Laura Koniver, MD's Blog, page 14

The Dance… My Latest Original Painting And Why I Painted It

“What is to give light must endure burning.”-Victor Frankl

 

 

In turning 49. starting my 50th circle around the sun, I’m ever aware that time on this earth, any length of time, even one day of time, is precious.  I want to start thanking my body for the gift of waking up today in it.  And focus on what an honor that is, not the things I don’t like about it or the limitations I perceive from it.

To remind myself, I wanted to choose a word of the year that evoked the energy of wearing my body in a joyful way, and moving in it with gratitude.  I considered Slay, Sashay, Twirl, Strut, Shimmy and Glide. Ultimately I chose the word: Dance. 

I want to dance in this body, every movement a motion of gratitude.  I want to enjoy wearing this body for as long as I am able to wear it before I put it down and it ceases to exist.  I want to enjoy moving this body, both in little ways and big, in private and in public, with loved ones or alone, in praise for being alive and in gratitude for what I am experiencing here on this earth.

 

Here is the world.Terrible and beautiful things will happen.Don’t be afraid.– Frederick Büechner

 

I decided to create a painting that reminded me to move my body while I am still lucky enough to be in it… in all it’s ups and downs, in all it’s leaps and stops, in all it’s joy and pain.  I wanted to share it with you here today.

I started by sketching a canvas of a woman in different states of dance, including the highest and lows of it all:

 

 

 

I chose to paint the background of the canvas dark, to show the journey of life — how very difficult it can be, how very heavy it can feel, how very lonely it can be.

Then I wanted to show that the darkness is actually illuminated by our movement.  Especially when we move in joy, or in gratitude.  We bring forth light into this world each and every day, no matter what our dance looks like in any given moment.  So I started painting rays of light beaming from the heart center of each pose, shining freely:

 

“Light will eventually split you open.”-Hafiz

 

 

 

Painting it reminded me of something that I repeat often in my head to give myself when I need courage… it is simply this:

When you drive in the night, you turn your headlights on to see, and even with headlights on, you can only see a couple hundred feet or so in front of you.  Yet you can drive clear across and entire continent, only seeing that immediate ground in front of you.

You can literally drive from one side of the country to the other, even if it were pitch darkness the entire way, simply by navigating what is right in front of you and no more.

And that’s how it is in life, too.

Only our body is the vehicle we are driving, and our soul becomes our headlights.  Letting your soul shine into the space around you, even when you don’t know your next step, even when you feel covered in darkness, even when you have no idea what you are doing or why or how, you can navigate the day you are in by wearing your body with gratitude and accepting what is unfolding just right front of you.

You don’t have to see in the distant future, you don’t have to look in the rearview mirror at the past.  Just the step that lay before you, then the next one, then the one after that.  For an entire lifetime.  Wearing your body and letting your soul shine the way.  Moment by moment by moment.

And if we can do that joyfully, if we can wear our bodies like we are grateful to be wearing them, then we bring light into the darkness, and life into the world, both for ourselves and for others.

So I drew little bits of life growing up and around and from the dancer herself:

 

 

 

 

 

It’s such an honor to wear your body.

Bringing light and life everywhere you go in the darkness.

Wear it like you are the luckiest person in the entire world to get to wear that body today.

I hope you enjoy this painting that I call The Dance.  I painted it for me but maybe I also painted it for you?  If it is calling out for you, find out the details of this gallery wrapped, original canvas right here.

I hope you can use it as a reminder today to wear your body lightly. Gratefully.  It’s only here for the briefest moment of time, and you are the lucky soul that gets to wear it for today.

Come dance with me while we are still here to do it.

 

 

 

 

The Dance

xoxoxo, Laura Koniver MD

P.S. You can find tons more of my original paintings, both canvases and prints, right here.

 

The post The Dance… My Latest Original Painting And Why I Painted It appeared first on Intuition Physician.

Why You Think More Clearly When You Spend Time Outside

 

 

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.

Today I want to share with you a sneak peek of my next medical journal publication (submitted for review and accepted for publication in Open Journal Of Neurology & Neuroscience) where I suggest why it’s easier to think, and even get clarity and flashes of insight/intuition, when we are outside in nature.

 

 

While grounding has been shown to support brain function by decreasing inflammation, boosting mood, and even shifting brain wave patterns, I believe there is an exciting novel pathway that grounding may even help improve mental clarity and help with decision making. 

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. 

 

 

Researchers found that the frequency of this brain ping is once every 30 seconds, which is the brain’s short term memory decay time, indicating that the earth provides perfectly timed “micro-guidance”, re-orienting us in a subtle way that provides meaning and clarity but not long enough as to disrupt cognitive thought as we navigate daily life.

The duration of coherence was long enough to give rise to the possibility that the earth itself may send electrical signaling, or electrical information our brain, just long enough to allow an intuitive insight, or a flash of understanding to occur, but not long enough to disrupt our stream of consciousness.

In other words, it’s possible that the earth boosts our ability to receive orienting information without disrupting cognition.  

 

 

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 brain utilizing fMRI has found that brain damage to that area of the cortex results in patients being able to generically identify images and items that are viewed, but not be able to meaningfully interpret these images. 

Victims of stroke or other damage to the parahippocampal areas of the brain have a feeling of being lost, disconnected, or un-anchored from the deeper meaning of visual cues and lose purposeful and relevant life navigational tools.   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, helps to give a deeper perspective on our personal life’s journey, and may even help open our subconscious up to reframing and refocusing our life’s meaning through these environmental “pings” from our planet.  

 

 

Have you ever spent time in nature when you are mulling over a big life decision, or feeling distraught, overwhelmed or confused, and then you suddenly have a deeper insight, a gut feeling, a pull, or an intuition that provides greater clarity?  

These studies suggest a direct pathway for the earth to enhance and support our not only our daily decision making, but also connect to our deeper understanding and even our intuitive capabilities through earth-to-brain coherence.

I think of grounding as hitting a reset button, a chance for a pause that brings clarity into focus.  By connecting with the earth, we can shift the brain from high strung beta waves to calming alpha wave patterns, decrease inflammation to help improve mood, even possibly help provide greater clarity or boost intuitive navigation in our lives, all naturally. 

Want to hear me talk more deeply about this concept?

I have a 5 minute YouTube video for you here that you can watch (& share with all of your friends who enjoy the great outdoors!) as well as a shorter 2 minute TikTok about it here:

 

 

 

 

@laurakonivermd

Head outside the next time you are struggling with a decision #holistichealth #nature #laurakonivermd #grounding #intuitionphysician #earthing #conductivehealth #medicalstudies #decisionmaking

♬ original sound – Laura Koniver, MD

 

Grounding is an instantly accessible healing tool that can provide immediate support during periods of stress no matter where you are or what you are doing.

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… grounding supports your mood and enhances brain function and provides you with inner clarity and a deeper understanding of meaning in your life.

So the next time you are feeling anxious, or having difficulty finding the clarity to make a big decision, or simply feel your mood dive, just go outside. Touch the earth and let nature support you immediately. The earth can hold even your worst of days and remain an immovable source of strength. 

 

 

And the effects of grounding the human body start instantly, so there is no time too short for getting grounded — if it can only be 30 seconds, so be it.  If it can be 15 minutes, or 30 minutes, all the better.  If you have one rock outside you can touch, one blade of grass you can touch, one leaf on a tree outside, or one square inch of sidewalk you can stand on, you can be instantly grounded.  Even in an urban location, or in the winter, or when you travel… you can and should get grounded outside to help keep your brain functioning at it’s best.

If you want more tips and ideas to on how to get outside and connect with our earth, grab your copy of The Earth Prescription and you’ll be all set for an entire year of outdoor grounding, no matter where you live and no matter what season it is.

xoxoxo,Laura Koniver MD

 

 

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The post Why You Think More Clearly When You Spend Time Outside appeared first on Intuition Physician.

Do You Know All 8 Ways To Decrease Your Seasonal Allergy Symptoms Today?

 

 

For many, the first thing that comes to their mind during spring isn’t pedicures and bare feet, picking fresh strawberries and blueberries, gardening and sunshine… its allergies: puffy eyes, sneezing attacks, runny noses and difficulty breathing. 

Well that stinks. But I’ve got your back!

This season I am not letting allergies bring you down, because spring is such an exciting time of renewal and awakening and I want you outside enjoying this spring time every single day, not hiding from it.

So instead, here are 8 things you can do RIGHT NOW to decrease allergy symptoms this spring, naturally:

 

8 Ways To Holistically Treat Seasonal Allergies:

 

 

1. Wash your hands like it’s going out of style.

 

Every single time you touch a door knob, your car door, your shoes, a hand railing… well, in the spring time, you can be sure you just loaded your hands up with pollen.

Innocently scratch your nose or rub your eyes and you just inoculated yourself with it. Without meaning to, you have just made sure that the rest of your day is going to be spent dealing with your seasonal allergy symptoms.  Wash your hand every single time you can, and especially when you come in from being outside, even if it was only to walk from your car to your front door.

And while you are at it, be sure to shower at night to rinse every speck of pollen off of you as well, even if you prefer morning showers. Crawling into bed without showering (even if you change your clothes and have fresh sheets on the bed) means you are in contact with pollen for hours on end, all night long, because there is just no way to get all of the pollen from the outside air and surfaces off of you without washing it off with soap and shampoo. 

If you don’t wash your hair nightly, during allergy season you might consider it if allergies are bothering you.  Start by putting fresh sheets so your bed so your bed is pollen free and switch to showering at night all spring long.

Combined with frequent hand washing, I promise from this one switch alone you will notice a huge difference.  You may even want to consider sleeping with a hepa-filter air purifier running by your bed for additional benefits.

 

 

 

2. Eat local honey.

 

Consuming local honey is the holistic equivalent of getting allergy shots — micro exposure to local pollen producing flowering plants but without going to the doctor, without the expense, and without sticking metal into your skin. By taking some locally produced honey each day, you are giving yourself a very small exposure to the local flowering plants that grow in your area and give you your seasonal allergies. 

It’s the same principle that allergy shots use, but you are letting the honey bees do the work of gathering pollen from around your area and creating delicious honey out of it for you to enjoy. The key is it has to be local honey, so head over to your nearest small grocer or farmers market and stock up.

I’ve got a great way for you to take your honey, if you like hard candy. Just boil a cup of honey over medium heat until it reaches the hard crack stage (375 degrees F, you’ll need a candy thermometer to measure this) and then pour into a cookie tray that has been lightly sprayed with cooking oil. Once the honey hardens, you can flip the sheet over and remove the hard candy, and break it into small bite sized pieces. Suck on a honey candy a day and you’ll not only be in heaven taste-wise, but you’ll be reducing the severity of your seasonal allergies naturally.

 

 

 

3. Burn local beeswax candles.

 

Every evening at dinnertime, I light beeswax candles and let the natural scent of beeswax fill the air.  Not only is this an amazing, calming, lovely evening ritual, but breathing in the beeswax candle scent is another simple way to expose yourself to local seasonal pollen and become more resistant and less allergic to them.

Just like with the honey, the bees have done all the work of finding pollen sources from all around the area in your part of the world and all you have to do is sit back and enjoy the glow!

Burning a locally sourced beeswax candle by your beside (extinguish before going to sleep!) and sleeping all night in that room is a very simple way to desensitize yourself to seasonal allergies.

 

 

 

4. Keep grounding, even if it’s indoors.

 

Grounding is simply touching the earth, which directly reduces the inflammation in your body, even in your sinuses. Direct contact with the earth can reduce your whole body inflammation, and is an important way to keep your body’s hyper reactivity low.

In a study published in 2009 in The Journal of Alternative and Complimentary Medicine, researchers found that grounded subjects had statistically significant decreases in blood markers of inflammation compared to non-grounded subjects.  An overview of how grounding decreases whole body inflammation was published June 2014 in the Journal of Inflammation Research.  Even more recently, in a study published January 2019 in Frontiers in Physiology, researchers found that grounding resulted in a 10 — 20% drop in inflammatory cytokines.

But the problem is that during spring, if you have seasonal allergies you tend to stay indoors to get away from all the outdoor triggers like pollen.  So that’s when it’s most important to have an indoor way to stay connected to the earth and continue to reap the anti-inflammatory benefits of grounding.  Securing an indoor way to stay grounded to the earth is something that will not only help you during allergy season, but all year long whenever it’s too cold or too hot or raining too hard to head outside as well, so it’s something that can benefit your health well past allergy season.

There are lots of options for indoor grounding, including grounding wrist straps to wear, grounding mats to sit or stand on, grounding throw blankets to snuggle on the couch with, grounding bed toppers to sleep on, and much more.  Be sure to select all natural grounding tools that are made from eco-friendly materials and hand crafted in an ethical way, that way your grounding tools are healthy for you and healthy for our planet too.

Find a complete selection of indoor, eco-ethically hand crafted grounding products that I have personally developed and tested for you right here.

 

 

 

5. Take anti-inflammatory supplements.

 

The thing with allergies is that they are worse when your entire body is hyper-stimulated and over worked. When a cup is already full, it only takes a few drops of water to get it to overflow and spill!  That’s how it is when your mast cells are already destabilized and on a hair-trigger to release histamine at the tiniest pollen exposure.

You can take holistic, all natural supplements that keep your mast cells more stabile and less reactive. That means less over all histamine release and less allergic symptoms.  Additionally, you can take supplements that help decrease whole-body inflammation. My favorite three supplements that decrease allergic response in the respiratory system are:

Here are my top supplements to help decrease histamine hyperactivity, reduce mucosal irritation, and feel your best during allergy season.

Omega 3 fatty acids, well known to decrease whole body inflammation.Quercetin, a natural anti-histamine, this supplement stabilizes your mast cells and keeps your body from being so reactive to environmental triggersBromelain, made from pineapples, reduces allergic sensitizationCurcumin, which is a powerfully anti-inflammatory and made from the spice turmericDiamine Oxidase, which is an anti-histamine supplement that blocks histamine release in the gut (from food triggers) which can be an important piece of the puzzle in keeping the entire body in a less reactive state.  If you have tried some of the other natural anti-hitstamine supplements without success, I highly recommend you add on Diamine Oxidase and see the difference it can make.

You can find all of these ingredients combined into three supplements high quality, super effective supplements, all in my easy Seasonal Allergy Protocol, waiting for you right here:

6. Flush out your nose.

 

After showering nightly (as discussed above) rinse out your nasal cavity too so that you are truly pollen and particulate free before crawling into bed.  It’s important to flush allergens out of your upper airways nightly before bed so you are not continuously exposed to them all night long.

Many many folks swear by flushing their sinuses out with saline using a neti pot, so if you want to give it a try I have included one in my Seasonal Allergies Protocol above.  But even just misting your nasal membranes with a saline nasal mist will keep them hydrated and cleansed… just spray saline mist into each nostril and then blow your nose to blow it all out!  I’ve also got my favorite saline based nasal spray in the protocol as well.

