By Dr. Shawna Darou, ND Fatigue, or tiredness is the number one complaint that brings people in for naturopathic care. There are many underlying factors to investigate in determining the cause of tiredness. Below is my top 10 list of factors that that can be causing your fatigue. Many of these are missed in a conventional medical work-up, or …
Anxiety, tingling and palpitations? – could be a Vitamin B12 deficiency
By Dr. Shawna Darou, ND I have been seeing lots of cases of vitamin B12 deficiency in the clinic lately, and wanted to write a short article about signs to watch for and causes of deficiency. Vitamin B12 is an essential water-soluble vitamin that is found in all animal foods - meat, poultry, fish, eggs and dairy. It is necessary to make red …
Continue Reading about Anxiety, tingling and palpitations? – could be a Vitamin B12 deficiency →
How Sedentary is Your Life? Simple tips to increase your daily activity
By Dr. Shawna Darou, ND I’m hearing from so many of you who are struggling with finding the time, energy and motivation to exercise, or even get outside for a walk most days. Between working from home, gyms being closed, winter weather and almost nowhere to go during this lockdown, so many people are barely moving during their work week. For …
Continue Reading about How Sedentary is Your Life? Simple tips to increase your daily activity →
Top 3 Tips for Seasonal Affective Disorder
By Dr. Shawna Darou, ND As we approach the shortest and darkest days of winter and the weather starts to shift, it's common to feel more lethargic, unmotivated, hungry and down. Some people are better able to adapt to the winter season than others, and this year in particular you may find that some of your usual strategies like going to the …
Continue Reading about Top 3 Tips for Seasonal Affective Disorder →
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 …
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) …
2 Cases of Severe PMS: the importance of lab testing
By Dr. Shawna Darou, ND Today’s article is a little different, in that I want to show you how lab testing can give us an extremely clear picture of what is going on hormonally, and how to proceed with treatment. I’m going to share with you a two patient cases that I have worked with over the past month and how unique we all are when we dive …
Continue Reading about 2 Cases of Severe PMS: the importance of lab testing →
What anxiety, hair loss and poor protein absorption have in common
By Dr. Shawna Darou, ND These issues may appear to be unrelated, but what anxiety, hair loss and poor protein breakdown have in common is a lack of sufficient stomach acid. For most of us, this is not the first thing that comes to mind for a list of complaints that seem unrelated. Here’s how it works: Your stomach produces an acid called …
Continue Reading about What anxiety, hair loss and poor protein absorption have in common →
5 Physiological Reasons you have food cravings, and why mastering your cravings isn’t about willpower at all
By Dr. Shawna Darou, ND I’ve had several in-depth discussions with patients in the past week about their food cravings, and how powerless they feel about them. We’ve been led to believe that it’s all about willpower, and cravings are simply a sign of poor will-power. This unfortunately leads to a spiral that feels even more out of control, …