fbpx
October 6, 2021

The top mysterious symptoms that should alert you to thyroid dysfunction

DOWNLOAD MY FREE MYTHBUSTING MOTHER E-GUIDE

The top mysterious symptoms that should alert you to thyroid dysfunction are not well known.

A goiter is the top symptom often associated with thyroid issues. This is basically a swelling at the base of the neck where the thyroid gland is located. Usually, this is created by nodules being formed on the thyroid because it is trying to work harder. Noticing tightness in the throat or difficulties swallowing pills are signs to take a closer look.

A goiter may be the most well known symptom of thyroid dysfunction, however, it’s not the most common symptom I see in my practice.

Unfortunately, most people don’t know that these symptoms are linked to thyroid dysfunction. Today I’m going to share with you the top mysterious symptoms that should alert you to thyroid dysfunction.

The classic symptoms of thyroid dysfunction are cold intolerance, forgetfulness and fatigue.

The thyroid gland is like the body’s thermostat. You will be colder more often when it’s not sending appropriate amounts of hormone your body to release and produce heat. Difficulty concentrating, brain fog and memory impairment are also signs the thyroid function is off. Both hyperthyroid and hypothyroid symptoms mimic mild dementia. This occurs when thyroid hormone levels fluctuate causing insufficient stimulation of different systems in the body. Finally, thyroid dysfunction causes fatigue through a number of mechanisms. Most notably, a decrease in metabolism. This decreases the amount of energy your body can produce through a molecule called ATP. ATP is our molecule for energy. When we have less ATP, we have less energy. The result is fatigue that is pervasive and long lasting.

Did you know that thyroid dysfunction could be at the root cause of your irregular bowel movements?

The thyroid hormone is known for regulating metabolism. When you have too much thyroid hormone your metabolism is revved up. In this case, you may experience diarrhea. On the other hand with too little thyroid hormone, you may experience a slower bowel. This results in constipation. In my practice, irregular bowel movements are often an early sign of thyroid dysfunction. 

DOWNLOAD MY FREE MYTHBUSTING MOTHER E-GUIDE
Hair loss can also be an early sign of thyroid dysfunction.

It affects the life cycle of each strand of hair when thyroid hormone production is disrupted. It impacts development of hair at the root, how long it grows before falling out and replacement of new growth. Thinning across the scalp and eyebrows is common. It’s usually a gradual thinning as opposed to localized bald patches. If you find yourself brushing your hair and clumps are coming out, check your thyroid function.

Thyroid hormone and metabolism

The thyroid hormone regulates essential processes for normal growth and development, as well as metabolism in adults. The thyroid is not the only component involved in regulating metabolism. However when your thyroid doesn’t produce enough hormones, the metabolism and cellular processes slow down and change. 

Next Steps

If you enjoyed this content, please…

  • Join my Mythbusting Motherhood Group full of health inspired Supermoms on a similar journey to more vitality & fulfillment.
  • If you are interested to know how I can help you or a loved one, schedule a discovery call.
  • To help you inspire radical health change in your life and the lives of your loved ones, I have created a special guide: It contains tips about how to ditch the outdated Supermom mindset, how to build an awesome support system, and the daily habits that are the building blocks of good health. Simply click here to download the guide!

If you want other Supermoms just like you to be able to access this information, this knowledge, make sure to use the share buttons below to share it with someone that means the most to you.

Kristina Bosnar
September 29, 2021

5 Steps to reset your gut health

DOWNLOAD MY FREE MYTHBUSTING MOTHER E-GUIDE

All disease starts and ends in the gut. In my practice, I see patients suffering with cognitive decline and brain fog, autoimmune diseases like eczema, rheumatoid arthritis, and irritable bowel as well as hormonal imbalances. Would it surprise you to know that my specialty is gut health? Today I’m going to share the top 5 steps to reset your gut. Let’s start with how are those things related.

Firstly, The majority of our brain chemicals are made in our gut. Secondly, poor gut health is a major trigger for autoimmune disease. Lastly, hormonal imbalance is a key indicator of disruption in the gut.

If you’re struggling to heal your gut for years, you may be missing a step. Here are the 5 steps to reset your gut health.

Adopting a whole foods diet

What does that mean? It means no processed or box food and what we like to call one ingredient foods. This means healthy consciously raised meats, fruits, vegetables and healthy fats.

The three C’s: choose, chew, cherish

Choosing the right food is so important. An anti inflammatory diet including lots of fruits and vegetables, consciously raised meats and healthy fats like we’ve said before, is important. It’s important to choose organic as much as possible or foods that aren’t sprayed and genetically modified.

Chewing is one of the most important and overlooked things in gut health. You don’t have teeth anywhere else in your digestive tract. If you don’t sit and chew your food thoroughly, your body isn’t able to absorb all the nutrients and vitamins in it. 

