounded.

At the end of this list of studies I also include a video I made for you running through these benefits (in case you’d rather hear me walk you through these studies instead of print them out and read them) and I also include a video I made on the longer term benefits that I believe are likely — the longevity benefits — for those that make grounding a lifelong habit.

Here we go!

Grounding Benefits Over Time:

 

 

 

In Seconds:

 

Cohesion with Schumann Resonance 

Michael P, Saroka KS. “Human quantitative electroencephalographic and schumann resonance exhibit real-time coherence of spectral power densities: Implications for interactive information processing.” J Signal Inform Process. 2015;06(02):153-64.Cherry NJ. Human intelligence: The brain, an electromagnetic system synchronised by the Schumann resonance signal. Med Hypotheses. 2003;60(6):843-4.

Boosted Healing Brain Wave Patterns

Zahari ZL, Mustafa M, Rahman NAB, Abdubrani R, Zain MZ. An effectiveness of EEG signal based on body earthing application. Int J Adv Sci Eng Inform Technol. 2023;12(2022):2322-6.

Decreased Muscle Tension

Chevalier G, Mori K, Oschman JL. The effect of Earthing (grounding) on human physiology. European Biology and Bioelectromagnetics. 2006;2(1):600–621

Boosted Skin Perfusion

Koniver Laura, Grounding and Skin Repair: The Power of DC Energy. Curr Res Cmpl Alt Med. 2023; 7: 197.In Minutes:

 

Improved Vagal Tone

RA Passie, KK Doheny, YB Gordin, HC Hinssen, CA Palmer Electrical grounding improves vagal tone in preterm infants Neonatol, 112 (2) (2017), pp. 187-192

Boosted Heart Rate Variability

G Chevalier, ST. Sinatra Emotional stress, heart rate variability, grounding, and improved autonomic tone: clinical applications Integr Med, 10 (2011), p. 3

Improved Mood

Chevalier G. The effect of grounding the human body on mood. Psychol Rep. 2015;116(2):534-42.

Decreased Blood Viscosity

G Chevalier, ST Sinatra, JL Oschman, RM. Delany Earthing (grounding) the human body reduces blood viscosity—a major factor in cardiovascular disease J Altern Complement Med, 19 (2) (2013), pp. 102-110Brown, Richard and Chevalier, Gaétan (2015) Grounding the Human Body during Yoga Exercise with a Grounded Yoga Mat Reduces Blood Viscosity. Open Journal of Preventive Medicine, 05 (04). pp. 159-168. ISSN 2162-2477

Lowered Muscle Damage

P Sokal, Z Jastrzębski, E Jaskulska, K Sokal, M Jastrzębska, L Radzimiński, et al. Differences in blood urea and creatinine concentrations in earthed and unearthed subjects during cycling exercise and recovery Evid Based Complement Alternat Med, 2013 (2013), p. 382643

Cardioprotection

Elhalel, G., Price, C., Fixler, D. et al. Cardioprotection from stress conditions by weak magnetic fields in the Schumann Resonance band. Sci Rep 9, 1645 (2019). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-018-36... Hours:

 

Decreased Muscle Soreness

Brown D, Chevalier G, Hill M. Pilot study on the effect of grounding on delayed-onset muscle soreness. J Altern Complement Med. 2010;16(3):265- 73.

Boosted Blood Flow

Chevalier, G. , Melvin, G. and Barsotti, T. (2015) One-Hour Contact with the Earth’s Surface (Grounding) Improves Inflammation and Blood Flow—A Randomized, Double-Blind, Pilot Study. Health, 7, 1022-1059.

Decreased Inflammation

Oschman JL, Illnesses in technologically advanced societies due to lack of grounding (earthing), Biomedical Journal, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.bj.2022.10.004

Improved Digestion

Koniver, Laura. Grounding and the Gut-Brain Axis: A Review of Emerging Mechanisms and Health Implications. J Med -Clin Res & Rev. 2025; 9(7): 1-4

In Days:

 

Improved Wound Healing

Shaner S, Savelyeva A, Kvartuh A, Jedrusik N, Matter L, Leal J, Asplund M. Bioelectronic microfluidic wound healing: a platform for investigating direct current stimulation of injured cell collectives. Lab Chip. 2023 Mar 14;23(6):1531-1546. doi: 10.1039/d2lc01045c. PMID: 36723025; PMCID: PMC10013350.

Improved Sleep

M Ghaly, D Teplitz The biologic effects of grounding the human body during sleep as measured by cortisol levels and subjective reporting of sleep, pain, and stress J Alternative Compl Med, 10 (5) (2004), pp. 767-776

Lower Cortisol

M Ghaly, D Teplitz The biologic effects of grounding the human body during sleep as measured by cortisol levels and subjective reporting of sleep, pain, and stress J Alternative Compl Med, 10 (5) (2004), pp. 767-776

Improved Recovery

Müller E, Pröller P, Ferreira-Briza F, Aglas L, Stöggl T. Effectiveness of grounded sleeping on recovery after intensive eccentric muscle loading. Front Physiol. 2019;10:35.D Brown, G Chevalier, M. Hill Pilot study on the effect of grounding on delayed-onset muscle soreness J Altern Complement Med, 16 (3) (2010), pp. 265-273Brown R, Chevalier G, Hill M. Grounding after moderate eccentric contractions reduces muscle damage. Open Access J Sports Med. 2015 Sep 21;6:305-17. doi: 10.2147/OAJSM.S87970. PMID: 26443876; PMCID: PMC4590684.

Boosted Immune Function

Mousa HA-L, Prevention and treatment of COVID-19 infection by earthing, Biomedical Journal, https://doi.org/ 10.1016/j.bj.2022.08.002In Weeks:

 

Anti-Aging Benefits

Koniver, Laura, Grounding: An Anti-Aging Breakthrough? Trends Gen Med. 2024; 2(3): 1-7.

Koniver, Laura. Grounding as a Potential Modality for Protecting Stem Cell Reserve During Aging. Stem Cells Regen Med. 2025; 9(3): 1-4.

Improved Sleep Quality

Lin CH, Tseng ST, Chuang YC, Kuo CE, Chen NC. Grounding the body improves sleep quality in patients with mild Alzheimer’s disease: A pilot study. Healthcare. 2022;10(3):581.

Dereased Anxiety

Koniver, Laura. Grounding To Treat Anxiety. Medical Research Archives, [S.l.], v. 12, n. 12, dec. 2024. ISSN 2375-1924.Park H-J, Jeong W, Yu HJ, Ye M, Hong Y, Kim M, et al. The effect of earthing mat on stress-induced anxiety-like behavior and neuroendocrine changes in the rat. Biomedicines. 2023;11(1):57.

Cognitive Benefits

Koniver, Laura, Could Grounding Improve Cognition? Curr Res Cmpl Alt Med. 2024; 8: 252. DOI: 10.29011/2577-2201.100252

Decreased Brain Stress Levels

Taehun Kim, Dae Yun Seo, Jun Hyun Bae, and Jin Han  Barefoot walking improves cognitive ability in adolescents Korean J Physiol Pharmacol 2024; 28(4): 295-302

Improved Circadian Rhythm

Koniver, Laura. The Earth’s Role in Circadian Regulation: Grounding to Set Daily Cortisol Pattern. J Med – Clin Res & Rev. 2025; 9(8): 1-4.Oschman JL. Perspective: Assume a spherical cow: the role of free or mobile electrons in bodywork, energetic and movement therapies. J Bodyw Mov Ther 2008;12:40e57.Martel J et al., Influence of electromagnetic fields on the circadian rhythm: Implications for human health and disease, Biomedical Journal, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.bj.2023.01.003

Decreased Inflammation

Chevalier, G., Patel, S., Weiss, L., Pruitt, C., Henry, B., Chopra, D. and Mills, P.J. (2018) Effects of Grounding (Earthing) on Massage Therapists: An Exploratory Study. Health, 10, 228-250.Sinatra ST et al., Grounding, The universal anti-inflammatory remedy, Biomedical Journal, https://doi.org/ 10.1016/j.bj.2022.12.002

Improved Energy Levels

Chevalier G, Patel S, Weiss L, Chopra D, Mills PJ. The Effects of Grounding (Earthing) on Bodyworkers’ Pain and Overall Quality of Life: A Randomized Controlled Trial. Explore (NY). 2019 May-Jun;15(3):181-190. doi: 10.1016/j.explore.2018.10.001. Epub 2018 Oct 11. PMID: 30448083.

Lowered Blood Pressure

Elkin HK, Winter A. Grounding Patients With Hypertension Improves Blood Pressure: A Case History Series Study. Altern Ther Health Med. 2018 Nov;24(6):46-50. PMID: 30982019.Even Longer Term Benefits:

 

Sinatra ST, Oschman JL, Chevalier G, Sinatra D. Electric Nutrition: The Surprising Health and Healing Benefits of Biological Grounding (Earthing). Altern Ther Health Med. 2017 Sep;23(5):8-16. PMID: 28987038.Oschman J, Chevalier G, Brown R. The effects of grounding (earthing) on inflammation, the immune response, wound healing, and prevention and treatment of chronic inflammatory and autoimmune diseases. J Inflamm Res. 2015;8:83-96Chevalier, Gaétan, Sinatra, Stephen T., Oschman, James L., Sokal, Karol, Sokal, Pawel, Earthing: Health Implications of Reconnecting the Human Body to the Earth′s Surface Electrons, Journal of Environmental and Public Health, 2012, 291541, 8 pages, 2012.Koniver, Laura, Grounding: An Anti-Aging Breakthrough? Trends Gen Med. 2024; 2(3): 1-7.Koniver, Laura, Cerebrospinal Fluid and Brain Health: Optimized By Grounding. American J Neurol Res. 2023; 2(1):1-4.Koniver Laura, Neurological Pathways Supported by Grounding. Open J Neurol Neurosci. 2023; 1(1): 1002Martel J, Ojcius DM, Is a return to nature a piece of the health puzzle?, Biomedical Journal, https://doi.org/ 10.1016/j.bj.2023.02.002Oschman JL, Illnesses in technologically advanced societies due to lack of grounding (earthing), Biomedical Journal, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.bj.2022.10.... Menigoz, Tracy T. Latz, Robin A. Ely, Cimone Kamei, Gregory Melvin, Drew Sinatra,Integrative and lifestyle medicine strategies should include Earthing (grounding): Review of research evidence and clinical observations, EXPLORE, Volume 16, Issue 3, 2020, Pages 152-160, ISSN 1550-8307,Gae ́tan Chevalier, Stephen T. Sinatra, James L. Oschman, Karol Sokal, and Pawel Sokal  Earthing: Health Implications of Reconnecting the Human Body to the Earth’s Surface Electrons Journal of Environmental and Public Health Volume 2012, Article ID 291541, 8 pages doi:10.1155/2012/291541Paweł Sokal, Karol Sokal, The neuromodulative role of earthing, Medical Hypotheses, Volume 77, Issue 5, 2011, Pages 824-826, ISSN 0306-9877, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.mehy.2011.0....

