Hormonal issues are among the main complaints I see with my clients… And a major one is hot flashes… I see it starting at earlier and earlier ages of women life cycles… I even see it in young non-menopausal women non-surprisingly giving the high levels of environmental toxins and xenoextrogens (synthetic harmful estrogens) we are subjected to on a daily basis from plastics, cosmetics and aerosols…
 
But, in my humble opinion, this is not the main reason for hot flashes… Yes… I will say it again… Your body is whispering… you need to listen! Your body is trying to deliver a message and no one can decode this message for you… you need to listen!
 
Emotional root of hormonal imbalance:
 
Emotionally, sex hormonal imbalances signal the need for more pleasures, joy, intimacy, sensuality and creativity in your life.
Hot flashes, in particular, are signs of bottled anger and resentment over how your life has unfolded and where it is heading.
They signal a hidden feeling of being oppressed, unable to express your true feelings, your high functioning anxiety… an anxiety hidden under a perfect fake smile, under piles of achievements, long to-do lists, perfect cardboard image and an un-ending busyness
They signal a desperate desire to be nurtured, cared-for, appreciated and recognized… a desperate desire to be seen and heard…

Did you ever find yourself asking, why don't I get better?
I get this question a lot in my practice... "I am doing everything 'right'... why am I not getting better?"Chronic diseases, depression, anxiety, fatigue and depletions are on the rise and most treatments are just masking symptoms with drugs, they are not providing real healing.
In this 20 minutes video I share with you how your everyday life and food choices can compromise your health. And, why your genes are not to blame. I also discuss how emotions and thinking patterns are ‘data’ stored in every cell of your body and how to choose which data to store. This is my revolutionary approach to healing chronic ailment and restoring health and vitality... Enjoy!

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A couple of weeks ago, I attended “Discover the World Within’ conference by the Canadian Digestive Health Foundation.
It was fascinating to delve deep into the new amazing scientific discoveries about the trillions of tiny bacteria that live within us. The main focus of the conference was shedding the light on how our health and wellbeing are tightly dependent on the health and wellbeing of those tiny fellow travellers that we carry along with us.
 
Why do we need them?
As we are still in November, Crohn’s and colitis awareness month, talking about our friendly gut flora is very important. A healthy gut flora is essential to lower inflammation, not only in the gut but also all over the body. It helps regulate the response of the immune system and heal the lining of the intestine.
 
Our friendly gut flora help us produce vitamins like vitamin K and folate (B9), they regulate body fat storage, gut mobility, epithelial (gut lining) repair, absorption of essential minerals like magnesium and calcium, production of short chain fatty acids, controlling blood sugar levels and boosting immunity.
 
They play major role in preventing and/or lowering the risk of obesity, metabolic disease, depression, high cholesterol, asthma, allergies, autoimmune disease, IBS, and colon cancer.
 
In short, we need them to not only survive, but to also thrive.
 
How to support your gut flora?
Everyday choice you make in food and lifestyle could boost or compromise the health of those friendly organism and thus boost or compromise your health.
Your tiny friends need food… your choice of fresh vegetables, whole grains, and healthy fats help them grow over their harmful competitors who feed on sugars and refined carbs.
Synthetic chemicals, antibiotics, pesticides, herbicides and GMO kill not only the bad guys but also the good ones.
 
 
To make sure you keep a healthy gut flora you need:

• Probiotics: these are the healthy guys themselves.
• Prebiotics: these are the foods that our tiny friends need to survive.

A couple of weeks ago, I attended a meeting with natural health women entrepreneurs… We were discussing the challenges we are all facing in building and maintaining our businesses while trying to spread the message we believe in.  A friend summed it up in: “We need to learn to feel secure in midst of insecurity”… This immediately resonated with me… It brought me back to the meaning of TRUST…

Do you trust that you are loved; you are guided, you are protected by the highest power of all… By God?
Do you feel that your life, your trials, your challenges and pains have a higher meaning and reason? Do you believe that they have a purpose that may not be clear to you just yet?

The whole ‘New Agey’, ‘mind-body’ movement trained us years back to re-formulate our thoughts… call our problems challenges and our pains lessons. Unfortunately, it is not as simple as that… This ‘reformulation’ business led people to deny their pains and problems and to even beat themselves up for not being ‘grateful’ enough or powerful enough or wise/enlightened enough to withstand them… We can fool everyone, but we cannot fool ourselves… We can fake a smile on our lips, but we cannot fake it in out hearts…

Re-formulation should start with acknowledgement… acknowledgement that we are human, with all the human limitations… We have the right to feel pain, to cry, to be frustrated, to object… We have the right to scream in anger and fall down in tears… this is not lack of gratitude. These are rightful human emotions. If we do not let them out, they will eat us on the inside.
This of course does not give us the right to be nasty, inconsiderate or rude, nor to be wimpy and whiny all the time… It just give us the right to be human… vulnerable and fragile at times.