Lastly, chilling and relaxing when you’re eating is so important. Our nervous system was set up to either rest and digest or run away from danger. If you’re trying to eat your meal while you’re stressed out when reading emails, talking to someone angrily, or driving somewhere, your nervous system won’t be in the state for you to have optimal digestion.

Before you start to eat, sit down. Relax. Take a couple breaths and sit in a peaceful environment. Relax while you’re eating. This will help you optimize your nervous system function, which will help optimize your digestion.

DOWNLOAD MY FREE MYTHBUSTING MOTHER E-GUIDE
Remove inflammatory foods

The top inflammatory foods out there are gluten and dairy. Gluten has been shown to cause disruption in the gut to all humans, some people more than others. This is one of the reasons we suggest gluten. Dairy has been linked to hormonal imbalances and also to neuro-inflammatory diseases, such as multiple sclerosis, in the scientific literature. If you want your best bang for your buck and you’re on a gut healing journey (and you haven’t moved gluten and dairy) try this step next, and see how much better you can feel.

Other inflammatory foods are corn nuts, soy, and eggs. If you’ve been trying to heal your gut for a long time, try this step next. See how much better you feel in four weeks.

Functional medicine testing

If you’ve tried all the other steps and you still have lots of gut health issues, then it’s time to dig deeper.

Functional Medicine testing does just that. Looking at a cellular level at microbiome, nutrition deficiencies, exposure to environmental toxins like mold toxins and other environmental toxins. All of these things that functional medicine tests look at can help you dig deeper into why your gut health is still poor.

To learn more about functional medicine testing, go to my YouTube channel and watch my video on functional medicine testing.

Work with an expert

There’s so much information out there. Inevitably, you’ve done research on your symptoms. You may know everything about your condition, more than most people. Yet you don’t know what to do with your functional medicine testing.

When you work with an expert, they take your unique history. They review your symptoms and your condition. They look at your functional medicine testing results. Then they put together a program and a protocol that’s specific for you. Because you’re unique and the timing and order are vital to your success.

If I’ve learned anything as the doctor biohacking supermom, it’s to ask for help. You can’t and you shouldn’t do it alone.

Next Steps

If you enjoyed this content, please…

  • Join my Mythbusting Motherhood Group full of health inspired Supermoms on a similar journey to more vitality & fulfillment.
  • If you are interested to know how I can help you or a loved one, schedule a discovery call.
  • To help you inspire radical health change in your life and the lives of your loved ones, I have created a special guide: It contains tips about how to ditch the outdated Supermom mindset, how to build an awesome support system, and the daily habits that are the building blocks of good health. Simply click here to download the guide!

If you want other Supermoms just like you to be able to access this information, this knowledge, make sure to use the share buttons below to share it with someone that means the most to you.

Kristina Bosnar
September 22, 2021

Stress is the #1 reason you can’t lose weight

DOWNLOAD MY FREE MYTHBUSTING MOTHER E-GUIDE

Stress is the #1 reason you can’t lose weight. Most people understand stress as deadlines responsibilities, busy schedules and stressful emotions like anger, frustration and loneliness. But what you may not know is that stress triggers a physiological response in the body. This response is regulated by something called the HPA axis.

A stressful thought comes into your mind, that stimulates the H, the hypothalamus. The hypothalamus stimulates the P, the pituitary gland, to stimulate the adrenal gland, which is the A to release certain hormones.

This mechanism is known for acute stress. But in today’s modern society, chronic stress is abundant. As we have this chronic stress, this HPA Axis gets dysregulated.

Chronic stress and cortisol

When you have a chronic stressor, the HPA Axis signals your adrenal glands to release a hormone called cortisol. This mechanism is to help you run away. The way we do this is cortisol stimulates your body to release sugar into the blood. This is so you can put it into your muscles and run away.

When you’re experiencing chronic stress all day long, your body is releasing sugar into your bloodstream. If you’re not actually running away and moving, that increase in blood sugar will eventually lead to insulin resistance. Insulin resistance prevents us from using this blood sugar. This blood sugar later gets deposited around your belly and midsection. If you’re someone that’s doing all the right things, and you can’t lose that last five pounds of stubborn belly fat, you may have insulin resistance.

Chronic stress and excessive exercise.

Most people are living in a state of chronic stress. When you add excessive exercise, you’re creating a massive amount of inflammation in the body. This is the number one mistake I see in my practice. Patients who are super stressed out in their day, and then they go to the gym and work out really hard. I see this often in my practice and it’s a lethal combination. This creates a state of emergency in the body. In this state, our body will hold on to caloric reserve, just in case it needs to run away and needs those calories. This combination is often the reason why most people can’t lose weight.