 

 

Don’t feel like reading those studies directly?

 

If you still want more details about this topic but don’t want to read each study yourself, you don’t have to.  Let me run you through the grounding benefits that accrue over time in this video right now:

 

How Quickly Does Grounding Start To Work:

(watch on YouTube here)

 

 

What if you ground for years?

 

Want to look ahead to how longer amounts of time may benefit your health, over months and years?  Here are some of the reasons long term grounding could be anti-aging:

 

Grounding: An Anti-Aging Breakthrough?

(watch on YouTube here)

 

 

After seeing the immense benefits of grounding shown in the past 50 years of medical studies, you may want to consider making grounding part of your daily health routines, like brushing your teeth and drinking water and wearing a seatbelt.

I highly encourage you to.

For long term grounding, an indoor grounding tool may be helpful.  There is only one place on earth to get eco-ethically hand crafted, all natural and organic grounding tools made right here in the USA and it’s in my grounding boutique.  

Custom made, individually hand sewn, boutique quality grounding tools made locally using eco friendly, environmentally conscious materials like hemp and organic cotton, and superior quality conductive elements like stainless steel, so they are the longest lasting, most eco-friendly and non-toxic grounding tools on the planet, even shipped with non-toxic, biodegradable packaging.

I also have lots of outdoor grounding solutions for you too — in case you want to stay grounded directly to the earth outside in the winter instead of using indoor grounding tools — options like grounding hiking sticks, grounding canes, grounding shoe stickers, grounding gloves and so much more!

 

 

I hope you found this free healing newsletter uplifting and supportive to your health, and I hope you share it freely.  If someone forwarded this newsletter to you, you can sign up to get my weekly free holistic healing newsletter so you don’t miss any of this supportive, healing content right here:

 

xoxox,Laura Koniver MD

 

The post The Many Grounding Benefits That Build Over Time: A Complete Review appeared first on Intuition Physician.

Aging From Inflammation Is Totally Optional. Here’s Why & How You Can Reverse It

 

 

More evidence than ever shows that inflammation is not driven by biological age, but rather our lifestyle and environemental factors.  As I’ve talked about extensively on my blog right here, biological aging can be simplified down to a balance between inflammation that accrues over a lifetime vs. your body’s stem cell regeneration.

Organ damage as a result of accrued inflammation is something that we associate so strongly with aging that it’s now called “Inflammaging” — depicted in the graphic below.  But while inflammation does drive damage to our organ systems and decreases our body’s ability to repair and renew our body’s tissue, it’s actually optional.    This inflammatory process is not time dependent, and it’s not tied with our chronological age.

 

 

That’s because instead of inflammation being related to how long we’ve lived, it’s actually related to living in an industrialized environment.

A new study, just published in Nature Aging in June 2025, found that it’s actually specific inflammatory cytokines — the ones we associate with “aging” in industrialized countries — that drive the tissue damage to our organ systems and these cytokines are not found in non-industrialized countries, no matter how old the citizens were.  The accumulation of these inflammatory cytokines were not linked in any way to the chronological age of the participants studied.

What did I love when I read this medical study?

I loved that the exact inflammatory cytokines that researchers found that increased organ damage and accrue in industrialized countries are the exact same inflammatory cytokines that grounding reduces.  In fact, it makes obvious sense why non-industrialized countries, where folks are not cut off and distanced from the healing properties of the earth like folks in more industrialized areas are, aren’t having those inflammatory cytokines rise in proportion to their age.

I recorded a quick video today to help explain this study to you, and to give you a list of things you can do to — of course grounding being one of the most powerful — to make “Inflammaging” totally optional.  And to read the abstract of the original study yourself, just hop over here.

On YouTube:

Inflammation Does Not Need To Accrue With Age (YouTube)

 

On TikTok:

Inflammation Isn’t Necessary With Aging (TikTok)

 

@laurakonivermd “Inflammaging” is optional #laurakonivermd #intuitionphysician #longevity #aging #inflammation ♬ original sound – Laura Koniver, MD

The anti-aging benefits of grounding, in a nutshell:

 

 

Anti-Aging Benefit #1: Grounding Lowers Inflammatory Cytokines

 

In this important study, published January 2019 in Frontiers in Physiology, researchers found that cytokines such as such as IP-10, MIP-1α, and sP-Selectin, all decreased in grounded subjects, compared to non-grounded controls. The average drop induced by grounding a patient was a 10 – 20% drop in cytokine concentration.  Now we know that if we reduce these exact inflammatory cytokines, we reduce organ damage and diseases typically associated with aging in industrialized countries.

 

 

Anti-Aging Benefit #2:  Grounding Protects Muscles

 

In 2010 this study, published in the Journal of Alternative and Complimentary Medicine, was a double-blinded placebo-controlled study found that when participants were grounded doing an exertion challenge, the grounded subject recovered faster, had lower pain levels, and had significantly lower blood cortisol levels (which means the grounded patients were less stressed from the exercise challenge), and significantly lower creatine kinase levels (in other words, less muscle damage.)In this 2015 study, published in the Journal of Sports Medicine , researchers had participants complete 200 deep knee bends then followed this exercise challenge with 4 hours grounding or 4 hours of sham grounding.  They found that the grounded subjects creatine kinase did not increase while the ungrounded subjects had significantly increased creatine kinase — this suggested that grounding may have prevented muscle injury entirely.In this 2015 study, published in the Journal of Preventive Medicine, subjects were either grounded or sham grounded during a yoga challenge of 10 rigorous poses repeated 5 times for an entire hour.  Grounding subjects had significantly improved blood flow, with decreased blood viscosity, compared to non-grounded subjectsIn this 2019 study, published in Frontiers in Physiology, test subjects completed a downhill treadmill challenge to induce long term soreness and complete muscular exhaustion, then half of them slept grounded and the other half were sham grounded. Researchers found that grounding  improved recovery significantly — by day 10 the level of creatine kinase in grounded subjects was half that of the ungrounded subjects.

 

 

 

Anti-Aging Benefit #3:  Grounding Lowers Whole Body Inflammation

 

C-reactive protein levels (a blood marker of whole body inflammation) Grounding studies like this one, published in 2015 in the Journal of Inflammation Research found an almost 60% drop in CRP after 4 days of grounding compared to non-grounded test subjects.  Anecdotally I have seen a 30% decrease in CRP after 10 weeks of just 15 min of daily grounding. One side benefit of less inflammation is less pain = less polypharmacy.  Adverse drug interactions are 4th leading cause of death in USA — every 5 min someone dies from drug interactions.  If a patient is on 5 meds or more, there is a 58% chance of an adverse drug reaction — if they are on 7 or more medications, the chance of an adverse drug reaction is 82%. You can read more about that (and watch a video of me talking you through what to do to prevent this) in a free article I wrote for you here: The Fourth Leading Cause of Death: Your Medicine Cabinet

 

 

Anti-Aging Benefit #4: Grounding May Protect Bone Density

 

In this 2011 study, published in the Journal of Alternative and Complimentary Medicine, researchers had test subjects sleep overnight (7 hours) grounding vs. sham grounded subjects, and they found reduced renal excretion of calcium and phosphates, as well as lowered serum concentrations of both, which suggests less leaching of these minerals from bone.  This indicates that these minerals remain stored in the skeletal “bone bank.”  This suggests that the primary indicators of osteopenia and osteoporosis went down after just a single night of grounding!  Longer terms studies are definitely needed and I can’t wait to share those results with you.

 

 

 

Anti-Aging Benefit #5: Grounding Reduces Cortisol

 

In this study, published in 2004 in the Journal of Alternative and Complimentary Medicine, subjects who slept grounded at night had a complete normalization of their cortisol patterns, suggesting deep recovery from stress.   They also had such a dramatic improvement in their sleep that they reported significantly improved sleep and they subjectively felt less stressed and experienced less pain verse ungrounded subjects.

 

 

Anti-Aging Benefit #6: Grounding Improves Mental Clarity

 

I would be so excited to see long term studies of grounding and how that impacts dementia risk, as neruoinflammation is the primary cause of brain aging, and as we talked about already, grounding decreases inflammation throughout the entire body.  And besides this, we already know that grounding (touching) the earth outside immediately impacts our brains.  

