A Ray of Sunshine for Your Health

I'm back after a long pause. The last four-ish months have been a long pause for everyone, in one way or another. I'm guessing it looks different for each of you, but I'm hoping you're doing ok and finding grace where you can.

For me, navigating all that's happening has been an emotional roller coaster. All the uncertainty and ever-changing information about the virus can be incredibly confusing and challenging. And scary.

In my last newsletter I shared that I was going back to grad school. And, I DID! I made it through a quarter—online, of course, which wasn't part of the plan—and enjoyed a lot of it, though concentrating on dense material during a topsy-turvy time took just about everything I had! Truth be told, the gift of it was that I realized I love what I do in integrative nutrition too much to leave it behind…so I'm back in action, pursuing my passion full force. Now, more than ever, we have to work hard to find balance and equanimity.

In the next year I plan to delve more deeply into working with women on their health—particularly in the area of hormones and life in transition: perimenopause, menopause, thyroid, adrenals...each of these profoundly impacts women in so many ways, and I'm re-energized to make this my sole focus! 

But, back to the present moment...

One of the things that's making me crazy is how little anybody is talking about what we can do to help our immune systems so we can naturally stave off any viruses in the coming months. While we don't know everything we need to know about the COVID-19 virus, we are seeing preliminary data related to certain vitamins and minerals—research reveals that people with low levels of Vitamin D (less than 20ng/ml) were almost twice as likely to test positive for COVID-19 compared to patients who had sufficient levels of Vit D. And, that zinc supplementation may help prophylaxis and the treatment of COVID-19. These are promising signs that there may be effective ways to gird your immune system to stay strong through the coming months. 

Chronic inflammation is another way to hinder the immune systems response to infection. We know that anti-inflammatory diets protect the body against possible damage caused by inflammation.

And, of course stress has a profound effect on just about all aspects of our health. I'll be going into that more in upcoming newsletters, but for now, remember that managing your stress is vital to staying healthy.