DOWNLOAD MY FREE MYTHBUSTING MOTHER E-GUIDE
Chronic stress and hormones

Chronic stress directly impacts your hunger hormone, and this will keep you from achieving your ideal weight. Your hunger hormone is known as ghrelin.  As you increase stress, your body secretes more and more ghrelin. This makes you hungrier and you eat more calories. This is not about willpower. It’s your body’s biochemical survival response. 

Chronic stress and digestion

Did you know that you can’t properly digest in a chronic state of stress? There are two major parts of our nervous system. The sympathetic, which is the fight or flight part of our nervous system, and the parasympathetic, which is for rest and digest. You can only be stimulating one or the other. In a sympathetic state, your body cannot properly activate the salivary glands and it cannot release the appropriate digestive enzymes. This directly decreases nutrient absorption in the gut, no matter how healthy your diet is. This nutrient deficiency impacts your metabolism and causes you to hold on to excess weight.

If any of these points resonate with you, stress is the #1 reason you can’t lose weight. 

Next Steps

If you enjoyed this content, please…

  • Join my Mythbusting Motherhood Group full of health inspired Supermoms on a similar journey to more vitality & fulfillment.
  • If you are interested to know how I can help you or a loved one, schedule a discovery call.
  • To help you inspire radical health change in your life and the lives of your loved ones, I have created a special guide: It contains tips about how to ditch the outdated Supermom mindset, how to build an awesome support system, and the daily habits that are the building blocks of good health. Simply click here to download the guide!

If you want other Supermoms just like you to be able to access this information, this knowledge, make sure to use the share buttons below to share it with someone that means the most to you.

Kristina Bosnar
September 15, 2021

The Power of Functional Medicine

DOWNLOAD MY FREE MYTHBUSTING MOTHER E-GUIDE

The power of functional medicine is not only to help reduce symptoms. It is also for long term prevention and ultimate healing.

Functional Medicine is not only for the chronically ill or those with chronic mysterious symptoms.

The power of functional medicine can be harnessed for high achievers who  want improvement. Perhaps they want to achieve a personal best in their sport or optimal brain function to get that promotion at work. Maybe they want to be their very best self with their family and friends.

Today I’m going to share with you how to find the right Functional Medicine Practitioner. Are they practising the five foundational aspects of functional medicine?

The first powerful foundation of functional medicine is taking a thorough history.

Conventional medicine always does a thorough medical history. However, Functional Medicine takes it one step further. We look at environmental exposures, toxins. Stresses and traumas you’ve had in your life. Even genetics. Using all of this information, we look at how multiple factors caused the manifestation of your symptoms.

The second powerful foundation of functional medicine is functional testing.

Conventional medicine tests levels. For example hormone levels, iron, white and red blood cells or liver enzymes. Functional Medicine takes it a step further. We look at why those levels are off. Looking at our body’s ability to absorb, lack of stomach enzymes, imbalance in the microbiome, bacteria and even parasites. Any or all of those things could be the root cause.

DOWNLOAD MY FREE MYTHBUSTING MOTHER E-GUIDE
The third powerful foundation of functional medicine is a personalized approach. 

The order and timing of this protocol is specific for you as an individual.

Some people are very sensitive to change and some people are not. Constant communication and feedback that we get from you will help us support you along the way.

I see many people with the same symptoms and different root causes and vice versa, the same root cause with different symptoms. That is why it’s so important to have a personalized approach. Supervision throughout all of your protocols is vital to make sure it’s working for you. 

The fourth powerful foundation of functional medicine is mindset mastery.

Change is hard. It’s not about willpower, let that guilt go. In order for behaviour change to happen, it needs to happen on a physiological level. The most powerful and effective way to change physiology is through a shift in mindset.

Changing our mindset changes our biochemistry and our physiology. That creates long lasting behaviour change. It is one way that functional medicine is so different, because long term behaviour change has a huge impact on our ultimate long term health.

The last and most powerful foundation of functional medicine is the relationship between the doctor and the patient.

Feel seen. Feel heard. The true power of functional medicine is in its’ ability to inspire patients to be an active participant in their healing journey. If you’re seeing a specialist and are working with a holistic practitioner but still feel like there’s something in the middle missing, functional medicine is for you

Next Steps

If you enjoyed this content, please…

  • Join my Mythbusting Motherhood Group full of health inspired Supermoms on a similar journey to more vitality & fulfillment.
  • If you are interested to know how I can help you or a loved one, schedule a discovery call.
  • To help you inspire radical health change in your life and the lives of your loved ones, I have created a special guide: It contains tips about how to ditch the outdated Supermom mindset, how to build an awesome support system, and the daily habits that are the building blocks of good health. Simply click here to download the guide!