Woot!  Now you are truly clean from allergens and ready to give your body a break for the night.

 

 

 

7.  Address the underlying energy of allergies… safety issues.

 

Allergies are your body’s way of being hyper-vigilant and on alert. Your body feels like it’s doing it’s best for you by reacting to foreign stimulus and trying to get rid of it through sneezing and mucous and watery eyes. 

The problem is that your body is reacting to something that isn’t a danger… it is overreacting… being triggered by something that is natural, not a threat to our well being, and not worth reacting to.

So the bottom line for your body is that it is in hyper-vigilant mode… patrolling and on alert when it doesn’t need to be. It is overly concerned for your safety.  If you can address your fears and safety concerns appropriately, your body will not need to be in hypersensitive mode and will not feel the need to over-patrol.

Whatever keeps you from feeling safe — in relationships, at work, in your home — address it. Living in fear for prolonged period of time is very stressful and many people who have been under stress or through a trauma start to develop food sensitivities and allergies (including drug allergies and even seasonal allergies) that they never had before.

In fact, the incidence of allergies of all types is increasing world wide. And this is exactly why. Because if we are living in a hyperviligant state — emotionally and physically — our body responds by increasing it’s sensitivity and reactivity. The result is that new allergies begin to pop up, and current allergies worsen.

Whether you have to quit a job, leave an abusive relationship, install a security system at home, or simply get a dog to feel safe… do it.

You can also further your healing work by addressing trauma with a therapist or counsellor, or with me directly in my next Trauma Recovery & Resiliency Online Class, which starts today.  It’s not too late to be added to the class, just sign up here right now.  

 

 

 

 

8. Consider your seasonal allergies a blessing.

 

It’s true, seasonal allergies might be a nuisance but there may be some benefits you don’t know about.  Some medical studies suggest that folks with allergic rhinitis are more likely to outlive the rest of us.  Presented at the 2014 American Academy of Allergy, Asthma & Immunology conference, researcher Dr. Yoon found that people who tested positive for allergies were less likely to suffer cardiovascular events including heart attack, stroke, and over all risk of death.

In fact, allergy sufferers actually had better over all survival odds… by a lot!  Allergic patients had a 50% lower mortality rate compared to non-allergic folks.  That’s cutting the risk of death in half during the 7 year study period.  

Allergic rhinitis patients had a decreased risk of heart attack, a decreased risk of stroke and over all a significantly decreased risk of all-cause mortality.  “They were basically half as likely to die during the study period,” says Dr. Crans Yoon, after looking at a database of over 200,000+ allergic rhinitis patients and following those patients for a 7 year period.

People with allergic rhinitis had a:

25% decreased rate of heart attack (acute myocardial infarction)19% decreased rate of stroke (cerebrovascular event)49% decreased over all mortality risk

The bottom line?

If you can view your seasonal allergies as a positive adaptation, you’ll struggle against them less.If you struggle against them less, they will have less of a negative impact in your daily life.

There are so many things you can do to lessen how annoying allergies are on a day to day basis: by increased hand washing, nightly showers, flushing your sinuses out with saline nightly, hepa-air filtration in the bedroom, natural supplements that decrease reactivity, consuming local honey, burning beeswax candles, indoor grounding, and truly addressing stress and healing trauma so your body is less hypervigilant.

And ultimately, instead of viewing your immune response to seasonal allergens as a burden, try to feel the power and strength of your immune system as it goes into action on your behalf.

Here’s to a beautiful spring…

xoxox,Laura Koniver MD

 

 

The post Do You Know All 8 Ways To Decrease Your Seasonal Allergy Symptoms Today? appeared first on Intuition Physician.

7 Anti-Aging Daily Routines That Are Absolutely Worth Doing

 

 

Well hello there!  I’m getting older.  This past weekend was my birthday!

49 — it feels like a transition year, the perfect year to get everything sorted so I can jump into my 50s feeling my best… or at least that’s the goal.

To celebrate, I wanted to share my daily wellness routines that I do to keep improving my health and boosting longevity — each one of these are scientifically backed with research so that I know it is worth my time.  And yours.

Watch this 3 minute video and I’ll run you through each of them (you can find this video on TikTok here and my YouTube channel here.).

In this video I answer a reader’s comment asking for anti-aging tips. It’s not so much about “anti-aging” as “non-accelerated aging”.   We are all living in such a toxic world that we are living in a pro-inflammatory, accelerated aging state.

You don’t need that.  Here are 7 lovely ways to step out of an accelerated aging state and go back into a normal, healthy, natural aging pattern:

 

 

If you want more resources for each of the tips I mention, here are the 7 suggestions with links to resources… plus a bonus #8 of my favorite self care ideas — hopefully you can do one or two of these today to help me celebrate my birthday right along side me.

7 Holistic Anti-Aging Daily Activities Backed By Medical Research:

 

 

1.  Move

 

Use it or lose it is the body’s internal mantra.  If you do something every single day, then hopefully you can continue to do it every single day… indefinitely.  Like standing up from a chair without using your hands.  If you do that every single day, you continue to be able to do that no matter what age you reach.  If you stop doing it, all of a sudden you realize one day you truly can not stand up from a chair without leaning on something to help you do it, even in an emergency.

Preserving muscle strength, core strength, balance, flexibility and bone density are all key ways to age well, and moving your body is how you do it.  I love my Barre3 classes, my yoga class, and going on after dinner walks.

For more encouragement and ideas on how to incorporate more movement into your day, here is an article I wrote for you that will help:

 

Try Not To Sit Still For More Than 2 Hours At A Time Today, Here’s Why

 

I also mention how sauna provides many of the same longevity benefits — perfect for those who can not exercise or to add onto your wellness routines in addition to exercise.  You can read more about the health benefits of sauna, and details on how long and how frequently to do it to get these health benefits, right here:

When You Can’t Exercise: Sauna For Similar Health Benefits

 

 

 

 

2.  Sunlight

 

A large medical study published in the Journal of Internal Medicine found that folks who avoided sun exposure actually had a shorter life span… with a decreased life expectancy that was shorter than even heavy smokers who bathed in the sun.  What?!?! Yes.

This was a huge study looked at almost 30,000 participants over a span of 20 years. Researchers tracked health outcomes and life span over two decades and found that even when smoking was factored in, the life span of those who avoided the sun was more than 2 years shorter than heavy smokers who got the highest amount of sun exposure.  As hard as it is to believe, even heavy smokers who soaked in the sun their whole life outlived non-smokers who avoided sun exposure… by years!

This is because participants who avoided the sun had higher rates of cardiovascular disease, diabetes, multiple sclerosis, and pulmonary disease, and the results were dose-specific… meaning that the benefits of increased life expectancy with sun exposure went up directly in correlation to the amount of sun exposure.

Though risk of skin cancer did increase with increased sun exposure, the patients that had skin cancer occur in relation to sun exposure actually had a better long-term prognosis. This on top of recent research revealing that melanomas that occur in patients with low Vitamin D actually have more malignantly aggressive melanoma and their prognosis is worse than those with adequate Vit D from sun exposure.

These results show that avoiding the sun is a “risk factor for death of a similar magnitude as smoking” — directly quoting the researchers of this study.  So the verdict: under-exposure to the sun is actually dangerous. Turns out, longer time in the sun correlates with a longer life span. It’s that simple.

To read more about this study and for lots of tips on how to spend time in the sun safely, I wrote this article for you:

 

6 Ways To Make Spending Time In The Sun Safer

 

 

 

 

 

3.  Grounding

 

This is something I talk about so often that if you’ve read anything from me prior to this one article you are reading right now, you already know all about grounding.  Grounding is simply touching the earth to improve the health of your body.

Here are some resources I’ve created for you to get you started in this life-changing healing practice:

Grounding FAQs

 

Grounding Medical Studies

 

 

The easiest way to get started?

I wrote a book to literally walk you through everything you need to know to set you of for an entire year of healing.  I’ll sign it and send it to you myself!

The Earth Prescription

 

 

4. Hydrate

 

I’m going to be writing an entire blog post dedicated to the importance of hydration, how to tell if you are dehydrated, and tips and tricks on working with water for healing. But today let me just touch on why mentioned I filter my water in today’s video.

After hundreds of studies have shown fluoride affects everything from cognitive function in humans to diabetes, fertility and more in animals, I highly recommend avoiding fluoride in water and never use fluoridated toothpastes.  Fluoride is an enzyme inhibitor, point-blank. But what’s the problem with the minuscule amounts of fluoride added to the public water supply?

The old problem that is widely recognised (even by the National Institutes of Health) is that it accumulates in bone. It is estimated about 50% of the fluoride we consume is eliminated, and 50% is stored. Miniscule amounts of fluoride adding to our bodies sip after sip after sip equals a not-so-minimal exposure. Over a lifetime, these levels can reach high proportions… decreasing bone density and causing brittleness. For a nation whose women have epidemic proportions of osteopenia and osteoporosis, it would be counter productive to continue to drink fluoride on a daily basis. Studies have shown that the rate of hip fracture in elderly is directly increased in areas that fluoridate their water.

Fluoride is being taken up by your cardiovascular system as well. Direct absorption to of fluoride into our cardiovascular walls (and a significant correlation between cardiovascular events and fluoride uptake) makes it all the more urgent for us to avoid fluoride all together.

And now new reports are revealing something even more disturbing — fluoride lowers IQ.    Statements from reps of the National Institutes of Health recommend that people who drink large quantities of water should not drink tap water, but instead switch to bottled water.  We are just getting so much exposure to fluoride, to intentionally consume extra fluoride, whether through drinking water or toothpaste, is way too much.

But bottled water is incredibly un-eco-friendly, so I don’t recommend that either.  I recommend filtering your water — this is win-win for both us and for the planet.  I keep a water filtration system out on my kitchen counter space and not only am I drinking pure, clean, fluoride free water, but every time I walk by my water filter, the visual reminder to drink more water has really helped me to remember to maintain my hydration status.

Here is my favorite water filtration system, in stock right now.

 

 

 

5. Supplements

 

To me, body care starts with nurturing the inside with high quality supplements.

In the video above I go over lots of the different supplements I personally take, and if you hop over to my online dispensary here you will not only find every single one of those, but tons of free protocols where I list my personal recommendations to you based on your health goals.

If you want ever further personalization, you can message me through my online dispensary with any questions or supplement suggestion requests and I will email. you exactly what I think would. work best for you.

Hop over here to get started.

 

 

 

 

 

6.  Sleep

 

Sleep is non-negotiable.  It’s impossible to maintain wellness without high quality sleep.  Poor sleep is related to mental health, accelerated aging (literally shortening your telomeres) weight gain, accidents, increased risk of death, etc… so hopefully this is a sharp reminder to focus on repairing your sleep.

If you need some resources to help you do this, I’ve go you.  Hop over here and read this article now:

 

Winter Is For Hibernating, So Let’s Fix Your Sleep Right Now

 

 

 

 

 

7.  Create

 

If you read my blog you already know I love to paint. 

You might already know what you like to do to express yourself too.  Maybe you sing while you drive.  Maybe you dance as you get dressed every day.  Maybe you enjoy cooking new dishes and making up your own recipes.

If you don’t already have an outlet of creative expression, explore your thoughts with the following journal questions.  Grab a piece of paper and free write, without censoring yourself, what immediately comes to mind when you read each question:

How much of each day do you devote to your own creative pleasure? Any?  Do you feel any guilt when you allow yourself simple pleasures like eating, daydreaming, self care?If you had to pick one emotion that you value more than any other, which emotion would that be? How often do you feel that emotion? What is the emotion you feel most often throughout the day?  How do you express that emotion now, and how do you think you might be able to express that emotion through a creative act.  If you had to express that emotion through your body in some way, what would that be?  What activity would allow you to express and release it most enjoyably?What part of your life do you feel has the most flow? Your career? Partnerships? Parenting? Friendships? Your inner world? Hobbies? Travel? Education? Entertainment? Health? What area would you say is the most stagnant? Do you want to change that?Do you consider yourself creative? Do you feel you were more creative in the past? Do you wish to be more creative in the future? What pleasurable steps can you take to express your creativity more?Do you have a favorite way to play?  If you don’t, this is the article you want to read right now.  In it, I help you figure out what activity you might enjoy and how it can help boost your health:How To Discover Your Play Style & Improve Your Health

 

 

 

8.  Self Care:

 

So to be honest, I really didn’t feel physically good until I became an empty nester.

Of course I miss my children — painfully so. But as a single mom, not only did I have zero time to take care of myself, on some subconscious level  I prioritized my children so much that I would not even allow myself to focus on me in any way.   I didn’t really realize I was doing this until they were both off to college and I noticed I started taking care of my own physical body so much better.  I exercised more, I went to bed earlier, I did little things like put on a hair mask or stopped to read a book here and there so much more often.

In allowing myself a little self care I started liking, and even loving, myself more.  I can feel the difference inside and out.  Maybe you can try one of these ways to practice a little self care today too:

 

Gratitude Shower

Showers are the perfect way to enjoy a private sanctuary to practice self care. Not only are you likely grounded in your shower (watch this video here where I show you with my grounding test meter how you are grounded inside through the plumbing) but incorporating gratitude into your shower will reset you inside and out.  Here’s how:

Set an affirmation for your shower today, for example:

“I step into this shower and feel peace envelope me…”

“I step into this shower to show gratitude to body…”

“I step into this shower and accept an instant health boost…”

Step into the shower and take a moment to allow it to cover you with warmth.As you begin to wash yourself, truly focus on the body part you are cleaning, and the organs that lay underneath each part. As you bath your leg, for example, thank the muscles that hold you upright, the bones that support you, the blood that faithfully brings energy and nutrition to your legs and the nerves that allow you to feel this warm water on your skin. Just hold your leg and gently cleanse it in the water, saying to your leg, “I love you. Thank you.” Feel the love and gratitude pouring through you while you are washing your leg… I actually have been moved to tears in my shower, taking the time to finally say thank you to the body that I tend to ignore for so long.When you are done cleaning, take some oil  (you can just grab some olive oil or coconut oil from your kitchen pantry, or use skin or massage oils if you happen to have any) and pour a bit into your hand. Massage it into each part of your body you can reach… repeating your thankfulness. Allow that part of your body to relax, and let it feel you taking care of it for a change. Feet, legs, arms, stomach, chest, neck, shoulders, hands, face… lovingly apply oil to the skin and bath your body in loving gratitude again.As you towel off each part of your body give gratitude one more time to your healthy body, for supporting your journey in this lifetime.

Once you get in the habit, you’ll never let a shower go by without turning the water into an intentional health experience again!

 

 

Bath

There is significant benefit to be gained from an epsom salt bath at home. Magnesium is an essential mineral (required for over 300 different enzymatic reactions) and absolutely crucial for energy production as well as proper function of our heart, our nerves, our brain and our muscles. And most of us are magnesium deficient.

