Today’s podcast is an important episode if you exercise, identify as an athlete or have ever skipped a period. We’re talking about the energy it takes to create a menstrual period, and why women who exercise, diet or both are at risk of missing a period.  I’m joined by Dr. Katrina Allison, a Naturopathic Doctor in British Columbia who focuses on supporting female athletes and young women with menstrual concerns. Even if you don’t think your diet or training is impacting your menstrual cycle, we cover the other symptoms that might be happening due to low energy availability and how to start fuelling yourself to have proper hormonal function.  For many women, symptoms of heavy periods, slightly irregular cycles or night sweats can creep in to their “otherwise normal” cycles, letting their energy balance issues fly under the radar. We easily spot women who have lost their period, but that’s not the only symptom we should be looking for to ensure that your fuelling is supporting your body’s hormonal processes.  If you’re an athlete, a parent of a young menstruating athlete or have ever lost your period while training, tune in to learn more about how you can support yourself with nutrition.  Dr. Katrina Allison practices can be found at https://www.drkatrinaallisonnd.com/ or @drkatrinaallison_nd on tiktock or Instagram.

I was inspired by conversations I have seen in academic spaces I belong to about where “responsibility” lies in health change.  Does it lie with the individual (bottom up) or with the government (top down)?  As I was listening to this conversation happen, it made me think about how our health solutions for people are often bottom up, versus top down in their own household.  We ask people to eat spaghetti squash while their family eats something better.  We ask people to exercise at the end of the day after everyone else's needs are met.  We have normalized “finding 5 minutes to yourself” after a full day of giving, rather than starting the day with yourself in mind.  At a government policy level we know that placing the responsibility of health change on the individual isn’t effective. Individuals can’t thrive when their environment sets them up for failure.  And yet, that’s exactly what we ask you to do.  Fortunately, you’re the Queen, President and Prime Minister of your household.  Even if you are co-President, you likely have more of a say over the policies in your mini-world than you’ve taken responsibility for. Today we’re asking you to take radical responsibility for creating effective policy in your own household.  You are the Queen, and you are a citizen. If we rely on you-the-citizen to avoid salt and vinegar chips while your entire family eats them in front of you - we get nowhere.  If you-the-Queen sets better policies for everyone in your kingdom (yourself included) you might stand a chance at health change.    Enjoy.  

I’ve always been fascinated by pain. We can’t see it. We can’t measure it with a test.  And in a medical world where we barely listen to the patient experience - this presents a big problem.  The other problem with pain (well, one of the other problems) is that when pain lasts a long time, our brains change.  And in a medical world where you wait months for support - this presents another big problem.  Today’s podcast is about pain and I’m joined by Dr. Kirstie Grifiths, a Chiropractor and yogi (who you can find at @thechiropracticyogi who is on a mission to help people understand the red light, yellow light and green light around movement and body pain. There are moments where pain is a red flag (STOP WHAT YOU’RE DOING) and there are many moments where pain is a green or yellow light (keep going!). Patients are often educated to stop moving when they have any pain - which increases the likelihood of exercising less over time (and further worsening their pain)   You can see the problem.    We have an amazing conversation about chronic pain, how pain changes your brain and how to know when to keep moving despite your pain.    Kirstie has multiple offerings for patients looking to reduce their back pain that can be found here (free yoga for back pain) and here (Online yoga for back pain program) or you can grab them from her Instagram profile at @thechiropracticyogi https://www.instagram.com/thechiropracticyogi/   