If you want other Supermoms just like you to be able to access this information, this knowledge, make sure to use the share buttons below to share it with someone that means the most to you.

Kristina Bosnar
August 4, 2021

The Uncomfortable Truth about Gluten and Your Health

DOWNLOAD MY FREE MYTHBUSTING MOTHER E-GUIDE

The number one piece of information that I give before anyone starts working with me is the uncomfortable truth about gluten and your health. Yes, it is time to eliminate gluten. 

The most commonly associated symptoms with gluten sensitivity are gastrointestinal. These symptoms include constipation and diarrhea, gas and bloating, nausea and vomiting. But what you may not know is that more than 50% of gluten sensitivity symptoms are not gastrointestinal. These symptoms look like headaches, brain fog, joint pain, gait, issues like ataxia, neuropathy is an inflammation of nerves, even depression and anxiety.

The other thing that makes it so complicated is that people can have a delayed reaction to gluten. This can mean that it may take almost 72 hours for you to have a response. This is why it’s so difficult to ascertain whether you have a sensitivity to gluten or not.

Even if you don’t have any of these symptoms. It’s time for you to awaken to the uncomfortable truth about gluten and your health.

Gluten causes intestinal permeability in all humans.

Intestinal permeability, also known as leaky gut, is when the cells of the gut lining start to get holes in them. These cells are there to protect you from the outside world and when they start to separate the consequence of this is leaky gut. Once we start to get particles into our bloodstream from our gastrointestinal tract that we don’t want there, this results in increased inflammation in the body.

Gluten directly impacts the lining of the gut through the production of a protein called Zonulin. This protein directly causes leaky gut! Some people can heal that gut permeability quicker than others. However, those that can’t heal as quickly are the ones that suffer from symptoms of gluten sensitivity.

Have you heard of non celiac gluten sensitivity?

You may have heard of celiac disease, but what you may not know is that non celiac gluten sensitivity is four times more common. It doesn’t matter if you don’t have celiac because gluten causes inflammation in all humans.

The only way to know if it’s affecting your day to day health is through an elimination. I recommend 30 days of eliminating gluten, 100%. One of two things will happen. Either your symptoms will lessen, and you’ll start to feel better. Or you won’t notice too much of a change, but upon reintroducing gluten, you’ll start to have symptoms that you didn’t know were there.

DOWNLOAD MY FREE MYTHBUSTING MOTHER E-GUIDE
Either way, gluten is inflammatory to all people.

Gluten sets off your body’s alarm signals. When you ingest gluten, a cascade of inflammatory particles starts to be released by your body . Your body sees gluten as a dangerous stranger. This induces pro inflammatory cytokines, which are chemicals that damage our own cells. 

Gluten causes gut dysbiosis.

This is an imbalance between the good and bad bacteria in the gut, abundant good bacteria is required to run the biochemistry of life. Gluten ingestion causes detrimental changes to the gut flora and this can predispose you to gut infections. When biohacking your health, the most impactful thing that you can do through your diet is to remove gluten.

Next Steps

If you enjoyed this content, please…

  • Join my Mythbusting Motherhood Group full of health inspired Supermoms on a similar journey to more vitality & fulfillment.
  • If you are interested to know how I can help you or a loved one, schedule a discovery call.
  • To help you inspire radical health change in your life and the lives of your loved ones, I have created a special guide: It contains tips about how to ditch the outdated Supermom mindset, how to build an awesome support system, and the daily habits that are the building blocks of good health. Simply click here to download the guide!

If you want other Supermoms just like you to be able to access this information, this knowledge, make sure to use the share buttons below to share it with someone that means the most to you.

Kristina Bosnar
July 28, 2021

5 Strategies to Decrease Inflammation

DOWNLOAD MY FREE MYTHBUSTING MOTHER E-GUIDE

Many people with chronic health challenges, such as thyroid conditions, irritable bowel and autoimmunity, frequently ask me what they can do to start healing. Based on actions you can take from the comfort of home, I want to share with you my top 5 strategies to decrease inflammation. 

In my practice I see so many people suffering with mysterious symptoms such as brain fog, low libido, low energy, and painful bloating.

What you may not know is that the common driver of all these complaints is chronic inflammation.

Today I’m going to share with you my top 5 strategies to decrease inflammation and finally start healing.

My first strategy is a whole foods diet.

This means avoiding packaged and processed foods and decreasing sugar. This includes fruits and vegetables, nuts and seeds, good quality proteins, and healthy fats.

My second strategy to decrease inflammation is to get outside.

Enjoying some fresh air and exercise as well as getting some vitamin D can dramatically decrease inflammation in the body.

DOWNLOAD MY FREE MYTHBUSTING MOTHER E-GUIDE
My third strategy is fasting.