If you are magnesium deficient, you can be anxious, depressed, low energy, have muscle tension, headaches and insomnia. You might find immediate benefits after just one single Epsom salt soak. Here’s how:

To experience an inexpensive at-home version of float therapy, draw a warm bath just before bedtime, making it just a bit warmer than body temperature (around 100 degrees or so) and add several cups of epsom salts to make a hypertonic magnesium solution.2 cups of Epsom salts will equal one pound of salt in your bath, so shoot for at least 2 cups of salts per bath, but if you want to ration your Epsom salts, even 1 cup will make a difference.Darken the room or place a warm washcloth over the eyes and soak for at least 15 minutes and up to 60 minutes, adding warm water when needed to maintain body temperature.See if you feel more calm, with less muscle tension, and get a better night’s sleep!

 

 

 

Whiten Teeth

Because it is natural for our enamel to yellow as we age, it is an instant boost to your appearance to whiten your teeth… making you look years younger. So here is how I boost my whitening naturally… it’s only three steps and will make a noticeable difference in your teeth!

Start by oil pulling: I talk about oil pulling with coconut in more detail here… but I basically take a small scoop of coconut oil into my mouth and swish it around my teeth for as long as I can stand it — typically I hold it in my mouth for the 5 minutes I take a shower, then I spit it out down the shower drain before stepping out of the shower and drying off. The oil works to soften any plaque build up on your teeth, and is a FABULOUS healthy fat for your body so the more your oral mucosa absorbs, the better!Swish with 3% Hydrogen Peroxide: I use this as a pre-rinse before brushing… I just use a little bit (be sure not to swallow!!! It will burn!) and swish all around, letting it foam all over my teeth and my tongue. Then spit out the hydrogen peroxide and follow with this:Brush with baking soda: Although there are lots of great all natural toothpastes, when you are whitening your teeth, the combo of hydrogen peroxide with baking soda is AH-MAZ-ING. And the added bonus of not having to worry about any additional fluoride exposure is liberating. If you are using a fluoridated toothpaste, and you are a female, please think again. As I talked about above, fluoride is thinning to your bones and whether you are 20 or 70 you really want to protect the strength and long-term density of your bones.

It’s that simple: oil pull, swish with hydrogen peroxide, and brush with baking soda.

Do this as often as you like… I do it once a week. Give it a try for a month and you will see noticeable results!!!

 

 

 

DIY Face Mask

There are so many incredibly awesome DIY face mask recipes on the internet, so you should be able to find some ingredients in your pantry to make at least one or two different face masks without having to buy a thing.

There are face masks based off of yogurt, ones based off of honey, ones based off of oatmeal, ones based off of coffee grounds… look around your kitchen to see what you might have on hand already and then do an internet search to find hundreds of masks to whip up!

Here are my two favs:

Avocado Honey Mask

Mash one-quarter of an avocado in a small bowl.Drizzle in one tablespoon honey, mashing and mixing well.Apply the mask to clean skin for 10 minutes.Wash off with warm water, then follow with a moisturizer.

Banana Mask

Mash one-half of a banana in a bowl.Mix in a tablespoon of orange juice and a tablespoon of honey.Apply the mask to clean skin (it will be lumpy and that’s fine) and keep the mixture on for 15 minutes.Remove banana mixture from skin and discard in the trash, then rinse with warm water and follow with a moisturizer.

Don’t feel like mixing up a face mask?

Just apply plain yogurt to your face before hopping in the shower or bath and rinse off!

 

DIY Hair Mask:

Most people think of doing a face mask when doing an at-home spa day, but lots of people skip one of the easiest ways to refresh your look, and that’s with a hair mask!

There are just as many lovely ingredients in your pantry that you can use on your hair as there were for your face, maybe more! Even simply warming some coconut oil or olive oil in a microwave safe bowl for 15 seconds and applying it to your hair before showering can completely transform your locks.

To go one step more fancy, consider any one of these hair mask recipes:

1 egg + I tsp honey + 1 tsp apple cider vinegar1 tbsp coconut oil + 1 tbsp honey1/2 an avocado + 1 tbsp honey + 1 tbsp of olive oil1/2 cup mayonnaise + 1 tsp vanilla extract1 egg + 1/2 cup yogurt

Apply blended ingredients to dry untangled hair, wait 20 minutes, rinse thoroughly with warm water, follow with a gentle shampoo if desired.

 

 

 

Exfoliate

Give your skin a quick weekly exfoliation to sweep away dead skin cells and allow your skin to better absorb your moisturizer afterwards as well. Over time, you will notice improved circulation, improved texture, softer plumper skin.

To exfoliate, simply make a paste by mixing baking soda and a little coconut oil and us it to gently scrub your skin to remove dead skin cells. If you want to go even more simple, you can literally just sprinkle some baking soda in your hand, dampen with water and massage on skin in gentle circles.

But to up the moisture of your skin, I love going the extra step of mixing baking soda and coconut oil, like this:

1/2 cup organic coconut oil, melted or very soft1/4 cup baking soda

Mix ingredients well, until thoroughly blended and creamy. Use a small scoop to exfoliate skin gently all over the body. Any left over? Your exfoliator will keep for weeks at cool room temp.

 

Dry Brushing:

Alternatively you can dry brush your skin using a natural bristled brush before stepping in the shower or bath. Simply:

Use a natural (not synthetic) bristle brush.Get naked and use long sweeping motions lightly over all skin surfaces.Overlap strokes as you go, and be sure to lighten your pressure over any sensitive areas. Do not dry brush on areas with rashes or broken skin.After dry brushing your entire body, shower or bathe to cleanse.When finished bathing, pat skin dry and apply a natural moisturizer (like coconut oil) to further pamper your skin. While you are at it, drink a big glass of water to internally hydrate as well!Leave your dry brush in a clean area with good air flow, to air dry before the next use. Use daily or as often as desired.

 

Scalp Massage 

I highly recommend scalp massages because you can give them to yourself any day, any time, any location, and they help reduce stress and tension throughout your entire body!

Just like a foot massage is something simple you can do for yourself to relax your body from head to toe, a scalp massage brings more blood flow to your scalp, which stimulates healthy scalp and healthy hair.

You can do a dry scalp massage… simply using clean fingertips to gently rub your scalp in circular motions… or just prior to stepping into the shower, you can even use some coconut oil to really give yourself a luxurious scalp massage. Simply dip your fingers in coconut oil and rub in circular motions all over your scalp. This is so fabulous if you have a flaky scalp, as the oil will help lift and the rubbing motion will help remove any flakes… and the moisturization of the coconut oil is fabbo for hair! Just shampoo twice to be sure to rinse the oil out.

 

 

 

Pleasure

The absolute epitome of pleasurable self care is nurturing the sensual nature of our bodies. Sensual pleasure is something to allow and welcome and receive… not something you need to force or fabricate.  Orgasm — either alone or with a partner — is awesome of course, but is not the only way to focus on your pleasure today.

Some other ideas include:

picking clothing that **feels good** to your skin to wearchoosing underwear that makes you feels attractiveplacing your hand on your lower abdomen to center on and connect to your sexual energy center, then actively visualize expanding this energy to include your entire body and outwards, filling your entire energy space — use your whole aura to exude sensual energy!re-assess what sensuality means to you right in this moment… everyone’s sexuality is constantly evolving and expanding. What is your definition of sexy right now? What makes you feel sexually alive? What attracts you or catches your eye throughout the day?getting or giving a massagesoaking in a hot tub — light candles, add pleasurable scents/essential oils in the water that appeal to you, finish with luxurious oils to moisturizeadorning your body with temporary tattoos that make you smile and empower you when you see them on your body

 

 

Be sure to keep your favorite new additions to your daily self care practices going indefinitely!

Also be sure you are signed up to receive my free newsletter so you don’t miss any of the uplifting holistic healing tips I send out each week!

If someone forwarded you this email so you could join in on this health routines mini-series with them, you can sign up for my newsletter right here to get these tips delivered directly to your own inbox by clicking right here:

 

 

To your naturally resilient, astoundingly incredible human body!xoxox, Laura

 

The post 7 Anti-Aging Daily Routines That Are Absolutely Worth Doing appeared first on Intuition Physician.

How Grounding Boosts Your Mood + 10 Ways It Fits Into Your Day Today

 

 

 

We’ve know for a long time (and honestly common sense and personal experience tells you this as well) that time spent outside lifts your spirits.

In fact a double blind medical study published in 2015 found that participants who were grounded had measurable improvements in mood that were significantly higher than the sham-grounded participants.

We also know that inflammation in the body worsens mood and even plays a role in clinical depression.  A medical study published in 2016 found that increased inflammation in the body worsens symptoms of clinical depression, and this one published in 2019 backs those findings up.  Researchers found that higher levels of blood markers of inflammation were found to be directly correlated with a variety of depressive symptoms, including sleep difficulty, decreased energy levels, decreased motivation and change in appetite.

 

 

 

This study, published in 2014, found that if you decrease inflammation, you can actually help more effectively treat depression. Researchers reviewed 14 randomized, placebo-controlled studies looking at over 6,300 patients and found that adding anti-inflammatory medications to a treatment plan helped to lessen depressive symptoms and resolve depressive episodes better than placebo alone and better than anti-depressants alone. This study, published in 2016, further confirmed these results.

The link between depression and inflammation is so concrete now that I feel no one should be treated for depression without also treating the body for inflammation. Physicians should incorporate a medical evaluation for inflammation alongside any work up for depression, because inflammation from stress, poor sleep, infection, illness, diet, EMF exposures, total body burden of toxic exposures, etc… can all cause inflammation that contributes to depression.

By addressing inflammation along with depression you actually can help resolve depression more effectively.

 

 

 

So while we absolutely know that inflammation impacts mood, what we didn’t know before now is how.  Of course there are likely other factors at play, but one of the pathways a new study suggests is that inflammation lowers dopamine levels in the brain, which is responsible for decreased mood, decreased motivation, and anhedonia.

In this study, published May 2020 in Trends in Cognitive Sciences, researchers found a direct correlation between blood markers of inflammation (inflammatory cytokines) and motivation. Specifically, that inflammation lowers dopamine levels in the brain, that switches the brain from positive to negative thinking.

As dopamine drops, you can go from feeling capable and motivated to feeling incapable and unmotivated.

Basically, inflammation gives you a motivational impairment, and prevents you from thinking optimistically as well as keeps you from accurately assessing what you are capable of. Even if you fully are capable of doing something, your brain will tell you that you are not. You’re motivation tanks and your outlook dims as a result of chronic inflammation.

 

 

 

So let’s take this one step further.

We know with absolute clarity that grounding decreases whole body inflammation.

In a study published in 2009 in The Journal of Alternative and Complimentary Medicine, researchers found that grounded subjects had statistically significant decreases in blood markers of inflammation compared to non-grounded subjects. In addition, decreases in inflammation as a result of grounding are well documented using medical thermography imaging in this study. An overview of how grounding decreases whole body inflammation was published June 2014 in the Journal of Inflammation Research.

We also know grounding specifically decreases the exact same inflammatory cytokines that have a direct impact on our dopamine levels. 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 inflammatory cytokine concentration.

And because of the newest research showing that inflammatory cytokines have a direct reflection in our mood and motivation levels, we can see a potential direct explanation for why grounding boosts mood. By decreasing inflammatory cytokines, it’s resonable to suggest that grounding gives a natural dopamine boost to the brain.

 

 

 

This is on top of the fact that grounding also boosts our Vitamin D levels, as well as surrounds us with views of greenery, as well as allows us to get active and move our physical body, and even allows us to sleep in a deeper and more restorative way that night…

…all four of these things (Vit D levels, viewing plants, exercise, and sleep) independently boost mood as well, so adding in a natural dopamine boost is a like a win-win-win-win-win for grounding and helps truly explain why grounding dramatically improves our mindframe.

This powerful, natural anti-inflammatory effect is the mechanism of action behind the earth’s ability to elevate mood, boost energy, and brighten outlook.

Know the feeling of spending a morning in your garden or an afternoon walking along the beach and how calm, centered, uplifted and creative your mindset becomes?

 

 

 

Grounding your body is at work here, decreasing your whole body inflammation, decreasing the stress hormones (like cortisol) in your bloodstream, decreasing your C-reactive protein levels and inflammatory cytokine levels… and all completely naturally, no medications involved.

Ready to head outside and get grounded?

I hope so, because within minutes you will notice your muscle tension decreasing and your mood begin to lift.  And thank goodness spring is near and the weather is practically begging for you to go outside.

The problem is we are already so busy, how to you fit even one more thing into your day?  I’ve got you.  You just take any one of these activities that you already were going to do today, and you do it outside instead of indoors.

 

10 Indoor Activities To Move Outside:

 

 

 

1. Physical Therapy:

 

If your physical therapist has a set of stretches for you to do daily at home, do them outside.

Moving your muscles and bones and ligaments and joints while grounded to the earth outside will increase restorative blood flow, bring a boosted oxygen levels to your tissues, and reduce soreness after exertion.

You can read more about why grounding is so supportive of your muscles and joints in this blog post I wrote for you:

Feel Immediate Relief With Grounding: Relax Your Muscles, Strengthen Your Bones

 

 

 

 

2. Journaling or Writing Your To-Do List:

 

If your therapist wants you to do journal writing daily, do it outside.

If you like to write in a diary, do it outside.

If you like to set intentions, plan your upcoming week out in a planner, are working on a manuscript, or filling out a dream journal — do all of your writing outside.

Drawing, sketching, photography, journalling, writing, even boring tasks like filling out your daily, weekly or monthly planner or grocery list can all be done outside, grounded.

 

 

 

3. Hydrating:

 

I really hope you are planning to drink multiple big glasses of water today.  So it’s the perfect thing to do grounded — and the perfect way you remind yourself to head outside throughout the day.  If you take every single glass of water you drink today outside and drink it grounded, just for a few minutes each time, it will add up to huge grounding benefits!  It’s a super easy way to have a few minutes of grounding each time that can add up to over an hour of grounded head-to-toe healing benefits.

Grounding boosts circulation and will get that beautiful fresh clean water into your body and into your organ systems more quickly, allowing you to rehydrate your beautiful body immediately. As a bonus, hydrating while being grounded outside actually boosts your conductivity too, so it’s win-win!

Here is a video I made for you on how to use the conductive power of water to get grounded:

Grounding Through Water, Indoors and Outside (Laura Koniver, M.D. The Intuition Physician)

 

 

 

4. Exercise:

 

If one of your 2023 goals is to get more movement and exercise into your life, you can bring almost every exercise outside and get double the benefits.

Not only is excerise great for protecting your lifespan, but doing your next yoga session, or HIIRT round, or next after dinner walk, getting outside grounded will add all of the health benefits of grounding to your exercise routine. You can even swim outside grounded and feel amazingly rebooted from head to toe, inside and out, as pools (as well as the cement surrounding the pool) and hot tubs are grounded thought the grounded filtration equiptment, and of course all natural bodies of water outside are grounded too!