This fantastic medical study, published in 2018, documents the brain wave shifts that happen near instantaneously –within milliseconds — recorded via an EEG (electroencephalogram) when the human body is grounded.Our cerebrospinal fluid, a highly conductive fluid that saturates and protects our brains, is easily grounded and may also contribute to grounding’s instantaneous effect on brain function.  I published an article on this in 2023 in the American Journal of Neurology Research which you can read here. This study, published in 2015 in Psychology Reports, found a statistically significant boost to mood in participants who were grounded for 40 minutes, compared to controls who were sham grounded.  The non-grounded participants had no significant improvement in mood.Why?  Here are my thoughts on it, which I published in 2023 in the Journal of Neurology and Neuroscience.  It’s been suggested that the Schumann Resonance acts as a globally available synchronization system to our brains (in articles like this one, published in 2003 in Medical Hypotheses.)So in 2015, researchers used EEGs and Schuman Resonance frequencies to see if there was any interaction between our human brains and the earth’s energy output.  Published in the Journal Of Signal and Information Processing, these scientists found that electrical activity from the earth makes a measurable synchronization in our cerebral cortex that allows for real-time coupling between the Schumann resonance and cerebral activity. The researchers postulate this activity is the exact amount of time, length of time, amplitude of signaling, and frequency of time required for a “ping” from the planet to our human brains to occur.Even more exciting, the highest cohesion between the earth’s Schumnn Resonance and our human brains is in the parahippocampal gyrus of the brain’s cerebral cortex — this in an area of the brain that provides spatial awareness and navigation.  Research into the parahippocampal gyrus of the brainutilizing fMRI has found that brain damage to that area of the cortex results in patients not being able to meaningfully interpret images. This area of the brain is also a highly sensitive early indicator of Alzheimers disease, showing signs of atrophy prior to other areas of the brain showing changes. For example, if you have damage or atrophy in your parahippocampal gyrus, you may recognize that a person is standing in front of you, but not know that it is actually your own child.  Or you may recognize that there is a car parked in front of you, but not know it is actually your car. The parahypocamppal gyrus is responsible for accurate and meaningful interpretation of our surroundings, our environment, and for support in making life decisions in a contextually appropriate way. This gives a very real explanation for why time spent in nature, on the earth, grounded, helps to give rise to a feeling of centeredness and may even help give us clarity through these environmental “pings” from our planet.  I would love to see more research on cognitive function and grounding, as well as long term studies evaluating grounding’s impact on dementia and congnitive decline!

 

 

Anti-Aging Benefit #7:  Grounding Boosts Skin Health

 

I made a previous video with my 7 favorite holistic longevity tips, where I mention grounding as one of them (you can watch that here) so let me give you more information on how grounding is anti-aging to the skin!

This study, published August 2015 in Health, was a double blinded placebo study that showed clear evidence of dramatically boosted circulation throughout the body after only one hour of grounding.Published 2014 in the Journal of Cosmetics, Dermatological Sciences and Applications, researchers showed that grounding through the soles of the feet boosted blood circulation all the way up in facial skin tissues, suggesting the positive effects of increased circulation are available even in distant sites of the body that are far away from the grounding point of contact.This very important medical study, published in 2013 in the Journal of Alternative and Complimentary Medicine, shows that grounding for only 2 hours significantly reduced clotting risk, by decreasing the zeta potential on red blood cells and making them flow through the circulatory system or the body more smoothly. The zeta potential of the red blood cells were boosted, on average, by 270%. This in turn increased the average blood velocity of the patients by 260%. Boosted blood flow and circulation means skin is repairing more quickly — seen in decreased ulcers and boosted wound repair but cosmetically in more hydrated, youthful skin.A 2023 study, published in Lab On A Chip, found that DC (earth) energy accelerated healing and improved collagen integrity resulting in wounds healing three times faster, and in compromised diabetic skin the repair was same rate as normal, non-diabetic skinAnd this one, published in 2015 in the Journal of Cosmetics, Dermatological Sciences and Applications which shows in a double blinded placebo based study that grounding significantly improved blood flow to the skin of the face.And if you want to see images of grounding improving wound healing, you can look through this study published in 2015 in the Journal of Inflammatory Research.In addition, the sleep benefits we talked about in #5 above also means that collagen repair is enhanced in a second way thanks to grounding. Recent studies have found a direct correlation between sleep and collagen integrity, suggesting that beauty sleep is real.  In this one (published Jan 202o in Nature Cell Biology) researchers found that poor sleep actually caused a decrease in the structural integrity of collagen with an increase in collagen misalignment. So over a lifetime, decreased sleep quality may literally be visible in your skin as your collagen becomes more misaligned, weaker, less elastic, and contributes to accelerated aging.Conversely, improving sleep over a lifetime helps boost skin healing and even boosts anti-aging benefits by improving collagen integrity and skin repair while you sleep.  If you’d like to hear me talk more about why sleep actually does improve your skin’s appearance, and a bunch of things you can do to improve your sleep quality (including grounding!) you can hop over here to listen to my podcast on Beauty Sleep.

 

 

All together, it would be very hard to beat the head-to-toe health boost grounding can give you!  Protecting your body from head to toe, decreasing those inflammatory cytokines while protecting the muscles and bones that allow continued stem cell regeneration.

To read all of this information compiled in a medical publication you can freely print and share, I published that for you in Jul of 2024 in Trends In General Medicine, which you can read (and print and share) right here:

Grounding: An Anti-Aging Breakthrough?

 

Citation: Laura Koniver. Grounding: An Anti-Aging Breakthrough? Trends Gen Med. 2024; 2(3): 1-7.

 

For those who want to ground for longer periods of time than they can realistically be outside, especially as the colder months arrive this fall and winter, here are the only grounding tools I endorse… ones I have specialty hand crafted using medical grade stainless steel and organic cotton and raw, all natural silk, in an eco-ethically manner from start to finish, in my Grounding Boutique right here:

 

 

Lately I’ve seen at least 5 different grounding companies use my name, image and content to make it appear that I medically endorse their grounding tools. One even used a voice over and a fake “doctor” (an actor in a generic white jacket) to describe my own personal informal grounding & weight loss study that I conducted over ten years ago… this actor described the study that “he” conducted, including all the results I’ve shared freely right here on my website, without giving any credit to me as the physician who ran the study.

They then pretended the study was conducted using their synthetic plastic mats, which I would never endorse.  How on earth does it make sense to rub vinyl plastic against our precious human bodies to get grounded (introducing microplastics into our organ systems) and then clog a landfill for centuries, destroying the planet we depend on for our health?

ABSOLUTELY NOT.

I would never endorse cheaply made, mass produced grounding tools that use synthetic plastics like vinyl “leatherette” and p0lyester that will sit in a landfill for 500+ years.  These companies do not care about the earth and they certainly don’t care about your health, as they are pretending a medical doctor (me) is promoting their unethically made products just to make a buck.

The only grounding tools in the world that I am aware of that are ethically hand crafted by artisans who are paid a fair ethical wage, that are hand sewn using eco-friendly materials like natural, unbleached cotton, organic hemp, and raw silk, are the ones made right here in my Grounding Boutique:

Whether you ground indoors or outside, enjoy connecting with the earth and feeling the health benefits for a lifetime!!!xoxoxo,Laura Koniver MD

 

 

The post Aging From Inflammation Is Totally Optional. Here’s Why & How You Can Reverse It appeared first on Intuition Physician.

Grounding: The Critical Missing Piece That Restores Your Circadian Rhythm

 

Today I want to share with you my latest publication on the importance of grounding to maintain your body’s health.  Just published August 26, 2025 in the Journal of Medical Clinical Research & Reviews, I wrote a medical literature review on the earth’s role in making sure you sleep well at night, and wake refreshed the next day.

Sleep is absolutely non-negotiable, crucial for your long term health.  While most practitioners focus on sun exposure to help set the day/night rhythm of your body, the earth itself is actually more influential in setting these patterns.  My article explains exactly why.

If you’d like to read the article directly for yourself and/or share it with others, including your own in person physician, here is a PDF you can print:

The Earth’s Role in Circadian Regulation: Grounding to Set Daily Cortisol Pattern (printable PDF)The Earth’s Role in Circadian Regulation: Grounding To Set Daily Cortisol Pattern
Laura Koniver, MD

 

Abstract

Emerging evidence supports the hypothesis that Earth’s electromagnetic grid
output—including its direct current (DC) potential, the Carnegie Curve and Schumann
Resonance frequencies—plays a central role in maintaining and regulating circadian
rhythms. While it is well-established that exposure to sunlight entrains melatonin
production, this article proposes that grounding to the Earth may be equally vital in
setting the cortisol rhythm. Historical research involving sensory-isolated bunker
experiments revealed that removing the Earth’s natural electromagnetic fields can lead
to desynchronization of the human circadian rhythm, independent of the influence of
light exposure. Modern clinical studies show that sleeping while grounded significantly
alters the cortisol profile, with measurable improvements in circadian regularity, sleep
quality, stress response, and autonomic nervous system function. By reviewing
historical and contemporary medical studies, this article proposes that the human
body’s exposure to the Earth’s surface potential and resonant frequencies supports
cortisol rhythm integrity and may, in some contexts, be more foundational than sunlight
in regulating the day/night cycle. The Earth appears to act as a hormonal “clock setter,”
particularly for the cortisol awakening response and overnight cortisol suppression,
creating a tandem effect alongside melatonin to maintain a stable 24-hour biological
rhythm.

Keywords: Grounding, Earthing, Circadian rhythm, Cortisol, Melatonin, Schumann
Resonance, Sleep, Autonomic Nervous System, Electromagnetic Fields, Hormonal
entrainment

Disclosure: No conflicts of interest to disclose.

 

Introduction

Circadian rhythms orchestrate virtually every physiological process in the human body,
regulating sleep-wake cycles, hormonal secretion, immune function, metabolic
processes, and mental performance. These rhythms are typically thought to be
synchronized primarily through photic input from the retina to the suprachiasmatic
nucleus (SCN) in the hypothalamus, which governs the pineal gland’s release of
melatonin in response to diminishing light (1).

However, melatonin is only one half of the picture. Cortisol, a glucocorticoid secreted by
the adrenal glands under direction of the hypothalamic–pituitary–adrenal (HPA) axis,
rises in the early morning in anticipation of waking and activity, then declines throughout
the day, and affects both mental and physical health (2). These two
hormones—melatonin and cortisol—act in an elegant opposition, forming a balanced
endocrine cycle that supports robust circadian regulation.

