Recipe of the Month – Salmon with Immune Boosting Mushrooms

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Mushrooms are packed with healing antioxidants and anti-inflammatory components that destroy infections, slow down aging, and regenerate nerve cells. Asian mushrooms are best and shitakes are probably the easiest of them to find at your local market. Try this healthy recipe from Eating Well magazine to add some immune boosting power to your diet.

Seared Salmon with Mushroom-Shallot Sauce

  • 4 (4 ounce) fresh or frozen skinless salmon fillets
  • ¼ teaspoon ground pepper
  • ⅛ teaspoon salt
  • 2 teaspoons olive oil
  • 1 cup sliced shitake, cremeni or button mushrooms
  • 1 medium shallot, finely chopped
  • ⅓ cup dry white wine or reduced-sodium chicken broth
  • 1 tablespoon Dijon mustard
  • 2 teaspoons chopped fresh thyme or ½ teaspoon dried thyme
  1. Thaw fish, if frozen. Rinse the fish; pat dry with paper towels. Sprinkle with pepper and salt. Measure thickness of fillets. Cook the salmon in hot oil in a large nonstick skillet over medium heat for 4 to 6 minutes per ½-inch thickness or until the salmon flakes easily when tested with a fork, carefully turning once halfway through cooking. Remove from the skillet and keep warm.
  2. Add mushrooms and shallot to the same skillet. Cook for 3 to 5 minutes over medium heat or until tender, stirring occasionally. Remove from heat and carefully add wine, mustard, and thyme. Cook and stir for 1 to 2 minutes or until well combined and heated through.
  3. Place the salmon on serving plates and top with the mushroom sauce.  Serve with a side of vegetables.

Happy Chinese New Year!

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Today is the first day of the Chinese lunar calendar, also known as Chinese New Year or Spring Festival. The year 2019 is represented by the Yin Earth Brown Pig. Pigs are considered a symbol of wealth and their cute chubby faces and big ears denote good fortune. This is a time for new beginnings and for improving your health for the long term. Here’s wishing you a great 2019 filled with good health and good fortune!

February Focus on Fibromyalgia

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If you or someone you know has Fibromyalgia and/or Chronic Fatigue (or really any autoimmune disease or chronicPain pain), you know just how frustrating it can be for them. They may experience pain and fatigue so severe they may feel like they have the flu all the time. They might have stopped doing the things they once enjoyed and are no longer spending time with those they love. The way I approach these conditions is unique because I look at the eight different causes and devise a plan that resolves each of them in a very logical step-by-step approach. I help people take their life back and offer solutions that they can do at home to improve their quality of life.

With these illnesses, the body has become so inflamed and out of balance that key functions fail, creating pain of several types, flu-like symptoms, digestive issues, circulatory problems and more. Imagine a house that has a leaky roof that eventually leads to ruined walls and carpet, mold in the house, electrical problems, etc. In order to repair the house, you’d fix the roof first right? No point in replacing the carpet before the leaks are repaired. Many people have unknowingly taken this approach with their health though, trying to fix their symptoms before fixing the underlying cause. This can cause other symptoms to reappear or get worse and results don’t last. That equals FRUSTRATION! The order we make repairs is vitally important to restore the body’s natural balance. The evidence-based methods I use when working with people who have autoimmune conditions include a combination of acupuncture, herbal medicine, nutrition, breathing exercises and qigong. I follow a specific order in applying treatments, each step lasting 2 – 4 weeks along with self care and nutrition advice. In 12 weeks or less, my patients see remarkable results when following my FibroFatigue program. This includes less pain, more energy, improved digestion, better sleep and an overall improvement in quality of life. Continue reading →

Yoga and Guided Meditation for Improved Sleep

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Two years into World War II, the US military realized that due to extraordinarily high levels of stress and lack of sleep many of the combat pilots began to freeze up in flight and make potentially fatal mistakes. To counteract that, they invited Naval Ensign Bud Winter to teach relaxation to combat pilots. Winter had previously been a successful football and track coach who worked with a professor of psychology to teach athletes how to perform better under the stress of competition.

“The end goal of the program was to teach the Naval aviators how to relax so that they could learn more quickly, speed up their reaction time, sharpen their focus, and diminish their fear. The course also aimed to teach combat aviators to be able to go to sleep in two minutes any time, day or night, under any and all conditions.”