For today’s podcast episode, I was joined by Dr. Shelby Harris, a clinical psychologist and sleep specialist supporting women to overcome insomnia with cognitive behavioural therapy. We discuss her book, A Woman’s Guide to Insomnia, and the unique challenges that women face with their sleep versus men.    Shelby shares tips and behavioural strategies to help you get started on your sleep journey and gives us the low-down on solutions that are evidence-based and have been proven to support a better night sleep.    If you’ve struggled with your sleep in the last year, this episode will help you fall in love with taking care of this part of your health. We talk about wearable sleep trackers, what the ideal amount of time to sleep is, and how to make subtle changes that could have a big impact on your sleep schedule.    You can learn more about Shelby on her website https://www.drshelbyharris.com/  or through social @SleepDocShelby   Shelby Harris, PsyD, DBSM is a clinical psychologist and sleep specialist in private practice in NY. She is board certified in Behavioral Sleep Medicine and treats a wide variety of sleep, anxiety and depression issues using evidence-based, non-medication treatments. Her self-help book, The Women’s Guide to Overcoming Insomnia: Get a Good Night’s Sleep Without Relying on Medication was published in 2019. Dr. Harris holds a dual academic appointment as Clinical Associate Professor at the Albert Einstein College of Medicine in both Neurology and Psychiatry. Before going into private practice, she was the longstanding director of the Behavioral Sleep Medicine Program at the Sleep-Wake Disorders Center at Montefiore Medical Center in NYC, NY. Dr. Harris has been an invited columnist for the New York Times “Consults Blog,” and is frequently quoted in the media, including the New Yorker and Washington Post. She has appeared on the Today Show, Good Morning America and CBS Mornings. Dr. Harris can also be found on Instagram at @SleepDocShelby where she provides evidence-based information about sleep wellness and sleep disorders.  

It’s been a few years since our podcast on heavy menstrual bleeding (October 2020) and we have had a slew of questions from Instagram followers (follow here if you don’t already) about “is my period normal”. So here we go! In today’s podcast, we cover everything you need to know about whether your period is “normal” or if it’s something that needs treatment. We talk about menstrual variances such as:  Heavy bleeding, longer bleeding (more than 5 days) and bleeding that starts and stops.  Ovulation that doesn’t happen right on day 14.  Luteal phase (second half) challenges such as shorter cycles, longer cycles and spotting before your period.  Irregular cycles and changes to the total cycle length.    We talk about when to approach your doctor, how to take good notes about your cycle and when to get treated.  We also talk about the commodification of women’s bodies and menstrual health and how often influencers pathologize changes to the menstrual cycle and cause women to chase a menstrual dream that might not be possible. 

In today's episode, we tackle weight bias and stigma head-on with a guest Dr. Sylvi Martin, a Naturopathic Doctor, registered nurse psychotherapist, certified intuitive eating counsellor, and mindfulness-based eating awareness training (MB-EAT) facilitator who has a dual passion for supporting patients with their eating behaviour while also supporting clinicians to eliminate weight bias in medicine and improve the delivery of nutrition therapy in a less harmful way.  We explore topics throughout the episode such as: How your weight or body shape may have affected the tests you received or the treatments you were offered from your doctor.  How weight bias has influenced your thoughts about yourself and others and may be influencing your health behaviours.  How your thoughts about food can affect the way you value yourself.  How the training that Naturopathic Doctors and nutritionists receive may be causing harm (and what to look for in a practitioner).  Dr. Sylvi Martin offers both patient and practitioner programs to support healthy eating behaviour. You can connect with Sylvi as a patient through her website nourishingwellbeing.ca where she offers online patient programs. Sylvi will be spearheading continuing education programs for The Confident Clinician in February 2023 including small group training for NDs to become confident using intuitive eating practices with their patients. If you're a practitioner be sure you are on the Confident Clinician waitlist to learn more about our upcoming practitioner training here.  

Have you ever read the reviews of a restaurant that you love and thought “well that person is probably mean, that’s why they rated it a one-star”.    Or have you ever sat in a cold doctor’s office and thought “This person has terrible bedside manner, they can’t be right about what medication I should take”.    Health anecdotes are stories that have a villain, a hero and a battle! Should we use them to make decisions? Today’s podcast is all about this. If you’ve ever listened to a colleague, a friend or a family member share their experience and thought “I wonder if I should do that?.....” This episode is for you.    It’s common in the new year for us to be bombarded with new solutions to make ourselves better, more productive and healthier. I want you to be able to listen to stories with an ‘edge’ of critical thinking, to help you decide for yourself if a story is actually helping you, or if you’re too different from the person telling the story to get the same results.    Stories and experience have a place in medicine, but it also requires both doctors and patients to try and break down their beliefs and current ideas over and over again to be helpful.    If you’re looking for new information about Women’s Health, you still have time to grab a ticket to our Women’s Health Summit at Clarity Health this January. You can grab your virtual ticket here.   