Here are some articles on why exercising grounded helps you get more bang for your buck:

Grounding & Reduced Muscle Soreness Medical StudyGrounding Immediately Supports Your Heart & Boosts Circulation

 

 

 

 

5. Eating:

 

We all need to eat to put the nutrients our earth offers us into our body to boost our health… but if you can take your next meal outside and eat it grounded, you just added a therapeutic, anti-inflammatory benefit to time spent enjoying your food.

Grounding helps boost vagal tone and digestive function, decreases inflammation in the gut, increases digestion, peristalsis, absorption and even boosts the circulation of those nutrients all throughout your entire body, so eating grounded is the most natural way to bring nutrition into alignment with your body’s health. Any diet plan can be taken outside to eat in a natural way, grounded.

Here is a blog post I wrote for you on the many benefits of eating grounded outside:

Grounding While You Eat, A Game Changer For Your Digestion (+ Freebies)

 

 

 

 

6. Breathing:

 

Even more crucial than eating and drinking, we all need to breathe the beautiful air that the earth provides.

Many of us also find added benefit from intentional breathing practices like meditation. Taking intentional, deep breaths is a wonderful way to decrease stress and increase resiliency to the demands of your day.  If you already have a meditation practice, bring it outside.

If you don’t meditate, you can still reap the benefits of a few deep breaths taken while grounding outside.  3 deep breaths will make a head-to-toe difference, and being grounded supports lung function and boosts oxygenation, so combining grounding with intentional breath work is another one of those win-win relationships that grounding brings to just about everything we do. (Bonus points if you blow bubbles as part of your breath work!)

To join me for a three minute grounded meditation right now, watch this video:

 

 

For more on how breathing supports your health, hop over to read this article I wrote for you with several great ideas on developing an intentional breathing practice that you can do outside, grounded:

You Have The Healing Power Of Breath Inside You Right Now… Here’s 5 Ways To Use It

 

 

 

 

 

7. Socializing:

 

If a friend wants to spend time with you, take the initiative and suggest hanging out together outside.

Moving your time spent together outside allows you to get grounded while connecting on a deeper level with your loved ones, and really almost anything you can think of to do inside can be done outside.

From playing a card game, to having a cup of coffee, to sharing a potluck meal, to talking while watching clouds roll by or stars twinkle overhead, to going on a walk together, to sharing a picnic meal… anything you want to do with your friend is better grounded outside.

Having friends you can connect with is one of the best things you can do to boost happiness and protect your longevity, and connecting with them outside is the best combination of all.  For more on this read these articles I wrote for you:

Boost Your Connection To Others And It Will Boost Your Health, Here’s HowThe Healing Power Of Grounded Touch

 

 

 

 

 

8. Dating:

 

If your partner wants a date with you, make sure some component of that date is outside, grounded. Hold hands and both partners will be grounded, or even ground through a kiss!  Being outside, especially in the daytime, can even boost libido as it helps balance and regulate hormones.

Here is an article I’ve written for you about the power of grounding to enhance your relationship:

How Grounding Makes Sex Feel Better and Boosts Your Libido Too

 

 

 

 

9. Parenting:

 

Carving out time to play with your child in activities that interest them is absolutely crucial to bonding with kids. Play time is important healing time, and you can dramatically boost the healing value of play by taking that activity outside to do it grounded.

From arts and crafts, to sports and activities, to simply having a snack and talking, or reading a bedtime book under the wonder of the nighttime sky. You’ll worry less about any messes you guys make, and you’ll be getting a health boost the entire time. And of course, this includes your fur babies as well, so spend time outdoors with your pets too!

Here are some articles I’ve written for you on the power of grounding to enhance your children’s health:

Electrical Grounding Improves Vagal Tone in Preterm InfantsThe Healing Role Of Play, Right Now It’s More Important Than EverChildhood Trauma Is Scary, Here Are 3 Things That Can Help Your Child Be ResilientAffection From Your Mom When You Were A Baby May Buffer Your Stress As An AdultGood Moods Are Contagious In Teens (And Prevents Depression)

 

 

I also have written and published three children books for you… you can find these on my website here (or of course on Amazon and anywhere books are sold!).

Lastly for more parenting support I have a totally free Parenting eBook for you right here.  

It has 17 chapters and 159 pages of ideas, concepts, games, suggestions, medical information, intuitive problem solving and uplifting parenting advice that help address health and life in a positive and re-affirming manner for children, including how I inspire my own children to reach for health, even during illness… filling them with the confidence that health is their natural state of being.

Enjoy the precious time you have while your kids are still little enough to want to play with you… soak it in!

 

 

 

 

 

10. Work:

 

I challenge you to think of a daily activity you do for work that can actually be done outside.

First of all, anything you get done on your phone for work, from research, reading, posting on social media platforms, marketing, weeding through emails, returning phone calls, returning texts and even your next zoom meeting can all be done outside.  I make it a point to attend most of my online medical conferences outside so that I’m learning the latest medical advancements while allowing my body time to get grounded.

If any part of your work is done on a laptop, all of that can be moved outside as well.  And of course if you do any work not on an electronic device, you can likely do that outside too, from reading to writing to planning and scheduling — it can all be done outside.

Here are some additional articles on the power of grounding to reduce work stress:

Grounding To Prevent Stress And Oxidative Damage While At WorkGrounding At Work Decreases FatigueIs Going Outside Part Of Your Daily Health Routine? 8 Reasons Why It’s EssentialWhen You Are Doing Something Meaningful, Your Brain Works BetterA Free Printable Tool To Give You Inner Clarity When Making Difficult Decisions17 Ways To Naturally Decrease Your Stress (+ A Few Freebies To Help)Background Noise Costs You More Than Just Your Peace & QuietIs Your Job Driving You Crazy? You Are Not Alone. Here’s Help.

 

 

 

Add your own ideas to this list — include all your hobbies too!

Play an instrument?  Take it outside.Enjoying a cup of coffee?  Drink it outside.Like to play chess?  Do it outside.Have a pet?  Play with them outside.Like embroidery?  Take it outside.Doing something boring like meal planning for the week?  Do it outside.Love to read?  Do it outside.Painting your nails?  Do it outside.Love listening to music?  Listen to it outside.

Run through your entire day from start to finish and decide what can be taken outside. Even if it is simply to start and end each day drinking a big glass of water outside… oh my goodness that’s PERFECT.

Almost anything you can think of to do… from fun and games, to connecting with friends and family, to eating and hydrating, to exercising and physical therapy, to yoga and meditation, to journaling and creating, to getting work done…. you can do it all while in the healing state of grounding.

If you enjoyed this list of ideas to get you grounded, or if you have any grounding questions you want me to personally answer for you, please join me in my upcoming grounding online class:

 

Join my Earth Connect Class: starts on April 25th

 

 

 

The earth is out there waiting for us. It’s waiting for you. It’s waiting for me.

Our planet offers you so many different ways to stay healthy and strong, from the air you breathe to the water you drink to the food that we eat to the land that supports our homes, cars, communities and life as we know it to thrive… but the most direct way to get support from the earth is to touch it directly through grounding.  Every single day in my Earth Connect class will bring you a new, uplifting, inspiring way to ground your body and support your innate health.

Have any questions about grounding? About what is the best way to ground for a particular health concern you have? How to ground inside your home? How to ground if you don’t have a yard? How long to ground for? How grounding works? Why grounding works?  If so, this class is perfect for you — ask me any question at all about grounding and how it supports your body and I will answer you in our private class Q&A.

Join me in this two week course and get materials, tips, and ideas for grounding that you can use again and again and again, for the rest of your life.

xoxox,
Laura Koniver MD

 

The post How Grounding Boosts Your Mood + 10 Ways It Fits Into Your Day Today appeared first on Intuition Physician.

Can Cutting Out Bread Actually Improve Your Mental Health?

 

 

Long time readers of my blog already know, since I blogged about this almost a decade ago, that gluten is a neuro-irritant — meaning it causes inflammation in the brain and has been linked to cognitive decline, even dementia.  I wrote this article for you back in 2014 to help explain how dementia could be considered a gluten-induced condition.

More recent evidence suggests that not only does the brain inflammation that gluten causes affect your brain, it might also be affecting your mental health, including causing or worsening mood disorders like depression and anxiety.

As someone who has struggled with anxiety her entire life, I am very interested to read up on medical studies exploring ways that our diet impacts our mental health (I’ve blogged for you in the past right here about foods that increase anxiety, and yep, gluten was on that list!)  because this also provides natural, holistic ways to help reduce anxiety and depression — by simply reducing or eliminating gluten.

If this is the case, might a keto diet actually provide improved mental health?

A new study says yes. Research published in Frontiers In Psychiatry in Jul 2022 found that not only does a ketogenic diet (low carbohydrates and an emphasis on proteins and veggies) help with refractory epilepsy and other organic brain disease, but it also benefits psychiatric conditions.  Patients with severe mental illness resistant to other treatments — who were not improving despite intensive psychiatric care, were placed on a ketogenic diet with a 20 grams of carbs a day limit.  The patients studied had diagnosis of major depressive disorder, bipolar disorder, and/or schizoaffective disorder not responding to conventional psychiatric therapy.

The patients were followed for a period of up to 8 months on this diet and the results showed an impressive, statistically significant improvement in not only mental health parameters but also in metabolic health, with improved weight, blood pressure, blood glucose and blood lipid profiles.  The ketogenic diet was well tolerated and provided sustainable and significant improvements in both depression and psychosis symptoms — very impressive in patients who could not improve despite the best in medical care off of this diet.

If a ketogenic diet, or even simply reducing the amount of carbs one consumes, can boost the mental health outcomes for very severe mental illness, I’m very encouraged to think what it might do for less extreme cases of depression, or for anxiety or OCD or agoraphobia or body dysmorphia or any number of other mental health concerns.  Obviously I sincerely hope this study will be followed by bigger studies that include other mental health issues, and of course I will keep you posted when those results are published.  If you are not already on my newsletter list, you can join it to stay updated on this an other uplifting, holistic health information right here.

If you, like me, tend to get anxious, or depressed, or seasonal affective disorder, or any other mental health concern, you might want to give a ketogenic diet a try.  Diet truly does affect our mental wellness, and here are some other fabulous things you can do, along with any conventional therapy you are already on, to help.  That’s one thing I love about the possibility of consuming a ketogenic diet to help boost your treatment results for depression, anxiety or other mood disorders — you can do this right along with any medications or therapies you might already be taking.

That’s the power of focusing on holistic health and combining it, or tailoring it, to what is already working for you from the best of conventional medicine as well.

7 Ways To Boost Your Mental Health Starting With Nutrition:

 

 

 

 

1.  Try a Keto diet.

 

As discussed in today’s holistic medial research, keeping your carbs under 20 grams a day might do more to boost your mental health then all of the most intensive, in patient therapies have been able to do combined.  The study was small and needs to be reproduced, but it was incredibly encouraging.

Interested in giving a Keto diet a try?  Focus on:

a high quality, high fat diet (coconut oil, olive oil, organic butter, avocado are all wonderful fats)high quality proteins (like grass fed beef, wild fish, eggs, nuts, seeds)and colorful vegetables.

Intimidated by going keto?  Consider cutting your gluten and sugar intake in half for one month and see if you feel more clear headed, energetic, less depressed and less anxious.  It’s been my experience that patients who are experiencing a brain fog or feelings of depression can feel dramatically better in just a few short weeks of reducing carbs and gluten.

You might also feel more confident if you snag some keto friendly cookbooks — Eat Happy, written by Anna Vocino, is the one in my kitchen right now!

 

 

 

2.  Take high quality nutritional supplements.

 

Can something as simple as being sure you consume vitamins actually make a difference in our brain as we age?  Yes.  A new study, published Sept 14, 2022 in Alzheimers & Dementia, is the largest randomized clinical trial on multivitamin use in healthy brain aging.  It’s a three year long trial following annual cognitive assessments on over 2,250 patients that were randomly assigned either a daily multivitamin, a 500 mg daily flavanol supplement (from cocoa extract) or a placebo supplement.

What researchers found was that not only did taking a daily vitamin help preserve cognitive function, but it actually helped significantly improve it over baseline (and over placebo) by the third year.  Meaning it didn’t just help prevent cognitive function from declining with age, but it actually helped improve cognitive function long term.  Cognitive tests included word list, story recall, verbal fluency, number span, digit ordering and more.  The results show that the daily multivitamin improved memory, executive function and global cognition over time.

This is the first large, long term, double blinded placebo based study to show that multivitamins are effective at improving condition in older adults.   The researchers conducting this study estimated that the multivitamins potentially slowed brain aging by about 60%.  I hope even longer studies, looking at additional health benefits beyond cognitive benefits, follow.  If they do, I’ll certainly keep you posted

Especially if you have difficulty sticking to a keto diet (or if you are already doing a keto diet and want the next step to add to your diet) focusing on essential nutrients that help support mental health is the next step.  To help you find the highest quality supplements depending on your unique mental health goals, I’ve created different protocols for you and you can find them right here:

Mood boost protocolAnxiety relief protocolBrain protective/healthy cognition protocol

 

 

 

3.  Focus specifically on gut healing.

 

Part of improving mental health through improved nutrition includes healing your gut so it works properly in the first place.

You already know that your digestion and your thoughts and feelings are directly linked.  You know that sudden feeling when you are scared and you become instantly nauseous?  As a mom I got that feeling all the time when my kids were younger and I lost sight of them for a moment in a public place.  It’s a horrendous feeling… it doesn’t matter how hungry you were or how long since your last meal… in life-or-death situations, hunger immediately evaporates and the rest of your senses are heightened (heart pounding and ears and eyes on maximum alert) and you scan the crowd looking for your precious child.

Or… have you ever had nervous diarrhea before a big test, a blind date, a job interview?

Or… what about a dry mouth as you stand up to give an important speech to your peers, act in a play, sing your solo at a choir concert?  Your dry mouth isn’t a true reflection of your hydration status… matter of fact you just drank two cups of water before stepping out on that stage… it’s your body’s immediate response to emotional stimulus.

While we all *know* on some level that our digestive state and our bowels are connected to our mind and mind frame, you may not know that your gut actually plays a big role in your mental health.  What if it’s not just that our mind signals our gut to develop physical symptoms, but the other way around too?  Is it possible that disease in our gut can cause a signal to our brain to develop physical symptoms, such as anxiety and depression?

Yes.  Researchers looking into this studied over 1,900 individuals with Irritable Bowel Syndrome (IBS).  The research (published in Alimentary Pharmacology & Therapeutics in 2016) after following the participants for one full year, found that participants with higher levels of emotional distress (anxiety and depression) were significantly more likely to develop IBS  and those with IBS at the start of the study were more likely to report new onset of anxiety and depression in the year following enrollment in the study.