Most people can safely fast between 13 and 16 hours a day. This means eating your last meal and then waiting 13 to 16 hours before you eat your next meal the following day.

My fourth strategy to decreasing inflammation is getting a good night’s sleep.

I recommend consistently getting eight hours of sleep between the hours of 10pm and 6am to decrease inflammation.

My final strategy to decrease inflammation in the body is weight loss.

Even as little as five pounds of weight loss will dramatically decrease the inflammation in your body.

These are my top diet and lifestyle strategies that I use with my patients to decrease inflammation.

I encourage you to give them a try.

Next Steps

If you enjoyed this content, please…

  • Join my Mythbusting Motherhood Group full of health inspired Supermoms on a similar journey to more vitality & fulfillment.
  • If you are interested to know how I can help you or a loved one, schedule a discovery call.
  • To help you inspire radical health change in your life and the lives of your loved ones, I have created a special guide: It contains tips about how to ditch the outdated Supermom mindset, how to build an awesome support system, and the daily habits that are the building blocks of good health. Simply click here to download the guide!

If you want other Supermoms just like you to be able to access this information, this knowledge, make sure to use the share buttons below to share it with someone that means the most to you.

Kristina Bosnar
July 21, 2021

Why A One-Size Fits All Diet Almost Never Works

DOWNLOAD MY FREE MYTHBUSTING MOTHER E-GUIDE

One person’s medicine is another person’s poison. What worked for one person may not work for you. Each of us are unique and this is why a one-size fits all diet almost never works!

We need to have metabolic flexibility. We should be able to eat different types of food in different combinations and feel good.

Have you been eating the same way for a long time? Do you have lack of energy, indigestion, low energy and mood dysregulation? It’s possible that you’re eating the wrong diet for what you personally need.

These are the diets I commonly see in my office and why these one-size fits all diets almost never work.

Let’s talk about ketogenic or high fat low carb diets.

These diets consist of 70 to 75% of caloric intake from fats, 20 to 25% from proteins and 5% from carbohydrates.

This type of approach works well for dementia, cognitive decline and brain injuries as well as for people suffering from cancer and other chronic illnesses.

First, one reason why a one-size fits all keto diet almost never works. The ketogenic diet is not recommended for anyone with a genetic predisposition that inhibits them from breaking down saturated fats and using them properly. In this case, keto could increase your cholesterol markers and lead to heart disease.

Second, if you have a gallbladder dysfunction or don’t have a gallbladder, eating a high fat diet will not be good for you personally. This means you have a decreased ability to break down fats. Fats that aren’t broken down can cause inflammation in the body. If you’ve been following me, inflammation is at the root of all chronic health conditions.

If you’re feeling moody, irritable or have a lack of clarity and brain fog, these are signs that you have been keto for too long. This generally happens for women. In this case, you might want to cycle in and out of keto. This means adding some nice complex carbohydrates to your diet  from time to time to avoid getting stuck with these symptoms.

DOWNLOAD MY FREE MYTHBUSTING MOTHER E-GUIDE
A vegan diet isn’t for everybody.

Vegan eat no animal products whatsoever. Most integrative healthcare practitioners agree that more plants are better for everybody.  Being vegan means eating lots of plants, avoiding processed food and supplementing appropriately. The vegan diet can be healthy for some when done correctly.

If you’re a vegan and you’re not eating plants or getting adequate protein, you are not healthy.

For instance, I often see vegans who eat a lot of processed and boxed foods or foods that resemble animal protein. However, they are not getting the adequate amount of vegetables, fruits and protein.

A healthy vegan diet consists of lots of plants, veggies and fruits, healthy fats and adequate amounts of protein. In addition, you’ll have to supplement with B12 and omega-3’s. B12 is crucial for proper nerve and brain function. It’s not a nutrient you can go without. After that, adequate amounts of protein are vitally important for building immune cells, neurotransmitters as well as healing tissues. 

Are you are vegan and experiencing brain fog, indigestion, bloating, anxiety and depression? This may not be the right diet for you and most importantly, your biochemistry.

Have you been doing a low FODMAP diet for a long period of time and it’s no longer working for you?

Let’s talk about why this one-size fits all diet almost never works. The low FODMAP diet was developed to help manage the symptoms of irritable bowel disease or syndrome.

In other words, it’s a great place to start to relieve symptoms. However, it was only designed to be used for two to six weeks.

Following a low FODMAP diet for a long time ends up starving your microbiome. You have to feed your microbes in order for them to grow.

How do you know if you’ve been doing low fodmap for too long? Often women will start to have hormonal issues involving their menstrual cycle, or with their mood.  Symptoms may include low energy or feeling generally unwell.