Despite the established focus on light-mediated melatonin entrainment, the role of non-
photic environmental cues, especially those derived from the Earth itself, is increasingly
being appreciated. Multiple lines of evidence now point to the importance of
electromagnetic and geophysical cues from the Earth in regulating circadian biology.
For example, it has been shown that human circadian systems can remain entrained to
a 24-hour cycle in total darkness, but only when natural geophysical cues remain
present (3). Experimental isolation of subjects in underground environments shielded
from the Earth’s electromagnetic activity leads to circadian drift and
desynchronization—effects that are not observed in similar conditions when
geomagnetic input is preserved (4). Additionally, fluctuations in Earth’s geomagnetic
field—such as diurnal geomagnetic variation and low-frequency electromagnetic
resonances—have been observed to influence the secretion of melatonin and cortisol,
as well as fluctuations in heart rate variability and vagal tone (5, 6).

Recent studies suggest that the SCN may receive and integrate geomagnetic signals
via magnetoreceptive structures in the retina or through cryptochrome proteins, which
are sensitive not only to light but also to weak electromagnetic fields (7). In fact,
cryptochromes—essential to circadian timing—have been shown in animal models to be
responsive to static and oscillating magnetic fields at frequencies overlapping the
Earth’s natural resonances (8). This supports the hypothesis that our circadian
pacemakers are not exclusively photic-dependent but may also be co-regulated by
Earth’s electromagnetic architecture.

Direct contact with the Earth, a practice known as grounding or earthing, may influence
cortisol rhythms in a significant and clinically relevant way. This article explores
historical and contemporary evidence that grounding supports the biological clock via
entrainment of cortisol rhythms and restoration of autonomic balance.

 

Historical Evidence: Bunker Experiments and Circadian Disruption

Some of the earliest and most compelling evidence for the Earth’s influence on human
circadian rhythms emerged in the 1960s and 1970s from a series of experiments
conducted in underground bunkers. In these studies, participants lived in total isolation
from external time cues, including light, temperature fluctuations, and electromagnetic
fields. German chronobiologist Jürgen Aschoff and later Rütger Wever demonstrated
that while most subjects maintained a free-running rhythm close to 24 hours, a subset of
participants exhibited profound circadian desynchronization when the bunker was
shielded from the Earth’s natural electromagnetic fields (3).

When a frequency mimicking the earth’s Schumann Resonance output was
reintroduced to the bunker that was shielding from the earth’s EMF field, 24 hour
synchrony was restored (9). This suggests that connection to the Earth’s native
EMFs—not just light—plays a critical role in sustaining internal biological timing. The
Schumann Resonance, a series of low-frequency electromagnetic waves generated
between the Earth’s surface and ionosphere, appears to serve as a natural circadian
pacemaker, aligning the human system with the environmental day/night cycle even in
the absence of light (10).

 

Schumann Resonance and Neurological Entrainment

The Schumann Resonance oscillates primarily at 7.83 Hz, with secondary harmonics at
14.1 Hz and higher (6). These frequencies correspond strikingly with human brainwave
activity, particularly the alpha and low-beta bands. EEG studies have shown coherence
between human brain activity and the Schumann Resonance, indicating that the human
brain may be biologically attuned to Earth's natural EM rhythm (11).

This synchronicity may help stabilize mental states, cognitive function, and circadian
rhythm integrity, with far reaching effects on the central nervous system, including
influencing neurotransmitter levels and brain signaling (12). In other words, the Earth’s
resonance may serve not only as an environmental “clock” but also as a global neural
modulator, subtly influencing autonomic tone, brain wave states, and hormonal
secretion patterns—particularly cortisol, which peaks shortly after waking and is highly
sensitive to environmental entrainment (10).

 

Grounding and Cortisol Regulation

The modern concept of grounding has brought these electromagnetic interactions into a
therapeutic context. When the human body is in direct conductive contact with the
Earth—such as through walking barefoot, touching conductive elements of the earth’s
crust with hands or feet, or using grounding tools—electrons flow into the body, instantly
reducing surface potential and allowing the body to equalize with the Earth’s DC field
(13).

One of the earliest studies to measure the physiological impact of grounding on
circadian hormones was conducted by Ghaly and Teplitz in 2004. In this pilot study,
participants slept on grounded mattress pads for eight weeks, and their salivary cortisol
levels were tracked at four-hour intervals over a 24-hour period. After grounding, cortisol
secretion patterns normalized significantly, with a distinct reduction in nighttime cortisol,
improved early-morning peaks, and a re-establishment of a healthy diurnal rhythm (14).
Participants also reported subjective improvements in sleep quality, stress levels, and
energy.

Subsequent studies and reviews have confirmed these findings, showing that grounding
influences the HPA axis, reduces the physiological markers of stress, and enhances
autonomic regulation (15). One proposed mechanism is the shift in
sympathetic–parasympathetic balance, as measured by increased heart rate variability
(HRV), which suggests greater vagal tone and better parasympathetic dominance (16).
This is particularly relevant during sleep, when the parasympathetic nervous system
should be active, and cortisol levels should reach their nadir.

 

Sleep Quality and Circadian Stability

Multiple studies have shown that grounded sleep improves not only hormonal profiles
but also sleep quality itself (17, 18). Participants sleeping on grounded beds or mats
report fewer awakenings, reduced pain, decreased leg twitching or cramping, and a
quicker onset of restorative sleep phases. EEG studies have begun to show shifts in
alpha and theta wave activity during grounded sleep, supporting the idea that grounding
encourages brain states associated with deep, restorative rest.

Sleep improvement, in turn, helps stabilize both cortisol and melatonin, further
supporting the hormonal architecture of circadian rhythm. The autonomic nervous
system is central to this effect. Grounding increases heart rate variability, enhances
parasympathetic activity, and decreases sympathetic overdrive, which is common in
individuals with insomnia, anxiety, and circadian rhythm disorders (19). These shifts,
observed consistently in both daytime and nighttime grounding interventions, indicate
that grounding is a whole-body regulatory intervention capable of enhancing
homeostatic balance.

 

Grounding as a Hormonal Clock Setter

 

Plasma melatonin and cortisol levels and sleep (grey shading) in humans. From Robertson-Dixon et al. (19).

 

Cortisol’s morning peak, known as the cortisol awakening response (CAR), is essential
for metabolic readiness, immune regulation, and mental alertness (20). Disruption of
this pattern—whether through stress, shift work, artificial light exposure, or isolation
from environmental cues—has been linked to mood disorders, fatigue, impaired
cognition, and metabolic syndrome.

Grounding appears to play a unique role in reinforcing this pattern. While light exposure
drives melatonin suppression and wakefulness, the Earth’s energy field may prime the
cortisol rhythm, ensuring a robust CAR and appropriate suppression during sleep.
Together, these dual entrainment systems—light for melatonin, Earth for cortisol—form
a full-spectrum circadian support framework. To ignore Earth-based cues is to overlook
half of the equation.

 

 

Clinical and Practical Implications

Beyond basic physiology, the implications of grounding extend to practical health
interventions. Jet lag, for example, is characterized by temporary circadian
misalignment due to rapid travel across time zones. Grounding upon arrival—such as
walking barefoot, touching trees, or swimming in natural bodies of water—has been
anecdotally and clinically reported to accelerate recovery from jet lag by rapidly re-
entraining cortisol and melatonin cycles (21). Studies on jet lag and cortisol changes
during time zone travel reveal that cortisol significantly impacts jet lag symptoms (22) so
cortisol regulation may be the main mechanism of action by which grounding treats jet
lag so effectively.

Astronauts in space, separated entirely from Earth’s surface potential, suffer from
profound circadian disruption, immune dysregulation, and sleep
disturbances—conditions which could potentially be mitigated by exposure to Earth-like
electromagnetic fields or simulated grounding (23). Grounding may also benefit
individuals with chronic insomnia, stress-related cortisol dysregulation, adrenal fatigue,
PTSD, and other conditions where cortisol cycling is impaired. Incorporating daily
grounding practices, especially in the morning and evening, may offer a simple, side-
effect–free approach to enhancing circadian health and systemic resiliency.

 

Conclusion

Grounding reconnects the human body with the Earth’s electrical potential and natural
resonance frequencies, providing biologically meaningful cues that help stabilize and
entrain the circadian rhythm—particularly the cortisol cycle. Just as sunlight entrains
melatonin, the Earth may act as the primary cue for cortisol regulation. These two
hormones operate in a complementary rhythm, together maintaining a robust and
responsive internal clock.

Modern lifestyles—characterized by rubber-soled shoes, non-grounded sleeping
platforms, artificial EMF saturation, and reduced outdoor time—have disconnected us
from this primal source of circadian support. Reintroducing regular grounding practices
may represent one of the most fundamental, accessible, and effective ways to restore
circadian integrity, improve sleep, support hormonal balance, and enhance overall
physiological function, including cognitive function (24).