1/3 of participants had the mood disorder first, and then the gastrointestinal disorder.2/3 of the participants had the gatrointenstinal disorder (IBS or FD) first, and then the mood disorder.Researchers now believe there are two different types of functional gastrointesntinal disease pathways — not just one.One subset of patients experience gut symptoms (pain, diarrhea, constipation, bloating, etc..) first prior to anxiety or depression developing.  This suggests that gut disease may signal the onset of a gut-to-brain disease pathway.  Another subset of patients may have anxiety or depression signal to the gut and subsequently give rise to gastrointestinal distress… brain-to-gut signaling.

The bottom line: The more common pathway appears to be gut-to-brain signaling, being twice as common as brain-to-gut signaling!  Gut disease occurred first, followed by the development of psychological symptoms in the majority of the participants during the study.

This is a really important finding… because it helps explain why probiotics can make such a head-to-toe impact on your body.  As I blogged about almost 10 years ago in 2014, probiotics might be more aptly named psychobiotics for their mind and mood enhancing effects.

Clinical studies suggest that the gut microbes in depressed individuals are decreased in both amount and in variety.  And that if the natural flora of the gut is diminished in depression, then restoring the natural vitality and variety of healthy organisms in the digestive tract might be a very powerful way to improve outcome in depression (and other mood disorders, such as anxiety.)

And indeed it is.  Many studies now have shown improved mood after taking probiotics:  one study showed decreased depression when participants received probiotic supplements for 30 days, and another study reported clinically significant improvement in mood when participants ate probiotic-containing yogurt for 3 weeks.  Yet another study showed that participants with chronic fatigue syndrome who consumed probiotics three times a day reported significantly less anxiety compared to those who did not.

This might apply to other neurological conditions as well.  A large meta-analysis examining the intestinal flora of patients with Parkinsons Disease, researchers found that there was widespread decrease in the microbiome of those patients.   Published in the medical journal Parkinsons Disease in 2021, researchers found altered gut microbiome in Parkinson’s patients and suggest that intestinal inflammation is intricately linked to Parkinson’s disease.  A follow up study, published in Nature Communications in 2022 found such widespread the gut microbiome had such a powerful impact on Parkinson’s diseases that they suggest Parkinson’s might actually START in the gut and then SPREAD to the brain.  They found that up to 2/3rds of the metabolic pathways in the gut of Parkinsons patients are dysregulated, and urgently recommend future research in improving the gut biome to help treat Parkinson’s, and possibly even detecting Parkinson’s before it becomes symptomatic disease with gut biome analysis.

Ready to add probiotics to your supplements and see for yourself?  Ready to heal your gut lining and improve your gut function to boost your mental health?  I have a gut healing protocol for you right here with all of my favorite gut healing supplements and exactly how to take them:

Gut Healing Protocol

 

 

 

4.  Eat your flavonols

 

A new study (published in Neurology just a few weeks ago in Feb 2023) looking at dietary intake of flavonols and brain function, found that higher dietary intake of falvonols significantly slowed cognitive decline.  The flavonols kaempferol and quercitin were the two that were specifically found to exert this effect.  These two powerful flavonols are found in lots of different fruits and veggies, including:

applesasparagusbroccolicabbagekalelettuceonionsspinachchivesdilloreganoblueberrycherrycranberryblack teared wine

 

 

 

5.  Release old traumas

 

It’s 100% TOTALLY NORMAL to have brain changes in relation to having experienced life changing events.  It shows that you are aware, open, experiencing life and responding to it.  Your brain is ever evolving, ever-changing, ever adapting.

Some of the adaptations show up in the form of seeking relief from the stress… in the form of PTSD response patterns, cravings and addictions, and self soothing behaviors.  These brain changes are all adaptations to unhealthy stressful life experiences that you’ve had to go through.

New research is showing that even if you do not have overt psychiatric signs and symptoms after big life transitions, even just experiencing a stressful event at all — no matter how well you feel you coped with it — affects your brain: stress is linked to a higher risk of dementia.  In other words, stress on the brain has long term effects, not just the immediate effects such as PTSD or substance addictions. Long term effects like memory loss, dementia, and even Alzheimers… showing up decades later.

One study estimated that each stressful life event you experience declines your cognitive function equivalent to about 1 to 4 years of aging.  Presented at the Alzheimer’s Association International Conference on July 16, 2017, the study looked at over 1,300 healthy adults and were assessed for 27 different lifetime stressful events (such as divorce, death, illness, bankruptcy, job loss, childhood trauma, war combat, physical assault, sexual assault, and many other universally stressful life events.) Every two years, researchers had these patients return for six domains of cognitive function to be analyzed and documented. Over time, results showed that patients with larger numbers of lifetime stressful events had worsening brain function later in life, with decreased thinking speed and decreased mental flexibility.

Here’s the important part:  While you can’t prevent traumatic life events from happening to you, you absolutely 100% can minimize the impact it has on your brain and on your future cognitive ability.  The largest meta-analysis to date on trauma recovery (looking at data from over 11,000 relevant medical studies) suggests that the best long term recovery after trauma is simply talking about it, no medication required.  Published in JAMA Psychiatry on June 12, 2019, reasearchers looked at direct comparisons between talk therapy (psychotherapy) and drug therapy (pharmacological treatments) in patients with PTSD.

They found that in the long term, talk therapy helped more, being slightly superior to drug therapy both immediately following treatment and in long term follow up. The studies they looked at ranged from 2 months to 6 months long, and this meta-analysis showed there was no advantage to using drugs in recovering from PTSD.

While I am certainly not against the use of medications when they are needed, they should be used sparingly and either short term (as they do not show any long term advantage) or only for patients who don’t find improvement after talk therapy alone.

Be encouraged by this. This means that the vast majority of folks can be helped — and helped best — by talking about trauma instead of medicating it away. Connect with others. Reach out for help.  Don’t feel like you are going crazy and don’t feel like you must go it alone.  We all have trauma, we all do. And we can lean on each other and get through it.

The medical literature is clear… just communicating about trauma is every bit as healing (or even more healing) than all the best medications we have to treat trauma. In fact, as I blogged about here, PTSD can actually be significantly helped by something as simple and as accessible as repeating a mantra. It’s true.  Simply joining a class, talking to a therapist, or connecting with others to heal can be just what you need to feel better than you have ever felt.

And did you know that folks who move through trauma can actually be healthier than folks who never went through any trauma at all?  It’s incredible to believe that trauma can actually strengthen your health but it is true. In my Trauma Resilency & Recovery Class I go over the medical literature that proves that trauma is actually adaptive and empowering, and show you all the tools to use trauma to boost your own health in ways you never could have imagined possible.

My trauma healing class starts soon, and I would love to have you join in.  I developed this class based on my extensive research into the best of what the medical literature has proven to us about how to release trauma once and for all and become mentally and physically healthier for it.  No matter what you have gone through, you absolutely do have the ability to rebound from from it and create a new normal and a new health set point.

Your body naturally want’s to trend back to full and complete wellness… mind, body and spirit.  I’ll give you the tools to get there and walk with you through it:

 Trauma Recovery Class

 

 

 

6. Exercise

 

Researchers looking at how movement helps to boost brain function found that there are literally immediate benefits to your memory function after exercising just once.  ONCE!   Published September 2020 in Scientific Reports, this study finds that one session of exercising (cycling on a stationary bike was the exercise used in this study) significantly improved motor sequence memory — immediately!

This is super encouraging, because it was not looking at just the long term benefits from exercise but suggests that even if all you can do is one single episode of  exercise, you will get immediate brain benefits, that very day.

And although just one session of exercising provides benefit, ideally it would be even better to sprinkle movement throughout your entire day. It could be as simple as standing up and walking around a bit every hour or two, getting in some gentle stretching routines in throughout the day, walking up and down your stairs if you have them, and/or doing a before-bed yoga routine to reap massive benefits.

So see if you can come up with a way to move your body:

upon waking in the morningas a mid morning breakas a mid day breakas a mid afternoon breakand end with a before-bed stretch.

So today try to use exercise as a way to focus before a mental task. Some examples might include:

walking up and down a flight of stairs quickly before giving a presentation at workdoing a few jumping jacks in the office before writing an important emailplaying a game of frisbee with friends just before settling down to study for college examsencouraging your kids to jump on a trampoline before hopping on the school bus each morning.

 

 

 

7.  Grounding

 

For this one, you need to be on my newsletter list because this will be next week’s free healing article — all about grounding and the mood boost that it provides.  There has even been a recent medical study showing that grounding made a significant improvement to Alzheimer’s patients — I’ll tell you all about it next week.  Sign up for my newsletter here. 

To feeling your mood boost and your brain work better and better and better… all by taking a few all natural and simple steps — like reducing gluten, adding nutritional supplements, healing your gut, processing and releasing trauma, and as we will talk about next week touching the earth.

Much love…

xoxo, Laura Koniver MD

The post Can Cutting Out Bread Actually Improve Your Mental Health? appeared first on Intuition Physician.

Sick Of Winter? Here’s Why Spring Will Instantly Help You Feel Better

 

 

 

I’m sick of being cold.

I’m sick of the shorter darker days.

I’m craving to be outside and luckily this spring I have a whole line up of awesome free healing articles for you on my blog that will help you get outside and feeling the best you’ve ever felt.  If someone has forwarded you today’s article, you can sign up right here to get one free article each week directly into your own inbox.

 

Dr. Koniver’s Free Weekly Newsletter

 

Today we are going to start with why getting outside and listening to nature will instantly help you feel better — instantly.

Simply hearing the birds return to your part of the world will not only boost your happiness, it might literally help you sleep better, help you lose weight, help lower your cortisol and more.

That’s because hearing manmade chronic background noise isn’t just irritating, it actually impacts your long term health. By a lot. Chronic levels of noise found frequently in modern society have been shown to significantly increase your risk of heart attack, heart disease, heart failure, stroke, even atrial fibrillation. Not to mention upping your risk for insomnia, a huge health crisis in-and-of itself!

And it doesn’t stop there.  Read on to discover how background noise is really impacting your health from head to toe, and the five best ways to stop it from making you feel like crap:

 

 

 

Constant Manmade Noise

 

Not only is chronic noise increasing your blood pressure, increasing inflammation in your arteries leading to heart attack and stroke, but it’s also increasing your risk of metabolic diseases and type two diabetes.

Because the disease burden of chronic noise is so directly linked to heart disease, high blood pressure and increased inflammation of the arteries, it’s important for clinicians to start treating noise pollution as a cardiac risk factor on par with smoking history, family history, age, blood pressure, and weight.

Here is a printable medical study you can take to your physician to get them to take noise pollution seriously in evaluating your true cardiovascular risk:

 

Environmental Noise & The Cardiovascular System (Medical Review)

 

 

Low Level Indoor Noises Harm Us Too

 

Even small noises are an issue.  This is one of the reasons being stuck indoors all winter long sucks.

So it’s not just an airplane passing by or the occasional sound of construction, but the level of normal talking, phones ringing, the sounds of cars passing by on the street outside your window — all of these sounds impact your heart attack and stroke risk, and they all up your risk for metabolic disease too.

Noise pollution is no longer about loud noises causing long term hearing issues. It’s not even about loud noises at all any more. We are now aware that normal volumes of speaking and car sounds result in much more insidious health risks over time — compromising the health of your heart, of your brain, of your body.

The new term is Noise Annoyance, which is all that is needed to produce these increased rates of chronic, life threatening health issue.

Look at the table below (taken directly out of this medical study) to see that even normal conversation is affecting your health. 55 dBA and above is considered a health risk factor by the World Health Organization (WHO):

 

Every 10 dBA increase in noise increases your heart attack risk by 6%, arterial calcification by 8%, and stroke risk by 14%… starting at only 50 dBA!

This is why the World Health Organization has now lowered the noise pollution threshold to only 55 dBA:So normal conversation (at 60 dBA) can, over time, contribute negatively to health issues… increasing both heart attack and stroke risk by 6% and 14% respectively.The normal sound of cars driving/traffic, doubles that — increasing heart attack and stroke risk by 12% and 28% respectively.Listening to a telephone ring repeatedly increases risk of heart attack and stroke by 18% and 42% respectively, and on and on.

Clearly, working in a high noise industry (like on an aircraft or in construction) is very hard on the body… this we already knew.  What we didn’t know is having a job where you answer telephones, or working at a busy restaurant, or working a the mall, or any other environment with constant conversation and music playing adds to your cardiovascular risk as well.

And now we do.

We now understand that normal volumes of speaking and car sounds result in much more insidious health risks over time, compromising the health of your heart, of your brain, of your body.

 

 

Review Your Typical Day

 

Do you hear traffic constantly (especially consider if you hear traffic where you sleep at night?)Do you work in an area where there is chronic talking (such as a hospital, a hotel, a store or a restaurant?)Do you work in an area where there are phones constantly ringing (such as at an office?)Do you work in an area that has music playing constantly?Do you sleep with music or a television on?If so, your risk for diabetes, metabolic syndrome, heart attack, stroke, cognitive impairment and more is much greater than it has to be.  And as a physician, I can tell you that this is an even bigger problem for the millions of people who have noise sensitivity.

These health effects from chronic background noise affect all of us, whether we find the noise irritating or not.

But imagine if you had trouble filtering out background noise, as literally millions of folks with auditory sesntivitivy (hyperacusis) do. Many conditions cause people to be sensitive to noise, including autism spectrum disorders, folks with chronic ringing in the ear (tinnitus) and shift workers.

You almost assuredly know someone who noise sensitive (and please forward this article to them so they feel your support!)

In fact, medical studies have found that almost one out of every ten people — 9% of the population or about 630 million people worldwide — have issues with noise sensitivity.And this medical study found that those who are most likely to be affected are children, the elderly, the chronically ill, shiftworkers, people with mental illness, people suffering from tinnitus, and people with neurodevelopment disorders.

If you have hyperacusis, on top of the long term health impact of chronic background noise, it also affects your immediate ability to think, process, focus and react to the world around you.

 

 

Auditory sensitivity

 

You might want to consider the impact of noise sensitivity if you or someone you love has:

Autism or autism spectrum disorders. Neurodevelopment issues such as autism spectrum disorder (ASD) makes it harder to localize the source of a sound and creates added difficulty in understanding speech, which gets exponentially worse in noisy environments. Children and adults who have ASD find their sympathetic nervous system gets hyperstiumlated by noise. This medical study found approximately 70% of patients with ASD had noise hypersensitivity. And this medical study used MRI imaging in ASD patients to directly reveal that the brain has has difficulty distinguishing social input from non-social auditory input.Tinnitus. Tinnitus can dramatically increase the risk of noise sensitivity. One study reported about 80% of patients suffering from ringing in the ears report hyperacusis.EMF sensitivity. As I blogged about for you here, the overwhelming EMF exposures that most of us now live with assault our central nervous system day in and day out, and can contribute to hypersensitivity. One of the most common diagnostic indicators of electrosenstivity is having tinnitus and dizziness in response to EMF exposures. I think the fact that our brain is already hyperstimulated by these chronic EMF exposures exacerbates even folks who would not normally be sensitive to noise. Hypersensitivity to multiple exposures (such as chemical sensitivities, food sensitivities, auditory sensitivities and electrohypersensitivities) play off each other and can actually bring about a huge decrease in our ability to function with normal activities of daily living. While addressing chronic auditory noise (like we are in today’s article) can be extremely helpful, if you feel you have electrosensitivities that might also be contributing, I invite you to join into my upcoming Electrosensitivity Releif Online Class right here.

