Recent Posts
Probiotics and Anxiety
When working with clients with pain, anxiety is often present as well. Personally, anxiety was the trigger that finally brought my own hormonal imbalance to my attention. Anytime the stress hormones are out of balance (and certainly chronic pain can trigger...
The Impacts of Air Pollution on Fertility
Fertility health is often indicative of general health. But, when women struggle with infertility for no apparent medical reason it can be extremely frustrating. It turns out that supporting the health of the planet is as essential as getting enough sleep and eating...
Inspiring Health through Beautiful and Delicious Pizza
Here at The Integrative Pelvic Health Institute we believe that it's essential for health and wellness professionals to understand the research (or lack there of) supporting their clinical practice. We encourage our professional students to participate in informal...
What Does It Mean When Your Pelvis Hurts?
What does it mean when your pelvis hurts? Pelvic pain is pain in the muscles, joints, nerves, or organs of the pelvis. It can be vague pain that is difficult to isolate to any particular organ, muscle, nerve or joint, or it can be related to a number of more specific...
How Fermented Foods and Probiotic Supplements Can Help Women with Chronic Pelvic Pain
There is a growing understanding that the microbial composition of the digestive system, urogenital system, and urine of women with pelvic pain conditions such as irritable bowel syndrome (IBS), interstitial cystitis (IC), and chronic yeast infections varies from...
THE Chicken Soup for Women Recovering from Birth or Surgery
Recovery from birth or surgery both require similar care for the soft tissue to regain it's strength. Collagen is important for healing from surgical incisions, C-section incisions, and episiotomies or tears. Collagen is also essential for maintaining bone density...
The Ultimate Guide To Choosing a Prenatal Vitamin
Optimal nutrition support for our client begins before she even conceives. Birth control pills make it difficult for women to absorb some nutrients that are essential for a healthy pregnancy. Ideally, women who were previously on birth control pills will...
How to Take Care of Your Energy When You’re Traveling for Business
I just returned from an amazing opportunity. I spent most of last week at the largest national conference for physical therapists in the United States. In so many ways it was amazing. I had the chance to give a 2-hour presentation to my colleagues on using...
You are a powerful woman (even if you’re in pain.)
Do you choose to remain powerfully feminine when your pelvic pain hits? Do you even know that you have a choice? I will never forget one of the worst pain episodes of my life. I had endometriosis in my mid-twenties, and one afternoon I was meeting with some of the...
How to Teach Your Clients to Cook with Anti-Inflammatory Ingredients
Supporting your patients and clients to be more comfortable in the kitchen and learn how to cook with more anti-inflammatory ingredients is one of the best ways to help them to embrace the self-healing and self-nurturing power of using food as medicine. When your...
The Top 4 Causes of Amenorrhea: Guest Post From Nicole Jardim
Your period is missing! Where and why did it go? When will it come back? Why is this bothering you so much when you’ve wished countless times for your period to go away anyways? Anyone who has experienced Amenorrhea knows about the anxiety caused by our friend who...
How to Prevent and Relieve Back Pain: Guest Post from Dr. Joe Tatta
As clinicians we often think about how to treat a diagnosis. But, as we shift to thinking of our patients as clients and empowering them to take more responsibility for their health, we shift to thinking about how to help them build resilience in their physiologic...
Could Your Anxiety Be Related To Your Hormones?
Have you ever woken up from a sound sleep with a racing heart and sweaty palms, not even sure what scared you? Have you ever jumped into full-on, mama bear, fear and anxiety because your toddler tripped, or your third grader had a tough day at school, and felt the...
5 Ways to Quiet Your Mind, Inspire Your Family, and Reduce Your Pain
Yesterday I finally made it back to yoga. Actually, I put my toe in the water on Saturday by dragging my whole family to a family yoga class in the midst of a downpour. We were the only people there and it was a lovely bonding experience. Claire, my 10 year old,...
Are you always tired?
Last week I had the great pleasure of being interviewed by Angela Savitri, OTR/L. She’s a Freedom from Chronic Stress™ Coach and Occupational Therapist. We had a great discussion about Adrenal Fatigue. If you're struggling with being tired all of the time, tired in...
Stealth Fitness: An easy way to fit more movement into your day
I'm thrilled to share this guest post with you from one of my top students, Dr. Brianne Grogan, DPT. Now that I spend so much time writing and so much less time running around the hospital floors, this is an issue that's become very important in my own life. I just...
Nourish Your Wisdom, Share Your Voice, and Protect Your Thyroid
I’m thrilled to be a part of The Hashimotos Institute Summit this week. Are your patients walking around with elevated antithyroid peroxidase (TPO) antibodies (a clinical indicator of an autoimmune problem with the thyroid)? Do they even know if their their levels are...
Are Canned Tomatoes Ruining Your Patient’s Fertility?
Today I want to talk about a 2012 study that looked at how the toxin bisphenol A (BPA) affected fertility in women using in vitro fertilization treatments for infertility. This study measured the number eggs that were able to be retrieved during an IVF cycle, the...
I’ll Admit it…the Hobby Lobby Ruling Irritated Me Too.
There was a small firestorm of controversy on my Facebook page reflective of the media firestorm of controversy after the Supreme Court’s recent decision to allow Hobby Lobby to limit the contraceptive choices it will pay for for its employees who are covered by their...
Dairy Free Chocolate Mousse
Join me and my friend, Stephanie Merchant (aka The Nutrition Mom!) in my kitchen to make a delicious and healthy dessert! No cooking required! Do you have a favorite simple and nourishing dessert? Share it in the comments below...
Raw Mushroom Steaks
Welcome back to my kitchen! On this beautiful afternoon, my friend Stephanie Merchant of The Nutrition Mom, joined me to share her recipe for raw mushroom steaks. Summer is the best time for raw foods, or warm this dish up and serve it as a delicious, anti-cancer...
Delicious Creamy Dairy Free Tomato Soup (no cooking required!)
This week's video is from a series that my dear friend, Stephanie Merchant, and I recorded a few months ago. You can check out all of her delicious and healthy recipes at TheNutritionMom.com. We had an absolute blast cooking up some super simple, healthy food in my...
Is Gluten Sensitivity Real? It depends on what you believe.
What our patients believe is their reality, and there are mixed beliefs about gluten sensitivity. Stepping into our patients' reality is the first step to supporting their healing. This week, a new study on non-celiac gluten sensitivity (NCGS) was released. This...
What Happens When You Say, “Yes.”
Last week was one of the best, most interesting, and most fun weeks in my entire 15-year career in women's health. I had the great fortune of being invited to teach at three events in London and Ireland. I was one of the teachers involved in Jenny Burrell's...