I can distinctly remember whispering to my therapist that I didn’t really like what had happened to me after becoming a parent.  I honestly couldn’t tell if it was my physiology that was failing me, society or my perception of what parenthood was going to look like.  It turns out, it was probably all three.  In today’s episode, I’m joined by Dr. Laura Jasmin and Dr. Carly King, two Naturopathic Doctors and educators at The Confident Clinician. The work that Carly and Laura focus on is the impact of things like nutrition, lab testing, support and infrastructure have on maternal mental health and we’re diving deep into how the system is failing mothers and why Canada’s “no screening for maternal mental health” policy has affected all of us.  Even if your babies are old (mine are 11 and 13 and this still shows up in my life) this episode is for you. It will help you see yourself in our stories, be given permission to grieve what we could have had in those early months of parenthood and will put a fire in your heart to support other new parents in your life.  It’s an emotional share where you’ll hear stories of resiliency, failure and perseverance in 3 women and you’ll quickly learn why we are not taking the maternal mental health guidelines in Canada sitting down.  If you are a practitioner or work with women and new parents in any capacity, we’d like to invite you to a free maternal mental health workshop intended for practitioners. In the workshop, you will learn to better understand our broken screening guidelines, and how to screen your patients and support them in getting the care they need. Whether you are a Naturopathic Doctor or another practitioner who works with people during pregnancy or postpartum, this free event is intended to raise the bar on maternal mental health awareness in Canada (and the US). You can register here.   

Does un-dieting mean throwing in the towel and giving up on life? Absolutely not.  Today I’m joined by my friend and colleague (for a second time) Dr. Jennifer Huber, a Canadian Naturopathic Doctor, Registered Dietician and Intuitive Eating Coach who’s life mission is to help women make peace with food and their body in midlife.  Why does this happen? We share what happens in midlife and why un-dieting might be the answer to support midlife changes.  We dispel a ton of myths in this episode, including what “un-dieting” really means.  We ask great questions like: “When did you first start having thoughts about food in a moral way?” “What is your first memory of someone being upset about their body?” We highlight how these small little series of events lead to subconscious learning about food and bodies, and how that continues to shape how women feel about food in midlife - and especially in midlife.  Midlife has a lot of body changes, and when we mix this with women who are confused about food and their bodies, it leads to a ton of confusion and shame.  If you’ve ever attached the meaning of life or your worth to the shape of your body, you’ll want to tune in and listen to this safe, vulnerable conversation with two women on a mission to help you feel comfortable in your body.  Dr. Jen offers many online resources for midlife women, has her own podcast, The Midlife Feast, and has online programs to support women on their journey to un-diet their life.  You can learn more about Jen on her website  www.menopausenutritionist.ca or follow her on Instagram.

The research on chronic pelvic pain in women should be changing the way we think about menstrual cramps, and today’s episode will help you question your own cramps, think about possible diagnoses that could be contributing to your cramps (like endometriosis) and give you insight into why we need to take care of your cramps - like yesterday.  Endometriosis and chronic pelvic pain has always been this elusive conversation. People’s pain is not correlated to the size of their endo lesions (meaning you can have very small lesions but very big pain), pain is also present after surgical removal and pain can persist when we give people medications that suppress hormone production (which in theory makes endometriosis and cramps very quiet).  Why does this happen? Probably central sensitization.  The research on chronic pain has looked at the changes that happen in the brain and central nervous system (which includes the spinal cord) rather than only looking at the changes that happen at the “spot” that it affected. Endometriosis and chronic pelvic pain actually change your brain. It makes your brain feel pain more often, and to a lesser “stimuli” than before.  THIS is why we need to assess you.  The diagnostic delay for endometriosis averages 8-10 years, which means that people experience pain for years before we finally flag them appropriately. Which means that the brain has plenty of time to learn that the world is painful. And that’s what it does.  I want you to listen to this episode and think about your own pain experience. Do we need to support you better to reduce your daily or monthly pain? Do we need to test you to be sure that you don’t have endometriosis or some other condition (like IBS) that’s affecting your pain? We can change your brain and your pain experience, but only if we flag you and support you.  Enjoy the episode, and if you need support, reach out to Clarity Health in Ontario to get support. We have an entire team of practitioners who work with people with endometriosis.  This episode was sponsored by our Women’s Health Summit in January 2023. You can grab a ticket to attend virtually (or a VIP in-person ticket) here.