Functional Medicine | Women's Health
By Dr. Shawna Darou, ND As most of you know, I’m a big fan of lab testing - the ‘test don’t guess’ approach. Here are some scenarios when hormone testing can be extremely helpful: (1) Getting a hormone baseline This is helpful especially in your 30’s or even early 40’s to have a baseline before they shift with perimenopause. If you know …
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By Dr. Shawna Darou, ND Histamine intolerance and many health conditions associated with histamine appear to be on the rise in the past couple of years. In this brief article, I wanted to link some symptoms, conditions and underlying causes which I hope may help you to get to the root of your health, and perhaps be a missing piece for …
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By Dr. Shawna Darou, ND I’m seeing people exhausted rather than refreshed after the December break. If you think about it, after almost 2 years of pandemic, we flew into 2022 at high speed and none of us started the year in great shape. Not surprisingly, I’m seeing so much fatigue, burnout and hormone imbalance especially. Simply put, people’s …
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By Dr. Shawna Darou, ND With so much advice online about optimal nutrition, diets for longevity, hormone balance, weight loss and more, I am seeing so many women who are truly under-eating. Your body will start to show signs of metabolic stress if calories are too low, if you’re exercising lots and not fueling sufficiently, or if you’re …
By Dr. Shawna Darou, ND … It may be perimenopause. What many women do not know is that your hormones start shifting as early as your mid-30’s and significantly by the mid-40’s. Even when menopause is still years away, hormonal changes can cause significant symptoms. Don’t let the word perimenopause scare you - we all feel too young for …
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By Dr. Shawna Darou, ND Hair thinning is actually a very common issue that I see in the clinic, and it can be extremely distressing for women. In this article, I will review some of the causes of hair thinning that I test for, and some solutions to get your hair growing again. One important thing to note is that getting the hair into a re-growth …
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By Dr. Shawna Darou, ND From a naturopathic and functional medicine viewpoint, we look at the body as systems that interconnect, rather than symptoms that need treating on their own. I wanted to share with you some very common patterns of interconnection that I see regularly related to women’s health and hormones especially. It may help to shed …
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By Dr. Shawna Darou, ND I have been seeing a lot of inflammation flare-ups lately in the clinic, and wanted to explain how I look at them, and help your body to get back into balance again. After a couple of stressful years for various reasons, and often a drop-off of self-care, inflammation can look quite different for each of us. Signs you …
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By Dr. Shawna Darou, ND Today’s article is more about perimenopause, and especially the unusual symptoms beyond irregular periods and hot flashes. Perimenopause is the period of time when your hormones, especially estrogen levels start to fluctuate, which can last up to 10 years before menopause. What this means is that you may begin to …