So now that we are taking noise pollution more seriously, what can you do about it?

I’ve got you.  Keep reading…

6 Steps To Safeguard Your Health:

 

 

 

 

1. Protect your sleep

 

The worst damage to your health occurs when noise levels are chronically present while you are sleeping at night, so the first thing to think about is where you lay your head to catch sleep. If you live in an area where you can hear cars driving by every night, or other constant sounds, you may ultimately want to consider moving.

Short of moving, it can help to follow these simple guidelines to help improve your sleep hygiene:

Install noise blocking and light blocking curtains on your windows.Do not sleep with windows open if you live in an area with nighttime traffic, and try to sleep in a room that is not facing a road if you have an option of which bedroom to take. If you already have a high cardiovascular risk or history of heart disease or stroke, consider switching bedrooms with another family member in order to get away from a busy street.If you have a yard, consider planting a row of trees to help block noise coming to your home.Turn off appliances when not in use… don’t sleep with the TV or music running, don’t sleep with a sound machine on, give your brain a break from the constant onslaught of noise whenever possible.Wear ear protection designed to minimize disruption from noise while you sleep.Reduce EMF exposures in your sleeping area to decrease the over all environmental toxicity of your bedroom (click over here to read more on electrosensitivity and reducing your exposures to EMFs.)Deep sleep by wearing blue light filtering glasses in the evenings, like these. You can find blue light filtering glasses almost anywhere, but make sure they are dark yellow to orange, not light yellow, in order to block enough blue light that it actually makes a noticeable difference in your ability to fall asleep.Ground while you sleep at night to dramatically deepen sleep, improve your brain’s sleep patterns and give your body some restorative down time before facing another full, noisy, busy day.Take probiotics. Research published in 2019 in Frontiers In Psychiatry showed that after 6 weeks of taking probiotics, participants has significantly improved sleep quality. You can read this article right here. I have these waiting for you, along with the other supplements (like magnesium) I suggest for a good nights sleep, in one easy Sleep Restore Protocol that is waiting for you right here.Listen to my podcast on 14 holistic tips for improving sleep. I recorded a 20 minute podcast for you all about a recent medical study on sleep, and run through all of these tips plus a few extra bonus tips (for a total of 14 holistic steps to your best night’s sleep yet!) Hop over here to listen in and please be sure to subscribe! Intuition Physician Updates is a brand new podcast I just launched and I’ll be adding new episodes on the latest holistic health news all year long.

 

 

 

 

2. Wear simple, effective ear protection

 

You can wear these simple, soft, effective silicone ear devices to decrease irritating noise while at the same time, helping to clarify important noises that you actually want to hear. Calmer sits barely visible in the ear and uses revolutionary, non-electric technology to reduce mid and high frequency distortion without having a detrimental effect on our hearing.

Calmer reduces stress by removing distortion that would usually trigger the human “fight or flight” response. While this response was a vital part of our evolution to alert us to the slightest sound or threat, in today’s modern world where we no longer need to be alert to the snap of a twig, this added resonance is loading us with unnecessary stress.

Calmer specifically helps reduce noises that causes stress and anxiety. They do this without reducing the volume so you don’t feel disconnected from the world, and you can hear what you need to hear clearly. The result is a natural way to minimize today’s constant barrage of environmental noise stressors which have a negative impact on our mental and physical well-being.

 

 

 

While this will decrease stress for anyone, whether you are sensitive to noises or not, it can be a game changer for those with Hyperacusis, for example those with autism spectrum disorder, ADHD, tinnitus, or other hypersensitivity issues.

You can wear these during waking and sleeping hours. The help to relieve stress while at home, at work, at school, on commutes, while traveling, at restaurants, concerts, or all night long when you want to deeply relax. They are very discrete and you can still hear normal conversation, music, co-workers, etc… but at much safer volumes that protect your long term health and decrease your immediate stress.

When you wear them you not only protect your stress levels and ability to process communication in the short term, but protect your heart and brain and metabolism for the long term, too! Tell your friends, fellow students, co-workers, anyone who ask about them how wearing ear protection can actually decrease heart attack and stroke risk — they will be amazed!

Learn more about how these ingenious, simple ear protective devices work right here.  They always go out of stock, so if you want to try out a pair, do so today as they just came back in stock this week.

 

 

 

 

3.  Spend more time in nature

 

More evidence that Mother Nature can boost your happiness like nothing else can… a new study suggests that bird diversity is as important to life satisfaction as an income is.

This study, published in Ecological Economics found that not only is happiness correlated with local bird diversity, but a 10% boost in bird diversity actually increases happiness to a similar magnitude as a 10% boost in income does!

We’ve known for a while that animals improve our mood, health, and even boost longevity (I’ve blogged about how pets can do all of this and more for you right here) and that plants do much the same… decreasing depression rates, anxiety rates, and dramatically reducing stress.

But even knowing all of that, I still think if you ask most people if they would rather see a couple extra birds today or earn a slightly higher paycheck, most would assume that money would provide more satisfaction.  But this study suggests we might be even happier if we increase our exposure to birds.

Analyzing data from over 26,000 adults across 26 different countries, researchers evaluated biological diversity, socio-economic data and life satisfaction surveys to examine what makes the biggest impact on our long term happiness.  It turns out, more than plants, more than large fauna, more than insect or tree diversity, bird diversity has the biggest impact on happiness… comparable in magnitude to that of income.

So tip #3 is — stop and look for birds.  Or, even easier, just stop and listen. We can often hear birds even when we can’t see them.

Living in an urban area?  There are still birds. Listen for them in early morning — sunrise is the best time to hear birds — or listen in the late afternoon hours.  Or do tip #4 below…

 

 

4.  Hang a bird feeder

 

Want to increase the amount of birds you see and hear?

Hang a bird feeder in a window, put some potted plants, a birdbath or a birdhouse on a porch, balcony or doorstep — even without a yard, you absolutely can attract more birds to you, even in urban settings. For inspiration, check out this blog post on Bryony Angells’s blog — it’s so adorable — her hummingbird feeders and more hung up on a 10th story balcony that get’s plenty of attention from local birds!

Want to give your body a double shoot of happiness and a health boost?

Combine grounding and birding (simply touch a leaf or a tree or a flower or a rock or a balde of grass and you will be grounded while you listen to the lovely birdsong) and you will be directly supporting your body’s function while simultaneously boosting your happiness.

 

 

 

 

5.  Plan a weekend away

 

Crave to hear more of nature’s natural sounds?  Consider a weekend away in nature.

There is great evidence to suggest that even one weekend in nature can boost your long term health. A study published in Biomedical and Environmental Sciences in 2012 showed that even a brief intervention of one single weekend spent in nature had significant health benefits — reducing stress, reducing inflammation, and even boosting the body’s immune response, compared to staying in an urban environment for the weekend.

After only a two day immersion in nature, study participants had measurably boosted immunity markers in the blood, lowered blood inflammatory markers, lower cortisol levels, boosted natural killer cells, and improvement of several other markers of immunity and inflammation.

But here is the best part: not only was this health boost significant immediately, but it persisted for an entire month after just that one single weekend in nature!

So one weekend in nature sustained an improvement in health for weeks, well after the subjects returned to their urban living. The researchers even suggest that routine visits in nature may provide long term anti-cancer benefits, because the subjects who spent a weekend in nature had boosted T Cell and Natural Killer cell function (which produce anti-cancer proteins) that persisted for weeks.

They encourage time spent in nature as a healthy part of a cancer prevention plan, and I agree… if you can’t get outside in nature daily, these studies suggest that planning one weekend a month can still make a huge difference in not only your current health, but protecting your future health as well. If you can strive to take on weekend a month as a break from your daily grind in order to support your long term health, you can reap the benefits of weeks of boosted health, even if you can’t live in nature.

To save money try camping somewhere local and see how much better you feel.  Not up for a night in a tent?  Try visiting a local state or national park that has cabins – these are typically much less pricey compared to hotels and get you infinitely closer to nature.

I feel that investing in your health by spending time in nature is the best thing you can save up for, so if you are up for a luxury camping trip, my boyfriend and I really enjoy Getaway cabins — one night mini-glamping stays that definitely make me feel instantly more centered, in tune with nature, and back on track with my health when my stress levels rise.   Check out Getaway Cabins here to see if there is a location near you.  (I have no affiliation with Getaway I just love heading there myself and wanted to share!)

And as this study suggests, you might just find that giving yourself a little bit of time to enjoy the singing of birds on these weekend breaks gives you more life satisfaction than your paycheck does.  So if you want to plan a trip around where you’ll see the most birds, or even one particular bird you’d like to see, you may enjoy birding apps like Birdseye, that give you up to date information on where to find birds, and will tell you what birds are actually around you, no matter where you are!  Grab some binoculars, consider getting up a little earlier than you normally would (sunrise is often the best time to listen to birds!) and have fun.

 

 

6. Decrease other stressors

 

Like with everything in life, health is a balance. Even when you can not do anything to change one stressor, decreasing other stressors in your life helps decrease the total amount of stress burden placed on your body.

It’s absolutely reasonable and recommended that you consider stress when choosing an occupation, a living location, your commute, a relationships, a friendships, forming relationships with coworkers, etc… Toxicity from these ubiquitous sources are every bit as important to consider as it is to reduce more obvious toxins like the ones found in the food you eat, the water you drink, choosing non-toxic household and personal care items, etc…

And on the flip side, increasing and optimizing any other aspect of your health will go a long way to protect your over all long term wellness. Optimize the quality of the foods, nutrients, micronutrients, vitamins & minerals you put into your body, optimize the purity of the water you drink, increase your physical activity, go outside and get your body grounded to the earth as often as possible, and on and on.

Read through this list and find one (or several) ways that you can focus on what you can control, which will help mitigate the stressors you can’t control:

Decrease toxic burden. Go through your pantry, bathroom, and laundry room and remove synthetic, chemical laden foods from your pantry, toxic artificial body care products, oral care products and hair care products from your bathrooms, remove chemical laden home care and cleaning products as well as artificially scented and chemical laden laundry products, and never use toxic chemicals on your lawn. Reducing environmental toxins like artificial fragrances and toxic household cleaners and toxic body, beauty and oral care products also goes a long way to reducing the total burden you put on your body each day.Wash your hands before eating anything to remove all the chemicals we pick up as we go about our day so you don’t get traces of them into your mouth with each meal.Eat clean whenever possible. Reduce total body toxic burden by eating less processed and artificial foods, and more antioxidant rich natural healthy foods whenever possible.  I wrote this article here to help.Improve your nutritional intake.   Supplement with high quality antioxidants that can help alleviate free radicals and oxidative damage, potentially decreasing over all burden of stress on your body.Drink more water.  Put a water filtration system right out on your kitchen counter and drink a big glass every single time you walk by it.Move your body.  Start and end every single day with a walk outside in fresh air. Daily movement helps deliver much needed fresh oxygen and nutrients to all organ systems as well as aid in the removal of toxins and waste by-products. Exercise absolutely boosts your body’s health and resiliency!!!Decrease cumulative EMF exposures.  Join my upcoming Electrosensitivity Class and get those dramatically reduced. You will feel immediate relief.Breathe.  It only take 3 deep breaths to literally boost the function of your heart and other crucial internal organs — take 3 deep breaths right now. It’s a mini meditation that literally boosts your health instantly. Use a chime routinely to remind you… I walk you through it right here in this video. Feel that? Do it daily.Start reading books at night instead of watching TV.Stop multitasking and let your brain focus on just one task at a time.Start taking nightly epsom salt bath soaks.Sauna each week to relax tense muscle and boost your health (as I blog about here, routine sauna increases life span!)Join a spiritual support group or get serious about finding a church or synagogue or meditation center that feels right the moment you walk in the doors.Stop using social media and reach out to your real life friends to set up a weekly date.

And on and on and on. There is always something you can do to feel better, and better and better. There are always actionable steps you can take to boost your health.

One simple one, that you can do today, is to evaluate your background noise and reduce it, or protect against it with ear protection.

Yep, it’s that simple!

To your resilient, constantly re-setting and improving health…xoxoxo, Laura

 

 

 

 

PS — Want more tips on how to reap the benefits of nature, even when living an urban lifestyle?

I shared the idea to go bird watching with you in my book: The Earth Prescription, and I have hundreds of other ideas that will boost your health in this book, just waiting for you. Ideas that will ground you every season of the year no matter where you live.  I’m so excited to share it with you, and I’d love to sign a copy for you and send it directly from my hands to yours.

Order signed copies of The Earth Prescription on my website here.

Or, you can order it anywhere books are sold, including:

Order On AmazonOrder On Barnes & NobleOrder On Indiebound

 

The post Sick Of Winter? Here’s Why Spring Will Instantly Help You Feel Better appeared first on Intuition Physician.

Connecting With Others Protects Your Own Heart’s Health… Here’s How

 

 

 

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.

Medical studies have shown that increasing your connection to others not only improves your health, it actually increases your longevity. I feel this has something to do with the fact that we merge our natural energy fields together when we are close to one another.

We each produce our own healthy, natural EMF fields. Both the brain and the heart emit measurable energy fields, and it’s a beautiful thing. Which one do you think is largest and extends furthest from our bodies, the brain or the heart?

It’s the heart field.

 

 

 

When our heart energy fields are overlapping, we can become attuned to others, 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.

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 can even calm brain activity during distress, 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 a simple hand massage reduced pain as well as provided longer pain free intervals in critically ill patients in a surgical intensive care unit.

 

 

 

Physical touch even has the power to lower heart rate, lower blood pressure, and calm respiratory rate. 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.

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.

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.

 

 

 

And it’s not just human beings who can attune with each other — do you have a beloved pet?

I absolutely did, a once-in-a-lifetime pup, and unfortunately she passed away well over a year 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 talked about in this blog post here, pets actually boost health and longevity, much like connecting to your favorite human. 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 read more about how pets help improve our health, including some very interesting medical studies that have been conducted on this, hop over to this article I wrote for you here:

Pets Boost Your Health For A Lifetime

 

I also recorded a podcast for you, on the power of animals to 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!)

Spending 5 minutes with a dog was able to significantly lower the participants cortisol levels — and the dog was not even their own pet!  You can listen to that right here:

The Best 5 Minute Stress Reliever

 

 

 

 

In addition to attuning our heart fields together with our loved ones, I think another reason human connection is so healing is literally because we physically ground each other.  Electrons are always flowing one way or another when you touch someone else, or they touch you.