 

References

Cleare AJ. The HPA axis and the genesis of chronic fatigue syndrome. Trends
Endocrinol Metab. 2004;15(2):55-59.Adam EK, Quinn ME, Tavernier R, McQuillan MT, Dahlke KA, Gilbert KE. Diurnal cortisol slopes and mental and physical health outcomes: A systematic review and meta-analysis. Psychoneuroendocrinology. 2017;83:25-41.Persinger MA. On the possible representation of the electromagnetic properties of the earth’s atmosphere as a source of lunar biological rhythm entrainment. Int J Biometeorol. 1987;31(1):1–10.Aschoff J, Wever R. Human circadian rhythms: a multidisciplinary approach. Naturwissenschaften. 1962;49(7):337-342.Burch JB, Reif JS, Yost MG. Geomagnetic disturbances are associated with reduced nocturnal excretion of a melatonin metabolite in humans. Neurosci Lett. 2008;438(1):76–79.Mulligan BP, Persinger MA. Experimental simulation of the effects of sudden geomagnetic impulses on melatonin levels in rodents. Neurosci Lett. 2012;519(2):135–139.Solov’yov IA, Chandler DE, Schulten K. Magnetic field effects in Arabidopsis thaliana cryptochrome-1. Biophys J. 2007;92(8):2711–2726.Fedele G, Green EW, Rosato E, Kyriacou CP. An electromagnetic field disrupts negative geotaxis in Drosophila via a CRY-dependent pathway. Nat Commun. 2014;5:4391.Wever R. The Circadian System of Man: Results of Experiments Under Temporal Isolation. Springer; 1979.Kuroda T, et al. Circadian rhythm synchronization using natural geomagnetic fields. Chronobiol Int. 2007;24(4):553-568.Schumann W. On the free oscillations of a conducting sphere. Z Naturforsch A. 1954;7:149-154.Pobachenko S, et al. Synchronization of human EEG with Schumann resonances. Bioelectromagnetics. 2006;27(7):479-486.Koniver L. Neurological pathways supported by grounding. Open J Neurol Neurosci. 2023;7(1). Published March 20, 2023.Oschman JL. Can electrons act as antioxidants? A review and commentary. J Altern Complement Med. 2007;13(9):955-967.Ghaly M, Teplitz D. The biologic effects of grounding the human body during sleep as measured by cortisol levels and subjective reporting of sleep, pain, and stress. J Altern Complement Med. 2004;10(5):767-776.Sokal K, Sokal P. Earthing the human body influences physiologic processes. J Altern Complement Med. 2011;17(4):301-308.Chevalier G, Mori K. Grounding the human body improves HRV. Complement Ther Clin Pract. 2015;21(2):112-118.Lin CH, Tseng ST, Chuang YC, Kuo CE, Chen NC. Grounding the Body Improves Sleep Quality in Patients with Mild Alzheimer's Disease: A Pilot Study [published correction appears in Healthcare (Basel). 2022 May 26;10(6):988.Elder GJ, et al. Cortisol awakening response: implications for sleep medicine. Sleep Med Rev. 2014;18(3):215-229.Paragliola RM, Corsello A, Troiani E, et al. Cortisol circadian rhythm and jet-lag syndrome: evaluation of salivary cortisol rhythm in a group of eastward travelers. Endocrine. 2021;73(2):424-430.Chevalier G, et al. Pilot study on grounding to reduce jet lag. J Environ Public Health. 2012;2012:291541.Mallis MM, DeRoshia CW. Circadian rhythms, sleep, and performance in space. Aviat Space Environ Med. 2005;76(6 Suppl):B94-B107.Koniver L. Current Research in Complementary & Alternative Medicine. 2024;8:252.Robertson-Dixon I, Murphy MJ, Crewther SG, Riddell N. The Influence of Light Wavelength on Human HPA Axis Rhythms: A Systematic Review. Life. 2023; 13(10):1968.Citation:Laura Koniver. The Earth’s Role in Circadian Regulation: Grounding to Set Daily Cortisol Pattern. J Med – Clin Res & Rev. 2025; 9(8): 1-4

The post Grounding: The Critical Missing Piece That Restores Your Circadian Rhythm appeared first on Intuition Physician.

The Entire Universe Inside Your Body (& My Latest Painting)

 

As a physician, every single cell in our body is literally like a miracle to me. 

How it functions, replicates, repairs, lives, dies, replaces.  The fact that our skin is self healing, our bones fuse back together, we breathe and our heart beats while we use our body to do other things all day long without even thinking about it…

… and the fact that all of it, almost every bit of it, comes from cosmic dust and stars — it’s all just so damn magical.  We are wearing solid, tangible bodies — I love the term “earth suits” — and we run a life spark through that body that brings the elements of stardust to life.

Researchers estimate that we are approximately 97% stardust, formed over 13 billion years ago.  Scientists used infrared spectrography to survey almost 200,000 stars and found that 97% of the same elements that make up human life make up the entire Milky Way galaxy.  

So now I have taken to calling our incredibly human bodies star suits instead of earth suits.

 

 

“We are now able to map the abundance of all of the major elements found in the human body across hundreds of thousands of stars in our Milky Way,” said Jennifer Johnson, chair of the SDSS-III APOGEE survey and a professor at The Ohio State University, in a public statement on the research.  

Can you think of anything more beautiful?

Could you be any more magnificent?

Remembering that you are the universe, coalescing into physical form, in a beautiful living earth suit of stars, and that you are breathing through it this very moment, and thinking a thought at this very moment, and your heart is beating in this very moment, aren’t you so impressed with your body? 

You are having a conscious experience full of meaning and feeling and using it to interact with other star dust humans. It’s so beautiful. The two of you — holding entire galaxies within, forming your own unique universe that no other two bodies could ever replicate.

 

 

We all intuitively can feel that connecting with others boosts our health, right?

How much better do you feel after a warm hug from a friend, the comforting squeeze of a partner’s hand, or the joy of laughing around a dinner table with your children. Sharing space with a loved one for even one minute is enough to completely turn a bad day into a good one.

When our heart energy fields are overlapping, we can become attuned to other, and we can literally feel when we are resonant (or discordant) with others.

Connecting to others is so important that it actually helps provide anesthesia to pain… that’s how much physical closeness helps.  Medical studies are just starting to reveal the healing power of physical touch:

physical touch has the power to reduce painphysical touch has the power to prolong pain free intervals (even in critically ill patients)physical touch has the power to calm brain activity during distressphysical touch has the power to lower heart rate and blood pressurephysical touch has the power to calm respiratory rate

 

 

And all of these studies are just from touch the touch of a loved one. Connecting and attuning with each other, overlapping our heart energy fields with those that we love, creating our own unique galaxy from two star suits.

So when you fall in love, you are specifically overlapping your heart energy with your lovers heart energy. Your bodies naturally attune together. You grow in love as you grow in sync.

Energy matches, breath matches, you literally become one energy field, together. As you attune together, you feel connected. They become your favorite person, an extended part of yourself.

You feel complete.  And the reason you feel complete is not from some source outside of you, but because you yourself — completely within — holds the entire universe in your physical body.  Connecting your star suit with other star suits feels magical, precisely because that’s exactly what it is… magical.

 

 

It’s so magical for two star suits to connect their two universe-containing bodies together that I wanted to paint it for you, to remind you of the multitudes of stars you each carry, forming your own private and totally unique universe, together.

No other two star suits could exactly replicate the universe you form together.  So here is what I painted:

 

1.  The background:

 

First I sketched out two figures hugging and holding hands, and then I filled in those figures with dark indigo colors on a neutral beige, yellow and gold background:

 

 

2.  Defining the base:

 

Then I added different luminescent colors to the bodies — greens and turquoise and even a little pink and purple star bursts throughout and defined the border of these start suits with some white lines… then added some grey and lavender colors to the background behind them as well to make the entire color scheme more cohesive:

 

 

3. Star Suits:

 

Then the fun part — using white paint and lots of different techniques including flicking a paintbrush for mini-stars, dotting larger stars on with the paintbrush handle, and using a fine detail brush to make star shine come out from some of the largest stars, I turned the figures into their own galaxies filled with stars:

 

 

4.  Soul Energy:

 

Lastly, I used gold paint to create the heart field, the living pulsing energy coming out from each star suit, bringing these unlimited galaxies alive in a human form, with a beating heart and a body and mind and soul that connect to each other, bridging the two galaxies into one connected Universe:

 

 

If you are interested in this original canvas, or if you’d like professionally Giclee printed archival prints of this image, to remind you that you have an entire Universe within your own star suit you are wearing, you can find those here — it would also make a fabulous gift to another star suited human being that you love and feel magically connect to!

The Entire Universe Is Inside You (canvas & prints available here)

 

To the glorious human star suit you are wearing!xoxox, Laura Koniver MD

 

The post The Entire Universe Inside Your Body (& My Latest Painting) appeared first on Intuition Physician.

New Research Shows This Supplement Dramatically Decreases Aging Of The Skin

 

Did you know consuming excess sugar can actually have a cosmetic effect that can be seen in your face?

Consuming sugar can actually make you look older — creating wrinkles, sallow skin, discoloration of the skin, and loss of firmness and elasticity.  All known as “sugar sag.”

After going through the effort to sticking with natural and holistic beauty products, hydrating well, avoiding photoaging your face, taking high quality supplements, etc… you may be undoing a lot of what you do to maintain healthy skin just by eating sugar.  YUCK.

That’s because sugar create advanced glycation end products (AGEs) which accumulate in the body, including the skin, and are associated with many diseases of inflammation and aging, like diabetes, heart disease, cataracts and dementia.  They disrupt collagen integrity and collect in the skin over time, increasing in our collagen proteins by over 3% every year starting around 20 years old and accumulating year after year after year for the rest of our lives.

Many studies confirm just how much eating sugar ages our skin.  Studies like:

The Damage Mechanism of Skin Glycation (Nutrients, 2022)AGEs In Skin (Methods, 2022)Carbohydrate Induced Skin Aging (Oxidative Medicine and Cellular Longevity, 2020)An Anti-Wrinkle Diet (Skin Therapy Letters, 2020)AGEs, Diet and Health (Biomolecules, 2019)Glycation and Human Skin (Pathology Biology, 2010) Sugar and Aging Skin (Clinical Dermatology, 2010)

 

 

In the skin, AGEs create an abnormal cross linking of collagen which makes it difficult to repair, leading to aging effects that accumulate over time… since this abnormally cross linked collagen isn’t capable of being renewed or repaired, it leads to a decrease in skin elasticity, wrinkles, and even the advanced accumulation of age spots and skin discoloration… all together, something you can notice in the skin as the dreaded “sugar sag”.

Gah, what to do about it?

Luckily there are lots of things you can do can dramatically boost your skin’s health!!!   And now that summer is past it’s peak, it the perfect time — literally — to begin to repair skin damage from summer exposures and protect your skin all fall and winter too.

Here is a great overview of a dozen completely holistic, all natural tips to help your skin remain firm and youthful, all rooted in medical research.  In fact, the most recent publication on reversing skin damage due to AGE’s found that a completely holistic, natural oral supplement — Rosemary Extract — not only stopped AGE formation, but it also started to reverse the cross link abnormalities that were already there.

Published in February 2025 in the Journal of Clinical and Aesthetic Dermatology, researchers found that taking Rosemary Extract orally might be the most effective way to not only protect against future skin aging, but to actually reverse some of the damage that has already been done.  That’s why Rosemary Extract is a phenomenal supplement to take whether you are in your 20’s and wanting to protect against the affects of AGE changes, or decades later in life and wanting to actually reverse damage that is already done.

