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 …
Continue Reading about 7 Reasons to Test Your Hormones, and how to do it accurately →
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 …
Continue Reading about Are your hormones changing, but you’re too young for menopause? →
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 …
Continue Reading about Getting to the root of female hair loss →
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 …
Continue Reading about How your health issues interconnect →
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 …
By Dr. Shawna Darou, ND Let’s talk. Hormone changes in the 40’s and 50’s affect everything from mood to energy, and also weight, cognition, bone density, cardiovascular health, and athletic performance. This is also an essential time to reverse disease processes that are starting to become evident as we age, and get the foundations in place …
By Dr. Shawna Darou, ND It certainly has been a challenging couple of years, with ongoing stresses living through the pandemic. I find it interesting that everyone I speak to has had different stresses, but it does seem that almost universally, the load of stress has been significantly higher than it was previously. We are very good at …
By Dr. Shawna Darou, ND It’s typical to feel the impacts of stress after the stress is over, or when you finally let go and begin to relax. Think about getting sick after final exams in university, or the flu that hits over Christmas holidays. After this incredibly challenging year and a half, I am hearing from many women overwhelmed, …
By Dr. Shawna Darou, ND As many of you know, I am an avid runner and in the past couple of years have been learning more and more about how training needs to change once we reach our mid-40’s or ‘perimenopause’ years, and extending through post-menopause. If you exercise or train regularly, you may have noticed some of these changes too, such …
Continue Reading about Exercise and Training – Tips for Women in your 40’s and 50’s →