Although the amount of electrons transferring is such a small amount relative to the amount of electrons in a human body, I believe this is in part why healing touch is so powerful. When you donate some of your electrons to someone who is in worse physical condition than you (such as someone in pain, or with an inflammatory process going on) you are supporting them in many ways.

I think this is part of what massage therapists, physical therapists, acupuncturists and other healers are doing when they touch you — donating much needed electrons. Even your pet can donate electrons to you when it snuggles up with you while you are sick or have a chronic condition bringing you down.

The earth outside does this for us all the time and it is one of the reasons I find the healing practice of grounding to be so centering.   The earth literally protects our heart health through the power of it’s heartbeat: Schumann Resonance.  On top of the many medical studies that I go over here for you on the heart protective benefits of grounding, another study published in Scientific Reports in 2018 found that the earth’s heartbeat itself — the Schumann Resonance — directly provides cardioprotection — helping to keep our heart functioning effectively, boosting heart rate variability (HRV) and decreasing heart damage.

For more information on how to use the healing power of grounding touch to support the health of your loved ones, read this blog post I wrote for you right here:

The Power Of Grounded Healing Touch

 

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Our minds and our hearts are inextricably intertwined.

Mostly we can feel this on an emotional level — we can literally feel the people we love making our hearts feel warm and protected and expand in our chest. And sadly even people we are hurt by or scared of, we can feel that too — our hearts can feel colder or constricted or pound with fear in our chests.

Some of you are also aware that electrically — the brain and the heart each have an electrical field and that these electrical fields overlap. This gives our brain’s electrical activity (thinking) and heart’s electrical activity (heartbeats) a direct electrical link to each other, meaning our minds are literally energetically linked to our hearts.

It’s so beautiful:

 

 

 

But as a physician I want you to know that even biologically, as discrete, individual physical organ systems, there is a direct messaging through the physical body between the heart and the mind such heart issues can literally cause psychological issues and vice versa.

This is the least understand interaction between the heart and the mind, but recent medical studies are starting to clarify this heart/mind connection. In fact, in medicine we now recognize this exquisite connection between the heart and the mind that has given birth to a new field of medicine, called Behavioral Cardiology.

Behavioral Cardiology is an important field, because if we improve psychological health, we improve heart health. And if we improve heart health, might we improve psychological health? I believe so.

First of all, we clearly see that stress affects heart — acute psychological stress directly increases the risk of sudden heart attack and cardiovascular death. So much so that anxiety is actually a cardiac risk factor for heart attack and cardiac death, and depression increases risk of both fatal and non-fatal heart attack as well. If you’d like to read a medical review looking at all of the medical literature to date on mood disorders and cardiac health this one, published in 2000 in the Archives Of Internal Medicine, is a good one to start with.

Another, very interesting study looking at how our heart responds to mental stress found a key difference between the way a woman’s heart responds to stress and the way a man’s heart responds to stress. Published in Arteriosclerosis, Thrombosis and Vascular Biology on Dec. 21, 2017, researchers found that there is an incredible difference between how a woman’s cardiovascular system responds to mental stress and how a man’s cardiovascular system responds to mental stress.

Researchers studied 678 patients with coronary artery disease and preformed myocardial perfusion imaging before and during a well known stressor: public speaking. I get so anxious with public speaking that I totally agree it’s the perfect setting to see how the heart reacts to perceived emotional stress. After obtaining the results of the cardiac perfusion study both at rest and during public speaking, researchers analyzed data from several different parameters of cardiac output and perfusion to see what affect the stress had on heart health.

What the researchers found is that men responded to the mental stress of public speaking by having a larger change in blood pressure, and a higher demand on the cardiovascular system to increase output. The increased cardiac output demands put the men at greater risk for heart attack.

Women were the opposite. Women responded to the mental stress of public speaking by having greater peripheral vasoconstriction (meaning the blood vessels constricted more, which limits the blood flow through them.) The increased vasoconstriction puts women at greater risk of heart attack as well, but for an entirely different reason than men.

 

 

 

Men respond to stress with an increased demand for blood flow, and while the heart works harder in an attempt to pump more blood out, this creates a mismatch in how much blood can reach the tissues and the result is a heart attack.

Women respond to stress with decrease in the peripheral perfusion do to increased vasoconstriction, which puts them at higher risk for ischemic heart attack.

In other words, the male’s heart demands more output during stress while a female’s vasculature constricts more during stress — and both responses put everyone at increased risk of heart attack during emotional stress.

Same end result, but different pathways.

And this is important because we can now start to tailor treatments to help really target and promote healing during stress, illness, depression. These studies suggest that men may be most helped by targeting inflammation and stress management treatments, while women might be most helped by immune boosting and circulation boosting therapies.

For example, perhaps men might benefit more from:

lowering blood pressure with supplementsdecreasing inflammation through groundingand stress reduction techniques of meditation, acupuncture and yoga.

While women, with the same heart disease, anxiety or depression that men have, might benefit more from:

supplements that target boosting immunitytherapies that heal leaky gut and other autoimmune pathwaysalong with exercises designed to boost circulation and perfusion like walking, aerobic exercise, hot yoga, even deep tissue massage.

This is just one example of countless different treatment plans that you and your physician could come up with, targeting specific pathways that are unique to you now that we know a little more about the stress response and how it affects our heart.

Another medical study, published in 2017 in Lancet, tried to uncover exactly why there is this direct correlation between stress and heart attack, in both men and women. It turns out, increased brain activity in the area of emotional processing (the amygdala) directly increases the risk of cardiovascular events.

This study was the first to show that increased amygdala activity in humans strongly predicts cardiovascular events such as stroke, heart attack and angina. Researchers followed 293 patients who underwent full body PET/CT scans at the Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston, MA. The measured resting metabolic activity in the amygdala, bone marrow and arterial walls.

Researchers found that increased activity in the amygdala was strongly correlated with increased arterial inflammation and increased risk of cardiovascular events during an average follow up period of 3 1/2 years. They also found that high levels of self rated stress correlated with increases in amygdala activity, higher levels of arterial inflammation, and higher levels of the blood inflammatory marker: C-reactive protein.

Finally, a physical explanation for the very real connection between the emotional center of our brain and our heart health.

The amygdala is responsible for processing emotions, survival instincts and memory. And that about sums up how stress feels: it’s an increased emotional load, a feeling of being overwhelmed when trying to navigate a stressful situation, and traumatic memories from the past all get linked up with traumatic present experiences — which come together to increase the metabolic activity in your amygdala.

 

 

 

 

Based on these studies, researchers now believe that it is actually the brain activity of the amygdala (and emotional stress in particular) that links stressful events with cardiovascular disease… causing increased vascular inflammation, increased cardiovascular disease and increased risk of stroke, heart attack and angina.

More recently, published in 2021 in JAMA Cardiology, researchers specifical studied the link between heart disease and women with a history of trauma. Because most studies on heart disease have focused on the male population, this one really caught my eye.

Looking at almost 400,000 women, researchers identified women diagnosed with PTSD and matched them to age and cardiovascular risk correlated female controls with no history of PTSD. They then looked at ischemic heart disease outcomes, including new onset coronary artery disease, angina or heart attack (myocardial infarction) over a 5 year follow up period.

Researchers found that a history of PTSD in younger females increased the risk of developing subsequent heart disease by almost 60%. Yuck. A history of trauma pretty dramatically increases the risk of lasting heart health issues long term.

But don’t worry, because the health effects of trauma, including from PTSD, can be reversed.  To work with me on how the body moves through and heals from trauma, even trauma from long ago, childhood trauma, even birth trauma, join my upcoming Trauma Resiliency & Recovery class here:

Trauma Resiliency & Recovery Class, with Dr. Laura Koniver

 

 

 

 

To me, these studies underscore how very strongly our mental and emotional state affect our well being.

The link between stress and heart attack, stroke, and angina is so pronounced that researchers are now advocating stress levels, a history of anxiety, and a history of depression to all be considered independent risk factors for heart disease, along with other classic cardiac risk factors such as age, smoking history, and family history of heart disease.

And a study published in 2016 in Circulation shows that this idea has real world applications and uncovers some very helpful solutions. Researchers followed over 150 patients who were assigned to have cardiac rehab care following a cardiac event, and found that by adding stress management skills into their cardiac rehab program they were able to slash the rate of future cardiac events in a 5 year follow up period IN HALF!

So if addressing stress reduces the risk of subsequent heart attack by 50%, now we know why: stressful brain activity is directly correlated with cardiovascular events. Reduce the stress response in the brain, reduce heart disease in the body.

Another reason to address trauma — release the stress from past traumas from your physical body to protect against heart disease.   I’d love to help you with that, and you can join my Trauma Release class right here. 

 

 

Because there is so much interconnection between your heart and your mind, you can use this information to enhance the longevity of your heart from so many angles… medically, spiritually, energetically, and emotionally.

Our hearts are the center of our ability to expand… expand beyond just ourselves, and beyond just our limited experience, and expand beyond just this situation.

We can feel our connection to others, and our eternal nature. Our heart center expands outwards in a powerful, measurable energy field, right from the center of our being. In fact, our heart’s energy field is actually bigger than our brain’s measurable energy field, and maybe even best of all, they overlap.

You can literally feel this in your body. Have you ever sat, focusing on something that made you so happy that you literally felt your heart grow larger and larger and larger still?  That’s what I painted in the canvas painting pictured above.

Have you ever felt that your chest was going to explode, your heart energy got so big?

Have you ever felt your heart vibration reach past your chest, past your body, reach into the space around, to the people around you, to the universe around you?

It feels so good, and it feels so good because it is the healthy state of being connected to all of the energy around you.

You are dropping the limited barriers of what defines *you* and reaching out to *all that is*… in this state, you are pure, positive joy. In this state, you have blown up all the barriers around your heart, the ones that you built to *protect you* that actually harm you… they are dissolved and meaningless.

You are greater than this one moment in time, this one body, this one lifetime.

Through your heart, you can expand past any problem, any limitation. Through your heart, you can connect to all that is physical and non-physical around you. Through your heart, you can *feel* the eternal connections that you can’t physically see with your eyes.

 

 

 

Your heart is an amazing electrically activated organ, designed to pump nutrition and health throughout your entire body. It’s designed to pump joy and love throughout your entire being. It’s entire function is dependent on it’s ability to translate energetic impulses into a functional push of the blood throughout your body.

But do not limit your heart to what it physically can do. Do not regard it as a piece of muscle designed to transport blood. Instead, really *feel* the entire purpose of it’s design. It is the one organ, more than any other, that connects your entire body together — infusing every single organ system with life giving nutrients. It reaches every tissue, every surface, every organ. Through it’s immense meshwork of vasculature, your heart is one of complete and utter connection.

Of expansion.

Physically expanding to reach every single cell in your body… and emotionally, expanding your life force from the core of you to the universe around you.

To strengthen and expand your feelings of health and joy, remember back to those experiences where you feel your heart expanding, and seek to find those more often.

I felt them most effortlessly as a new mom, holding my babies. I can bring back that feeling any time I wish by remembering what it was like to hold them in my arms. To love on them. To take care of them. To adore them.

Recall your own times when your have felt your heart swell and reach for that feeling as often as you can. In this state you are realizing that the walls you build around your body and mind are no longer helpful, but instead, are constricting.

 

 

 

 

This picture was taken over a fifteen years ago, and both my kids are now all grown up and off to college… yet when I sit in appreciation for my children I can literally still feel my heart pound against my chest just like it did when they were first born.

I feel it expanding through my entire body, then out of my body, pulsing into the universe and connecting me to a greater love.  It is in these moments that I *know* I am tapped in to something more than just myself. And it is in these moments that I know my connection to my children is eternal.

Do what you can, today, to find a moment like this and savor it.

You have just found your heartsong.

Every moment you spend in that state, you spend in the state of pure and absolute health.

 

 

 

 

And you don’t even have to connect with others to boost your heart health.

As we’ve mentioned, connecting to the earth through the practice of grounding is incredibly heart healthy, releasing stress and trauma from your body is heart healthy, spending time with a pet is heart healthy, and even just practicing a little self compassion is heart healthy… and not one of those four practices needs to involve another human being at all.

A study on self compassion, published in 2021 in Health Psychology, found that folks who reported extending compassion to themselves during times of suffering not only had better psychological outcomes, but also protected their heart health.  Researchers used ultrasound technology to look at participants carotid artery health and measured carotid artery IMT (a well documented measure of cardiac disease.) They found that participants who practiced self compassion actually had healthier IMT measurements, lower rates of subclinical cardiovascular disease and lower over all cardiac risk factors, even after adjusting for all other standard cardiac risk factors.

So today, consider protecting your heart health in many many ways.  Through physical touch with loved ones, through spending time outside on our earth, through spending quality time with your fur babies, through practicing self compassion and through really sinking into your heart field — feeling it’s warmth and it’s expansion.

 

 

 

And if you are lucky enough this Valentines day to be near someone you love, take a few minutes to drop down into your heart space and literally feel their energy. Over time you will get incredibly good at attuning with your loved ones, even matching your breathing to theirs without effort, calming and centering them as well as yourself.

Loved ones protect our health and buffer us from stress, so let’s become acutely aware of the precious heart energy of those we love and cherish the time that we are lucky enough to overlap them.

xoxox, Laura Koniver MD

 

The post Connecting With Others Protects Your Own Heart’s Health… Here’s How appeared first on Intuition Physician.

How Grounding Makes Sex Feel Better & Boosts Your Libido Too

 

 

With Valentines Day coming up next week, I thought this might be the perfect time to talk about why my favorite holistic healing therapy of all time — grounding — can boost your sexual health!

If you are struggling with infertility, if you are struggling with getting in the mood, if you are struggling with pain during intimacy, here are some of the reasons you might want to consider grounding to help reverse all of that:

 

6 Ways Grounding Makes Sex Better:

 

 

 

 

1. Improved Circulation & Increased Blood Flow:

 

I think it’s obvious that healthy circulation is absolutely crucial to sexual arousal, and not just for men but for women as well.  Boosted blood flow to the genitals, nipples, lips… this allows our body to create moisture and lubrication, it allows the sex organs to become engorged, and even heightens sensitivity of everything from our fingertips to our lips to our nipples to our groin.

So the most obvious way that grounding helps with sex is that it improves circulation all over your body, from head to toe, within minutes.  I’m going to go into more depth on how grounding supports our cardiac health next week, as it’s Valentine’s Day next Tuesday and I am going to focus on heart health in next week’s blog post… but if you want to understand just how incredible grounding is for your circulation, therefore for you sexual stimulation, you can read this article right now:

 

Grounding To Support Your Heart & Circulation

 

 

2.  Relaxes Muscles:

 

Grounding immediately decreases muscle tension, all over your body.  That’s why touching the earth can help deter a tension headache from occurring, or help release pain from fibromyalgia, or decrease restless leg syndrome and teeth clenching and other muscle tension issues.