If this is you, start today by introducing some fermentable carbohydrates. Add some sweet potato or squash and a low sugar fruit to see how you feel.

In conclusion, if you stop eating a low fodmap diet and the symptoms that you had come back, it’s time to work with a gut health expert. It is important that you understand what is the root cause of your issues so that you can properly reintroduce foods to your diet.

Next Steps

If you enjoyed this content, please…

  • Join my Mythbusting Motherhood Group full of health inspired Supermoms on a similar journey to more vitality & fulfillment.
  • If you are interested to know how I can help you or a loved one, schedule a discovery call.
  • To help you inspire radical health change in your life and the lives of your loved ones, I have created a special guide: It contains tips about how to ditch the outdated Supermom mindset, how to build an awesome support system, and the daily habits that are the building blocks of good health. Simply click here to download the guide!

If you want other Supermoms just like you to be able to access this information, this knowledge, make sure to use the share buttons below to share it with someone that means the most to you.

Kristina Bosnar
July 14, 2021

The Free Health Testing You Don’t Know About

DOWNLOAD MY FREE MYTHBUSTING MOTHER E-GUIDE

There is free health testing you can do, daily that will give you important insight when assessing your health.

Regardless if you’re dealing with a chronic health condition or trying to optimize your health. This free health testing is looking at your stool. For those of you who don’t know what stool is, it’s your poop.

Many people know that checking your stool is vital to understanding your digestive health. For those of us who are familiar with gut health, we know to check the consistency shape and size of stool.

For those of you who don’t know, the Bristol stool chart is a tool used to compare the shapes and sizes of stools. You can look at the Bristol stool chart to see where you lie and begin to optimize your health from there. We always aim for snake like stools. I always tell my patients “if you’re not looking at your poops everyday, start today.”

If your stools are little pellets or  liquid, there’s a problem with your digestion. This may lead to a long term problem with your health. If you’re not familiar with the Bristol stool chart, we’ll attach a link HERE. Aside from the Bristol stool chart, there are other ‘free home testing’ indicators that can give you deeper gut health insight.

The first way to delve deeper into assessing your gut health is to look at the colour of your stool.

What colour should your stool be? Between brown, yellow and green is considered normal. If you see that you have clay or light colour stools, this is an indication that digestion is off. Oftentimes, it’s an indicator of gallbladder dysfunction and/or digestive enzyme problems.

When you see red or dark colour stools, this could be a serious problem. Certain foods cause red stool. Eating beets or licorice could be the reason that your stool is red. This only applies if you have eaten these foods in the last day or two. Otherwise, this could be an indicator of bleeding somewhere in the gastrointestinal tract. It needs to be checked out by your doctor as soon as possible.

Other free health testing that you can do to assess your gut health, is to look for undigested particles in your stool.

If there are green leafy pieces or chunks of food, one of two things could be happening.

The first reason is because you’re not chewing enough. Chewing is so vitally important. If you’re racing through your meals without chewing, you will most likely see undigested pieces of food in your stool.

The second reason is because you may not have enough enzymes, or sufficient stomach acid to turn those enzymes on, to help break down your food. This is incredibly important to know. You could be eating the most beautiful, healthy, organic whole foods that are plant-based, without absorbing any nutrients. All because your body doesn’t have the ability to produce the enzymes. If this is the case, you should seek the help of a professional to figure out why you’re not digesting your food.

DOWNLOAD MY FREE MYTHBUSTING MOTHER E-GUIDE
Another way to assess your gut health for free is to see if your poop is sinking or floating. Which one is normal?

Your stool should be sinking to the bottom. If you see a little bit of a floaty stool, you may have had too much fiber or fat that day. Like when the fruit is fresh and you decide to eat a whole bowl of cherries. The next day you might have a floating stool. However, if your stool is floating regularly, this could indicate something more serious.

Your stool may be floating because you’re eating too much fat. It could also be that you’re not able to properly digest fat. For anyone who has recently begun a higher fat diet, you may be eating too much fat at once. This means your body isn’t able to produce the enzyme lipase to break down that fat, quick enough. If this is the case, ease off and slowly introduce the amount of fat.

The most obvious free health testing out there is called the smell test.

Either you or your family members know when a bowel movement is really smelly. Stool is normally smelly but when it’s particularly putrid, for example when everyone needs to evacuate the room, that could indicate digestive issues and more.

Your gut microbes, both the healthy and unhealthy ones, feed on the food you give it. An imbalance of the good and bad bacteria in your gut could create an inability to break down your food properly. When food isn’t broken down it can putrefy and that ends up coming out really smelly.

Often my patients will have a hard time digesting protein. This is either because they don’t have enough stomach acid or they don’t have enough of the protease enzyme to break it down. That protein will putrefy on its way through the digestive tract. That ends up being very smelly as well.