But be careful — you don’t want to take rosemary essential oils or other preparations that are meant for external use.  Be sure to use Rosemary Extract intended for internal use, which I share with you below, along with tons of other ways to reverse the effect of AGEs on your skin.

The best approach is to support your skin from three different ways:  lifestyle approaches, for example eating less sugar, improving sleep and avoiding vaping, internal fortification like taking Vit B3, Blueberry Extract and Rosemary Extract — all key skin repairing supplements that have been shown in double blinded medial studies to actually work, and external defenses like avoiding spray tans, wearing sunscreen and applying topical niacinamide serum nightly.

Keep reading over this list of a dozen ideas and see if there is even just one thing you can add to your holistic wellness routine… you will literally see the benefit right on your face — sometimes (as with the case of Rosemary Extract) in just a few weeks!

12 Holistic Ways To Reverse Skin Aging:

 

1.  Sleep:

 

Recent studies have found a direct correlation between sleep and collagen integrity, suggesting that beauty sleep is real.  In this one (published Jan 202o in Nature Cell Biology) researchers found that poor sleep actually caused a decrease in the structural integrity of collagen with an increase in collagen misalignment.

So over a lifetime, decreased sleep quality may literally be visible in your skin as your collagen becomes more misaligned, weaker, less elastic, and contributes to accelerated aging.

Conversely, improving sleep over a lifetime helps boost skin healing and even boosts anti-aging benefits by improving collagen integrity and skin repair while you sleep.  This is directly the opposite of what sugar does to your collagen and so is a very important first step in decreasing “sugar sag.”

If you’d like to hear me talk more about why sleep actually does improve your skin’s appearance, and a bunch of things you can do to improve your sleep quality, you can hop over here to listen to my podcast on Beauty Sleep.  I also have recently written a blog post for you on getting deeper, more restorative sleep that you can read right here:

Winter Sleep: 12 Ways To Get A Deep Hibernation Before Spring

 

 

2.  Grounding:

 

There are literally head to toe benefits in every major organ system when you ground your body, and your skin is no exception.  Grounding boosts skin health thanks to increased circulation bringing more nutrients and oxygen to your skin, improved removal of free radicals and other skin damaging toxic by products, improved healing of wounds in your skin (three times faster wound repair!) and even deepening your sleep which, as we discussed above, boosts collagen integrity too.

I recently published an article in Current Research In Alternative And Complementary Medicine here (just click this link to read the medical report yourself) all about grounding’s skin boosting potential.

The earth’s DC energy significantly accelerated wound closureThe earth’s DC energy improved wound healing so much that it made normal skin heal three times fasterThe earth’s DC energy improved skin healing in diabetic skin so well that it healed at almost the same rate as totally healthy skin!

All together, grounding to the earth — a totally natural DC energy source — is a completely natural, exceptionally easy way to support skin health, helping to heal wounds and repair skin by boosting blood flow, improving oxygen and nutrients to the surface of the skin, even protecting the collagen of your skin by improving your sleep.  All it takes is going outside to touch the earth directly, or applying the earth’s DC energy to the skin through a grounding cord or ground stake.

Ground daily, even in the winter.  Make sure you have an indoor way to stay grounded this winter if the weather forces you to stay sheltered, so that you can apply this healing DC energy to your skin just like they did in the studies above.

H ere are the most eco-friendly, long lasting, artisan hand crafted, USA made, indoor grounding tools in the world:  

The Grounding Boutique

 

3.  Avoid self-tanner:

 

Here is something new I learned — self tanners actually create ACEs in the skin — that is how they turn skin brown and create the appearance of a tan.

Self tanners are a glycation product, it’s actually a sugar that binds to skin proteins in the stratum corneum (the top layer of our skin) and through glycation turns the skin brown.  In fact, originally self tanners were created as a sugar substitute in the 1920s but were never used because they turned the mouth mucosa brown!

The good news is that this glycation reaction occurs on the dead top layer of the skin, so may affect skin elasticity and aging less than an internally consumed sugar might.  However, the bad news is we don’t really know what cumulative effect self tanners have and it is likely to contribute, even if in small amounts, to “sugar sag” and other cosmetic signs of skin aging over time.

So save the self tanner for special events instead of routine use — that’s what I try to do — and if you do use it, be sure to apply self tanner in the morning so you can wash it off in the evening… don’t leave self tanner on your skin overnight.

 

 

4.  Avoid Smoking and Vaping:

 

Both smoking and vaping create AGEs that accumulate in the body and promote aging.  This is just one way that smoking increases the rates of lung disease, cardiovascular disease and cataracts.

In terms of skin, these AGEs might be one of the reasons that smoking is associated with a yellowing of the skin, as well as advanced wrinkling and decreased skin elasticity.

In fact, this study (published in Althlerosclerosis, Thrombosis and Vascular Biology, 2022) found that vaping actually creates a higher concentration of glycation end products in the body than even smoking does.

 

[image error]5.  Take B Vitamins + Put B3 Lotion On Your Face:

 

Clear evidence that a simple vitamin can be cancer preventive: Vitamin B3 dramatically reduces skin cancer rates.  Presented at the American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO) 2015 Annual Meeting in May 2014, Vitamin B3 has been shown to be a safe, effective way to reduce your risk of recurrent skin cancer.

Researchers looked at over 380 patients with a prior history of non-melanoma skin cancers, giving half nicotinamide supplements and half a placebo, and followed them for a year. They found the patients in the Vitamin B3 group had a quarter less skin cancers total (a 23% decrease) than control patients:

Basal cell occurrence decreased by 20%Squamous Cell Carcinoma decreased by 30%Actinic Keratosis decreased by 13%

Niacinamide (Vit B3, also known as Nicotinamide) enhances DNA repair in skin cells damaged by UV light, as well as boosts the immune system and prevents the suppression of immunity by ultraviolet radiation. (Nicotinamide has other benefits as well, including preliminary studies showing a boost in cognition… helping to restore cognition in Alzheimers!)

So… if you have a history of serious sun exposure? Or a history of previous skin cancers? Or you just want less unsightly actinic keretosis popping up in the future?

Vitamin B 3 offers 100% all natural holistic chemo-prevention!  Vitamin B is safe, inexpensive, proven.  Find my favorite Vitamin B3 supplements and topical B3 lotion in my Skin Repair Protocol.

I have both topical (lotion) and capsule forms of Niacinamide lotion I mention in tip #2 above, waiting for you here… this lotion is the one I personally use on my face every single night and could not live without:

 

 

6.  Consume Flavonoids:

 

Plant flavonoids have powerful anti-inflammatory actions that help neutralize the effects of glycation end products.

Foods high in flavonoids to eat:

blueberriescherriesblackberriesprunesraspberriesstrawberriespotatoescranberriesapplesbeansavocadotomatoesorangesrosemary anddark leafy greens

are all high in anti-oxidants and should be part of your routine diet, especially if you are looking to protect your skin long term.

The newest double blinded medical study (discussed above) found that Rosemary Extract, taken orally, not only inhibited AGE formation but it actually started reversing the damage that has already be done by AGEs to collagen… and not only did it begin to reverse the damage, but the benefits kept accruing for the entire length of the study (12 weeks) getting stronger and more robust benefits over time.

***PLEASE make sure you take a supplement meant for internal use, not just any Rosemary Extract or Rosemary Essential Oil that is intended for external use!

So that you know you are taking a safe and effective oral dose of these flavonoids, I’ve added both Blueberry Extract capsules and Rosemary Extract tincture to my Skin Repair Protocol here:

 

 

7.  Stop Sugar Cravings:

 

Consuming less sugar is hard, especially if you are used to eating sugary foods, as sugar is highly addictive.  It’s usually not as simple as just choosing other foods to eat, because those sugar cravings can be extremely powerful.  Resisting baked goods and sugar snacks and drinks is easier when you address sugar cravings in the first place.

There is one key supplement that is a game changer in helping to reduce sugar cravings: L-glutamine.

Not only does l-glutamine help decrease sugar cravings, carb cravings, and even alcohol cravings, it also helps repair the gut lining too… win-win!  If you are wanting to decrease your sugar consumption and switch from simple carbs like wheat and sugar over to more nutrient dense foods like healthy fats and proteins, taking an L-glutamine supplement can be a life saver.

I’ve included L-glutamine in my Blood Sugar Support Protocol — simply take it throughout the day for ongoing support to decrease sugar cravings, and for immediate support, open capsule and sprinkle L-glutamine directly under the tongue to decrease urgent cravings when they strike.

Blood Sugar Support Protocol

 

 

8. Take Berberine To Decrease Blood Sugar:

 

Obviously diet and exercise are important modifiers to keeping your blood glucose levels low, but did you know there are supplements you can take to decrease blood sugar levels, warding off metabolic disease, decreasing diabetes risk, and — for the purposes of this blog post today — even reducing the effects of sugar sag?

Keeping glucose levels low are one of the ways to prevent sugar from creating more AGEs in your skin, protecting it from abnormal collagen cross-linking and keeping your skin firmer and more elastic.  This recent study (European Review for Medical and Pharmacological Sciences, 2023) found that simply by taking Berberine supplements twice a day, with no other changes to diet and exercise, had a statistically significant drop in fasting glucose levels (on average, a 12% decrease) as well as significantly lowered cholesterol, lower fasting insulin levels, decreased visceral adipose tissue (the stubborn fat that accumulates in the belly area) and lower fat mass over all.

What?!?!  Just from adding one supplement to their daily routine, berberine.

This is why berberine supplements are the top component of my Blood Sugar Support protocol, along with the l-glutamine supplement we discussed above that help you crave sugar less in the first place.  Less desire to eat sugary foods and lower blood sugar and insulin levels to the foods you do eat — that’s win win not just for your skin’s beauty but also for your overall health and longevity.

Find out more about my Blood Sugar Support Protocol here.