From this vulnerability, strength and wisdom are born… Vulnerability is not weakness… It is the ultimate strength…
Strength to be ourselves…
Strength to know that we are enough… good enough, beautiful enough, wise enough…
Strength to embrace our pains and problems, learn from them not sink with them in a hollow pit…
Strength to show up everyday in life and keep going despite the wounds, despite the pain…
Strength to take off the cardboard mask that we were hiding behind and announce to the world who we truly are…
Strength to trust deep in our heart that we are loved, we are guided, we are protected in every step along our path…
Strength to admit that we might not understand the wisdom behind our current suffering, we might not be ‘happy’ about our pains and challenges; yet we are grateful… and our gratitude doesn’t mean we’re helpless… it doesn’t mean we’re victims… it doesn’t mean we have to succumb to our current reality… It means we stand up… show up… and keep going trusting that we are loved, we are guided, we are protected every step along our path…

One question I get a lot from clients: Do I have to be gluten-free to be healthy? Well a simple answer to this complicated question is of course not. Not everybody has to be on a gluten free diet. But, since I moved here to Canada, I started seeing client after client (myself included) with symptoms improving or even totally disappearing just by giving up gluten. So, what was going on here?

​​November is Crohn’s & Colitis awareness month. According to Crohn’s and Colitis Foundation of Canada, 1 in 150 Canadians are living with these life-challenging autoimmune diseases. This ratio is scary! I am seeing more and more suffering clients and students in my consultation and nutritional teaching practice every day.

To develop an autoimmune disease, three factors need to be present:
1.    Genetic susceptibility
2.    A trigger
3.    Increased intestinal permeability, or what is known as leaky gut.
 
Science has proven that having a gene that pre-disposes you to certain disease does not mean you will get it. The environment you live in, the food you eat and the lifestyle you lead play major roles in disease development. So, let’s look at the other 2 factors, then.
 
Aside from Celiac disease that is triggered by gluten in the diet, science know very little -if any- about the trigger in other autoimmune diseases. And, although not all autoimmune diseases are triggered by gluten, it is well worth the try. So, if you suffer from any autoimmune disease like Crohn, Ulcerative Colitis, rheumatoid arthritis, Lupus, Hashimoto or multiple sclerosis try to get completely off gluten for at least 2 months and see if your symptoms improve. This may be the key to your healing or at least one step forward.
Other common triggers I see in my practice are corn, soy and dairy and needless to say all synthetic chemicals, preservative, additives, GMO crops, pesticides and herbicides that are present in our food. These can turn on the autoimmune switch in susceptible individuals.
The best way to get to the bottom of it is to go on a well-balanced elimination diet that completely remove those triggers from your diet for 2 months then gradually re-introduce them while monitoring your symptoms. The diet should be very well balanced and designed by your nutritionist or your health care provider to avoid any deficiencies.
 
The third factor involved in autoimmune disease is leaky gut or increased intestinal permeability. This means that the tight junctions in the lining of your intestine get compromised so they let little molecules leak into the blood stream triggering your immune system. The exact causes behind why they mal-function is not well-known but some of the reasons could be:

• Increased inflammation of the intestinal lining. This could be caused by many factors like poor dietary choices, low fibers, some medications side effects, nutrient deficiency, food intolerance, hormonal imbalance, stress, and increased toxins in the body…
• Imbalance in the gut flora caused by the reduced number of beneficial bacteria and an overgrowth of bad bacteria, yeast, and/or parasites (a condition known as dysbiosis). This also could be caused by many factors like antibiotics, too much sugar in the diet, low nutrients and fibers intake…

 

​So, my advice to any of you who suffer from autoimmune disease work with a qualified health professional to start an elimination diet and ask him/her to help you dig for the root causes that triggered the gut inflammation and permeability.
 
And, above all, please know that your body has an amazing power to heal… Don’t fall under any ‘label’ they gave you and never ever give up hope… I have seen miracle recoveries over and over again in my 10 years of practice… Take back responsibility of your health and start your healing journey today.