Another reason you are having a smelly poop is after eating a lot of processed food or food that your body is having a very hard breaking down. Often times you will notice that you’ve been out and you’ve been somewhere eating a lot of things that you don’t normally eat.

You may not only have a really smelly poop, but you may have really smelly gas. These are all signs from our body that something is off. If you or one of your family members passes the smelly smelly poop test, you want to look deeper into figuring out what is the root cause of the problem.

Next Steps

If you enjoyed this content, please…

  • Join my Mythbusting Motherhood Group full of health inspired Supermoms on a similar journey to more vitality & fulfillment.
  • If you are interested to know how I can help you or a loved one, schedule a discovery call.
  • To help you inspire radical health change in your life and the lives of your loved ones, I have created a special guide: It contains tips about how to ditch the outdated Supermom mindset, how to build an awesome support system, and the daily habits that are the building blocks of good health. Simply click here to download the guide!

If you want other Supermoms just like you to be able to access this information, this knowledge, make sure to use the share buttons below to share it with someone that means the most to you.

Kristina Bosnar
June 23, 2021

Promising therapies for Alzheimer’s

DOWNLOAD MY FREE MYTHBUSTING MOTHER E-GUIDE

Have you or someone you love recently been diagnosed with Alzheimer’s disease?

If so, you’ve probably been told that there’s nothing that you can do.

Luckily, there are promising new therapies for Alzheimer’s that work and they’re free! Today I’m going to be sharing three of those with you.

Let’s talk about sleep therapy for Alzheimer’s.

Everybody knows that getting a good night’s sleep is important. For people with Alzheimer’s disease that have a buildup of beta amyloid plaques in the brain, it’s even more important.

Sleep deprivation increases the body’s production of these toxic plaques. This impairs brain function.

The most common place for these toxic plaques to form are in the areas of the brain that help with sleep cycles. Therefore, it becomes a vicious cycle. There is a buildup of plaques from sleep deprivation, those plaques in turn affect quality of sleep, and hence goes the vicious cycle.

The other way that sleep deprivation increases this toxic buildup is because we detoxify when we sleep. The brain shrinks 20% to 30%, while you’re sleeping. As it shrinks, it cleans itself out with the glymphatic system. This system is the garbagemen of the brain. They come and clear out all the beta amyloid plaque, dead cells and pollution.

When you’re not getting good quality sleep, you’re missing this crucial step in brain health.

My top three suggestions for improving sleep are:

  1. To get off screens two hours before you go to bed.
  2. Make yourself a cup of common tea like chamomile or nettle.
  3. Make sure to get yourself to sleep by 10 o’clock
DOWNLOAD MY FREE MYTHBUSTING MOTHER E-GUIDE
What you eat matters

You’ve probably been told that diet won’t impact your diagnosis, but food is medicine. Nourishing your brain is one of the most promising therapies for Alzheimer’s.

In Alzheimer’s disease, we see a buildup of toxic plaques and tangles in the brain. The American Journal of Geriatric Psychiatry completed a study that showed that the Mediterranean diet is one of the top lifestyle factors to prevent the buildup of these toxic plaques. The Mediterranean diet consists of foods, such as fatty fish, olives, olive oils, fresh fruits and vegetables. If you haven’t made any dietary changes, start with the Mediterranean diet.

One of the most promising therapies for Alzheimer’s is exercise.

Exercise has brain protective effects. In Alzheimer’s disease, we see the buildup of amyloid plaques and tangles in the brain. A UCLA study recently showed that a moderate amount of regular exercise helps to decrease the formation of these plaques.

This study consisted mostly of aerobic exercise such as walking, running and biking. New research that shows that HIIT training and short bursts of high intensity training can also have brain protective effects and help with brain growth. However, the bottom line is moving more and getting more exercise is going to help protect you from the deterioration of disease.

Next Steps

If you enjoyed this content, please…

  • Join my Mythbusting Motherhood Group full of health inspired Supermoms on a similar journey to more vitality & fulfillment.
  • If you are interested to know how I can help you or a loved one, schedule a discovery call.
  • To help you inspire radical health change in your life and the lives of your loved ones, I have created a special guide: It contains tips about how to ditch the outdated Supermom mindset, how to build an awesome support system, and the daily habits that are the building blocks of good health. Simply click here to download the guide!

If you want other Supermoms just like you to be able to access this information, this knowledge, make sure to use the share buttons below to share it with someone that means the most to you.

Kristina Bosnar
June 23, 2021

Alzheimers is more than genetics

DOWNLOAD MY FREE MYTHBUSTING MOTHER E-GUIDE

We often link an Alzheimer’s diagnosis with genetic predisposition. However, a diagnosis of Alzheimer’s is more than genetics!

