By Dr. Shawna Darou, ND In the springtime especially, it is normal to want to make big changes in your life, and also with your health. I've written this article, because I often see so much frustration with breaking old habits, and conflict between actions and intentions. You may have noticed this quote which I love on my website, and it …
Healthy Habits for Resilience
By Dr. Shawna Darou, ND I initially wrote these notes as a blog post at the start of 2020 as health trends I hoped to see that year. Wow, so much has changed since then in the world and as I was reading through this article, here we have come full circle talking about our resilience, the importance of connection, and especially putting …
Are the underlying causes of illness changing?
By Dr. Shawna Darou, ND I have spent the past 25 years carefully observing health-care trends, staying on top of the latest in naturopathic, integrative and functional medicine, and can honestly say that it’s time to evolve how we look at human health and wellness. The issues we have been facing have intensified over the past year due to …
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The first step to healing is Self-Compassion
By Dr. Shawna Darou, ND A pattern that I see over and over again is women who are so hard on themselves. It’s as if we’re trying to be everything to everyone, and on top of this have strong standards about how we think we should be living our lives. Having the perfect diet, fitting in exercise regularly and consistently, top performance at …
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What is an Annual Naturopathic Health Assessment?
By Dr. Shawna Darou, ND As life starts to return to normal and you may have a little more space and time in your routine, it is a good time to take stock on your health. Are there any areas that need attention? Are you up to date with physical examinations, naturopathic assessments, testing and screening? Taking care of these issues will give …
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Are you mistaking pleasure for happiness? The role of dopamine, serotonin and cortisol
By Dr. Shawna Darou, ND “Unhappiness does not kill you, it’s what we do to ‘get happy’ that does.” I attended a great online conference in 2020, and wanted to share some inspiring content from a lecture by Dr. Robert Lustig, MD. He talked largely about the difference between pleasure and happiness, the brain chemistry differences, and how …
Ask questions, do your research, advocate for your own health
By Dr. Shawna Darou, ND I really love my job, and especially all of the wonderful people I get to work with every day. When I’m asked about who my patients are, one thing that stands out is that you come in prepared for your appointments - you’ve done research, have questions, want to understand your lab results, and are ready to take action. I …
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Building Your Resilience
By Dr. Shawna Darou, ND In challenging times, we rely on our resilience to get us through. The past months have been one of these times for many of us, and now that the acute anxiety has eased up, it’s time to refocus on wellness again. “The definition of resilient is someone or something that bounces back into shape or recovers quickly.” (1) …
It’s Time To Prioritize Your Health!
By Dr. Shawna Darou, ND Yes, busy women I’m talking to you! Our bodies are so resilient that they let us get away with bad habits for a long time. Skipping meals, not getting enough sleep, over-exercising, too much coffee… we start to feel like the rules don’t apply to us. I can honestly say that nobody gets away with this indefinitely - it …
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