Blood Sugar Support Protocol

 

 

9.  Eat Less Fast Food:

 

A study published by the National Center for Health Statistics, found that on any given day, over 1/3 of all adults in america aged 40 – 59 years old (37%) are consuming fast food.  One out of three! That’s 85 million adults eating fast food on any given day.

And sadly, for younger Americans that number is even higher — almost half of Americans (45%) aged 20 – 45 years old are eating fast food on any given day. One out of every two of us, every single day.

Wowza.

This makes me feel sad for hard working Americans who are so beyond stressed that they have little choice but to drive through fast food between jobs in order to have something to eat.

This makes me feel angry at corporate America, who lures consumers in on taste and does not give a crap about their long term health, all so a few folks at the top can be so wealthy it’s almost unfathomable. Corporate America is tricking customers to trade in their health for convenience and taste. They know that close to half of our country is eating this “food” that has poor nutritional content and they are laughing all the way to the bank.

This makes me feel completely defeated as a health care provider, because I know that the only way this will change is for there to be a complete restructuring of government programs to provide actual nutritional support to its citizens. That will require legislative, structural & policy changes that prioritizes the health of it’s citizens (instead of health being a corporate venture) as well as dramatically raising wages so that everyone is able to have a decent quality of life… enough that it’s possible to slow down and prepare decent quality of food.

It also means that we need to figure out a way to make high quality food — like organic produce — much less expensive.

Damn. After reading that study, I sat down to make a list of foods that are so quick and easy to prepare that many don’t even require cooking and absolutely all of them provide more nutrition for your body than a fast food meal does.

Here is what I have come up with so far. I hope you will freely forward this to your friends, co-workers, and family, especially your grown children who are working so hard and need to have really easy options to can reach for — options that don’t take any more time to prepare than waiting in line at the drive up window.

Fast Food Alternatives:

yogurt with fruit — anyone can layer some yogurt, berries and granola to make a parfait ready to eat within minutesnuts and nut butters — spread a dollop on veggies like carrot sticks & on fruits like apples for a protein and fiber rich snack or light mealveggies or crackers with hummushard boiled egg — eat as is or slice and put on a piece of toast (this is my go-to dinner on long work days)avocado toast — as simple as toasting a piece of toast and mashing half an avocado on top (add a drizzle of lemon juice, salt and pepper if you like)smoothies — zero cooking, just have frozen fruits & veggies on hand and blendsoup — find some one pot recipes you like, throw ingredients together over the weekend and you can eat this meal all week longpizza — keep ingredients on hand to make yourself in 2 minutes flat: pre-made cauliflower crusts, some pizza sauce or just a sliced tomato, a sprinkling of cheese and any other veggie toppings you like, then bake.tacos — if you keep a can of beans, some taco toppings like lettuce and shredded cheese, and possibly even some ground beef or ground turkey on hand you can make a taco dinner that combines healthy protein and fresh veggies for your family in the same 10 minutes you could be waiting in a drive throughwraps — likewise, even without cooking or heating anything up, if you can keep some wraps, veggies, cheeses, and/or lunch meats that you like on hand, you are never more than 2 minutes away from a simple meal that is as easy as roll up and enjoybaked oatmeal — bake this once a week and grab a scoop for breakfast every morning, I like to mix apple sauce into mine to make it taste bettergrass fed burgers — it barely takes any more time to form a patty and cook it (or heat up a veggie alternative) than it does to wait in a drive through. Eat it with some cheese, or on a bun, or simply dip into a condiment of your choiceveggie frittata — this is the most ambitious of the entire list and it still literally only requires whisking a few eggs, folding in some veggies and/or cheese, and cooking it. You can make a frittata either stovetop or baked and similar to the baked oatmeal — make it once and eat it all week

 

 

10.  Join My Online Class For More Support:

 

If you want more support in making healthy food choices (like today’s blog post on decreasing sugar cravings) plus learn about 4 other things that are WAY more important than what you eat — things that can help accelerate getting you to a healthy weight even if you make no changes in your diet at all — then I highly suggest you  join my Weight Release & Reset online class,.

Hop over here for more information and to reserve your spot.

“I just wanted to say how much I enjoyed the Weight Reset emails and videos! I looked forward to each and every day.  Your class gave me so much hope!”  – C.C.

“This was AWESOME!!  I loved all the information — the medical studies to back it up and the daily reminders.  Plus – I love that you can do this at your own pace.  Thank you!”  – C.W.

“I got a lot out of the class.  I was surprised at how many different things can affect your weight and when you talked about them in the class… it was like a bell went off.  I would  definitely recommend the class to others.”  – S.G.

“There was so much to take in each day!  I looked forward to the emails and the videos so much.  I would recommend this course even if someone didn’t want to lose weight but just heal.”  – D.D.

I’ve based this entire course directly off of the medical literature and my 20+ years of experience helping to support patients to feel their best, holistically and with no stress!

Snag your spot here and let me support you:

 

11.  Add Topical CBD Into Your Skin Care Routine:

 

CBD is incredibly anti-inflammatory and soothing (if you want to hear me speak about the role of CBD in trauma recovery, you can listen to my podcast on that here) so it’s no surprise that researchers have found several different cannabinoid receptors in the skin.

Both cannabinoid receptors type 1 and type 2 (CB1 and CB2) are found in all skin, and help regulate everything from our hair growth to our skin’s immune system to our skin’s oil production.  CB1 and CB2 receptors have been found in our keratinocytes, hair follicles, sebeceous glands, on the skin’s nerve fibers (including pain receptors that give rise to pain and itch sensations) and mast cells (which are responsible for our skin’s allergic response.)

 

 

CBD has been well studied for it’s role in facilitating skin healing, treating acne, reducing itch and even decreasing inflammatory reactions such as eczema.   Researchers have found that supporting the endocannabinoid system may help reduce itching associated with chronic skin conditions, as well as decrease inflammation (showing promise for help in treating eczema) as well as decreasing oil production (making it a new avenue to treat acne.).

Many major research articles suggest that application of CBD to the skin improves human skin function while also being incredibly safe and well tolerated.  I’ve listed some of the best ones below, if you’d like to dive directly into the medical literature on this:

Therapeutic Potential of Cannabidiol (CBD) for Skin Health and DisordersThe antimicrobial potential of cannabidiolTopical Administration of Cannabidiol: Influence of Vehicle-Related Aspects on Skin Permeation ProcessThe potential role of cannabinoids in dermatologyCannabidiol induces antioxidant pathways in keratinocytesCannabidiol exerts sebostatic and antiinflammatory effects on human sebocytesAn Observational Study of the Application of a Topical Cannabinoid Gel on Sensitive Dry SkinTolerability profile of topical cannabidiol: evaluator-blinded clinical and in vitro studies in normal skinIn vitro percutaneous absorption studies of cannabidiol using human skinCannabidiol-Mediated Changes to Keratinocytes from Psoriatic PatientsThe Anti-Inflammatory Effects of Cannabidiol (CBD) on AcneCannabis sativa and Skin Health: Dissecting the Role of Phytocannabinoids

The purity and potency of the vast majority of CBD products on the market is super variable and of questionable quality, so I highly recommend getting your CBD (whether topicals, capsules, gummies or tinctures) through ECS Therapeutics, which requires a physician to order it for you.

 

 

These are prescription grade, pharmacy quality CBD oil products that are organically grown right here in the USA and quality tested more thouroghly than any other CBD product I have ever seen.  It’s the only one I personally trust and use.  You can ask your in person physician for an ECS Therapeutics prescription, or you can fill out my contact form here to request more information on prescription strength CBD products ordered directly through me.

So if your acne topicals, or ezema ointments, or antihistamine lotions, or any other topical skin care products you have tried have failed to help resolve your chronic skin issue, I highly recommend giving CBD products a chance to get your skin into it’s best shape ever.  And now is the time to do it, before the cold, raw temperatures outside and the super dried-out, heated air on the inside makes your skin condition worse.  Email me today (through my contact form) and let’s get started.

 

12. Restore Your Gut-Skin Axis:

 

Did you know that the microbiome in your gut is tied to the microbiome on your skin, and alterations in the gut microbiome is linked to a large number of skin diseases?   Deficiencies in your gut microbiome is linked to an altered immune response and an increase in the development of skin diseases such as eczema, psoriasis, acne, rosacea, alopecia and skin cancer.  If you want to read through the medical evidence of how the gut microbiome plays a role in tons of common skin disorders, this review, published in Microorganisms in 2021 is a fabulous overview to start with.

Enter a new way to treat skin conditions: probiotics.  A medical literature review just published in Nutrients in 2023 gives strong evidence that probiotics are crucial to long term skin health, and are even anti-aging.

 

image courtesy of: The Role Of Probiotics In Skin Health

As a result of this latest information on the role of the gut microbiome and long term skin health, I’ve added my favorite skin supportive probiotic formulation to my Skin Repair Protocol here:

 

Bonus Tip: Re-evaluate your boundaries:

 

Your skin is always speaking to you.

Skin can speak subtly through chronic messages that it whispers to you your entire life… or skin can scream loudly and angrily during acute transitions and times of crisis.

Because our skin replicates so quickly, it is a wonderful mirror for what is going on with the rest of our body and mind:

If we are anemic, it shows us quickly.If we are dehydrated, it shows us quickly.If we are malnourished, our skin will lack that robust glow that healthy skin gives.If we have been neglecting our selves in other ways, our skin will reveal us.If we are unhappy, our skin literally sags.If we have lost connection with joy, our skin tells it.If we feel ugly, our skin mirrors that.

And because it covers our entire body, every thought we think and every word we say and every intention we ever have passes through our skin on its way to communicate with the outside world.

So it doesn’t just protect us from the world… quite the opposite is true too: it translates our inner being to the surface. It shows the world what is going on inside of us.

It is constantly in contact with and intimate with our inner workings. Because of this, skin reflects how we feel about ourselves.  Skin forms our barrier, our identity. It forms what we perceive as *us* and delineates *us* from *the rest of the world*.

In short, skin represents our personal boundary.