When you want to get romantic, relaxing your muscles and dropping deeply into a calm, receptive state can really help you be present to connect with your partner, as well as make intimacy more comfortable.  To learn more about how grounding decreases muscle tension, I created a video for you here:

 

Grounding To Relax Your Muscles

 

 

 

My original painting “Heart Fields Overlapping” — you can find prints here.3.  Balances Sex Hormones:

 

Grounding has been shown repeatedly in the medical literature to lower cortisol.  By lowering cortisol, you have more building blocks for other hormones to be made, since cortisol uses the same building blocks as sex hormones like testosterone and estrogen.

So if your sex hormones are low or out of whack, one thing you definitely want to do is lower your cortisol production, which not only decreases your felt perception of stress (good when you are trying to get in the mood!) but also allows more building blocks for your body to naturally boost your own testosterone and estrogen and other sex hormone levels.  For more on how grounding balances hormones naturally, hop over here:

 

Grounding To Balance Your Hormones

 

 

 

4.  Boosts Mood, Decreases Stress:

 

Grounding has been shown to boost mood naturally, which is fabulous if you suffer from anxiety or depression, which are both absolute libdo killers.  For a deeper dive into exactly why grounding boosts mood and what the medical studies have revealed about grounding to reduce anxiety and depression, hop over and read this article I wrote for you here:

How Grounding Dramatically Boosts Mood

 

And if you just want some quick tips on how to use grounding to lift your mood right now, I have an article waiting for you here on that:

7 Quick Ways The Earth Can Reset Your Mood

 

 

 

5.  Decreases Pain & Inflammation:

 

Grounding has been medically studied and found to relieve pain as well as decrease whole body inflammation.  This is key if pelvic pain or other pain conditions are what kill your libido or prevent you from relaxing into intimacy.

I have a video going into much more detail on why grounding can be a game changer for you if you have pain… and not only grounding, but I go over 5 different ideas to help release chronic pain… things your doctor probably didn’t tell you about or explain to you.

This video is a must watch for anyone who suffers from chronic pain conditions:

 

Releasing Chronic Pain To Find Relief

 

 

 

6.  Balances Out Negative Effects From EMF Radiation:

 

The natural EMFs from the earth (the Shuman Resonance and the Carnegie Curve) heal our body and are exactly opposite of the effects of manmade EMFs that harm our body.  Manmade EMFs have been found repeatedly in medical studies to decrease fertility by decreasing both sperm motility and sperm quality (and quantity too.)

If you want to read more about how natural EMFs help balance out the effects of manmade EMFs on the human body, you might enjoy this free article I wrote for you:

 

How to Naturally Defuse The Effects Of EMFs on The Body

 

 

 

 

 

Improved blood flow, relaxed muscles, decreased stress, boosted sex hormones, improved mood, less pain — these all can equal a massively improved sexual experience for you and your partner.

If you want to hear me go over this in less than three minutes for you, hop over here to watch my TikTok on Grounding and Sexual Health:

 

@laurakonivermd

Grounding in bed helps with more than just sleep #secualhealth #grounding #earthing #groundingtechique #holistichealth #boostlibido #laurakonivermd #intuitionphysician

♬ original sound – Laura Koniver, MD

Want to give it a try?

 

If you want to feel what I’m talking about, you can experiment with going outside and leaning against a tree to kiss your sweetie, or sitting on the ground (or with just feet touching the ground) and enjoy a long slow sweet kiss.  You will definitely feel a difference, just in that one kiss, compared to a kiss you do in a car or indoors.

Feel your lips, feel the sensation and the blood flow through them as you lean into your lover.  It’s a heightened experience.

So how do you get grounded when you are ready to go further than a kiss, but want more privacy? Oh it’s so easy.  You can use an indoor grounding tool to ground your bed — that’s the easiest solution and sleeping grounded all night long will not only help your sex life but will boost your body’s health in a multitude of ways.

I have invested a great deal of time and research creating the highest quality, most reliable, eco-ethically hand crafted (right here in the USA) grounding tools that use all natural materials — safer for you, safer for the environment.

Tools that can be used while you are sexually intimate in bed, grounding products you can lay directly on with your partner… items like grounding mattress toppers, grounding mattress panels, grounding bed rolls, and grounding mats, as well as grounding pillowcases that you can use on top of any of these grounding products.

 

Upgrade your bedtime grounding experience by clicking here.

 

 

 

 

Want another holistic way to help boost your libido?

 

How about morning light on your face.

New research (presented at the 29th European College of Neuropsychopharmacology Congress on September 19, 2016) shows that the same light therapy recommendation to treat Seasonal Affective Disorder (SAD) can significantly improve sexual satisfaction in people with low desire after only 2 weeks of treatment!

While this study was on men, because light therapy is incredibly effective for females too, I truly believe that this would work for women with low sex drive and should be first line therapy for anyone with sexual dysfunction or low sex drive.

The study:

Researchers studied 38 patients with a diagnosis of primary hypoactive sexual desire or sexual arousal disorder.  Patients were randomly assigned to receive either active light treatment or placebo light treatment.Active treatment was a daily 30 minute exposure to a light box with UV filter upon waking each morning.  Placebo light treatment was the same exposure but with a neutral density filter to reduce the light exposure to .01% strength of the active therapy.Patients were assessed clinically at baseline and after 2 weeks of daily morning light exposure, as well as through self assessments and blood samples to test hormone response to light therapy.

The results:

After only two weeks of light therapy, patients with the active light treatment had hugely significant improvements in sexual satisfaction compared to placebo.After just two weeks, sexual satisfaction for active light therapy patients increased more than 3X over baseline (from a rating of 2 out of 10 to 6.7 out of 10!). Placebo light therapy users had no statistically significant improvement at all (from baseline of 2 out of 10 to 2.7 out of 10)In addition, the testosterone levels of the patients receiving active light therapy rose by over 50% in just two weeks (from an average testosterone level of 2.1 ng/mL to an average of 3.6 ng/mL!). In contrast, there was no change at all to testosterone levels in the placebo group.Testosterone levels naturally decrease in the Northern Hemisphere from November through April, when they begin to rise again throughout the summer. Pregnancy rates reflect that, with the highest conception in the summer months (peaking in June.)

In fact, as I recently blogged about here, getting some extra Vitamin D from sun exposure actually boosts fertility — doubling the rate of implantation of an embryo and boosting the pregnancy rate from 20% up to 31%.

This news is back to back with recent medical studies showing that light therapy is an incredibly effective solution for treating all forms of depression, as I blog about here!

I feel convinced that light therapy should be first line of treatment, before using Rx medications, in the treatment of all forms of depressive disorders and sexual dysfunction.

Light therapy can be used safely in conjunction with medical treatments (including Rx medications) so if you are on an anti-depressant or a drug to treat sexual dysfunction, augment your treatment with light therapy and it’s possible you can work with your physician to decrease the dose!

If you want to give light therapy a try, I have combed through thousands of light therapy boxes to bring you the absolutely most effective, least expensive, most portable light therapy box that truly works…

… and it’s waiting for you right here!

 

So try to make a habit of going out every morning immediately after waking up and grabbing a few minutes of daylight.  Better yet, take a warm cup of tea, hot water with lemon, or your morning coffee and sit on the earth grounded for 30 minutes (or take a nice AM walk!)

If that is not possible, consider adding a light box to your morning routine (have it on in the bathroom while you brush your teeth or do your make up, or in the kitchen while you eat your breakfast, in your closet while you pick out your clothes for the day, or at your desk to use for the first few minutes of work.)

Forward this article to your lover before Valentines Day and let’s have your best one yet…

xoxo, Laura Koniver MD

 

 

The post How Grounding Makes Sex Feel Better & Boosts Your Libido Too appeared first on Intuition Physician.

Why Our Posture Affects Our Energy Level And Our Emotions

 

 

The last time I ran my annual Chakra Healing Class, one of the most interesting topics came up.

On of the participants (thank you Steve!) mentioned that he noticed becoming more short of breath when his posture slumped.

That brought on a wonderful discussion of all the different ways that poor posture literally physically affects your health… everything from dry mouth and dental issues to decreased oxygenation, decreased sleep quality and even increased ADHD symptoms.

 

But posture affects more than just our physical body… it affects our spirit.

 

 

 

In class I shared a link to this really awesome oldie-but-goodie TED talk where Amy Cuddy explains exactly how your body’s posture actually helps to shape your personality, your demeanor and even affects the people around you. If you haven’t watched it yet I think it’s worth a listen.

But posture goes even further than that.

Your posture truly affects you at your core — on your deepest energetic level. The spine naturally curves into the fetal position as a mechanism of protection and to self soothe during times of stress.

Have you ever noticed that when life gets you down or wears you out, whether the stressor is big or small, your shoulders slump and your head hangs forward?Do you notice your lower back round out when you’ve had a long hard day?Have you ever faced a traumatic incident by wrapping your arms tightly around your chest or stomach?Have you ever been so worn out from life that you curled up in your bed in the fetal position, knees curled up towards your chest……or felt so broken that you laid on the floor of your shower curled into this protective posture, letting the water and heat envelope you?

 

I have.

I bet you have too.

 

 

 

It’s totally natural to go into this comforting position when stress surrounds you. This because the fetal position is the position we are in while we are nurtured in the womb.

In fact, when infants are born they only have one curve to their spine… the C shaped curve of the knees-to-chest fetal position they had while held inside their mother’s body.

As we grow and learn to stand and ambulate under the forces of gravity, the spine develops three mature healthy curvatures in order to maintain a positive and productive center of balance.

But when we are traumatized, stressed, or upset, it is very natural for our body to tuck in tight, ball up, seek the fetal position and try to survive.

Surviving stress and trauma leads to physical health changes that ultimately affect our posture, our sleep, our mood, our digestion, our breathing, our pain levels, and even totally stress out our adrenals.

 

 

 

 

But how does posture affect our health on all of those levels?

 

The answer lies in our energy flow. Posture affects our energetic alignment which in turn affects our body from head to toe. To make this visual for you, I set out to paint a painting to illustrate exactly how our spine lines up with our energy centers.

So today I wanted to share the process of creating this with you here so that hopefully I can inspire you to take stock of your posture, take deeper breaths, support your internal alignment and truly feel your powerful internal energy centers radiate out from all directions in perfect concert with each other!

 

Step 1. Taking a page (literally!) out of my 20 year old med school anatomy book, I drew the spine on the middle of my canvas:

 

 

 

2. Then I filled in the background color…and added some white spirals at the level of each of our 7 core chakras:

 

 

 

3. Next I darkened the background to create more contrast and added even more spirals radiating out of each chakra center:

 

 

4. I then re-outlined the spine to bring it on top of the background and make it more visible:

 

 

5. After that it was on to color! I added spiraling energy at each chakra level, radiating out from the corresponding point on our spinal column:

 

7. And then I re-outlined the spine and filled the bones in with white to help them stand out:

 

 

8. At this point I started feeling like this Chakra Anatomy painting would be a fantastic daily reminder for those of us who could use a visual to remember to check our posture throughout the day and sit or stand a little better… so I added the words “stand tall.”

And I mean that both metaphorically and literally.

Literally take that deep breath and stack your vertebra up in a nice line.

And energetically… hold your head up high.

You are who you are.

And that is a beautiful thing.

With some extra tweaks on the energy circles and a few more touch ups on the letters… you have one of my favorite chakra paintings I’ve done:

 

Stand Tall

 

Hold that head up and know that every moment you are here on earth flowing your unique soul energy through your unique physical body, you are doing important work that can be done by no other.

So sit straighter, walk taller, and SHINE.

This painting is my attempt at a daily reminder to vibrantly radiate your core energy by standing tall. If you could use a reminder too, hop over here to grab a print of this artwork!

Totally fantastic for a yoga or meditation area or even in your closet to see as you get dressed each morning (I have mine hanging above my desk because that is where I tend to slouch the most!)

Do you need a reminder to breathe deeply too?

I know sometimes even when my posture is okay, I find I am still holding my breath.  And it occurred to me, when I was working with a patient on his breathing issues, that our lungs remind me very much of wings.

I told him to take a big deep breath of air as if he were stretching out his wings behind him, imagining his lungs filling, his shoulder blades growing wings, and his arms reaching out and up as if he were about to take flight.

I liked that image I had in my mind of our lungs filling and turning into wings so much I wanted to paint it!  So I did.  Hop over here to read more about your beautiful angel wings we call lungs: 

 

You Have Angel Wings Inside Of You

 

 

 

 

Life is hard enough to navigate.

 

It helps to meet all external stressors with internal core strength. Chakra alignment is an invaluable tool to sustaining your health and remaining centered during life’s storms.

I’ve seen over and over folks with strong internal chakra alignment affect powerful external change in their life.

If you’d like to go further and deeper with this concept, join me in optimizing your energy flow in my upcoming online Chakra Healing Class. which starts next week!

 

 

 

 

In this Chakra Healing Class I’ll help you translate chakra alignment into physical health, and help you finally understand what your body is telling you.

 

There is nothing like this anywhere else on earth — truly.   A physician with 20+ years of experience, supporting you throughout this entire healing process… giving you the best from all of my experience working privately with patients on their chakras.

You will literally leave this experience transformed from the inside out, head to toe.

Class runs for 7 weeks:  Feb 6 – Mar 24, 2023… and it is designed to be incredibly flexible!

If you are traveling during the class, live in a different time zone, or have unique commitments that make taking classes hard — this is the class for you!  Ultimately completely flexible, completely do-able, I work into *your* schedule and I am here to support and uplift YOU, right where you are!

All activities and articles are yours forever, to do as you desire, when you desire to do them… and all meditations, plus the Zoom Q&A meeting, are recorded and sent out for you to listen and watch whenever it’s convenient for you!

 

 

Everything you experience throughout your day — any obstacle and any blessing — feels so much more powerful when you are meeting it from a place of deep internal balance.

I’ll help you get there.

Together we will align your core from the bottom to the top, building upon your inner strengths and releasing any resistance you have built at each level.  It all starts next Monday, Feb 6th.  Sign up now so I can ship your goodie bag to you right away!

I can’t wait to work together with you to have you feeling centered and aligned… all the way to your core. I’d love you to join me by clicking over here to sign up and reserve your spot today.

Stand tall my friends!!!

xoxoxox,Laura Koniver MD

 

 

 

PS:  here are some more of my favorite chakra paintings that I’ve painted for you over the years:

 

(You can find prints for all of my original healing paintings right here.)

 

PPS: in my upcoming Chakra Healing class you get free printable files of every single one of these chakra artworks so that you can print them out to work with at each level we go through!!!!

If you want this entire artwork collection, or just to work with me to feel you most aligned, energetic best self, sign up here:

 

 

The post Why Our Posture Affects Our Energy Level And Our Emotions appeared first on Intuition Physician.