Most people believe you have a high likelihood of Alzheimer’s disease if it runs in your family.

Now, we know that there are six separate classifications of Alzheimer’s disease. This disease doesn’t have one homogeneous root cause.

Understanding the root causes of Alzheimer’s gives us some clues about how to treat it. Genetic predisposition plays a role but Alzheimer’s is more than genetics.

Understanding the root cause of Alzheimer’s is important when creating a care plan. This vital information can help put your symptoms into remission and even reverse some of those symptoms.

Functional medicine practitioner’s are always looking for the root cause of dysfunction and disease. Knowing the type of Alzheimer’s readily points to treatment plans that are personalized to the specific type of dysfunction. 

Type one Alzheimer’s is called inflammatory or hot Alzheimer’s.

This type of Alzheimer’s is driven by inflammation. The major cell for inflammation in the body is called NF-kappa B. Increased production in NF-kappa B increases amyloid production and deposition in the brain. Why is this a direct link to Alzheimer’s disease? These amyloid plaques are what we see in the brains of Alzheimer’s patients. Decreasing this inflammation helps to stop the production of amyloid plaques. 

The second type of Alzheimer’s is called cold or a trophic Alzheimer’s.

This type of Alzheimer’s is driven by inadequate amount of nutrients, hormones and trophic factors. Trophic factors are the helper molecules that help develop neurons. These molecules also help maintain the connections between its neighbours.

The body needs vitamins and minerals, adequate amounts of hormones like estrogen, testosterone and progesterone as well as other trophic factors to maintain the 5 trillion connections between cells. All of these are supremely important in the growth, development and maintenance of brain cells. Therefore, not having enough of these nutrients, hormones or trophic factors, causes decreased brain function.

The third type of Alzheimer’s disease, type 1.5 is called glycolytic or sweet Alzheimer’s.

This type is driven by glucose and is caused by insulin sensitivity issues or high fasting glucose. Type 1.5 combines factors of type one and type two Alzheimer’s disease. The insulin resistance that doesn’t allow sugar to be put into the cells is similar to type one Alzheimers. In addition, it binds to certain proteins in the brain and this creates inflammation. 

It’s very much like the trophic type two Alzheimer’s because we’re not getting the nutrients to feed the cells. The glucose that our brain cells need to be fed and nourished, as well as to function, doesn’t get into the cells.

DOWNLOAD MY FREE MYTHBUSTING MOTHER E-GUIDE
Type three Alzheimer’s is called toxic or vile.

This type is driven by exposure to environmental toxins like mercury, toluene and mycotoxins. Mycotoxins are toxins that come from mold. For instance, there are mycotoxins that have been directly linkeed to Alzheimer’s disease.

Even though we’re all at risk for environmental toxins, those with a genetic predisposition have a higher risks. This is mostly because of impaired detoxification pathways. However, this type of Alzheimer’s is more than genetics. As it is said, genetics loads the gun but environment pulls the trigger.

Type four is called vascular or sometimes pale Alzheimer’s.

This type is driven by cardiovascular disease. When we have cardiovascular disease, we get less oxygen to certain parts of the brain. This causes brain dysfunction.

One of the earliest signs of Alzheimer’s disease is leakiness in the vasculature or the blood vessels in the brain. When you have a genetic predisposition and you have cardiovascular disease, you are more at risk for this type of Alzheimer’s.

Type five Alzheimer’s disease is called traumatic or dazed.

This type of Alzheimer’s comes from traumatic brain injury or head trauma. It could be from small, minor head injuries or mild concussions. Similarly, it could come from many repetitive injuries or from a significant head trauma.

When these traumatic injuries occur early in life, you significantly increase chances of Alzheimer’s. This trauma causes the brain to create  and deposit amyloid plaques into the areas where there has been inflammation or the brain has atrophied. We frequently see this amyloid tissue in Alzheimer’s patients.

This is why I caution parents to make sure that children who are playing contact sports are being careful and are being taken care of immediately. Although Alzheimer’s is more than genetics, micro traumas increase your risk of Alzheimer’s. This is especially true if you have a genetic predisposition.

Next Steps

If you enjoyed this content, please…

  • Join my Mythbusting Motherhood Group full of health inspired Supermoms on a similar journey to more vitality & fulfillment.
  • If you are interested to know how I can help you or a loved one, schedule a discovery call.
  • To help you inspire radical health change in your life and the lives of your loved ones, I have created a special guide: It contains tips about how to ditch the outdated Supermom mindset, how to build an awesome support system, and the daily habits that are the building blocks of good health. Simply click here to download the guide!

If you want other Supermoms just like you to be able to access this information, this knowledge, make sure to use the share buttons below to share it with someone that means the most to you.

Kristina Bosnar