And every winter… during the darkest, coldest months, we get an invitation to go inward re-evaluate our boundaries before we emerge this coming spring fresh and new.

Grab a journal or get into an open meditative mindframe and ask yourself:

Are you grinning and bearing something that you’d secretly like to say a firm no to?Are you letting someone in your energy space that constantly irritates or drains you?Do you need to set some healthy boundaries at work?Do you need to set clearer boundaries around your time? We all have the same 24 hours in a day, but if you are doing activities you don’t feel aligned with or tending to emotional needs of others constantly, you will find much of that time will disappear and you won’t even know where it all went.Do you have a friendship that needs some boundaries clarified and strengthened?Do you have a family member that you need to create firmer boundaries and consequences of boundary violations with?Do you need more personal space when you are home? Do you have a place where it’s clear to everyone sharing your home that they are not to disturb you?Do you need to set boundaries in your sexual relationships?

Double-check that you say no when you need to and have clear boundaries that allow you to do what you truly want to do and enjoy that without guilt.

If you find your skin is stressed out, ask yourself what boundaries need to be strengthened in your life and meanwhile give your skin a little TLC with the other 10 steps listed above and watch the energy shift and your skin improve dramatically.

To your beautiful, radiant, ever repairing skin…xoxox,Laura Koniver MD

 

 

 

The post New Research Shows This Supplement Dramatically Decreases Aging Of The Skin appeared first on Intuition Physician.

4 Totally Natural Ways To Protect Your Eyes Throughout A Lifetime

 

It’s never too early to think about protecting your eyes against age related vision loss, like macular degeneration and glaucoma.   I’m always looking through the medical literature to share with you uplifting, healthy, holistic ways to protect your health, so today I’m excited to tell you several holistic things you can do to protect and preserve your eyesight.

Simple things, like did you know there is a dried berry you can eat that has actually been shown to protect your eyes? Let me tell you about this study and other interesting studies on preventing degenerative eye disease, plus share with you two easy techniques — one that will protect you from cataracts and one that actually supports healthy blood flow all the way to your retina — that you can literally start doing today.

Do all four of these and you’ve protected your vision in a very healthy, natural way that will actually support the health of your entire body too, not just your eyes!

 

4 Totally Natural Ways To Protect Your Eye Health:

 

 

 

1. Eat a handful of dried goji berries daily

 

A medical study published in 2021 in Nutrients found that regularly eating a small amount of dried goji berries may help prevent macular degeneration and slow down it’s development, even if you already have it.

Age related macular degeneration affect more than 11 million folks in the US alone, making it one of the leading causes of vision loss (just behind cataracts) which means likely you know lots of folks that could use this important information.

In this study, participants who ate 1 oz (equivalent to a small handful) of dried goji berries five days a week for three months, actually increased the density of protective pigments in their retina. Not just preventing deterioration, but actually improving the protective health of the eye!

Participants who took an eye supplement with the same nutrients that are thought to be eye protective (lutein and zeaxanthin) for the same period of time did not have any increase in these protective pigments.

It’s believed that the naturally occurring lutein and zeaxanthin in the berries help protect the eye from blue light, similar to ‘sunscreen for your eyes” according to lead researcher Xiang Li.

It’s important to note that supplementing with these two nutrients through a capsule did not provide the same protective benefit as eating the actual dried berries, showing that if you can get nutrition in through whole foods, it is a superior way to support the body.

Even folks with healthy eyes can increase the density of protective pigments in their retina by consuming a handful of goji berries daily, so it’s never too early to protect your eyes with this whole food source of nutrients.

 

2. Filter fluoride out of your water

 

A medical study published in 2019 in the International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health found that fluoride exposure increased oxidative stress, impaired antioxidant activity, and contributes to multiple types of degenerative eye disease, including macular degeneration, cataract formation and glaucoma.

The authors of this study state that “reducing fluoride intake may lead to an overall reduction in the modifiable risk factors associated with degenerative eye diseases” and in fact go further to suggest that removing fluoride has other benefits… they “suggest a possible association between fluoride exposure and other inflammatory diseases.”

Well we do already know that fluoride is whole-body toxic.

It accumulates in bone and is associated with osteoporosis formation, is taken up by your cardiovascular walls and increases heart disease risk, is a neurotoxin and is linked to a decrease in IQ in children exposed to fluoride — that’s why you need to supervise children when brushing their teeth, to make sure they don’t swallow that toothpaste!  It’s printed right on the label of all children’s fluoride based toothpastes, and for good reason.

You can read more about why I advocate for filtering out fluoride from your drinking water if you want to, by clicking over to one of these medical articles, in addition to the one I already shared above:

Fluoride Lowers IQ Fluoride Uptake Into Cardiovascular Walls Meta-analysis: Fluoridation of Water Is Unsafe

What I suggest, even if you do want to brush with a fluoride toothpaste, is to make sure you are at least not drinking it.  About 72% of United States citizens drink fluoridated water from the public water supply, according to a 2022 report by the CDC. That’s well over 2/3rds of us, drinking fluoridated water on a daily basis, adding this toxin to our organ systems whether we want to or not.  I truly feel you should filter fluoride out of your drinking water and only use fluoride directly on your teeth for cavity prevention if you do want to use fluoride.

When selecting a fluoride water filtration system for your home, look for these features: made from stainless steel (no plastic, not even in the spigot!) removes fluoride, leaves crucial minerals (like magnesium) in the water, and is routinely laboratory tested.  My personal favorite filtration system is made by ProOne —  I don’t get any funding from ProOne, it’s just the system I use in my own home because after extensive research, it’s the one I feel works best.

 

 

 

 

3. Get Grounded Daily

 

Touching the earth, whether directly outside or though indoor grounding tools, boosts the health of your entire body, including your precious eyes.

Want to see it for yourself? In this documentary, you can literally watch a patient get grounded, through an indoor grounding tool, and how his retina responded with markedly better circulation — even re-perfusing the macula (which is almost unheard of!).

Even the retinal specialist was impressed with the results that grounding made, stating he had never seen that amount of improvement in blood flow to the macula before.  The macula is perhaps the most important part of the retina, because it is responsible for sharp, central vision and for color perception.

Even though the patient in that film used an indoor grounding tool to be grounded, even easier is to directly touch the earth directly outside — you will be instantly grounded from head to toe. Touching one blade of grass, or one leaf on a tree is enough to ground your entire body, connecting you to the healing energy of the earth and putting your body immediately into a healing state.

You watch it for yourself for free on YouTube right here.

 

Of course I think everyone should go outside and touch the earth every single day — even when it’s cold, even if you have no yard, even if you live in a city, even when it’s hot as heck out there.

But I know that can be hard. I don’t have a backyard myself, I work crazy long hours, and I hate the cold too, so I have become very creative in getting my time on the earth each day in ways that are safe and accessible, year round.

I wrote an entire book dedicated to helping you figure out ways to get grounded directly to the earth too, no matter what the season and no matter where you live. It’s called The Earth Prescription and I’d love to sign a copy and send it right to you to help support your daily grounding routine:

 

 

The Earth Prescription (signed by Dr. Laura Koniver)

But as the documentary Heal For Free shows, you can receive similar benefits even while comfortably inside, using an indoor grounding tool. I believe these grounding tools should be non-toxic, eco friendly, hand made, and ethically crafted.

After all, if we are seeking health support from the earth, shouldn’t we make sure the tools we are using are earth friendly? That’s why I make organic grounding tools and offer them to you right here in my Eco-Ethical Grounding Boutique.

 

 

4.  Wear Sunglasses During Peak Sun Hours

 

Reduce risk of developing cataracts, as well as slow development of them even if you already have some clouding of the lens (and that is all of us over 30 years old!)

Although I have written extensively on the health benefits of getting out in the sun — like boosting your lifespan, here —  I do recommend protecting your eyes from UV exposure during peak sun hours (10 AM – 4 PM) while you are out in the sunshine.

That’s because cataract formation is a direct reflection of a lifetime of UV exposure, and although most people won’t begin to notice symptoms from cataract formation until after age 60, they actually start to form around age 40 and get progressively more opaque.  We’ve known that UV radiation from the sun causes cataracts for a long time, for example, one study published in the New England Journal of Medicine in 1988 found that participants in the highest quartile of sun exposure had over 3 times the rate of cataract formation by an average age of only 53.

Ultraviolet rays break down a protein in the lens, causing oxidative damage and making them more cloudy.  Sunglasses help by blocking UV radiation to the eye (and as a bonus may also protect the delicate skin around the eyes) which not only protects against cataracts, it also slow the rate of progression of the cataracts. So it’s worth wearing sunglasses starting now, even if you have not been wearing them earlier on in life… it’s never too late to decrease further lens damage by protecting against UV exposures.

When choosing sunglasses, choose ones that provide full 100% UV protection, which includes blocking UVA and UVB rays, as both types of UV rays have now been found to damage lens proteins.  Although it was traditionally thought that it was the UVB rays that caused cataract formation, a study published in the Journal of Biological Chemistry in 2014 found that UVA rays also break down lens proteins contributes to cataract formation. 

And keep in mind that darker lenses don’t mean they protects against UV exposures better, so be sure to choose sunglasses that are labeled as UV protective instead of going by how dark they are.  Also try to select wrap around sunglasses, as these offer better protection by blocking UV rays from more angles and can reduce the amount of UV light that enters the eyes from the sides.

So here’s your new 4 step completely natural eye care Rx!

 

Eat a small handful of dried goji berries routinely – they are even better than eye supplements!Filter fluoride out of your drinking waterGround to the earth — either indoors or outside — daily.Wear 100% UV protective eyewear while you are outside.

 

Enjoy this empowering, totally natural and holistic information to keep your body feeling it’s best, and protecting your eyesight for a lifetime!

xoxox,Laura Koniver, MD

 

I created this artwork out of my old med school anatomy book.
It has sold, but you can find lots of other healing artwork that I have personally created right here.

The post 4 Totally Natural Ways To Protect Your Eyes Throughout A Lifetime appeared first on Intuition Physician.