If you suffer from insomnia, this should sound pretty intriguing!  The practice below uses simple movement, deep belly breathing, and meditation to gradually let go of the regrets, worries, and problems of the day. The practice also includes guided relaxation that is based on the script that Bud Winter had used with his pilots.

Here’s the link to the full article.  

Living a Healthy New Year

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Ancient advice for health during Winter says “Desires and mental activity should be kept quiet and subdued, as if keeping a happy secret. Stay warm, avoid the cold, and keep the skin covered.” With the cold weather, hibernation of animals, decrease in plant life, and few daylight hours, winter was the toughest season to maintain health in the ancient world.

Even though the #1 New Year Resolution is weight loss, the winter months really aren’t ideal to try and lose weight. Make Health a PriorityWhy? Because human health has long been considered to be closely tied to nature. As organic creatures, it stands to reason that we humans are affected, directly and indirectly, by the natural environment including weather, climate, or duration of daylight.

These factors, particularly less daylight and our natural instinct to hibernate, make losing weight more difficult and frustrating which leads us to give up on that goal altogether. Less sunlight means we aren’t getting as much vitamin D. It appears that lack of vitamin D reduces fat breakdown and triggers fat storage—so calories you consume are stored in fat cells rather than being used for energy. A second factor is an increase in melatonin, the hormone that signals your body that it is time to sleep, and is triggered by darkness. Since winter means less hours of daylight, melatonin levels tend to increase and increased melatonin is associated with increased appetite. It can feel like a losing battle. Continue reading →

Gifts for Everyone on Your List

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Whether it’s Grandma Jones who has arthritis, or your sister who is always stressed out,  we’ve got just what you need to give them a gift of wellness.   Tis the Season for Giving! 

Gift Baskets

The Weight Loss Gift Basket includes Microgard +,  a wonderful herbal formula that not only helps with digestive problems, but regulates the gut microbiota, stimulates an increase in digestive enzymes and helps break down proteins, fats and sugars, affecting the whole metabolism and helping to reduce body weight.  I’m combining that with Sweet Change to help get that sweet tooth under control. It’s a mouth spray that eliminates sugar and food cravings and supports healthy blood sugar levels. Additionally my Tibetan Herbal Footsoaks will increase your blood circulation as if you have been exercising, will reduce pain and give you more energy. This combo will give you a great start toward meeting your body weight goals in the New Year.

For those who need to reduce stress and improve sleep, I’m offering a Stress Relief Gift Basket that includes my Stress Free Tea, an herbal formula in tea form that calms irritability and moodiness, and regulates sleep, and Rescue Formula, a formula that settles the mind, and eases depression, anxiety, insomnia and that feeling of being “out of sorts”.  I’m also including an Organic Neck Wrap that can be heated in the microwave or crock pot and placed around the neck and shoulders to relax the tension than many of us carry in that area. Continue reading →

Prepare to Take Back Your Health

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Did you know that nearly 80% of New Year’s resolutions have been abandoned by February?  December is the perfect time to reflect on the goals you set in 2018 and think about where you’d like to see yourself in 2019.

Whether you have some health condition that you want to resolve, or if you simply want to remain well, here are three healthy living resolutions to try in the new year to “take back your health”. The key is to set goals that are small enough to be doable, but big enough to still give you that feeling of satisfaction when you realize it’s March (or even November!) and you’re still going strong.

1. Weight Loss – This is probably the #1 New Year’s Resolution.  Unless you have a critical health condition that demands you shed some pounds, a better idea may be to simply resolve to make healthier food choices.  One of the key ways to do this is to surround yourself and your family with healthy options to expose them to nutritious foods. The more involved your family is in planning and cooking healthy meals, the more likely they are to eat them, so try planning a weekly family menu together.  When shopping, stick to the outside aisles at the grocery store where you find fresh fruits and veggies, and stay out of the center aisles where all of the processed foods live. Try to resist the temptation to buy Johnny’s favorite cookies, or Dad’s diet soda and opt for healthier options instead.  You can make these changes incrementally so that it doesn’t feel so much like an exercise in deprivation.

If your current health situation (or someone you care about) requires shedding some pounds in the new year, then check out my Weight Loss Gift Basket that you can give to someone or to yourself.   Continue reading →