Maybe you think you don't like to play with your children.
Maybe you think it's boring, or you don't remember how, or you just can't get into the flow of it. Maybe you try, but are easily distracted by your phone, your dog, the lint in your bellybutton.
I get that, I really do. Sometimes playing with your children is the l a s t thing you want to do. Sometimes you are TRYING to play with your children but they keep yelling at you in a language you don't understand because you are breaking rules they never explained to you.
We love congee in our office. If you haven't heard of it, it's the slow-cooked rice porridge that we often recommend to patients because it's easily digestible nutrition that boosts metabolism to help build blood for the body to use.
Read MoreSeveral weeks ago, my friend handed me a large tupperware container filled halfway with a strongly vinager-scented liquid and a floating jellyfish-like culture. It was my first kombucha mother or SCOBY, an acronym for Symbiotic Colony of Bacteria and Yeast. Sounds tasty, right?
This particular SCOBY was one that I had tasted the product of before. During a holiday party, my friend handed a glass of the freshly harvested kombucha to me. I took a whiff of it, and, trying to keep a neutral face, said that I would happily share it with my boyfriend. He took a whiff of it, and poured it into the large mug of hot tea he was holding, hoping to make it palatable. Unfortunately, it mostly just increased the quantity that we had to drink and compliment.
Coenzyme Q10, AKA CoQ10, ubiquinone, or active compound ubiquinol) is a naturally-occurring antioxidant found in the body. More commonly known as a dietary supplement, it is naturally present in the body’s cells and plays a vital role in the process by which cells generate energy. It is particularly helpful in protecting skeletal muscles and organs that require greater amount of energy to perform effectively, i.e. the heart, liver and kidneys. CoQ10 protects cells from oxidative stress, (which can occur as a result of unhealthy diet, stress, environmental factors, lack of exercise, social isolation, etc), thus helping to maintain cell integrity.
Read MoreHaving your period seems like a natural time to exercise heightened self-care, making sure you have ample time for sleep and to decompress, maybe even treating yourself to a special snack you’ve been craving. Since a big part of menstrual care is accommodating bleeding in one of the most permeable and delicate areas of the body, it’s important to consider the quality of the feminine care products you are using.
Read MoreMany of our patients work for so long to get pregnant, that they become experts on what to eat, how to exercise, and how to take their basal body temperatures. Then when they get that positive pregnancy test, they sometimes seem at a loss as to what to do next. Here are a few tips until you can get in to see your midwife or OB:
Read MoreIt’s a question that I get asked on a weekly basis - “What days should we be trying on?” A recent study from Yale University researchers found that about 60 percent of women thought that they were most fertile in the two days after ovulation. Unfortunately, those women were wrong. So, as it turns out, there’s also a lot of misinformation about when women are at their fertile peak.
Women are most fertile during a 6 day window that ends the day after ovulation. Outside that relatively short window, your chances of falling pregnant are generally lower than 5%.
Essentially, what needs to happen is that you commit to four or five days of working on this. Clear your schedule, hide your to-do list, and take a little breastfeeding vacation. Take your baby, a snack, a bottle of water, and some toys and books into your bed and stay there, all day if possible. Do pretty much nothing but eat, drink, rest, and nurse. If your baby doesn’t sleep well, get someone else to take care of the baby so that you can conk out for a few hours (beg or pay someone if you have to!).
Read MoreFor anyone actively trying to conceive or anyone who already has, I wanted to pass on and reiterate how important sleep and sleep cycles in general are to ensuring your success in the fertility realm.
Read MoreAccording to TCM, during fall we are most susceptible to dryness, which can affect the lungs, skin, and digestion. Common signs of disharmony in the fall are thirst, dry nose and skin, itching, and sore throat. There are a number of things we can do to combat dryness and fortify our bodies for the coming winter months.
Read MoreSomething that we rarely talk about at the clinic is the use of feminine hygiene products. I think we get so caught up in everything else that our patients are putting in their bodies, that we frequently don't talk about the possible problems with feminine hygiene products.
Read MoreIn Traditional Chinese Medicine it’s not uncommon to use food that has medicinal qualities to help treat various conditions. In the summer months we are more prone to conditions of toxic heat. In the Chinese herbal pharmacopoeia there is a whole subsection of herbs that treat “Summer Heat.”
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