by Dr. Noelle DeVos, ND I am proud to say I am on track with planting seedlings for my garden this year! Gardening is one of my absolute favourite summertime hobbies — I can literally feel the day’s stress melt away and my body/mind relax when I garden. Why am I talking about gardening? Because TIME IN NATURE is so crucial not only four our mental and physical wellness as [...]
Why Are My Hormones a Mess? (And how to fix them naturally) Our hormones can be a beautiful symphony, or they can be like a bull in a china shop. When our hormones are in balance, we feel comfortable in our bodies, centered, intuitive, and can express our true natures. However many women describe that for most of the month, they have hormone related symptoms, making each week a different [...]
Surviving Thriving During The Holidays I love the holidays; the parties, the markets, the generosity. All bringing us together to celebrate and enjoy the spirit and each others’ company. And the spirit and company usually come with one or more sides of dairy, sugar, wheat, alcohol, caffeine, overeating, under sleeping, and overfilled schedules! Here are 5 suggestions to help navigate the next month, to keep your metabolism on fire, and to [...]
How awful does it feel to be bloated, swollen, puffy, and uncomfortable 1-2 weeks per month? A lot of women describe feeling this way at some point before their period comes; one source quoting over 50% of PMS sufferers1. Water retention can affect the face, hands, lower legs, and abdomen. Some women even notice that they regularly gain 4-5 lbs during this time before their period. Many women already try [...]
Did you know that you can potentially influence the type of labor you experience? Many women are opting to try as many natural avenues as possible, to have a birth experience that they can actually enjoy, and look back on with fond memories. This doesn’t mean trying to control the experience; but rather preparing the body and mind to go with what is naturally occurring. Here are 5 ways that [...]
Herbs are a wonderful and nourishing addition throughout a woman’s pregnancy. On top of a clean and nutritious diet, herbs can be used to provide a therapeutic effect; they provide more absorbable vitamins, minerals and antioxidants than taking supplemental isolated vitamins and minerals.1Pregnant women not only need more vitamins and minerals during pregnancy due to the nature of it, but also lose more. For example, “kidney function changes to handle [...]
The thyroid gland is part of the endocrine system, and is responsible for how quickly the body uses energy, makes proteins, and responds to other hormones. Thyroid hormones affect how fast or slow your brain, heart, muscles, liver, and other organs work. It is very important this gland is working optimally for a timely conception, pregnancy, and after the birth. Studies show that there is a “higher prevalence of [...]
Check out my latest blog post on the NaturalPath website. "Many women are delaying having kids due to “career priorities, advanced education, control over fertility, financial concerns, late and second marriages, and infertility”.1 Often, women start to feel pressure from medical professionals, family, and friends, telling them that it’s all downhill for fertility from 35 and on. I see many women who are stressed out, annoyed, sad, and not feeling [...]
Dr. Donata Girolamo, N.D. explains in this 5-part series how to build a strong foundation to improve conception rates, labour experiences, and have a healthy baby. Stress is commonly overlooked and not considered as an obstacle to natural conception. I’ve chosen to write about it as part 1 of Foundations of Fertility, because stress is now acknowledged as being the cause for many disease processes.1 Managing stress better and initiating [...]
Serving at a Vipassana meditation retreat is a way to give back to the organization, by providing a peaceful experience for the meditators who are doing the hard and diligent work of meditating, for 10 hours a day, without being able to speak, read, write, watch tv, etc. My job was serving in the kitchen, helping to prep the food for 100 ppl, and clean up after all meals. It [...]
