Functional Medicine | Women's Health
By Dr. Shawna Darou, ND I am introducing a program called the "Fasting Mimicking Diet" with some patients, and wanted to explain more about how it works. This 5 day modified fast was developed by Dr. Valter Longo, an Italian researcher who was initially studying fasting an its influence on cancer and chemotherapy. The Fasting Mimicking Diet was …
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By Dr. Shawna Darou, ND I'm sure that the issue of high dietary sugar intake is no surprise to any of my readers, but the fact that I am treating early signs of blood sugar regulation diseases in my practice every day tells me that although the message is heard, it may not be translating in a significant enough dietary change. Recent medical …
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By Dr. Shawna Darou, ND The latest findings around the gut microbiome are showing that it is more valuable for your immune system and overall health to have diversity in the organisms. Similarly, recent research is showing that botanical diversity in our diets has a more protective role compared to larger amounts of foods with fewer …
By Dr. Shawna Darou, ND One of the best ways to shift your relationship with food is to remember that food is medicine. Because we eat so often, and such a large volume of food in our lifetime, it is a significant factor in either creating disease or creating health. There are countless of examples of using a nutrition plan to reverse or …
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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, …
By Dr. Shawna Darou, ND Testing for blood sugar imbalance and specifically insulin resistance is a very frequent test I request. The reason is that we are experiencing a growing number of cases of blood sugar imbalance, and diabetes at much younger ages. It is extremely important to detect insulin resistance early, because this is the phase of …
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By Dr. Shawna Darou, ND It's that time of year again, when we're suddenly motivated to make positive changes in our health - eating more vegetables, exercising regularly and looking for a boost in our health to match the boost in our mood that naturally comes with the change of seasons. Spring cleanses used to be very popular, and I'm …
By Dr. Shawna Darou, ND Overtraining syndrome is not a condition limited only to competitive athletes, and I actually find more cases in recreational athletes who have a frequent intense workout schedule. It is absolutely critical to build in rest days, fuel your body for your workouts, and cross-train to avoid overworking the same muscle groups. …
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By Dr. Shawna Darou, ND I’ve been really digging into nutrition lately, and looking at an integrative approach to customized nutrition plans. As I’m sure you know, there is no one-size-fits-all food plan and we need to look at many variables such as health issues (autoimmune / cardiovascular / blood sugar), blood type, food sensitivity, …
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